87R21037 BPG-D
By: Reynolds H.R. No. 1329
R E S O L U T I O N
WHEREAS, Myanmar state forces killed almost 24,000 members of
the country's Rohingya Muslim minority between 2017 and 2020,
according to a report compiled by the Ontario International
Development Agency; and
WHEREAS, Rohingya Muslims have lived in Myanmar for
centuries, alongside a Buddhist majority and other, smaller ethnic
minorities, but following a military coup in 1962, the Rohingya
were demonized by a regime seeking scapegoats for its failures;
enacting a series of harsh laws, the military stripped them of
citizenship and practiced systematic oppression, claiming they
were illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, intent upon destroying
Buddhist heritage; and
WHEREAS, Isolated politically and economically, military
leaders began to adopt some trappings of representative government;
a new constitution was adopted in 2008, but the persecution of the
Rohingya escalated, and authorities launched an ethnic cleansing
campaign, interning them in squalid open-air detention camps; and
WHEREAS, In a 2015 election, the party led by Nobel
Prize-winning champion of democracy Aung San Suu Kyi won a
landslide victory; she became the de facto civilian leader, but
deferred to the military as the state continued to persecute the
Rohingya; after an attack by a rebel group in 2017, the military
descended upon Rohingya villages with helicopter gunships;
soldiers burned houses to the ground and committed murder and gang
rapes in a brutal campaign with "genocidal intent," according to a
United Nations human rights report; more than 750,000 desperate
Rohingya, mostly women and children, were driven over the border
into Bangladesh, according to Amnesty International; and
WHEREAS, Before being ousted by a military coup in February
2021, Aung San Suu Kyi ignored pleas from the international
community to speak out or intervene, dismissing evidence of
atrocities as "fake news" and claiming the military was simply
fighting terrorism; and
WHEREAS, The Rohingya have suffered immensely for decades,
and while hundreds of thousands languish in crowded refugee camps
in Bangladesh, the fate of those remaining in Myanmar is more
precarious than ever under an emboldened military determined to
crush all opposition; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 87th Texas
Legislature hereby condemn the genocide perpetrated against the
Rohingya people by the military government of Myanmar.