Senators call for consequences to end human rights abuses including sexual and gender-based attacks against the Rohingya population 

Washington (November 28, 2017) –Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations East Asia Subcommittee, today led a bipartisan group of 16 Senators in a letter to the United Nations Secretary General urging him to work with the UN Security Council to use all the tools available, including targeted sanctions, to hold accountable those responsible for human rights abuses including sexual assault.  More than 600,000 Rohingya civilians, mostly women and children, have fled Burma into Bangladesh to escape violence.  

“Widespread sexual violence suggests that these crimes were not incidental…but a calculated tool of terror. The international community must send a strong signal that militaries cannot use sexual violence as a tool of war,” according to the letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. “We urge you to work with the United Nations Security Council, using its authorities under resolution 2242, to adopt targeted sanctions against Tatmadaw soldiers who engaged in or ordered violations and abuses of human rights, including sexual and gender-based violence.”

Media reports that many of the Rohingya claim that Tatmadaw soldiers enter their villages, kill civilians, rape women and girls, and then burn down entire villages. International medical teams treating the Rohingya in camps report that some bear gunshot wounds consistent with being shot from behind, and many women and girls have injuries consistent with sexual assault.

A copy of the letter can be found HERE.

The following Senators signed the letter: Edward Markey (D-MA); Todd Young (R-IN); Chris Van Hollen (D-MD); Marco Rubio (R-FL); Dianne Feinstein (D-CA); Tammy Baldwin (D-WI); Richard Blumenthal (D-CT); Cory Booker (D-NJ); Dick Durbin (D-IL); Tim Kaine (D-VA); Jeff Merkley (D-OR); Jack Reed (D-RI); Elizabeth Warren (D-MA); Maria Cantwell (D-WA); Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY); and Ben Cardin (D-MD). 

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