Echoes of Genocide

Episode #210: Andrea Gittleman's deep familiarity with Myanmar spans 15 years, and is rooted in her work with the Burma Lawyers' Council in Mae Sot. With meager resources, the council educated Burmese migrants on their labor rights in Thailand while documenting atrocities back in Myanmar. Witnessing the regime's grim human rights record firsthand, Gittleman embarked on a mission to garner international momentum for a commission of inquiry.

Today, as the policy director for the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, Gittleman is able to draw on her Myanmar expertise, as the center has been tracking violence against the Rohingya since 2013. The museum's current Rohingya exhibit aims to make the tragedy tangible, urging introspection on missed opportunities to prevent genocide and ongoing human rights abuses.

The impactful influence of the exhibition resonated in Washington as U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, credited his 2022 visit to the museum for informing his solemn declaration that the military's brutal atrocities met the legal definition of genocide. Gittleman emphasizes that the determination, while certainly not a cause for celebration, serves as a crucial catalyst for political momentum and the potential protection of innocent lives at risk.

“We want to make sure that we're doing what we can to share this information with the public and those who are able to spread it within their networks,” she says in closing. “We’re trying to keep momentum going and keep a focus on the plight of people at risk of atrocities across Burma, and doing what we can to make sure that that policy conversations can continue to take that with the utmost seriousness.”