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A Myanmar soldier is guarding an area at Sittwe Airport in Rakhine State last week. UN investigators last month issued a damning and meticulous report explaining why six Myanmar generals should be prosecuted for genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority.
Ye Aung Thu / AFP / Getty Images
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Ye Aung Thu / AFP / Getty Images
A Myanmar soldier is guarding an area at Sittwe Airport in Rakhine State last week. UN investigators last month issued a damning and meticulous report explaining why six Myanmar generals should be prosecuted for genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority.
Ye Aung Thu / AFP / Getty Images
The United States issued a report condemning the violent crackdown by Myanmar's armed forces against the Rohingya as "extreme, large-scale and widespread". But the report, released Monday by the State Department, did not describe the killings as genocide.
This distinction is an important legal distinction that determines how and if the International Criminal Court can act in these cases.
"We seldom make atrocity determinations," told NPR a State Department official, "… and this is only because we feel that one of the such a conclusion is justified after a thorough examination of the facts available and … that doing so at some point will help advance our policy objectives. "
The report investigated more than 1,000 Rohingya refugees at Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of members of the Muslim minority fled Myanmar's predominantly Buddhist population following attacks by the army. this country. It is estimated that nearly 700,000 Rohingya arrived last year following a brutal crackdown by the Myanmar government, which claimed that it was trying to cancel an insurgency. The United States estimates that about 1,000 people have died in the violence. The Rohingya who fled in 2017 have joined thousands of others who have already escaped during a previous crackdown in October 2016.
According to the much anticipated report, "the recent violence in northern Rakhine State was extreme, large-scale, widespread and appeared to be aimed at terrorizing the population and driving out Rohingya residents".
The report recognizes that "the scope and scale of military operations indicate that they were well planned and coordinated." It also details systematic rape and targeting of women and children.
But the investigation did not qualify the events as "genocide" and "new human crimes", two criteria that would allow the International Criminal Court to prosecute those responsible for the atrocities.
The report comes at a time when the Trump administration is conducting an intense campaign against the ICC, pledging to never recognize the authority of the court. In a speech to the United States General Assembly on Tuesday, President Trump said: "The United States will not support the International Criminal Court." In the case of America, the ICC does not support the International Criminal Court. 39, has no jurisdiction, no legitimacy and no authority ".
A report last month called on senior military officers in Myanmar to face charges of genocide against the Rohingya, and last week the chief prosecutor of the ICC took steps to open an investigation. Myanmar's military leader reacted on Monday, warning against any interference by the international community.
"The results are quite convincing and very complete, so it is surprising that they have somehow attenuated the language to not match the US language," said NPR Hunter Marston, a member of the Carnegie Council for Ethics. International Affairs.
Marston thinks that the State Department could be careful to exacerbate a situation "where we probably have no influence or technical means to impose liability or prevent further violence."
A State Department official told NPR in an email that the agency fully supported the earlier characterization of the events as "ethnic cleansing", but that the agency rarely makes atrocity determinations.
The US official said the United States will remain focused on improving the situation and accountability, and that these findings will serve as a basis for the decisions of Secretary Mike Pompeo and other policymakers in the pursuit of these goals. goals.
Human rights groups have been frustrated by the position of the United States.
"It's disappointing that the State Department has avoided legal determinations, but at this point, the dust has settled and we have a very clear picture of the crimes that were committed," said Matthew Smith of Fortify Rights in Southeast Asia. .
He said the issue now is about action and that the administration should do more to ensure accountability for genocide and crimes against humanity – starting by pressuring the US Security Council to bring Myanmar to justice. the International Criminal Court.
"They should help create an ad hoc criminal court as well as the creation of an independent mechanism to collect and retain evidence," Smith said. "These are all the options on the table.
The State Department report came the same day the Trump administration announced it was nearly doubling aid to Rohingya in Bangladesh and Myanmar. However, the wave of pressure on Bangladesh has exerted such pressure that the government has announced its intention to begin next month to transfer Rohingya refugees to a remote island in the Indian Ocean.
