August
15, 2018, Washington, D.C.—On August 25, 2017, a wave of violence was unleashed against the
Rohingya people in Rakhine state, Burma. In the nearly one year since those
attacks, the global response to this crisis has been shameful. In a new
report, The Rohingya
Crisis: The Shameful Global Response to Genocide and the Assault on Religious
Freedom, the Religious Freedom Institute highlights this
crisis and puts forward a call to action.
The
atrocities committed against the Rohingya were of the worst kinds imaginable.
As mounting evidence has made clear, the attacks were more than just a response
to provocation by armed Rohingya, but were carried out with planning and were
the outgrowth of long-standing religious hostilities and tensions.
“What I heard firsthand from Rohingya refugees in
Bangladesh of children ripped from their parent’s arms is among the worst I
have witnessed in my career,” said Kent Hill, Executive Director of the
Religious Freedom Institute. “The world faces a grave challenge. Will it stand
aside as it did in Rwanda and the Balkans (for far too long) when genocide and
ethnic cleansing were occurring? Or will it put meaningful and effective
pressure on the government of Burma and the military, to end the campaign of
Burman Buddhist nationalism, one which subjugates some minorities to a
second-class status and excludes others from full citizenship?”
These violations of religious freedom and acts of
genocide against the Rohingya of Burma cannot go unanswered. The failure to
respond to earlier violence against the Rohingya allowed the atrocities of 2017
to occur. There are now new signs of similar targeting of other minority
groups, particularly in Kachin state.
The international community, individual
governments, and faith leaders and their congregants around the world, must not
be silent in the face of such a blatant assault on religious freedom and such a
violent act of genocide.
In his forward to the report, Benedict Rogers, East
Asia Team Leader, CSW and an RFI Senior Fellow, said, “Drawing on a range of
sources, [this report] tells a story of an unfolding ethnic cleansing, perhaps
a genocide, with a clear religious as well as racial dimension. It should serve
as a powerful reminder to policy-makers of the severity of this tragedy, and
ensure that we do not allow this crisis to be forgotten or impunity to reign
The
Religious Freedom Institute (RFI) works to secure religious freedom
for everyone, everywhere. The RFI is a non-profit, non-partisan organization
based in Washington, D.C.
Media Contact: Jeremy P. Barker
media@religiousfreedominstitute.org
202-838-7734
media@religiousfreedominstitute.org
202-838-7734
