US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Myanmar’s Rohingya crackdown a genocide during a visit Monday to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, which features an exhibit called “Burma’s Path to Genocide.” from Burma to genocide).
The United States officially declared on Monday that the Burmese army’s violence against the Rohingyas constitutes genocide, an initiative to which activists of this Muslim minority have reserved a cautiously positive reception. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled predominantly Buddhist Myanmar after a 2017 military crackdown that is now the subject of genocide proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, the UN’s highest court. .
“I have established that members of the Myanmar military committed genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya in 2016 and 2017,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Washington. A series of evidence from “independent and impartial sources”, including NGOs, “in addition to our own research” show “an intention to destroy the Rohingyas, in whole or in part”, estimated Mr. Blinken.
“The intentions of the army went beyond ethnic cleansing, to the real destruction” of this minority, he said. In particular, he cited a report by American diplomacy dating from 2018, focusing on two periods, starting in October 2016 and August 2017. In September 2017, for example, Burmese soldiers “razed villages, killed, tortured, raped men, women and children,” he said.
He estimated that the 2016 attacks “forced around 100,000” members of this Muslim minority to flee Burma for Bangladesh, and that the 2017 attacks “killed more than 9,000 Rohingyas and forced more than 740,000 of them to find refuge” in this neighboring country.
“The attacks on the Rohingya were widespread and systematic, which is essential to qualify as crimes against humanity,” Blinken explained.
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A 2018 State Department report, cited by CNN, described violence against Rohingya in Rakhine State in western Burma as “extreme, large-scale, widespread, and apparently aimed at time to terrorize the population and drive out the Rohingya residents”.
About 850,000 Rohingya are in camps in Myanmar’s neighboring Bangladesh and another 600,000 members of the community remain in Rakhine State in Myanmar.
“It should have been done a long time ago, however I think the American decision will help the process before the ICJ for the Rohingyas,” said a Rohingya refugee in one of the camps where people displaced by the crisis live, near Sittwe, capital of Rakhine State.
Thin Thin Hlaing, a Rohingya rights activist, also welcomed the US decision. “I feel like I’m living in a blackout but now we see a light because they recognize our suffering,” she told AFP.
“I will never forget the painful stories I heard in 2017 from members of the Rohingya community in Burma and Bangladesh – stories of violence and crimes against humanity”, tweeted his side Sunday evening the U.S. Senator from Oregon Jeff Merkley commenting on news of the upcoming U.S. decision.
“It’s good to see the administration taking this long-awaited step to hold this brutal regime to account, something I’ve been working towards for years,” he added.
If genocide is legally designated against Burma, the country could face additional sanctions and restrictions on international aid, among other sanctions against the military junta, argued the daily The New York Times.
A series of penalties
The United States has imposed a series of sanctions on Burmese leaders and, like other Western countries, has long restricted its arms exports for the Burmese military, who were accused even before the military coup. February 1, 2021 of crimes against humanity for their abuses against the Rohingyas.
The case opened against Burma before the ICJ by The Gambia in 2019 was complicated by the putsch that toppled Aung San Suu Kyi and her civilian government, triggering mass protests and bloody repression.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has been criticized by human rights groups for her involvement in the Rohingya crackdown, is now under house arrest and tried by the same generals she defended near The Hague.
On March 15, a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the period following the coup accused the Burmese army of possible crimes against humanity and war crimes since the coup. State and called on the international community to take immediate action.
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