[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 203 (Wednesday, December 13, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S8008]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SENATE RESOLUTION 360--CALLING FOR INTERNATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THE 
 CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY COMMITTED BY THE BURMESE MILITARY AGAINST THE 
                           ROHINGYA IN BURMA

  Mr. DURBIN (for himself, Mr. Merkley, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Markey, and 
Mr. Van Hollen) submitted the following resolution; which was referred 
to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 360

       Whereas actions by the military of Burma, known as the 
     Tatmadaw, including continuing assaults on personnel and 
     territory controlled by armed ethnic organizations, military 
     offensives immediately preceding and following national peace 
     conferences, and human rights abuses against noncombatant 
     civilians in conflict areas, undermine the confidence in 
     establishing a credible nationwide ceasefire agreement to end 
     Burma's civil war;
       Whereas Burmese military officials have a long-standing 
     history of targeting ethnic groups and armed ethnic 
     organizations in Burma, in addition to the Rohingya, and 
     whereas there are ongoing conflicts currently in the Shan, 
     Kachin, and Rakhine states;
       Whereas August 25, 2017, attacks on security posts in Burma 
     by the military group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army resulted 
     in a brutal, systematic, and disproportionate reprisal by the 
     Burmese military and security forces on Rohingya villages;
       Whereas more than 624,000 Rohingya refugees have fled to 
     Bangladesh since the Burmese military commenced its scorched-
     earth campaign, with the burning of villages and local 
     monuments, and reports of widespread rape, starvation, 
     killing, and forcible deportation;
       Whereas Burmese military officials have promulgated 
     fabrications about the Rohingya to sow negative public 
     perception of the minority ethnic group, including that they 
     are not Burmese, that they are uniformly implicated in 
     terrorist activities and controlled by international 
     terrorist groups with the intention of creating an Islamic 
     State, that they attacked their own people and burned down 
     their own villages in order to gain international sympathy, 
     and that they are fleeing to Bangladesh for economic reasons 
     or to create the appearance of ethnic cleansing;
       Whereas the Government of Burma has consistently denied 
     access to the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar 
     established to investigate human rights violations around the 
     country;
       Whereas the Commander in Chief of the Burmese military, 
     Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, has made statements 
     communicating his antipathy for the Rohingya people, 
     including on March 27, 2017, where he reportedly said that 
     ``[t]he Bengalis in Rakhine state are not Myanmar citizens 
     and they are just people who come and stay in the country,'' 
     and on September 2, 2017, where he reportedly said that the 
     ongoing military operations against the Rohingya were aimed 
     at ``unfinished business'' from World War II;
       Whereas a Human Rights Watch report entitled, `` `All of My 
     Body Was Pain': Sexual Violence Against Rohingya Women and 
     Girls in Burma,'' documented the Burmese military's 
     widespread acts of sexual violence against women and girls 
     since August 25, 2017;
       Whereas Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International 
     Criminal Court includes murder, forced deportation, rape, and 
     persecution among its definition of ``crimes against 
     humanity'';
       Whereas, on September 11, 2017, in his opening statement 
     for the United Nations Human Rights Council's 36th session, 
     United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad 
     al Hussein reiterated his concern about the pattern of gross 
     violation of human rights of the Rohingya in Burma, calling 
     the persecution a ``textbook case of ethnic cleansing'';
       Whereas, on October 23, 2017, the Department of State 
     suspended travel waivers for Burmese military leaders, found 
     that all Burmese military units and officers involved in 
     operations in northern Rakhine State are ineligible for 
     United States assistance programs, rescinded invitations for 
     Burmese security leaders to travel to United States-sponsored 
     programs, and pressed for access for the United Nations Fact-
     Finding Mission on Myanmar to hold responsible those who have 
     committed violence against the Rohingya;
       Whereas, on November 3, 2017, the international human 
     rights organization Human Rights Watch called for the United 
     Nations Security Council to refer Burma to the International 
     Criminal Court in light of Burma's failure to investigate 
     mass atrocities against the Rohingya;
       Whereas, on November 6, 2017, the United Nations Security 
     Council issued Presidential Statement SC/13055 calling on 
     Burma to ``end the excessive military force and intercommunal 
     violence that had devastated the Rohingya community in 
     Rakhine State'' in Burma;
       Whereas, on November 16, 2017, the United Nations General 
     Assembly Third Committee approved draft resolution A/C.3/72/
     L.48 calling for an end to the abuse of human rights against 
     the Rohingya by Burmese authorities, accountability for the 
     perpetrators, and unrestricted access for United Nations 
     investigators in Burma;
       Whereas, on November 22, 2017, Secretary of State Rex 
     Tillerson declared that the Burmese military's crackdown 
     ``constitutes ethnic cleansing against the Rohingyas'';
       Whereas, on November 28, 2017, the United Nations Committee 
     on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women called on 
     Burma to report within six months on rapes and sexual 
     violence against Rohingya women and girls by its security 
     forces in northern Rakhine State and further to take measures 
     to punish soldiers responsible for these acts;
       Whereas the United Nations Human Rights Council held a 
     Special Session on December 5, 2017, where it adopted a 
     resolution strongly condemning the alleged systematic and 
     gross violations of human rights and abuses committed against 
     the Rohingya in Burma and requested the High Commissioner for 
     Human Rights to continue to track the progress concerning the 
     human rights situation of Rohingya people; and
       Whereas the United Nations High Commissioner for Human 
     Rights Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein recommended on December 5, 2017, 
     the establishment of ``a new impartial and independent 
     mechanism, complementary to the work of the Fact-Finding 
     Mission, to assist individual criminal investigations of 
     those responsible'': Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) recognizes the adoption of the resolution (A/HRC/RES/S-
     27/1) on the situation of human rights of Rohingya Muslims 
     and other minorities in Burma by the United nations Human 
     Rights Council on December 5, 2017;
       (2) condemns the Burmese military for its atrocities 
     against the Rohingya, which constitute ethnic cleansing and 
     crimes against humanity;
       (3) reaffirms the longstanding international prohibitions 
     and norms against the use of ethnic cleansing and crimes 
     against humanity in any circumstance and calls on the United 
     Nations to pass resolutions condemning the human rights 
     violations by Burmese security forces against the Rohingya;
       (4) urges the Government of Burma to allow for full, 
     unhindered humanitarian access to the affected areas, and to 
     allow the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission to Myanmar to 
     examine the human rights violations by military and security 
     forces in Burma and others abuses, with a particular focus on 
     the situation in Rakhine State;
       (5) urges State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi to fully 
     implement the Final Report of the Advisory Commission on 
     Rakhine State;
       (6) urges the Government of Burma to take immediate steps 
     to close internally displaced persons (IDP) camps and the 
     Rohingya ghetto at Aung Mingalar in Sittwe while respecting 
     the rights and dignity of populations currently residing in 
     these camps, and to further lift restrictions on freedom of 
     movement of Rohingya living in villages throughout northern 
     Rakhine State;
       (7) calls on the Secretary of State and the Secretary of 
     the Treasury to impose targeted sanctions and travel 
     restrictions against senior leaders of the Burmese military 
     implicated in atrocities, including its multiple holding 
     companies and banks;
       (8) urges the international community to assist with the 
     economic development of the Rakhine State, one of the poorest 
     states in Burma, in which poverty exacerbates tensions 
     between ethnic groups;
       (9) urges the Government of Burma to conduct a 
     comprehensive and transparent investigation--with the support 
     of a credible international third party--to examine abuses 
     against the Rohingya and hold perpetrators accountable;
       (10) urges the United Nations to establish an independent 
     mechanism to assist individual criminal investigations of 
     those responsible for atrocity crimes against the Rohingya 
     and refer those responsible to the International Criminal 
     Court;
       (11) calls on the United Nations Security Council to impose 
     a comprehensive arms embargo against Burma; and
       (12) calls upon the nations of the world to revoke travel 
     visas for Burmese Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung 
     Hlaing and all other members of the Burmese military 
     responsible for the ethnic cleansing campaign and crimes 
     against humanity against the Rohingya.

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