US recognition of the Rohingya genocide would reverberate around the globe 

The US remains the global prime mover when it comes to issues of human rights and international law, and therefore any action taken by the US reverberates around the world.

With this in mind, a group of independent legal and human-rights experts have written an open letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, asking him to make a determination about the situation of the Rohingya people in Myanmar and declare what has happened to them a genocide — as it so clearly is.

There is every reason for the US to do so. The facts of the matter are incontrovertible: about 1 million Rohingya refugees live in a huge refugee camp just across the border in Bangladesh, near the city of Cox’s Bazaar. The overwhelming majority of them arrived there between the summer of 2016 and the summer of 2017, coinciding with what the armed forces of Myanmar themselves called “clearing operations” carried out against “Rohingya terrorists” — a designation that for the soldiers seems to include hundreds of thousands of civilian women and children caught up in their burning of villages.

The situation is already being examined by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the first case of its kind, after Gambia instigated the legal action against Myanmar. The ICJ has already issued an order to Myanmar to cease and desist some of its actions and policies that are clearly aimed at the Rohingya in the western state of Rakhine, and to put in place certain protections while the case is being examined by the court.

The US could, in this situation, seize the initiative and make a determination of genocide. This would not alter the trajectory of the international judicial process, but it might well speed it up so that the Rohingya gain some measure of justice, and perhaps even small steps toward restitution, sooner rather than later.

Judicial and humanitarian facts aside, there are also no economic, national security or geostrategic impediments to the US pursuing this course of action. Quite the opposite, in fact. When the government in Myanmar, under Aung San Suu Kyi, came to power in 2016 and the country nominally started a process of moving toward democracy, the western world began easing long-standing sanctions on the country with a view to integrating Myanmar into the international order and global markets — with the evident opportunities this offers US companies.

But this has not come to pass. Instead, the country has moved much closer to China, to the point where it is now a de facto client state of Beijing. Some of the most important infrastructure under China’s Belt and Road Initiative is being built in the country, and indeed close to former Rohingya lands. 

Judicial and humanitarian facts aside, there are also no economic, national security or geostrategic impediments to the US pursuing this course of action.

Dr Azeem Ibrahim

A genocide determination carries a number of benefits for Washington. It would position the US ahead of the international justice apparatus, allowing it to reclaim its rightful place as the global leader in matters of human rights. It would also authorize more robust action against Myanmar on a number of fronts, meaning that at the very least it would create substantial leverage on the country. This could, and should, be used to pry Myanmar away from China’s sphere of influence, so that the momentum toward democracy is re-established in the country and, to the extent to which it is willing to repair and make amends for the situation of the Rohingya, it is also given the opportunity to be re-integrated into the wider global markets.

The Rohingya would benefit from this, the ordinary citizens of Myanmar would benefit from this and, indeed, the US would benefit from this. It is rare that a situation presents itself in which doing the right thing is also obviously the most self-beneficial thing. But for the US, standing up for the Rohingya is one of those times.

• Dr Azeem Ibrahim is the director of the Displacement and Migration Program at the Center for Global Policy, and author of “Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar’s Genocide” (Hurst: 2016)