[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 23 (Monday, February 8, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S564]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Burma

  Now, Madam President, on one final matter, over the weekend, hundreds 
of thousands of protesters stood up across Burma in defiance of the 
military coup.
  For a week now, the military has detained hundreds of civil society 
leaders and democratically elected officials, some on mysterious or 
obviously specious charges and others without any charge at all. Their 
actions were illegitimate right from the start, and the treatment of 
these political prisoners is showing the world the military regime's 
disdain for the rule of law.
  In the face of this tyranny and with the memory of how brutally the 
military has dealt with protesters in the past, the public unity of so 
many of Burma's people is a powerful display of courage. In far-flung 
cities and towns, members of the country's diverse ethnic groups, from 
the Burman majority to the Shan and Rohingya minorities, have rallied 
around the democratically elected government. They are demanding 
justice and an end to military rule.
  I have been encouraged over the past week by the diplomatic efforts 
undertaken by the administration to demonstrate the U.S. condemnation 
of the military's flagrant assault on political rights. Today, it is 
time to follow up with meaningful costs on those who aid and abet the 
suffocation of Burmese democracy.
  The people of Burma in the streets today are putting their lives on 
the line. As one protestor told the New York Times over the weekend, 
``I don't care if they shoot because under the military, our lives will 
be dead anyway.''
  Today, these protestors are joining in the same refrain heard 
repeatedly in places like Hong Kong, where democratic progress is too 
often met with jackboots. They are standing up for basic freedoms, and 
they are paying close attention to who will stand with them.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. FISCHER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.