On the recordDecember 5, 2017
I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in very strong support of H. Con. Res. 90. The discrimination and violence imposed on the Rohingya ethnic minority in Burma is brutal, horrific, and preventable. I do welcome, like the rest of my colleagues, the administration's determination that the attacks against Rohingya are ethnic cleansing, because it certainly is, but I would respectfully submit it certainly rises to the level of genocide. The Genocide Convention couldn't be clearer: If you look to destroy an ethnic group--there are other categories as well, but it is all about the group--in whole or in part, and even the thought, the contemplation of doing so can rise to genocide. Here it is actually happening, and it is happening because of who they are as a group. I think there needs to be a further refinement of that determination to the point of being genocide. The responsibility for this humanitarian crisis falls squarely on the Burmese military and, to some extent, on the endemic and widespread intolerance expressed in Burmese society for the Rohingya. After the State Department's determination of ethnic cleansing, it should not hesitate to impose sanctions against the Burmese military leaders and all others who are responsible for this bloodbath.…
