| 1 | 1 | | 87R21037 BPG-D |
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| 2 | 2 | | By: Reynolds H.R. No. 1329 |
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| 3 | 3 | | |
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| 4 | 4 | | |
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| 5 | 5 | | R E S O L U T I O N |
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| 6 | 6 | | WHEREAS, Myanmar state forces killed almost 24,000 members of |
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| 7 | 7 | | the country's Rohingya Muslim minority between 2017 and 2020, |
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| 8 | 8 | | according to a report compiled by the Ontario International |
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| 9 | 9 | | Development Agency; and |
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| 10 | 10 | | WHEREAS, Rohingya Muslims have lived in Myanmar for |
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| 11 | 11 | | centuries, alongside a Buddhist majority and other, smaller ethnic |
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| 12 | 12 | | minorities, but following a military coup in 1962, the Rohingya |
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| 13 | 13 | | were demonized by a regime seeking scapegoats for its failures; |
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| 14 | 14 | | enacting a series of harsh laws, the military stripped them of |
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| 15 | 15 | | citizenship and practiced systematic oppression, claiming they |
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| 16 | 16 | | were illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, intent upon destroying |
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| 17 | 17 | | Buddhist heritage; and |
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| 18 | 18 | | WHEREAS, Isolated politically and economically, military |
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| 19 | 19 | | leaders began to adopt some trappings of representative government; |
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| 20 | 20 | | a new constitution was adopted in 2008, but the persecution of the |
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| 21 | 21 | | Rohingya escalated, and authorities launched an ethnic cleansing |
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| 22 | 22 | | campaign, interning them in squalid open-air detention camps; and |
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| 23 | 23 | | WHEREAS, In a 2015 election, the party led by Nobel |
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| 24 | 24 | | Prize-winning champion of democracy Aung San Suu Kyi won a |
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| 25 | 25 | | landslide victory; she became the de facto civilian leader, but |
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| 26 | 26 | | deferred to the military as the state continued to persecute the |
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| 27 | 27 | | Rohingya; after an attack by a rebel group in 2017, the military |
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| 28 | 28 | | descended upon Rohingya villages with helicopter gunships; |
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| 29 | 29 | | soldiers burned houses to the ground and committed murder and gang |
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| 30 | 30 | | rapes in a brutal campaign with "genocidal intent," according to a |
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| 31 | 31 | | United Nations human rights report; more than 750,000 desperate |
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| 32 | 32 | | Rohingya, mostly women and children, were driven over the border |
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| 33 | 33 | | into Bangladesh, according to Amnesty International; and |
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| 34 | 34 | | WHEREAS, Before being ousted by a military coup in February |
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| 35 | 35 | | 2021, Aung San Suu Kyi ignored pleas from the international |
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| 36 | 36 | | community to speak out or intervene, dismissing evidence of |
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| 37 | 37 | | atrocities as "fake news" and claiming the military was simply |
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| 38 | 38 | | fighting terrorism; and |
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| 39 | 39 | | WHEREAS, The Rohingya have suffered immensely for decades, |
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| 40 | 40 | | and while hundreds of thousands languish in crowded refugee camps |
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| 41 | 41 | | in Bangladesh, the fate of those remaining in Myanmar is more |
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| 42 | 42 | | precarious than ever under an emboldened military determined to |
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| 43 | 43 | | crush all opposition; now, therefore, be it |
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| 44 | 44 | | RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 87th Texas |
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| 45 | 45 | | Legislature hereby condemn the genocide perpetrated against the |
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| 46 | 46 | | Rohingya people by the military government of Myanmar. |
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