Special Report: Pompeo rejected U.S. effort to declare 'genocide' in Myanmar on eve of coup, officials say

REUTERS

By Simon Lewis, Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In the last days of the Trump administration, some U.S. officials urged outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to formally declare that the Myanmar military’s campaign against the Rohingya minority was a genocide.

An exhausted Rohingya refugee woman touches the shore after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border by boat through the Bay of Bengal in Shah Porir Dwip, Bangladesh, September 11, 2017. Picture taken September 11, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/File Photo SEARCH "POY DECADE" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "REUTERS POY" FOR ALL BEST OF 2019 PACKAGES. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY.

Such a determination, a culmination of years of State Department investigation and legal analysis, would send a signal that the generals would not enjoy impunity for their persecution of the Muslim group since 2017, the officials hoped.

Pompeo never made that call. Less than two weeks after he left office on Jan. 20, Myanmar’s generals seized power in a coup.

Bangladesh rejects US human rights report as ‘one-sided’

bdnews24.com
 bdnews24.com
Staff Correspondent,
Published: 13 Mar 2020

File Photo: Voters queue at Dighirpar Government Primary School polling station in Dhaka's Nawabganj on Dec 30, 2018. 

The government has rejected as “one-sided and unacceptable” a human rights report in which the US criticised Bangladesh over “lopsided” 2018 parliamentary polls.

“In fact, the world needs, and has a right, to know about the human rights situation in the United States,” Information Minister Hasan Mahmud told bdnews24.com on Friday. 

Myanmar Rejects Court Probe Into Crimes Against Rohingyas

The New York Times
By The Associated Press
Nov. 16, 2019

YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar's government rejected the International Criminal Court's decision to allow prosecutors to open an investigation into crimes committed against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

Government spokesman Zaw Htay said at a Friday night press conference that Myanmar stood by its position that the Netherlands-based court has no jurisdiction over its actions. His statement was the first official reaction since the court on Thursday agreed to proceed with the case.

Myanmar Rejects Rohingya Refugee Visit to Rakhine State to Inspect Conditions For Repatriation

Radio Free Asia
2019-10-03

Rohingya refugees attend a ceremony organized to remember the second anniversary of a military crackdown that prompted a massive exodus of people from Myanmar to Bangladesh, at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia, Aug. 25, 2019.
AFP

Myanmar has rejected an offer by China to facilitate a visit by a group of Rohingya refugees to its Rakhine state to investigate the situation there ahead of a possible repatriation from temporary camps across the border in Bangladesh, a senior Myanmar foreign ministry official confirmed Thursday.

Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told reporters on Wednesday that Myanmar’s government had dismissed the proposal, originally floated by Li Jiming, the new Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh, during talks with Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar last month and formally discussed during a meeting last week between Myanmar, Chinese and Bangladeshi delegates on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Myanmar rejects China proposal to let Rohingyas visit Rakhine

Dhaka Tribune

Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan  

October 2nd, 2019

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen addresses a press conference at the Foreign Ministry in Dhaka on Wednesday, October 2, 2019 Focus Bangla

'China also said [to Myanmar] to give them [Rohingyas] cell phones so that they can inform their relatives about the situation'

China has joined Bangladesh to ask Myanmar to take some Rohingyas sheltered in Bangladesh to Rakhine state for them to see the existing condition, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen said on Wednesday.

Myanmar 'categorically rejects' UN report on army business empire

TheJakataPost
Yangon, Myanmar
Tue, August 6, 2019
Agence France-Presse

In this file photo taken on September 15, 2016, signage for the Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) - one of the country's main military conglomerate under US sanctions - is seen on a sidewalk along Yangon's main road. Tougher sanctions are needed against Myanmar's wealthy and powerful military, UN investigators said August 5, 2019, as they revealed how the army's web of economic interests has generated a fortune that helps fund atrocities. (AFP/Ye Aung Thu) 

Myanmar hit back Tuesday at a report by UN investigators calling for tougher sanctions against the country's powerful military to squeeze its business empire, accusing the probe of trying to harm the country.

Myanmar rejects the comments by Malaysian Leader

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Myanmar
Nay Pyi Taw,
31 July 2019

U Myint Thu, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, received His Excellency Mr. Zahairi Baharim, Ambassador of Malaysia to Myanmar, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 31 July 2019 at 1500 hrs.

Permanent Secretary expressed his dismay and objected to the comments recently made by Malaysian Prime Minister that displaced persons should be treated as nationals or be given a chance to form their own state and that genocide is happening in the country.

Rohingya reject Myanmar's 'foreign citizen' offer

AA

By SM Najmus Sakib 

29.07.2019 

DHAKA, Bangladesh

With Myanmar officials considering calling Rohingya “foreign citizen,” the persecuted people are demanding full citizenship, ethnic rights, and international protection before repatriation.

Myint Thu, Myanmar’s foreign affairs permanent secretary, said at a meeting with Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh that Myanmar’s government will consider the Rohingya “foreign nationals,” local daily The Daily Star reported on Monday.

Myanmar army rejects ICC bid for full Rohingya probe

FMT News

AFP 

June 27, 2019 

International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she wanted to raise alleged crimes by Myanmar against Rohingya to the next level. (AFP pic)

YANGON: Myanmar’s military on Thursday rejected an International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s call for a full investigation into alleged crimes against Rohingya Muslims.

Fatou Bensouda launched a preliminary probe in September into the 2017 crackdown by Myanmar’s military that forced some 740,000 Rohingya over the border into Bangladesh with accounts of rape, mass killings and razing of villages.

Generals reject Malaysian aid to Rakhine State

ELEVEN

31st December 2016

Sen on Submitted by Elevat, 12/31/2016

Myanmar cannot accept aid shipments carrying food and emergency supplies for Rohingya Muslims from the advisory council of Islamic organisations in Malaysia, said Lieutenant General Kyaw Swe, the military-appointed minister of home affairs.