WASHINGTON – The Myanmar army, which has been accused of ethnic cleaning towards the nation’s Muslim Rohingya minority, has been invited to participate in a regional army assembly co-chaired by the United States and Thailand, the US army stated on Monday.
Myanmar’s armed forces launched a army operation in 2017 that pressured no less than 730,000 of the primarily Muslim Rohingya from their properties and into neighboring Bangladesh, the place they recounted killings, mass rape and arson. In 2021, Myanmar’s army seized energy in a coup.
Last yr President Joe Biden’s administration formally decided that violence dedicated towards the Rohingya minority by Myanmar’s army amounted to genocide and crimes towards humanity. The army has denied genocide, saying its crackdown was geared toward Rohingya rebels who had carried out assaults.
More than 1,000,000 Rohingya live in squalid camps in southern Bangladesh comprising the world’s largest refugee settlement, with little prospect of returning to Myanmar, the place they’re largely denied citizenship and different rights.
The United States and Thailand are co-chairing the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM)-Plus consultants’ working group on maritime safety and its related actions.
A Pentagon spokesman stated that the attendance is set by Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states.
“The United States continues to join the international community in responding forcefully to the military coup in Myanmar to urge the regime to end violence, release all those unjustly detained, and restore its path to democracy, to include through ADMM-Plus forums,” Lieutenant Colonel Marty Meiners, a Pentagon spokesman, stated.
The news was first reported by Myanmar Now.
This shouldn’t be the primary time the United States has invited Myanmar to a army train. Myanmar attended the identical discussion board just about final yr.
In 2017, the Pentagon invited Myanmar as an observer in a significant multinational army train led by the United States and Thailand. — Reuters
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
