[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 198 (Tuesday, December 5, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H9632]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            ROHINGYA CRISIS

  (Mr. HURD asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HURD. Mr. Speaker, many decades ago, we swore it wouldn't happen 
again, yet it happened in Rwanda in 1990, in Bosnia in 1995, Darfur in 
2003, and it is happening right now in Burma. The word is ``genocide.''
  It is unclear how many Rohingya men, women, and children have been 
lost to violent beatings, arson, and indiscriminate firings because the 
government is refusing access to human rights investigators. What we do 
know is that, since August, over 600,000 Rohingya civilians have fled 
to neighboring Bangladesh to escape systematic persecution, mass rape, 
killings, and disappearances committed by the Burmese military. These 
are crimes against humanity and the very definition of ethnic 
cleansing.
  There is no place for genocide in 2017. The international community 
needs to increase the humanitarian access to Rohingya.
  In addition, we must consider the crisis from a national security 
perspective. Not only are the squalid refugee camps teeming with 
contamination and disease, but the mass exodus and horrible conditions 
are a breeding ground for terrorist recruitment.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the resolution.

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