米、ミャンマー軍のロヒンギャ迫害をジェノサイド認定

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】米国は、ミャンマー国軍によるイスラム系少数民族ロヒンギャの迫害について、ジェノサイド（集団殺害）と人道に対する罪に相当すると認定した。米政府高官が２０日、ＡＦＰに明らかにした。（写真はインドネシア海軍に海上で救助されたロヒンギャ難民）
　仏教徒が多数派のミャンマーでは、２０１７年に国軍がロヒンギャへの弾圧を開始。これまでに数十万人が国外に避難した。この問題は、オランダのハーグの国際司法裁判所（ＩＣＪ）でジェノサイドに当たるかどうかを審理する裁判が行われている。
　米国によるジェノサイド認定は、アントニー・ブリンケン国務長官が２１日、首都ワシントンのホロコースト記念博物館で正式発表する。同博物館では現在、ミャンマーの旧国名を使用した企画展「ビルマのジェノサイドへの道」を開催中。
　隣国バングラデシュに逃れたロヒンギャ約８５万人が暮らす難民キャンプでは、国軍による大虐殺やレイプの証言が聞かれる。また、西部ラカイン州に残る約６０万人のロヒンギャからも、広範な弾圧を受けているとの報告が上がっている。
　ジェノサイドは国連によって「国民的、人種的、民族的または宗教的な集団を破壊する意図を持ってなされる行為」と定義されている。
　米紙ニューヨーク・タイムズは、ミャンマー国軍のジェノサイドを司法認定した後、米国は孤立化するミャンマー軍政への追加制裁や援助の制限を行うだろうと報じている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/03/22-11:10）

The United States has determined that the violence against the Rohingya minority committed by Myanmar's military amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity, an official told AFP Sunday.
Hundreds of thousands of the mostly Muslim Rohingya community have fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar since 2017 after a military crackdown that is now the subject of a genocide case at the United Nations' highest court in The Hague.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to officially announce the decision to designate that crackdown a genocide in remarks at the Holocaust Museum in Washington on Monday, where an exhibit on Burma's Path to Genocide -- using a former name for the country -- is on display.
Blinken said in December last year during a visit to Malaysia that the United States was looking very actively at whether the treatment of the Rohingya might constitute genocide.
The State Department released a report in 2018 that detailed violence against the Rohingya in western Rakhine state as extreme, large-scale, widespread, and seemingly geared toward both terrorizing the population and driving out the Rohingya residents.
Around 850,000 Rohingya are languishing in camps in neighboring Bangladesh, recounting mass killings and rape, while another 600,000 members of the community remain in Rakhine where they report widespread oppression.
A legal designation of genocide -- defined by the UN as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group -- could be followed by further sanctions and limits on aid, among other penalties against the already-isolated military junta, the New York Times reported.
The United States slapped a series of sanctions on the country's leaders and like other Western nations has long restricted weapons to its armed forces, which even before the junta took power faced allegations of crimes against humanity for the brutal campaign against the Rohingya.
The case opened against Myanmar by The Gambia at the International Court of Justice in 2019 has been complicated by last year's coup that ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her government, triggering mass protests and a bloody crackdown.
The Nobel peace laureate, who faced criticism from rights groups for her involvement in the Rohingya case, is now under house arrest and on trial by the same generals she defended at The Hague.
The administration of President Barack Obama had pumped large amounts of political capital into Myanmar's transition to a fledgling democracy, offering financial help and diplomatic support.
But the US also made clear its discomfort at ongoing violence between Myanmar's army and ethnic rebels as well as religious violence and discriminatory policies particulary targeting the Rohingya.