Myanmar: New atrocities against Rohingya

(Bangkok)- Rohingya Muslims exist Myanmar The people of Burma are facing the gravest threat since the Burmese military launched a campaign of mass killings, rape, and arson in northern Rakhine State in 2017, Human Rights Watch said today. August 25, 2024, marks the seventh anniversary of the Burmese military’s campaign of mass killings, rape, and arson in northern Rakhine State. Crimes against humanity and genocide, forcing more than 750,000 Rohingya to flee Bangladesh.

In recent months, the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army have committed mass killings, arson and illegal recruitment of Rohingya communities in Rakhine State. On August 5, nearly 200 people were Allegedly killed Drone strikes and shelling of civilians fleeing fighting in Maungdaw, a town near the Bangladesh border, according to Rohingya witnesses. About 630,000 Rohingya still live in Myanmar, where they remain under an apartheid system that makes them extremely vulnerable to a new round of fighting.

“The Rohingya in Rakhine State are being subjected to torture and their experiences are reminiscent of the brutality perpetrated by the Myanmar military in 2017,” Elaine Pearson“Once again, armed forces are driving thousands of Rohingya from their homes through killings and arson, leaving them with nowhere to go.”

The Rohingya have been trapped in fighting since hostilities resumed in November 2023, ending a year-long informal ceasefire. The military has responded as the Arakan Army rapidly expanded its control over Rakhine State. Indiscriminate attack Attacks on civilians were carried out using helicopter gunships, artillery fire, and ground attacks. In late April, the Arakan Army began attacking Rohingya villages in Buthidaung, eventually The town was captured on May 17During this time, they shelled, looted and burned Rohingya settlements.

Armed fighting then spread westwards to Maungdaw, sparking further abuse and displacement, including arson and looting. On August 6, X (formerly Twitter) shared four videos of the August 5 attack, in which dozens of bodies of men, women and children can be seen. The location identified by Geoconfirmed is on the western edge of Maungdaw township, an account also confirmed by Human Rights Watch. Rohingya witnesses told Human Rights Watch that they believed the Arakan Army was responsible. The military junta and the Arakan Army have accused each other of responsibility for the attacks.

“There has been heavy fighting between the Arakan Army and the Myanmar military over the past two months, with gunfire, artillery shelling and drone attacks,” said a 24-year-old Rohingya man from Myo Ma Ka Nyin Tan in Maungdaw in August. “Many Rohingya villagers are killed and injured every day. I have attended several funerals.” He fled the scene when fighting hit his community on August 5. “We walked to the riverbank to cross the river, where thousands of people were crossing. Suddenly, drones appeared and started dropping bombs on the crowd. Nearly 20 of our group of 70 to 80 people died and 10 were injured, including me.”

“When we were fleeing, the Naf River was filled with Rohingya bodies,” another villager, an 18-year-old whose father was killed in a drone strike, told Human Rights Watch. “I saw many bodies in the rice fields and on the riverbank.” His boat capsized in the river while crossing into Bangladesh, drowning more than two dozen people. He and his brother found a plastic bucket and floated it to shore. He said the Bangladeshi Border Guard arrested his mother when she tried to cross the border and has been detaining her ever since. The border guard has increased resistance The number of asylum seekers at the Rakhine border has been increasing since January.

The conflict has displaced more than 320,000 people in Rakhine and southern Chin states since November 2023. Meanwhile, the military has intensified its deadly blockade of humanitarian aid as a means of Collective punishmentwhich violates International humanitarian law It violates the 2022 UN Security Council Resolution and the ASEAN Five-Point Consensus.

Human Rights Watch said the Rohingya in Myanmar and Bangladesh were under pressure from all sides. In recent months, the military junta has illegally recruited thousands of Rohingya men and boys from Rakhine State and Bangladesh. refugee With the support of Rohingya armed groups, Heightened tensions between Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhist groups.

In Bangladesh, approximately one million Rohingya refugees face increasingly dire living conditions in the Cox’s Bazar camps. Violence by armed groups and criminal gangs is increasingIn August alone, there were reports of killings, kidnappings, forced recruitment, extortion, and looting by members of the Rohingya Solidarity Group and the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. Bangladeshi authorities have failed to ensure refugees have access to protection, education, livelihoods, and movement.

“My heart aches for the safety of Rohingya students and the entire community in the area,” a Rohingya teacher in the camp wrote in a letter to Human Rights Watch. He said his students were increasingly missing classes because they had been kidnapped for ransom, illegally recruited, or kept home by their parents out of fear. “Brutal gang activity has created a climate of terror. The fear is palpable and a suffocating burden.”

Muhammad Yunus, interim Prime Minister of Bangladesh explain He will “continue to support the more than one million Rohingya who have taken refuge in Bangladesh,” despite his foreign policy adviser told Reuters They do not have the capacity to take in more refugees. Bangladesh is bound by the prohibition of repatriation under customary international law and cannot forcibly return anyone to a place where they would face a real risk of threat to their life or persecution, torture or other ill-treatment.

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have consistently said they want to return home, but only if their safety, access to land and livelihoods, freedom of movement and civil rights are guaranteed. More than 5,000 Rohingya have left Bangladesh since January 2023. Already tried An estimated 520 people died or went missing during the perilous journey by boat to Indonesia and Malaysia in search of a better life.

Human Rights Watch said that while the international response to the 2017 violence was minimal and no one has been held accountable for crimes against the Rohingya, some important steps toward justice have been taken. In June, an Argentine prosecutor Application for arrest warrant Twenty-five officials within Myanmar’s government and military authorities have been indicted. The case was brought under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows national authorities to prosecute suspects of serious crimes regardless of their nationality or where the crime was committed.

In July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Acceptance of intervention Representatives of one of seven governments are participating in the trial of Gambia against Myanmar for violations of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Hearings on the merits of the case are likely to take place in 2025. Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court (ICC) is investigating the matter, although its jurisdiction is limited to alleged crimes committed at least in part in Bangladesh, an ICC member state.

Human Rights Watch said the UN Security Council should refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court, expanding the court’s jurisdiction over the case. No follow-up Take concrete steps to implement the December 2022 resolution, fearing a veto from China and Russia.

Council members should support a public meeting to address the deteriorating situation in Rakhine State and build momentum for a follow-up resolution under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. The Council should also play a role in enforcing binding resolutions. Ordering interim measures The International Court of Justice ruled in a genocide case, but the military blatantly ignored it.

“Over the past seven years, UN agencies and governments have not done enough to end a system of apartheid and persecution that has led to further suffering for the Rohingya,” Pearson said. “Ending the ongoing cycle of abuse, destruction, and displacement requires an international effort to hold those responsible accountable.”