The United States declared Monday that the yearslong repression of the Rohingya minority by the Myanmar military is a genocide and a “crime against humanity.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the U.S. had come to this conclusion after a factual assessment determined there was a crime against humanity committed that was intended to “destroy Rohingya in whole or in part” during remarks at the Holocaust Museum.
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“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.
This marks the first time the U.S. has gone so far as to call the actions by the Myanmar military against the Rohingya population a genocide.
“Today’s determination of genocide, crimes against humanity, is focused on Rohingya. It’s also important to recognize that for decades, the Burmese military has committed killings, rape, and other atrocities against members of other ethnic and religious minority groups,” Blinken said.
The Rohingya people have suffered decades of persecution as a Muslim ethnic minority, being denied citizenship since 1982 in Myanmar, making them one of the largest stateless populations in the world, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency.
The U.N. reports over a million Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar since the 1990s to resettle in neighboring Bangladesh, Malaysia, and other countries.
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“The U.S. genocide declaration is a welcome and profoundly meaningful step. It is also a solid sign of commitment to justice for all the people who continue to face abuses by the military junta to this very today,” Refugees International said in a statement on Sunday ahead of the announcement.
Last year, the Biden administration announced sanctions on Myanmar’s military leaders after the military seized power in a violent coup.
