IV 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 1091 

Calling on the Government of Burma to release Burmese journalists Wa 

Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo sentenced to seven years imprisonment after 

investigating attacks against civilians by Burma’s military and security 

forces, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 27, 2018 

Mr. CHABOT (for himself, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. ROYCE of California, Mr. SCHIFF, 

Mr. YOHO, Mr. SHERMAN, Mrs. COMSTOCK, and Mr. CROWLEY) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 

Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Calling on the Government of Burma to release Burmese 

journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo sentenced to 

seven years imprisonment after investigating attacks 

against civilians by Burma’s military and security forces, 

and for other purposes. 

Whereas for years under the rule of the military junta and 

continuing under a democratically elected government in 

Burma, journalists face threats of violence and retaliation, especially for those covering military abuses, religious intolerance, and the genocide and crimes against 

humanity that occurred in Rakhine State; 


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•HRES 1091 IH 

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

Din as part of its ongoing reporting on the Burmese military’s campaign against the Rohingya and Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were doing factchecking and interviewing eyewitnesses to these and other 

events; 

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

Oo, were arrested by police in a suburb of Yangon and 

have been in custody to the present; 

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 when they 

collected and obtained confidential documents during 

their investigation into the massacre in Inn Din, and 

then sentenced them each to 7 years in prison with hard 

labor; 

Whereas Secretary of State 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 

said, ‘‘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.’’; 


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•HRES 1091 IH 

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

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

from their unjust imprisonment; 

Whereas the Burmese military has committed numerous 

crimes against civilians over many years in Burma’s 

Rakhine, Shan, and Karen States; 

Whereas Marzuki Darusman, chair of the United Nations 

fact-finding mission on Burma said in a statement on 

September 18, 2018, ‘‘Peace will not be achieved while 

the Tatmadaw remains above the law. The Tatmadaw is 

the greatest impediment to Myanmar’s development as a 

modern democratic nation. The Commander-in-Chief of 

the Tatmadaw, Min Aung Hlaing, and all the current 

leadership must be replaced, and a complete restructuring must be undertaken to place the Tatmadaw under 

full civilian control. Myanmar’s democratic transition depends on it.’’; 

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 are mostly a stateless people; 

Whereas, on August 25, 2017, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army carried out attacks on government positions in 

Rakhine State; 

Whereas since the August 25, 2017, attacks, Burma’s military and security forces, as well as private mobs, have 

carried out widespread attacks, rapes, killings, and the 


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•HRES 1091 IH 

burning of villages throughout Rakhine State resulting in 

approximately 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh; 

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

not yet taken necessary steps to address the violence and 

should take further measures; 

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

Tillerson stated, ‘‘After a careful and thorough analysis 

of available facts, it is clear that the situation in northern 

Rakhine State constitutes ethnic cleansing against the 

Rohingya.’’; 

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 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.’’; and 


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•HRES 1091 IH 

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’’: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) condemns the attacks against civilians by 

3 Burma’s military and security forces; 

4 (2) urges the Secretary of State to make a de5 termination based on available evidence as to wheth6 er or not the actions by the Burmese military in 

7 northern Rakhine State in 2017 constitute crimes 

8 against humanity, genocide, or other crimes and to 

9 fully support efforts to collect, preserve, and make 

10 available evidence related to these crimes; 

11 (3) considers the actions by the Burmese mili12 tary against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine 

13 State in 2017 to be genocide as defined in the 

14 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and 

15 Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (entered into 

16 force with respect to the United States on November 

17 25, 1988) and therefore urges the Secretary of State 

18 put the full force of United States diplomacy behind 


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•HRES 1091 IH 

1 an effort to refer the atrocities against the Rohingya 

2 to the appropriate international mechanisms for 

3 prosecution; 

4 (4) calls on Burma’s military and government 

5 to allow refugees to immediately and voluntarily re6 turn to Burma in a manner consistent with inter7 nationally recognized human rights and principles 

8 for refugee protection and to change laws and poli9 cies that have contributed to insecurity in the 

10 Rakhine State; 

11 (5) calls on the President to impose additional 

12 sanctions on senior members of the Burmese mili13 tary and security forces who are responsible for 

14 human rights abuses, including Tatmadaw Com15 mander-In-Chief Min Aung Hliang; 

16 (6) calls on the United States Ambassador to 

17 the United Nations to work to refer the atrocities 

18 against the Rohingya to the appropriate inter19 national mechanisms for prosecution; 

20 (7) reaffirms the central role that independent 

21 and professional journalism plays in strengthening 

22 democratic governance, upholding the rule of law, 

23 mitigating conflict, and informing public opinion 

24 around the world; 


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•HRES 1091 IH 

1 (8) condemns the unjust prosecution of Wa 

2 Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo for doing the work of pro3 fessional journalists; 

4 (9) calls on State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi 

5 and President Win Myint to pardon Wa Lone and 

6 Kyaw Soe Oo as well as all other journalists and po7 litical prisoners; 

8 (10) calls on the Secretary of State to engage 

9 immediately and at the highest levels with the Gov10 ernment of Burma to press for the immediate re11 lease from prison of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo; 

12 and 

13 (11) calls on the Government of Burma to re14 scind or substantially modify laws that obstruct the 

15 freedom of the press. 

Æ 


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