By The Washington Post
November 22, 2017
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| Rohingya women carry blankets and other supplies they collected from aid distribution centers in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh on Tuesday. (Wong Maye-E/AP) |
The United States on Wednesday declared the violence and
atrocities against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Burma to be a campaign of
“ethnic cleansing,” and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned that U.S.
sanctions may be forthcoming.
Tillerson blamed the Burmese military and security forces
as well as local vigilantes for what he called “horrendous atrocities” that
have caused more than 600,000 Rohingya to flee Burma’s western Rakhine state
for the safety of neighboring Bangladesh. But he placed most of the criticism
on the government, demanding the security forces respect human rights and
punish the guilty.
“Those responsible for these atrocities must be held
accountable,” he said in a statement, reiterating his call for an independent
investigation into what has caused a refugee crisis in which Rohingya men have
been executed, women raped and their babies murdered.
“The United States will also pursue accountability
through U.S. law, including possible targeted sanctions,” he added, suggesting
sanctions might be directed against specific Burmese officials.
Many members of Congress and human rights groups had been
urging Tillerson for months to adopt the “ethnic cleansing” terminology. And
others have used even stronger language. French President Emmanuel Macron has
called it genocide. Amnesty International has called the violence in Burma “dehumanizing apartheid,” and Human Rights Watch
has termed it crimes against humanity. http://wapo.st/2hGCt6w?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.56c63a1dbdae
State Department officials noted that ethnic cleansing is
not recognized internationally as a crime and triggers no punitive measures
against Burma, which is also known as Myanmar.
But it sets the stage to exert more pressure on Burmese
officials if they fail to take actions such as giving humanitarian groups and
the press access to Rakhine state and guaranteeing safety to those who
voluntarily return home.
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That dream has faded. http://wapo.st/2imIedb?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.6c58c3daa944
Tillerson made a brief visit last week to Burma, where he
talked with State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and the head of the armed forces.
The Burmese military has denied committing atrocities
during “clearance operations” to battle Muslim insurgents in the predominantly
Buddhist nation. An internal investigation cleared the military of any
wrongdoing.
On Aug. 25, militants belonging to the extremist Arakan
Rohingya Salvation Army attacked outposts of Burmese security forces. According
to human rights groups, those forces responded with a brutal and indiscriminate
crackdown on Rohingya communities, drawing in local Buddhist mobs as they went.
“No provocation can justify the horrendous atrocities
that have ensued,” Tillerson said in his statement.
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also: Rohingya misery: ‘My whole world was my village’ http://wapo.st/2y5J8RS?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.28fead796d03
Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, as well as many who
remain in Burma, have provided chilling testimony of the campaign, which they
say was accompanied by widespread arson, rape and summary executions.
Human rights groups applauded Tillerson’s decision to
start using the term “ethnic cleansing,” but they said more action was needed.
Eric P. Schwartz, president of Refugees International,
said the move could be used by Washington to pressure other countries to take
stronger measures, including a global arms embargo and the end of
military-to-military relations.
“Secretary Tillerson’s statement is a necessary first
step,” he said. “However, until the abuses against the Rohingya people end and
full access is given to the international humanitarian aid and the U.N.
fact-finding mission, such pressure and requisite actions will continue to be
essential.”
Joanne Lin, head of advocacy and government relations for
Amnesty International USA, said Tillerson’s acknowledgment of ethnic cleansing
sets an example for how to respond.
“The time for outrage and condemnation has passed,” she
said. “The international community must impose a comprehensive arms embargo and
targeted financial sanctions against senior Myanmar military officials
responsible for crimes against humanity.”
Lin also urged the United States to introduce a U.N.
Security Council resolution calling for an embargo and sanctions, and to
pressure Bangladesh to loosen its registration rules so humanitarian groups can
get more aid workers on the ground.
The term “ethnic cleansing” is largely descriptive and
dates from the conflict in the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia. At the time, a
U.N. commission defined it as “rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by
using force or intimidation to remove people of given groups from the area.”
The Obama administration declared the Islamic State had
committed genocide against Yazidis, Christians and Shiite Muslims. In 2005, the
George W. Bush administration labeled the killings in Darfur, a region of
Sudan, to be genocide and tightened sanctions. But no policy was mandated by
law.
“Ultimately these things come down to the politics of
it,” said David Bosco, an associate professor at Indiana University’s School of
Global and International Studies and author of a number of books on
international law.
Even if the United States declared genocide in Burma,
Bosco added, “it’s really just a question of whether that helps generate
pressure for action.”
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also: Srebrenica holds painful lessons for victims
of other ethnic-cleansing campaigns http://wapo.st/2hJgGuZ?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.b9e6f759eac7
The timing of Tillerson’s statement was rife with
symbolism. It coincided with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia’s sentencing of former Bosnia Serb commander Ratko Mladic, who was
convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity, to life in prison.
“The U.S. government should find more facts to declare
the persecution against Rohingya is genocide,” said Ro Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya
blogger and activist based in Europe. “Myanmar’s military commanders must be
punished as Ratko Mladic was.”
Adam Taylor and Brian Murphy contributed to this report.