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WASHINGTON: US officials are preparing a recommendation for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to declare that 鈥渆thnic cleansing鈥� is occurring against Myanmar鈥檚 Rohingya Muslims. That assessment would raise pressure on the Trump administration and US lawmakers to consider new sanctions on a country that had been lauded for its democratic transition.
Tillerson could receive the recommendation as early as this week, said officials familiar with the process. He will then decide whether to adopt the advice of his agency鈥檚 policy experts and lawyers.
A declaration of 鈥渆thnic cleansing鈥� by the top US diplomat would mark a reversal of fortune in American relations with the country also known as Burma, whose civilian government has been under the leadership of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi for more than a year. But Suu Kyi and her government allies have little control over Myanmar鈥檚 still powerful military, which is blamed for a brutal crackdown on Muslims in Rakhine State that has caused more than 600,000 refugees to flee to Bangladesh.
The State Department declined to comment.
The recommendation is being prepared as US lawmakers urge fresh sanctions on Myanmar鈥檚 military and are calling on the Trump administration to sever already restricted military ties. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee takes up the issue at a hearing on US policy toward Myanmar on Tuesday.
The US officials, who weren鈥檛 authorized to speak publicly on the internal process and requested anonymity, said the State Department won鈥檛 make a call yet on whether crimes against humanity in Myanmar have occurred. Such a determination would be even more detrimental to Myanmar鈥檚 military, as it could force the US to push for legal accountability.
Attacks by Rohingya insurgents on security forces in late August triggered what human rights groups have called a scorched-earth campaign against Rohingya villages. Amnesty International has reported that hundreds of Rohingya men, women and children have been systematically killed.
Calls for a US determination of 鈥渆thnic cleansing鈥� have intensified, as the United Nations and leading Western governments have used the term. Six weeks ago, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra鈥檃d Al-Hussein said it 鈥渟eems a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.鈥� French President Emmanuel Macron echoed that opinion, as have leaders of many in the Muslim world.
US officials have been more reticent. Tillerson, who last week said that perpetrators will be held to account for atrocities, has referred to the violence as 鈥渃haracterized by many as ethnic cleansing.鈥� UN envoy Nikki Haley told the Security Council last month it was 鈥渁 brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority.鈥�
But that鈥檚 as far as the administration has gone as it prepares for President Donald Trump鈥檚 first trip to the region next month.
US lawmakers have pushed for the administration to use the term without qualification. Earlier this month, Patrick Murphy, a senior US diplomat for Southeast Asia, described it as a 鈥渉uman tragedy鈥� as he was grilled by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He will testify again Tuesday.
According to the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention, 鈥渆thnic cleansing鈥� isn鈥檛 recognized as an independent crime under international law, unlike crimes against humanity and genocide. It surfaced in the context of the 1990s conflict in the former Yugoslavia, when a UN commission defined it as 鈥渞endering an area ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation to remove persons of given groups from the area.鈥�
Before the latest exodus, roughly 1 million Rohingya lived in Myanmar. The Buddhist majority believes they migrated illegally from Bangladesh, although many Rohingya families have lived in Myanmar for generations. They were stripped of their citizenship in 1982.
Sarah Margon, Washington director for Human Rights Watch, said a US 鈥渆thnic cleansing鈥� determination 鈥渋s long overdue,鈥� but should only be a first step.
鈥淓ven if the US government does get there, the real question is what concrete response is there going to be?鈥� she said.
Starting in 2012, the Obama administration lifted long-standing sanctions against Myanmar to reward its shift from military rule. The transition culminated in 2015 elections and a civilian government led by Suu Kyi. US officials who are focused on Asia policy remain leery of punishing Myanmar for fear it could undermine Suu Kyi鈥檚 efforts and push her country away from the United States and closer to rivals such as China.
Officials say the recent violence has prompted the US administration to reverse a policy of waiving visa restrictions and allowing members of Myanmar鈥檚 military and their families to visit here. The State Department also announced Monday that all units and officers involved in the operations in Rakhine were ineligible for US assistance, and it has rescinded invitations for senior Myanmar security forces to attend US-sponsored events.
Some lawmakers say that鈥檚 hardly enough. More than 40 House members wrote to Tillerson last week to seek 鈥渟ignificant actions to stop the ethnic cleansing鈥� of Rohingya. Twenty-one senators wrote to Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, urging multilateral sanctions against specific senior Myanmar military officials.
Sen. Ben Cardin, the Foreign Relations Committee鈥檚 top Democrat, says the Rohingya are facing not just 鈥渆thnic cleansing,鈥� but 鈥済enocide.鈥� The UN defines that term as the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Two years ago Yale Law School argued there was 鈥渟trong evidence that genocide is being committed.鈥�
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Associated Press writer Josh Lederman contributed to this report.