Political Quotes

“Mr. President, earlier this week, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on an issue that I consider one of the greatest moral tests of our time in the conduct of U.S. foreign policy--the situation in Burma, where the Burmese military is committing ethnic cleansing and is perpetrating atrocities. We have a humanitarian crisis. We have perpetrators who expect impunity and a situation, under the watch of the international community and the Trump administration, that is allowing for the perpetration of atrocities. Ethnic cleansing is defined by the United Nations Commission of Experts as ``rendering an area ethnically homogenous by using force or intimidation to remove persons of given groups from an area.'' Half of the population of the Rohingya in Burma have left--600,000 people out of 1.2 million. I might add that, of those who remain, many are dislocated. There has been a systematic burning of their villages. This didn't just start. It has been a campaign that has gone on for a long period of time, since a 1982 law that denies the Rohingya citizenship, even though they have been residents for generations. The Rohingya are denied freedom of movement. They are denied freedom of education. They are denied healthcare. This has been a systematic effort to destroy an ethnic community. We have seen this happen far too long in too many places around the world. Once again, we see this happening today in Burma.…”