The United States, for the first time, Monday, March 21, officially declared that the Muslim minority of Rohingya had been the victim of a “genocide” and of “crimes against humanity”, perpetrated by the Burmese army in 2016 and 2017.
Evidence shows “a clear intention behind these atrocities – an intention to destroy Rohingya, in whole or in part”declared in Washington the head of the American diplomacy, Antony Blinken. “The intentions of the army went beyond ethnic cleansing, to go as far as real destruction” of this minority, according to him. He specified that this is the eighth time since the Holocaust that the United States officially recognizes the existence of a genocide.
More than 9,000 deaths in 2017
Antony Blinken explained relying “on an analysis of the facts and the law carried out by the State Department”fed by “a series of independent and unbiased sources, in addition to our own research”. In particular, he cited an American diplomacy report dating from 2018, focused on two periods, the first from October 2016, the second from August 2017. “In both cases, the army [birmane] used the same techniques to target the Rohingya: razed villages, murders, rapes, torture”he listed.
He estimated that the 2016 attacks “forced about 100,000” members of this Muslim minority to flee to Bangladesh, and that the attacks of 2017 “killed more than 9,000 Rohingya and forced more than 740,000 of them to seek refuge” in this neighboring country.
This 2017 military crackdown is now the subject of genocide proceedings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, the highest court of the United Nations.
The United States, for the first time, Monday, March 21, officially declared that the Muslim minority of Rohingya had been the victim of a “genocide” and of “crimes against humanity”, perpetrated by the Burmese army in 2016 and 2017.
Evidence shows “a clear intention behind these atrocities – an intention to destroy Rohingya, in whole or in part”declared in Washington the head of the American diplomacy, Antony Blinken. “The intentions of the army went beyond ethnic cleansing, to go as far as real destruction” of this minority, according to him. He specified that this is the eighth time since the Holocaust that the United States officially recognizes the existence of a genocide.
More than 9,000 deaths in 2017
Antony Blinken explained relying “on an analysis of the facts and the law carried out by the State Department”fed by “a series of independent and unbiased sources, in addition to our own research”. In particular, he cited an American diplomacy report dating from 2018, focused on two periods, the first from October 2016, the second from August 2017. “In both cases, the army [birmane] used the same techniques to target the Rohingya: razed villages, murders, rapes, torture”he listed.
He estimated that the 2016 attacks “forced about 100,000” members of this Muslim minority to flee to Bangladesh, and that the attacks of 2017 “killed more than 9,000 Rohingya and forced more than 740,000 of them to seek refuge” in this neighboring country.
This 2017 military crackdown is now the subject of genocide proceedings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, the highest court of the United Nations.