IV 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 418 

Urging the Government of Burma to end the persecution of the Rohingya 

people and respect internationally recognized human rights for all ethnic 

and religious minority groups within Burma. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

NOVEMBER 18, 2013 

Mr. MCGOVERN (for himself, Mr. PITTS, Mr. FRANKS of Arizona, and Mr. 

SMITH of New Jersey) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Urging the Government of Burma to end the persecution 

of the Rohingya people and respect internationally recognized human rights for all ethnic and religious minority 

groups within Burma. 

Whereas over 800,000 Rohingya ethnic minority live in 

Burma, mostly in the western Rakhine state; 

Whereas currently, approximately 140,000 Rohingya are internally displaced in central Rakhine state and hundreds 

of thousands have fled to neighboring countries, including 

at least 231,000 in Bangladesh, at least 15,000 in Malaysia, and many more in Thailand and Indonesia; 

Whereas the Burma Citizenship Law of 1982 has long excluded from approved ethnic groups the Rohingya people, 


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•HRES 418 IH 

despite many having lived in northern Rakhine state for 

generations, and has thereby rendered Rohingyas stateless and vulnerable to exploitation and abuse; 

Whereas the Rohingya have historically experienced other 

particularized and severe legal, economic, and social discrimination, including restrictions on travel outside their 

village of residence, limitations on their access to higher 

education, and a prohibition from working as civil servants, including as doctors, nurses, or teachers; 

Whereas authorities have also required Rohingya to obtain official permission for marriages and have singled out 

Rohingya in northern Rakhine state for forced labor and 

arbitrary arrests; 

Whereas the Government of Burma has forcefully relocated 

Rohingya into relief camps, where they lack decent shelter, access to clean water, food, sanitation, health care, 

the ability to support themselves, or basic education for 

their children; 

Whereas a two-child policy sanctioned solely upon the 

Rohingya population in the districts of Maungdaw and 

Buthidaung in northern Rakhine state restricts the rights 

of women and children, prevents children from obtaining 

Burmese citizenship, denies Rohingyas access to basic 

government services, and fosters discrimination against 

Muslim women by Buddhist nurses and midwives; 

Whereas the United States Department of State has regularly expressed since 1999 its particular concern for severe legal, economic, and social discrimination against 

Burma’s Rohingya population in its Country Report for 

Human Rights Practices; 


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•HRES 418 IH 

Whereas the level of persecution, including widespread arbitrary arrest, detention, and extortion of Rohingya and 

other Muslim communities, has dramatically increased 

over the past year and a half; 

Whereas communal violence has affected both Muslims and 

Burma’s majority Buddhist population, but has overwhelmingly targeted Burma’s ethnic Muslim minorities, 

which altogether comprise less than 5 percent of Burma’s 

population; 

Whereas violence targeting Rohingyas in Maungdaw and 

Sittwe in June and July of 2012 resulted in the deaths 

of at least 57 Muslims and the destruction of 1,336 

Rohingyas homes; 

Whereas on October 23, 2012, at least 70 Rohingyas were 

killed, and the Yan Thei village of the Mrauk-U Township was destroyed; 

Whereas violence has also targeted Muslims not of Rohingya 

ethnicity, including riots in March 2013 in the town of 

Meiktila that resulted in the death of at least 43 Burmese Muslims, including 20 students and several teachers 

massacred at an Islamic school, the burning of at least 

800 homes and 5 mosques, and the displacement of 

12,000 people; 

Whereas on October 1, 2013, riots involving more than 700 

Buddhists in Thandwe township resulted in the death of 

4 Kaman Muslim men and the stabbing death of a 94- 

year-old Muslim woman; 

Whereas over 4,000 religious, public, and private Rohingya 

structures have been destroyed; 


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•HRES 418 IH 

Whereas Rohingyas have experienced and continue to experience further restrictions on their practice of Islam, culture, and language; and 

Whereas the violence against ethnic Muslim populations, including the Rohingya and other Muslim groups, is part 

of a larger troubling pattern of violence against other 

ethnic and religious minorities in Burma: Now, therefore, 

be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) calls on the Government of Burma to end 

3 all forms of persecution and discrimination of the 

4 Rohingya people and ensure respect for internation5 ally recognized human rights for all ethnic and reli6 gious minority groups within Burma; and 

7 (2) calls on the United States Government and 

8 the international community to put consistent pres9 sure on the Government of Burma to take all nec10 essary measures to end the persecution and discrimi11 nation of the Rohingya population and to protect the 

12 fundamental rights of all ethnic and religious minor13 ity groups in Burma. 

Æ 


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