“Refugees International welcomes a powerful letter from a group of faith-based organizations to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging him to publicly declare that the Myanmar military committed genocide against the Rohingya people.

The letter, led by the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and signed by Bethany Christian Service, HIAS, Muslims for Muslims International, and a total of more than 30 multi-faith organizations, was delivered today ahead of Tuesday’s three-year anniversary of the Myanmar military’s brutal, coordinated attacks on the Rohingya people that forced nearly 800,000 Rohingya to flee for their lives to neighboring Bangladesh. Three years on, the Myanmar military continues to act with impunity, and Rohingya remaining in Myanmar face the ongoing risk of violence and persecution.

“We respectfully request the State Department to demonstrate international leadership in defending the lives, religious freedom, and property rights of the Rohingya people by designating the prolonged military aggression a genocide,” the letter states.

Their call echoes Refugees International’s own campaign and petition urging Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to make a formal genocide determination. Such a determination would help the international community hold Myanmar accountable, help to ensure that the Rohingya may someday safely return to their homeland, and bolster international support for victims until such a return is possible.

Refugees International has received a groundswell of support for the campaign with endorsements from prominent legal experts, NGOs, human rights organizations, faith leaders, celebrities, Rohingya people themselves, and more than 10,000 individual signatories.”

See the full letter here: https://erlc.com/resource-library/articles/erlc-leads-letter-urging-the-state-department-to-designate-rohingya-persecution-as-genocide/

 Learn more about Refugees International’s #CallitGenocide Campaign here: https://www.refugeesinternational.org/call-it-genocide

For press inquiries please contact Sarah Sheffer at [email protected] or +1 203 305 9880.

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