The ADC Australia’s leading organisation fighting hatred in all its forms, has welcomed the announcement that the USA will provide a humanitarian aid package worth nearly $32 million to Rohingya who have fled violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Over the last few weeks, over 400,000 Rohingya Muslims, amongst them 240,000 children, have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh. There are reports of ethnic cleansing, huts set on fire and Rohingya taken away and never heard from again. At the UN Security Council this week, Vice President Mike Pence called on the UN “to take strong and swift action to bring this crisis to an end.” French President Emmanuel Macron has said that the attacks on Myanmar’s Rohingya minority amounted to “genocide”.
Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the ADC, issued the following statement:
“We applaud the US government for this generous aid package and for n responding to this heartbreaking humanitarian tragedy. We very much appreciate their continued efforts to ensure assistance reaches the weak and desperate people in need. We are also heartened that several governments are providing critically needed aid for the refugees languishing in camps in Bangladesh. At the same time, we denounced in the strongest possible terms, the systematic attacks against the Rohingya minority and the ethnic cleansing taking place in Myanmar’s Rakhine State which is aimed at expelling those vulnerable men, women and children from the country. We call on the international community, including the Australian government, to speak out against these atrocities and to consider economic bans on the country, freezing the assets of the senior leadership of the Myanmar military, and to restrict their travel. Those in the Myanmar military and the perpetrators of these cruelties should be aware that they may bear the full brunt of international law and face charges of “crimes against humanity” in the future. If history has taught us anything, it is that ‘Never Again’ means that we cannot turn a blind eye to such brutalities and humanitarian crises, and must come together to help those in need in a concrete and constructive way. AS Jews, we feel a special obligation to raise public consciousness and to sound the alarm on this horrifying situation, and to say to the world that Indifference and remaining silent are not acceptable options.”
The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission, founded in 1979, is Australia’s leading civil rights organization fighting racism through educational programs that combat bigotry, prejudice and all forms of hatred.
For further information please contact Dr Dvir Abramovich on (03) 9272 5677.