McCain, Jolie call on US to defend Rohingya from violence

PHOENIX — U.S. Sen. John McCain and actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie joined forces to call on the U.S. government to defend Rohingya from the violence and atrocities being committed against them.

In a joint op-ed for The New York Times, McCain and Jolie criticized the United States and the international community’s “lack of effective diplomacy” regarding the Rohingya Muslims.

The Rohingya are based in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. They are denied citizenship under the 1982 Myanmar nationality law, which requires citizens to belong to an “indigenous race,” have a grandparent from an “indigenous race,” be a child of a citizen or live in Burma before 1942.

The United Nations has called the Rohingya population one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. There were an estimated 1 million Rohingya living in Myanmar before the start of the 2016 persecution, which stemmed from attacks on Burmese border posts by unidentified insurgents.

The persecution involved Myanmar’s armed forces and police cracking down on the Rohingya. The military has been accused of a wide range of human rights violations, including gang rapes, arson and infanticides, or the crime of killing young children.

Since last summer, 680,000 Rohingya Muslims have been “forced to flee a systematic military campaign of killings, arson, rape and other mass atrocities amounting to ethnic cleansing,” the publication said.

“For more than three decades, America stood with our allies to support democracy in Myanmar and demand freedom for thousands of Burmese political prisoners,” McCain and Jolie wrote.

“We need to show equal resolve now to stop the violence and safeguard the rights and freedoms of all Burmese peoples. The United States should take the lead in four ways, and ask our partners and allies to join us.”

Those four ways included:

• Passing the Burma Human Rights and Freedom Act, a McCain-sponsored bill that would “impose sanctions on Burmese military and security forces responsible for the bloodshed and send the strong message that those who commit atrocities will pay a price.”

• Leading international efforts to “ensure a credible, independent mechanism outside Myanmar to investigate and ultimately prosecute human rights violations and other crimes against the Rohingya, and encourage other countries to contribute to such efforts.”

• Increasing medical assistance for the Rohingya, including raising funding for gender-based-violence programs and getting medical care and assistance to families in need.

• Carrying out the recommendations of Kofi Annan’s Advisory Commission on Rakhine State and extending citizenship to the Rohingya people.

“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,” McCain and Jolie wrote.

“Our failure to hold accountable those who commit mass atrocities and human rights abuses will lead to more violence and instability.”

Follow @KTAR923