The United States is set to declare that the Myanmar military’s violence against the Rohingya minority amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity, media reports said on Sunday. This decision will be announced by Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.
Since the coup in February last year, security forces have killed at least 1,600 people and detained more than 12,000, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Over 500,000 people have been internally displaced since the coup, while tens of thousands have fled as refugees to Thailand and India. The Human Rights Watch on Friday, called upon the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to act against the Myanmar military’s human rights abuses by imposing economic sanctions and preventing the flow of weapons.
Persecution of Rohingyas a painful example of crimes: Hasina
“The Human Rights Council resolution should call for all UN member states to prevent the flow of weapons into Myanmar and impose stronger, targeted economic sanctions against individuals implicated in abuses and military interests. The resolution should also urge the UN Security Council to refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court,” the HRW said in a statement. The Myanmar military junta took control of the country following a coup on February 1 last year.
Myanmar’s junta has carried out a nationwide crackdown to suppress those opposing military rule. The junta’s systematic and pervasive abuses, including mass killings, torture, arbitrary arrests, and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes, the HRW alleged. “The UN Human Rights Council should respond to Myanmar’s human rights and humanitarian crisis with urgency and purpose,” said Lucy McKernan, deputy UN advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, adding that, “The rights council should take strong action against security forces that have never faced consequences for their numerous crimes.”
Notably, last week the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet had said in a report released for the 49th regular session of the UN Human Rights Council that Myanmar’s military and security forces have shown a flagrant disregard for human life, bombarding populated areas with airstrikes and heavy weapons and deliberately targeting civilians.
