USCIRF Issues New Report On Religious Freedom In Burma

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom yesterday issued the findings of a staff visit to Burma in May.  In a Policy Brief titled Burna: Implications of Religious and Ethnic Violence, the report concluded in part:

Burma is currently designated by the State Department as a “country of particular concern” ... as ongoing political reforms have yet to dramatically improve the situation.... Sectarian and societal violence, anti-Muslim exclusionary campaigns, and military incursions have caused egregious religious freedom violations against Muslims and some ethnic minority Christians. Nonetheless, in areas where the military has retreated from daily governance, the worst human rights abuses have receded.... Legal restrictions on some religious activities remain in place, but are enforced sporadically, if at all, depending on region, ethnicity, and religious group. The situation of the ethnic minority Rohingya ... remains a profound humanitarian and political crisis. It threatens to inflame anti-Muslim prejudices in other parts of the country, create large refugee flows in the region, instigate additional sectarian violence and discrimination, and potentially undermine the political reform process.