Joint Statement of Nationalities Alliance of Burma (USA), Canadian Burma Ethnic Nationalities Organization (CBENO) and Coalition of Burma Ethnics, Malaysia (COBEM)
Date: November 18, 2019
We, member organizations of the Nationalities Alliance of Burma (USA), Canadian Burma Ethnic Nationalities Organization (CBENO) and Coalition of Burma Ethnics, Malaysia (COBEM) welcome Gambia’s lawsuit against the Burmese government for state-sponsored genocide against the Rohingya people of Burma. The crimes committed are clearly in violation of the commitments made under the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Like the Rohingya, other ethnic nationalities of Burma suffer from serious and persistent violations of basic human rights, and are subjected to violent persecution under military rule. It is common practice by the Burmese military to conduct arbitrary arrests and detention, brutal beatings and torture, sexual assaults and rape, land confiscations, and discriminate killings against vulnerable ethnic nationalities in ethnic regions. The continued presence of the military in and around villages in ethnic areas is enabling the perpetuation of such brutal treatment of ethnic nationalities.
Consequently, hundreds of thousands of Internally Displaced Persons of different ethnic nationalities are currently living in makeshift tents under perilous conditions along the nation’s borders. Hundreds of thousands more have fled their homes to neighbouring countries living as refugees and stateless people without proper protection but subjected to constant fear of arrest and persecution.
We, therefore, express our strong support for the international community’s actions to bring the Burmese military to justice, and make them accountable for its widespread and systematic violence.
Media contact:
- M Tu Aung, General Secretary of NAB (USA). Phone: +1 (757) 769-9801
- Maha Kyaw Swe, President of CBENO, Canada. Phone: +1 (519) 630-2355
- Johseph Sha Ru, President of COBEM, Malaysia. Phone: +60 (017) 685-7985
Nationalities Alliance of Burma (USA) is a network of ethnic nationalities organizations based in United States.
Canadian Burma Ethnic Nationalities Organization (CBENO) is an organization made up of Burma ethnic communities and organizations based in Canada.
Coalition of Burma Ethnics, Malaysia (COBEM) is a network organization made up of ACR (Chin), ARRC (Arakan), MKO (Karen), MRO (Mon), OKD (Karenni), KRC (Kachin), SRC (Shan) based in Malaysia.
