Persecution watchdog Christian Solidarity Worldwide has joined over 50 organisations urging the US to declare crimes against Myanmar's Rohingya people as genocide.
In 2017, the Myanmar army launched attacks on Rohingya villages, an ethinic minority in the country, which resulted in over 700,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh, thousands were killed and hundreds of villages were burned.
A petition co-ordinated by NGO Refugees International says if US declared these crimes as genocide, that would subject Myanmar to much needed international scrutiny at a time when the military continues to target the Rohingya people
The petition will go to the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
There is extra concern for the plight of Rohingya refugees in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic whose camps do not have the vital medical infrastructure to withstand the spread of the disease.
Reports of the suffering they have faced include the burning of homes, schools and mosques, the deliberate burning of people to death inside their homes, mass rape, torture, execution without trial and the blocking of aid.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide's chief executive Mervyn Thomas said: "International action remains insufficient and inadequate. Today, CSW joins over 50 organisations in calling on the US State Department to declare the crimes against Rohingya as genocide as an important step towards further international attention and action on the issue."
