The United States officially declared on Monday that the Rohingya have been victims of “genocide” committed by the Burmese army and claims to have evidence that the intention was to “destroy” this Muslim minority in 2016 and 2017.
“I have established that members of the Burmese military committed genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
He specified that it is the eighth time since the Holocaust that the United States officially recognizes the existence of genocide.
There is already a judicial process before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, the main judicial instance of the UN, to determine if a genocide was committed in Burma.
The evidence shows “a clear intention behind these massive atrocities: to destroy the Rohingya, in whole or in part,” Blinken said during a visit to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, which features an exhibit titled “The Burma Trail towards genocide”.
It states that this was based “on an analysis of the facts and the law carried out by the Department of State”, together with “a series of independent and impartial sources, in addition to our own investigation”.
He cites in particular a 2018 US diplomacy report, which focuses on two periods, the first starting in October 2016 and the second starting in August 2017.
“In both cases, the (Burmese) army has used the same techniques to target the Rohingya: villages wiped off the map, murder, rape, torture,” Blinken listed.
The Secretary of State estimated that the 2016 attacks “forced some 100,000” members of this stateless Muslim minority to flee to Bangladesh and that the 2017 attacks “killed more than 9,000 Rohingya and forced more than 740,000 of them to seek refuge.” ” in that neighboring country.
“The attack on the Rohingya was widespread and systematic, which is crucial to reaching a determination of crimes against humanity,” he insisted.
“A light”
The Rohingya cautiously welcomed the US initiative, the conclusions of which have been known since Sunday.
“It should have been done a long time ago, but I think the US decision will help the process before the ICJ,” said a Rohingya refugee in one of the camps where the displaced live, near Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state.
Thin Thin Hlaing, a Rohingya rights activist, applauded the decision. “I have the feeling that I live in darkness but now we see a light because they recognize our suffering,” she told AFP.
About 850,000 Rohingya are in camps in Burma’s neighbor Bangladesh, and another 600,000 remain in Burmese’s Rakhine state.
“It’s good to see the administration taking this long-awaited step to hold this brutal regime to account,” tweeted US Senator from Oregon Jeff Merkley.
sanctions
Blinken did not announce new sanctions against Burma.
The United States has already imposed a series of sanctions on the Burmese leadership and, like other Western countries, has long restricted its arms exports to the Burmese military, who are accused of crimes against humanity, even before the coup that They gave on February 1, 2021.
The case brought against Burma before the ICJ was complicated by the coup that toppled the civilian government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking massive protests and a bloody crackdown.
On March 15, a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the post-coup period accused the Burmese army of possible crimes against humanity and war crimes from the state and called on the international community to take action. .
Source: Gestion
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