[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 18 (Tuesday, January 29, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S744-S745]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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   SENATE RESOLUTION 34--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT THE 
    GOVERNMENTS OF BURMA AND BANGLADESH ENSURE THE SAFE, DIGNIFIED, 
  VOLUNTARY, AND SUSTAINABLE RETURN OF THE ROHINGYA REFUGEES WHO HAVE 
  BEEN DISPLACED BY THE CAMPAIGN OF ETHNIC CLEANSING CONDUCTED BY THE 
    BURMESE MILITARY AND TO IMMEDIATELY RELEASE UNJUSTLY IMPRISONED 
                  JOURNALISTS, WA LONE AND KYAW SOE OO

  Mr. MERKLEY (for himself, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Durbin, Ms. Collins, Mrs. 
Feinstein, Mr. Young, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Tillis, Ms. Warren, Mr. Kaine, 
Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Brown, Mr. Markey, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Sanders, Mrs. 
Murray, Mr. Coons, Ms. Klobuchar, Ms. Cortez Masto, Mr. Schatz, Ms. 
Harris, and Mr. Peters) submitted the following resolution; which was 
referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                               S. Res. 34

       Whereas, on August 25, 2017, attacks on security posts in 
     Burma by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army militant group 
     resulted in a brutal, systematic, and disproportionate 
     reprisal by the Burmese military and security forces on 
     Rohingya villages in Rakhine State;
       Whereas approximately 700,000 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 gang rape, 
     starvation, killing, and forcible deportation;
       Whereas the August 2018 United Nations report of the 
     Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar 
     states in paragraph 87 that ``the Mission concluded . . . 
     that there is sufficient information to warrant the 
     investigation and prosecution of senior officials in the 
     Tatmadaw chain of command, so that a competent court can 
     determine their liability for genocide in relation to the 
     situation in Rakhine State'';
       Whereas, on August 28, 2018, then-United States Ambassador 
     to the United Nations Nikki Haley reported to the United 
     Nations Security Council that the Department of State had 
     conducted interviews with 1,024 Rohingya refugees in camps 
     throughout Cox's Bazar and that the results of the interviews 
     were consistent with the United Nations Independent 
     International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar;
       Whereas, on September 24, 2018, the Department of State 
     report titled, ``Documentation of Atrocities in Northern 
     Rakhine State'', concluded that the military's attacks in 
     Burma's Northern Rakhine State were ``large-scale, widespread 
     and seemingly geared toward both terrorizing the population 
     and driving out the Rohingya residents'' and that the ``scope 
     and scale of the military's operations indicate that they 
     were well-planned and coordinated'';
       Whereas, on December 3, 2018, the United States Holocaust 
     Memorial Museum concluded that ``there is compelling evidence 
     that the Burmese military committed ethnic cleansing, crimes 
     against humanity, and genocide against the Rohingya'';
       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 fundamental operational principles of voluntary 
     repatriation are safety, to include legal and physical 
     safety, and dignity, to include treatment with respect and 
     full acceptance by their national authorities, including the 
     full restoration of refugees' rights;
       Whereas approximately 236,000 Rohingya refugees returned to 
     Burma from Bangladesh under the terms of a 1992 agreement 
     after a previous bout of violence against the Rohingya forced 
     them to flee, only to continue to be denied citizenship, face 
     prejudice, violence, and persecution, and in many instances 
     be forced to live in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps 
     with their freedom of movement restricted;
       Whereas Burma's 1982 citizenship law stripped Rohingya of 
     their Burmese citizenship, rendering them stateless;
       Whereas the Government of Burma continues to systematically 
     discriminate against the Rohingya people, a long-persecuted 
     Muslim minority within Burma, including by continuing to 
     restrict registration of Rohingya births and to deny them 
     freedom of movement, access to healthcare, land, education, 
     marriage, voting rights, and political participation;
       Whereas the Government of Burma has repeatedly abused land 
     use laws to unjustly seize land from Rohingya refugees;
       Whereas the United Nations High Commission on Refugees 
     (UNHCR) is working closely with the Government of Bangladesh 
     and partners to provide protection and assistance to the 
     Rohingya refugees and to support the host populations 
     affected by the influx;
       Whereas, on November 23, 2017, the Government of Burma and 
     the Government of Bangladesh signed an agreement, known as 
     the ``Arrangement'', on the return of displaced persons from 
     Rakhine State, which is modeled after the 1992 repatriation 
     agreement between Burma and Bangladesh;

[[Page S745]]

       Whereas the Arrangement includes references to restoring 
     normalcy and human rights in Rakhine State, for refugee 
     returns to comply with international standards of safety, 
     dignity, and voluntariness, and to commencing a process to 
     address root causes in line with the Rakhine Advisory 
     Commission recommendations;
       Whereas the Department of State has assessed that Burma has 
     not made progress on the ``more crucial'' of the 88 
     recommendations of the Rakhine Advisory Commission that are 
     identified by Rohingya refugees as prerequisites to 
     repatriation including freedom of movement, civil 
     documentation, and a transparent pathway to citizenship;
       Whereas, on June 6, 2018, the Government of Burma reached a 
     tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the UNHCR 
     and the United Nations Development Agency (UNDP) on its role 
     in the safe, dignified, and voluntary return of Rakhine State 
     refugees;
       Whereas Rohingya refugees currently hosted in Bangladesh 
     demonstrated in protest against an initial November 2018 
     repatriation plan between the Governments of Bangladesh and 
     Burma, citing concerns for their security and the lack of 
     meaningful political reforms in Burma to include full 
     citizenship;
       Whereas UNHCR, on January 4, 2019, reported that conditions 
     in Burma's Rakhine State remain ``not conducive to return'' 
     on the heels of the Government of India's regrettable 
     decision to repatriate 16,000 Rohingya to Burma without 
     having first ascertained the ``voluntariness of their 
     decision to return'';
       Whereas, throughout this process, the Government of Burma 
     has restricted media freedom and jailed journalists;
       Whereas, on December 12, 2017, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, two 
     journalists reporting and documenting atrocities against the 
     Rohingya, were arrested and on January 10, 2018, formally 
     prosecuted with violating the ``Official Secrets Act'';
       Whereas Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Soo had uncovered a massacre 
     of 10 Rohingya men perpetrated by Burma's security forces and 
     aided by local Buddhist villagers in the village of Inn Din 
     in Rakhine State;
       Whereas, on September 3, 2018, Yangon northern district 
     judge Ye Lwin ruled that Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo breached the 
     colonial-era Official Secrets Act and sentenced them each to 
     seven years in prison with hard labor;
       Whereas, on January 11, 2019, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo's 
     appeal of their conviction before the Yangon Regional High 
     Court was denied;
       Whereas Time Magazine named Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo as co-
     recipients of 2018 Time Magazine's ``Person of the Year'' in 
     recognition for their courageous reporting;
       Whereas Vice President Mike Pence tweeted his concern over 
     the sentence against Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo for ``doing 
     their job reporting on the atrocities being committed on the 
     Rohingya people'';
       Whereas United States Ambassador to the United Nations 
     Nikki Haley described the conviction as ``another terrible 
     stain on the Burmese government'' and called for ``their 
     immediate and unconditional release'';
       Whereas the Department of State's annual Human Rights 
     Report on Burma for the year 2017 states that--
       (1) ``legal provisions that allow the government to 
     manipulate the courts for political ends, and these 
     provisions were sometimes used to deprive citizens of due 
     process and the right to a fair trial, particularly with 
     regards to the freedom of expression'';
       (2) ``The government continued to detain and arrest 
     journalists, activists, and critics of the government and the 
     military during the year.''; and
       (3) ``Threats against and arrests of journalists increased 
     . . . Freedom of expression was more restricted during the 
     year compared with 2016. This included a higher number of 
     detentions of journalists using various laws, including laws 
     carrying more severe punishments than those used 
     previously.'';
       Whereas, according to PEN America, the discontinuation of 
     Radio Free Asia's broadcasting in Myanmar on a domestic 
     channel constitutes a further shrinking of the space for free 
     expression in the country; and
       Whereas, additionally, PEN America reports that--
       (1) there continues to be increased legal threats, 
     imprisonment, and physical harassment of journalists;
       (2) there continues to be restrictions on the ability to 
     report from and receive information on conflict areas; and
       (3) the lack of reform of media laws and institutions is 
     driving a decline in media freedom: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) condemns the violence and displacement inflicted on 
     Burma's Rohingya and other ethnic minorities;
       (2) urges the Secretary of State to make a determination 
     whether the actions by the Myanmar military constitute crimes 
     against humanity or genocide and to work with interagency 
     partners to impose targeted sanctions on Myanmar military 
     officials, to include Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, 
     responsible for these heinous acts through existing 
     authorities;
       (3) condemns the attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation 
     Army militant group;
       (4) calls on the Government of Burma to allow full access 
     to Rakhine State and ensure the full participation of UNHCR, 
     the internationally endorsed organization tasked with 
     ensuring that refugee returns are voluntary, safe, dignified, 
     and meet international refugee and human rights standards, 
     and that the voices of refugees are represented in order to 
     ensure the sustainability of such returns and to prevent 
     further waves of displacement;
       (5) commends the positive role of the Government of 
     Bangladesh in receiving Rohingya refugees to date and urges 
     the Government of Bangladesh to continue allowing the full 
     participation of UNHCR and human rights organization in 
     accessing refugee camps;
       (6) calls on UNHCR and international nongovernmental 
     organizations to continue to play a role in monitoring 
     repatriation efforts by the Governments of Bangladesh and 
     Burma to ensure a process that meets international norms for 
     voluntary, safe, and dignified repatriation;
       (7) agrees that any return of Rohingya should include 
     guarantees that any returns of refugees will be voluntary and 
     dignified, that there will be no threats to protection or 
     security upon return, that refugees will be able to return to 
     their places of origin or other locations as desired, and be 
     able to enjoy equal rights with others in Burma, including 
     the restoration or granting of full citizenship, freedom of 
     movement, and access to basic services;
       (8) recognizes that any forced relocation of Rohingya 
     refugees into temporary settlements, IDP camps, ``model 
     villages'', or other areas not of refugees' choosing is 
     unacceptable;
       (9) calls on the Government of Burma to allow for a 
     flexible and practical approach to dealing with evidence of 
     Rohingya residence in Burma, recognizing that the Rohingya 
     refugees in Bangladesh possess a wide range of documents and 
     that some refugees have no documents and will need to 
     establish their residence by other means;
       (10) calls on the Government of Burma to address root 
     causes consistent with the Rakhine Advisory Commission 
     recommendations and fully implement all of the 
     recommendations of the Commission, including providing equal 
     access to full restoration or granting of full citizenship 
     for the Rohingya population;
       (11) calls on the Government of Burma to acknowledge and 
     address the issue of statelessness for the Rohingya, the 
     deprivation of rights, and institutionalized and pervasive 
     discrimination of the Rohingya population in order to bring 
     about any sustainable solutions;
       (12) commends the Government and the people of Bangladesh 
     for their extraordinary generosity and efforts to provide 
     shelter and relief for nearly 1,000,000 Rohingya refugees 
     forced to flee their homes in Burma;
       (13) calls on the Government of Bangladesh to ensure all 
     refugees have freedom of movement and under no circumstances 
     are subject to unsafe, involuntary, precipitous, or 
     uninformed returns to Burma;
       (14) calls for all the convictions against Wa Lone and Kyaw 
     Soe Oo to be nullified, for the similar charges against many 
     other journalists currently awaiting trial to be dropped, and 
     for the immediate and unconditional release of these 
     journalists;
       (15) expresses concern about the Government of Myanmar's 
     crackdown on journalists and press freedom throughout the 
     country;
       (16) reaffirms the central role that independent and 
     professional journalism plays in strengthening democratic 
     governance, upholding the rule of law, mitigating conflict, 
     and informing public opinion around the world; and
       (17) calls upon the United States Government to continue 
     the United States status as a top global donor nation to the 
     humanitarian response in Burma and Bangladesh and for the 
     President's fiscal year 2020 budget request to reflect that 
     longstanding United States commitment.

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