Thousands of civilians from across the country have been killed by the Tatmadaw, fomenting a widespread uprising and a shadow government that oppose the military control. Fighting has reached every part of Myanmar, and the junta has lost control over some territory in the northern Rakhine State, where the most intense atrocities against the Rohingya occurred, largely peaking in August 2017.
At that time, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi was Myanmar’s de facto leader. Though she had been championed for years by the United States and other democratic nations, she defended Myanmar from accusations of genocide against the Rohingya during a 2019 appearance at the International Court of Justice that tarnished her international credentials as a human-rights activist.
American diplomats worried that a genocide declaration for the protection of the Rohingya would further undercut her government’s steps toward democracy. Officials also feared that it would inflame animosity against the United States among other populations in Myanmar for appearing to favor the Rohingya’s plight while thousands of other people are suffering under the Tatmadaw.
The Trump administration resisted the declaration in part to maintain an alliance with Myanmar to keep neighboring China off balance in the region. In 2018, the State Department quietly released a report detailing the planned and coordinated nature of widespread violence against the Rohingya in Rakhine State, resulting in mass casualties, including against religious leaders who had been singled out.
Understanding the Coup in Myanmar
Card 1 of 5A military coup. Following a military coup on Feb. 1, 2021, unrest gripped Myanmar. Peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations gave way to insurgent uprisings against the Tatmadaw, the country’s military, which ousted the country’s civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi is a polarizing figure. The daughter of a hero of Myanmar’s independence, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi remains very popular at home. Internationally, her reputation has been tarnished by her recent cooperation with the same military generals who ousted her.
The coup ended a short span of quasi-democracy. In 2011, the Tatmadaw implemented parliamentary elections and other reforms. Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi came to power as state councillor in 2016, becoming the country’s de facto head of government.
The coup was preceded by a contested election. In the Nov. 8 election, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s party won 83 percent of the body’s available seats. The military, whose proxy party suffered a crushing defeat, refused to accept the results of the vote.
Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi faces years in prison. The ousted leader has been sentenced to a total of six years in prison so far, with many more charges pending against her. The U.N., foreign governments and Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s defenders have described the charges as politically motivated.
But it conspicuously did not conclude that Myanmar’s military had committed genocide or crimes against humanity.
Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi now is among more than 100 elected Myanmar officials whom the country’s military has arrested, and she faces as much as 173 years in prison on 17 charges that her supporters say are trumped up.
With the declaration, the Biden administration appears to have concluded that calling out the human rights abuses is more important than backing Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s pro-democracy drive. President Biden has made both values pillars of his foreign policy, and in April went so far as to declare century-old atrocities committed against Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide.