{"id":1331,"date":"2019-02-01T18:36:45","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T18:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freerohingyacoalition.org\/en\/?p=1331"},"modified":"2019-02-01T18:54:43","modified_gmt":"2019-02-01T18:54:43","slug":"world-renowned-scholars-including-angela-davis-and-gayatri-chakravorty-spivak-un-envoys-activists-and-refugees-will-convene-at-columbia-university-new-york-city-to-call-for-an-end-to-burma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freerohingyacoalition.org\/en\/world-renowned-scholars-including-angela-davis-and-gayatri-chakravorty-spivak-un-envoys-activists-and-refugees-will-convene-at-columbia-university-new-york-city-to-call-for-an-end-to-burma\/","title":{"rendered":"World Renowned Scholars including Angela Davis and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, UN Envoys, Activists and Refugees will convene at Columbia University, New York City to Call For An End To Burma\u2019s Genocide & War Crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In their video-taped addresses to the conference, renowned activist and scholar Angela Davis calls for the worldwide boycott of Burma while UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee calls on the Burmese government of Aung San Suu Kyi to meet its obligations under \u201cinternational humanitarian law\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMMEDIATE\nRELEASE                                                             1\nFebruary 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact:  Maung Zarni +44 771 047 3322 ; Nay San Lwin +49 176 62139138 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Email\nColumbiaBurmaConference@gmail.com<\/a>\n& Tweet @FreeRoCoalition <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEW\nYORK: The Free Rohingya Coalition (FRC)\u2013 the leading global activist group led\nby and for the Rohingya people – will host a two-day international conference\nat Barnard College, New York City on February 8-9, 2019 calling for\naccountability and protection for national minorities in Burma, also known as\nMyanmar. This is a rare convergence of academics and activists hailing from and\nwith expertise on Burma, with humanitarians and international criminal law\npractitioners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\nSeptember 18, 2018, the United Nations International Independent Fact-Finding\nMission released a 440-page report at the Human Rights Council in Geneva that\nfound \u201coverwhelming evidence\u201d that Burma, now run jointly by disgraced human\nrights icon Aung San Suu Kyi and the country\u2019s military, is committing \u201cgravest\ncrimes in international law.\u201d The most serious of these include genocide,\ncrimes against humanity and war crimes against national minorities like the\nRohingya, Karen, Kachin, Shan, and others \u2013 some of whom have fled to the\nUnited States as refugees. Within the last decade, approximately one in four US\n-bound refugees have been ethnic and religious minorities from Burma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBuddhism\nis a religion of absolute compassion for human suffering, and it is\nunacceptable that Buddhists can be marred by such absolute and immovable hate,\u201d\nremarks Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, one of the conference hosts and University\nProfessor in Humanities at Columbia University. \nSpivak added, \u201cas engaged scholars and intellectuals of conscience, we\ncannot ignore this ongoing genocide.  We\nurge the global community to raise their to end the atrocities.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FRC\ncoordinator Ms Razia Sultana, author of the book \u201cRape by Command\u201d which\ndocuments mass rape against Rohingya women and girls by the Burmese military,\nknown as Tatmadaw<\/em> said, \u201cwe the\nRohingya have been subjected to a textbook genocide which has gradually\nescalated since my childhood.\u201d Ms. Sultana is a Rohingya whose parents fled\nBurma after a brutal military purge in the 1970\u2019s.  She further pointed that Burma has also\ntargeted other ethnicities, adding that \u201cminorities in Burma like the Buddhist\nRakhine who have lived alongside my people for centuries, and Christian\nminorities like the Karen and Kachin, have not been  spared persecution.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last\nDecember US House of Representatives, in a nearly unanimous vote, declared\nBurma’s atrocities against Rohingya people in 2017 “a genocide” and\ncalled for the release of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, the two Burmese Reuters\njournalists who were framed and imprisoned by Aung San Suu Kyi government for\nreporting on Rohingya mass graves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since\nearly January, there have been military clashes between the autonomy-seeking\nArakan Army (of Rakhine Buddhists) and the government troops in Rakhine\nstate.  UN Special Rapporteur Professor\nYanghee Lee told the conference organizers, \u201cthe order by the State Government\nto refuse access to humanitarian organisations with the exception of the ICRC\nand WFP into northern Rakhine is entirely unacceptable and a serious violation\nof Myanmar\u2019s international humanitarian law obligation to allow humanitarian\naid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Internationally\nrenowned activist and scholar Angela Davis adds her voice of solidarity to\nBurma’s oppressed communities by saying, “I will boycott Burma until and\nunless it stops repression and atrocities against its own national minorities\nincluding Rohingyas, Kachins, Karens , and Rakhine.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among\nthe 35-speakers at the conference are: <\/p>\n\n\n\n