[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 84 Introduced in House (IH)]






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;
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 ethnic minorities is one 
        of the longest running civil wars in history;
Whereas this conflict has resulted in 600,000 internally displaced 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 indiscriminate 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 decimated 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 international 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 Burma'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;
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 hospitable 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 advocating the forced 
        repatriation to Burma of human rights and democracy activists and the 
        closure of nongovernmental organizations in order to appease Burma's 
        military dictatorship;
Whereas since November 30, 2002, a number of nongovernmental organizations, 
        including the Federation of Trade Unions--Burma, the Thai-Burma Cultural 
        Cooperation Committee Office for Phayar Thone Su, the People's Defense 
        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 
        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 Government, 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 refugees 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 establish a permanent presence to 
        assist the refugees;
            (3) calls upon the international community to place human 
        rights monitors and peacekeepers inside Burma immediately in 
        order to end the ethnic cleansing campaign of the State Peace 
        and Development Council (SPDC);
            (4) calls upon the international community to press the 
        SPDC to desist immediately from its systematic 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 election, 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 legislative 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;
            (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 eliminating 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 Global Day of Prayer for Burma.
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