[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 156 (Thursday, September 28, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6211-S6212]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Burma

  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, anyone who watches the news, reads the 
newspaper, or goes on social media knows there are a lot of bad things 
happening in our world. Folks at home and across the globe are 
confronting devastations from hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, wars, 
and forest fires, as in my home State. Tensions between the United 
States and North Korea have never been higher, reaching a dangerous 
level. The world is watching all of this with bated breath.
  In the midst of this deluge of news, a human rights catastrophe is 
unfolding virtually unnoticed. I am talking about the members of the 
Burmese military engaging in horrific acts of unthinkable violence 
against the Rohingya--a Muslim minority population in a predominantly 
Buddhist nation.
  The Burmese military, along with civilian accomplices, have 
slaughtered more than 3,000 innocent civilians. They have raped 
thousands of Rohingya women. They have beheaded children as young as 6 
years old. They have burned countless villages to the ground. Through 
these brutal acts, the Burmese military has driven half a million 
Rohingya refugees to camps in nearby Bangladesh, with Burmese soldiers 
continuing to shoot at them as they try to cross the border--a border, 
by the way, along which landmines have been laid by the Burmese 
military.
  The brutality of what is happening in that country is truly beyond 
comprehension. The Burmese Government calls it a security operation, 
but we need to call it exactly what it is--ethnic cleansing. So often I 
have heard the words ``never again,'' that the United States will stand 
up to ethnic cleansing. This is one of those moments when we must stand 
up.
  What is happening in Burma is a crime against humanity. As a country, 
we have more responsibility to take a stand and to speak out against 
it, to make the world take notice of the atrocities, call for their 
end, and to work toward their end.
  The Rohingya are a people trapped in a cycle of violence and 
persecution by the Burmese Government and military. The Government of 
Burma has turned them into stateless people--refusing to recognize 
them, refusing to give them citizenship in spite of the fact that much 
of the Rohingya community has been there for centuries. They need our 
help.
  The Burma Government has adopted laws that ban the Rohingyas from 
traveling without official permission, from owning land, from securing 
a public education, from obtaining employment by either a state or 
private business.
  When the Burmese Government says that it will welcome back the 
refugees who can prove their citizenship, they are being completely 
disingenuous and completely treacherous, because they know--and the 
whole world should know--that the very laws of Burma make it impossible 
for the Rohingya to prove their citizenship since they have been denied 
citizenship by the Government of Burma. We cannot sit idly by and let 
ethnic cleansing continue.
  One nation that has stepped up is Bangladesh. As the leaders of Burma 
have persecuted the Rohingya and burned the villages and shot the 
refugees as they were fleeing, the Government of Bangladesh has opened 
its door. It has proceeded to allow humanitarian groups access and the 
United Nations access. This is commendable, but more needs to be done. 
These refugee camps are overcrowded. There are not enough supplies, 
clean toilets, food, or clean water. Doctors Without Borders says that 
they are on the brink of a ``public health disaster.'' Unlike 
Bangladesh, other countries have yet to speak up.
  Indeed, I am concerned by reports that some factions within India 
have been explicitly, publicly seeking to expel India's own Rohingya 
population. It is important for the international community to weigh in 
with them and to ask them to respect international law and to protect 
the Rohingya refugees. India knows full well that there is nowhere to 
send them. If they send them back to Burma, there will just be more 
persecution of the men, the women, and the children.
  It underscores the fact that the Rohingya need help and that the 
world should answer the call. As we do, we must use what influence we 
have to put an end to the violence and the persecution of this ethnic 
minority. We need to call on Burma's leaders to protect these 
minorities, not to assist in the

[[Page S6212]]

persecution. We need to call on the Government of Burma to immediately 
give humanitarian groups access to the Rohingya who are trapped in 
Burma, in what some have described as concentration camps. We need to 
call on Burma's leaders to provide the hundreds of thousands of 
Rohingya refugees who have been forced to flee their homes and villages 
with a safe and assisted right of return.
  In addition, the Burmese Government--the Burmese nation--needs to 
figure out how to end the root causes of this conflict--an age-old 
ethnic and religious conflict--and find a way to embrace the diversity 
within their nation. Certainly, this is not the first time that the 
tensions have erupted into violence. It has happened time and time and 
time again, but this is the worst we have ever seen.
  Kofi Annan, the former U.N. Secretary General, is the current 
chairman of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State. He and his team 
have called on Burma to take the appropriate actions to end this cycle 
of violence, this cycle of radicalization.
  The entire Rohingya community is counting on us--the world--to notice 
and to act. We must immediately see an end to the violence, full access 
for humanitarian organizations, cooperation with and access for the 
United Nations fact finding mission, the safe return of refugees, and 
the implementation of the full set of recommendations from Kofi Annan's 
report.
  It is also critical that the United States and the international 
community continue to shed light on this horrific problem, provide 
sustained aid and support to the refugees in Burma and in Bangladesh, 
and take action to show other repressive governments that there will be 
consequences for pursuing this type of persecution, starting with a 
strong U.N. Security Council resolution.
  International action to end this violence, increase humanitarian 
assistance, and extend our aid to the Rohingya people is the right 
thing to do. I pray that together we will answer that call.
  I also thank my colleagues who have already been engaged in this 
issue. There are a number of them, but I am particularly aware of 
Senator Richard Durbin's, Senator John McCain's, and Senator Ben 
Cardin's involvement and leadership.
  Let's build on that foundation to have the Senate demonstrate 
attention to this issue through letters, and we should also try to 
arrange a Senate trip to visit both Burma and Bangladesh in order to 
draw additional international attention and build momentum for action.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.