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 re-
ferred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Urging the Government of Burma to end the persecution 
of the Rohingya people and respect internationally recog-
nized 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 in-
ternally 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 Ma-
laysia, and many more in Thailand and Indonesia; 
Whereas the Burma Citizenship Law of 1982 has long ex-
cluded 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 state-
less and vulnerable to exploitation and abuse; 
Whereas the Rohingya have historically experienced other 
particularized and severe legal, economic, and social dis-
crimination, including restrictions on travel outside their 
village of residence, limitations on their access to higher 
education, and a prohibition from working as civil serv-
ants, including as doctors, nurses, or teachers; 
Whereas authorities have also required Rohingya to obtain of-
ficial 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 shel-
ter, 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 regu-
larly expressed since 1999 its particular concern for se-
vere 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 arbi-
trary 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 over-
whelmingly 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 Town-
ship 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 Bur-
mese 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 experi-
ence further restrictions on their practice of Islam, cul-
ture, and language; and 
Whereas the violence against ethnic Muslim populations, in-
cluding 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 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) calls on the Government of Burma to end 
all forms of persecution and discrimination of the 
Rohingya people and ensure respect for internation-
ally recognized human rights for all ethnic and reli-
gious minority groups within Burma; and 
(2) calls on the United States Government and 
the international community to put consistent pres-
sure on the Government of Burma to take all nec-
essary measures to end the persecution and discrimi-
nation of the Rohingya population and to protect the 
fundamental rights of all ethnic and religious minor-
ity groups in Burma. 
Æ 
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