U.S. labels Myanmar military’s repression of Rohingya “genocide”

The United States said Monday it has determined that Myanmar’s military committed “genocide” against the Rohingya Muslims during its repression of the Southeast Asian country’s ethnic minority some five years ago.

“Beyond the Holocaust, the United States has concluded that genocide was committed seven times. Today marks the eighth,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said as he announced the designation, which could pressure the Myanmar junta that seized control following a coup last year.

In 2016, the violence against the Rohingya, mostly living in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, forced nearly 100,000 to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. The military’s actions in 2017 killed over 9,000 Rohingya and forced more than 740,000 to seek refuge in Bangladesh.

“The attack against Rohingya was widespread and systematic, which is crucial for reaching a determination of crimes against humanity,” Blinken said, adding, “The evidence also points to a clear intent behind these mass atrocities, the intent to destroy Rohingya in whole, or in part.”

The determination that Myanmar’s military committed “genocide and crimes against humanity” was based on a review of a factual assessment and legal analysis prepared by the State Department, Blinken said, speaking at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

It is the first time the U.S. administration of President Joe Biden has made such a designation. Just before Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, the then administration of Donald Trump declared that the Chinese government’s crackdown on its Muslim Uyghur minority amounted to “genocide.”

Under a U.N. convention, genocide includes actions such as killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, or imposing measures to prevent births, committed with “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

While the latest U.S. recognition of genocide is focused on the Rohingya, many of the Myanmar military leaders who led the genocidal campaign against the population in 2016 and 2017 were also involved in the coup, Blinken said.

“Since the coup, we’ve seen the Burmese military use many of the same tactics. Only now the military is targeting anyone it sees as opposing or undermining its repressive rule,” he said, referring to Myanmar by its former name.