A recent report by the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK) has revealed alarming details about the ongoing atrocities against the Rohingya population in Rakhine State, Myanmar. The report, published on Wednesday, accuses the Myanmar military of employing a “slow death” strategy, a recognized genocidal tactic, amid the ongoing conflict between the military junta, its proxies, and the Arakan Army.
The report underscores the compelled enlistment of Rohingya men and youth, frequently abducted at gunpoint from their homes, villages, and markets during night raids. They subject these forcibly conscripted individuals to forced labor and inhumane treatment before sending them to the frontlines as cannon fodder. Such actions, according to the report, constitute causing serious bodily or mental harm, a genocidal act under international law.
BROUK’s findings paint a grim picture for the estimated 600,000 Rohingya remaining in Rakhine State. Since 2012, the military has confined approximately 140,000 Rohingya to camps, subjecting them to conditions akin to indefinite arbitrary detention. The report details how the military’s deliberate deprivation of essential resources such as food, water, shelter, sanitation, and medical care further exacerbates the Rohingya’s suffering, leaving them extremely vulnerable, especially during armed conflicts.
Tun Khin, President of BROUK, condemned the international community’s inaction, particularly the UN Security Council’s failure to enforce the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to protect the Rohingya. “The Rohingya genocide was not inevitable; it was allowed to happen and is still being allowed to happen,” he stated. The report emphasizes that despite these measures, the Myanmar military continues its genocidal campaign, including obstructing humanitarian aid, which has led to additional preventable deaths, particularly following Cyclone Mocha.
BROUK calls for immediate international intervention, urging the UN Security Council to hold an open meeting to address the regime’s repeated violations of the ICJ’s orders and to secure unrestricted humanitarian access to Rakhine State. The report concludes with a stark warning: the ongoing genocide and the international community’s failure to act set a dangerous precedent, encouraging other authoritarian regimes to commit similar atrocities with impunity.
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