III 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 360 

Calling for international accountability for the crimes against humanity 

committed by the Burmese military against the Rohingya in Burma. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 13, 2017 

Mr. DURBIN (for himself, Mr. MERKLEY, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. MARKEY, and 

Mr. VAN HOLLEN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred 

to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Calling for international accountability for the crimes against 

humanity committed by the Burmese military against 

the Rohingya in Burma. 

Whereas actions by the military of Burma, known as the 

Tatmadaw, including continuing assaults on personnel 

and territory controlled by armed ethnic organizations, 

military offensives immediately preceding and following 

national peace conferences, and human rights abuses 

against noncombatant civilians in conflict areas, undermine the confidence in establishing a credible nationwide 

cease-fire agreement to end Burma’s civil war; 

Whereas Burmese military officials have a longstanding history of targeting ethnic groups and armed ethnic organizations in Burma, in addition to the Rohingya, and 


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whereas there are ongoing conflicts currently in the 

Shan, Kachin, and Rakhine states; 

Whereas August 25, 2017, attacks on security posts in 

Burma by the military group Arakan Rohingya Salvation 

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

forces on Rohingya villages; 

Whereas more than 624,000 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 rape, starvation, killing, and forcible deportation; 

Whereas Burmese military officials have promulgated fabrications about the Rohingya to sow negative public perception of the minority ethnic group, including that they are 

not Burmese, that they are uniformly implicated in terrorist activities and controlled by international terrorist 

groups with the intention of creating an Islamic State, 

that they attacked their own people and burned down 

their own villages in order to gain international sympathy, and that they are fleeing to Bangladesh for economic reasons or to create the appearance of ethnic 

cleansing; 

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 Commander in Chief of the Burmese military, 

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, has made statements 

communicating his antipathy for the Rohingya people, including on March 27, 2017, where he reportedly said that 


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‘‘[t]he Bengalis in Rakhine state are not Myanmar citizens and they are just people who come and stay in the 

country’’, and on September 2, 2017, where he reportedly 

said that the ongoing military operations against the 

Rohingya were aimed at ‘‘unfinished business’’ from 

World War II; 

Whereas a Human Rights Watch report entitled, ‘‘ ‘All of My 

Body Was Pain’: Sexual Violence Against Rohingya 

Women and Girls in Burma’’, documented the Burmese 

military’s widespread acts of sexual violence against 

women and girls since August 25, 2017; 

Whereas Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International 

Criminal Court includes murder, forced deportation, rape, 

and persecution among its definition of ‘‘crimes against 

humanity’’; 

Whereas, on September 11, 2017, in his opening statement 

for the United Nations Human Rights Council’s 36th 

session, United Nations High Commissioner for Human 

Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein reiterated his concern 

about the pattern of gross violation of human rights of 

the Rohingya in Burma, calling the persecution a ‘‘textbook case of ethnic cleansing’’; 

Whereas, on October 23, 2017, the Department of State suspended travel waivers for Burmese military leaders, 

found that all Burmese military units and officers involved in operations in northern Rakhine State are ineligible for United States assistance programs, rescinded invitations for Burmese security leaders to travel to United 

States-sponsored programs, and pressed for access for 

the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar to 

hold responsible those who have committed violence 

against the Rohingya; 


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Whereas, on November 3, 2017, the international human 

rights organization Human Rights Watch called for the 

United Nations Security Council to refer Burma to the 

International Criminal Court in light of Burma’s failure 

to investigate mass atrocities against the Rohingya; 

Whereas, on November 6, 2017, the United Nations Security 

Council issued Presidential Statement SC/13055 calling 

on Burma to ‘‘end the excessive military force and intercommunal violence that had devastated the Rohingya 

community in Rakhine State’’ in Burma; 

Whereas, on November 16, 2017, the United Nations General 

Assembly Third Committee approved draft resolution A/ 

C.3/72/L.48 calling for an end to the abuse of human 

rights against the Rohingya by Burmese authorities, accountability for the perpetrators, and unrestricted access 

for United Nations investigators in Burma; 

Whereas, on November 22, 2017, Secretary of State Rex 

Tillerson declared that the Burmese military’s crackdown 

‘‘constitutes ethnic cleansing against the Rohingyas’’; 

Whereas, on November 28, 2017, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against 

Women called on Burma to report within six months on 

rapes and sexual violence against Rohingya women and 

girls by its security forces in northern Rakhine State and 

further to take measures to punish soldiers responsible 

for these acts; 

Whereas the United Nations Human Rights Council held a 

Special Session on December 5, 2017, where it adopted 

a resolution strongly condemning the alleged systematic 

and gross violations of human rights and abuses committed against the Rohingya in Burma and requested the 


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High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to 

track the progress concerning the human rights situation 

of Rohingya people; and 

Whereas the United Nations High Commissioner for Human 

Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein recommended on December 

5, 2017, the establishment of ‘‘a new impartial and independent mechanism, complementary to the work of the 

Fact-Finding Mission, to assist individual criminal investigations of those responsible’’: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) recognizes the adoption of the resolution (A/ 

3 HRC/RES/S–27/1) on the situation of human rights 

4 of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Burma 

5 by the United Nations Human Rights Council on 

6 December 5, 2017; 

7 (2) condemns the Burmese military for its 

8 atrocities against the Rohingya, which constitute 

9 ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity; 

10 (3) reaffirms the longstanding international 

11 prohibitions and norms against the use of ethnic 

12 cleansing and crimes against humanity in any cir13 cumstance and calls on the United Nations to pass 

14 resolutions condemning the human rights violations 

15 by Burmese security forces against the Rohingya; 

16 (4) urges the Government of Burma to allow 

17 for full, unhindered humanitarian access to the af18 fected areas, and to allow the United Nations FactVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:25 Dec 14, 2017 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR360.IS SR360

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1 Finding Mission to Myanmar to examine the human 

2 rights violations by military and security forces in 

3 Burma and others abuses, with a particular focus on 

4 the situation in Rakhine State; 

5 (5) urges State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi 

6 to fully implement the Final Report of the Advisory 

7 Commission on Rakhine State; 

8 (6) urges the Government of Burma to take im9 mediate steps to close internally displaced persons 

10 (IDP) camps and the Rohingya ghetto at Aung 

11 Mingalar in Sittwe while respecting the rights and 

12 dignity of populations currently residing in these 

13 camps, and to further lift restrictions on freedom of 

14 movement of Rohingya living in villages throughout 

15 northern Rakhine State; 

16 (7) calls on the Secretary of State and the Sec17 retary of the Treasury to impose targeted sanctions 

18 and travel restrictions against senior leaders of the 

19 Burmese military implicated in atrocities, including 

20 its multiple holding companies and banks; 

21 (8) urges the international community to assist 

22 with the economic development of the Rakhine 

23 State, one of the poorest states in Burma, in which 

24 poverty exacerbates tensions between ethnic groups; 


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1 (9) urges the Government of Burma to conduct 

2 a comprehensive and transparent investigation— 

3 with the support of a credible international third 

4 party—to examine abuses against the Rohingya and 

5 hold perpetrators accountable; 

6 (10) urges the United Nations to establish an 

7 independent mechanism to assist individual criminal 

8 investigations of those responsible for atrocity crimes 

9 against the Rohingya and refer those responsible to 

10 the International Criminal Court; 

11 (11) calls on the United Nations Security Coun12 cil to impose a comprehensive arms embargo against 

13 Burma; and 

14 (12) calls upon the nations of the world to re15 voke travel visas for Burmese Commander-in-Chief 

16 Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and all other mem17 bers of the Burmese military responsible for the eth18 nic cleansing campaign and crimes against humanity 

19 against the Rohingya. 

Æ 


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