USCIRF Report - Burma: Implications of Religious and Ethnic Violence

By U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)

Bottom Line Assessment: Issues of religion and ethnicity will shape the trajectory of Burma’s political reform before the planned 2015 elections. Burma is currently designated by the State Department as a “country of particular concern” for particularly severe violations of religious freedom, as ongoing political reforms have yet to dramatically improve the situation for freedom of religion and belief. Sectarian and societal violence, anti-Muslim exclusionary campaigns, and military incursions have caused egregious religious freedom violations against Muslims and some ethnic minority Christians. Nonetheless, in areas where the military has retreated from daily governance, the worst human rights abuses have receded in the past year (including many that affected religious communities). Legal restrictions on some religious activities remain in place, but are enforced sporadically, if at all, depending on region, ethnicity, and religious group. The situation of the ethnic minority Rohingya, which intertwines issues of religious freedom and ethnic discrimination, remains a profound humanitarian and political crisis. It threatens to inflame anti-Muslim prejudices in other parts of the country, create large refugee flows in the region, instigate additional sectarian violence and discrimination, and potentially undermine the political reform process.

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Burma: Implications of Religious and Ethnic Violence