Joe Pitts: “I rise today on behalf of freedom-loving people in Burma. This week there is a delegation of leaders from Burma, ethnic…”

“I rise today on behalf of freedom-loving people in Burma. This week there is a delegation of leaders from Burma, ethnic minority leaders, visiting Washington. The information they bring is a stark reminder of the brutality to the Burmese people under the military junta. The terrible offensive of 2006 continues against the ethnic Karen people and others. Over 3,000 villages have been burned. There have been over 25,000 new internally displaced people in that one province. How can we turn our backs on people who are being ethnically cleansed through genocide, raped, shot, maimed by land mines and who watch their villages and food sources be destroyed daily? The U.S. and the international community must help provide more humanitarian assistance and protection for them. We need to continue to push for a U.N. Security Council resolution on Burma. The U.S. needs to renew its sanctions against dictators. We need to get direct humanitarian aid to the people. It is time to act. The people of Burma deserve to live safely and peacefully in their own land.”