The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released an annual Report to Congress on International Religious Freedom – the International Religious Freedom Report – on 15 May, that also highlighted the military junta’s attacks on religious sites and killing civilians in ethnic armed group areas and local defence forces that are fighting against the regime.

The report recommended that the US government redesignate Myanmar as a country of particular concern (CPC) as the violation of religious freedom are taking place in the country since the military takeover on 1 February 2021.

It also said that the coup ended a decade of quasi-democracy and triggered an escalation of violence; conditions for ethnoreligious minorities, such as the predominantly Muslim Rohingya and Christian Chin, deteriorated alongside the breakdown of order and violations of civil and political rights. The Tatmadaw targeted houses of worship, faith leaders, and religious communities in its crackdown on opposition. The Tatmadaw arrested religious leaders, including those from the Buddhist majority, for opposing the military junta.

The report pointed out that faith communities, including ethnoreligious Christian minorities, now face persecution that some have likened to what the Rohingya have faced since 2017.

The annual report stated the military’s close association with Buddhism to promote its legitimacy, violent crackdown and targeting of ethnoreligious communities such as the Rohingya and jailing many Buddhist monks who protested against the coup.

The report said the formation of National Unity Government (NUG) which attempted to unite the non-Tatmadaw-controlled area, and its coordination with various ethnic armed groups, while pledging to undo decades of abuse and disenfranchisement of the Rohingya.

The USCIRF report recommended US government to redesignate Burma as a “country of par- ticular concern,” or CPC, for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA); to actively support international efforts to

hold the Tatmadaw, Burmese agencies, and officials accountable through the international legal system for atrocities against religious communities, including by intervening in the case of The Gambia v. Myanmar at the ICJ and using coordinated sanctions against Tatmadaw leaders for particularly severe violations of religious freedom; and to increase engagement with multilateral and regional partners—in particular the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)—as well as domestic actors in Burma, including the NUG, to stem ongoing religious freedom violations and promote accountability.

The commission also suggested the U.S. Congress support initiatives that prioritize the pursuit of religious freedom in Burma, such as language in the Burma Act of 2021 (H.R. 5497) and the National Defense Authorization Act (S. 1605), that require the imposition of targeted sanctions, and encourage accountability mechanisms in relation to the atrocities committed against the Rohingya.

On 27 December 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the 2022 fiscal year. The NDAA included provisions relating to Myanmar, including calling for the U.S. government to support and legitimize the NUG and deny legitimacy and resources to the Tatmadaw. The law urges the return to democracy and accountability for atrocities and human rights violations committed by the Tatmadaw.