Josh Rogen wrote in his column in the Washington Post that the announcement by the United States on Wednesday that it had decided that Russia was committing war crimes in Ukraine came just 28 days after the invasion, and that when it announced last Monday that the US government had decided that the Russian army Myanmar has committed genocide against the Rohingya Muslims, more than 5 years after the violence started there.
The close timing between the Biden administration's statements this week is likely not a coincidence, although crimes against the Rohingya occurred in 2016 and 2017, and the administration wants to point out that the Ukraine crisis has not fully consumed the bandwidth of its foreign policy.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken alluded to this when he announced the genocide resolution at the United States' Holocaust Memorial Museum.
"In recent weeks, as I spoke with diplomats from all over the world about Ukraine, I also heard talk of an ongoing crisis, with many of them saying yes we stand with the people of Ukraine, but we must also stand with those who are moaning about atrocities elsewhere," Blinken said. ".
He pointed out that the Myanmar army's attacks on the Rohingya constitute the eighth genocide since the Nazis.
The Foreign Ministry also determined that the Myanmar military, which seized power in a February 2021 coup, has committed "crimes against humanity" and continues to commit atrocities against other ethnic minorities within the country's borders.
The Ukraine crisis and the Myanmar case are not the same thing.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's crimes are nowhere near the scale and scope of the Myanmar military's extensive campaigns of murder, torture, mass rape and other horrors, at least for now.
The writer commented emphasizing that the Ukraine crisis and the Myanmar case are not the same thing.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's crimes are nowhere near the scale and scope of the Myanmar military's massive campaigns of murder, torture, mass rape, and other horrors, at least for now, but that's the point.
He referred to what Amber Mays, executive director of the Crane Center for Mass Atrocity prevention, said, "What does this say to victims in Myanmar? There has been clear evidence of mass atrocities for years but nothing has happened?! The message is You are naughty."
"And what does that say to those who commit crimes? It allows them to believe that they will get away with it, and therefore they will do it again," she added.
The writer criticized the Foreign Ministry's knowledge of clear evidence of crimes against humanity committed in Myanmar since 2018, but it never described it as such.
When the Biden administration took office, it spent more than a year reviewing the Rohingya file, although it only needed two months to confirm (correctly) the Trump administration's determination that the Chinese government's mistreatment of Uyghur Muslims was genocide.
The unspoken but clear explanation, he added, is that these decisions are often made based on party or public policy, not evidence.
The writer believes that the Biden administration and Congress should intensify their participation in the Myanmar crisis to prove to the world that this declaration of genocide is more than just hollow words.
The United States should initiate new talks with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and countries dealing with Myanmar refugees, particularly Bangladesh, India and Malaysia.
His article concluded that the fact that there have been 8 genocides since the Holocaust should tell us that we are not doing enough to stop mass atrocities or hold the perpetrators to account.
And if we allow genocide to normalize, it will jeopardize our larger goals of stability, security and common humanity.