Letter from 58 NGOs Calling for Targeted Economic Sanctions in Burma

November 2, 2017

The Honorable Rex Tillerson

Secretary of State

U.S. Department of State

2201 C Street NW

Washington, DC 20520

The Honorable Steven Mnuchin

Secretary of the Treasury

U.S. Department of the Treasury

1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20220

Re: Burma and Targeted Sanctions

Dear Secretaries Tillerson and Mnuchin,

The US government urgently needs to act to help address the grave human rights and humanitarian crisis that has resulted from the Burmese military’s brutal response to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA)’s August 25 attack on government posts in Burma’s Rakhine State.

As you know, since late August, Burmese security forces have waged a campaign of ethnic cleansing and committed numerous crimes against humanity against the Rohingya population, a long-persecuted ethnic and religious minority group predominantly in Rakhine State. In response to these abuses, more than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh over the past two months.

Satellite images commissioned by independent organizations show hundreds of burned villages – and tens of thousands of torched buildings. Refugees have provided first-hand accounts of unfathomable brutality: soldiers burning infants alive, gang-raping women, shooting villagers fleeing their homes – violations that research by nongovernmental organizations has found to be widespread and systematic. 

United Nations investigators who have conducted interviews of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have noted “a consistent, methodical pattern of actions resulting in gross human rights violations affecting hundreds of thousands of people.” The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, has called the scale and nature of the atrocities in Rakhine a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

Despite international condemnation, Burmese authorities continue to restrict access to the region for most international humanitarian organizations, a UN fact-finding mission, and independent media. The commander-in-chief of the Burmese military, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and other Burmese officials, refuse to acknowledge the atrocities their forces have committed.

We commend the U.S. government for the nearly $104 million in humanitarian assistance it has provided in fiscal year 2017, nearly $40 million of which was provided in direct response to the Rakhine State crisis, to displaced populations in Burma and refugees in neighboring countries. We also strongly support the State Department’s statement that “individuals or entities responsible for atrocities, including non-state actors and vigilantes, be held accountable.”

It is critical that the U.S. government respond to the severity and scope of the Burmese military’s ethnic cleansing campaign with effective action. To this end, we urge the administration to immediately and robustly impose targeted economic sanctions authorized under the 2008 JADE Act and the 2016 Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.

Under the JADE Act, the president is empowered to issue travel restrictions and financial sanctions against Burmese military officials and their immediate family members if they are “involved in…gross violations of human rights in Burma or in the commission of other human rights abuses.” Steps taken by the previous administration to lift sanctions did not unravel existing authorities but only waived them, and, according to recent State Department releases, some JADE Act authorities are currently in use, such as the ban on current and former Burmese military officials traveling to the United States. The administration should move to robustly and vigorously employ the remaining authorities. 

In addition to the JADE Act, the administration should exercise its authority granted under the Global Magnitsky Act, which allows for the levying of travel restrictions and financial sanctions against individuals responsible for acts of significant corruption and gross violations of internationally recognized human rights committed against individuals who seek “to obtain, exercise, defend, or promote internationally recognized human rights and freedoms, such as the freedom of religion.” Given that the Burmese military’s actions against the Rohingya people are motivated at least in part on religious grounds, the Global Magnitsky Act is applicable.

Given the systemic nature of the crimes being perpetrated against the Rohingya people, it is important that sanctions designations levied under either the JADE Act or Global Magnitsky Act target appropriately senior officials who likely ordered criminal acts or appear to have been criminally responsible as a matter of command responsibility. Command responsibility would encompass those senior-most members of the Burmese security forces who knew or had reason to know that their subordinates were committing extrajudicial killings, rape, arson and other abuses, and failed to take all necessary and reasonable steps to prevent such abuses or punish those responsible.

As you recently said, Secretary Tillerson, “the world cannot just sit idly by and be witness to these atrocities.” The JADE Act and Global Magnitsky Act provide the executive branch with tools for action. The United States should employ them to the fullest to prevent dire consequences for Burma’s future and send an unmistakable signal to the rest of the world.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights First

AFL-CIO

ALTSEAN-Burma

Ameinu (Our People)

Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain

American Jewish Committee

American Jewish World Service

Anti-Defamation League

Association Suisse Birmanie

Boat People SOS

Buddhist Global Relief

Burma Action Ireland

Burma Campaign UK

Burma Human Rights Network

Burma Task Force

Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK

Center for Justice & Accountability

Christian Solidarity Worldwide

Congregation Tehillah

CREDO

Emgage Action

Estonian American National Council

Equal Rights Trust 

Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR-USA)

Freedom House

Friends Committee on National Legislation

Fortify Rights

Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect

Global Progressive Hub

Holocaust, Genocide, and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College

Info Birmanie

Institute for Asian Democracy

Interfaith Center of New York

International Campaign for the Rohingya

International State Crime Initiative

Investors Against Genocide

Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights

JACOB: The Jewish Alliance of Concern Over Burma

Jewish Council for Public Affairs

Joint Baltic American National Committee

Jubilee Campaign USA Inc

Just Foreign Policy

Magnitsky Act Initiative

Muslim Bar Association of New York

Muslim Public Affairs Council

Partners Relief & Development

Physicians for Human Rights

Refugees International

Society for Threatened Peoples - Germany

STAND: The Student-Led Movement to End Mass Atrocities

The Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders

The Network of Spiritual Progressives

T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights

Unitarian Universalist Service Committee

U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants

Viet Tan

Win Without War

Original here.