I 
115TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5819 
To promote democracy and human rights in Burma, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 15, 2018 
Mr. ENGEL (for himself, Mr. CHABOT, Mr. CROWLEY, Mr. ROYCE of Cali-
fornia, Mr. SHERMAN, Mr. YOHO, Mr. CASTRO of Texas, Mrs. WAGNER, 
Mr. CICILLINE, Mr. MCCAUL, Mr. SIRES, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. 
COSTA, Mr. DENHAM, Mr. DEUTCH, Mr. POE of Texas, Ms. BASS, Mr. 
KING of New York, Ms. TITUS, Mr. COOK, Mr. TED LIEU of California, 
Mr. MEADOWS, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. THOMAS J. ROONEY of Florida, Ms. 
SPEIER, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN, Mr. COHEN, Mr. SOTO, Ms. JENKINS of 
Kansas, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. GARRETT, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. DONO-
VAN, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Mrs. COMSTOCK, Ms. KUSTER of New 
Hampshire, Mr. COFFMAN, Ms. LOFGREN, Mr. LANCE, Mr. LOWENTHAL, 
Mr. COSTELLO of Pennsylvania, Ms. PINGREE, Mr. BILIRAKIS, Mr. BLU-
MENAUER, Mr. RUTHERFORD, Mr. POCAN, Mr. RUSSELL, Mr. RUSH, Ms. 
BONAMICI, Mr. CULBERSON, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Ms. NORTON, Mr. 
DELANEY, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. CARTWRIGHT, Ms. ESTY of Connecticut, 
Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania, Ms. ESHOO, Ms. MOORE, Ms. LEE, Mr. 
MOULTON, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. WELCH, 
Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, Mr. HASTINGS, and Mr. 
BEYER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committees on the Ju-
diciary, and Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently determined 
by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To promote democracy and human rights in Burma, and 
for other purposes. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:07 May 31, 2018
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6652
E:\BILLS\H5819.IH
H5819
pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Burma Unified through Rigorous Military Accountability 
Act of 2018’’ or the ‘‘BURMA Act of 2018’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Appropriate congressional committees defined. 
TITLE I—MATTERS RELATING TO THE CONFLICT IN BURMA 
Sec. 101. Findings. 
Sec. 102. Statement of policy. 
Sec. 103. Sense of Congress with respect to humanitarian assistance, freedom 
of movement, and rights of returnees. 
Sec. 104. Sense of Congress on press freedom. 
Sec. 105. Sense of Congress with respect to imposition of sanctions under the 
Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. 
TITLE II—ASSISTANCE AND SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO 
BURMA 
Sec. 201. Authorization for humanitarian assistance and reconciliation. 
Sec. 202. Limitation on security assistance and military and security sector co-
operation. 
Sec. 203. Imposition of sanctions with respect to certain foreign persons. 
Sec. 204. Forfeiture of property. 
TITLE III—GOVERNANCE OF THE BURMESE MINING AND 
GEMSTONE SECTOR 
Sec. 301. Sense of Congress on the Burmese mining sector and the importation 
of Burmese gemstones or minerals. 
Sec. 302. Responsibility and transparency in the mining sector. 
TITLE IV—ACCOUNTABILITY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AND 
STRATEGY FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH 
Sec. 401. Determination and report on accountability for ethnic cleansing, 
crimes against humanity, and genocide in Burma. 
Sec. 402. Strategy for promoting economic growth and development. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:07 May 31, 2018
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6211
E:\BILLS\H5819.IH
H5819
pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
SEC. 2. APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES DE-
FINED. 
In this Act, the term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-
mittees’’ means— 
(1) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the 
Committee on Armed Services of the House of Rep-
resentatives; and 
(2) the Committee on Foreign Relations and 
the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate. 
TITLE I—MATTERS RELATING 
TO THE CONFLICT IN BURMA 
SEC. 101. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) On August 25, 2017, Burmese military and 
security forces violently and disproportionately re-
sponded to an attack on security outposts, resulting 
in a mass exodus of Rohingya from the Rakhine 
State of Burma into Bangladesh, which the Inter-
national Organization of Migration called ‘‘unprece-
dented in terms of volume and speed’’. 
(2) Between August 2017 and March 2018, in 
response to the violence perpetrated by the Burmese 
military and security forces, the United Nations esti-
mates more than 693,000 Rohingya, approximately 
78 percent of whom are women and children, have 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:07 May 31, 2018
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H5819.IH
H5819
pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
fled to Bangladesh, fearing loss of life, livelihoods, 
and shelter. 
(3) Despite the steps taken toward democracy 
in Burma, there exists limited control by the civilian 
government over civilian agencies and no meaningful 
civilian control over the military or security forces 
that carried out the violence in Rakhine State and 
that continues to engage in grave human rights 
abuses against ethnic minorities throughout in the 
country. 
(4) Both government- and military-initiated in-
vestigations into human rights abuses in Burma in-
volving violence between ethnic minorities and Bur-
mese security forces have failed to yield credible re-
sults or meaningfully hold perpetrators accountable. 
(5) In a public address on October 12, 2017, 
State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi laid out the fol-
lowing goals for the State of Rakhine: 
(A) Repatriation of those who have crossed 
over to Bangladesh. 
(B) Effective provision of humanitarian as-
sistance. 
(C) Resettlement of displaced populations. 
(D) Economic development and durable 
peace. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:07 May 31, 2018
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H5819.IH
H5819
pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
(6) Due to restrictions enforced by the Rakhine 
State government and the military and security 
forces, there has been little progress made since that 
time and limited ability for the international commu-
nity to meaningfully support, verify, or evaluate the 
Government of Burma’s efforts. There are also cred-
ible reports of Burmese military and security forces 
bulldozing villages where violence occurred, thus de-
stroying physical evidence of what may have oc-
curred there. 
(7) Human rights organizations have reported 
and documented a campaign of violence perpetrated 
by the security forces of Burma, which indiscrimi-
nately fired on and killed civilians, raped women and 
girls, and arbitrarily arrested Rohingya men without 
any cause or charges. Satellite images obtained by 
Amnesty International reveal that, out of the ap-
proximately 470 villages in northern Rakhine State, 
nearly 300 were partially or completely destroyed by 
fire since August 25, 2017, most of which were com-
pletely or partially populated by Rohingya Muslims. 
(8) On October 10, 2017, at a hearing before 
the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Deputy 
Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refu-
gees, and Migration Mark Storella testified that of 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:07 May 31, 2018
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H5819.IH
H5819
pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
the $434,000,000 required by the United Nations 
for emergency response in the first 6 months of this 
crisis, ‘‘[i]n fiscal year 2017, the United States con-
tributed nearly $104 million in assistance to the dis-
placed populations in Burma for refugees from 
Burma throughout the region’’. 
(9) The United Nations Joint Response Plan to 
fund assistance to Rohingya refugees and the host 
community in Bangladesh through the end of 2018 
requires almost $1,000,000,000 in assistance. 
(10) On November 22, 2017, Secretary of State 
Rex Tillerson stated that, ‘‘After careful and 
through analysis of available facts, it is clear that 
the situation in northern Rakhine state constitutes 
ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya. Those re-
sponsible for these atrocities must be held account-
able’’. He also said the violence ‘‘has a number of 
characteristics of certainly crimes against human-
ity’’. 
(11) Yanghee Lee, the United Nations Special 
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in 
Myanmar said, ‘‘I am becoming more convinced that 
the crimes committed following 9 October 2016 and 
25 August 2017 bear the hallmarks of genocide and 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
21:21 Jun 04, 2018
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00006
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H5819.IH
H5819
pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
call in the strongest possible terms for account-
ability.’’ 
(12) On December 12, 2017, Wa Lone and 
Kyaw Soe Oo, two Reuters reporters covering the 
crisis in Rakhine State, were entrapped, arrested, 
and charged with violating the Official Secrets Act, 
continuing a trend of restricting media and free 
speech and attempting to thwart coverage of the 
events in Rakhine State. 
SEC. 102. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 
It shall be the policy of the United States to— 
(1) support a complete transition to democracy 
and genuine national reconciliation in Burma which 
cannot be achieved without appropriate account-
ability for the atrocities committed by the Burmese 
military against the Rohingya population and other 
ethnic minorities throughout the country; 
(2) pursue a strategy of calibrated engagement, 
which is essential to support the establishment of a 
peaceful, prosperous, and democratic Burma that in-
cludes respect for the human rights of all its people 
regardless of ethnicity and religion; and 
(3) ensure that the guiding principles of such a 
strategy include— 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:07 May 31, 2018
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00007
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H5819.IH
H5819
pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS