Arakan News Agency
The United States hopes for a diplomatic solution to the Rohingya crisis without ruling out the possibility of sanctions to pressure Myanmar, if necessary, a senior State Department official said on Sunday in Bangladesh.
US Assistant Secretary of State for Political Affairs Mr.Thomas Shannon said resolving the humanitarian crisis for Rohingya through dialogue with Myanmar was a top priority, stressing that the door was still open to tougher measures if the talks failed.
“We have a range of sanctions available to us if we decide to use them,” Shannon told reporters in Dhaka. This will be part of greater efforts to exert pressure “on Myanmar.
“But now, as we have already noted, our goal is to solve the crisis, not punishment.”
Shannon’s comments come days after US lawmakers proposed sanctions on the Myanmar military, the most powerful US attempt so far to pressure Myanmar to stop mistreatment of the Muslim Rohingya minority.
More than 600,000 Rohingya minorities have fled to Bangladesh since late August carrying testimonies of killings, rape and burning committed by the Myanmar army during a security crackdown that the United Nations called “ethnic cleansing.”
Rohingya refugees continue to cross the border from Myanmar’s Arakan state to neighboring Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have taken refuge in overcrowded camps.
Shannon referred to “positive moves,” including Myanmar’s indication of its openness to hosting representatives from the international community in Arakan and talks with Bangladesh on the crisis.
Shannon said the United States hopes to “exploit” this progress and direct it towards resolving the crisis without resorting to other means.
“We will press for a political solution to the crisis and even be unable to do so,” he said.
For decades, Rohingya has been subjected to discrimination in Myanmar, which is dominated by Buddhists, where they are denied citizenship and are regarded as “Bengali” migrants.
