Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, April is Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month. As we remember all those who have lost their lives in the wave of terrorist violence sweeping the world, I call on my Senate colleagues to join the effort to make real the words ``never again'' by cosponsoring S. 2551, the Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act.

Islamic extremists are waging religious war so severe that the Pope of the Catholic Church and the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church came together, stating:

Whole families, villages and cities of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being completely exterminated. Their churches are being barbarously ravaged and looted, their sacred objects profaned, their monuments destroyed. It is with pain that we call to mind the situation in Syria, Iraq and other countries of the Middle East, and the massive exodus of Christians from the land in which our faith was first disseminated and in which they have lived together with other religious communities since the time of the Apostles. We call upon the international community to act urgently in order to prevent the further expulsion of Christians from the Middle East. In raising our voice in defense of persecuted Christians, we wish to express our compassion for the suffering experienced by the faithful of other religious traditions who have also become victims of civil war, chaos, and terrorist violence.

On February 4, a nearly unanimous European Parliament passed a resolution declaring that ISIS ``is committing genocide against Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities.'' Sadly, the United States, in keeping with the President's desire to lead from behind, only recently decided to call it genocide in the face of the religious cleansing taking place in the heart of the Middle East. ISIS vows that they will break our crosses and enslave our women--they are speaking of Christians--and they will place a black flag at the top of St. Peter's Basilica. At the other end of the Middle East, we have Iran. Iran is launching test missiles with the words ``Death to Israel'' on the tips of the ballistic missiles, in Hebrew.

We would do well to remember the words of an Israeli Prime Minister who said: ``When someone tells you he wants to kill you, believe him.'' If you think it is a problem that is over there, think again. Terrorism reaches our shores. It has devastated some of the great cities of the world like London, Paris, Brussels, Madrid, and Bali. As a result of conflict, there are now a record 60 million displaced persons--men, women, and children. That is more than at the height of the displacement of World War II.

Responding to the dire needs of those fleeing violence has driven a 600-percent increase in global humanitarian aid over the past 10 years, from $3.5 billion in 2004 to $20 billion in 2015. I have actually seen the human cost in refugee camps along the Turkish-Syrian border. I was there a couple of weeks ago, less than 30 miles away from the Syrian border in Turkey. These were Muslims fleeing ISIS and a bloodthirsty dictator who unleashed chemical weapons on his own citizens.

In the 1980s, then-Ambassador to the United Nations Jeanne Kirkpatrick took up the cause of preventing genocide. With the memory of Chairman Mao's killing of 100 million still fresh in her mind, her attention was turned to Africa, where she saw the first stirrings of the genocide on the continent, and then to Cambodia, where Pol Pot murdered over one-third of his nation. She urged President Reagan to sign the convention on genocide, and President Reagan did just that.

President Reagan said:

We gather today to bear witness to the past and learn from its awful example, and to make sure that we're not condemned to relive its crimes. . . . the genocide convention [is a] howl of anguish and an effort to prevent and punish future acts of genocide.

I believe Congress has an important leadership role to play here. We can help ensure that America has the tools to combat genocide and atrocities and combat violent conflict. That is why I joined Senator Cardin in introducing the Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act.

As does the Senator from North Carolina, I also have a special reason for supporting this legislation that has the potential to fuse diplomacy, intelligence, and foreign aid, and in turn, prioritize government action to prevent future atrocities by working together.

It is important to me because my State, as I said earlier today, is at the tip of the sphere. When diplomacy fails, it is the 82nd Airborne and Special Forces from Fort Bragg or the U.S. Marines from Camp Lejeune who are going to go resolve the conflict. We want to avoid those conflicts. We owe it to them to do better by putting partisanship aside and by taking up proactive steps to avoid sending our servicemembers into harm's way to confront a conflict that may be able to be prevented without firing a single shot.

Silence is the greatest enemy of freedom. Silence led to the devastation of Jews in Europe. But from the ashes of the Holocaust came the State of Israel and the vow ``never again.'' The first President Bush reminded us: ``The words 'never again' do not refer to the past; they refer to the future.

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