Urging the Government of Burma to end the persecution of the Rohingya people and respect internationally recognized human rights for all ethnic and religious minority groups within Burma.

I want to thank my colleague, Mr. Engel, for yielding me the time and for his leadership on this and on so many other issues of human rights. I also want to thank Chairman Royce for his support and Chairman Chabot. I appreciate all that you do for human rights.

I admire all of these gentlemen who are here on the floor. They have been outspoken for human rights, not only in Burma, but all around the world.

Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to rise in support of this resolution urging the Government of Burma to end the persecution of the Rohingya people and to respect internationally recognized human rights for all ethnic and religious minority groups within Burma.

I especially want to thank my good friend and colleague, the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Congressman Joe Pitts, for his leadership on this issue and for joining me in introducing this bipartisan resolution.

Over 800,000 people of the Rohingya ethnicity live in Burma, mostly in the Rakhine State. Even though many Rohingyas have lived in the Rakhine for generations, the Burma citizenship law of 1982 has excluded them from approved ethnic groups, thereby rendering them stateless and vulnerable to exploitation, violence, and abuse.

While the Rohingya and other minorities in Burma have historically experienced severe discrimination, there has been a dramatic increase in discrimination and violence against them in the past 2 years.

Attacks in June and July of 2012 resulted in the deaths of at least 57 Muslims and in the destruction of 1,336 Rohingya homes. On October 23, 2012, at least 70 Rohingyas were killed, and their township was destroyed.

Further, the United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights reported possessing credible evidence of the deaths of at least 48 Rohingyas in January of this year, and human rights groups reported mass arrests and arbitrary detentions of Rohingya in the aftermath of this violence.

In addition, other Muslim minorities have also suffered from violent attacks, and many have lost their lives and property in the last year and a half. Such violence against ethnic Muslim populations, including the Rohingya, is part of a larger, troubling pattern of violence against ethnic and religious minorities in Burma.

The Government of Burma remains apathetic to the plight of the Rohingya population, and it has failed to properly investigate the major events of anti-Rohingya violence. Instead, both the Rakhine State and central government continue to impose explicitly racist policies that seek to control the everyday lives of the Rohingya.

Authorities require Rohingya to obtain official permission for marriages and have often singled out Rohingya for forced labor and arbitrary arrests. The Government of Burma has forcefully relocated Rohingya into relief camps, where they lack decent shelter, access to clean water, food, sanitation, health care, and the ability to support themselves, or basic education for their children.

The Rohingya are the sole targets of the two-child policy and are the subjects to severe restrictions of movement. Further, as evidenced by the latest census in Burma, the Burmese Government continues to deny the Rohingyas their right for self-identification, sending a clear message that the Rohingya are outsiders who have no place in Burma.

Today, approximately 140,000 Rohingya are internally displaced, and hundreds of thousands have fled to neighboring countries by boats; many have died at sea. Those who remain in the country live in dire poverty and deprivation.

Some relief used to come from humanitarian organizations like Doctors Without Borders, but even that aid is no longer available. The Government of Burma expelled Doctors Without Borders in March, allegedly after the group cared for the victims of a violent assault on a Rohingya village, an assault which the government denies ever happened.

Increasingly, severe restrictions and violent attacks on other humanitarian aid groups have forced the majority of them to flee the Rakhine State, and the Rohingya now remain with no one and with nowhere to turn for help and health care. Every day, more and more people die of causes that could be preventable or treatable if humanitarian groups had the chance to help.

According to a March 14 article in The New York Times, which I will submit for the Record, nearly 750,000 people, the majority of them Rohingya, have been deprived of medical services since the Burmese Government banned the operations of Doctors Without Borders.

According to the article, during the first 2 weeks of March alone, about 150 of those most vulnerable and in need of care died, including 20 pregnant women who were facing life-threatening deliveries.

[From the New York Times, Mar. 14, 2014]

Ban on Doctors' Group Imperils Muslim Minority in Myanmar

(By Jane Perlez)

Bangkok.--Nearly 750,000 people, most of them members of a

Muslim minority in one of the poorest parts of Myanmar, have

been deprived of most medical services since the government

banned the operations of Doctors Without Borders, the

international health care organization and the main provider

of medical care in the region.

The government ordered a halt to the work of Doctors

Without Borders two weeks ago after some officials accused

the group of favoring the Muslims, members of the Rohingya

ethnic group, over a rival group, Rakhine Buddhists.

Already, anecdotal evidence and medical estimates show that

about 150 of the most vulnerable have died since Feb. 28,

more than 20 of them pregnant women facing life-threatening

deliveries, medical professionals said. Doctors Without

Borders had been the only way for pregnant women facing

difficult deliveries to get a referral to a government

hospital, they said.

At the time of the order, the government said it was

suspending the group's operations in Rakhine State in the far

north, but it has offered no time frame for when services

might be resumed. The deputy director general of the Ministry

of Health, Dr. Soe Lwin Nyein, said in a statement that his

department would manage the health needs of the ``whole

community.'' A spokesman for President Thein Sein, Ye Htut,

said the government dispatched an emergency response team

with eight ambulances after the Doctors Without Borders

clinics were closed.

Myanmar's health services are among the most rudimentary in

Asia, and with severe government restrictions on movement

that prevent Muslims from seeking medical help outside their

villages in Rakhine State, the impact of the shutdown will be

severe, medical professionals said.

Doctors Without Borders was by far the biggest health

provider in the northern part of Rakhine around the townships

of Maungdaw and Buthidaung, serving about 500,000 people,

most of them Rohingya, they said. An additional 200,000

people, many of them Rohingya in displaced camps around the

state capital, Sittwe, had access to the group's services.

In Aung Mingla, a Muslim neighborhood in Sittwe, patients

with tuberculosis, a common disease in the area, said they

were down to their last supplies of medicine. The Rohingya

who live in Aung Mingla are prevented from leaving the

district by barbed-wire security posts and police officers.

``Since Doctors Without Borders is not in Rakhine, I don't

know who will provide medicine when my supply runs out in

three months,'' said one patient, Muklan, 30, who like many

people in Myanmar goes by a single name. ``I hope Doctors can

come back as soon as possible.''

Another Rohingya man, Shafiul, who worked for Doctors

Without Borders in Aung Mingla, said he was concerned for his

patients with tuberculosis, malaria and H.I.V. ``These

patients have been getting help from Doctors Without Borders

for years,'' he said.

In northern Rakhine State, where Doctors Without Borders

had run five permanent clinics and 30 mobile ones, about 20

percent of children are acutely malnourished, medical

professionals said. An intensive feeding center for those

patients was shuttered as part of the government's directive.

For the most part, Western donors and the United Nations

say they are reluctant to antagonize the government of

Myanmar, which has started along the path of economic and

political reform. The donors have chosen quiet diplomacy over

outspoken criticism of the government's policies toward the

Rohingya.

But the action against Doctors Without Borders raised some

public alarm.

``We are extremely concerned about the situation,'' said

Mark Cutts, the head of the United Nations Office for the

Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Myanmar. ``We are in

intense discussion with the government in

a way that will allow operations to resume as soon as

possible.''

The deputy health director, Dr. Soe Lwin Nyein, said the

government would accept supplies of medicine for tuberculosis

and H.I.V. from Doctors Without Borders. But how these

supplies will be distributed remains unclear. Negotiations

are underway with the government over the distribution,

Western officials said.

Other international organizations, including the

International Committee of the Red Cross, which supports

government health centers around the towns of Sittwe and

Mrauk U, have been allowed to continue operations in Rakhine.

But Doctors Without Borders was by far the largest health

provider.

The government targeted the group after its rural clinics

provided treatment to 22 Muslims in the aftermath of a

rampage by Rakhine security officers and civilians in the

village of Du Chee Yar Tan in January. The United Nations

says 40 people were killed in the violence that night.

The government has denied that the deaths occurred, and on

Tuesday, a presidential commission sent to the village to

conduct an inquiry reported that it could find no evidence of

the killings. The commission was the third investigative

group sent by the government, and its findings matched those

of the previous inquiries.

After the killings in January, the government criticized

Doctors Without Borders for hiring Rohingya and said the

group was giving disproportionate attention to Rohingya

patients. Under state regulations in Rakhine, Rohingya are

prevented from visiting many of the state-run clinics.

Doctors Without Borders says it has treated patients in

Rakhine since 1994 regardless of ethnicity, and foreign aid

workers point out that the Rakhine Buddhist ethnic group has

access to government health facilities that are generally

denied to the Rohingya.

A radical Buddhist leader in Myanmar, Ashin Wirathu, who

has compared Muslims to dogs, arrived in Sittwe on Wednesday

for a five-day visit that was likely to stir anti-Muslim

sentiments further. In a sermon at the main Buddhist temple

Wednesday night, he said that if Western democracies were

allowed to have influence in Myanmar, the Rakhine people

would be overwhelmed by increasing numbers of Muslims, and

would eventually disappear.

The monk's visit appeared to be timed ahead of a national

census--the first in Myanmar in more than 30 years--that is

due to take place March 30 to April 10 across Myanmar.

Tensions during the census, funded in part by the United

Nations and the British government, are expected to be high

in Rakhine.

Rakhine politicians have said they oppose allowing the

Rohingya to identify themselves as Rohingya when they fill

out the census forms. If they did, the census would probably

show that their numbers are greater than the current estimate

of 1.3 million. The overall population is estimated at 60

million.

By shutting down Doctors Without Borders, the government is

ensuring that there will be fewer foreigners to witness any

outbreaks of violence during the census process, aid workers

said.

Mr. Speaker, when Doctors Without Borders was able to work in Rakhine, they sent approximately 400 emergency cases every month to local hospitals, but according to the World Health Organization, fewer than 20 people received referrals by the government for emergency care in March. Such a difference suggests that the Rohingya who are in desperate need of emergency care are left to suffer or to die.

In light of these disturbing events, it is important that the House speaks with one voice today and calls on the Government of Burma to end all forms of persecution and discrimination of the Rohingya people and to ensure respect for internationally recognized human rights for all ethnic and religious minority groups within Burma.

The Burmese Government needs to recognize the Rohingya as an ethnic group indigenous to Burma and work with the Rohingya to resolve their citizenship status.

Finally, the U.S. Government needs to make the removal of state- sanctioned discriminatory policies a priority in their engagement with the Government of Burma.

Let me be clear: the situation is dire and rapidly deteriorating. Multiple recognized independent human rights NGOs, as well as the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma, have stated that the series of actions directed at the Rohingyas in Burma could amount to crimes against humanity.

Further, a recent report by the U.S. NGO, United to End Genocide, states that nowhere in the world are there more precursors to genocide than in Burma right now.

In the past few weeks, we have all taken time to remember and commemorate the victims of the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, and the genocide in Rwanda. We saw the same disturbing signs in other moments of history, and we know what the consequences are of not paying attention. Showing support for this bill is one step that we can take today to fulfilling the solemn pledge of ``never again.''

I urge my colleagues to vote in support of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 418) urging the Government of Burma to end the persecution of the Rohingya people and respect internationally recognized human rights for all ethnic and religious minority groups within Burma, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include any extraneous materials in the Record.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of House Resolution 418. This is a bipartisan resolution offered by the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) calling on the government of Burma to end its persecution of the Rohingya Muslims and respect the human rights of all ethnic and religious minority groups within Burma.

The Rohingya Muslims are one of the most persecuted minority groups in the world. According to Burma's 1982 citizenship law, the Rohingya are prohibited from holding Burmese citizenship, even though they have lived in Burma for generations after generations. For over three decades, the government of Burma has systematically denied the Rohingya even the most basic of human rights, while subjecting them to unspeakable abuses.

Since 2012, 140,000 Rohingya and other Muslims in Burma have been displaced by violence, with hundreds killed. On January 13, unknown assailants entered a village in Rakhine State and killed 48 people while they slept.

This is what happens when a government refuses to recognize its own people.

In fact, a nongovernmental organization based in Southeast Asia recently disclosed credible documents detailing the full extent of state involvement in persecuting Rohingyas.

Not long ago, the Government of Burma expelled Doctors Without Borders from the country, denying, once again, the most basic of human rights. The Government of Burma cannot claim progress toward meeting its goals for reform if it does not improve the treatment of Rohingya Muslims and other minority groups.

The United States must prioritize the protection of human rights in its engagement with Burma. I urge the State Department to take off its rose-colored glasses and recognize that progress on human rights in Burma is, indeed, limited. Now is the time for the State Department to bring additional leverage to bear, and this resolution will help us do that.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot). He is the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.

Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Again, I want to thank the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), for his support of the Rohingya people, but also for his dedication to human rights. I have had an opportunity to work with Mr. McGovern on a number of different human rights bills. I think he eloquently explained tonight the challenge that we face here. I was proud to join him as a cosponsor of this measure and work with him.

I also, of course, want to thank the gentleman from New York, Eliot Engel, for his continued focus on human rights around the world.

On this issue, it is true that the Burmese government has recently taken steps to open its closed society, but the reality is that the recent events here are deeply, deeply troubling to anyone who is watching. As I indicated, 48 Rohingya were murdered, aid workers trying to care for thousands of displaced have been attacked in the country, and Doctors Without Borders was kicked out of Burma.

This resolution calls on the government of Burma to immediately recognize the Rohingya as an ethnic minority and to grant them citizenship, a step that is long overdue, as Mr. McGovern pointed out.

I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan resolution. Let's all send a message that the current state of human rights in Burma is unacceptable.

I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today as a strong supporter and cosponsor of H. Res. 418, urging the Government of Burma to end the persecution of the Rohingya people and to respect internationally recognized human rights for all ethnic and religious minority groups within Burma.

I want to commend the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), my friend and colleague, for offering this legislation, which is certainly timely, and we appreciate his leadership on this.

As chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, I believe it is imperative that the U.S. and the international community raise awareness of this ongoing crisis in Burma and of the need for its government to respect the human rights of all of its ethnic and religious minority groups, which it is clearly not doing at this time.

Last year, we held two hearings in my subcommittee to examine the deteriorating human rights situation and ethnic unrest in Burma. It has become abundantly clear that the political and social situation there is extremely fragile and that the continuing persecution of the minority Rohingya population is just, as was said, a profound crisis.

Some 140,000 displaced Rohingya have been forced to live in camps described as open-air prisons. Doctors Without Borders was forced out by the Burmese Government, and since then, nearly 150 Rohingya have died of medically-related causes.

This particular photo illustrates that the Doctors Without Borders' clinic is shuttered. They are gone. The people are not getting the medical care that they are entitled to, and people are literally dying as a result of this.

Further, mob violence has made a number of other international NGOs evacuate Burma for fear and for being, essentially, excluded by the government. They were doing good work for people who really needed it, who were in dire straits.

The Burmese Government has taken few, if any, steps to forge a peaceful, harmonious, and prosperous future for the Rakhine State. It is complicit in extrajudicial killings, rape, arbitrary detention, torture, deaths in detention, and for the denial of due process and fair trial rights for the Rohingya.

As these horribly repressed people who are afforded no identity by the Burmese Government have been forced into camps, the Burmese Government has confiscated their land, their homes, and property for redistribution to the Buddhist Rakhine majority.

A recent report by the group United to End Genocide found that nowhere else in the world are there more precursors to genocide--signs that genocide may well happen--than in Burma right now.

This is why I recently introduced H.R. 4377, the Burma Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2014, with my colleague from New York (Mr. Crowley), a Democrat. This legislation would place conditions on providing International Military and Educational Training or for Foreign Military Financing assistance to the Burmese Government.

In light of the Burmese Government's and military's complicity in these ongoing human rights abuses against the Rohingya and other ethnic groups, it is much too soon for us to be engaging at a level that provides U.S. foreign assistance to Burma's corrupt and abusive military.

It concerns me that the administration still refuses to cooperate or to detail what its strategy really is for the future of military engagement with Burma.

Mr. Speaker, H. Res. 418 highlights its need for the U.S. and international community to continue pressuring Burma to end its blatant persecution and discrimination of the Rohingya population.

I want to, again, thank Mr. McGovern, Mr. Franks, Mr. Pitts, and Mr. Smith for cosponsoring this resolution. I believe the passage of the resolution will send a strong message to the Burmese Government, and I would urge my colleagues to support this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in strong support of H. Res. 418, a resolution urging the Government of Burma to end its persecution of the Rohingya people.

I would like to thank my good friend and cochairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), for authoring this important resolution.

H. Res. 418 calls on the Government of Burma to end its persecution of the Rohingya people and to respect the human rights of all ethnic and religious minority groups. The plight of the Rohingya gets very little public attention, and I am pleased that this House is addressing the abuses they and other minorities have suffered.

The State Department's 2013 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices acknowledges ``credible reports of extrajudicial killings, rape and sexual violence, arbitrary detentions and torture and mistreatment in detention, deaths in custody, and systematic denial of due process and fair trial rights overwhelmingly perpetrated against the Rohingya.''

Last month, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burma stated that the recent developments in Burma reflect a ``long history of discrimination and persecution against the Rohingya Muslim community, which could amount to crimes against humanity.''

The U.N. has also described the Rohingya community as virtually friendless because they are denied citizenship and face severe restrictions on marriage, employment, health care, education, and daily movement.

In February, the Burmese Government expelled Doctors Without Borders; and since then, deaths due to preventable complications during pregnancy have occurred on an almost daily basis in Rohingya camps, where pregnant women make up a quarter of the group's emergency referrals.

Mr. Speaker, as the Government of Burma transitions from decades-long military rule to a civilian government, it is important to hold it accountable for persistent human rights abuses.

The killings, arbitrary detentions, and the destruction of homes have caused 140,000 people to be internally displaced; and hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee to neighboring countries, including to Thailand, Bangladesh, and Malaysia.

If Burma truly seeks to rejoin the international community, the manner in which it treats its own people will be a key marker of the government's sincerity. Burma must abide by human rights principles of equality and human dignity, and this resolution calls upon the Burmese Government to do just that.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H. Res. 418, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I now yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), the author of the resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

In closing, I would like to thank Congressman McGovern, the gentleman from Massachusetts, for drafting this important legislation. Once again, I thank Chairman Royce for his continued bipartisan leadership.

As has been said, this resolution calls upon the Burmese government to end the persecution of the Rohingya people and to respect the human rights of all ethnic and religious minority groups.

Until now, the treatment of the Rohingya has been largely ignored by the international community. That is the purpose of this resolution--so they cannot be ignored any longer.

It is time for the United States to send a clear and strong message to the government of Burma that we will not tolerate the persecution of religious and ethnic minorities, and that it must abide by human rights principles of equality and dignity if it is to rejoin the international community.

So I urge my colleagues to support this resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.