H. Res. 1091 

In the House of Representatives, U. S., 

December 13, 2018. 

Whereas in recent decades the Rohingya people have lost, 

through systematic discrimination by Burmese national, 

state, and local authorities, a range of civil and political 

rights, including citizenship, and face barriers today such 

that they have been rendered stateless; 

Whereas the Burmese military and security forces have committed numerous crimes against civilians over many years 

in Burma’s Rakhine, Shan, Kachin, and Karen States; 

Whereas beginning August 25, 2017, the Burmese military 

and security forces, as well as civilian mobs, carried out 

widespread attacks, rapes, killings, and the burning of 

villages throughout Rakhine State resulting in approximately 730,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh and 

bringing the total Rohingya refugee population in Cox’s 

Bazar to over 900,000; 

Whereas on November 14, 2018, Vice President Mike Pence 

said, ‘‘This is a tragedy that has touched the hearts of 

millions of Americans. The violence and persecution by 

military and vigilantes that resulted in driving 700,000 

Rohingya to Bangladesh is without excuse.’’; 

Whereas to date, though the refugee crisis is not of their 

making, the Government of Bangladesh has generously 
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accommodated the rapid and massive influx of Rohingya 

refugees into Cox’s Bazar; 

Whereas the Government of Bangladesh continues to express 

concern about the lack of accountability for the perpetrators of these crimes and the need to find durable solutions; 

Whereas in June 2018, it was announced that the United 

Nations and the Government of Burma had reached an 

agreement for the ‘‘voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable’’ return of Rohinyga to Burma; 

Whereas that agreement was contingent upon the provision 

of unimpeded access to northern Rakhine by United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) and 

United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in order 

to verify the necessary conditions on the ground for such 

voluntary, safe, dignified, and sustainable returns; 

Whereas Burma’s civilian government, led by State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, has 

not yet taken the necessary steps to address the violence 

directed against the Rohingya and has failed to create 

the necessary conditions for returns, including by actively 

impeding access to northern Rakhine by UNHCR, 

UNDP, humanitarian organizations, and journalists; 

Whereas on August 24, 2018, the United Nations International Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar released a 

preliminary report stating 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.’’; 
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Whereas on August 25, 2018, Secretary of State Mike 

Pompeo said ‘‘A year ago, following deadly militant attacks, security forces responded by launching abhorrent 

ethnic cleansing of ethnic Rohingya in Burma’’, and continued ‘‘The U.S. will continue to hold those responsible 

accountable. The military must respect human rights for 

Burma’s democracy to succeed.’’; 

Whereas the Department of the Treasury announced sanctions on five Tatmadaw officers and two Tatmadaw units 

for human rights abuses in Rakhine, Kachin, and Shan 

States; 

Whereas on September 24, 2018, the Department of State 

released a report entitled ‘‘Documentation of Atrocities in 

Northern Rakhine State’’ that stated the military ‘‘targeted civilians indiscriminately and often with extreme 

brutality’’ and that the violence in northern Rakhine 

State was ‘‘extreme, large-scale, widespread and seemingly geared toward both terrorizing the population and 

driving gout the Rohingya residents’’ and that the ‘‘scope 

and scale of the military’s operations indicate that they 

were well-planned and coordinated’’: 

Whereas Reuters, a highly respected worldwide news organization, discovered evidence of mass murder in the village 

of Inn Din as part of its ongoing reporting on the Burmese military’s campaign against the Rohingya, and deployed journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo to factcheck and interview eyewitnesses to these and other 

events; 

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

were arrested by Burmese security forces in a suburb of 

Yangon and remain in custody to date; 
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Whereas on April 20, 2018, a key witness for the prosecution, Police Captain Moe Yan Naing, testified that he 

was ordered by his superiors to ‘‘trap’’ Wa Lone; 

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 during their 

investigation into the massacre in Inn Din and subsequently sentenced them each to 7 years in prison with 

hard labor, despite admissions by the police under oath 

in court that the documents in question were planted 

with the journalists as a front for their arrest; 

Whereas United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met 

with Burma’s Foreign Minister, Kyaw Tin, at the 

ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in August 2018 and 

called for the immediate release of Wa Lone and Kyaw 

Soe Oo; 

Whereas on September 4, 2018, Vice President Mike Pence 

stated, ‘‘Wa Lone & Kyaw Soe Oo should be commended—not imprisoned—for their work exposing 

human rights violations [and] mass killings. Freedom of 

religion [and] freedom of the press are essential to a 

strong democracy.’’; 

Whereas Members of Congress, professional journalist organizations, human rights groups, and other distinguished 

leaders from around the world have called on the Burmese authorities to release Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo 

from their unjust imprisonment; and 

Whereas the United Nations Convention on the Prevention 

and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, signed at 

Paris December 9, 1948 declares that ‘‘means any of the 

following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in 
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whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious 

group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) 

Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the 

group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions 

of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction 

in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to 

prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring 

children of the group to another group’’ and ‘‘The following acts shall be punishable: (a) Genocide; (b) Conspiracy to commit genocide; (c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide; (d) Attempt to commit genocide; (e) Complicity in genocide.’’: Now, therefore, be it 

Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that— 

(1) the atrocities committed against the Rohingya 

by the Burmese military and security forces since August 2017 constitute crimes against humanity and genocide; 

(2) the Secretary of State should— 

(A) determine, based on available evidence, 

whether the actions by the Burmese military in 

northern Rakhine State in 2017 constitute crimes 

against humanity, genocide, or other crimes under 

international law; and 

(B) fully support efforts to collect, preserve, 

and make available evidence related to the commission of these crimes; 
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(3) all those responsible for these crimes against 

humanity and genocide should be tracked, sanctioned, 

arrested, prosecuted, and punished under applicable 

international criminal statutes and conventions; 

(4) every Government and multinational body 

should call such atrocities by their rightful names of 

‘‘crimes against humanity’’, ‘‘war crimes’’, and ‘‘genocide’’; 

(5) the Governments of Bangladesh, the United 

States, and China, as well as the UNHCR and other actors, should only support repatriations to Burma when 

the conditions for safe, voluntary and dignified returns 

are achieved, including that of removing any impunity 

for Burma’s military, security forces, and vigilantes with 

respect to their actions contributing to the systemic deprivation of the human rights, such as physical safety, 

citizenship, freedom of movement, and livelihoods, of the 

Rohingya; 

(6) the President should impose additional sanctions on senior members of the Burmese military and security forces who are responsible for genocide and 

human rights abuses, including Tatmadaw CommanderIn-Chief Min Aung Hliang; 

(7) independent and professional journalism play a 

central role in strengthening democratic governance, up-
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holding the rule of law, mitigating conflict, and informing public opinion around the world; and 

(8) the Burmese military and Government should— 

(A) provide immediate, unimpeded access to 

northern Rakhine by UNHCR, UNDP, other humanitarian actors, and journalists, in order to verify 

that the necessary conditions exist for voluntary, 

safe, dignified, and sustainable returns by displaced 

Rohingya in a manner consistent with internationally recognized human rights and principles for refugee protection; 

(B) change the laws and policies that have contributed to insecurity in the Rakhine State; and 

(C) rescind any laws that obstruct the freedom 

of the press; and 

(9) State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint should pardon and immediately release 

from prison Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, as well as all 

other journalists and political prisoners. 

Attest: 

Clerk.