US declares oppression of Rohingyas in Myanmar as genocide

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on Monday, declared the years-long repression of the Rohingya Muslim population in Myanmar as genocide. 

Blinken announced United States’ ruling at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington nearly 14 months after he took office and pledged to conduct a new review of the violence.

The designation does not in and of itself portend drastic new measures against Myanmar’s military-led government, which has already been hit with multiple layers of U.S. sanctions since the campaign against the Rohingya ethnic minority began in the country’s western Rakhine state in 2017.

Also read: Russian bond trading restarts for the first time since Ukraine invasion

But it could lead to additional international pressure on the government, which is already facing accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Human rights groups and lawmakers have been pressing both the Trump and Biden administrations to make the designation.

“I applaud the Biden administration for finally recognizing the atrocities committed against the Rohingya as genocide,” he said in a statement released immediately after the State Department announced that Blinken would deliver remarks on Myanmar at the Holocaust Museum on Monday and tour an exhibit entitled “Burma’s Path to Genocide,”  Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon had said on the eve of the announcement. 

Also Read: Oil prices rise due to pressure of Russia-Ukraine conflict

“While this determination is long overdue, it is nevertheless a powerful and critically important step in holding this brutal regime to account,” Merkley said. “Such processes must always be carried out objectively, consistently, and in a way that transcends geopolitical considerations.”

More than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from Buddhist-majority Myanmar to refugee camps in Bangladesh since August 2017, when the Myanmar military launched a clearance operation in response to attacks by a rebel group. Myanmar security forces have been accused of mass rapes, killings and the burning of thousands of homes.