IV 
115TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 1091 
Calling on the Government of Burma to release Burmese journalists Wa 
Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo sentenced to seven years imprisonment after 
investigating attacks against civilians by Burma’s military and security 
forces, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 27, 2018 
Mr. CHABOT (for himself, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. ROYCE of California, Mr. SCHIFF, 
Mr. YOHO, Mr. SHERMAN, Mrs. COMSTOCK, and Mr. CROWLEY) sub-
mitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Calling on the Government of Burma to release Burmese 
journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo sentenced to 
seven years imprisonment after investigating attacks 
against civilians by Burma’s military and security forces, 
and for other purposes. 
Whereas for years under the rule of the military junta and 
continuing under a democratically elected government in 
Burma, journalists face threats of violence and retalia-
tion, especially for those covering military abuses, reli-
gious intolerance, and the genocide and crimes against 
humanity that occurred in Rakhine State; 
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Whereas Reuters, a highly respected worldwide news organi-
zation, discovered a mass murder in the village of Inn 
Din as part of its ongoing reporting on the Burmese mili-
tary’s campaign against the Rohingya and Reuters jour-
nalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were doing fact- 
checking and interviewing eyewitnesses to these and other 
events; 
Whereas, on December 12, 2017, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe 
Oo, were arrested by police in a suburb of Yangon and 
have been in custody to the present; 
Whereas, on April 20, 2018, a key witness for the prosecu-
tion, Police Captain Moe Yan Naing, testified that he 
was ordered by his superiors to ‘‘trap’’ Wa Lone; 
Whereas, on September 3, 2018, Yangon Northern District 
Judge Ye Lwin ruled that Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo 
breached the colonial-era Official Secrets Act when they 
collected and obtained confidential documents during 
their investigation into the massacre in Inn Din, and 
then sentenced them each to 7 years in prison with hard 
labor; 
Whereas Secretary of State Pompeo met with Burma’s For-
eign Minister, Kyaw Tin at the ASEAN Foreign Min-
isters’ Meeting in August 2018 and called for the imme-
diate release of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo; 
Whereas, on September 4, 2018, Vice President Mike Pence 
said, ‘‘Wa Lone & Kyaw Soe Oo should be commended— 
not imprisoned—for their work exposing human rights 
violations [and] mass killings. Freedom of religion [and] 
freedom of the press are essential to a strong democ-
racy.’’; 
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Whereas Members of Congress, professional journalist organi-
zations, human rights groups, and other distinguished 
writers from around the world have called on the Bur-
mese authorities to release Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo 
from their unjust imprisonment; 
Whereas the Burmese military has committed numerous 
crimes against civilians over many years in Burma’s 
Rakhine, Shan, and Karen States; 
Whereas Marzuki Darusman, chair of the United Nations 
fact-finding mission on Burma said in a statement on 
September 18, 2018, ‘‘Peace will not be achieved while 
the Tatmadaw remains above the law. The Tatmadaw is 
the greatest impediment to Myanmar’s development as a 
modern democratic nation. The Commander-in-Chief of 
the Tatmadaw, Min Aung Hlaing, and all the current 
leadership must be replaced, and a complete restruc-
turing must be undertaken to place the Tatmadaw under 
full civilian control. Myanmar’s democratic transition de-
pends on it.’’; 
Whereas in recent decades the Rohingya people have lost, 
through systematic discrimination by Burmese national, 
state, and local authorities, a range of civil and political 
rights, including citizenship, and face barriers today such 
that they are mostly a stateless people; 
Whereas, on August 25, 2017, the Arakan Rohingya Salva-
tion Army carried out attacks on government positions in 
Rakhine State; 
Whereas since the August 25, 2017, attacks, Burma’s mili-
tary and security forces, as well as private mobs, have 
carried out widespread attacks, rapes, killings, and the 
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burning of villages throughout Rakhine State resulting in 
approximately 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh; 
Whereas Burma’s civilian government, led by State Coun-
sellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, has 
not yet taken necessary steps to address the violence and 
should take further measures; 
Whereas, on November 22, 2017, Secretary of State Rex 
Tillerson stated, ‘‘After a careful and thorough analysis 
of available facts, it is clear that the situation in northern 
Rakhine State constitutes ethnic cleansing against the 
Rohingya.’’; 
Whereas the Department of the Treasury announced sanc-
tions on five Tatmadaw officers and two Tatmadaw units 
for human rights abuses in Rakhine, Kachin, and Shan 
States; 
Whereas, on August 24, 2018, the United Nations Inter-
national Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar released a 
preliminary report stating that, ‘‘The Mission concluded 
. . . that there is sufficient information to warrant the 
investigation and prosecution of senior officials in the 
Tatmadaw chain of command, so that a competent court 
can determine their liability for genocide in relation to 
the situation in Rakhine State.’’; 
Whereas, on August 25, 2018, Secretary of State Mike 
Pompeo said, ‘‘A year ago, following deadly militant at-
tacks, security forces responded by launching abhorrent 
ethnic cleansing of ethnic Rohingya in Burma’’, and con-
tinued ‘‘The U.S. will continue to hold those responsible 
accountable. The military must respect human rights for 
Burma’s democracy to succeed.’’; and 
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Whereas, on September 24, 2018, the Department of State 
released a report entitled ‘‘Documentation of Atrocities in 
Northern Rakhine State’’ that stated the military ‘‘tar-
geted civilians indiscriminately and often with extreme 
brutality’’ and that the violence in northern Rakhine 
State was ‘‘extreme, large-scale, widespread and seem-
ingly geared toward both terrorizing the population and 
driving gout the Rohingya residents’’ and that the ‘‘scope 
and scale of the military’s operations indicate that they 
were well-planned and coordinated’’: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) condemns the attacks against civilians by 
Burma’s military and security forces; 
(2) urges the Secretary of State to make a de-
termination based on available evidence as to wheth-
er or not the actions by the Burmese military in 
northern Rakhine State in 2017 constitute crimes 
against humanity, genocide, or other crimes and to 
fully support efforts to collect, preserve, and make 
available evidence related to these crimes; 
(3) considers the actions by the Burmese mili-
tary against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine 
State in 2017 to be genocide as defined in the 
United Nations Convention on the Prevention and 
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (entered into 
force with respect to the United States on November 
25, 1988) and therefore urges the Secretary of State 
put the full force of United States diplomacy behind 
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an effort to refer the atrocities against the Rohingya 
to the appropriate international mechanisms for 
prosecution; 
(4) calls on Burma’s military and government 
to allow refugees to immediately and voluntarily re-
turn to Burma in a manner consistent with inter-
nationally recognized human rights and principles 
for refugee protection and to change laws and poli-
cies that have contributed to insecurity in the 
Rakhine State; 
(5) calls on the President to impose additional 
sanctions on senior members of the Burmese mili-
tary and security forces who are responsible for 
human rights abuses, including Tatmadaw Com-
mander-In-Chief Min Aung Hliang; 
(6) calls on the United States Ambassador to 
the United Nations to work to refer the atrocities 
against the Rohingya to the appropriate inter-
national mechanisms for prosecution; 
(7) reaffirms the central role that independent 
and professional journalism plays in strengthening 
democratic governance, upholding the rule of law, 
mitigating conflict, and informing public opinion 
around the world; 
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(8) condemns the unjust prosecution of Wa 
Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo for doing the work of pro-
fessional journalists; 
(9) calls on State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi 
and President Win Myint to pardon Wa Lone and 
Kyaw Soe Oo as well as all other journalists and po-
litical prisoners; 
(10) calls on the Secretary of State to engage 
immediately and at the highest levels with the Gov-
ernment of Burma to press for the immediate re-
lease from prison of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo; 
and 
(11) calls on the Government of Burma to re-
scind or substantially modify laws that obstruct the 
freedom of the press. 
Æ 
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