H. Res. 418 

In the House of Representatives, U. S., 

May 7, 2014. 

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 current Government of Burma, like its predecessors, continues to use the Burma Citizenship Law of 

1982 to exclude from approved ethnic groups the 

Rohingya people, 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 
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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; 

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 
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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 the United Nations High Commissioner for Human 

Rights reported possessing credible evidence of the deaths 

of at least 48 Rohingyas in Du Chee Yar Tan village in 

Maungdaw Township, Rakhine state in January 2014, 

and human rights groups reported mass arrests and arbitrary detention of Rohingya in the aftermath of this violence; 

Whereas Burmese officials have denied the killings of 

Rohingyas in Du Chee Yar Tan village in January 2014 

and responded to international media coverage of the violence with threats against media outlets, including the 

Associated Press; 

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

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; 

Whereas the Government of Burma expelled Medecins Sans 

Frontieres from Rakhine state, leaving Rohingya communities and others without access to health care and lifesaving treatment for malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV; and 

Whereas the Rakhine state threatens to ban all unregistered 

nongovernmental organizations from operating in 

Rakhine state, severely limiting the provision of necessary 

services to Rohingyas and others in need: Now, therefore, 

be it 

Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

(1) recognizes the initial steps Burma has taken in 

transitioning from a military dictatorship to a quasi-civilian government, including the conditional release of 

some political prisoners, and calls for more progress to 

be made in critical areas of democracy, constitutional reform, and national reconciliation in order for Burma to 

achieve its own goal of political liberalization; 

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

forms of persecution and discrimination of the Rohingya 

people and ensure respect for internationally recognized 
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human rights for all ethnic and religious minority groups 

within Burma; 

(3) calls on the Government of Burma to recognize 

the Rohingya as an ethnic group indigenous to Burma, 

and to work with the Rohingya to resolve their citizenship status; 

(4) calls on the United States Government and the 

international community to put consistent pressure on 

the Government of Burma to take all necessary measures to end the persecution and discrimination of the 

Rohingya population and to protect the fundamental 

rights of all ethnic and religious minority groups in 

Burma; and 

(5) calls on the United States Government to 

prioritize the removal of state-sanctioned discriminatory 

policies in its engagement with the Government of 

Burma. 

Attest: 

Clerk.