Peaceful Buddhist monks without any weapons can demonstrate on the streets in Myanmar, but the military junta government with weapons can kill them if they want, and that have happened. What`s even worse is their systemic killings of the Rohingya minorities. That’s Genocide.
For most of its independent years, Myanmar has been engrossed in rampant ethnic strife and its myriad ethnic groups have been involved in one of the world`s longest-running ongoing civil wars. Myanmar is an ethnically diverse nation with 135 distinct ethnic groups officially recognized by the Burmese military Government.
The UN and several other organizations have reported consistent and systemic human rights violations in the country.
In 2011, the military junta was officially dissolved following a 2010 general election, and a nominally civilian government was installed. This, along with the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and political prisoners and successful elections in 2015, had improved the country`s human rights record and foreign relations and had led to the easing of trade and other economic sanctions, although the country`s treatment of its ethnic minorities, particularly in connection with the Rohingya conflict, continued to be condemned by international organizations and many nations.
Following the 2020 Myanmar general election, in which Aung San Suu Kyi`s won a clear majority in both houses, the Burmese military again seized power in a coup d’etat.
The coup, which was widely condemned, led to widespread protests in Myanmar and has been marked by a violent response by the military.
The military junta also arrested Aung San Suu Kyi and charged her with crimes ranging from corruption to the violation of Covid protocols, all of which have been labeled «politically motivated» by independent observers.
Aung San Suu Kyi is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2021.
The Rohingya people have consistently faced human rights abuses by the Burmese regime that has refused to acknowledge them as Burmese citizens, despite the fact that some of them have lived in Burma for over three generations.
The Rohingya have been denied Burmese citizenship since the enactment of a 1982 citizenship law.
The law created three categories of citizenship:
- citizenship
- associate citizenship, and
- naturalised citizenship
Citizenship is given to those who belong to one of the national races such as Kachin, Kayah (Karenni), Karen, Chin, Burman, Mon, Rakhine, Shan, Kaman, or Zebedee.
Associate citizenship is given to those who cannot prove their ancestors settled in Myanmar before 1823 but can prove they have one grandparent, or pre-1823 ancestor, who was a citizen of another country, as well as people who applied for citizenship in 1948 and qualified then by those laws.
Naturalized citizenship is only given to those who have at least one parent with one of these types of Burmese citizenship or can provide «conclusive evidence» that their parents entered and resided in Burma prior to independence in 1948.
The Burmese regime has attempted to forcibly expel Rohingya and bring in non-Rohingya to replace them.
This policy has resulted in the expulsion of approximately half of the 800,000 Rohingya from Burma, while the Rohingya people have been described as «among the world`s least wanted», and «one of the world`s most persecuted minorities».
But the origin of the «most persecuted minority» statement is unclear.
Rohingya are not allowed to travel without official permission, are banned from owning land, and are required to sign a commitment to have no more than two children.
As of July 2012, the Myanmar government does not include the Rohingya minority group, classified as stateless Bengali Muslims from Bangladesh since 1982, on the government`s list of more than 130 ethnic races and, therefore, the government states that they have no claim to Myanmar citizenship.
In 2007, German professor Bassam Tibi suggested that the Rohingya conflict may be driven by an Islamist political agenda to impose religious laws, while non-religious causes have also been raised, such as a lingering resentment over the violence that occurred during the Japanese occupation of Burma in World War II.
During this time period, the British allied themselves with the Rohingya and fought against the puppet government of Burma (composed mostly by Bamar Japanese) that helped to establish the Tatmadaw military organization that remains in power for a 5-year lapse in 2016 – 2021.
Since the democratic transition began in 2011, there has been continuous violence in Myanmar. A UN envoy reported in March 2013 that unrest had re-emerged between Myanmar`s Buddhist and Muslim communities.
Yesterday, the Biden administration declared that the military junta in Myanmar has committed genocide against the Rohingya minority. The Biden administration has enough evidence to say that the junta has a clear intent to destroy the Rohingya.
The evidence of killings is mass rape and arson, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday.
Antony Blinken had a speech at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, and he said that the killings of the Rohingya minority were «widespread and systematic». Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar since the military crackdown that began in 2017.
Mr. Blinken announced the US would provide $1 million in new funding for the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, which continues to examine atrocities. A case against Myanmar, also called Burma, was opened at the International Court of Justice in 2019.
«The day will come when those responsible for these appalling acts will have to answer for them», Mr. Blinken said.
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