[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 86 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 86
Condemning the Burmese military for perpetrating gross violations of
human rights as part of its brutal campaign to suppress the democratic
aspirations of the people of Burma, two years after the coup d'etat on
February 1, 2021.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 1, 2023
Ms. Eshoo (for herself, Ms. Tenney, Mr. Meeks, Mr. Bera, Mr.
Fitzpatrick, Mr. Costa, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Connolly, Ms. Norton, Ms.
Titus, Mr. Sherman, and Ms. Kamlager-Dove) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and
in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, the Judiciary, and
Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Condemning the Burmese military for perpetrating gross violations of
human rights as part of its brutal campaign to suppress the democratic
aspirations of the people of Burma, two years after the coup d'etat on
February 1, 2021.
Whereas after a decade of promising democratic reforms in Burma, the Burmese
military (hereinafter referred to as the ``Tatmadaw'') launched a coup
against the civilian government on February 1, 2021, preventing a
democratically elected Parliament from being seated;
Whereas the Tatmadaw seized control of the government, declared a national state
of emergency, and unlawfully detained many democratically elected
officials, including State Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win
Myint, and dozens of Members of Parliament affiliated with the National
League for Democracy (NLD);
Whereas the House of Representatives adopted H. Res. 134 on March 19, 2021,
condemning the coup and calling for the restoration of civilian
government and the release of detained officials;
Whereas the people of Burma, insistent that their country continue along the
path toward democracy, courageously organized a civil disobedience
movement and took to the streets to demand that the Tatmadaw relinquish
power;
Whereas, on April 16, 2021, democratically elected members of Parliament, who
had been denied the opportunity to serve by the Tatmadaw, formed a
National Unity Government that asserts it is the legitimate Government
of Burma;
Whereas the Tatmadaw has used lethal force, including extrajudicial executions,
to violently suppress the prodemocracy movement, killing more than 2,500
civilians since the coup began in February 2021;
Whereas the Tatmadaw has relied heavily on mass arrests to stifle dissent and
has detained at least 13,600 protesters, activists, and journalists
since February 2021;
Whereas the Tatmadaw has used brutal and inhumane methods to intimidate,
degrade, and torture detainees;
Whereas Tatmadaw soldiers have perpetrated rape and other forms of sexual
violence with impunity;
Whereas the Tatmadaw has employed digital authoritarian tools and tactics to
silence opposition, including internet shutdowns, online censorship, and
high-tech surveillance;
Whereas the Tatmadaw has eroded the independence of the Burmese judiciary and
conducted sham trials to convict political prisoners including State
Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint;
Whereas, on July 23, 2022, the Tatmadaw executed four prominent prodemocracy
activists, prompting widespread international condemnation;
Whereas the Tatmadaw continues to perpetrate a horrific genocide against the
Rohingya population in Burma's Rakhine State, and has also committed
atrocities against other ethnic minority communities in the Kachin,
Karen, Mon, Rakhine, Shan, and Chin States;
Whereas the House of Representatives adopted H. Res. 1091 on December 13, 2018,
expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the atrocities
committed against the Rohingya by the Tatmadaw constitute genocide;
Whereas, on March 21, 2022, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the
Department of State's determination that the Tatmadaw committed genocide
and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya population of Burma;
Whereas the turmoil caused by the coup and the Tatmadaw's violence and
mismanagement of the economy have resulted in a severe economic crisis
that, according to the World Bank, has caused poverty in Burma to double
since March 2020;
Whereas the deteriorating security situation in Burma following the coup has
resulted in the internal displacement of nearly 1.3 million people and
prompted thousands more to flee the country as refugees;
Whereas the Biden administration has frozen more than $1,000,000,000 in Burmese
Government funds held in the United States and coordinated with the
European Union, Canada, and the United Kingdom to impose targeted
sanctions against individuals and entities responsible for the coup,
including Min Aung Hlaing, the commander in chief of the Tatmadaw;
Whereas Congress recently passed the bipartisan BURMA Act of 2022 as part of the
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, granting the
President increased authority to impose sanctions on individuals and
entities affiliated with the Tatmadaw and authorizing increased
humanitarian aid for the Burmese people;
Whereas numerous civil society and human rights groups have recommended
additional sanctions targeting the largest sources of the Tatmadaw's
foreign currency revenue such as the state-controlled natural gas,
mining, and timber entities, including the highly lucrative Myanma Oil
and Gas Enterprise (MOGE);
Whereas it has been reported that the European Union sanctions on MOGE have been
effective in blocking revenues from the Shwe gas pipeline being
transferred to the Tatmadaw;
Whereas aviation fuel shipments imported to Burma by foreign suppliers enable
the Tatmadaw to carry out horrifyingly violent and indiscriminate air
strikes on civilian targets such as villages, schools, religious
buildings, medical facilities, and camps for the internally displaced
and continue wreaking devastating havoc across the country; and
Whereas the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, which was
established by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate
the Tatmadaw's crimes against humanity and compile evidence for future
prosecutions, is crucial to ensuring accountability for atrocities and
bringing justice to the people of Burma: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the military
coup that took place in Burma on February 1, 2021;
(2) denounces the Tatmadaw for perpetrating gross
violations of human rights as part of its brutal campaign to
suppress the democratic aspirations of the people of Burma;
(3) stands in solidarity with the courageous people of
Burma as they struggle to wrest political power from the hands
of their authoritarian military;
(4) calls on the Tatmadaw to--
(A) cease all violence against prodemocracy
activists and reach a cease-fire with ethnic armed
organizations;
(B) release all political prisoners;
(C) unconditionally vacate all fraudulent verdicts
stemming from politically motivated charges and legal
proceedings against elected officials, journalists,
civil society leaders, prodemocracy activists, and
other unjustly convicted Burmese people;
(D) engage in constructive dialogue with all
parties to negotiate a pathway toward a government that
reflects the will of the Burmese people;
(E) grant humanitarian actors unhindered access to
all relevant areas of Burma to help alleviate the
immense suffering that has resulted from the Tatmadaw's
violence; and
(F) respect the human rights and civil liberties of
all people of Burma, including ethnic minorities who
currently face state-sponsored persecution;
(5) rejects any attempts by the Tatmadaw to hold sham
general elections in 2023 without first ceasing its violence
against prodemocracy forces and releasing all opposition
politicians, as any such election would be far from free or
fair; and
(6) calls on the President, and the relevant Federal
agencies, to take immediate action to--
(A) work with international partners and
multilateral institutions, including the United Nations
Security Council, to enact new targeted sanctions on
individuals and entities affiliated with the Tatmadaw,
including an international arms embargo and a
prohibition on the sale of aviation fuel and other dual
use items to the Burmese military;
(B) coordinate with like-minded partners and allies
to restrict the Tatmadaw's ability to finance its
military operations by imposing new sanctions on
Tatmadaw-linked individuals as well as Tatmadaw-
controlled entities, including state-owned enterprises;
(C) work with Indonesia, the 2023 chair of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations and current
country coordinator for the U.S.-ASEAN Partnership, to
leverage its position and regional heft to exert
greater pressure on the Tatmadaw to fully and
meaningfully implement the five-point consensus and
bring an end to the crisis;
(D) issue public warnings to businesses and
individuals outlining the legal liability of doing
business with the Tatmadaw, including potential
liability associated with the Tatmadaw's crimes against
humanity;
(E) enhance enforcement of existing sanctions
prohibiting the importation of precious and
semiprecious gemstones, jade, timber, and amber from
Burma to the United States;
(F) implement the BURMA Act fully and
expeditiously;
(G) provide robust humanitarian assistance in
Burma, Bangladesh, Thailand, and the surrounding region
and ensure that targeted sanctions allow all necessary
exemptions to permit the delivery of humanitarian
assistance to civilians in need;
(H) ensure that United States-based social media
companies, including Facebook, not allow their
platforms to be used as vehicles for disinformation
campaigns or advocating violence against the Burmese
people;
(I) build on the Department of State's March 21,
2022, genocide determination by supporting efforts to
end impunity for those committing the crime of genocide
and pledging to intervene in the International Court of
Justice case in support of The Gambia against Myanmar;
(J) direct the United States Permanent
Representative to the United Nations to use the voice,
vote, and influence of the United States to bring about
greater international cooperation to pursue justice and
accountability in Burma; and
(K) support inclusive international accountability
efforts, including the Independent Investigative
Mechanism for Myanmar, with a particular emphasis on
Burma's civil society organizations, to investigate and
hold perpetrators of atrocities accountable.
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