Justice for Rohingya Refugees

After the Holocaust, the world decried “never again,” yet reports of a persecuted religious minority group endure: the Rohingya Muslims’ loss of citizenship, forced displacement, and denial of basic human rights in Myanmar eerily parallel the notorious events that occurred in mid-twentieth century Germany.

The National League for Democracy (NLD), an opposition party to the decades-long military rulers of Myanmar, won a landslide victory in the country’s first democratically held elections in November 2015. Yet the party’s leader, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has repeatedly evaded questions addressing the persecution of the Rohingya. The United States needs to rally the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to press the NLD to reform policies of systematic oppression and violence. (Courtesy of iar-gwu.org)