The United States for the first time officially declared on Monday that Rohingyas had been victims of a “genocide” perpetrated by the Myanmar army, saying it had proof of a desire to “destroy” this Muslim minority in 2016 and in 2017.
“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” shows that “the intentions of the army went beyond ethnic cleansing, to real destruction” of this minority, said Mr. Blinken.
He cited in particular a report by American diplomacy focusing on two periods beginning in October 2016 and August 2017. In September 2017, for example, Myanmar soldiers “razed villages, killed, tortured, raped men, women and children”, he listed.
He estimated that the 2016 attacks “forced around 100,000” members of this Muslim minority to flee Myanmar for Bangladesh, and that those of 2017 “killed more than 9,000 Rohingya and forced more than 740,000 of them 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.
The head of American diplomacy, however, did not accompany this recognition with new sanctions against the Myanmar leaders. The United States has already imposed a series of them and, like other Western countries, has long restricted its arms exports.
The Secretary of State was speaking during a visit to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, which features an exhibit titled Burma’s Path to Genocide (Myanmar’s Path to Genocide).
” A light “
This recognition “should have been made a long time ago, however I think that the American decision will help the process before the International Court of Justice for the Rohingyas”, estimated a refugee in one of the camps where the people displaced by the crisis live. , near Sittwe, capital of Rakhine State.
About 850,000 Rohingya are in camps in Bangladesh and another 600,000 remain in Rakhine State, Myanmar.
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 Agence France-Presse.
“War crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed every day, with impunity, by the military junta,” said Tom Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar. before the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
He accused the international organization of not doing enough to help the Rohingyas, given the massive support of many countries around the world for Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion. “The people of Myanmar see only endless expressions of concern from the international community, vague statements calling for something to be done, and the painful and endless wait for a consensus to act,” he said. regretted.
The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the United States to pass a resolution at the UN Security Council and an arms embargo at the United Nations level.
HRW also calls for new sanctions against imports of hydrocarbons, wood or minerals, considering that the regime uses these revenues in particular for “significant purchases of weapons and attack devices from Russia, the China and other countries.