August 25 marked the seventh anniversary of the campaign of massacres, rape, arson and forced displacement in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine against the persecuted Muslim-majority Rohingya people. This campaign is widely recognised as a genocide.
Myanmar’s desperate human rights crisis continues to worsen by the day, for all the diverse peoples of the country, especially the Rohingyas.
Thousands of Rohingyas are yet again forced to flee their homes and escape by boat on dangerous seas drawing the attention of the UN Secretary-General, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch (HRW).
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described the worsening humanitarian and security crisis in Myanmar as “dire” and called on all parties to the conflict to “end the violence and ensure the protection of civilians in accordance with applicable international human rights standards and international humanitarian law.”
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned that “despite the world saying, ‘never again’ we are once more witnessing killing, destruction and displacement in Rakhine.”
Both HRW and Amnesty International have said that the Rohingyas today are facing the gravest threats since 2017 when more than 750,000 were forced to flee into Bangladesh.
Approximately 630,000 Rohingyas remain in Myanmar in what HRW describes as “a system of apartheid that leaves them exceptionally vulnerable to renewed fighting.”
HRW’s Asia director Elaine Pearson said the human rights violations perpetrated in recent weeks against the Rohingyas are “tragically reminiscent of the military’s atrocities in 2017.”
Amnesty International’s Myanmar Researcher Joe Freeman said, “The horrific situation in Rakhine state looks disturbingly familiar. Rohingya men, women and children are being killed, towns are emptying out, and vestiges of Rohingya history and identity are being eroded. Many are once again seeking shelter in refugee camps across the border in Bangladesh, where economic, security and livelihood conditions have deteriorated.”
The current escalation began on Aug. 5 when at least 200 Rohingya civilians were killed in drone and artillery attacks in Rakhine state’s Maungdaw township while sheltering on the banks of the Naf river along the Bangladesh border.
In what became known as the “Naf River Massacre,” most victims — according to a statement by a group of Rohingya civil society groups — were women and children. They had already been forced to flee to the river from Maungdaw after the rebel Arakan Army (AA) advanced and the Myanmar military sent reinforcements.
“Numerous eyewitnesses told us that the drones and artillery had been launched from the areas under the control of the AA,” the Rohingya groups’ statement claims. “The Naf River Massacre follows a pattern of similar drone strikes by the AA on urban wards of Maungdaw town and its surrounding Rohingya villages in recent weeks, killing dozens of Rohingya civilians daily. It also follows ground reports indicating that Rohingya civilians are being strategically targeted by the AA and the Myanmar military with atrocities, in addition to being indiscriminately caught in the crossfire of their armed conflict.”
HRW confirms these reports, quoting one 18-year-old villager saying that “the Naf river was full of dead Rohingya bodies as we fled” and another reporting that “many Rohingya villagers were killed and injured every day.”
The Rohingyas are under fire from both the AA and the Myanmar military, according to the UN.
“Both the military and the Arakan Army bear direct responsibility for the human tragedy that is unfolding in Rakhine,” said Türk. “Both parties must immediately cease attacks against civilians, protect those fleeing the conflict, and ensure their unimpeded access to life-saving humanitarian assistance.”
The fact that parties to the conflict are denying responsibility and acting as if they are powerless to protect civilians “stretches the bounds of credulity,” he added.
So, what should be done?
According to Türk, “These atrocities demand an unequivocal response — those responsible must be held accountable, and justice must be pursued relentlessly.”
He is right. It is, as he says, the responsibility of the international community “to take all necessary measures to protect the Rohingya and other civilian victims of this cruel conflict.”
Some steps have been taken towards justice and accountability since the 2017 genocide. In June this year, a prosecutor in Argentina requested arrest warrants for 25 individuals within Myanmar’s regime, under the principle of universal jurisdiction, and in July the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accepted interventions from seven governments in the case brought by The Gambia against Myanmar under the Genocide Convention.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) also has an investigation underway. HRW has called on the UN Security Council to expand the ICC’s jurisdiction in this case, by referring the crisis in Myanmar to the court.
Meanwhile, of course, the current crisis in Rakhine is not the only tragedy in Myanmar. Human rights atrocities and forced displacement of civilians as a result of air and ground attacks by the Myanmar military in Kachin, Shan, Karen, Karenni, and Chin states continue relentlessly, and reports are now emerging that torture and mistreatment in Myanmar’s jails are increasing and intensifying.
According to prisoners’ rights advocates, beatings, torture and assaults of both male and female political prisoners by prison staff in the regime’s prisons are increasing, with reports emerging of political prisoners being transferred to prisons notorious for human rights violations.
A statement by several groups led by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) reports that eight female prisoners in Daik-U Prison have been left with “life-threatening injuries” after being shot with slingshots.
The incident began on Aug. 19, when female political prisoners complained about the presence of male prison staff in the female prisoners’ bathing area.
On the night of Aug. 20, according to the statement, “prison authorities, including male staff, reportedly entered the female ward of the prison, fully armed with guns, rubber sticks, tasers, and slingshots. The oppression of female political prisoners by male prison authorities, coupled with armed night-time incursions into the female ward, to this day, raises significant concerns for the safety and lives of these women.”
In a further twist of the knife, the military dictatorship is now enforcing its nationwide policy of conscription for young people into the army and actively preventing eligible youths from leaving the country.
Young people now face a horrible choice — to join the army, against their will, and kill their own people, try to escape, or join the armed opposition against the illegal, brutal, criminal regime.
In one of the most insulting and obscene cruelties, Myanmar’s military has forcibly conscripted Rohingyas into the very genocidal army that has been trying to wipe out the Rohingya people.
Myanmar is plunging deeper and deeper into a humanitarian catastrophe. It is hard to imagine how much worse the situation can become, and yet every day the situation worsens.
One must ask what it will take for the international community to heed the cries not only of the Myanmar people but of the United Nations Secretary-General and High Commissioner for Human Rights, and act to stop this horrific carnage.
The time for statements alone — important though they are in sounding the alarm — is over. The time for hand-wringing promises of “never again” has passed. The time for action to stop the killing, save the people, and bring the perpetrators to justice is now.
