US President Barack Obama should renew the country’s sanctions on Burma in light of ongoing abuses against minority groups, two international human rights groups said on Monday.
“While some clamber for normalized US relations with Burma, international crimes against minorities persist and the unreformed military maintains significant political power,” Tom Andrews, a former US congressman and president of the Washington-based group United to End Genocide, said in a joint press release with Fortify Rights, which is based in Bangkok.
In a new 34-page report—“Supporting Human Rights in Myanmar: Why the US Should Maintain Existing Sanctions Authority”—the two advocacy organizations drew particular attention to Burma’s continued persecution of ethnic and religious minorities, saying that “more than 140,000 Rohingya and other Muslims [are still confined] to more than 40 squalid internment camps in [Arakan] State, while another one million Muslims in the country face severe restrictions, particularly on freedom of movement.” (Courtesy of Irrawaddy)
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