Burma: Rohingya victims of a "genocide", according to Washington
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the "Burma's Path To Genocide" exhibit at the Washington Holocaust Remembrance Museum on Monday, March 21.
AP - Kevin Lamarque
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
Five years after the events that led hundreds of thousands of people to take refuge in neighboring Bangladesh, the United States claims to have proof of a desire to "
destroy
" the Muslim minority in Burma.
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The decision had been known since Sunday, but it was at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, which features an exhibit called "Burma's Path to Genocide," that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken chose to make it official.
A symbolic place, to clearly mark the seriousness of the charges against the Burmese junta, explains our correspondent in Washington,
Guillaume Naudin
.
“
Beyond the Holocaust, the United States has concluded that the crime of genocide was committed seven times.
Today is the 8th as I have determined that members of the Myanmar military have perpetrated genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya
,” said Anthony Blinken.
"
This is a decision I made based on an assessment of the facts and a forensic analysis prepared by the State Department.
It includes detailed documentation by a range of independent and impartial sources, including human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as our own rigorous factual research
. .
"A real destruction"
According to Antony Blinken, this evidence shows that "
the army's intentions went beyond ethnic cleansing, to real destruction
".
Proceedings are underway before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest court of the United Nations, to determine whether the Burmese government was guilty of such a crime.
But the proceedings were complicated by the
putsch
that toppled civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her government, triggering mass protests and bloody repression.
► To read also: The UN denounces "crimes against humanity" since the coup
The head of American diplomacy also detailed the methods of the Burmese army: mass murder, torture, rape.
Acts corroborated by numerous direct testimonies that have been carefully planned by soldiers now in power since last year's coup in Burma.
According to the United States, the 2016 attacks “
forced around 100,000
” members of this Muslim minority to flee Burma for Bangladesh.
Those of 2017 have "
killed more than 9,000 Rohingyas and forced more than 740,000
of them to find refuge"
in this neighboring country.
Around 850,000 Rohingya are still in camps in Bangladesh and another 600,000 remain in Rakhine State in Burma.
"
The attacks against the Rohingyas were widespread and systematic, which is essential to qualify as crimes against humanity
", explained Antony Blinken, who is calling the junta to account.
►Also read: Dark hour for Burma
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