Summary of Event
Rohingyas are the people indigenous to the western Rakhine State of Burma. They are predominantly Muslims. Despite their indigenous status, the Burmese government refuses to recognize their identity as Rohingyas, labelling them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar have been persecuted for decades, the result of the Burmese Government not recognizing them as citizens and treating them as illegal immigrants. However, the situation deteriorated rapidly after the events on October 9, 2016, when nine Burmese police officers were killed by an armed militia. The response to the killings of the Burmese police officers was reportedly violent, leading to widespread and indiscriminate attacks against Rohingya Muslim civilians. The events of October 2016 put Myanmar firmly on the United Nations’ radar.
Over the next months, the Burmese army conducted widespread, systematic, and indiscriminate attacks against and Rohingya Muslim communities in Myanmar. The atrocities have resulted in many fatalities but also in mass-exodus of the Rohingya Muslim population to neighboring Bangladesh. Because of the mass-exodus, the situation in Myanmar received more international media attention. The exact numbers of the fatalities are yet to be established.
On February 3, 2017, the OHCHR Mission to Bangladesh released a report based on interviews with Rohingyas who fled Myanmar. The report was commissioned as a result of reports that over 66,000 Rohingyas had fled Myanmar to Bangladesh since October 9, 2016. The OHCHR Mission to Bangladesh interviewed 240 people who informed the preparation of the report, including 204 in-depth interviews. The OHCHR Mission to Bangladesh identified that the interviewed Rohingyas reported:
Extrajudicial executions or other killings, including by random shooting; enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention; rape, including gang rape, and other forms of sexual violence; physical assault including beatings; torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; looting and occupation of property; destruction of property; and ethnic and religious discrimination and persecution.
The OHCHR Mission to Bangladesh raised its concerns that the atrocities perpetrated against the Rohingya Muslims amounted to ‘persecution against a particular ethnic and religious group.’ The report further indicated that as of January 20, 2017, over 22,000 Rohingyas remained internally displaced in Myanmar. The report suggested that crimes against humanity or even ethnic cleansing were taking place.
In March 2017, as a result of the deteriorating situation, and in response to the report of the OHCHR Mission to Bangladesh, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution establishing a new mechanism, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (the IIFFMB) to collect information about the alleged human rights violations in Myanmar, focusing mainly on the Rakhine State. The resolution condemned the violence in Myanmar and called for peaceful resolutions.
Following the passage of the March 2017 resolution, the UN Human Rights Council appointed two of the members of the fact-finding mission in May 2017, Radhika Coomaraswamy and Christopher Dominic Sidoti. The Chair of the fact-finding mission, Marzuki Darusman, was announced in July 2017. Even though the fact-finding mission was then ready to fulfill its obligations to explore the human rights violations in Myanmar, the Burmese government refused to cooperate and allow them into the country. As a result, the mission had to conduct its work remotely, reducing its effectiveness. Despite Myanmar’s increased scrutiny by the United Nations, the plight of the Rohingya Muslims deteriorated further over the next few months sparking international condemnation and criticism. Media reports confirm that hundreds of people were slaughtered in clashes between Burmese forces and Rohingya insurgents. The fatalities reportedly included civilians. Many buildings were destroyed in the fighting and thousands of Rohingya Muslims were forced to flee to Bangladesh. The Burmese government blamed Rohingya insurgents for the killings and property destruction. However, more and more reports suggested that it was the Burmese army that was burning down villages and shooting civilians.
On August 27, 2018, the IIFFMB published its report on Myanmar shedding more light of the scope and nature of the atrocities. According to the report, the Burmese military has used a wide range of methods to bring about this genocide, including mass killings (with 10,000 deaths being only a conservative estimate), rape and sexual violence, sexual slavery, abductions, and many more.
The report mentions some of the barbaric atrocities, for example,
In both Min Gyi and Maung Nu, villagers were gathered together, before men and boys were separated and killed. In Min Gyi, women and girls were taken to nearby houses, gang-raped, then killed or severely injured. Houses were locked and set on fire. Few survived. In numerous other villages, the number of casualties was also markedly high. Bodies were transported in military vehicles, burned and disposed of in mass graves.
According to the report, the methods used by the Burmese military ‘disproportionately affected the elderly, persons with disabilities and young children, unable to escape.’ The Burmese military has used rape and sexual violence against women and girls on a mass scale. The report identifies that the Burmese military resorted to large-scale gang rape in at least ten village tracts, with up to 40 women and girls being raped together, in front of their families and local communities. The report also identifies that as a result of this violence,
Victims were severely injured before and during rape, often marked by deep bites. They suffered serious injuries to reproductive organs, including from rape with knives and sticks. Many victims were killed or died from injuries. Survivors displayed signs of deep trauma and face immense stigma in their community. There are credible reports of men and boys also being subjected to rape, genital mutilation and sexualised torture.
Many victims of the atrocities committed by the Burmese military were children. They were both subjected to and witnessed mass atrocities that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Many of the approximately 500,000 Rohingya children in Bangladesh had visible injuries caused by shootings, stabbings, or from being burnt. Boys (and also men) were rounded up and taken away and are now feared dead.
The report further identifies the challenges faced by those who managed to flee the atrocities. Many of them died on their way to safe havens, some due to their injuries, some died when their boats capsized or when crossing rivers. The Burmese military also killed many Rohingyas who were trying to escape Myanmar, including, at border crossings. In September 2017, they planted landmines in border areas that reportedly were meant to prevent the Rohingyas from returning to Myanmar.
Even though the Burmese government disputes the events as identified in the report, or in other reports of the situation, the report indicates that ‘satellite imagery and first-hand accounts corroborate widespread, systematic, deliberate and targeted destruction, mainly by fire, of Rohingya-populated areas across the three townships.’
Although the situation of the Rohingya Muslims is indeed dire, the situation of other religious minority groups in Myanmar, particularly the Christian minority in the Kachin state, is scarcely better. A 2018 Sky News investigation into the situation in Kachin revealed that Christian minority groups are also being subjected to mass atrocities at the hands of the Burmese military. The investigation suggests that the Burmese government has been denying “aid agencies, international observers, foreign diplomats, and politicians access to the state.” The situation in Kachin, though, is not a recent development. Indeed, the conflict between Kachin Independence Army and the Burmese Army has been going on since 2011, having resulted in over 100,000 people being internally displaced.
Significance
Over the several months of increased atrocities in Myanmar, many international actors condemned the violence and called for the cessation of the conflict. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights described the atrocities committed against the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing” and the UN Special Envoy for human rights in Myanmar identified the “hallmarks of a genocide” in these crimes. Nonetheless, the word “genocide” in relation to the persecution of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar has not been formally used by any international institutions yet.
As a result of this genocidal campaign, at least 392 villages were totally or partially destroyed. This amounts to 40 percent of all villages in northern Rakhine.
Approximately 80 percent were burned in the initial three weeks of the operations; a significant portion of which after the Government’s official end date of the “clearance operations.” Over 70 percent of the destroyed villages were in Maungdaw, where the majority of Rohingya lived. Most destroyed structures were homes. Schools, marketplaces and mosques were also burned. Rohingya-populated areas were specifically targeted, with adjacent or nearby Rakhine settlements left unscathed.
Over 700,000 people have been displaced to Bangladesh. The number of the fatalities are unknown due to the lack of access to the area of where the atrocities were perpetrated. The atrocities perpetrated against the Rohingya Muslims, which still require an adequate investigation, clearly fall within the international guidelines that qualify it as a genocide.
On September 6, 2018, after the International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor requested clarification on the ICC’s jurisdiction to consider the situation in Myanmar, the Pre-Trial Chamber I concluded that the ICC may exercise jurisdiction over the alleged deportation of the Rohingya people from Myanmar to Bangladesh. Furthermore, the Pre-Trial Chamber I indicated that the ICC may also have jurisdiction over other crimes under Article 7 of the Rome Statute. Based on this decision, on September 18, 2018, the ICC Prosecutor has officially opened the preliminary examination concerning the fate of the Rohingyas. Despite the fact that the referred question was very narrow and focused on the forced deportations to Bangladesh, the preliminary examination will engage with ‘alleged coercive acts having resulted in the forced displacement of the Rohingya people, including deprivation of fundamental rights, killing, sexual violence, enforced disappearance, destruction and looting’ and ‘other crimes under article 7 of the Rome Statute… such as the crimes of persecution and other inhumane acts.’