[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 68 (Wednesday, May 7, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H3929-H3932]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
URGING BURMA TO END PERSECUTION OF ROHINGYA PEOPLE
Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the
resolution (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, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The text of the resolution is as follows:
H. Res. 418
Whereas over 800,000 Rohingya ethnic minority live in
Burma, mostly in the western Rakhine state;
Whereas currently, approximately 140,000 Rohingya are
internally displaced in central Rakhine state and hundreds of
thousands have fled to neighboring countries, including at
least 231,000 in Bangladesh, at least 15,000 in Malaysia, and
many more in Thailand and Indonesia;
Whereas the current Government of Burma, like its
predecessors, continues to use the Burma Citizenship Law of
1982 to exclude from approved ethnic groups the Rohingya
people, despite many having lived in northern Rakhine state
for generations, and has thereby rendered Rohingyas stateless
and vulnerable to exploitation and abuse;
Whereas the Rohingya have historically experienced other
particularized and severe legal, economic, and social
discrimination, including restrictions on travel outside
their village of residence, limitations on their access to
higher education, and a prohibition from working as civil
servants, including as doctors, nurses, or teachers;
Whereas authorities have also required Rohingya to obtain
official permission for marriages and have singled out
Rohingya in northern Rakhine state for forced labor and
arbitrary arrests;
Whereas the Government of Burma has forcefully relocated
Rohingya into relief camps, where they lack decent shelter,
access to clean water, food, sanitation, health care, the
ability to support themselves, or basic education for their
children;
Whereas a two-child policy sanctioned solely upon the
Rohingya population in the districts of Maungdaw and
Buthidaung in northern Rakhine state restricts the rights of
women and children, prevents children from obtaining Burmese
citizenship, denies Rohingyas access to basic government
services, and fosters discrimination against Muslim women by
Buddhist nurses and midwives;
Whereas the United States Department of State has regularly
expressed since 1999 its particular concern for severe legal,
economic, and social discrimination against Burma's Rohingya
population in its Country Report for Human Rights Practices;
Whereas the level of persecution, including widespread
arbitrary arrest, detention, and extortion of Rohingya and
other Muslim communities, has dramatically increased over the
past year and a half;
Whereas communal violence has affected both Muslims and
Burma's majority Buddhist population, but has overwhelmingly
targeted Burma's ethnic Muslim minorities, which altogether
comprise less than 5 percent of Burma's population;
Whereas violence targeting Rohingyas in Maungdaw and Sittwe
in June and July of 2012 resulted in the deaths of at least
57 Muslims and the destruction of 1,336 Rohingyas homes;
Whereas on October 23, 2012, at least 70 Rohingyas were
killed, and the Yan Thei village of the Mrauk-U Township was
destroyed;
Whereas the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights reported possessing credible evidence of the deaths of
at least 48 Rohingyas in Du Chee Yar Tan village in Maungdaw
Township, Rakhine state in January 2014, and human rights
groups reported mass arrests and arbitrary detention of
Rohingya in the aftermath of this violence;
Whereas Burmese officials have denied the killings of
Rohingyas in Du Chee Yar Tan village in January 2014 and
responded to international media coverage of the violence
with threats against media outlets, including the Associated
Press;
Whereas violence has also targeted Muslims not of Rohingya
ethnicity, including riots in March 2013 in the town of
Meiktila that resulted in the death of at least 43 Burmese
Muslims, including 20 students and several teachers massacred
at an Islamic school, the burning of at least 800 homes and 5
mosques, and the displacement of 12,000 people;
Whereas on October 1, 2013, riots involving more than 700
Buddhists in Thandwe township resulted in the death of 4
Kaman Muslim men and the stabbing death of a 94-year-old
Muslim woman;
Whereas over 4,000 religious, public, and private Rohingya
structures have been destroyed;
Whereas Rohingyas have experienced and continue to
experience further restrictions on their practice of Islam,
culture, and language;
Whereas the violence against ethnic Muslim populations,
including the Rohingya and other Muslim groups, is part of a
larger troubling pattern of violence against other ethnic and
religious minorities in Burma;
Whereas the Government of Burma expelled Medecins Sans
Frontieres from Rakhine state, leaving Rohingya communities
and others without access to health care and life-saving
treatment for malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV; and
Whereas the Rakhine state threatens to ban all unregistered
nongovernmental organizations from operating in Rakhine
state, severely limiting the provision of necessary services
to Rohingyas and others in need: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) recognizes the initial steps Burma has taken in
transitioning from a military dictatorship to a quasi-
civilian government, including the conditional release of
some political prisoners, and calls for more progress to be
made in critical areas of democracy, constitutional reform,
and national reconciliation in order for Burma to achieve its
own goal of political liberalization;
(2) calls on the Government of Burma to end all forms of
persecution and discrimination of the Rohingya people and
ensure respect for internationally recognized human rights
for all ethnic and religious minority groups within Burma;
(3) calls on the Government of Burma to recognize the
Rohingya as an ethnic group indigenous to Burma, and to work
with the Rohingya to resolve their citizenship status;
(4) calls on the United States Government and the
international community to put consistent pressure on the
Government of Burma to take all necessary measures to end the
persecution and discrimination of the Rohingya population and
to protect the fundamental rights of all ethnic and religious
minority groups in Burma; and
(5) calls on the United States Government to prioritize the
removal of state-sanctioned discriminatory policies in its
engagement with the Government of Burma.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
California (Mr. Royce) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.
General Leave
Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to
include any extraneous materials in the Record.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of House Resolution 418. This is a
bipartisan resolution offered by the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr.
McGovern) calling on the government of Burma to end its persecution of
the Rohingya Muslims and respect the human rights of all ethnic and
religious minority groups within Burma.
[[Page H3930]]
The Rohingya Muslims are one of the most persecuted minority groups
in the world. According to Burma's 1982 citizenship law, the Rohingya
are prohibited from holding Burmese citizenship, even though they have
lived in Burma for generations after generations. For over three
decades, the government of Burma has systematically denied the Rohingya
even the most basic of human rights, while subjecting them to
unspeakable abuses.
Since 2012, 140,000 Rohingya and other Muslims in Burma have been
displaced by violence, with hundreds killed. On January 13, unknown
assailants entered a village in Rakhine State and killed 48 people
while they slept.
{time} 1945
This is what happens when a government refuses to recognize its own
people.
In fact, a nongovernmental organization based in Southeast Asia
recently disclosed credible documents detailing the full extent of
state involvement in persecuting Rohingyas.
Not long ago, the Government of Burma expelled Doctors Without
Borders from the country, denying, once again, the most basic of human
rights. The Government of Burma cannot claim progress toward meeting
its goals for reform if it does not improve the treatment of Rohingya
Muslims and other minority groups.
The United States must prioritize the protection of human rights in
its engagement with Burma. I urge the State Department to take off its
rose-colored glasses and recognize that progress on human rights in
Burma is, indeed, limited. Now is the time for the State Department to
bring additional leverage to bear, and this resolution will help us do
that.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise in strong support of H. Res. 418, a resolution urging the
Government of Burma to end its persecution of the Rohingya people.
I would like to thank my good friend and cochairman of the Tom Lantos
Human Rights Commission, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr.
McGovern), for authoring this important resolution.
H. Res. 418 calls on the Government of Burma to end its persecution
of the Rohingya people and to respect the human rights of all ethnic
and religious minority groups. The plight of the Rohingya gets very
little public attention, and I am pleased that this House is addressing
the abuses they and other minorities have suffered.
The State Department's 2013 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
acknowledges ``credible reports of extrajudicial killings, rape and
sexual violence, arbitrary detentions and torture and mistreatment in
detention, deaths in custody, and systematic denial of due process and
fair trial rights overwhelmingly perpetrated against the Rohingya.''
Last month, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burma
stated that the recent developments in Burma reflect a ``long history
of discrimination and persecution against the Rohingya Muslim
community, which could amount to crimes against humanity.''
The U.N. has also described the Rohingya community as virtually
friendless because they are denied citizenship and face severe
restrictions on marriage, employment, health care, education, and daily
movement.
In February, the Burmese Government expelled Doctors Without Borders;
and since then, deaths due to preventable complications during
pregnancy have occurred on an almost daily basis in Rohingya camps,
where pregnant women make up a quarter of the group's emergency
referrals.
Mr. Speaker, as the Government of Burma transitions from decades-long
military rule to a civilian government, it is important to hold it
accountable for persistent human rights abuses.
The killings, arbitrary detentions, and the destruction of homes have
caused 140,000 people to be internally displaced; and hundreds of
thousands have been forced to flee to neighboring countries, including
to Thailand, Bangladesh, and Malaysia.
If Burma truly seeks to rejoin the international community, the
manner in which it treats its own people will be a key marker of the
government's sincerity. Burma must abide by human rights principles of
equality and human dignity, and this resolution calls upon the Burmese
Government to do just that.
I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H. Res. 418, and I
reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio
(Mr. Chabot). He is the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on
Asia and the Pacific.
Mr. CHABOT. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today as a strong supporter and cosponsor of H.
Res. 418, urging the Government of Burma to end the persecution of the
Rohingya people and to respect internationally recognized human rights
for all ethnic and religious minority groups within Burma.
I want to commend the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), my
friend and colleague, for offering this legislation, which is certainly
timely, and we appreciate his leadership on this.
As chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, I believe it
is imperative that the U.S. and the international community raise
awareness of this ongoing crisis in Burma and of the need for its
government to respect the human rights of all of its ethnic and
religious minority groups, which it is clearly not doing at this time.
Last year, we held two hearings in my subcommittee to examine the
deteriorating human rights situation and ethnic unrest in Burma. It has
become abundantly clear that the political and social situation there
is extremely fragile and that the continuing persecution of the
minority Rohingya population is just, as was said, a profound crisis.
Some 140,000 displaced Rohingya have been forced to live in camps
described as open-air prisons. Doctors Without Borders was forced out
by the Burmese Government, and since then, nearly 150 Rohingya have
died of medically-related causes.
This particular photo illustrates that the Doctors Without Borders'
clinic is shuttered. They are gone. The people are not getting the
medical care that they are entitled to, and people are literally dying
as a result of this.
Further, mob violence has made a number of other international NGOs
evacuate Burma for fear and for being, essentially, excluded by the
government. They were doing good work for people who really needed it,
who were in dire straits.
The Burmese Government has taken few, if any, steps to forge a
peaceful, harmonious, and prosperous future for the Rakhine State. It
is complicit in extrajudicial killings, rape, arbitrary detention,
torture, deaths in detention, and for the denial of due process and
fair trial rights for the Rohingya.
As these horribly repressed people who are afforded no identity by
the Burmese Government have been forced into camps, the Burmese
Government has confiscated their land, their homes, and property for
redistribution to the Buddhist Rakhine majority.
A recent report by the group United to End Genocide found that
nowhere else in the world are there more precursors to genocide--signs
that genocide may well happen--than in Burma right now.
This is why I recently introduced H.R. 4377, the Burma Human Rights
and Democracy Act of 2014, with my colleague from New York (Mr.
Crowley), a Democrat. This legislation would place conditions on
providing International Military and Educational Training or for
Foreign Military Financing assistance to the Burmese Government.
In light of the Burmese Government's and military's complicity in
these ongoing human rights abuses against the Rohingya and other ethnic
groups, it is much too soon for us to be engaging at a level that
provides U.S. foreign assistance to Burma's corrupt and abusive
military.
It concerns me that the administration still refuses to cooperate or
to detail what its strategy really is for the future of military
engagement with Burma.
Mr. Speaker, H. Res. 418 highlights its need for the U.S. and
international community to continue pressuring Burma to end its blatant
persecution and discrimination of the Rohingya population.
[[Page H3931]]
I want to, again, thank Mr. McGovern, Mr. Franks, Mr. Pitts, and Mr.
Smith for cosponsoring this resolution. I believe the passage of the
resolution will send a strong message to the Burmese Government, and I
would urge my colleagues to support this measure.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I now yield such time as he may consume to
the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), the author of the
resolution.
Mr. McGOVERN. I want to thank my colleague, Mr. Engel, for yielding
me the time and for his leadership on this and on so many other issues
of human rights. I also want to thank Chairman Royce for his support
and Chairman Chabot. I appreciate all that you do for human rights.
I admire all of these gentlemen who are here on the floor. They have
been outspoken for human rights, not only in Burma, but all around the
world.
Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to rise in support of this resolution
urging the Government of Burma to end the persecution of the Rohingya
people and to respect internationally recognized human rights for all
ethnic and religious minority groups within Burma.
I especially want to thank my good friend and colleague, the
gentleman from Pennsylvania, Congressman Joe Pitts, for his leadership
on this issue and for joining me in introducing this bipartisan
resolution.
Over 800,000 people of the Rohingya ethnicity live in Burma, mostly
in the Rakhine State. Even though many Rohingyas have lived in the
Rakhine for generations, the Burma citizenship law of 1982 has excluded
them from approved ethnic groups, thereby rendering them stateless and
vulnerable to exploitation, violence, and abuse.
While the Rohingya and other minorities in Burma have historically
experienced severe discrimination, there has been a dramatic increase
in discrimination and violence against them in the past 2 years.
Attacks in June and July of 2012 resulted in the deaths of at least
57 Muslims and in the destruction of 1,336 Rohingya homes. On October
23, 2012, at least 70 Rohingyas were killed, and their township was
destroyed.
Further, the United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights
reported possessing credible evidence of the deaths of at least 48
Rohingyas in January of this year, and human rights groups reported
mass arrests and arbitrary detentions of Rohingya in the aftermath of
this violence.
In addition, other Muslim minorities have also suffered from violent
attacks, and many have lost their lives and property in the last year
and a half. Such violence against ethnic Muslim populations, including
the Rohingya, is part of a larger, troubling pattern of violence
against ethnic and religious minorities in Burma.
The Government of Burma remains apathetic to the plight of the
Rohingya population, and it has failed to properly investigate the
major events of anti-Rohingya violence. Instead, both the Rakhine State
and central government continue to impose explicitly racist policies
that seek to control the everyday lives of the Rohingya.
Authorities require Rohingya to obtain official permission for
marriages and have often singled out Rohingya for forced labor and
arbitrary arrests. The Government of Burma has forcefully relocated
Rohingya into relief camps, where they lack decent shelter, access to
clean water, food, sanitation, health care, and the ability to support
themselves, or basic education for their children.
The Rohingya are the sole targets of the two-child policy and are the
subjects to severe restrictions of movement. Further, as evidenced by
the latest census in Burma, the Burmese Government continues to deny
the Rohingyas their right for self-identification, sending a clear
message that the Rohingya are outsiders who have no place in Burma.
Today, approximately 140,000 Rohingya are internally displaced, and
hundreds of thousands have fled to neighboring countries by boats; many
have died at sea. Those who remain in the country live in dire poverty
and deprivation.
Some relief used to come from humanitarian organizations like Doctors
Without Borders, but even that aid is no longer available. The
Government of Burma expelled Doctors Without Borders in March,
allegedly after the group cared for the victims of a violent assault on
a Rohingya village, an assault which the government denies ever
happened.
Increasingly, severe restrictions and violent attacks on other
humanitarian aid groups have forced the majority of them to flee the
Rakhine State, and the Rohingya now remain with no one and with nowhere
to turn for help and health care. Every day, more and more people die
of causes that could be preventable or treatable if humanitarian groups
had the chance to help.
According to a March 14 article in The New York Times, which I will
submit for the Record, nearly 750,000 people, the majority of them
Rohingya, have been deprived of medical services since the Burmese
Government banned the operations of Doctors Without Borders.
According to the article, during the first 2 weeks of March alone,
about 150 of those most vulnerable and in need of care died, including
20 pregnant women who were facing life-threatening deliveries.
[From the New York Times, Mar. 14, 2014]
Ban on Doctors' Group Imperils Muslim Minority in Myanmar
(By Jane Perlez)
Bangkok.--Nearly 750,000 people, most of them members of a
Muslim minority in one of the poorest parts of Myanmar, have
been deprived of most medical services since the government
banned the operations of Doctors Without Borders, the
international health care organization and the main provider
of medical care in the region.
The government ordered a halt to the work of Doctors
Without Borders two weeks ago after some officials accused
the group of favoring the Muslims, members of the Rohingya
ethnic group, over a rival group, Rakhine Buddhists.
Already, anecdotal evidence and medical estimates show that
about 150 of the most vulnerable have died since Feb. 28,
more than 20 of them pregnant women facing life-threatening
deliveries, medical professionals said. Doctors Without
Borders had been the only way for pregnant women facing
difficult deliveries to get a referral to a government
hospital, they said.
At the time of the order, the government said it was
suspending the group's operations in Rakhine State in the far
north, but it has offered no time frame for when services
might be resumed. The deputy director general of the Ministry
of Health, Dr. Soe Lwin Nyein, said in a statement that his
department would manage the health needs of the ``whole
community.'' A spokesman for President Thein Sein, Ye Htut,
said the government dispatched an emergency response team
with eight ambulances after the Doctors Without Borders
clinics were closed.
Myanmar's health services are among the most rudimentary in
Asia, and with severe government restrictions on movement
that prevent Muslims from seeking medical help outside their
villages in Rakhine State, the impact of the shutdown will be
severe, medical professionals said.
Doctors Without Borders was by far the biggest health
provider in the northern part of Rakhine around the townships
of Maungdaw and Buthidaung, serving about 500,000 people,
most of them Rohingya, they said. An additional 200,000
people, many of them Rohingya in displaced camps around the
state capital, Sittwe, had access to the group's services.
In Aung Mingla, a Muslim neighborhood in Sittwe, patients
with tuberculosis, a common disease in the area, said they
were down to their last supplies of medicine. The Rohingya
who live in Aung Mingla are prevented from leaving the
district by barbed-wire security posts and police officers.
``Since Doctors Without Borders is not in Rakhine, I don't
know who will provide medicine when my supply runs out in
three months,'' said one patient, Muklan, 30, who like many
people in Myanmar goes by a single name. ``I hope Doctors can
come back as soon as possible.''
Another Rohingya man, Shafiul, who worked for Doctors
Without Borders in Aung Mingla, said he was concerned for his
patients with tuberculosis, malaria and H.I.V. ``These
patients have been getting help from Doctors Without Borders
for years,'' he said.
In northern Rakhine State, where Doctors Without Borders
had run five permanent clinics and 30 mobile ones, about 20
percent of children are acutely malnourished, medical
professionals said. An intensive feeding center for those
patients was shuttered as part of the government's directive.
For the most part, Western donors and the United Nations
say they are reluctant to antagonize the government of
Myanmar, which has started along the path of economic and
political reform. The donors have chosen quiet diplomacy over
outspoken criticism of the government's policies toward the
Rohingya.
But the action against Doctors Without Borders raised some
public alarm.
``We are extremely concerned about the situation,'' said
Mark Cutts, the head of the United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Myanmar. ``We are in
intense discussion with the government in
[[Page H3932]]
a way that will allow operations to resume as soon as
possible.''
The deputy health director, Dr. Soe Lwin Nyein, said the
government would accept supplies of medicine for tuberculosis
and H.I.V. from Doctors Without Borders. But how these
supplies will be distributed remains unclear. Negotiations
are underway with the government over the distribution,
Western officials said.
Other international organizations, including the
International Committee of the Red Cross, which supports
government health centers around the towns of Sittwe and
Mrauk U, have been allowed to continue operations in Rakhine.
But Doctors Without Borders was by far the largest health
provider.
The government targeted the group after its rural clinics
provided treatment to 22 Muslims in the aftermath of a
rampage by Rakhine security officers and civilians in the
village of Du Chee Yar Tan in January. The United Nations
says 40 people were killed in the violence that night.
The government has denied that the deaths occurred, and on
Tuesday, a presidential commission sent to the village to
conduct an inquiry reported that it could find no evidence of
the killings. The commission was the third investigative
group sent by the government, and its findings matched those
of the previous inquiries.
After the killings in January, the government criticized
Doctors Without Borders for hiring Rohingya and said the
group was giving disproportionate attention to Rohingya
patients. Under state regulations in Rakhine, Rohingya are
prevented from visiting many of the state-run clinics.
Doctors Without Borders says it has treated patients in
Rakhine since 1994 regardless of ethnicity, and foreign aid
workers point out that the Rakhine Buddhist ethnic group has
access to government health facilities that are generally
denied to the Rohingya.
A radical Buddhist leader in Myanmar, Ashin Wirathu, who
has compared Muslims to dogs, arrived in Sittwe on Wednesday
for a five-day visit that was likely to stir anti-Muslim
sentiments further. In a sermon at the main Buddhist temple
Wednesday night, he said that if Western democracies were
allowed to have influence in Myanmar, the Rakhine people
would be overwhelmed by increasing numbers of Muslims, and
would eventually disappear.
The monk's visit appeared to be timed ahead of a national
census--the first in Myanmar in more than 30 years--that is
due to take place March 30 to April 10 across Myanmar.
Tensions during the census, funded in part by the United
Nations and the British government, are expected to be high
in Rakhine.
Rakhine politicians have said they oppose allowing the
Rohingya to identify themselves as Rohingya when they fill
out the census forms. If they did, the census would probably
show that their numbers are greater than the current estimate
of 1.3 million. The overall population is estimated at 60
million.
By shutting down Doctors Without Borders, the government is
ensuring that there will be fewer foreigners to witness any
outbreaks of violence during the census process, aid workers
said.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, when Doctors Without Borders was able to
work in Rakhine, they sent approximately 400 emergency cases every
month to local hospitals, but according to the World Health
Organization, fewer than 20 people received referrals by the government
for emergency care in March. Such a difference suggests that the
Rohingya who are in desperate need of emergency care are left to suffer
or to die.
In light of these disturbing events, it is important that the House
speaks with one voice today and calls on the Government of Burma to end
all forms of persecution and discrimination of the Rohingya people and
to ensure respect for internationally recognized human rights for all
ethnic and religious minority groups within Burma.
The Burmese Government needs to recognize the Rohingya as an ethnic
group indigenous to Burma and work with the Rohingya to resolve their
citizenship status.
Finally, the U.S. Government needs to make the removal of state-
sanctioned discriminatory policies a priority in their engagement with
the Government of Burma.
{time} 2000
Let me be clear: the situation is dire and rapidly deteriorating.
Multiple recognized independent human rights NGOs, as well as the U.N.
Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma, have stated that the
series of actions directed at the Rohingyas in Burma could amount to
crimes against humanity.
Further, a recent report by the U.S. NGO, United to End Genocide,
states that nowhere in the world are there more precursors to genocide
than in Burma right now.
In the past few weeks, we have all taken time to remember and
commemorate the victims of the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, and
the genocide in Rwanda. We saw the same disturbing signs in other
moments of history, and we know what the consequences are of not paying
attention. Showing support for this bill is one step that we can take
today to fulfilling the solemn pledge of ``never again.''
I urge my colleagues to vote in support of this bill.
Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
In closing, I would like to thank Congressman McGovern, the gentleman
from Massachusetts, for drafting this important legislation. Once
again, I thank Chairman Royce for his continued bipartisan leadership.
As has been said, this resolution calls upon the Burmese government
to end the persecution of the Rohingya people and to respect the human
rights of all ethnic and religious minority groups.
Until now, the treatment of the Rohingya has been largely ignored by
the international community. That is the purpose of this resolution--so
they cannot be ignored any longer.
It is time for the United States to send a clear and strong message
to the government of Burma that we will not tolerate the persecution of
religious and ethnic minorities, and that it must abide by human rights
principles of equality and dignity if it is to rejoin the international
community.
So I urge my colleagues to support this resolution, and I yield back
the balance of my time.
Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Again, I want to thank the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr.
McGovern), for his support of the Rohingya people, but also for his
dedication to human rights. I have had an opportunity to work with Mr.
McGovern on a number of different human rights bills. I think he
eloquently explained tonight the challenge that we face here. I was
proud to join him as a cosponsor of this measure and work with him.
I also, of course, want to thank the gentleman from New York, Eliot
Engel, for his continued focus on human rights around the world.
On this issue, it is true that the Burmese government has recently
taken steps to open its closed society, but the reality is that the
recent events here are deeply, deeply troubling to anyone who is
watching. As I indicated, 48 Rohingya were murdered, aid workers trying
to care for thousands of displaced have been attacked in the country,
and Doctors Without Borders was kicked out of Burma.
This resolution calls on the government of Burma to immediately
recognize the Rohingya as an ethnic minority and to grant them
citizenship, a step that is long overdue, as Mr. McGovern pointed out.
I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan resolution. Let's all
send a message that the current state of human rights in Burma is
unacceptable.
I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from California (Mr. Royce) that the House suspend the rules
and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 418, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the resolution, as amended, was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________