As we mark the 5th anniversary of the violent clearance operations, led by the Burmese military against the Rohingya, we reaffirm our commitment to continue to stand with the Rohingya community in the pursuit for justice, accountability, safety and dignity. The August 2017 attacks led over 700,000 Rohingya to flee to safety in Bangladesh. Those remaining in Burma face ongoing persecution as do Rohingya throughout the diaspora, including in India, Thailand and Malaysia. We know that what happened in 2017 was not the beginning of the genocide, but a symptom of the systemic persecution the community has faced for decades. In March of this year, Secretary of State Blinken announced the U.S. determination that actions committed against the Rohingya, by the military in Burma, amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity. The U.S. is the largest donor to the Rohingya response in Bangladesh and pledged 1 million in funding to the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, but a question begs to be asked - has life improved for the Rohingya since the U.S. genocide determination? The simple answer is No and while it shouldn’t be expected for the situation to have an immediate improvement, there is an urgent need for substantive action to be taken, not just by the U.S. but by the international community as a whole. As the late chairman of Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace & Human Rights, Mohib Ullah once said “If you wait to take action, we will die.” August 25th is known as Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day but we must acknowledge that this genocide is not something of the past. It is ongoing and requires concrete action to address both the root causes of the genocide as well as the immediate needs of the community. If meaningful steps are not taken, it risks deminishing the very meaning of genocide and sends a message to genocidaires in Burma, and elsewhere around the globe, that there won’t be consequences for their actions.
Above all, Rohingya must be at the center of all decisions affecting their lives. A failure to include and empower Rohingya risks perpetuating the genocide further. We commit to working alongside the Rohingya community in our advocacy and believe that “never again” can have meaning if the international community joins together and siezes the opportunity to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice and supports the path out of genocide and to a life of dignity, safety and full rights for all Rohingya.