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[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1091 Engrossed in House (EH)]

<DOC>
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 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.'';
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 fact-check 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;
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 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;
            (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 Commander-In-
        Chief Min Aung Hliang;
            (7) independent and professional journalism play a central role in 
        strengthening democratic governance, upholding 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.
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