In the Senate of the United States,

December 20 (legislative day, December 18), 2001.

Resolved, That the resolution from the House of Representatives (H. Con. Res. 211) entitled ‘‘Concurrent resolution commending Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on the 10th anniversary of her receiving the Nobel Peace Prize and expressing

the sense of the Congress with respect to the Government of

Burma.’’, do pass with the following

AMENDMENTS:

Strike out all after the resolving clause and insert:

1 SECTION 1. COMMENDATION OF DAW AUNG SAN SUU KYI

2 AND SENSE OF CONGRESS WITH RESPECT TO

3 THE GOVERNMENT OF BURMA.

4 (a) COMMENDATION OF DAW AUNG SAN SUU KYI.—

5 Congress—

6 (1) commends and congratulates Daw Aung San

7 Suu Kyi on the 10th anniversary of her receiving the

8 Nobel Peace Prize; and
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HCON 211 EAS

1 (2) recognizes her remarkable contributions and

2 tireless work toward bringing national reconciliation

3 and democracy to Burma.

4 (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Congress

5 that the President and the Secretary of State should con6 tinue to encourage the SPDC to—

7 (1) restore basic human rights to the Burmese

8 people;

9 (2) eliminate the practice of human trafficking;

10 (3) address the manufacture of heroin and

11 methamphetamines;

12 (4) release all political prisoners;

13 (5) remove all restrictions on the freedom of

14 speech, assembly, association, and movement of Daw

15 Aung San Suu Kyi and members of the National

16 League for Democracy;

17 (6) recognize the results of the 1990 democratic

18 elections; and

19 (7) take concrete steps to achieve national rec20 onciliation and the restoration of democracy through

21 genuine and substantive dialogue with Daw Aung

22 San Suu Kyi.
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HCON 211 EAS

Strike out the preamble and insert:

Whereas, since 1962, the people of Burma have lived under a

repressive military regime;

Whereas, in 1988, the people of Burma rose up in massive prodemocracy demonstrations;

Whereas, in response to this call for change, the Burmese military brutally suppressed these demonstrations;

Whereas opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was placed

under house arrest after these demonstrations;

Whereas, in the 1990 Burmese elections, Daw Aung San Suu

Kyi led the National League for Democracy and affiliated

parties to a landslide victory, winning 80 percent of the

parliamentary seats;

Whereas the ruling military regime rejected this election and

proceeded to arrest hundreds of members of the National

League for Democracy;

Whereas Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s freedom of speech, assembly, association, and movement was restricted by the military regime;

Whereas, in recognition of her efforts to bring democracy to

Burma, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel

Peace Prize on December 10, 1991;

Whereas Daw Aung San Suu Kyi remained under unlawful

house arrest until 1995;

Whereas, even after the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the

Burmese military regime, known as the State Peace and

Development Council (in this concurrent resolution referred to as the ‘‘SPDC’’), has continued to ignore the

basic human rights of 48,000,000 Burmese citizens and

has brutally suppressed any opposition to its authority;
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HCON 211 EAS

Whereas, according to the Department of State, the SPDC has

made no significant progress toward stopping the practice

of human trafficking, whereby thousands of people have

been sent to Thailand and other countries for the purpose

of factory and household work and for sexual exploitation;

Whereas the SPDC has forced civilians to work in industrial,

military, and infrastructure construction operations

throughout Burma, and on a large-scale basis has targeted

ethnic and religious minorities for this work;

Whereas a Department of Labor report in 2000 described the

human rights abuses of forced laborers, including beating,

torture, starvation, and summary executions;

Whereas the Drug Enforcement Administration has reported

that Burma is the world’s second largest producer of

opium and opiate-based drugs;

Whereas officials in Thailand have estimated that as many as

800 million tablets of methamphetamine will be smuggled

into their country this year, contributing to the growing

methamphetamine problem in Thailand;

Whereas there are as many as a million internally displaced

persons in Burma;

Whereas the SPDC continues to severely restrict the political

activities of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the National

League for Democracy;

Whereas, in September 2000, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was

placed under house arrest when she attempted to visit a

National League for Democracy party office on the outskirts of Rangoon, and again when she attempted to travel

by train to Mandalay;

Whereas Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the SPDC have recently

begun talks under the auspices of the United Nations Spe-
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HCON 211 EAS

cial Envoy to Burma, Razali Ismail, which are welcomed

by the international community;

Whereas the SPDC has recently allowed the National League

for Democracy to open some political offices, and has released some political prisoners, although over 1,800 such

prisoners are believed to remain imprisoned;

Whereas, with the exception of these positive developments, the

SPDC has made little progress in improving human rights

conditions and restoring democracy to Burma;

Whereas the United Nations General Assembly has recently expressed its concern over the slow progress in the talks between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the SPDC;

Whereas Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s struggle to assert the rights

of her people has spread beyond politics and into popular

culture, as evidenced by others championing her cause,

most notably the rock group U2 in their song ‘‘Walk On’’,

which is banned in Burma;

Whereas Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom; and

Whereas, in the face of oppression and at great personal sacrifice, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has remained an outspoken champion of democracy and freedom: Now, therefore, be it

Attest:

Secretary.

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 211

AMENDMENTS