On February 7, the House International Relations Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations and the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific held a joint hearing on human rights violations in Burma and what the U.S. and the international community can do to address the situation.
Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ), chair of the Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations Subcommittee, said that according to the State Department’s most recent Human Rights Country Report on Burma, “more than 4 decades of economic mismanagement and endemic corruption have resulted in widespread poverty, poor health care, declining education levels, poor infrastructure, and continuously deteriorating economic conditions.” The ruling military regime “uses rape as an instrument of policy,” he said, adding, “Its policy of forced labor has led to a large human trafficking problem.” Rep. Smith also called attention to the plight of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Burma’s National League for Democracy, who has been under house arrest for the most part of the last 10 years, despite the fact that she has never been charged with a crime.
Christopher R. Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, testified that according to the United Nations, “one-third of Burmese children are malnourished, and 50 percent drop out of school within five years.” He also noted that “two percent of pregnant women are HIV positive.” However, the regime’s response to this “litany of humanitarian problems” has been to “place significant restrictions on UN agencies and NGOs, in some cases suspending their operations or forcing them to terminate their programs altogether,” he said. The U.S., he added, is addressing these problems by continuing to impose trade sanctions on Burma, supporting humanitarian programs, and “calling on the Burmese authorities to release Aung San Suu Kyi, and the over 1,100 other political prisoners, and begin a credible, inclusive political process that empowers the people of Burma to determine their future.”
Calling forced labor, trafficking in persons, the use of child soldiers, and religious discrimination all “serious concerns” in Burma, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Barry Lowenkron elaborated on the issue of human trafficking. He said, “Pursuant to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, Burma has been designated a Tier 3 country a country that fails to take significant actions to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.” He added, “Trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation, factory labor, and as household servants continues unabated to Thailand and other countries, including China, India, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Pakistan, Malaysia, Japan, and countries in the Middle East.” He said the administration is addressing these issues by “continuing to fund innovative programs to further the objectives of The Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act.”
Naw Win Yee testified on behalf of the Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) saying, “Burma’s military regime has also carried out a policy of using rape as a weapon of war against Shan and other ethnic nationalities in [the] country.” According to a SWAN report documenting countless cases of rape by soldiers of the military regime, “at least 83% were committed by officers, usually in front of their own troops to further humiliate the victims. The rapes involved extreme brutality, including torture such as beatings and mutilation. 61% of the rapes documented were gang-rapes by soldiers, while in 25% of the cases, the rapes ended with the killing of the woman.”
“Clearly,” said Ms. Yee, “these military rapes are acts of vicious performance they send clear messages to survivors of military rape, victims’ and survivors’ families, and whole communities. These are war crimes designed and used specifically to demoralize and terrorize our people.” She urged the U.S. to work toward passing a UN Security Council resolution on Burma and securing the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, who she called “our nation’s leader.”
