HISTORIC MOMENT WARRANTS COLLECTIVE INTERNATIONAL GENEOCIDE DETERMINATION TO HOLD MYANMAR MILITARY ACCOUTABLE FOR GENOCIDE AGAINST ROHINGYA

21/03/2022
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Immediate Release

March 21, 2022

The European Rohingya Council (ERC) acknowledges the importance of the U.S. genocide determination on the accountability of genocide, which was perpetrated by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing’s Myanmar Military. A historic moment warrants a collective international determination on the genocide to hold genocidaires accountable and to prevent future atrocities.

It is a moral duty and an international obligation to prevent, protect and recognise a genocide. For decades, the Rohingya community has been calling out to recognise the gravest crimes they have been enduring at the hands of Myanmar Military (Tatmadaw). For too long, the international community has failed to acknowledge the well-documented crimes against Rohingya as ‘genocide’.

Nearly a million of Rohingya have been forced to flee Myanmar in search of a refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh and many countries in South East Asia undertaking perilous journey with countless of lives lost at sea and in jungles while the survivors of the genocide continue to suffer the mental traumas and carry on the hope of justice and accountability.

It has been six years since the exodus of 87,000 and 750,000 during the genocide campaigns in 2016 and 2017 respectively. Despite the traumatic experience of genocide and the systemic destruction and removal of Rohingya community from their birthplace, the military remains unaccountable of the atrocious crimes that they have committed against Rohingya.

The lack of accountability and determination of the genocide has bolstered Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and his military to stage the coup in February 2021 and unleash atrocities across the country.

The military is determined to continue in committing crimes against Rohingya and other minorities despite various sanctions against the generals and the businesses which bear little consequences for their atrocities.

The United States’ genocide determination is a step forwards in formally recognising the genocide that the military has been committing, and in holding them accountable.

On this historic day, the European Rohingya Council calls on the Biden Administration to employ the significant moments in organising its allied and the international community to collectively declare the crimes against Rohingya as genocide.

The international community should also not waste the moments to follow suit of the United States. The collective determination will shake the military regime to its core and make the generals realise that they cannot go unpunished from the international justice and accountability.

The European Rohingya Council also urges the United States and the international community to immediate back The Gambia in its case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and also refer Myanmar Military to the International Criminal Court (ICC) through the U.N. Security Council or the General Assembly.

For more information.

Dr. Ambia Perveen

Chairperson

The European Rohingya Council (ERC)

chairman@theerc.eu or info@theerc.eu