The massacres of the Rohingya are "genocide and a crime against humanity" .. 5 questions about the advanced American decision

The United States has concluded, according to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, that the violence perpetrated by the Myanmar (Burma) army between October 2016 and August 2017 against the Muslim Rohingya amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity, during an exhibition hosted by the Holocaust Museum in Washington. The light on the tragedy of this minority.

This US decision is a legal step forward from what was stated in a report issued by the State Department in September 2018, which indicated that the violence against the Rohingya was widespread and aimed to intimidate them and push them to leave their areas.

The report indicated that most of the Rohingya refugees who were displaced were eyewitnesses to killing events, and that two-thirds of them witnessed cases of injury, half of them witnessed incidents of sexual violence, and one-fifth of those whose testimony was taken during the preparation of the report witnessed mass killings of more than 100 people, and 75% said they saw Members of the army kill someone and burn the huts and homes of civilians.

Blinken commented on this report by saying that what happened indicates a "clear intent behind the mass atrocities that took place aimed at destroying the Rohingya in part or in whole through killing, rape and torture," describing what happened as "genocide", considering that this concept is "fundamental to understanding the current crisis in Burma." ".

Myanmar and Asian human rights advocates welcomed the US decision, which considered the attacks on the Rohingya during the bloody events of 2016 and 2017 a genocide, and Rohingya activists have been calling for this for years, even since the bloody events of 2012.

Many Rohingya considered the decision a step in the right direction, and demanded that more advanced steps be taken to protect their society and other religious and national minorities in Myanmar, where violations against them increased after the last military coup in February last year, according to Myanmar and international human rights defenders.

Are the violations limited to 2017?

International, Asian and Myanmar opposition human rights reports had documented the widespread killing and burning of the residents of northwestern Rakhine State near the border with Bangladesh by the army, in addition to committing rape and burning entire villages, and that campaign led to the displacement of between 850 thousand and one million people. That year to neighboring Bangladesh.

But the violations against the Rohingya extend to a few decades ago, when several security and military operations were carried out, the main objective of which was to push them to migrate and seek refuge outside their country and reduce their number, as they remained the majority in many areas of Arakan historically and for centuries.

This has been achieved since the start of the campaigns against them in the sixties of the last century, and was repeated during the seventies, eighties and nineties, and in 2012, then 2016 and 2017, and the aftermath. Thus, the majority of the Rohingya nationalism today live outside the country, and only less than a million Rohingya people remain in Arakan, according to Rohingya estimates.

It is not known whether this American trend means opening previous files or violations that occurred according to international and Asian opponents and human rights defenders during the past year, as activists demand to deal with what happened in 2012, and others talk about what happened after 2017, and it is noteworthy that the US Secretary of State referred to military leaders In Myanmar, who led the genocide campaign against the Rohingya in 2016 and 2017, are also implicated in violations against other religious and national minorities.

Blinken added that these generals are the same ones who overthrew the democratically elected government in early February of last year, promising financial support for more independent investigations, which raises a question about the possibility of expanding the period and the issues that the international community deals with legally and politically.

What after this step?

Rohingya refugee activists welcomed the US decision, calling for it to be the first step in changing the scene they have lived in for decades, especially during the last decade.

The acting head of the opposition unitary shadow government, Dua Lashi La, welcomed the US decision, and his government, consisting of Myanmarese elected to Parliament in 2020, which the army overthrew with the February 2021 coup, acknowledged the occurrence of racial discrimination behaviors against the Rohingya and the policies that paved the way for massacres against them.

The opposition considered the US decision to support the decisions of the United Nations human rights bodies, their representatives and special rapporteurs, and the opposition government called on Washington to support the United Nations to refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court and investigate what happened in the country since July 2002.

On the other hand, Blinken confirmed that his country has shared its information and reports with Gambia, the Muslim African country that is still pleading against the Myanmar military at the International Court of Justice, and the minister said, "With this pledge today, the United States confirms its broad commitments to support the Rohingya to get out of the cycle of genocide towards the truth." And responsibility, and in order for them to have a land that welcomes them as citizens equal with others and where their rights and dignity are respected with all the people of Burma.” This is the old name that was given to this country before the military changed its name to Myanmar in 1989.

How does the international community deal with the Myanmar military?

The United States and the European Union imposed a package of sanctions on the military government in Myanmar before the 2015 elections, and there was hope that conditions would improve after those elections, but a human rights, political and humanitarian setback occurred in the country against minorities after that, to renew the course of sanctions after last year’s coup The most important thing is the armament of the army.

ASEAN seeks - without imposing sanctions or applying pressure, as it was during the nineties - to find ways of dialogue and calming the violence currently raging in Myanmar, but without this being related to the issue of the Rohingya only, but rather to the humanitarian and political situation of the country and what resulted from last year's coup.

But these efforts - which were renewed with a delegation from the ASEAN Association that arrived in the Myanmar capital on the eve of the United States declaring what happened to the Rohingya a genocide and a crime against humanity - have not yielded any tangible peaceful solutions so far. .

Who is behind the arming of the Myanmar army?

The violations of the Myanmar military open a file of its armament. The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrios, called late last month to hold an emergency session of the Security Council to discuss and vote on a resolution preventing at least the arrival of weapons to the Myanmar army, which he said are used to attack and kill civilians.

Andrios published a detailed report on the sources of arming the Myanmar army, noting that two members of the Security Council are among the most prominent suppliers of arms to Myanmar, namely Russia and China - he said in his report - in addition to Serbia, which he said had allowed the export of artillery and missiles to Myanmar.

He said that arms are being exported from these three countries to Myanmar, which "knows that they will be used to attack civilians and cause a possible violation of international law."

More than 440,000 civilians of various Muslim, Christian and Buddhist nationalities have been displaced in Myanmar after the displacement of the Rohingya over the past year. Over the past decades, it is known that Myanmar's most prominent allies are Russia and China, with economic relations with other Asian countries.

It is noteworthy that the aforementioned report indicated that other countries sold Myanmar weapons of lower values, including: Israel, India, Pakistan, South Korea, Belarus and Ukraine, and perhaps that was before the recent coup and in smaller quantities, and the United Nations General Assembly had approved a resolution in June of last year calling on countries The world urged to prevent the flow of arms to Myanmar, but Andreios said that decision did not undermine the ability of the Myanmar military to carry out attacks on civilians, he said.