We (Free Rohingya Coalition and allied networks) are writing you to seek your solidarity with and participation in our grassroots activism campaign to bear economic, cultural and popular pressure on Myanmar so that the coalition government of Aung San Suu Kyi and the military may end the country’s persecution, discrimination and violence against the country’s ethnic and religious minorities.
As you may be aware Myanmar is being taken to the International Court of Justice, the world court, by the Gambia for allegedly violating the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which the country ratified in 1956.
This 9 December, the International Genocide Day, we human rights activists worldwide are standing up for Myanmar’s oppressed communities: we are initiating an international “Boycott Myanmar Campaign”.
Our campaign is inspired by and modelled after S. Africa’s anti-apartheid boycott movement which helped trigger the end of the apartheid regime, helped free Nelson Mandela and anti-apartheid leaders, and ushered in a new era of racial equality for the majority S. African blacks.
UN and other credible investigations have documented Myanmar’s racist exclusion and discrimination against its Muslims, its national policies of violent and systematic persecution of Rohingya people, and state-directed military repression against its other national minorities such as Shan, Kachin, Ta’ang, Karen, Chin, Mon and Kayar (Kayah) communities.
The United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission and the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights situation in Myanmar Yanghee Lee have officially called for accountability and justice for Myanmar’s minority victims of ‘gravest crimes in international law’ including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Rakhine and Kachin states.
But the international community – from the permanently-divided Security Council to regional blocs such as the Association of South East Asian Nations and liberal democratic governments of the West – have failed the wretched of Myanmar. Besides, international corporations and foreign investors with commercial interests in and ties with the resource-rich Myanmar, from Singapore to Japan and S. Korea to India and China, as well as other investors, have shown utter indifference to the cries of Myanmar’s oppressed communities, languishing in internment camps and war zones inside the country, and vast refugee camps across Bangladesh and Thai borders.
We urge you to use your power as citizens and consumers, both individually and as representatives/members of activist networks, religious communities, educational institutions, or professional or parliamentary associations.
Join hands with us. Boycott businesses whose dollars fuel genocide and other crimes. Cut institutional ties with Myanmar that has commissioned genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity against its own peoples.
Last, will you add your name to a growing coalition of organisations when we launch the Boycott Myanmar Campaign on December 9? You can reply “yes” to this email if you agree.
On or after December 9, you can also register at our website, BoycottMyanmar.org, in order to receive updates on events and how you can take action.”
Please email us at info@freerohingyacoalition.org if your organization would like to support our Boycott Myanmar Campaign and if you and your colleagues would like to act in solidarity with Rohingya people.