Whereas actions by the military of Burma, known as the Tatmadaw, including continuing assaults on personnel and territory controlled by armed ethnic organizations, military offensives immediately preceding and following national peace conferences, and human rights abuses against noncombatant civilians in conflict areas, undermine the confidence in establishing a credible nationwide cease-fire agreement to end Burma’s civil war; Whereas Burmese military officials have a longstanding history of targeting ethnic groups and armed ethnic organizations in Burma, in addition to the Rohingya, and whereas there are ongoing conflicts currently in the Shan, Kachin, and Rakhine states; Whereas August 25, 2017, attacks on security posts in Burma by the military group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army resulted in a brutal, systematic, and disproportionate reprisal by the Burmese military and security forces on Rohingya villages; Whereas more than 624,000 Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh since the Burmese military commenced its scorched-earth campaign, with the burning of villages and local monuments, and reports of widespread rape, starvation, killing, and forcible deportation; Whereas Burmese military officials have promulgated fabrications about the Rohingya to sow negative public perception of the minority ethnic group, including that they are not Burmese, that they are uniformly implicated in terrorist activities and controlled by international terrorist groups with the intention of creating an Islamic State, that they attacked their own people and burned down their own villages in order to gain international sympathy, and that they are fleeing to Bangladesh for economic reasons or to create the appearance of ethnic cleansing; Whereas the Government of Burma has consistently denied access to the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar established to investigate human rights violations around the country