WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) – The Myanmar military, which has been accused of ethnic cleansing against the country’s Muslim Rohingya minority, has been invited to take part in a regional military meeting co-chaired by the United States and Thailand, the U.S. military said on Monday.
Myanmar’s armed forces launched a military operation in 2017 that forced at least 730,000 of the mainly Muslim Rohingya from their homes and into neighboring Bangladesh, where they recounted killings, mass rape and arson. In 2021, Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup.
Last year President Joe Biden’s administration formally determined that violence committed against the Rohingya minority by Myanmar’s military amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity. The military has denied genocide, saying its crackdown was aimed at Rohingya rebels who had carried out attacks.
More than a million Rohingya are living in squalid camps in southern Bangladesh comprising the world’s largest refugee settlement, with little prospect of returning to Myanmar, where they are mostly denied citizenship and other rights.
Source: reuters
