Congress moves to create special US rep for Rohingya

Two senior U.S. lawmakers are pushing legislation that would create a special envoy in the State Department dedicated to the displaced Rohingya population in Myanmar and Bangladesh and provide an annual budget of $10 million for “atrocity crime investigations.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in March 2021 said Myanmar’s military “committed genocide” against the Muslim minority in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 2017, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee across the border into refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Some 1.2 million Rohingya now live in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which says their current $10 daily food ration is insufficient.

The Rohingya Genocide Accountability and Protection Act – stylized as the Rohingya GAP Act – would establish a “Special Coordinator for Rohingya Atrocities Prevention and Response” within the State Department and provide an annual budget of $10 million for five years.

The envoy would be tasked with supporting “atrocity crime investigations, documentation, and casework, transitional justice and accountability mechanisms, witness protection measures, and technical support related to Rohingya,” a press release says.

A “Conflict Observatory for Burma” would also be created and tasked with monitoring and reporting on political violence in Myanmar, according to the bill, while higher-education scholarships for Rohingya refugees living in the United States would also be authorized. 

The legislation is co-sponsored by both Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican from Texas and the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Gregory Meeks, a Democrat from New York and his party’s ranking member on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

It was approved by the committee with bipartisan support on Thursday and now heads to the full House of Representatives for a vote. If successful, it will then need to be approved by the U.S. Senate.

Speaking during the committee mark-up session, McCaul said that swift passage of the legislation was a moral imperative.

“This resolution continues our bipartisan support in addressing the crisis in Burma and the Rohingya genocide,” he said. “I urge my colleagues to support this important measure and show the world the United States Congress will not let genocide go unanswered.”

After the bill’s approval in the committee, Meeks said in a statement he believed it would ultimately be passed quickly by the House.

“The State Department’s determination two years ago that the Burmese military committed genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya was not only a critical recognition of the atrocities they have suffered, but also a call to action,” Meeks said.

“The Rohingya GAP Act is a key step towards protecting and supporting Rohingya and ensuring history does not repeat itself. I look forward to this legislation’s swift passage on the House Floor.”