IV 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 528 

Condemning horrific acts of violence against Burma’s Rohingya population 

and calling on Aung San Suu Kyi to play an active role in ending 

this humanitarian tragedy. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 14, 2017 

Mr. LEVIN submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 

Committee on Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Condemning horrific acts of violence against Burma’s 

Rohingya population and calling on Aung San Suu Kyi 

to play an active role in ending this humanitarian tragedy. 

Whereas the Rohingya are one of Burma’s many ethnic minorities that have lived under military dictatorship for 

most of the last few decades; 

Whereas approximately one million Rohingya live predominantly in Burma’s Rakhine State, where they have faced 

ongoing repression under the Burmese military, including 

the revocation of their citizenship, killings, and mass 

rape; 

Whereas there is historical animosity between the majority 

Buddhist population and the minority Rohingya, with 


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•HRES 528 IH 

many in the Buddhist majority seeing the Rohingya as 

illegal immigrants from across the border in Bangladesh 

despite generational roots; 

Whereas the Department of State has, since 1999, regularly 

expressed concern over legal, economic, and social discrimination against Burma’s Rohingya population; 

Whereas an outbreak of communal violence in the Rakhine 

State in 2012 saw more than 100,000 displaced, and tens 

of thousands of Rohingya forced into squalid camps 

where travel was and continues to be restricted; 

Whereas the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human 

Rights in Burma reported a ‘‘long history of discrimination and persecution against the Rohingya’’; 

Whereas the most recent State Department Country Report 

on Human Rights Practices for 2016 recognized ‘‘abuses 

and restrictions on members of the Rohingya population’’ 

among the leading human rights problems in Burma; 

Whereas Aung San Suu Kyi spent fifteen years under house 

arrest for her peaceful advocacy of democracy in Burma, 

and during those years Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded 

the Sakharov human rights prize from the European 

Parliament, the Nobel Peace Prize, the U.S. Presidential 

Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal for 

her tireless struggle for freedom and human rights; 

Whereas in her 2012 Nobel lecture, Aung San Suu Kyi made 

an impassioned appeal to the world not to forget those 

who are suffering ‘‘hunger, disease, displacement, joblessness, poverty, injustice, discrimination, prejudice, bigotry’’ and war . . . continuing that ‘‘wherever suffering 

is ignored, there will be the seeds of conflict, for suffering 

degrades and embitters and enrages’’; 


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•HRES 528 IH 

Whereas in a landmark election held in November 2015, 

Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy 

won a landslide victory in the first national vote since 

Burma’s nominal transition to civilian authority, after 

which Aung San Suu Kyi was named State Counsellor, 

a role created for her that made her the country’s de 

facto leader; 

Whereas in August 2016, Aung San Suu Kyi helped establish 

the high-level Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, 

headed by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi 

Annan in order to address the mistreatment of the 

Rohingya; 

Whereas in October 2016, attacks on border police outposts 

led to reports of horrific human rights abuses against the 

Rohingya in a brutal military crackdown; 

Whereas in December 2016, a letter signed by 23 international activists, including more than a dozen fellow 

Nobel laureates, to the United Nations Security Council 

called out Aung San Suu Kyi for her silence on the treatment of the Rohingya; 

Whereas in February 2017, the United Nations Office of the 

High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report, 

finding that crimes against the Rohingya ‘‘seem to have 

been widespread as well as systematic, indicating the very 

likely commission of crimes against humanity’’; 

Whereas in March 2017, the United Nations Human Rights 

Council adopted a resolution creating a Fact-Finding 

Mission to Myanmar to investigate allegations of human 

rights abuses against the Rohingya and issue a report by 

the following year; 


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•HRES 528 IH 

Whereas in April 2017, Aung San Suu Kyi denied that ethnic 

cleansing had taken place against her country’s Rohingya 

minority despite widespread and reputable reporting of 

human rights abuses in Rakhine State; 

Whereas, on August 25, 2017, fighters from the small militant group the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army conducted surprise raids on 30 police stations and an army 

base in Rakhine State, in which more than 100 people 

died, including at least ten policemen and many militants; 

Whereas the attack resulted in a brutal and methodical reprisal by the Burmese military on villages, with helicopters firing on civilians, razing villages with petrol 

bombs, and front line troops cutting off families’ escape 

routes; 

Whereas the assault caused more than 140,000 Rohingya to 

flee for Bangladesh and more than 30,000 Rohingya are 

estimated to be trapped in conflict zones in western 

Burma; 

Whereas United Nations field work and the delivery of vital 

supplies of food, water, and medicine were suspended by 

the Government of Burma due to security concerns, leaving thousands of Rohingya vulnerable amid the deadly 

outbreak of violence; and 

Whereas, on August 31, 2017, the United Nations Security 

Council met to discuss the violence against the Rohingya 

in Rakhine State: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) condemns the violence and displacement in3 flicted on Burma’s Rohingya civilians and calls for 


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1 an immediate halt to all hostilities by Burmese au2 thorities; 

3 (2) condemns the attacks by the Arakan 

4 Rohingya Salvation Army militant group; 

5 (3) urges the Government of Burma to allow 

6 unrestricted access to the United Nations Fact7 Finding Mission on Myanmar as well as resume the 

8 delivery of field work and aid from critical humani9 tarian organizations to help those displaced and in10 jured and to monitor events in Rakhine State; 

11 (4) calls on the Government of Burma to imple12 ment the August 2017 recommendations of its Advi13 sory Commission on Rakhine State, including to end 

14 restrictions on the movement of the Rohingya and 

15 provide them with citizenship; and 

16 (5) encourages Aung San Suu Kyi to live up to 

17 her inspiring words upon receiving the 2012 Nobel 

18 Peace Prize with respect to ethnic reconciliation in 

19 Burma, and in particular to address the historic and 

20 brutal repression of the Rohingya in Rakhine State. 

Æ 


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