Crackdown on Rohingya: Military exhibited coordination, premeditation
A US State Department investigation has found Myanmar's military exhibited “premeditation and coordination” ahead of the slaughter of Rohingya Muslims last year, Politico reported on August 13.
A document leaked to the political newspaper of the US says the survivors described actions by Myanmar's armed forces that were “widespread, systematic and extreme”. Women, the elderly were often treated the most brutally -- along with small children.
“Soldiers threw infants and small children in open fires, rivers, wells and burning huts,” the draft excerpts state. “One refugee reported that a soldier threw an infant in the air and impaled it on a long sword.”
“In the months prior to the August attacks, security forces detained men and abducted women. Rohingya were subject to restrictions on freedom of movement, and in some cases the military removed fences and confiscated farming tools, knives and other objects -- anything that could be used for self-defence,” it said.
“A few refugees reported that authorities instructed villagers from other ethnic groups to leave the area prior to the attacks.”
However, days before Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to deliver a speech on the subject, the Trump administration has apparently not yet decided whether to call it “genocide”.
Declaring genocide -- typically defined as a premeditated effort to wipe out some or all of a specific ethnic or religious group -- could commit the US to punitive steps toward a country in which President Donald Trump has shown little interest.
The State Department has described the military campaign in Rakhine as “ethnic cleansing,” which has little weight in international law.
One prominent official who appears to support declaring a genocide is the US ambassador-at-large for religious freedom, Sam Brownback. He is supported by many officials.
The State Department's legal division, on the other hand, opposes the label “genocide” because it's not convinced the US can clearly establish the Myanmar military's intent, according to the administration official.
The department's East Asian and Pacific Affairs bureau is concerned about a possibly counterproductive effect on US relations with Myanmar, a country under hybrid civilian-military rule that American officials hope to move out of China's orbit.
If Pompeo stops short of using the term “genocide”, officials and activists expect him to accuse Myanmar's military of “crimes against humanity,” which carries less rhetorical and legal force than genocide.
Activists say even that label can be helpful in building future criminal cases against the perpetrators.
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