Today, in an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 394 to 1, the U.S. House took a rare and powerful step to declare crimes against Burma’s Rohingya Muslim minority genocide.    

Earlier this week, Chairman Ed Royce spoke with Voice of America’s Greta Van Susteren about the importance of this resolution and the need to hold Burmese military and security leaders accountable for the campaign of mass murder, rape and destruction that has forced 700,000 Rohingya from their homes. Below are the video and a few key excerpts from their conversation.

 

We need a united voice against Burma’s genocide.

Chairman Royce: “25,000 human beings have been killed there. Another 19,000 women have been raped. We want to send the message with one voice to those who are involved in this that you will be held accountable. And we want to put things in motion so that the international community understands the gravity of it.”

Enough!

Chairman Royce: “There’s a moral obligation obviously here for Americans, for all of us – regardless of political party, regardless of ideology – to stand up and say, ‘Enough! No genocide on our watch. This has to end now.’”

And we need to put more pressure on the Burmese government.

Chairman Royce: “We want the pressure to be felt and this message to be heard in Burma that the United States is going on record… [on] the finding of genocide so that these atrocities stop. [It’s] not only sanctions, but also increasing the pressure internally. One of the things we have to do is use social media, radio, television to tell the people inside the country what’s actually happening. Because their government is giving them disinformation.”