•HRES 898 IH 
landslide victory, garnering 80 percent of the parliamen-
tary seats; 
Whereas before this election, Aung San Suu Kyi was placed 
under house arrest and the military proceeded to arrest 
hundreds of members of the National League for Democ-
racy; 
Whereas Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for 
14 of the past 20 years; 
Whereas for her nonviolent struggle for democracy and 
human rights, Aung San Suu Kyi received the Nobel 
Peace Prize in 1991; 
Whereas in April 2008, Congress completed passage of legis-
lation to award the Congressional Gold Medal, the United 
States Congress’ highest civilian honor, to Burma’s de-
mocracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi; 
Whereas, on August 19, 2007, prominent student and democ-
racy leaders peacefully took to the streets in Rangoon 
and elsewhere to protest the draconian action of the mili-
tary junta in Rangoon; 
Whereas by mid-September, more than 100,000 democracy 
supporters, led by Buddhist monks, were protesting; 
Whereas the Burmese regime threatened to ‘‘take action’’, 
and on September 26, 2007, the military opened fire on 
peaceful protesting crowds demanding democratic re-
forms; 
Whereas an estimated 200 people were killed, hundreds in-
jured, and thousands of individuals were arrested, impris-
oned, or tortured as part of this violent crackdown; 
Whereas amidst the crisis in parts of the country caused by 
Cyclone Nargis, the country’s military junta staged a ref-
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•HRES 898 IH 
erendum to force through a new constitution, drafted 
without input from the opposition; 
Whereas the vote for the referendum did not follow a free 
and fair democratic process; 
Whereas conditions prior to the referendum consisted of re-
pression, a lack of a free media, and a lack of an inde-
pendent referendum commission and courts to supervise 
the vote; 
Whereas the regime’s constitution, on which it predicates its 
upcoming elections in 2010, contains an amnesty provi-
sion that exempts members of the military regime from 
civilian prosecution; 
Whereas the amnesty provision is a blatant attempt to legiti-
mize the systematic violence in the country for all junta 
inflicted crimes; 
Whereas the constitution removes any rights for civil redress 
for victims of crimes committed by the military and lead-
ers of the democratic opposition have refused to accept 
this constitution; 
Whereas following the visit of an uninvited man from the 
United States to her home in August 2009, Aung San 
Suu Kyi was sentenced to an additional 18 months of 
house arrest for allowing the man to stay briefly in her 
home without official permission; 
Whereas this trial and the following rejection of an appeal 
was decried as a sham by the international community 
and was widely seen as a move to prevent Aung San Suu 
Kyi from participating in the 2010 national elections; 
Whereas since May 2009, the regime has started to disband 
and disarm the ethnic opposition groups by issuing or-
ders to reduce their troops from the current levels of 
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•HRES 898 IH 
about 50,000 to 7,000, and then transfer them under the 
authority of the regime by end of October; 
Whereas as a majority of ceasefire groups have refused to 
comply, in August, the regime started to attack the 
smallest group, Kokang, and defeated it in a week; 
Whereas this attack against Kokang and the occupying 
Kokang region forced over 40,000 people to flee to China 
as refugees and sent the message to other ceasefire 
groups to obey its order; 
Whereas the escalation of civil war and further destabilizing 
of the region can be expected anytime soon as the regime 
is strengthening its troops in the region for further at-
tack and the ceasefire groups are preparing to defend 
their regions; 
Whereas in June 2009, the United States tracked a North 
Korean ship carrying a suspicious cargo believed to be 
heading to Burma, but the ship returned to North Korea 
without ever reaching Burma; 
Whereas North Korea is internationally known to proliferate 
nuclear and missile materials and information; 
Whereas the United Nations has passed over 30 resolutions 
decrying the Burmese military regime’s human rights vio-
lations and blatant system of impunity; 
Whereas the regime has dismissed these resolutions by wag-
ing a war against its civilian population and destroying 
or forcing the abandonment of over 3,300 villages since 
1996; 
Whereas these inhumane tactics have caused a serious ref-
ugee crisis numbering more than 1,000,000 between 
1996 and 2006, and up to 500,000 internally displaced 
persons remaining today; 
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•HRES 898 IH 
Whereas the ruling military junta in Burma has one of the 
worst human rights records in the world and routinely 
violates the rights of Burmese citizens, including the sys-
tematic use of rape as a weapon of war, extrajudicial 
killings, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, as well 
as slave and child labor, including child soldiers; 
Whereas the International Labor Organization (ILO) since 
1998 has found that Burma’s state authorities use 
‘‘widespread’’ and ‘‘systematic’’ forced labor, arrest, or 
dismiss workers affiliated with labor protests, and mur-
der, imprison, and torture trade unionists; 
Whereas the ILO as recently as June 2009, concluded Bur-
ma’s military regime has continuously failed to imple-
ment the Convention since 1996; 
Whereas the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary 
Detention has stated five times that the detention of 
Aung San Suu Kyi by the Burmese military regime vio-
lates international law; 
Whereas in March 2009, in opinion No. 46/2008 the United 
Nations committee announced for the first time that 
Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest violates, not only inter-
national law, but Burmese law as well, further high-
lighting the Burmese junta’s utter disregard for the rule 
of law; 
Whereas, on October 11, 2007, the United Nations Security 
Council issued a statement condemning the violence in 
Burma, urging the release of all political prisoners, and 
calling on the State Peace and Development Council 
(SPDC) to enter into a United Nations-mediated dia-
logue with its political opposition; 
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•HRES 898 IH 
Whereas in July 2008, the Congress overwhelmingly passed 
and President George W. Bush signed into law the Tom 
Lantos Block Burmese JADE Act (Public Law 110–286) 
imposing further financial and travel sanctions on the 
Burmese military regime; 
Whereas since 2003, Congress has annually renewed import 
restrictions affiliated with the Burmese Freedom and De-
mocracy Act (Public Law 108–61) which imposes sanc-
tions on the ruling Burmese military junta with the pur-
pose of strengthening Burma’s democratic forces and 
supporting and recognizing the National League of De-
mocracy as the legitimate representative of the Burmese 
people; 
Whereas this act was once again renewed and signed into law 
by President Obama on July 28, 2009; 
Whereas in September 2009, the Administration concluded a 
seven-month review of United States policy towards 
Burma, the revised policy seeks credible democratic re-
form by maintaining the current sanctions against the 
Burmese regime in addition to direct engagement with 
senior Burmese officials; and 
Whereas the European Union, Canada, and Australia have 
imposed their own sanctions against the Burmese regime: 
Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) insists that Burma’s military regime begin 
a meaningful tripartite political dialogue with Aung 
San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy, 
and ethnic nationalities toward national reconcili-
ation, and the full restoration of democracy, freedom 
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