This is the eighth time since the United States officially recognizes the existence of a genocide.
Le Monde with AFP
The United States, for the first time, Monday, March 21, declared officially that the Muslim minority of the Rohingya had been the victim of a “genocide” and “crimes against humanity”, perpetrated by the army Burmese in 2016 and 2017.
Evidence shows “a clear intention behind these atrocities – an intention to destroy Rohingya, in whole or in part,” said Washington the leader of American diplomacy Antony Blinken. “The army’s intentions went beyond ethnic cleansing, to go to a real destruction” of this minority, according to him. He said that this is the eighth time since the United States officially recognizes the existence of a genocide.
More than 9,000 deaths in 2017
Antony Blinken explained to rely “on an analysis of the facts and the law made by the State Department”, nourished by “a series of independent and impartial sources, in addition to our own search”. In particular, he cited a report by the US diplomacy dating from 2018, concentrated over two periods, the first from October 2016, the second from August 2017. “In both cases, the army [Burmese] Used the same techniques to target Rohingya: shaved villages, murders, rapes, torture, “he listed.
He felt that the 2016 attacks “forced about 100,000” members of this Muslim minority to flee in Bangladesh, and that the 2017 attacks “killed more than 9,000 Rohingya and forced more than 740,000 d ‘between them to find refuge “in this neighboring country.
This 2017 military repression is now the subject of a genocide procedure before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, the highest jurisdiction of the United Nations.