III 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 735 

Condemning the mass atrocities committed against the Rohingya in Burma 

and urging accountability for the Burmese military. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 19, 2018 

Mr. MARKEY (for himself, Mr. RUBIO, Mr. CARDIN, Ms. COLLINS, and Mr. 

MERKLEY) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 

Committee on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Condemning the mass atrocities committed against the 

Rohingya in Burma and urging accountability for the 

Burmese military. 

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, beginning on August 25, 2017, the Government of 

Burma 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 BanVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:17 Dec 20, 2018 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR735.IS SR735

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•SRES 735 IS 

gladesh and bringing the total Rohingya refugee population in Cox’s Bazar to over 900,000; 

Whereas international observers widely agree that Burma has 

not made progress on the ‘‘more crucial’’ of the 88 recommendations of the Rakhine Advisory Commission that 

addresses the root causes of conflict and ensures the 

rights and dignity of the Rohingya: freedom of movement, civil documentation, and a transparent pathway to 

citizenship; 

Whereas, since the beginning of the violence in August 2017, 

humanitarian and media access to Rakhine State has 

been extremely limited; 

Whereas Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were 

arrested on December 12, 2017, for their work to report 

on the Burmese military’s violent campaign against the 

Rohingya; 

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 accommodated the rapid and massive influx of Rohingya refugees 

into Cox’s Bazar; 

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

yet to take the necessary steps to address the violence directed against the Rohingya, has failed to create the necessary conditions for returns (including by actively impeding access to northern Rakhine by UNHCR, UNDP, 


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humanitarian organizations, and journalists), and has 

failed to fully implement recommendations from the 

Rakhine Advisory Commission that address the root 

causes of conflict in Rakhine; 

Whereas, on August 27, 2018, the United Nations International Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar released a 

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 stated that ‘‘[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, on August 17, 2018, 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 out the Rohingya residents’’ and that the ‘‘scope 


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and scale of the military’s operations indicate that they 

were well-planned and coordinated’’; 

Whereas, on November 29, 2018, the Public International 

Law and Policy Group, which was contracted by the Department of State to collect evidence for the Department’s report, issued its own report that concluded 

‘‘there is a reasonable basis to conclude that war crimes, 

crimes against humanity, and genocide were committed 

against the Rohingya population’’; 

Whereas the United Nations Convention on the Prevention 

and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, signed at 

Paris December 9, 1948, declares that genocide ‘‘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 that ‘‘[t]he 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’’; 

and 

Whereas the United States Holocaust Memorial announced 

on December 3, 2018, that ‘‘there is compelling evidence 

that Burmese authorities have intentionally sought to destroy the Rohingya people because of their ethnic and religious identity,’’ and concluded there was compelling evidence genocide was committed: Now, therefore, be it 


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1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) condemns the atrocities and displacement 

3 inflicted on Burma’s Rohingya population by the 

4 Burmese military and security forces since August 

5 2017; 

6 (2) calls on the Secretary of State, based on 

7 credible evidence, to make a formal determination on 

8 whether the crimes committed since August 2017, 

9 amount to genocide; 

10 (3) commends the role of the Government of 

11 Bangladesh in receiving Rohingya refugees to date 

12 and urges the Government of Bangladesh to con13 tinue allowing the full participation of UNHCR and 

14 human rights organization in accessing refugee 

15 camps; 

16 (4) calls upon Facebook and other social media 

17 platforms to take the appropriate steps to guard 

18 against the dissemination of hate speech exploiting 

19 ethnic divisions in Burma; 

20 (5) calls on the Government of Burma to imme21 diately release Reuters journalists Wa Lone and 

22 Kyaw Soe Oo; 

23 (6) urges the President to impose additional 

24 sanctions on senior members of Burma’s military 

25 and security forces, including Burmese military 


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1 owned companies and entities, who are responsible 

2 for genocide and human rights abuses against the 

3 Rohingya; and 

4 (7) calls upon the President to maintain the 

5 status of the United States as a top international 

6 donor to the humanitarian response in Burma and 

7 Bangladesh and to submit a budget request for fis8 cal year 2020 that reflects that longstanding United 

9 States commitment. 

Æ 


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