Riz Ahmed, Nandita Das and Aziz Ansari pen open letter condemning Rohingya genocide
Riz Ahmed, Aziz Ansari, Mindy Kaling, Nandita Das and Freida Pinto are just some of the famous names who have signed a powerful letter speaking out against the ethnic cleansing crisis of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
In an op-ed published in The Guardian on Friday, they wrote: “Over the past two months, more than 600,000 Rohingya people have been driven from their homes, had their land destroyed, and endured torture and rape while searching for safety. Remember what happened in Rwanda? Now, pay attention to Myanmar.”
“Under the guise of fighting insurgency, or terrorism, the Rohingya have suffered what the UN has called a ‘textbook case’ of ethnic cleansing,” the celebrities continued, adding that since August 25 “almost half the Rohingya population in Myanmar has been driven out.”
The signees of the letter called for the Rohingya crisis to be addressed at the upcoming joint summit between the U.N. and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
"This Friday, world leaders will gather at the Asean summit but the Rohingya crisis is nowhere on the agenda. We call on leaders to pressure the Myanmar government to stop these atrocities, grant the Rohingya citizenship, and allow them to return to a place they call home," they wrote.
"Countries must fully fund the UN appeal and close the funding gap that is leaving traumatized children without basic food, water, and shelter. Finally, member states of the United Nations must assess what diplomatic efforts can enable them to fulfill their responsibility to protect the Rohingya."
They wrap up the piece with a plea to countries in the United Nations to pressure the Myanmar government to “stop these atrocities, grant the Rohingya citizenship, and allow them to return to a place they call home.”
"We must not be bystanders to this genocide. We cannot allow people to be slaughtered and burnt out of their homes, while the world watches. After every atrocity, we say: “Never again.” We must mean it."
Full list of signatories here:
Waris Ahluwalia, Babi Ahluwalia, Sachin Ahluwalia, Riz Ahmed, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Aziz Ansari, Dev Benegal, Gotham Chopra, Nandita Das, Rana Dasgupta, Anil Dash, Kiran Desai, Noureen DeWulf, Geeta Gandbhir, Vikram Gandhi, Shruti Ganguly, Janina Gavankar, Neelam Gill, Maneesh Goyal, Arjun Gupta, Mohsin Hamed, Hitha Prabhakar-Herzog, Anadil Hossain, Vijay Iyer, Sakina Jaffrey, Madhur Jaffrey, Poorna Jagannathan, Riddhika Jesrani, Rega Jha, Mindy KalingRaghu Karnad, Siddhartha Khosla, Hari Kondabolu, Shruti Kumar, Anjali Kumar, Hari Kunzru, Ajay Madiwale, Karan Mahajan, Rekha Malhotra, Aasif Mandvi, Sunita Mani, Nimitt Mankad, Suketu Mehta, Hasan Minhaj, Smriti Mundhra, Ajay Naidu, Aparna Nancherla, Kumail Nanjiani, Karuna Nundy, Maulik Pancholy, Joseph Patel, Shomi Patwary, Freida Pinto, Shaifali Puri, Aniq Rahman, Saira Rao, Zuleikha Robinson, Salman Rushdie, Reema Sampat, Reshma Saujani, Nikil Saval, Sumana Setty, Shiza ShahidKamila Shamsie, Anoushka Shankar, Sheetal Sheth, Sonejuhi Sinha, Madhureeta Goel, Southworth Lakshmi, Sundaram Himanshu Suri, Sonali Thimmaya, Pej Vahdat
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