The United States would continue to provide assistance to Bangladesh so as to help the country deal with the Rohingya refugee crisis, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told lawmakers Thursday.
“Yes,” Pompeo told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when Senator Jeff Merkley from Oregon asked him about it.
“We’re sitting right now with more than 700,000 new refugees. By that, I mean from this last conflict from August through now, in Bangladesh,” the Senator said.
“Bangladesh needs a lot of support to help provide services and can the US be—the US has been a significant factor of that. Can US continue to be of assistance?” Merkley asked.
The Oregon Senator also urged Pompeo to make public the report that is being prepared by the State Department on atrocities against Rohingya Muslims in Burma. “I have heard it (the report) could well be very soon and when we do receive that report, will that be a public report? Is there a reason it couldn’t be made public?” Merkley asked.
“Not only do I see no reason it couldn’t be published. I’m happy to be told I’m wrong for some reason. But it’d be important that it be published. I actually think I agree with you. I think it would be very, very important that we make that public,” Pompeo said.
Merkley hoped that the US will help summon international response after this report when it comes out. “Because to fail to do so is to fail in our moral leadership in the world; and also to fail to do so encourages other countries that may have belittled and denigrated a minority to proceed to engage in ethnic cleansing if they don’t see the world respond to this situation,” he said.
Meanwhile the State Department expressed deep concern over the Amnesty’s report on the killing of Hindu villagers by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.
“We are deeply concerned by Amnesty’s report on the killing of Hindu villagers by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. Accountability for all those responsible for human rights abuses and violations in northern Rakhine State remains critical,” a State Department Spokesperson told Bangla Tribune.
“This report further highlights the ongoing urgent need for a credible, independent investigation in Rakhine State to further determine all facts on the ground to aid in these processes of justice and accountability. The United States continues to support such an investigation,” the spokesperson said responding to a question on the latest Amnesty report in this regard.
In its report early this week, Amnesty International said a Rohingya armed group brandishing guns and swords is responsible for at least one, and potentially a second, massacre of up to 99 Hindu women, men, and children as well as additional unlawful killings and abductions of Hindu villagers in August 2017.
“At around 8am on 25 August 2017, ARSA attacked the Hindu community in the village of Ah Nauk Kha Maung Seik, in a cluster of villages known as Kha Maung Seik in northern Maungdaw Township. At the time of the attack, the Hindu villagers lived in close proximity to Rohingya villagers, who are predominantly Muslim. Rakhine villagers, who are predominantly Buddhist, also lived in the same area,” Amnesty said in its report.
Burma Task Force, a coalition of 19 US and Canadian Muslim organizations, slammed Amnesty International for releasing such a report. “It is a major public relations bonanza for the genocidal Burmese regime. It puts 60,000 Rohingyas in India even at more risk than they already are,” it said.
“The Amnesty International report presents, as fact, evidence and conclusions that are both seriously questionable, and by doing so it aids the propaganda efforts of a regime whose every action suggests it is bent on carrying out genocide,” the task force said.
On Thursday, the US House of Representatives passed National Defense Authorization Act 2019, which addresses the issue of alleged ethnic cleansing in Burma.