Myanmar calls US Rohingya genocide accusation “far from reality”

The United States announced on Monday it will classify Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya ethnic group in 2017 as a genocide. Now, Myanmar has hit back. Its foreign ministry said in a statement yesterday that the United States’ remarks are “far from realities”, claiming the United States made the decision based on “unreliable and unverifiable” sources.

In 2018, the US State Department released a report detailing violence against the Rohingya in western Rakhine state as “extreme, large-scale, widespread, and seemingly geared toward both terrorising the population and driving out the Rohingya residents”.

The Rohingya people mostly live in the Rakhine State of Myanmar. Most of them are Muslims, while Myanmar is a Buddhist-majority country. They have their own language. In 2017, Rohingya militants launched arson attacks against over 30 police posts. Myanmar’s…