12/05/2018 Myanmar (International Christian Concern) – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is seeking to place more sanctions on the Myanmar military as a result of the human right violations committed against Christians and other religious minorities.
In a press release on Monday, USCIRF announced that they want the U.S. government and the international community to “pursue strong policy responses” to hold Burma’s military, security forces and non-state actors accountable for “severe human rights and religious freedom violations against Burma’s Rohingya Muslims and other religious and ethnic communities.”
The chairman of USCIRF, Tenzin Dorjee stated that, “Rohingya Muslims and other religious and ethnic groups have suffered terribly at the hands of Burma’s military and security forces, with some calling the abuses ‘ethnic cleansing,’ ‘crimes against humanity,’ or even ‘genocide’, and yet those responsible for these abuses have largely escaped accountability for their actions.”
The human right abuses by the Myanmar military has forced over 700,000 people, to flee from their homes since 2016. In fall of 2017, a statement came out stating that this was all planned and they wanted to attack these communities and force them to flee. In the Kachin State the same pre-planned attacks by the military forced tens of thousands of Christians to flee from their homes. An estimated 130,000 Christians are currently displaced from their homes.
The Chinese government is not allowing these displaced people groups to cross the border and seek refuge in China, creating further challenges for displaced people groups.
“The U.S. government and other international actors have various tools at their disposal, among them targeted sanctions, that they can and should continue to use to bring justice to the perpetrators. We must send the message that horrific abuses like these will not be tolerated and will not go unanswered,” stated Dorjee.
While the United States government has already implanted some sanctions to hold those accountable for the human rights violations, the USCIRF is imploring that they implement more sanctions in order to seek greater justice for the victims and displaced families.
For interviews with Gina Goh, ICC’s Regional Manager, please contact Olivia Miller, Communications Coordinator: press@persecution.org.
