Washington- The incoming Biden administration will launch an interagency review to determine whether Myanmar’s persecution of its Rohingya minority can be called genocide.
President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the State Department, Antony Blinken said Tuesday.
Antony Blinken made the statement during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and said that if confirmed, he would oversee the process, reports Anadolu Agency.
According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmarese forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017.
Since August of that year, nearly 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces, according to a report by the Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).
Blinken’s confirmation vote in the full Senate is expected as soon as Wednesday, shortly after Biden is formally inaugurated.
In October last year, United States had sought an equal role from Myanmar’s all neighbours with “broad and unified voice” so that Rohingyas can get the confidence back to return to their homeland without any fear of further deportation.
There have been cases against the country in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
In November 2019, Gambia opened a case at the ICJ, against Myanmar for failing to prevent or punish genocide against Rohingya Muslims.
On November 14, 2019, the International Criminal Court opened an investigation for alleged crimes against humanity, such as deportation, acts of persecution and other inhumane acts, committed against Myanmar’s Rohingya population on or after 1 June 2010.
In July 2020, Fortify Rights obtained two videos showing two Myanmar Army deserters—Private Myo Win Tun, 33, and Private Zaw Naing Tun, 30—confessing to mass killings of Rohingya and other crimes and explaining the chain-of-command with regard to orders to “exterminate all” Rohingya.
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