III 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 34 

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the Governments of Burma and 

Bangladesh ensure the safe, dignified, voluntary, and sustainable return 

of the Rohingya refugees who have been displaced by the campaign 

of ethnic cleansing conducted by the Burmese military and to immediately release unjustly imprisoned journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe 

Oo. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 29, 2019 

Mr. MERKLEY (for himself, Mr. RUBIO, Mr. DURBIN, Ms. COLLINS, Mrs. 

FEINSTEIN, Mr. YOUNG, Mr. CARDIN, Mr. TILLIS, Ms. WARREN, Mr. 

KAINE, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Mr. BROWN, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. 

SANDERS, Mrs. MURRAY, Mr. COONS, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Ms. CORTEZ

MASTO, Mr. SCHATZ, Ms. HARRIS, and Mr. PETERS) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the Governments 

of Burma and Bangladesh ensure the safe, dignified, 

voluntary, and sustainable return of the Rohingya refugees who have been displaced by the campaign of ethnic 

cleansing conducted by the Burmese military and to immediately release unjustly imprisoned journalists, Wa 

Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. 

Whereas, on August 25, 2017, attacks on security posts in 

Burma by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army militant 


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•SRES 34 IS 

group resulted in a brutal, systematic, and disproportionate reprisal by the Burmese military and security 

forces on Rohingya villages in Rakhine State; 

Whereas approximately 700,000 Rohingya refugees have fled 

to Bangladesh since the Burmese military commenced its 

scorched-earth campaign, with the burning of villages and 

local monuments, and reports of widespread gang rape, 

starvation, killing, and forcible deportation; 

Whereas the August 2018 United Nations report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar 

states in paragraph 87 that ‘‘the Mission concluded . . . 

that there is sufficient information to warrant the investigation and prosecution of senior officials in the Tatmadaw chain of command, so that a competent court can 

determine their liability for genocide in relation to the 

situation in Rakhine State’’; 

Whereas, on August 28, 2018, then-United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley reported to the 

United Nations Security Council that the Department of 

State had conducted interviews with 1,024 Rohingya refugees in camps throughout Cox’s Bazar and that the results of the interviews were consistent with the United 

Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission 

on Myanmar; 

Whereas, on September 24, 2018, the Department of State 

report titled, ‘‘Documentation of Atrocities in Northern 

Rakhine State’’, concluded that the military’s attacks in 

Burma’s Northern Rakhine State were ‘‘large-scale, widespread and seemingly geared toward both terrorizing the 

population and driving out the Rohingya residents’’ and 

that the ‘‘scope and scale of the military’s operations indicate that they were well-planned and coordinated’’; 


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Whereas, on December 3, 2018, the United States Holocaust 

Memorial Museum concluded that ‘‘there is compelling 

evidence that the Burmese military committed ethnic 

cleansing, crimes against humanity, and genocide against 

the Rohingya’’; 

Whereas the Government of Burma has consistently denied 

access to the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on 

Myanmar established to investigate human rights violations around the country; 

Whereas the fundamental operational principles of voluntary 

repatriation are safety, to include legal and physical safety, and dignity, to include treatment with respect and full 

acceptance by their national authorities, including the full 

restoration of refugees’ rights; 

Whereas approximately 236,000 Rohingya refugees returned 

to Burma from Bangladesh under the terms of a 1992 

agreement after a previous bout of violence against the 

Rohingya forced them to flee, only to continue to be denied citizenship, face prejudice, violence, and persecution, 

and in many instances be forced to live in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps with their freedom of movement restricted; 

Whereas Burma’s 1982 citizenship law stripped Rohingya of 

their Burmese citizenship, rendering them stateless; 

Whereas the Government of Burma continues to systematically discriminate against the Rohingya people, a longpersecuted Muslim minority within Burma, including by 

continuing to restrict registration of Rohingya births and 

to deny them freedom of movement, access to healthcare, 

land, education, marriage, voting rights, and political 

participation; 


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Whereas the Government of Burma has repeatedly abused 

land use laws to unjustly seize land from Rohingya refugees; 

Whereas the United Nations High Commission on Refugees 

(UNHCR) is working closely with the Government of 

Bangladesh and partners to provide protection and assistance to the Rohingya refugees and to support the host 

populations affected by the influx; 

Whereas, on November 23, 2017, the Government of Burma 

and the Government of Bangladesh signed an agreement, 

known as the ‘‘Arrangement’’, on the return of displaced 

persons from Rakhine State, which is modeled after the 

1992 repatriation agreement between Burma and Bangladesh; 

Whereas the Arrangement includes references to restoring 

normalcy and human rights in Rakhine State, for refugee 

returns to comply with international standards of safety, 

dignity, and voluntariness, and to commencing a process 

to address root causes in line with the Rakhine Advisory 

Commission recommendations; 

Whereas the Department of State has assessed that Burma 

has not made progress on the ‘‘more crucial’’ of the 88 

recommendations of the Rakhine Advisory Commission 

that are identified by Rohingya refugees as prerequisites 

to repatriation including freedom of movement, civil documentation, and a transparent pathway to citizenship; 

Whereas, on June 6, 2018, the Government of Burma 

reached a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding 

(MOU) with the UNHCR and the United Nations Development Agency (UNDP) on its role in the safe, dignified, 

and voluntary return of Rakhine State refugees; 


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Whereas Rohingya refugees currently hosted in Bangladesh 

demonstrated in protest against an initial November 

2018 repatriation plan between the Governments of Bangladesh and Burma, citing concerns for their security and 

the lack of meaningful political reforms in Burma to include full citizenship; 

Whereas UNHCR, on January 4, 2019, reported that conditions in Burma’s Rakhine State remain ‘‘not conducive to 

return’’ on the heels of the Government of India’s regrettable decision to repatriate 16,000 Rohingya to Burma 

without having first ascertained the ‘‘voluntariness of 

their decision to return’’; 

Whereas, throughout this process, the Government of Burma 

has restricted media freedom and jailed journalists; 

Whereas, on December 12, 2017, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe 

Oo, two journalists reporting and documenting atrocities 

against the Rohingya, were arrested and on January 10, 

2018, formally prosecuted with violating the ‘‘Official Secrets Act’’; 

Whereas Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Soo had uncovered a massacre of 10 Rohingya men perpetrated by Burma’s security forces and aided by local Buddhist villagers in the 

village of Inn Din in Rakhine State; 

Whereas, on September 3, 2018, Yangon northern district 

judge Ye Lwin ruled that Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo 

breached the colonial-era Official Secrets Act and sentenced them each to seven years in prison with hard 

labor; 

Whereas, on January 11, 2019, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo’s 

appeal of their conviction before the Yangon Regional 

High Court was denied; 


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Whereas Time Magazine named Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo 

as co-recipients of 2018 Time Magazine’s ‘‘Person of the 

Year’’ in recognition for their courageous reporting; 

Whereas Vice President Mike Pence tweeted his concern over 

the sentence against Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo for 

‘‘doing their job reporting on the atrocities being committed on the Rohingya people’’; 

Whereas United States Ambassador to the United Nations 

Nikki Haley described the conviction as ‘‘another terrible 

stain on the Burmese government’’ and called for ‘‘their 

immediate and unconditional release’’; 

Whereas the Department of State’s annual Human Rights 

Report on Burma for the year 2017 states that— 

(1) ‘‘legal provisions that allow the government to 

manipulate the courts for political ends, and these provisions were sometimes used to deprive citizens of due 

process and the right to a fair trial, particularly with regards to the freedom of expression’’; 

(2) ‘‘The government continued to detain and arrest 

journalists, activists, and critics of the government and 

the military during the year.’’; and 

(3) ‘‘Threats against and arrests of journalists increased. . . . Freedom of expression was more restricted 

during the year compared with 2016. This included a 

higher number of detentions of journalists using various 

laws, including laws carrying more severe punishments 

than those used previously.’’; 

Whereas, according to PEN America, the discontinuation of 

Radio Free Asia’s broadcasting in Myanmar on a domestic channel constitutes a further shrinking of the space 

for free expression in the country; and 


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Whereas, additionally, PEN America reports that— 

(1) there continues to be increased legal threats, imprisonment, and physical harassment of journalists; 

(2) there continues to be restrictions on the ability 

to report from and receive information on conflict areas; 

and 

(3) the lack of reform of media laws and institutions 

is driving a decline in media freedom: Now, therefore, be 

it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) condemns the violence and displacement in3 flicted on Burma’s Rohingya and other ethnic mi4 norities; 

5 (2) urges the Secretary of State to make a de6 termination whether the actions by the Myanmar 

7 military constitute crimes against humanity or geno8 cide and to work with interagency partners to im9 pose targeted sanctions on Myanmar military offi10 cials, to include Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, 

11 responsible for these heinous acts through existing 

12 authorities; 

13 (3) condemns the attacks by the Arakan 

14 Rohingya Salvation Army militant group; 

15 (4) calls on the Government of Burma to allow 

16 full access to Rakhine State and ensure the full par17 ticipation of UNHCR, the internationally endorsed 

18 organization tasked with ensuring that refugee reVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:55 Jan 29, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR34.IS SR34

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1 turns are voluntary, safe, dignified, and meet inter2 national refugee and human rights standards, and 

3 that the voices of refugees are represented in order 

4 to ensure the sustainability of such returns and to 

5 prevent further waves of displacement; 

6 (5) commends the positive role of the Govern7 ment of Bangladesh in receiving Rohingya refugees 

8 to date and urges the Government of Bangladesh to 

9 continue allowing the full participation of UNHCR 

10 and human rights organization in accessing refugee 

11 camps; 

12 (6) calls on UNHCR and international non13 governmental organizations to continue to play a 

14 role in monitoring repatriation efforts by the Gov15 ernments of Bangladesh and Burma to ensure a 

16 process that meets international norms for vol17 untary, safe, and dignified repatriation; 

18 (7) agrees that any return of Rohingya should 

19 include guarantees that any returns of refugees will 

20 be voluntary and dignified, that there will be no 

21 threats to protection or security upon return, that 

22 refugees will be able to return to their places of ori23 gin or other locations as desired, and be able to 

24 enjoy equal rights with others in Burma, including 


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1 the restoration or granting of full citizenship, free2 dom of movement, and access to basic services; 

3 (8) recognizes that any forced relocation of 

4 Rohingya refugees into temporary settlements, IDP 

5 camps, ‘‘model villages’’, or other areas not of refu6 gees’ choosing is unacceptable; 

7 (9) calls on the Government of Burma to allow 

8 for a flexible and practical approach to dealing with 

9 evidence of Rohingya residence in Burma, recog10 nizing that the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh 

11 possess a wide range of documents and that some 

12 refugees have no documents and will need to estab13 lish their residence by other means; 

14 (10) calls on the Government of Burma to ad15 dress root causes consistent with the Rakhine Advi16 sory Commission recommendations and fully imple17 ment all of the recommendations of the Commission, 

18 including providing equal access to full restoration 

19 or granting of full citizenship for the Rohingya pop20 ulation; 

21 (11) calls on the Government of Burma to ac22 knowledge and address the issue of statelessness for 

23 the Rohingya, the deprivation of rights, and institu24 tionalized and pervasive discrimination of the 


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1 Rohingya population in order to bring about any 

2 sustainable solutions; 

3 (12) commends the Government and the people 

4 of Bangladesh for their extraordinary generosity and 

5 efforts to provide shelter and relief for nearly 

6 1,000,000 Rohingya refugees forced to flee their 

7 homes in Burma; 

8 (13) calls on the Government of Bangladesh to 

9 ensure all refugees have freedom of movement and 

10 under no circumstances are subject to unsafe, invol11 untary, precipitous, or uninformed returns to 

12 Burma; 

13 (14) calls for all the convictions against Wa 

14 Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo to be nullified, for the simi15 lar charges against many other journalists currently 

16 awaiting trial to be dropped, and for the immediate 

17 and unconditional release of these journalists; 

18 (15) expresses concern about the Government 

19 of Myanmar’s crackdown on journalists and press 

20 freedom throughout the country; 

21 (16) reaffirms the central role that independent 

22 and professional journalism plays in strengthening 

23 democratic governance, upholding the rule of law, 

24 mitigating conflict, and informing public opinion 

25 around the world; and 


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1 (17) calls upon the United States Government 

2 to continue the United States status as a top global 

3 donor nation to the humanitarian response in 

4 Burma and Bangladesh and for the President’s fis5 cal year 2020 budget request to reflect that long6 standing United States commitment. 

Æ 


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