United to End Genocide Condemns Denial of Health Care to World’s Most Persecuted in Burma
United to End Genocide Condemns Denial of Health Care to World’s Most Persecuted in Burma
United to End Genocide President and Former Congressman Tom Andrews issues statement from Burma
United to End Genocide released the following statement by its President, former US Congressman Tom Andrews, in response to the decision by the government of Burma to terminate the delivery of health care services to the Rohingya ethnic minority in Rakhine State. Andrews is in Burma and was in Rakhine State yesterday, visiting IDP (internally displaced persons) camps housing more than 90,000 Rohingya Muslims.
“Today’s action by the government of Burma to shut down the health services of Medicines Sans Frontières (MSF) is outrageous.
MSF has been found guilty of telling the truth about attacks against the Rohingya last month. For this, the lives of tens of thousands of desperate people have been put at risk.
The international community cannot turn its back on the latest assault by the government of Burma on the most persecuted and neglected people in the world. Their only crime is their ethnicity and religion. A strong and immediate response by the U.S. government and the international community is imperative. This is not only a matter of right and wrong but life and death.”
The Government of Burma ordered Medicines Sans Frontières (MSF), the primary health care provider to the Rohingya ethnic minority, to cease its activities in the country. MSF provides HIV/AIDS and TB treatments to people in several parts of Burma and primary care to tens of thousands in the western state of Rakhine, who have been described by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.
MSF has come under increasing criticism by the Burmese government since it reported treating 22 people near a site where the United Nations says over 40 people were killed in mid-January. The government of Burma continues to deny any massacre occurred.
For more information contact:
Erik Leaver
202-556-2130 | eleaver@endgenocide.org
' This is not a matter of right and wrong but life and death ' This is what we Rohingyas have been trying to tell the world . But our plight has been turned into blind eye and deaf ear by the international community that recognizes us as the most persecuted minority in the world. Burma doesn't need to build Nuclear Arsenal but build 'GAS CHAMBERS' for the Rohingyas We Rohingyas pray for more 'United to END GENOCIDE' donors to send such messages of truth to the world and pave the way to send the perpetrators and criminals to the ICC without any further delay. PLEASE STOP THESE BARBAROUS MASSACRES OF THE BRUTAL BURMESE GOVT AGAINST THE INNOCENT ROHINGYAS BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.