IIB 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2327 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 
AN ACT 
To direct the Secretary of State to provide assistance to 
civil society organizations in Burma that work to secure 
the release of prisoners of conscience and political pris-
oners in Burma, and assistance to current and former 
prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in Burma, 
and for other purposes. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Burma Political Pris-
oners Assistance Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) Aung San Suu Kyi and the National 
League for Democracy (NLD) pledged that they 
‘‘would not arrest anyone as political prisoners’’, but 
have failed to fulfill this promise since they took con-
trol of Burma’s Union Parliament and the Govern-
ment’s executive branch in April 2016. 
(2) As of the end of April 2019, there were 331 
political prisoners in Burma, 48 of them serving sen-
tences, 90 awaiting trial inside prison, and 193 
awaiting trial outside prison, according to the Assist-
ance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma. 
(3) During its 3 years in power, the NLD Gov-
ernment has provided pardons for Burma’s political 
prisoners on six occasions. State Counsellor Aung 
San Suu Kyi took steps to secure the release of 
nearly 235 political prisoners in April 2016. On May 
23, 2017, former President Htin Kyaw granted par-
dons to 259 prisoners, including 89 political pris-
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oners. On April 17, 2018, current President Win 
Myint pardoned 8,541 prisoners, including 36 polit-
ical prisoners. In April and May 2019, he pardoned 
more than 23,000 prisoners, including 20 political 
prisoners. 
(4) The Burmese security forces have used colo-
nial-era laws to arrest and charge political prisoners 
and prisoners of conscience. These laws include but 
are not limited to provisions of the Penal Code, the 
Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Act, the 
1908 Unlawful Associations Act, the 2013 Tele-
communications Act, and the 1923 Official Secrets 
Act. 
(5) On December 12, 2017, Reuters reporters 
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested and 
charged with violating the Official Secrets Act, con-
tinuing a trend of restricting media and free speech 
and attempting to thwart coverage of the events in 
Rakhine State. 
(6) On September 3, 2018, Wa Lone and Kyaw 
Soe Oo were convicted and sentenced to 7 years in 
prison. Time Magazine included pictures of the two 
reporters on the cover of its ‘‘Person of the Year’’ 
issue on December 10, 2018, as two of the ‘‘Guard-
ians and the War on Truth’’. 
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