H. RES. 84 - INTERVENTION IN BURMA

Introduced in the House of Representatives on February 13, 2003 by Mr. Pitts (PA-16).  Referred to the House International Relations Committee on February 13, 2004.
Cosponsors

Background:

This resolution calls for the immediate intervention in the conflict in Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), was democratically elected as General Secretary of the NLD in the My 1990 multiparty election in Burma and is the rightful leader of the government. However, the military junta in Burma, now calling itself the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has refused to cede power to Aung San Suu Kyi's rightful, democratically elected government. The military junta is engaged in ethnic cleansing in Burma, which is tantamount to genocide under established international law. Furthermore, this conflict between the military junta and the ethnic minorities in Burma is one of the longest sustained civil wars in history.

Provisions:

• Calls upon the executive branch of the United States Government and the international community to intervene immediately in the conflict in Burma and actively protect and assist the refugees along the Thai-Burma border and the internally displaced persons within Burma.

• Calls upon the Government of Thailand, a close ally of the United States, to allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to establish a permanent presence to assist the refugees;

• Calls upon the international community to place human rights monitors and peacekeepers inside Burma immediately in order to end the ethnic cleansing campaign of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC);

• Calls upon the international community to press the SPDC to desist immediately from its systematic policy of genocide;

• Calls upon the SPDC to respect and allow forthwith the establishment of the democratically elected Government of Burma from the 1990 election, led by Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy.

• Calls upon the international community to prosecute the military dictatorship of Burma on charges of genocide and as perpetrators of grave crimes against humanity;
  Calls upon the Government of Thailand to rescind immediately its decision to deport democracy activists to likely death in Burma;

• Calls upon the appropriate committees of the United States Congress and appropriate legislative bodies of other countries to hold hearings on the violations of human rights and genocide against the ethnic minorities in Burma;

• Calls for appropriate reparations by the SPDC to victims of rape and victims of forced labor in Burma;

• Calls for the SPDC to release immediately and unconditionally all political prisoners in Burma;

• Urges the SPDC to commence immediately a full-scale political dialogue with the National League for Democracy and all ethnic groups in Burma;

• Calls upon the international community to destroy the military capability of the SPDC by eliminating the capacity of the SPDC and other entities with which it is allied to produce illicit drugs that supply the funds for the procurement by the SPDC of arms and munitions to support its war against the people of Burma;

• Calls upon the international community and people of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds to join together with the people of Burma for the Global Day of Prayer for Burma.
  
  
  Visit THOMAS to look up the Bill Text, Summary and Status