Mar 23
US has officially declared Myanmar’s army to have perpetrated genocide against Rohingya
According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Myanmar’s army committed genocide and crimes against humanity in its violence against the Rohingya minority, and that no one in the country is safe as long as the junta is in power.
Blinken claimed the assaults on Rohingya were “widespread and systematic” and that evidence amounted to a clear goal to exterminate the mostly Muslim minority while announcing the judgment, as stated in a report.
Activists and US officials feel that a public declaration from the US stating that genocide had occurred would assist to strengthen efforts to hold Myanmar’s generals responsible and prevent additional crimes.
The top American ambassador heard terrible and horrific anecdotes of victims shot in the head, raped, and tortured during his address at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.
In 2017, Myanmar’s armed forces launched a military operation that drove at least 730,000 Rohingya Muslims from their homes and into Bangladesh, where they recounted killings, mass rape, and arson. Myanmar’s military took control of the country in a coup in 2021.
“We’ve seen many of the same techniques used by the Burmese military since the coup. Only now is the military targeting anyone in Burma who it perceives to be opposing or undermining its repressive rule,” Blinken explained.
