[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 162 (Wednesday, October 24, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2232-E2233]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E2232]]
                                 BURMA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOSEPH R. PITTS

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 24, 2007

  Mr. PITTS. Madam Speaker, due to the current crisis in Burma, it is 
vital that even while media coverage of the situation in Burma has 
decreased we still maintain a constant watch over Burma. The regime's 
human rights violations are horrific. I have stacks of reports in my 
office detailing the dictatorship's use of rape as a weapon of terror, 
the use of ethnic minorities as human landmine sweepers, and many other 
abuses.
  On September 18, 1988, the military forced its rule on the people of 
Burma, a rule that has been dominated by severe violence and 
oppression. Ever since, the people of Burma have struggled to survive 
under this brutal regime.
  While the Buddhist monks and democracy leaders have received much 
deserved attention recently, the struggle of the ethnic minorities 
remains difficult and also must receive the spotlight of international 
attention'. Article 2 of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and 
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, defines genocide as ``any of the 
following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a 
national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing 
members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to 
members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group 
conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction 
in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births 
within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to 
another group.'' Reports make clear that the ironically-named State 
Peace and Development Council (SPDC) of Burma, the ruling military 
junta, has engaged in a deliberate policy to eliminate the ethnic 
minorities. The regime engages in a scorched earth policy, destroying 
entire villages along with food storage and production sources; use 
systematic rape as a weapon of terror; uses ethnic minorities, 
including women and children, as human landmine sweepers; engages in 
forced labor, also known as slavery; has the highest number of child 
soldiers in the world; and refuses to allow the duly elected leader of 
the country to take office.
  While there is extensive photograph evidence of more recent 
massacres, I want to draw attention to a massacre that took place in 
Burma's Dooplaya district on April 28th, 2002. The regime targeted 
children. These photos, which show the bodies of the victims stacked 
neatly, are incontrovertible evidence of the regime's crimes against 
humanity and the increasingly horrific human rights situation in the 
country. The regime's soldiers shot and killed the Karen villagers in 
their quest to completely subjugate the entire country. The dozen who 
were killed include Naw Pi Lay, who was just a baby, Naw Daw Bah, a 2-
year-old girl, and Naw Play and Naw Ble Po, two five year old girls. 
Nine others were shot and lucky enough to escape, including a six-year-
old boy who played dead until the regime's troops left. What possible 
threat could these babies and young girls have presented to Burma's 
military regime?

  The various ethnic minorities of Burma, which comprise approximately 
60 percent of the population, are not of the Burman ethnic group. The 
desire of the junta, composed of members of the Burman ethnicity, is to 
ensure that it remains the ``master race,'' or maha bama. In 1988, the 
regime issued a blood assimilation order which stated, ``With a view to 
attain success in accordance with our basic aspiration, which holds 
that our one race, the Burmans alone must inherit prosperity with an 
achievement of a long standing dominion. The easiest way to realize our 
above aim, we, the superior sons of the mainland of Burma are to employ 
the strategy of `Blood Assimilation' against the female members of 
other non-Burman ethnic races. Our objective is to take marital 
possession of their women.'' Soldiers are instructed to dilute the 
bloodlines of the ethnic minorities in order to ``purify'' them and 
make them more Burman. While some might dispute the use of genocide in 
relation to this situation, it is clearly, at the very least, ethnic 
cleansing.
  Astonishingly, other nations are enabling the dictators to continue 
their attacks against the ethnic minorities, democracy activists, 
protestors and Buddhist monks. Reports suggest that since 1989, the 
Chinese government has provided the dictators in Burma with over $2 
billion worth of weapons and military equipment. This Chinese weaponry 
has allowed the regime to quadruple the size of its forces to 450,000.
  Russia also is supporting the dictatorship by helping build a nuclear 
reactor in Rangoon. The regime says the reactor is for peaceful 
purposes for medical research. However, Burma is ranked second from the 
bottom by the World Health Organization in terms of national health 
care, thus begging the question why they need nuclear medical research 
when there are barely even provisions for basic medical needs.
  European Union non-governmental organizations recently released a 
report entitled Indian Helicopters for Burma: making a mockery of 
embargoes? The report provided details on India's negotiations with 
Burma's military junta since late 2006 and focused on the transfer of 
Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) to Burma's military. India, the 
world's largest democracy, has increasingly spurned democracy 
supporters in Burma in favor of increased cooperation with Burma's 
military regime, even providing Burma's ruling generals with tanks, 
aircraft, artillery guns, radar, small arms, and the ALH. Absent any 
external enemy, Burma's military rulers have employed these arms and 
military equipment against its ethnic minority civilian population, 
resulting in the destruction of more than 3,000 villages, the use of 
forced labor, and the rape and murder of thousands of ethnic minority 
civilians.
  Even more appalling than the increased military cooperation and sales 
between the Government of India and Burma's military regime is evidence 
that the transfer of military hardware risks violating both European 
Union and U.S. arms restrictions in place against Burma's military 
regime. Parts and technologies vital to the manufacture of the ALH were 
provided by several European companies and two American companies, 
Aitech Systems, Ltd. and Lord Corporation. It is essential that our 
government immediately investigate whether or not the inclusion of 
American parts and technologies in the production of India's ALHs and 
the potential impending transfer of the ALHs from the Government of 
India to Burma's brutal military generals violate U.S. export control 
regulations and the U.S. arms embargo on Burma.
  Sadly, until recently, the international community generally has 
turned a deaf ear to the cries of the ethnic minorities, the refugees, 
the IDPs, and the democracy activists. While a number of states and 
international organizations currently have made helpful statements 
condemning the dictatorship for its actions, they long ago should have 
been helping the people of Burma. Action is what will bring change to 
the situation in Burma.

  The SPDC regime deceives the international community again and again 
by saying one thing and then doing another. The international 
community, on behalf of the people of Burma, should make it clear that 
the oppressive dictators of Burma will no longer be tolerated--we do 
not want to remember another anniversary of the human rights violations 
against Burma's people. Instead, next year, we should be celebrating 
the return of democracy and freedom to the people of Burma.
  I strongly commend the EU for increasing sanctions against the brutal 
regime and I applaud the government of Japan for cutting its aid to the 
dictatorship.
  I also commend recent steps against the dictatorship by our 
Administration. However, I urge our Administration and my colleagues in 
Congress to act to support democracy in Burma and provide increased aid 
to the suffering ethnic minorities. We should exponentially increase 
the U.S. aid program to Burma by increasing aid to IDP, refugee, and 
democracy organizations, as well as by providing funding to help 
rehabilitate child soldiers, establish health programs addressing 
malaria, TB, and HIV/AIDS, support education programs, increase human 
rights documentation capabilities, and assist with protection 
capabilities. The U.S. government spent approximately 100 million 
trying to help the people of Serbia against Milosevic--the people of 
Burma are as important as the populations of Southeast Europe and we 
need to put our money where our mouth is.
  Further, the U.S. government must take immediate steps to implement 
the recommendations outlined in the report on Indian helicopters and 
other weapons by commencing negotiations with the Government of India 
to cease the transfer of Advanced Light Helicopters to Burma's military 
regime; discontinuing all future defense production cooperation with 
India that might lead to transfers of embargoed controlled equipment to 
Burma; attaching to all future licenses for transfers of controlled 
goods and technology to India a strict and enforceable condition, with 
penalty clauses prohibiting re-export to states under an embargo to 
which the original exporting state is party without express 
governmental permission; and drawing attention to the high likelihood 
of that military equipment being used by Burma's military to commit 
ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in violation of 
international law including international human rights and humanitarian 
law.
  The U.S. government and the international community together must 
press China and Russia to immediately cease their cooperation with and 
support for the brutal dictators in Burma. In addition, I urge the 
international community to press Burma's regime to cease the violence 
and murder perpetrated against the people, to immediately and 
unconditionally

[[Page E2233]]

release all political prisoners, and to allow the legitimately elected 
leaders of the country to govern. Further, the government of Singapore 
should freeze the bank accounts of the dictators.
  Madam Speaker, it is time for the world to act to stop the honors 
taking place in Burma. While the military regime woos diplomats and 
guests in downtown Rangoon, Burma's people outside the realm of 
international scrutiny endure intensifying and acute repression. I 
demand that Burma's military regime immediately stop its campaign of 
terror against the Burmese people, and urge my colleagues to raise 
their voices for freedom.
  I reiterate, public statements in support of the people of Burma are 
helpful, but only issuing statements is like putting a tiny band aid 
over a gaping, infected wound--it will not help where massive surgery 
is needed. The only thing that will solve the problem of the brutal 
dictatorship in Burma is to get rid of the SPDC.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House, the Senate 
and the Administration, and the international community to see that 
Burma's military regime soon joins the Soviet Union, Ceausescu's 
Romania, Milosevic's Yugoslavia and other regimes and dictatorships 
that now reside in the ashbin of world history.
  Finally, I say to the people of Burma: You are not forgotten. We 
stand with you and will continue to work with you for as long as it 
takes to ensure that the people of your nation are able to live in 
peace and freedom.

                          ____________________