Buma's horrific crimes against the Rohingya have thus far gone unpunished. It is no surprise that Burma's army has launched an offensive against another ethnic people, the Kachin in northern Myanmar. Burma's army is using some of the same units responsible for burning villages, mass killings, and rapes in Rohingya villages.
It's time that the Senate Majority Leader, Senator Mitch McConnell, schedule a vote in the Senate on sanctions on Burma's army. Already, due to your phone calls and emails, the House of Representatives has voted overwhelmingly (382 to 30) in favor of broad sanctions on Burma's army. Now, demand that your senators support and co-sponsor the Burma Human Rights and Freedom Act of 2018 (S.2060).
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has already reported out S.2060. It now remains in the hands of one man, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, to schedule a final full Senate vote on the Burma sanctions bill.
Senator McConnell will be greatly swayed if more Republican senators co-sponsor the bill and ask for a Senate floor vote. If you are represented by Republican senators, please make a special effort to email and call them this week.
After you have emailed your senators, please follow up by phone. Call the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your senators' office. Or simply search the web for the phone number of their office in Washington, DC.
Check to see if your senators have sponsored the Burma Human Rights and Freedom Act of 2018 (S.2060). (If you live in Maryland, Massachusetts, or Oregon, both of your senators are already sponsors.) If they are a co-sponsor, call to thank them.
When you reach your legislator's office, ask to be connected to the staffer responsible for foreign policy. (Before being connected, ask for the spelling of the staffer's name and their email address.)
Simply tell the staffer - in person or on their voicemail - to support and co-sponsor S. 2060: the Burma Human Rights and Freedom Act of 2018.
Leave your name, number, and city of residence to indicate that you live in the district.
Follow up with an email to the staffer. The staffer's email will follow this format: "[first name]_[last name]@[senator's last name].senate.gov".
Email me at simon.billenness@rohingyacampaign.org and tell me how your call went and send me the name and email of the staffers.
And, finally, if this is the level of activism that you'd like to continue, contact me. I'm looking for a few good folks in every state willing to work together to form a local chapter of the International Campaign for the Rohingya. If that's you, let's talk!
Let’s make this a habit of calling Congress every week until they do the job of putting effective pressure on Burma.
Thank you,
Simon Billenness, Executive Director
For the International Campaign for the Rohingya: Joseph K. Grieboski, Olivia Dulmage, Mariane Leite, Michael DeLong, Hana Manadath, and Akriti Panthi.
(c) 2018 International Campaign for the Rohingya