US Calls Myanmar Moves Against Rohingya ‘Ethnic Cleansing’

US threatened targeted sanctions against those responsible for what it called “horrendous atrocities”.

An ethnic Rohingya holds a banner during protest after Friday prayers outside the Myanmar Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Photo: AP)

The United States on Wednesday called the Myanmar military operation against the Rohingya population "ethnic cleansing" and threatened targeted sanctions against those responsible for what it called "horrendous atrocities".

"The situation in northern Rakhine state constitutes ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya," US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement, using a term he avoided when visiting Myanmar, also known as Burma, last week.

"The United States will also pursue accountability through US law, including possible targeted sanctions" against those responsible for the alleged abuses, which have driven hundreds of thousands of Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh, he said.

The United States shifted its stance in part to raise pressure on Myanmar's military and civilian leaders, who have shared power for the past two years under an uneasy arrangement after decades of military rule, to address the crisis.

These abuses by some among the Burmese military, security forces, and local vigilantes have caused tremendous suffering and forced hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children to flee their homes.

Rex Tillerson

While repeating US condemnation of the insurgent attacks, he added: "No provocation can justify the horrendous atrocities that have ensued."

Murray Hiebert, a Southeast Asia analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, said the State Department's use of the term and threat of sanctions "will likely have limited to no impact on the ground."

It is likely to create more distrust between the United States and Myanmar’s military and government and push them closer to China, Russia, and its more authoritarian neighbors in Southeast Asia.

Rights monitors accused Myanmar’s military of atrocities, including killings, mass rape and arson, against the stateless Rohingya during so-called clearance operations after Rohingya militants' 25 August attacks on 30 police posts and an army base.

More than 6,00,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Rakhine state in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, mostly to neighboring Bangladesh, since the crackdown, which followed the insurgent attacks.

(With inputs from Reuters.)