Our Walls Bear Witness: The Plight of Burma's Rohingya

US Holocaust Memorial Museum honors Burma's Rohingya Muslims; victims of ongoing Genocide.

Ayessa, 55 years old, fled her home in Sittwe, in western Burma, for an internally displaced persons camp after her husband and brother were killed in anti-Rohingya violence in 2012. —Greg Constantine

(WASHINGTON, DC) - Denied citizenship and rendered stateless by the Burmese government, the 800,000 Rohingya lack basic rights, including the right to work, marry, and travel freely, and they routinely suffer severe abuse.

Following violent attacks in 2012 that destroyed numerous Rohingya communities, more than 100,000 are now confined to displacement camps and segregated areas, where they continue to be subjected to violence, including crimes against humanity.

The opening program on November 4 featured a discussion on the current situation of the Rohingya and increasing violence against Muslims elsewhere in Burma. Joining us for the discussion were Greg Constantine, the exhibition photographer and author of Exiled to Nowhere: Burma’s Rohingya; Holly Atkinson, MD, director of the Human Rights Program at the Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, and past president of Physicians for Human Rights; and Maung Tun Khin, president of Burmese Rohingya Organization UK (BROUK).

Our Sponsors

The exhibition is produced by the Museum in association with FotoWeek DC 2013. Generous support is provided by the National Endowment for Democracy. Additional support is provided by the Open Society Foundations and Physicians for Human Rights.

The opening program was made possible in part by the Helena Rubinstein Foundation.