[House Hearing, 113 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
URGING THE GOVERNMENT OF BURMA TO END THE PERSECUTION OF THE ROHINGYA
PEOPLE AND RESPECT HUMAN RIGHTS FOR ALL ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS MINORITY
GROUPS WITHIN BURMA; AND EXPRESSING CONCERN OVER REPORTS OF SYSTEMATIC,
STATE-SANCTIONED ORGAN HARVESTING FROM NON-CONSENTING PRISONERS OF
CONSCIENCE IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
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MARKUP
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
ON
H. Res. 418 and H. Res. 281
__________
DECEMBER 11, 2013
__________
Serial No. 113-89
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American
DANA ROHRABACHER, California Samoa
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio BRAD SHERMAN, California
JOE WILSON, South Carolina GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
TED POE, Texas GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
MATT SALMON, Arizona THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania BRIAN HIGGINS, New York
JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina KAREN BASS, California
ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts
MO BROOKS, Alabama DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
TOM COTTON, Arkansas ALAN GRAYSON, Florida
PAUL COOK, California JUAN VARGAS, California
GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois
RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III,
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania Massachusetts
STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas AMI BERA, California
RON DeSANTIS, Florida ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California
TREY RADEL, Florida GRACE MENG, New York
DOUG COLLINS, Georgia LOIS FRANKEL, Florida
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii
TED S. YOHO, Florida JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
LUKE MESSER, Indiana
Amy Porter, Chief of Staff Thomas Sheehy, Staff Director
Jason Steinbaum, Democratic Staff Director
------
Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio, Chairman
DANA ROHRABACHER, California ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American
MATT SALMON, Arizona Samoa
MO BROOKS, Alabama AMI BERA, California
GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania BRAD SHERMAN, California
DOUG COLLINS, Georgia GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
LUKE MESSER, Indiana WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Markup of
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............................................ 2
Amendment in the nature of a substitute to H. Res. 281 offered
by the Honorable Steve Chabot, a Representative in Congress
from the State of Ohio, and chairman, Subcommittee on Asia
and the Pacific.............................................. 13
H. Res. 281, Expressing concern over persistent and credible
reports of systematic, state-sanctioned organ harvesting from
non-consenting prisoners of conscience, in the People's
Republic of China, including from large numbers of Falun Gong
practitioners imprisoned for their religious beliefs, and
members of other religious and ethnic minority groups.......... 6
APPENDIX
Markup notice.................................................... 24
Markup minutes................................................... 25
Markup summary................................................... 26
The Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Representative in Congress
from the State of Florida: Prepared statement.................. 27
URGING THE GOVERNMENT OF BURMA TO END THE PERSECUTION OF THE ROHINGYA
PEOPLE AND RESPECT HUMAN RIGHTS FOR ALL ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS MINORITY
GROUPS WITHIN BURMA; AND EXPRESSING CONCERN OVER REPORTS OF SYSTEMATIC,
STATE-SANCTIONED ORGAN HARVESTING FROM NON-CONSENTING PRISONERS OF
CONSCIENCE IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2013
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 3 o'clock p.m.,
in room 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Steve Chabot
(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. Chabot. The meeting will come to order. Pursuant to
notice we have for markup two bipartisan resolutions. As your
offices were notified on Monday, we intend to consider both of
those measures, as well as one agreed amendment, en bloc. And
so, without objection, the following measures are considered
read and will be considered en bloc: H. Res. 418, Urging the
Government of Burma to end the persecution of the Rohingya
people; and H. Res. 281, Expressing concern over reports of
organ harvesting from nonconsenting prisoners of conscience in
the People's Republic of China, and Chabot No. 34, an amendment
in the nature of a substitute to H. Res. 281, which was
provided to all members and posted online on Monday.
[The information referred to follows:]H. Res.
418 deg.
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H. Res. 281
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Chabot ANS to H. Res. 281
Mr. Chabot. I recognize myself to speak on the items being
considered en bloc. We will try to get this in before votes
which are to come up shortly. If votes happen, I will cut my
statement off a little bit quicker and we can continue to move
forward. I want to thank all members for being here.
Over the past few months, this subcommittee has held two
hearings to examine the ethnic unrest in Burma and the Obama
administration's policy toward that country. As we have
learned, the political and social situation in Burma is
extremely fragile and the civil unrest between Burma's Buddhist
majority and Muslim minority is threatening the progression of
Burma's future and political reforms. Of particular concern is
the Government of Burma's decades long persecution of the
Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine state.
The Burmese Government labels the violence against the
Rohingya Muslim minority as intercommunal, but it is in
actuality much more than that. The United Nations' special
rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma describes
the situation as a profound crisis and believes the Burmese
Government has taken few, if any, steps to forge a peaceful,
harmonious, and prosperous future for the Rahkine state. Since
violence erupted in June 2012, 882 Rohingya have been forcibly
detained, but no state officials have been arrested in
connection with the widespread violence and systematic human
rights violations carried out by security forces. The
government is complicit in extrajudicial killings, rape,
arbitrary detention, torture, deaths in detention, and denial
of due process and fair trial rights for the Rohingya.
According to law, the Rohingya are rendered stateless
because the Burmese Government considers them illegal
immigrants, consequently denying them citizenship despite the
fact they have been living in the Rakhine state for
generations. As a result of this status, the Rohingya face
legal, economic, and social restrictions. This includes
restrictions on travel outside of their village of residence,
limitations on their access to education, the ability to marry,
the ability to have children, and access to livelihood, food,
water, and sanitation, and healthcare. And their situation is
only getting worse.
Since the outbreak of violence against the Rohingya last
year, the Burmese Government has forced people into relief
camps so that it could confiscate their land, homes, and
property for redistribution to the Buddhist Rakhine. The
investigative commission convened by President Thein Sein to
look into the causes of the June 12th violence did little more
than recommend further segregation of the Rohingya, deploying
more security personnel into the Rakhine state, and instituting
a family planning program to reduce the growth rate of the
Muslim population. Further exacerbating the situation, most
Burmans classify the Rohingya as ``Bengali Muslims'' and would
prefer they return to Bangladesh. However, Bangladesh does not
accept the Rohingya population as Bengali and refuses them
citizenship rights as well.
While this violence has increased, so has pressure from the
U.S. and the international community for the Burmese Government
to address this serious problem, which some organizations have
claimed is at an extremely high risk of genocide. Most
recently, the U.N. and U.S. have called for an investigation of
the Rohingya Muslims that are being trafficked by Thai
officials into human trafficking rings and held hostage in
camps near the Malaysian border until relatives pay ransoms to
release them. Some have been beaten, while others have been
killed. Nonetheless, the Burmese Government is purportedly
doing little, but rather supporting Burma's anti-Islam
movement.
H. Res 418 raises awareness of this on-going crisis in
Burma and the need for its government to respect the human
rights of all its ethnic and religious minority groups. It also
highlights the need for the U.S. and international community to
continue pressuring Burma to end its blatant persecution and
discrimination of the Rohingya population. I believe this is an
important resolution and I urge the subcommittee's support in
our consideration of this measure this afternoon.
Next, I would like to express my support for H. Res. 281,
which I have co-sponsored along with 160 other Members of
Congress.
The Government of the People's Republic of China maintains
one of the worst human rights records of any government in the
entire world. Every year, thousands, if not tens of thousands
of innocent Chinese people, are subject to arbitrary detention,
torture, and persecution by security services. The Communist
Party of China strictly controls every facet of political
thought, public life, and personal expression. The Internet is
monitored, mainstream media is co-opted and only state-
sanctioned religion can be practiced openly.
Human rights abuses in China extend to every corner of the
nation and every facet of society. In Tibet, the central
government is in the midst of a wide-ranging crackdown aimed at
breaking the will of the Tibetan people by depriving them of
religion and important cultural traditions. The Uighur
population in China faces constant pressure from the state and
is no stranger to the types of persecution that is routinely
employed by security services. Anyone who dares to speak out is
immediately targeted and punished.
The ill treatment of Falun Gong practitioners by the
Government of China is well known and well documented. The
Communist Party of China sees Falun Gong practitioners as an
ideological threat to the Party's existence. As a result,
persecution of the Falun Gong is officially sanctioned.
Practitioners have been arrested in large numbers, detained
without trial until they renounce Falun Gong beliefs, and are
victims of systematic torture. I could go on. However, despite
the international attention given to this abuse, there appears
to be no reduction in the severity or frequency of the abuse.
H. Res. 281 focuses on the egregious treatment and human
rights violations of Falun Gong practitioners by the Government
of China. The resolution highlights the many credible reports
of forced organ harvesting by state security services against
prisoners of the state, including Falun Gong practitioners. I
urge the subcommittee's support of this important resolution. I
now recognize the ranking member for his comment on today's
measures.
Mr. Bera. Thank you, Chairman Chabot. I want to begin by
first thanking you and Congressman Faleomavaega for your
leadership and moving to markup on H. Res. 418 and H. Res. 281.
The U.S. has a solemn duty both to lead by example and to work
closely with the international community to protect and promote
human rights worldwide. Therefore, I support both H. Res. 418
and H. Res. 281.
In the case of H. Res. 418, the Falun Gong community has
been outlawed by the Chinese Government since 1999. Despite
this action, practitioners continue to gather in secret.
However, in 2010, the Chinese Government launched a 3-year
campaign to transform Falun Gong adherence. As a result, Falun
Gong followers constitute an estimated two thirds of all
prisoners and detainees of conscience in China. We send a
strong message that any deprivation of human rights is clearly
unacceptable.
In the case of H. Res. 281, as Burma transitions from
autocratic rule to a country of democratic rule, we must
continue to encourage democratic reforms to produce sustained
human rights' norms. Unfortunately, tension and conflict
between the Buddhist majority and the minority Rohingya people
and other ethnic and religious minority groups continues to
increase in Burma. Targeted attacks at the hand of Burma's
Buddhist majority, along with increased instances of arbitrary
arrests, detention, and extortion of Rohingya and other Muslim
communities across the country is deplorable. We must stand for
freedom of underprivileged communities around the world. That
is what defines us as the world's greatest democracy.
Thank you again, Chairman Chabot for your leadership and
support and I yield back.
Mr. Chabot. The gentleman's time has expired. Thank you
very much. The gentlelady from Florida, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, the
author of H. Res. 281, is recognized.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. Thank
you so much, Dr. Bera, for leading this markup and allowing me
to speak briefly on this important bipartisan resolution aimed
at ending organ harvesting and religious persecution in China.
Falun Gong, as you know, is a spiritual discipline that was
first introduced in the early 1990s which combines exercise and
meditation with philosophy. Its practitioners are peaceful,
tolerant, and compassionate individuals who should be respected
for their beliefs, not persecuted. And I have a longer opening
statement, Mr. Chairman, that I would love to include in the
record.
Thank you so very much.
Mr. Chabot. Without objection, the gentlelady's statement
will be included as part of the record. I want to thank her for
her leadership.
The gentleman from California, the ranking member of the
TNT Subcommittee, Mr. Sherman, is recognized for 5 minutes or
whatever time he would like.
Mr. Sherman. I commend the chairman and ranking member for
bringing up these resolutions. I commend the gentlelady from
Florida for introducing her resolution. Her opening statement
was commendable and I agree with every word of it and I agree
with almost all of the words of the resolution that has been
submitted by the gentleman from Ohio as a substitute for the
equally generally wonderful original resolution from the
gentlelady from Florida.
That being said, there is one provision here that will be a
focus of attention should we adopt the resolution. It says that
researcher and journalist Ethan Gutmann has estimated that some
65,000 Falun Gong adherents ``may have been killed for their
organs from 2000 through 20008.'' I look forward to working
with the gentlelady from Florida. I will not offer any
amendment to the resolution here in the subcommittee. I think
that we need to reach out to Amnesty International and other
mainline, respected human rights groups to see if we can really
support this rather specific. It is true that this one
researcher has put it forward and that we are merely quoting
his work, not stating that that is a number that we as a
committee or as a Congress fully endorse. Still, a vision of
65,000 people being executed solely for their organs is a
rather vivid image and we may want to be less specific, less
numerical, or more certain that the number is defendable by
consulting with other experts in the field. And I look forward
to working on this with the gentlelady and others as we move
forward to the full committee. I yield back. Thank you.
Mr. Chabot. I thank the gentleman for his comments. The
gentleman's time has expired.
Do any other members seek recognition? The gentleman from
California, Mr. Rohrabacher is recognized.
Mr. Rohrabacher. I rise in support of the resolution. I
would hope that my name could be added to the list of endorsers
of the resolution. I, however, respectfully would disagree with
my colleague who I almost always agree with, that in fact I
think the bill should have been a little bit more specific.
There are specific areas that were taken out of the bill and
specific charges against the Chinese Government that we could
have highlighted. But I think our job is not necessarily to
highlight details in legislation, but instead to express our
principle and our philosophy behind what we are doing.
I think this legislation reflects the outrage in values of
the American people and basically are the value that we place
on human life and the outrage that we have that in China if not
65,000 specific people have been murdered for their organs,
that there are large numbers of people, a lot of them, most of
them, if not a lot of them, are associated with a religious
group that does nothing more than encourages meditation and
yoga and inner spirituality and these people have been
brutalized and murdered and in many cases for the sake of
making a profit off taking the organs from the dead body that
the jailers have just executed. It doesn't get more ghoulish
than this. And we should not be hesitant about letting the
world know about this monstrous crime, whether it was just
65,000 people or whether it was 35,000 people.
The fact that we do know that it is in the thousands of
people who are being massacred in this way in order to sell
organs to whom, to the American people and to others. We need
to alert our fellow citizens that religious people are being
murdered for their organs and Americans are dutily, is that the
word I am looking for, dutifully are participating in economic
exchanges buying organs for their families or for themselves,
not realizing that those organs represent a crime against
another human being. And this resolution is designed, as I say,
I would have liked more specifics, but at least it alerts the
American people that there is the Falun Gong and other
religious believers are being murdered for their organs and we
should not only condemn it, but should go out of our way to
make sure that the United States is not in some way and
American citizens are not some way encouraging this behavior by
participating in the sale or purchase of organs from China for
that reason. So I support the resolution and would have
preferred a little bit more specifics. I will compromise with
Brad and say I will support, we will both support the
legislation. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chabot. Thank you very much. The gentleman's time has
expired. Do any other members seek recognition? Hearing no
further requests for recognition, the Chair moves that the
subcommittee adopt the measures being considered en bloc. All
those in favor, say aye.
Those opposed, say no.
In the opinion of the Chair, the ayes have it. The motion
is approved and the en bloc measures are adopted. And so
without objection, the following items are reported favorably
to the full committee: H. Res. 418 and H. Res. 281, as amended
by Chabot 34.
I want to thank our members and staff for all their
assistance and cooperation on today's markup. If there is no
further business to come before the subcommittee, we are
adjourned. Thank you very much.
[Whereupon, at 3:16 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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Material Submitted for the RecordNotice deg.
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