As the military council faces increasing military defeats, they have escalated their airstrikes targeting civilian areas, religious buildings, and schools in non-combat zones, prompting Zo Tum Hmung, Chairman and CEO of the Burma Research Institute, to call for U.S. support in providing anti-aircraft defense systems. This request was made during a Congressional Briefing on Burma’s Humanitarian Crisis and Violations of Religious Freedom and Human Rights held in Washington DC on April 28.
Zo Tum Hmung emphasized that the U.S. government and Congress should seriously consider providing anti-aircraft defense systems to the National Unity Government (NUG) and revolutionary forces. While acknowledging that the U.S. government has already provided $90 million for Myanmar’s reconstruction, he stressed the need for additional assistance to address the ongoing crisis.
Currently, the military council has conducted airstrikes and burned down over 240 religious sites across Myanmar, including monasteries and pagodas. According to Susie Gelman, Commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), since the 2021 coup, the military has imprisoned 14 Christians and 113 religious practitioners. USCIRF has been monitoring Myanmar’s religious freedom situation since 2000 and has consistently recommended its designation as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for religious freedom violations. The commission is urging for Myanmar’s redesignation as a CPC in 2024, citing the military’s continued targeting and persecution of ethnic and religious minorities.
The Congressional Briefing featured prominent speakers including NUG Interim President Duwa Lashi La, CRPH Chairman U Aung Kyi Nyunt, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen, USCIRF Commissioner Susie Gelman, former Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback, Baptist World Alliance General Secretary and CEO Elijah Brown, Wai Wai Nu from Women Peace Network, Patrick Harvey from the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, and Jenny Yang, UNHCR’s External Relations Officer. The participants discussed the deteriorating humanitarian situation and the systematic violations of religious freedom and human rights in Myanmar under military rule.
