IV 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 84
Calling for the immediate intervention in the conflict in Burma, and for 
other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 13, 2003
Mr. PITTS (for himself, Mr. WOLF, Mr. ROHRABACHER, and Mr. SMITH of 
New Jersey) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on International Relations 
RESOLUTION 
Calling for the immediate intervention in the conflict in 
Burma, and for other purposes.
Whereas Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League 
for Democracy (NLD), was democratically elected as the 
General Secretary of the NLD in the multiparty election 
of May 1990 in Burma and is the rightful leader of the 
Government of Burma; 
Whereas the military junta of Burma, previously known as 
the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) 
and now calling itself the State Peace and Development 
Council (SPDC), refused to cede power to the rightful, 
democratically elected Government of Burma led by Aung 
San Suu Kyi;
•HRES 84 IH 
Whereas the military junta is engaged in ethnic cleansing 
against minorities within Burma, including the Karen, 
Karenni, and Shan people, which constitutes genocide 
under established international law; 
Whereas the conflict between the military junta and the eth-
nic minorities is one of the longest running civil wars in 
history; 
Whereas this conflict has resulted in 600,000 internally dis-
placed people living within Burma and more than 
130,000 people from Burma living in refugee camps 
along the Thai-Burma border; 
Whereas the military dictatorship employs inhumane tactics 
in its war against the ethnic minorities, including indis-
criminate burning of homes, villages, and crops, forced 
porterage, the use of civilians as human minesweepers, 
forced relocation, and the use of systematic rape as a 
weapon of terror; 
Whereas such inhumane methods of subjugation have deci-
mated the Karen people and have destroyed the Karen 
state; 
Whereas the military junta has engaged in the indiscriminate 
laying of unmapped land mines, in contempt of inter-
national law, which has resulted in hundreds of innocent 
victims; 
Whereas the SPDC and other entities with which it is allied 
profit from trade in illicit drugs within and outside Bur-
ma’s borders, including by producing and selling more 
than 1,000,000,000 methamphetamine pills in 2002 
alone, thereby poisoning hundreds of thousands of young 
people throughout Southeast Asia;
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Whereas the peaceful coexistence among Buddhists, Muslims, 
Christians, and people of traditional beliefs in Burma is 
in contrast with the intolerance and persecution waged 
against people of faith by the SPDC, particularly the 
small Muslim minority known as the Rohingya; 
Whereas the Global Day of Prayer for Burma was established 
in March of 1997, in order to bring together people of 
all faiths and ethnic backgrounds in prayer for the people 
of Burma, and has been celebrated annually since 1997 
on the second Sunday of March; 
Whereas Thailand has historically provided generous and hos-
pitable sanctuary to all refugees from Burma, including 
prodemocracy activists and ethnic minorities; 
Whereas some elements of the Thai Government, because of 
business and other dealings with the SPDC, are now at 
grave risk of becoming complicit with Burma and of 
being accused of aiding and abetting those who commit 
crimes against humanity; 
Whereas some elements within the Thai Government are ad-
vocating the forced repatriation to Burma of human 
rights and democracy activists and the closure of non-
governmental organizations in order to appease Burma’s 
military dictatorship; 
Whereas since November 30, 2002, a number of nongovern-
mental organizations, including the Federation of Trade 
Unions—Burma, the Thai-Burma Cultural Cooperation 
Committee Office for Phayar Thone Su, the People’s De-
fense Force, the Myeik–Davoy United Front, the Dawei 
Women’s Union, the Democratic Party for a New Society 
(DPNS), the Mon Youth Progressive Organization, the 
All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), the
•HRES 84 IH 
National League for Democracy—Liberated Area (NLD–
LA), the Network on Democracy and Development 
(NDD), the Political Defiance Committee, and the 
Burma Women’s Union, have been harassed, and 10 of 
these groups have been shut down by the Thai Govern-
ment, their property has been confiscated, their leaders 
have been arrested, and they have been threatened with 
forced repatriation to Burma; 
Whereas these arrests and threatened deportations by some 
elements of the Thai Government appear to be aimed at 
appeasing the Burmese military junta; and 
Whereas these planned deportations could irreparably tarnish 
the reputation of the Thai Government: Now, therefore, 
be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives—
(1) calls upon the executive branch of the 
United States Government and the international 
community to intervene immediately in the conflict 
in Burma and actively protect and assist the refu-
gees along the Thai-Burma border and the internally 
displaced persons within Burma; 
(2) calls upon the Government of Thailand, a 
close ally of the United States, to allow the United 
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to estab-
lish a permanent presence to assist the refugees; 
(3) calls upon the international community to 
place human rights monitors and peacekeepers in-
side Burma immediately in order to end the ethnic
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cleansing campaign of the State Peace and Develop-
ment Council (SPDC); 
(4) calls upon the international community to 
press the SPDC to desist immediately from its sys-
tematic policy of genocide; 
(5) calls upon the SPDC to respect and allow 
forthwith the establishment of the democratically 
elected Government of Burma from the 1990 elec-
tion, led by Aung San Suu Kyi and the National 
League for Democracy; 
(6) calls upon the international community to 
prosecute the military dictatorship of Burma on 
charges of genocide and as perpetrators of grave 
crimes against humanity; 
(7) calls upon the Government of Thailand to 
rescind immediately its decision to deport democracy 
activists to likely death in Burma; 
(8) calls upon the appropriate committees of 
the United States Congress and appropriate legisla-
tive bodies of other countries to hold hearings on the 
violations of human rights and genocide against the 
ethnic minorities in Burma; 
(9) calls for appropriate reparations by the 
SPDC to victims of rape and victims of forced labor 
in Burma;
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(10) calls for the SPDC to release immediately 
and unconditionally all political prisoners in Burma; 
(11) urges the SPDC to commence immediately 
a full-scale political dialogue with the National 
League for Democracy and all ethnic groups in 
Burma; 
(12) calls upon the international community to 
destroy the military capability of the SPDC by elimi-
nating the capacity of the SPDC and other entities 
with which it is allied to produce illicit drugs that 
supply the funds for the procurement by the SPDC 
of arms and munitions to support its war against 
the people of Burma; and 
(13) calls upon the international community 
and people of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds to 
join together with the people of Burma for the Glob-
al Day of Prayer for Burma.
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