US Officially Recognizes the Genocide of the Rohingya People
The United States has officially declared that the violence perpetrated by the Myanmar authorities against the Rohingya Muslim population, including massacres and arson of entire villages, amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity.
This was stated by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken during a speech at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.
This decision is the eighth time in history that the United States has formally accused a country of genocide.
“The Burmese military committed genocide and crimes against humanity,” Blinken said.
According to Blinken, the persecution of the ethnic Rohingya group was widespread and systematic, which makes it possible to accuse the authorities of crimes against humanity.
About 850,000 Rohingya are being held in camps in Bangladesh. Another 600,000 remain in Burmese Rakhine State.
Representatives of the Rohingya Muslims previously demanded in court from Facebook nearly $200 billion in compensation for the genocide. The lawsuit was filed in US District Court in San Francisco. Based on that, Facebook “was willing to share the lives of the Rohingya people for greater market access to a small country in Southeast Asia.”
