Political Quotes

“I thank the gentlewoman from Missouri for yielding. It is Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month, and the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Wagner) has been a leader in speaking out on this critical issue for many years now, and we appreciate her leadership on that. As a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I have had the opportunity to advocate for global human rights issues for many years. Tonight, I want to condemn a genocide that has been happening before our eyes: the genocide against the Rohingya in Rakhine State, Burma. Last September, the Burmese military began a so-called clearing operation, allegedly in response to some insurgent attacks. In reality, this was just an excuse for a massive and barbaric campaign to forcibly remove the Rohingya from Burma altogether and erase their memory from the Rakhine State once and for all, resulting in over 700,000 Rohingya, many of whom are children, fleeing Burma for Bangladesh. This has needlessly left Bangladesh and the world with one of the worst humanitarian crises that the world faces today. While these numbers are truly shocking, as we learn more about the crimes committed by the Burmese military, there can be no doubt that this is, in fact, genocide. When the Rohingya arrived in Bangladesh, they told story after story of the crimes that they had witnessed and that they had personally suffered: widespread killings, mass graves, rapes, and other unspeakable horrors and injuries.…”