On 30 August 2022 (Tuesday) the first PPS-UMT International conference held at Tangerang- Indonesia where Dr. Mahabubul Hoque Phd, Faculty of Law and International Relations UNISZA, Malaysia presented on ‘Genocide in Myanmar and Cambodia: Stop the culture of impunity’.
Rohingyas marked 25 August as Rohingya genocide remembrance day as they faced gang rape, arbitrarily arrest, brutally mass killing, villages arson, committed by Myanmar military and Rakhine Buddhists. The US secretary of state Blinken in March 2022 determined that members of the Burmese military committed genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya.
The recent military attack on Rohingya in 2016 to 2017 forced 1.1 million of Rohingyas to flee the native land Myanmar where Rohingyas have been for centuries.
Mahabubul Hoque, during his presentation in the conference said 25 August 2017 is not the first time Rohingya faced genocidal attack. During the British Colonial period, about 100,000 Rohingyas were killed by the Rakhines and their allied forces.
He stated that despite Rohingya Muslims have been living in Rakhine state (Arakan) for centuries, the status of Rohingya Muslims under Burma state framework was not complicated before 1982 citizenship law.
Following 1982 citizenship law, Myanmar government basically conducted various operations targeting Rohingya to eradicate them from the soil of Arakan, now Rakhine state. And accordingly, the situation against Rohingya steadily become worse. Ultimately a large number of Rohingya were forced to flee to Bangladesh in the name of a “clearance operation” committed with genocidal intent.
According to Mahabubul Hoque, the Rohingya genocide has consisted two phases, first was a military crackdown that occurred from October 2016 to January 2017, and second has been occurring since August 2017. Consequently more than a million Rohingyas have to flee the country because of well founded fear of persecution.
September 2018, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC)-mandated Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (IIFFMM) released a searing report detailing state violence against Rohingya and demanding that Myanmar’s military leadership be held accountable for “genocide.”
The report concluded that the military, as well as some civilians, have committed genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against its own people:
State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, have not met their “responsibility to protect the civilian population” and have enabled the commission of atrocity crimes, according to presentation.
The presenter further articulated that on 11 November 2019, The Republic of Gambia with the backing of the 57 members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) filed a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) alleging that Myanmar’s atrocities against the Rohingya in Rakhine State violate various provisions of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
“Myanmar raised a number of preliminary objections to the jurisdiction of the Court and the admissibility of the Application, chief being that the “real applicant” in the proceedings was not the Gambia but the OIC , which is not a nation state and therefore disqualified from making applications to the ICJ,” said Dr. Mahabubul Hoque.
Dr. Hoque told Rohingya Khobor (RK), “Rohingya in and outside Myanmar should wait patiently till they get a permanent solution with civil rights and dignity.’’
Dr. Hoque also told RK that the international community and powerful countries have to create such a pressure over Myanmar government that will force it (Myanmar) to restore the Rohingya’s civil rights including citizenship, and to become accountable for their genocidal act against Rohingya, so that Rohingya minority get a permanent solution.
He further said if Rohingya return to Myanmar without getting full citizenship and justice, they will face similar atrocities in Myanmar.
At present Rohingyas who are living in Bangladesh are dependent to humanitarian aids being provided by local and international NGOs, he said, adding more that culture of impunity must be stopped.
The Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia committed genocide on Cham Muslims and ethnic Vietnamese from 1975 to 1979, where the death tool ranging was from 100,000 to as high as 500,000.
“Unsatisfactory outcome is the case of genocide in Cambodia whereby two leaders of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime, both about 90 years old have been convicted of genocide almost fifty years after the genocide of Cham Muslims and ethnic Vietnamese”, Mahbub said in the conference.
