Hollywood beauty Angelina Jolie and US Senator John McCain have urged Americans to unite and fight for human rights.
In a New York Times op-ed column co-written by the duo, they have outlined the human rights issues with regards to the atrocities committed against Rohingya Muslims and want Americans and the US government to take action.
“Around the world, there is profound concern that America is giving up the mantle of global leadership,” they write. “Our steady retreat over the past decade has contributed to a wide array of complex global challenges — a dangerous erosion of the rule of law, gross human rights violations and the decline of the rules-based international order that was designed in the aftermath of two world wars to prevent conflict and deter mass atrocities.”
The lack of diplomacy in Myanmar has forced about 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee “a systematic military campaign of killings, arson, rape and other mass atrocities amounting to ethnic cleansing,” they write.
Citing recent reports, McCain and Jolie say a good number of survivors weren't getting proper assistance due to a lack of funding for gender-based-violence programs. Protecting children and women from sexual violence should be a priority for the United States and like-minded countries, adding that urgent steps should be taken to provide medical assistance to Rohingya families in desperate need in Rakhine State in Myanmar.
The duo also urge the passing of Burma Human Rights and Freedom Act, something that would impose sanctions on Burmese military and security forces responsible for the violence. It will also support efforts to properly investigate human rights violations.
“While politics have left Americans deeply divided, we can all unite around the belief that a commitment to freedom, justice and human rights has distinguished the United States as a great nation,” they write. “Our failure to hold accountable those who commit mass atrocities and human rights abuses will lead to more violence and instability.”
Meanwhile, a new report claims that more than 43,000 Rohingya parents have been lost or presumed dead in the six months. These figures hint that the number of Muslim Rohingya killed in the crisis may exceed the Myanmar government’s official count of 400 even by conservative estimates.
There is no reliable account of how many people have lost their lives since Myanmar’s military unleashed a crackdown last August, but Doctors Without Borders estimates that at least 6,700 Rohingyas have died in the first month of the violence alone.
“Given what we’ve documented from eyewitnesses and survivors from areas targeted by the army and other state security forces, it’s likely that a significant portion of lost parents were killed,” Matthew Smith of Fortify Rights told Time. “There were massacres and mass killings in all three affected townships since August, and in 2016 as well.”
Damian Talbot