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Save Rohingya from Genocide
Geneva International Centre for Justice — Independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization
The situation in Rakhine state of Myanmar is alarmingly deteriorating and resulting in the fastest growing refugee crisis. As of October 2017, an estimated 809,000 Rohingya refugees have fled violence and persecution in Myanmar to seek refuge in Bangladesh, including 603,000 who have arrived since 25 August. The Myanmar government is repeatedly condemned for grave breaches of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. However, mass atrocities against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine state seriously worsened throughout the past few years and continue to this day. The Myanmar government fails to ensure the end to violence and protection from abuse against ethnic minorities, particularly the Rohingya religious minority.
Firstly, the report provides a general background on the situation in Myanmar and introduces the humanitarian crisis in Rakhine state and the case of the Rohingya community. The world’s ”longest running civil war” between ethnic groups and the Myanmar government started in 1948, continues to this day and has resulted in a substantial number of civilian death and injuries, an unsurmountable refugee crisis, massive human rights abuses, and the destruction of infrastructure, towns and villages – despite the recent democratic transition process. Moreover, discrimination, persecution, violent repression, incitement to hatred and intolerance has compounded sporadic violence between Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya in Rakhine state with serious consequences, mostly for Rohingya minority.
The core of this report analyses the breaches of international law and suggests that there are reasonable grounds to believe that genocide of Rohingya is taking place in Myanmar. The widespread, systemic and organised abuse against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar entails an obvious intent to destroy, and thus amounts to the international crime of genocide. The persecution of this ethnic group since 1982 in combination with the widespread and systematic criminal acts committed against them since 2012 fulfil the elements of genocide as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Namely, killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
The report also assesses the impact of actions undertaken by the Myanmar government and the United Nations to address and stop these violations and to ensure accountability of perpetrators. It is clear to us that the Myanmar government is unwilling to undertake impartial investigation into grave violations of international law which amount to genocide of Rohingya and to ensure accountability. We are doubtful that the Myanmar government will ensure the end to atrocities taking place against the Rohingya minority. It has failed to ensure an independent investigation and trial of the alleged perpetrators of large-scale crimes.
In addition, the report describes the political landscape surrounding the Rohingya crisis and the positions of some UN member states. Among the UN members, France and Turkey showed the strongest reaction to mass atrocities against Rohingya in Myanmar referring to it as genocide. The United States made vocal statements at the Security Council saying that the “Myanmar government refuses to acknowledge the seriousness of the situation” and referring to the situation in Rakhine state as “a brutal sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority”. Russia’s position on the Rohingya case is clearly focused on accusing “the terrorist group” – Arakhan Salvation Army – in conducting a provocative insurgency that allegedly aims to de-stabilise situation in Rakhine state, and cautioned against using definitions as ethnic cleansing and genocide. The United Kingdom expressed strong criticism of excessive use of force and cautioned against a spill-over of violence to central Rakhine. China expressed cautious opinions on the Rohingya crisis and proposed to facilitate talks between Myanmar and Bangladesh. Other countries bordering with Myanmar took a moderate stance.
The report also makes an impact assessment of the international community’s response to the plight of Rohingya through the United Nations. The report insists that the actions of the international community undertaken through UN decision-making mechanisms gives an impression of close to total neglect of the armed conflict in Myanmar that has continued for almost 60 years now. However, the political situation in Myanmar is under scrutiny for many decades due to the new process of transition to democracy. It is high time for the international community to take bold actions based on Chapter VII of the UN Charter to stop genocide and to ensure protection of civilians in the world’s longest civil war running for almost 60 years since 1948.
Furthermore, the report provides an economic perspective on the situation in Myanmar through human rights lenses focusing on the activities of international transnational corporations. Human rights abuses with direct or indirect involvement of transnational companies continue to take place in a widespread and systematic manner in Myanmar. The Burmese military regime and several transnational corporations operating in Myanmar were seriously accused by the United Nations and human rights groups for gross violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. The alleged abuses related to the transnational corporate activity were murders and arbitrary executions, torture and other ill-treatment, rape, forced relocations and forced labour. As accusations are not investigated, the perpetrators enjoy impunity and the victims are not compensated.
Lastly, the report outlines the activities of Geneva International Centre for Justice (GICJ) and gives recommendations to relevant actors. GICJ calls upon the Human Rights Council (HRC) to take actions against widespread and systematic violations against the Rohingya Muslim community that amount to genocide and to ensure protection of civilians as well as corporate accountability of transnational corporations that operate in Myanmar for grave human rights violations in zones of armed hostilities.
GICJ continues to address the situation of the Rohingya in Myanmar in its work. In cooperation with NGO partners, GICJ organised a side event on “Human rights in Myanmar: Ethnic Cleansing” during the 36th HRC session. Additionally, GICJ published several press releases. In conclusion, GICJ recommends the Myanmar government should grant full access to the UN fact-finding mission and international humanitarian aid workers, observers and journalists to conflict areas, especially Rakhine State, the UN Security Council to take action based on Chapter VII of the Charter to restore peace and security in Myanmar and to protect Rohingya from genocide and other relevant recommendations.
