International
U.S. formally declares that Myanmar’s army committed genocide against Rohingya minority
WASHINGTON, March 21 (Reuters) – The United States formally determined that Myanmar’s army committed genocide and crimes against humanity in its violence against the Rohingya minority, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday, warning that as long as a military junta was in power nobody in the country would be safe.
Announcing the decision, which was first reported by Reuters on Sunday, Blinken said the attacks against Rohingya were “widespread and systematic” and that evidence pointed to a clear intent to destroy the mainly Muslim minority. read more
The determination could bolster efforts to hold the Myanmar generals accountable and help prevent further atrocities, U.S. officials believe. Activists welcomed the move but called for concrete actions like tougher sanctions on the junta.
In his speech at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, the top American diplomat readout tragic and chilling accounts of victims, who had been shot in the head, raped and tortured.
Myanmar’s armed forces launched a military operation in 2017 that forced at least 730,000 Rohingya from their homes and into neighboring Bangladesh. In 2021, Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup.
“Since the coup, we have seen the Burmese military use many of the same tactics. Only now the military is targeting anyone in Burma it sees as opposing or undermining its repressive rule,” Blinken said.
“For those who did not realize it before the coup, the brutal violence unleashed by the military since February 2021 has made clear that no one in Burma will be safe from atrocities so long as it is in power,” he added.
Days after U.S. President Joe Biden took office, Myanmar generals led by Commander in Chief Min Aung Hlaing seized power on Feb. 1, 2021, after complaining of fraud in a November 2020 general election won by democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi’s party. Election monitoring groups found no evidence of mass fraud.
The armed forces crushed an uprising against their coup, killing more than 1,600 people and detaining nearly 10,000, including civilian leaders such as Suu Kyi, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an advocacy group, and setting off an insurgency.
Blinken’s recognition comes after two earlier State Department examinations failed to produce a determination on the atrocities, which U.S. officials had only referred to as “ethnic cleansing” until now.
“There is no doubt that being allowed to get away with genocide of the Rohingya encouraged the military to think it could get away with holding a coup as well,” said Tun Khin, a Rohingya activist who heads the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK and attended Blinken’s address.
“Accountability for Rohingya genocide will not just help protect the Rohingya, it will help protect all the people of Burma.”
FEW REAL CONSEQUENCES
In response to the coup, the United States and Western allies sanctioned the junta and its business interests, but have been unable to persuade the generals to restore civilian rule after they received military and diplomatic support from Russia and China.
Advocates say Monday’s declaration, which does not automatically unleash any punitive measures but carries political weight, could help judicial efforts worldwide to hold the junta accountable, but say more action needs to follow.
Washington should work through U.N. bodies to push for accountability while also extending sanctions to target the foreign currency reserves Myanmar’s junta gathers from oil and gas revenues, said John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.
“The Myanmar military will continue to commit atrocities so long as other governments fail to impose measures to hold them accountable,” Sifton said.
Blinken on Monday announced $1 million in new funding for a U.N. investigation on Myanmar and said the United States has shared information with Gambia connected to its case at the International Court of Justice, where it has accused Myanmar of genocide.
Monday’s announcement comes after more than four years of examinations by the State Department, including a 2018 report prepared with outside lawyers that surveyed more than 1,000 Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh.
Three-quarters of those surveyed had witnessed the military kill someone and more than half witnessed acts of sexual violence, Blinken said, adding the findings “demonstrate that these abuses were not isolated cases.”
Blinken also recalled the experience of his stepfather, Samuel Pisar, who was sent to the Nazis’ first concentration camp at Dachau a dozen years after it was built – an example of how the groundwork for genocide is laid over years or even decades.
An exhibit at the museum showed how Rohingya had their rights and citizenship “methodically stripped away” over many years, Blinken said.
The United States has imposed sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on Palestinian rights, due to her stance against Israel.1 US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the decision on Wednesday (July 9), stating that Albanese’s “political and economic attacks” against the United States and Israel would no longer be tolerated.2
Rubio posted on X (formerly Twitter), “We will always stand by our allies’ right to self-defense.”
Albanese has a long history of submitting reports to the UN critical of Israel. She has notably labeled Israel an ‘apartheid state’ and described Hamas’s violence as ‘not unexpected’. Furthermore, she previously proposed accusing the United States of international crimes for President Donald Trump’s actions related to Iranian nuclear facilities.
Albanese has also voiced criticism against American defense technology companies. She has faced accusations of antisemitism, particularly for a past remark suggesting US foreign policy was controlled by a ‘Jewish lobby’, though she later retracted this comment.4
Anne Bayefsky, President of the human rights organization Human Rights Voices, welcomed the sanction, stating, “The US has finally taken action. This measure against Albanese’s incitement to violence and her attempts to deny Israel’s existence is timely.”
Israel also welcomed the sanctions. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideo Sa’ar remarked, “It is time for the UN to open its eyes.” Danny Danon, Israel’s UN envoy, added that Albanese had “damaged the credibility of the United Nations.”
Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, called it a “courageous decision,” noting that a UN official had never before been sanctioned in this manner.
There has been no immediate reaction from the United Nations regarding the sanction.
Twelve Turkish soldiers have died after inhaling methane gas during a mission in a cave in northern Iraq, the Turkish Ministry of National Defense announced on Monday. The incident occurred on Sunday during an operation to recover the remains of a soldier who went missing in the cave in 2022 after being killed by Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters.
“Four other of our heroic comrades in arms, affected by methane gas, have died … bringing the total number of victims to 12,” the ministry stated in a post on X. Nineteen soldiers were exposed to the gas inside a site previously used as a hospital by armed fighters. The condition of the remaining seven soldiers was not immediately clear, though Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wished them a speedy recovery on X.
The soldiers were conducting a sweep operation inside a cave at an altitude of 852 meters (2,795 feet) in the Metina region. This mission is part of Turkiye’s ongoing Operation Claw-Lock, which targets PKK positions in northern Iraq. The PKK is designated as a terrorist group by Turkiye, the European Union, and the United States.
While methane gas is not considered toxic, it can be deadly in confined spaces due to the risk of suffocation. The ministry has not yet clarified how the gas accumulated inside the cave.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his “great sorrow” over the incident and extended condolences to the families of the fallen soldiers. Defense Minister Yasar Guler has traveled to the area to oversee inspections and attend ceremonies for the deceased.
Japan has conducted its first-ever land-to-ship missile test within its own territory, a move the Ministry of Defense described as “extremely important for enhancing military capability in the current difficult security situation.”
The ‘Type-88’ missile was test-fired by the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) from a military base on the northern island of Hokkaido on Tuesday (local time), hitting an area off the Pacific coast, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). Traditionally, Japan has conducted such live-fire drills at U.S. military bases, but these are often expensive and involve a limited number of personnel. The decision to conduct drills domestically comes as a weaker Japanese Yen has further increased these costs.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi stated in a Wednesday press briefing that conducting live-fire exercises at home allows for the training of a greater number of troops and aids in the defense of islands and other areas. While he maintained the exercise was not directed at any specific country, Japan has previously identified China as its “biggest security threat.”
Experts suggest that Beijing’s push for regional dominance, particularly its assertive stance on Taiwan, has led Japan to significantly alter its defense strategy. Japan is currently working towards a long-term plan to increase its defense budget to 2% of GDP, aligning with NATO standards. Concurrently, it is strengthening its military alliance with the United States to enable a swift response to regional tensions and potential threats.