Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said threats to human dignity and religious liberty are more diverse than during the Cold War and called out several authoritarian countries for violating human rights.
Pompeo spoke Wednesday at a Vatican symposium focused on promoting human dignity and praised the joint efforts of the late Pope Saint John Paul II and former President Ronald Reagan to send the Soviet Union to the “ash heap of history.” But he warned attendees that it was again necessary to “gird ourselves for another battle in defense of human dignity and religious freedom.”
“The stakes today are arguable higher than they were even during the Cold War because the threats to [human dignity and religious freedom] are more diverse and more numerous,” said Pompeo.
Pompeo then cited several countries for disregarding human dignity, blasting Syrian President Bashar Assad for the crisis in Syria.
“When the state rules absolutely, human dignity is trampled not cherished. That’s why Assad kills his own people and has no regard for the 11 million Syrians suffering today as displaced persons and refugees,” said Pompeo.
Last week, Pompeo announced that the United States had determined Assad’s forces used chlorine gas during an assault on a rebel-held part of Syria earlier this year, marking the third time the U.S. has accused Assad of employing chemical weapons. The Assad regime has also been accused of torture, mass executions, and using starvation as a military tactic during the country’s civil war.
Pompeo also criticized China for crushing moral norms by placing “more than a million Uighur Muslims in internment camps” and called out Myanmar’s security forces for violently driving hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims out of their homes.
Uighurs detained in Chinese internment camps reportedly suffer in harsh conditions and are asked to swear loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party while denouncing their faith. Pompeo recently accused China of trying to “erase its own citizens,” prompting a denial from a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
Meanwhile, in Myanmar, a United Nations watchdog determined last month the country should be held accountable for crimes against the predominantly Muslim Rohingya minority and found security forces committed “genocidal acts” against the Rohingya during security clearance operations in 2017.
