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,

1. Human Rights Watch
2. Human Rights First
3. AFL-CIO
4. ALTSEAN-Burma
5. Ameinu (Our People)
6. Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain
7. American Jewish Committee
8. American Jewish World Service
9. Anti-Defamation League
10. Association Suisse Birmanie
11. Boat People SOS
12. Buddhist Global Relief
13. Burma Action Ireland
14. Burma Campaign UK
15. Burma Human Rights Network
16. Burma Task Force
17. Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK
18. Center for Justice & Accountability
19. Christian Solidarity Worldwide
20. Congregation Tehillah
21. CREDO
22. Emgage Action
23. Estonian American National Council
24. Equal Rights Trust
25. Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR-USA)
26. Freedom House
27. Friends Committee on National Legislation
28. Fortify Rights
29. Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
30. Global Progressive Hub
31. Holocaust, Genocide, and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College
32. Info Birmanie
33. Institute for Asian Democracy
34. Interfaith Center of New York
35. International Campaign for the Rohingya
36. International State Crime Initiative
37. Investors Against Genocide
38. Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights
39. JACOB: The Jewish Alliance of Concern Over Burma
40. Jewish Council for Public Affairs
41. Joint Baltic American National Committee
42. Jubilee Campaign USA Inc
43. Just Foreign Policy
44. Magnitsky Act Initiative
45. Muslim Bar Association of New York
46. Muslim Public Affairs Council
47. Partners Relief & Development
48. Physicians for Human Rights
49. Refugees International
50. Society for Threatened Peoples – Germany
51. STAND: The Student-Led Movement to End Mass Atrocities
52. The Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders
53. The Network of Spiritual Progressives
54. T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
55. Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
56. U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
57. Viet Tan
58. Win Without War