US lawmakers on Thursday praised the Government of Bangladesh for giving shelter to hundreds and thousands of Rohingya refugees from Burma, as they declared the human rights atrocities against them by Burmese military as genocide.
“These atrocities have driven more than 700,000 Rohingya from their homes to Bangladesh, bringing the total Rohingya refugee population there to nearly a million. Bangladesh has been very generous in accepting all these refugees in the face of such dire circumstances,” Congressman Ed Royce, Chairman of the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee said.
Standing on the House floor, as lawmakers were to vote on the resolution, Royce said that United States has a moral obligation to call these crimes genocide. Failing to do so gives the perpetrators cover and hinders efforts to bring those accountable to justice.
“With this resolution, the House fulfills its part of that duty,” he said as the House passed the resolution with a overwhelming majority of 394 to one votes.
The non-binding resolution among other things provides a thorough accounting of the crisis, calls out the complicit Burmese Government, urges the Secretary of State to formally declare genocide and promotes multilateral agreement on that declaration. It also calls for the immediate pardon and release of two journalists who were framed and jailed by Burmese authorities for shining a light on some of the atrocities by government forces.
Early in September, the State Department released a report on the stomach-turning, systematic and widespread acts of violence against the Rohingya in Northern Rakhine State, but failed to label these atrocities genocide, Royce alleged.
“The State Department’s investigation revealed countless heart-wrenching pieces of evidence, like the account of one woman who hid in bushes as she watched Burmese soldiers throw infants and toddlers into a river to drown and shot their mothers who tried to save them,” he said.
The Burma Task Force welcomed the House resolution. "The House of Representatives has now officially adopted the position that the ongoing policies of mass violence and displacement against the Rohingya by the Myanmar government constitute genocide, bringing the U.S. closer to the emerging international consensus on the issue," it said.
Congressman Sandy Levin the atrocities committed against the Rohingya – mass killings, rape perpetrated on a massive scale, whole villages burned to the ground with people being burned alive in their homes, and over 700,000 fleeing the violence to neighboring Bangladesh – has been so extreme that the United Nations issued a report earlier this year calling for Burma’s military leaders to be investigated and prosecuted on the charges of genocide.
“There can be no doubt about the culpability of Burma’s military in the oppression and violence inflicted on the Rohingya,” he said. “This resolution speaks out against the “genocide and crimes against humanity that occurred in Rakhine State.” All of humanity must speak out clearly and decisively,” Levin said.
