According to US sources, the Biden administration plans to designate Myanmar’s years-long repression of the Rohingya Muslim people as a “genocide.” According to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the move had not yet been publicly revealed, Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to make the long-awaited designation on Monday during an event at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The designation does not automatically imply further harsh sanctions against Myanmar’s military-led government, which has already been slammed with many layers of US sanctions since the campaign against the Rohingya ethnic minority in the country’s western Rakhine state began in 2017.
Rohingya decision will be much delayed
However, it may increase international pressure on the government, which is already facing genocide allegations at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Both the Trump and Biden administrations have been pressed to make the designation by human rights organizations and politicians.
At least one member of Congress, Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley, applauded the move.
“I applaud the Biden administration for finally recognizing the atrocities committed against the Rohingya as genocide,” he said in a statement released shortly after the State Department announced that Blinken would speak about Myanmar on Monday at the Holocaust Museum and tour an exhibit titled “Burma’s Path to Genocide.” Myanmar, often known as Burma, is a country in Southeast Asia.
“While this decision is long delayed, it is nonetheless a significant and vital step in holding this terrible dictatorship accountable,” Merkley said. “Such processes must always be carried out honestly, consistently, and in a fashion that transcends geopolitical considerations,” Merkley said, urging the administration to keep up the pressure on Myanmar’s leadership by slapping new sanctions on its oil and gas industries. “America must lead the world in stating unequivocally that atrocities like these will never go unrecognized, no matter where they occur,” he said.