US officially declares Myanmar army committed genocide against Rohingya

“Beyond the Holocaust, The United States has concluded that genocide was committed seven times. Today marks the eighth. I've determined that members of the Burmese military committed genocide and crimes against humanity against Rohingya,” Blinken said during his speech at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington

“The decision that I reached based on reviewing a factual assessment and legal analysis, prepared by the state department, which included detailed documentation by a range of independent impartial sources, including human rights organizations, like Amnesty, International, and Human Rights Watch, as well as our own rigorous fact-finding,” he added.

Rohingya Genocide

The Rohingya genocide is a series of ongoing persecutions and killings of the Muslim Rohingya people by the Burmese military. The genocide has consisted of two phases to date: the first was a military crackdown that occurred from October 2016 to January 2017, and the second has been occurring since August 2017.

The crisis forced over a million Rohingya to flee to other countries. Most fled to Bangladesh, resulting in the creation of the world's largest refugee camp, while others escaped to India, Thailand, Malaysia, and other parts of South and Southeast Asia, where they continue to face persecution.

The persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar dates back to the 1970s.] Since then, the Rohingya people have been persecuted on a regular basis by the government and Buddhist nationalists.

In late 2016, Myanmar's armed forces and police launched a major crackdown against the people in Rakhine State which is located in the country's northwestern region. The Burmese military was accused of committing ethnic cleansing and genocide by various United Nations agencies, International Criminal Court officials, human rights groups, journalists, and governments.

The UN found evidence of wide-scale human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings; summary executions; gang rapes; arson of Rohingya villages, businesses, and schools; and infanticides. The Burmese government dismissed these findings by stating they are "exaggerations".

Using statistical extrapolations which were based on surveys which were conducted with a total of 3,321 Rohingya refugee households in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, a study which was conducted in January 2018 estimated that the military and the local Rakhine population killed at least 25,000 Rohingya people and perpetrated gang rapes and other forms of sexual violence against 18,000 Rohingya women and girls. They estimated that 116,000 Rohingya were beaten, and 36,000 were thrown into fires.

The military operations displaced a large number of people, triggering a refugee crisis. The largest wave of Rohingya refugees fled Myanmar in 2017, resulting in the largest human exodus in Asia since the Vietnam War.[24] According to UN reports, over 700,000 people fled or were driven out of Rakhine State, and took shelter in neighboring Bangladesh as refugees as of September 2018. (ILKHA)