Rohingya genocide
The Rohingya genocide is a series of ongoing persecutions and killings of the Muslim Rohingya people by the military of Myanmar. The genocide has consisted of two phases[2][3] to date: the first was a military crackdown that occurred from October 2016 to January 2017, and the second has been occurring since August 2017.[4] The crisis forced over a million Rohingya to flee to other countries. Most fled to Bangladesh, resulting in the creation of the world's largest refugee camp,[3][5][6][7] while others escaped to India, Thailand, Malaysia, and other parts of South and Southeast Asia, where they continue to face persecution. Many other countries consider these events ethnic cleansing.[8][9][10]
Rohingya genocide
Rakhine State, Myanmar
9 October 2016 – January 2017
25 August 2017 – present
Ethnic and religious persecution, genocide, genocidal rape, ethnic cleansing, others
25,000+ killed by 2018[1]
- Destruction of many villages
- Tens of thousands raped
- 700,000+ refugees fled abroad
Tatmadaw, under the leadership of Min Aung Hlaing
The persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar dates back to at least the 1970s.[11] Since then, the Rohingya people have been persecuted on a regular basis by the government and Buddhist nationalists.[12] In late 2016, Myanmar's armed forces and police launched a major crackdown against the people in Rakhine State which is located in the country's northwestern region. The Burmese military was accused of committing ethnic cleansing and genocide by various United Nations agencies, International Criminal Court officials, human rights groups, journalists, and governments.[13][14][15] The UN[16][17][18] found evidence of wide-scale human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings; summary executions; gang rapes; arson of Rohingya villages, businesses, and schools; and infanticides. At least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month of attacks, between 25 August and September 24, 2017.[19] The Burmese government dismissed these findings by stating they are "exaggerations".[20][21] Using statistical extrapolations which were based on surveys which were conducted with a total of 3,321 Rohingya refugee households in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, a study which was conducted in January 2018 estimated that the military and the local Rakhine population killed at least 25,000 Rohingya people and perpetrated gang rapes and other forms of sexual violence against 18,000 Rohingya women and girls. They estimated that 116,000 Rohingya were beaten, and 36,000 were thrown into fires.[22][23][24]
The military operations displaced a large number of people, triggering a refugee crisis. The largest wave of Rohingya refugees fled Myanmar in 2017, resulting in the largest human exodus in Asia since the Vietnam War.[25] According to UN reports, over 700,000 people fled or were driven out of Rakhine State, and took shelter in neighbouring Bangladesh as refugees as of September 2018. In December 2017, two Reuters journalists who were covering the Inn Din massacre were arrested and imprisoned. Foreign Secretary Myint Thu told reporters Myanmar was prepared to accept 2,000 Rohingya refugees from camps in Bangladesh in November 2018.[26] Subsequently, in November 2017, the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a deal to facilitate the return of Rohingya refugees to Rakhine State within two months, which drew mixed responses from international onlookers.[27] The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, visited Bangladesh and the Rohingya camps near the border with Myanmar in early August 2022. Reports covered that Bangladesh's Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina asked the refugees to return to Myanmar. However, the UN addressed that repatriation needs to be conducted in a voluntary and dignified manner, and when the conditions on the border and also in Myanmar are safe for the process.[28] In late August 2022, the UN special envoy held another discussion with Bangladesh leaders, acknowledging the major pressures as a host country. At the same time, the UN emphasized the importance of engaging the Rohingya in direct discussions and decisions making processes about their future and for minimizing marginalization.[29]
The 2016 military crackdown on the Rohingya people was condemned by the UN (which cited possible "crimes against humanity"), the human rights organization Amnesty International, the U.S. Department of State, the government of neighbouring Bangladesh, and the government of Malaysia. The Burmese leader and State Counsellor (de facto head of government) and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was criticised for her inaction and silence over the issue and did little to prevent military abuses.[30][31][32] Myanmar also drew criticism for the prosecutions of journalists under her leadership.[33][34]
The August 2017 persecution was launched in response to Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacks on Myanmar border posts.[3] It has been labeled ethnic cleansing and genocide by various UN agencies, ICC officials, human rights groups, and governments.[35][36][37] The UN described the persecution as "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing". In late September 2017, a seven-member panel of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal found the Burmese military and authority guilty of the crime of genocide against the Rohingya and the Kachin minority groups.[38][39] Suu Kyi was again criticised for her silence over the issue and for supporting the military actions.[40] In August 2018, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights declared that Burmese military generals should be tried for genocide.[41][42][43] On 23 January 2020, the International Court of Justice ordered Myanmar to prevent genocidal violence against its Rohingya minority and to preserve evidence of past attacks.[44]
2017–present: Rohingya genocide
Spillover into the 2017–present genocide
In January 2017, at least four police officers were detained by government authorities after a video was posted online of security forces beating Rohingya Muslims in November 2016. In the video, Rohingya men and boys were forced to sit in rows with their hands behind their head while they were beaten with batons and kicked. This was the first incident in which the government punished its own security forces in the region since the beginning of the crackdown.[91][92]
On 21 January 2017, the bodies of three Rohingya men were found in shallow graves in Maungdaw. They were locals who had worked closely with the local administration, and the government believed they were murdered by Rohingya insurgents in a reprisal attack.[93]
On 4 July 2017, a mob of at least a hundred Rakhine Buddhists in Sittwe attacked seven Rohingya men from the Dapaing camp for internally displaced persons with bricks,[94] killing one and severely injuring another. The Rohingya men were being escorted by police to Sittwe's docks to purchase boats, but were attacked despite armed guards being present nearby.[95][96][97] A spokesman for the Burmese Ministry of Home Affairs said that an unarmed junior policeman was with the Rohingya men at the time of the attack, but was unable to stop the attackers.[94] On 26 July 2017 a man was arrested in relation to the attacks.[98]
On 30 July 2017, packages of high energy biscuits gifted from the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) as aid were discovered in a terrorist hideout in the Mayu mountain range in Maungdaw Township. The Rakhine State Government and WFP investigated on the pretense of misuse of food assistance.[99] On 31 July 2017, three decapitated bodies were found in Rathedaung Township. A government official asserted they were murdered by Rohingya insurgents.[100] On 3 August 2017, six Mro farmers were found killed in Maungdaw Township, supposedly as the work of Muslim militants.[101][102]
On 25 August 2017, the Myanmar government announced that 71 people (one soldier, one immigration officer, 10 policemen and 59 insurgents) had been killed overnight during coordinated attacks by up to 150 insurgents across 24 police posts and the 552nd Light Infantry Battalion army base in Rakhine State.[103][104][105] The Myanmar Army stated that the attack began around 1:00 AM, when insurgents armed with bombs, small arms weapons, and machetes blew up a bridge. It went on to say that a majority of the attacks occurred around 3:00 AM to 4:00 AM.[106] The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) claimed they were taking "defensive actions" in 25 different locations and accused government soldiers of raping and killing civilians. The group also claimed that Rathedaung had been under a blockade for more than two weeks, starving the Rohingya, and that the government forces were preparing to do the same in Maungdaw.[107]
Burmese government and military reports sought to highlight the suffering of other ethnic groups such as Rakhine Buddhists and Hindus at the hands of Rohingya militants.[108] In August 2017, up to 99 Hindus were killed by ARSA according to Amnesty International.[109] Hindus and other non-Muslims in northern Rakhine at the time of the Myanmar army crackdown accused ARSA members of killing residents or burning homes in their villages, with Radio Free Asia reporting more than 1,200 Hindus had fled to refugee camps in Maungdaw and Sittwe due to ARSA violence.[110] Hindu refugees and the Myanmar government alleged that Rohingya militants forced remaining Hindu women to convert to Islam and took them to Bangladesh.[111][112] ARSA has also been responsible for killings of fellow Rohingyas in Bangladeshi refugee camps.[113][114]
Yanghee Lee, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights for Myanmar reports at least 1,000 people had been killed in the violence since 25 August. She added that the figure is "very likely an underestimate".[115] She also downplayed the chance that Myanmar generals will ever see the inside of the International Criminal Court due to ''powerful international defenders.''[116]
In October 2018, Lee reported that Suu Kyi denied the allegations. Suu Kyi's government denied "independent international investigations" and probes. Lee has described the situation as 'apartheid' with detained Rohingyas segregated from the 'Rakhine ethnic community' and without 'freedom of movement'.[117]
On 23 April 2019, a Burmese gunship strafed the Rohingya village of Buthidaung. The military subsequently planted internationally banned landmines along northern Rakhine state to prevent the Rohingya from escaping northwest to Bangladesh. Burmese soldiers allegedly gunned down Rohingya civilians fleeing south. Those that remained were allegedly targeted by aerial attacks. Some have described the Rohingya as being trapped in a "genocide zone".[118]
In November 2019, the Three Brotherhood Alliance coalition of ethnic rebels in Myanmar issued a statement welcoming efforts by the international community to punish their country's junta through legal processes for alleged genocide against ethnic minority groups including the Rohingya.[119]
In early April 2020, the government of Myanmar released two presidential directives: Directive No. 1/2020 and Directive No. 2/2020. They were released after the January orders issued by ICJ for the government and military to stop genocide against the Rohingya Muslim ethnic group. Directive No. 1/2020 legislates that the answerable authorities are liable to ensure anyone under their control do not commit activities that lead up to a genocide. Directive No. 2/2020 restrains all Ministries and the government of Rakhine State from destroying The ICJ's January order and also mandated the preservation of evidence of any criminal activity that can possibly build up to a genocide.[120]
Persecution and crackdown
After the attack on security forces, the Myanmar military responded with a "heavy counter-offensive" and started "clearance operations" against the Rohingya people with the help of the Buddhist militia. In the first week, at least 130 Rohingya people were killed.[121] The Rohingya people started fleeing Myanmar in large numbers and tried to take shelter in Bangladesh. The Myanmar military often opened fire with mortar shells and machine-guns on the fleeing Rohingya,[122] and dead bodies of many Rohingya people began to be washed ashore from the drowned boats as they attempted to cross the Naf River to enter Bangladesh.[123] By the second week, at least 1000 Rohingya were killed.[124]
The Rohingya group Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, established by slain Rohingya activist Mohibullah, began documenting evidence of the atrocities committed in Myanmar in August 2017, after their founding members fled Myanmar and arrived in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.[125][126] The organisation went door to door in the camp, collecting information about the number of people in each household that had been killed, injured, or raped; which houses had burnt down; and other eyewitness accounts of crimes committed across Rakhine state in 2016 and 2017.[127] The documentation they have collected to date includes information from over 3000 witnesses to various serious international crimes.
In 2017, the vast majority of Rohingya people were displaced and became refugees as a result of the genocide. At the peak of the crisis in the same year, over a million, in January alone some reports disclosed, 92,000 Rohingya people were forced to flee to other countries because of the violence.[159] Most fled to Bangladesh while others escaped to India, Thailand, Malaysia, and other parts of South and Southeast Asia. It was estimated that around 650,000 Rohingya Muslims had fled Myanmar as of November 2017.[160][161][162][163] The refugee crisis resulted in the largest human exodus in Asia since the Vietnam War. According to the United Nations reports, as of January 2018, nearly 690,000 Rohingya people had fled or had been driven out of Rakhine State who sought refuge in Bangladesh.[149][135] Prior to this time, around 65,000 had fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh between October 2016 and January 2017,[164][165] while 23,000 others had been internally displaced.[159]
In February 2017, the government of Bangladesh announced that it planned to relocate the new refugees and another 232,000 Rohingya refugees already in the country to Bhasan Char, a sedimentary island in the Bay of Bengal.[164][166] The island first appeared around 2007, formed from washed down silt from the Meghna River.[164][166] The nearest inhabited land, Hatiya Island, is around 30 km away.[164] News agencies quoted a regional official describing the plan as "terrible".[166] The move received substantial opposition from a number of parties.[167] Human rights groups have described the plan as a forced relocation.[167][166] Additionally, concerns were raised over the living conditions on the island, which is low-lying and prone to flooding.[166][164] The island has been described as "only accessible during winter and a haven for pirates".[166][81] Bangladesh authorities have been accused of beating Rohingya who try to flee or protest their conditions in Bhasan Char.[168][169] Various destinations responded to the refugees:
The accord was viewed by international commentators as a conscious effort by Suu Kyi to address criticism over her lack of action in the conflict.[176] This decision, coming after both the United Nations and Rex Tillerson, US Secretary of State, declared that the actions undertaken by the Burmese army against the Rohingya refugees constituted ethnic cleansing, was met with hesitation and criticism by aid groups.[177]
Environmental impact
Many of the Rohingyas displaced by the violence fled to Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh. This area is considered climate vulnerable and at risk to weather events such as extreme rainfall, landslides, flash floods and tropical cyclones.[257] Armed conflicts within Myanmar are a significant threat to the environment and contribute to the declining forest cover which is estimated at 0.87% per year.[258] The majority of forest loss within Myanmar is on the periphery of armed conflicts or can be directly attributed to conflict.[258]
The military operations in Rakhine State resulted in significant environmental and ecosystem damage within the state leading to more than 90% of villages partially or entirely destroyed by fire.[258] This was due to the prevalence of arson and burning employed by the Burmese military.[258] Rakhine state experienced significant loss in forest cover and loss of cultivated wetlands.[258] the extent of the damage was extreme as before the conflict, forest cover was prevalent within the state of Rakhine. After the military operation, all forms of environmental land cover types such as cultivated wetlands were decimated.[258]
The migration of Rohingya Muslims into Bangladesh has resulted in widespread environmental degradation. To facilitate the need for living spaces for refugees, stairs and terraces were cut into the existing landscapes.[259] To supply the demand for settlements for the Rohingya refugees, 3713 acres of forest were cut from the Ukhia, Whykong, and Teknaf forest ranges along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border to build temporary housing.[259] The need for fuel resources for cooking with local peoples have cut down forest to sell to the refugee settlers.[259][260] The need for fuel for cooking has been a significant driver of forest cover loss within the region.[259][260] These forest use issues result in the degradation of critical habitats threatening the regions wildlife.[260] One such example of this is the Kutupalong camp's expansion. This expansion encroached onto the endangered Asian elephant's migration route.[261]
The Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh was found to be the largest refugee camp in 2018, utilizing 1328 acres of forest land.[259] These makeshift camps are subject to environmental risks such as landslides and flash floods.[259] These conditions, paired with unpaved and slippery roads, pose risks for elderly, young, and Rohingya women.[259] Waste within these refugee camps is also an issue with over 100 tons of disposable waste collected each month.[259]