US panel urges targeted sanctions on India, Myanmar

The US government has been urged to impose targeted sanctions on the governments of India and Myanmar and officials responsible for severe violations of religious freedom by freezing those individuals’ assets and barring their entry to the United States.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom made the recommendations in its annual report 2020 released in Washington on Tuesday.

It asked the US authorities to support efforts to hold Myanmar officials accountable through the international legal systems.

It recommended that the US government should reinstate the designation of a ‘national emergency’ on matters relating to Myanmar, which was terminated by executive order in October 2016, in response to the ongoing and severe atrocities in the country, and refocus efforts to conclude definitively and publicly whether such atrocities meet the legal definition of crimes against humanity and/or genocide.

The US Congress should continue to hold hearings highlighting the states of religious freedom in India and US policy toward India, it said.

In India, religious freedom experienced a drastic turn downward in 2019 with religious minorities under increasing assault, the commission observed.

Following the Bharatiya Janata Party’s re-election in May, the Indian government used its strengthened parliamentary majority to institute national level policies violating religious freedom, especially for Muslims, it said.

The Indian government allowed violence against minorities and their houses of worship to continue with impunity, and also engaged in and tolerated hate speech and incitement to violence, according to the report.

In Myanmar in 2019, the government continued to commit widespread and egregious religious freedom violations, particularly against Rohingya Muslims, it said.

Ethnic-driven conflict and degradation of other civil rights often coincide with religious differences, severely restricting freedom of religion or belief.

The Myanmar military continued operations in Rakhine State that led to the large-scale displacement of Rohingyas in 2019.

The ongoing violence has been fuelled by hate speech, misinformation, and incitement to violence spread on social media, in particular Facebook, which non-state actors and government officials have used to threaten minorities.

The behaviour and threats of Buddhist nationalist groups continued to play a role in restrictions on religious freedom in Myanmar, said the report.

In 2019, the US Department of Treasury imposed targeted sanctions against, among others, at least four senior military officials — commander-in-chief of the Myanmar military forces Min Aung Hlaing, deputy commander-in-chief Soe Win, leader of the 99th Light Infantry Division (LID) in 2017 Than Oo and, leader of the 33rd LID in 2017 Aung Aung.

The targeted sactions were imposed for serious human rights abuse and atrocities with mass-scale rape and sexual violence, mass-killing, forced disappearances and arson, which, according to the UN human rights council, was textbook example of ethnic cleansing.  

More than 1.1 million Rohingyas, comprising Muslims, Christians and Hindus, were forced over the years to be displaced from their home in Rakhine state of Myanmar. Most of them now live in crowded camps in Bangladesh tourism district Cox’s Bazar.

The commission also urged the US government to designate 14 countries — Burma (now Myanmar), China, Eritrea, India, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam — as ‘countries of particular concern’ on religious freedom.

It also recommended that 15 countries — Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Central African Republic, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Sudan, Turkey and Uzbekistan— should be kept in the watch list of the US Department of State.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net