Leaders from the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee have called on the US government to formally acknowledge crimes committed against Rohingya Muslims by Myanmar as a genocide.
“Making a formal determination of genocide must be the next step for the US,” said Representative Ed Royce, the committee’s chairman, as he spoke at a hearing on the issue last week. “Defining these atrocities for what they are is critical to building international public awareness – and support – to stop them.”
He was addressing a hearing entitled “Genocide Against the Burmese Rohingya,” reports Reuters.
Royce was joined in his call by two members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, ranking Democrat Bob Menendez and Republican Todd Young, who have called on the Secreatry of State to seek advice from the Office of the Legal Adviser at the State Department for a formal legal determination of genocide.
“We ask that you provide a formal legal determination regarding the actions of the Burmese military to Congress without delay,” they said in a letter seen by Reuters on Thursday.
See more from Reuters here.