Alwaght- The United States is set to improve military ties with Myanmar ignoring the genocide of Muslims perpetrated by the Buddhist country’s armed forces.
The US Senate will vote on a defense spending bill next week that could expand the Pentagon’s cooperation with the Myanmar’s military, The Associated Press reported on Saturday.
A draft of the bill also allows for courses and workshops on issues like maritime security, peacekeeping and combating human trafficking, the report said. Washington is planning to expand military ties with the Southeast Asian country bordering China – a global super power competing with the US for influence.
A draft of the bill also allows for courses and workshops on issues like maritime security, peacekeeping and combating human trafficking, the report said.
Republican Senator John McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, refused to respond to questions about the bill.
This is while many human rights groups warn that brutal crime against minority Rohingya Muslims has mounted to genocide and the widespread destruction of homes and villages suggests an effort to etnic cleansing and to preventing Rohingyas’ eventual return.
Another US ally, the Israeli regime, is under fire from human rights groups for the continued sale of weaponry to the Myanmar junta after intensified violence against the country's Rohingya Muslim minority.
More than 100 tanks, as well as boats and light weapons, have been sold to the Myanmar regime by Israeli arms companies, investigations by several rights watchdogs have found.
According to the United Nations, some 270,000 Rohingyas have fled from Myanmar into neighboring Bangladesh since August 25.
A senior United Nations representative on Friday said that more than 1,000 people may already have been killed in Myanmar's Rakhine state, mostly members of the Muslim Rohingya minority, around twice the government's figure.
This is while the European Rohingya Council announced last week that between 2,000 and 3,000 Muslims were killed in Myanmar's Rakhine state within a period of three days from 25-27 August when the country's army started its latest crackdown. Council spokeswoman Anita Schug said thousands other had been injured in what she described as a slow-burning genocide.
