Genocide: The term that fits the crime in Myanmar

The Washington Times

ANALYSIS/OPINION:
By Yasmin Ullah and Eric P. Schwartz - -
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
Myanmar began its worst violence against Rohingya Muslims three years ago

-FILE- In this Friday, Sept. 22, 2017 file photo newly set up tents cover a hillock at a refugee camp for Rohingya Muslims who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, in Taiy Khali, Bangladesh. Gambia has filed a case at ... more >

What would you have done if you had been a world leader witnessing mass killing in Rwanda in 1994? Or in Darfur in 2003? Or even in Germany during the Holocaust?

Imagine men raping women, burning villages and shooting people as they run away. Historic parallels are never perfect. There are always comparisons and differences. But think four years ahead as President Trump or President Biden leaves office in 2024. Wouldn’t it be better to know that in the case of Myanmar, America did what we should have done, when we should have done it?

Myanmar began its worst violence yet against Rohingya Muslims three years ago today, ruthlessly driving out hundreds of thousands of women, men and children through murder and other grievous abuses, in a campaign intended to destroy, in whole or in part, the Rohingya people. But Secretary of State Mike Pompeo still hasn’t called those crimes a genocide.

Bipartisan political figures, faith leaders and prominent international legal experts have all written to the secretary of State, appealing for him to use the term that fairly describes those atrocities. Thousands of Americans have signed a petition imploring him to do so. More than 80 human rights groups have backed the call.

It would be far better to act now than to wait for many years to speak the truth. In 1998, President Clinton apologized for the U.S. failure to call out the Rwanda genocide in 1994. Scarred by that experience, senior U.S. officials have subsequently acted more promptly. President Bush’s secretary of State, Colin Powell, declared a genocide in Darfur in 2004, less than a year after the killing began.

Secretary of State John Kerry, during the Obama administration, declared the Islamic State’s genocide against the Yazidis, Christians and Shia Muslims in Iraq in 2016. It was fewer than two years after the killings began. Secretary Pompeo — and President Trump, for that matter — should learn from this experience and act now.

Here’s why calling it genocide in Myanmar today matters. The Rohingya remain at high risk of atrocities, and a key risk factor for atrocity crimes is the lack of outside attention. A genocide determination would help to sustain and increase international scrutiny, as well as bolster global efforts to hold the state of Myanmar accountable for its crimes. It would rally international pressure, including more targeted sanctions. It would signal that we stand alongside the Rohingya people still in Myanmar. And it would show solidarity with Bangladesh for hosting Rohingya refugees.

Link:https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/aug/26/genocide-the-term-that-fits-the-crime-in-myanmar/