Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as a strong supporter and cosponsor of H. Res. 418, urging the Government of Burma to end the persecution of the Rohingya people and to respect internationally recognized human rights for all ethnic and religious minority groups within Burma. I want to commend the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), my friend and colleague, for offering this legislation, which is certainly timely, and we appreciate his leadership on this. As chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, I believe it is imperative that the U.S. and the international community raise awareness of this ongoing crisis in Burma and of the need for its government to respect the human rights of all of its ethnic and religious minority groups, which it is clearly not doing at this time. Last year, we held two hearings in my subcommittee to examine the deteriorating human rights situation and ethnic unrest in Burma. It has become abundantly clear that the political and social situation there is extremely fragile and that the continuing persecution of the minority Rohingya population is just, as was said, a profound crisis. Some 140,000 displaced Rohingya have been forced to live in camps described as open-air prisons. Doctors Without Borders was forced out by the Burmese Government, and since then, nearly 150 Rohingya have died of medically-related causes.…”