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Biden administration accuses Myanmar Army of committing genocide against Rohingya people


A Rohingya family stands by their makeshift tent at a new IDP camp in Tankhali, Bangladesh. Nearly 400,000 Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh since late August as violence flares up in Rakhine state when satellite images recently released by Amnesty International provide evidence that security forces Security is trying to push the Muslim minority out of the country.

Paula Bronstein | beautiful pictures

US officials told Reuters that the Biden administration has officially determined that violence against the Rohingya minority perpetrated by the Myanmar military is a crime of genocide and a crime against humanity, US officials have told Reuters. Reuters, a move that supporters say should step up efforts to hold the current government that runs Myanmar accountable.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will announce the decision on Monday at the American Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DCUS officials said, which is currently displaying an exhibit on the plight of the Rohingya. Nearly 14 months after he took office, he pledged to conduct a new review of the violence.

Myanmar’s armed forces launched a military campaign in 2017, forcing at least 730,000 predominantly Muslim Rohingya from their homes and into neighboring Bangladesh, where they recounted the killings. people, mass rape and arson. In 2021, the Myanmar military seized power in a coup.

American officials and an outside law firm gathered evidence in an effort to quickly acknowledge the gravity of the atrocity, but then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined to make a decision.

Blinken ordered his own “factual and legal analysis”, US officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity. The analysis concludes that the Myanmar military is committing genocide and Washington believes that official determination will increase international pressure to hold the government accountable.

The world’s largest humanitarian operation, the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

Mondal Falgoonee Kumar | iStock | beautiful pictures

“That would make it even harder for them to violate,” said a senior State Department official.

Officials in the Myanmar embassy in Washington and an army spokesman did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment on Sunday.

Myanmar’s military has denied genocide against the Rohingya, who are denied citizenship in Myanmar, and said it launched a campaign against terrorists in 2017.

A United Nations fact-finding mission concluded in 2018 that the military’s campaign included “acts of genocide”, but Washington at the time called the atrocities “ethnic cleansing”. “, a term that has no legal definition under international criminal law.

“It really signals to the world and especially the victims and survivors of the Rohingya community and wider,” a second senior State Department official said of Blinken’s announcement on Monday. is that the United States realizes the gravity of what is happening.”

Genocide determination does not automatically dictate punitive action by the United States.

Since the end of the Cold War, the State Department has officially used the term six times to describe massacres in Bosnia, Rwanda, Iraq and Darfur, Islamic State attacks on the Yazidis, and other ethnic minorities, and most recently last year, about China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other nationals’ Muslims. China denies the genocide claims.

Blinken will also announce $1 million in additional funding for the Independent Investigation Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), a Geneva-based United Nations agency that is gathering evidence for potential prosecutions. Future.

“It will enhance our position as we work to build international support to try to prevent further atrocities and hold them accountable,” the first official of the agency said. America said.

Focus on the military

Days after US President Joe Biden took office, Myanmar generals led by Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing took power on February 1, 2021, after complaining of fraud during the November general election. 2020 won by the party of democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi. Election monitoring teams found no evidence of mass fraud.

According to the Association to Support Political Prisoners (AAPP), the armed forces crushed an insurgency against their coup, killing more than 1,600 people and arresting nearly 10,000, including leaders. Civilians like Suu Kyi, according to the Association to Support Political Prisoners (AAPP), a group that lobbied for and initiated an uprising.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the figures from the AAPP. Authorities say the group’s figures are exaggerated and that members of the security forces have also been killed in clashes with coup opponents. The government does not provide its own figures.

In response to the coup, the United States and its Western allies punished the government and their business interests, but were unable to convince the generals to restore civilian rule after they received support. military and diplomatic assistance from Russia and China.

Blinken’s admission to genocide and crimes against humanity mainly refers to the events of 2017, prior to last year’s coup. The move comes after two State Department examinations – one starting in 2018 and the other in 2020 – failed to produce determination.

Several former US officials told Reuters those were missed opportunities to send a solid message to the Myanmar generals who then took power.

Activists believe a clear US statement that genocide was committed could spur efforts to hold generals accountable, such as a case in the National Court of Justice. where the Gambia has accused Myanmar of genocide, citing Myanmar’s atrocities against the Rohingya in Rakhine state.

Myanmar has denied the genocide charge and called on the court judges to drop the case. The authorities said Gambia was acting as an agent for others and had no legal standing to file a lawsuit.

The International Criminal Court (ICC), a separate court in The Hague, is also investigating the deportation of the Rohingya from Myanmar and the IIMM in Geneva is gathering evidence that can be used in future trials. future.

Myanmar opposes the investigations and refuses to cooperate, insisting the ICC has no jurisdiction and that its decision to launch the investigation was influenced by “incriminating stories of unrelated personal tragedies”. nothing to do with the legal arguments in question.”

John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said Myanmar’s military has faced “very little real consequence for their atrocities, whether against the Rohingya or against the Rohingya people.” other ethnic minority groups in Myanmar.”

As well as imposing more economic sanctions on the military, the United States should urge a UN Security Council resolution that would bring all alleged crimes by the military to the Court. International Criminal, Sifton said. If Russia and China veto a resolution, he said, then Washington should lead the action at the United Nations General Assembly.

“Condemning Myanmar should go hand in hand with concrete action,” he said.

Before Mr Blinken’s decision this month, officials had debated whether blaming the Myanmar government – and not the military in particular – for atrocities could complicate support. US support for the country’s deposed democratic forces, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The State Department chose to blame the military, the second senior official said.

“It is not clear to what extent the civilian leadership has control over the actions that are taking place in Rakhine state and that is why the decision is ending at this time,” said the official, who did not comment. discussion of internal discussions.

Suu Kyi, forced to share power with generals, went to the International Court of Justice in 2019 to dismiss the genocide charges brought by the Gambia.

She said the nation would prosecute any soldier found to be abusive on its own, but that perpetuating the alleged violations does not increase the level of genocide, which specifically aims to destroy the country. Kill a group must be proven.

Once in power, the generals brought Suu Kyi to trial in nearly a dozen cases that would see her sentenced to more than 100 years in prison. She is still in custody.



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