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Equal Rights Trust Launches Situation Report on Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar and Bangladesh
By The Equal Rights Trust (ERT), June 2012
This situation report provides an overview of violence and human rights abuses against Rohingya within Rakhine State in Myanmar in June 2012. The Rohingya are a stateless, ethnic and religious minority who were arbitrarily deprived of a nationality in 1982, and have suffered systematic arbitrary and discriminatory treatment in Myanmar for many decades.
In this report, ERT presents its findings and observations on the legal obligations of the parties to this crisis, and makes recommendations to the governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh, the UNHCR and the international community. This is not intended to be a comprehensive situation report and it makes no attempt to estimate how many people have been killed, injured or displaced. It however presents recent findings as established within a short period of time through emergency research, in order to alert the international community and the governments concerned, and to demonstrate the need for independent monitoring and a comprehensive human rights and humanitarian assessment of the crisis.
On 3 June 2012, ten Muslim pilgrims from Yangon who were travelling by bus in Rakhine State were killed in an attack by a group of around 300 Rakhine Buddhists. The attack was in response to the news that a Rakhine woman had been raped and murdered by three Rohingya men. Since then, violence between Rakhine and Rohingya has spread, resulting in an unknown number of deaths, serious injuries and displacement of both Rohingya and Rakhine. Homes, businesses and mosques have been burnt and looted. As the violence escalated, additional security forces were deployed to control the situation.1 But evidence points to them turning a blind eye to violence perpetrated by Rakhine and partaking in violence against Rohingya, further deepening this crisis. Despite an appeal for calm by Myanmar President Thein Sein, and immediate calls to restore order coming from the international community – including the UN, individual governments and civil society organisations including the Equal Rights Trust (ERT) – what began as sectarian violence has evolved into organised and large scale state sponsored violence against the Rohingya.
The violence has mainly occurred in Sittwe – the capital of Rakhine State and Maungdaw, the Rohingya majority township in North Rakhine State. Many Rohingya have fled the violence and persecution to neighbouring Bangladesh across the Naf river from Maungdaw, and by sea in larger boats from Sittwe. In response to the influx of refugees, Bangladesh has, in contravention of its international legal obligations – particularly that of non-refoulement, closed its border and pushed refugees back into dangerous waters.
The Rohingya, having been forced to flee their burning villages in Myanmar, find themselves pushed back into dangerous waters by the Bangladeshi authorities. The situation faced by the Rohingya is desperate, in the face of flagrant violations of international refugee and human rights law by both states.
Independent confirmations of research findings are difficult to obtain in the short term, as both countries have clamped down on the presence of international media in the areas of concern (namely Rakhine State in Western Myanmar and Cox’s Bazar District in South Eastern Bangladesh). Inside Myanmar, competing claims of atrocities carried out by both sides have been put forward by Rakhine and Rohingya groups alike, and the official figures announced by the government of Myanmar appear to be far below other indications. In the midst of arguments and counter-arguments over numbers, the core issues pertaining to this crisis have been pushed to the background – the responsibility of Myanmar to protect all persons within its territory and of Bangladesh to provide refuge and not refoule persons to a place where they are at severe risk.
ERT has been conducting research and advocacy work with the objective of securing greater protection for stateless Rohingya since 2008. ERT researchers interviewed over 50 refugees between 13 and 29 June 2012. This information, corroborated by evidence provided by sources from within Rakhine State and by information shared with ERT by other organisations, paints an extremely bleak picture, which demands urgent action to prevent further human rights violations including loss of life, suffering, forced displacement and damage to property.
In this situation report, we present the findings and observations of our researchers and attempt to piece together the events as they have happened. We also present the legal obligations of the parties tothis crisis and make recommendations to the governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh, the UNHCR and the international community. This is not intended to be a comprehensive situation report and it does not attempt to estimate how many people have been killed, injured or displaced, nor the full extent of the damage. As noted in the ERT statement of 14 June 2012:
Due to the very limited access into North Rakhine State for journalists and the international community, it is difficult to verify the extent of damage caused to lives and property. This has resulted in conflicting reports being presented in the media and the authenticity of such reports being questioned. As long as the area remains closed off, such questions will continue to be asked, and this uncertainty will be exploited to undermine voices calling for an immediate end to the violence. While the exact number of persons killed and injured and properties damaged may only be revealed if an impartial and transparent inquiry is conducted after the violence has ceased, the lack of such information in the present does not detract from the urgency of the crisis at hand, or the responsibility of all parties concerned to bring the situation under control.
There has been no substantive change since the publication of this statement that would facilitate the verification of numbers or corroboration of testimony. The lack of such evidence does not absolve the parties concerned of their responsibilities under international law. In fact, to the extent that accurate documentation of the situation has not been possible due to the actions and inactions of the Governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh, they have an added obligation to rectify this situation.
The acute discrimination and abuse faced by the Rohingya is a deeply entrenched and long-running problem that has over the years escaped the media attention and international concern it deserves. In fact, the present crisis is only the eruption of a long unaddressed problem with several dimensions. While immediate solutions are essential to protect those at risk of severe harm in the present crisis, concrete and sustained efforts are needed to ensure full respect for all Rohingya both within Myanmar and beyond.
