2016–17 Rohingya persecution in Myanmar

The 2016–17 Rohingya persecution in Myanmar refers to the ongoing military crackdown by Myanmar's armed forces and police on Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State in the country's northwestern region. The crackdown was in response to attacks on Burmese border posts in October 2016 by unidentified insurgents. The Burmese military have been accused of wide-scale human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, gang rapes, arson and infanticides, claims which the Burmese government dismisses as "exaggerations".^[9][10]

The military crackdown on the Rohingya people has drawn criticism from the United Nations (which cited possible "crimes against humanity"), the human rights group Amnesty International, the U.S. Department of State, the government of neighboring Bangladesh, and the government of Malaysia (where many Rohingya refugees have fled to). The de facto head of government of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, has particularly been criticized for her inaction and silence over the issue and for doing little to prevent military abuses.

Background

The Rohingya people have been described as "amongst the world's least wanted"^[11] and "one of the world's most persecuted minorities."^[12] The Rohingya are deprived of the right to free movement and of higher education.^[13] They have been denied Burmese citizenship since the Burmese nationality law was enacted.^[14] They are not allowed to travel without official permission and were previously required to sign a commitment not to have more than two children, though the law was not strictly enforced. They are subjected to routine forced labour where typically a Rohingya man will have to give up one day a week to work on military or government projects and one night for sentry duty. The Rohingya have also lost a lot of arable land, which has been confiscated by the military to give to Buddhist settlers from elsewhere in Myanmar.^[15][14]

Myanmar, also known as Burma, is a country in Southeast Asia, bounded by the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh and India to the west, and China, Laos and Thailand to the east. Democracy only recently emerged in Myanmar by arrangement with the military, who permitted a free election on 8 November 2015, which elevated Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to power after years of house arrest.^[16]

Myanmar is predominantly Buddhist (88%–90% of the population), with small minorities of other faiths, including a small minority of Muslims (4%), most of whom are forbidden to vote and denied citizenship (with the exception of the Kamans). The nation is dominated by its ethnic Bamar (or Burman) majority (68%), most of whom are Buddhist.^[17][16]

Several other ethnic groups suffer discrimination, abuse and neglect by the government; in the western coastal province of Rakhine State, it is the predominantly Buddhist Rakhine (4%, about 2 million people) and the predominantly Muslim Rohingya (2%, about 1 million people) that have suffered at the hands of the government. Tensions between Buddhist and Muslim communities have also led to violence, with nationalist Buddhists often targeting Rohingyas.^[18] The Rohingya are a distinct ethnicity with their own language and culture, but claim a long historical connection to Rakhine State.^[17][16]

The Rohingya describe themselves as descendants of Arab traders who settled in the region many generations ago.^[19] Scholars have stated that they have been present in the region since the 15th century.^[20] However, they have been denied citizenship by the government of Myanmar, which describes them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.^[19]

In modern times, persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar dates back to the 1970s.^[21] Since then, Rohingya people have regularly been made the target of persecution by the government and nationalist Buddhists.^[18] The tension between the various religious groups in the country was often exploited by the past military rulers of Myanmar.^[19] According to Amnesty International, the Rohingya have suffered from human rights violations under past military dictatorships since 1978, and many have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh as a result.^[22] In 2005, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had assisted with the repatriation of Rohingyas from Bangladesh, but allegations of human rights abuses in the refugee camps threatened this effort.^[23] In 2015, 140,000 Rohingyas remain in IDP camps after communal riots in 2012.^[24]

Before the most recent violence, in its 17 March 2016 Atrocities Prevention Report,^[25] the U.S. Department of State summarized:

Initial border incidents

According to Myanmar state reports, on 9 October 2016, armed individuals attacked several border police posts in Rakhine State, leaving nine police personnel dead.^[26] Weapons and ammunitions were also looted. The attack took place mainly in Maungdaw Township.^[27] A newly formed insurgent group, Harakah al-Yaqin, claimed responsibility a week later.^[28]

Crackdown

Following the police camp incidents, the Myanmar military began a major crackdown in the villages of northern Rakhine state. In the initial operation, dozens of people were killed and many were arrested.^[29] As the crackdown continued, the casualties increased. Arbitrary arrest, extrajudicial killings, gang rapes, brutalities against civilians, and looting were carried out.^[30][31][32] According to media reports, hundreds of Rohingya people had been killed by December 2016, and many had fled Myanmar as refugees to take shelter in the nearby areas of Bangladesh.^{[33][18][34][35][29]}

In late November, Human Rights Watch released satellite images which showed that approximately 1,250 Rohingya houses in five villages had been burned down by the security forces.^[35][31] The media and the human rights groups frequently reported intense human rights violations by the Myanmar military.^[29][31] During one incident in November, the Myanmar military used helicopter gunships to shoot and kill the villagers.^[18][30][34] As of November 2016, Myanmar had yet to allow the media and human rights groups to enter the persecuted areas.^[18] Consequently, the exact figures of civilian casualties remained unknown. The Rakhine State was termed an "information black hole".^[31]

Those who fled Myanmar to escape persecution reported that women had been gang raped, men killed, houses torched, and young children thrown into burning houses.^[36][37][38] The boats carrying Rohingya refugees on Naf River were often gunned down by the Myanmar military.^[39]

On 3 February 2017, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a report based on interviews with more than 200 Rohingya refugees, which said that the abuses included gang-rape, mass killing, and killing children.^[40][41][42] Nearly half of the interviewees stated that family members of theirs had been killed.^[40] Half of the women interviewed stated that they had been raped or sexually assaulted: the report described the sexual violence as "massive and systematic".^[41] The army and police were stated to have burned "homes, schools, markets, shops, and mosques" belonging to or used by the Rohingya people.^[40][43][44]

In March 2017, a police document obtained by Reuters listed 423 Rohingyas detained by the police since 9 October 2016, 13 of whom were children, the youngest being ten years old. Two police captains in Maungdaw verified the document and justified the arrests, with one of them saying, "We the police have to arrest those who collaborated with the attackers, children or not, but the court will decide if they are guilty; we are not the ones who decide." Myanmar police also claimed that the children had confessed to their alleged crimes during interrogations, and that they were not beaten or pressured during questioning. The average age of those detained is 34, the youngest is 10, and the oldest is 75.^[45][46]

Refugee crisis

Kutupalong Refugee Camp in Bangladesh. (Photo taken in March 2017 by John Owens/VOA)

An estimated 92,000 Rohingya people had been displaced because of the violence by January 2017;^[47] around 65,000 had fled from Myanmar into neighboring Bangladesh between October 2016 and January 2017,^[48][49] while 23,000 others had been internally displaced.^[47]

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 Thengar Char, a sedimentary island in the Bay of Bengal.^[48][50] The island first appeared around 2007, formed from washed down silt from the Meghna River.^[48][50] The nearest inhabited land, Hatiya island is around 30 km away.^[48] News agencies quoted a regional official describing the plan as "terrible".^[50] The move has received substantial opposition from a number of quarters. Human rights groups have described the plan as a forced relocation.^[50][48] Additionally, concerns have been raised about the living conditions on the island, which is low-lying and prone to flooding.^[50][48] The island has been described as "only accessible during winter and a haven for pirates".^[50][40] It is nine hours away from the camps in which the Rohingya refugees currently live.^[50][48]

Related incidents

In January 2017, at least four police officers were detained by government authorities after a video emerged 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.^[51][52]

On 21 January 2017, the bodies of three Rohingya men were found in shallow graves in Maungdaw. The men were locals who had worked closely with the local administration, and the government believes they were murdered by Rohingya insurgents in a reprisal attack.^[53]

On 4 July 2017, a mob of at least a hundred Rakhine Buddhists in Sittwe attacked seven Rohingya men from Dapaing camp for internally displaced persons with bricks,^[54] 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.^[55][56][57] According to a spokesman for the Burmese Ministry of Home Affairs, an unarmed junior policeman was with the Rohingya men at the time of the attack, but was unable to stop the attackers.^[54] One man was arrested in relation to the attacks on 26 July 2017.^[58]

On 30 July 2017, packages of high energy biscuits aided from the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) were discovered in a terrorist hideout in the Mayu mountain range in Maungdaw Township. The Rakhine State Government and WFP investigated the discovery of the biscuits whether it represented a misuse of food assistance.^[59] On 31 July 2017, three decapitated bodies were found in Rathedaung Township. According to a government official, they were murdered by Rohingya insurgents.^[60] On 3 August 2017, bodies of six ethnic Mro farmers, reportedly killed by Muslim militants were found in Maungdaw Township.^[61][62]

Criticism

The military crackdown on Rohingya people drew criticism from various quarters. Human rights group Amnesty International and organizations such as the United Nations have labeled the military crackdown on the Rohingya minority as crimes against humanity and have said that the military had made the civilians a target of "a systematic campaign of violence".^{[34][63][64][19]}

Aung San Suu Kyi has been criticized in particular for her silence and lack of action over the issue, as well as for failing to prevent human rights abuses by the military.^[29][18][19] She stated in response: "show me a country without human rights issues."^[32] The former head of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, after a week-long visit in the Rakhine state, expressed deep concern about reports of human rights violations in the area.^[65] He was leading a nine-member commission which was formed in August 2016 to look into the situations in the state and to make recommendations on improving the situation there.^[65][19]

The U.S. Department of State has also expressed concern about the violence in Rakhine State and the displacement of Rohingyas.^[18] The government of Malaysia has condemned the crackdown in Rakhine State, with ongoing protests in the country. In a protest rally in early December, Malaysia's prime minister Najib Razak criticized the Myanmar authority for military crackdown on Rohingya Muslims, and described the ongoing persecution as "genocide".^[66][67] Earlier, terming the violence against Rohingya Muslim minority as "ethnic cleansing", Malaysia said 'the issue was of international concern'.^[68] Malaysia also cancelled two football matches with Myanmar in protest of the crackdown.^[69][33]

In November 2016, a senior United Nations official, John McKissick, accused Myanmar of conducting ethnic cleansing in the Rakhine state to free it from the Muslim minority.^[18][68] McKissick is the head of a UN refugee agency based in the Bangladeshi town Cox's Bazar. Later that month, Bangladesh summoned the Myanmar envoy in its country to express "tremendous concern" over the Rohingya persecution.^[70]

In December 2016, the United Nations strongly criticized the Myanmar government for its poor treatment of the Rohingya people, and called its approach "callous".^[38][71] The United Nations also called on Aung San Suu Kyi, the State Counsellor of Myanmar (de facto head of government) and a Nobel laureate, to take steps to stop violence against the Rohingyas.^[32][37] In its report released in February 2017, the UN stated that the persecution of the Rohingya had included serious human rights violations. The UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Raad Al Hussein stated "The cruelty to which these Rohingya children have been subjected is unbearable – what kind of hatred could make a man stab a baby crying out for his mother's milk?"^[40][41] A spokesperson of the government stated that the allegations were very serious, and would be investigated.^[40]

On 23 May 2017, a report released by the military rejected the allegations made by the OHCHR in February, stating that, "Out of 18 accusations included in the OHCHR report, 12 were found to be incorrect, with the remaining six accusations found to be false and fabricated accusations based on lies and invented statements."^[72]

References