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Trump creates task force to detect, prevent global 'atrocities'

By Nicholas Sakelaris
Hundreds of Muslim Rohingya enter Bangladesh from Budichong, Myanmar, on October 9, 2017. The refugees said they left to escape rising violence against Rohingya in their native country. File Photo by Abir Abdullah/EPA-EFE
Hundreds of Muslim Rohingya enter Bangladesh from Budichong, Myanmar, on October 9, 2017. The refugees said they left to escape rising violence against Rohingya in their native country. File Photo by Abir Abdullah/EPA-EFE

Sept. 12 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump established a task force Thursday to prevent atrocities in the United States and around the world, accompanied by a report that lays out framework to stop human rights violations before they start.

Trump ordered the creation of an Atrocity Early Warning Task Force, and directed that it coordinate with federal agencies and enhance accountability for violators. The report is named after of Jewish Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, who was taken taken to the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp as a teenager during World War II.

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"The Trump administration has made a steadfast commitment to prevent, mitigate and respond to mass atrocities, and has set up a whole-of-government inter-agency structure to support this commitment," the 11-page report states.

Atrocities are classified as acts characterized by war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and ethnic cleansing.

"The United States government will continue to refine its early-warning models and data-collection methods to assess the risk of atrocities," the report said.

The White House said the analysis reviews present U.S. efforts to fight atrocities, ongoing atrocities around the world and makes recommendations to better address the issue.

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When he visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2017, Trump said the United States would never forget the Holocaust or let such evils be repeated.

One of the most high-profile human rights cases at present involves tens of thousands of Muslim Rohingya, who fled Myanmar last year to escape what experts say was systemic and deadly violence. The United Nations classified the violence as ethnic cleansing.

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