In early 2018, Justice for All announced the creation of a new partnership to educate people about the genocide faced by Rohingya of Burma and the crimes against humanity faced by other Burmese ethnic groups specially Kachins & Karens. We started out as an effort by Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Buddhist faith leaders with the name “Faith Coalition to Stop Genocide in Burma.” Now we are renaming ourselves to “Faith Coalition to Stop Genocide.”

Although the genocide of the Rohingya is still on-going, our efforts yielded some progress. The US House of Representatives declared a genocide in its December 2019 resolution and the Canadian Parliament and the government also declared the crisis a genocide. We were able to send interfaith delegations to witness the miserable conditions of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. In addition, on February 28 2018 the Faith Coalition organized a “Rohingya Advocacy Day,” leading to over 100 participants visiting the offices of 60 U.S. senators and congressional representatives. We repeated this successful action again on March 12, 2019 and June 19th 2019, involving both diverse Burmese ethnic leadership and, most recently, the Uyghur community. Staff has also met with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee and continues dialogue with policymakers. Faith leaders have met with the Ambassador for International Religious Freedom, written to the US President as well as met senators and representatives. All of these efforts have led to a stronger political partnership on an issue of universal human rights and basic morality.

Kachin Christians have faced severe abuse including bombing of churches and rape by Burmese soldiers, and the Faith Coalition has worked to promote solidarity among diverse Burmese ethnicities. In June, Faith Coalition convened a meeting of Karen, Kachin and Rohingya leaders both to encourage cooperation and to guide leaders in Congressional outreach. Since that time, there have been ongoing engagement and coordination among leaders.
While working on this issue we clearly noticed that China not only supports Burma in its genocide of the Rohingyas it is now using Rohingya’s ancestral land for its Belt and Road projects. Moreover, along with creating roadblocks to stop the genocide of Rohingya, China has now stepped up it persecution of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.

The Government of China admits to running ‘re-education camps’ and vocational programs but continues to deny the true nature of what the world sees: the largest concentration camps since Nazis. Currently, over 3 million Uyghurs are being detained, tortured, raped and subjected to sterilization and bioweapons within the confines of China’s concentration camps. China has also admitted placing 1.1 million Communist as “guests” and “relatives” to Uyghur homes.

Because of this extreme human rights disaster we have adopted the name “Faith Coalition to Stop Genocide” to be able to work protecting minorities, both in Burma as well as in China.

To learn more about the Uyghur people and explore how you can help

visit SaveUyghur.org

To learn more about the Rohingya, Kachin & Karen people and explore how you can help

visit StopGenocide.org

Hena Zuberi

Hena@justiceforall.org