In context, the Court’s decision is a part of its ongoing investigation into genocide and crimes against humanity committed against the Rohingya in Myanmar from 2012 to 2018. Welcomed as an impartial and independent decision by international human rights organisations, this decision marks a critical moment in the long and challenging pursuit of justice for the Rohingya: This is the first time that arrest warrants have been ordered in relation to the Myanmar military’s genocide against the Rohingya in 2017.

A perusal of this order issuing arrest warrants show that they are not determinative of guilt or responsibility for these international crimes, but instead aim to summon the 25 named individuals to testify before the Court as part of its investigation. We believe these individuals will be treated in accordance with standards of international justice, including the affordance of due process and the opportunity to present evidence in their defence.

If these warrants are taken to their logical end, an impartial inquiry into justice and accountability, not only for the Rohingya but for all people of Myanmar, the Argentinian government has now been called upon to request Interpol to issue Red Notices for the 25 named individuals to initiate their extradition to Argentina.

Details of the suit under universal jurisdiction

Tomas Ojea Quintana is the human rights lawyer who served as U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar between 2008 and 2014. In this case, he has represented the Burmese Rohingya Organization U.K., which filed a case in an Argentine court in 2019 that allege genocide and crimes against humanity were committed by senior Myanmar military officials against Rohingya Muslims. An interview with him may be read here.

The arrest warrants were issued for those named in the suit including the de facto leader of the democratically-elected government, Aung San Suu Kyi. Aung San Suu Kyi was

Removed from power when the military took over the country in a 2021 coup and is reportedly under house arrest but the junta has not disclosed her exact location. Interestingly, the Argentine suit was filed under the principle of “universal jurisdiction” enshrined in Argentina’s constitution, which holds that some crimes are so heinous that alleged perpetrators thousands of miles away can be tried. The reasons why members of the now deposed civilian government are named in the suit because they were in charge of the government in 2017, and Aung San Suu Kyi defended the military’s actions in 2019 to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the Netherlands. However, members of Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, made up of other leaders deposed by the coup and their allies, have requested that Suu Kyi and other civilian leaders be removed from the arrest warrant because the Rohingya could be unfairly blamed for adding a blemish to the reputation of Myanmar’s most popular political figure. But Quintana said the court decided that she and the others must be included to show that the court is impartial. 

Independent International Fact-Finding Report, 2018, UN response

A report by the United Nations in September 2018 severely indicted the Myamar military on the mass persecution of the Rohingyas. The present development therefore follows the release of a report into the circumstances surrounding the mass exodus of more than 700,000 Rohingya people from Myanmar, beginning in mid-August 2017 – events previously described by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

The crimes committed include murder, rape, torture, sexual slavery, persecution and enslavement, according to the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar.

Speaking to journalists in Geneva, the investigators – Marzuki Darusman, Radhika Coomaraswamy and Christopher Sidoti – underlined the horrific and organised nature of the brutality meted out on civilians in Myanmar’s Rakhine state since 2011, as well as Kachin and Shan states. “The fact-finding Mission has concluded, on reasonable grounds, that the patterns of gross human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law that it is found, amount to the gravest crime under international law,” Mr. Sidoti said.

“These have principally been committed by the military, the Tatmadaw,” he added, referring to Myanmar’s armed forces. “The Mission has concluded that criminal investigation and prosecution is warranted, focusing on the top Tatmadaw generals, in relation to the three categories of crimes under international law; genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.”

This case

According to the news available with the United Nations on this crucial matter affecting human rights, in November 2019, the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK filed a petition on behalf of Rohingya victims requesting the Argentinian courts to open an investigation into the role of Myanmar’s military and civilian leaders in committing genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya. The details are available here. Two years later, on November 2021, an investigative judge of the Federal Criminal Court of Argentina commenced investigations, and in 2022, delegated investigative powers to the Federal Prosecutor’s office. Since then, the Mechanism has been assisting and sharing evidence with the Prosecutor’s office following a request for its support. In pursuance of the matter, last year, in June 2024, the Federal Prosecutor petitioned the Federal Criminal Court to issue 25 arrest warrants for 25 suspects from the Myanmar military, security forces and civilian government.  Thereafter, on February 13, 2025, the Federal Criminal Court ordered the arrest of these suspects. The arrests aim to bring the suspects before the court for a preliminary hearing, which is part of the investigative stage. The court may then decide whether to refer any suspects to trial on specific charges.

What is universal jurisdiction?

This principle means that some crimes are so serious in nature that a national court may, depending on their laws, prosecute alleged perpetrators even if there is no connection between the crime and that country. Based on universal jurisdiction, perpetrators of serious international crimes may be prosecuted by a national court irrespective of where the crimes were committed or the nationality of the perpetrator or victim. For more information, see the OHCHR website.

How does the Mechanism support universal jurisdiction cases?

The Mechanism has a mandate to support universal jurisdiction cases that concern serious international crimes committed in Myanmar through sharing evidence and analysis with relevant investigative, prosecutorial or judicial authorities, as long as the jurisdiction in question provides basic guarantees for a fair trial that meets international standards and cannot impose the death penalty. Since 2021, the Mechanism has been an Associate Member of the European Network for investigation and prosecution of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, also known as the European Genocide Network. This enables cooperation with national investigative and prosecutorial authorities across Europe and other jurisdictions.

Related developments

Turkey: In March 2022, the Myanmar Accountability Project submitted a complaint to the Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul concerning crimes committed by the military following the coup. The Turkish authorities have yet to announce any response to the complaint.

Germany: In January 2023, 16 applicants from Myanmar, supported by the non-governmental organization Fortify Rights, submitted a criminal complaint to the Federal Public Prosecutor General of Germany against senior military officials and others. The Federal Prosecutor has rejected this complaint in September 2023.

Philippines: In October 2023, five victims and their families filed a joint criminal complaint before the National Prosecution Services in the Philippines alleging the commission of certain war crimes in Chin State, Myanmar, in 2021. The Philippines authorities have yet to announce its response to the complaint.

United Kingdom: The Counter Terrorism Command of the UK Metropolitan Police has opened structural investigations for each of the situations under investigation by the International Criminal Court, which includes Bangladesh/Myanmar. This means that the case is ongoing, under investigation and they are identifying potential witnesses and examining the alleged crimes.

Related:

Killing by Hunger: Rohingya Muslims starved after Cyclone Mocha in Rakhine state, UN denied access: Myanmar

Cut in WFP funding threatens Rohingyas with hunger, deprivation: Bangladesh

Rohingyas sue Facebook for $150 billion over failing to police communal hate speech

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The Report asserts that in India, Rohingyas are facing a renewed isolation and disregard that is amplified with hate speeches against them alongside unsubstantiated claims by the Union of India that Rohingyas are a threat to national security. These factors have contributed to a general scepticism and a trust deficit against the Rohingyas within the common population in India. The most significant dent on the protection of the Rohingya community in India came on 08 April, 2021, when the Supreme Court of India passed an Order in the case of Mohammad Salimullah and Another v Union of India and Ors. 2021 SCC OnLine SC 296 refusing the interim stay on the detention of Rohingyas in Jammu and allowing their deportation, subject to the process as established by law. This order escalated the detentions of Rohingyas across India in various “detention centres”.

This report aims to document and analyse the procedures that were followed (and not followed) while detaining the Rohingyas across the country with a special emphasis on the Shehzada Bagh detention centre in New Delhi. It asserts that the Rohingyas were not served any notice prior to being detained and neither were they given an opportunity to present their cases before any Court of law. It is particularly observed that the detained Rohingyas’ claim for refugee status was not assessed before their detention orders were processed, which violates the procedure established with the 2019 Standard Operating Procedure circulated by the Union of India.

Rohingyas have complained of unhygienic food that provides limited nutrition and inadequate medical facilities. These concerns have been intensified following the incident in 2024, when a young woman named Hamida, aged 19, died of unknown reasons. She was most probably one of those trafficked women who entered India as a minor and instead of being protected, she was punished with indefinite detention without sufficient care which caused her death.

The primary objective of the report is to document and analyse the series of arbitrary detentions of Rohingya refugees and their indefinite confinement across India, particularly at the Shehzada Bagh detention centre, in the northwest suburb of New Delhi. The report also studies the living standards of the Shahzada Bagh and other detention centres. On the basis of these readings, the report asserts that the indefinite and arbitrary detention of Rohingyas in India, in an ad hoc, uneven, ‘pick and choose’ pattern is in violation of national and international legal standards including the Foreigner’s Act, 1946, The Passports Act, 1929, the Constitution of India and various international human rights law instruments that India is a party to.

The research analysis in this report is based on the primary data and notes collected by the authors from various group discussions and interviews of Rohingyas who are either detained at various detention centres, relatives of detained Rohingyas or are former detainees at the detention centres. Certain names have been changed to protect identity. The secondary sources for this publication include official documents circulated and published by the Union of India, documents submitted to various Courts by the Union of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, the Foreign Regional Registration Office (FRRO) and the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB). The research also relies on various Court orders passed in the various High Courts of India and the Supreme Court of India. Additional information has been extracted from the various ground reports, policy briefs and other media reports that have been published regarding arbitrary detentions and the living conditions of Rohingya people at the various detention centres in India.

However, as per the report, the most common grievance against the detention centre was the horrible food, lack of hygiene, healthcare and dignity within the premises. The Rohingyas who were earlier detained inside the detention centre complained of abusive officials who treated them with indignity and there was no grievance redressal mechanism to address this.

As per the research conducted in the report, in every single Rohingya inside the detention centre complains of long-term medical complications, weakness, UTIs, and various other problems that remain undetected. A case in point is that one of the detainees, Ms. Shadiya Akhtar, (whose sister had approached the Delhi High Court on her behalf), who was hospitalised after the Orders of the Court and subsequently she was diagnosed with Hepatitis C. It was not until the Orders of the Supreme Court of India, Shadiya Akhtar was provided complete treatment for Hepatitis C. She was later cured of the Hepatitis. Similarly, in case of another Rohingya detainee at Shehzada Bagh, orders had to be obtained from the High Court of Delhi for the delivery of her baby in 2023 December. These interventions in the Courts contributed to the well-being and protection of young and vulnerable women detainees, yet in regular instances, minors like late Hamida (until 2023) lack necessary life-saving treatments contributing to either their deaths or loss of healthy lives. Discussion around the health situation in the detention centre remains of utmost importance, especially because the facilities house several children and their environment is found to be inconsistent with the requirements of developing a healthy childhood.

The findings in the report are worrisome because they are in contradiction with the set standards and procedures established by the 2019 model detention guidelines, the prison manual and the Constitution of India and standards prescribed by the Courts in India. Needless to mention, the rights violations of the Rohingyas in India are also in utter disregard of its international legal obligations and standing within the international community. The country is a party to various international human rights law instruments including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the Child Rights Convention (CRC). India is also a signatory to the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants.

Indefinite detention of Rohingyas in New Delhi

The indefinite detention and confinement of the Rohingyas is a particularly important subject that requires attention. In general, there is no pattern in which Rohingyas are being picked up and detained in various detention centres across India. In Delhi particularly, these detentions have occurred on a “pick and choose” basis and without granting any chance to the Rohingyas to either present their cases or exercise their rights within the existing and set laws of India and the Constitution of India. In this report, the authors shall attempt to outline the facts and available data regarding the detention of Rohingyas in New Delhi, and across India and then analyse the arbitrariness of these detentions under the premise of the existing legal structures and obligations of India. The findings in the report conclude with stating that the treatment of Rohingyas in the detention centres is not just arbitrary and illegal but also Rohingyas are being subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment that amount to torture. In conclusion, it is recommended that the procedures established by law are followed by the authorities in India while detaining the Rohingyas as well as in the treatment accorded to them generally across the country.

Issue in Context:

The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority group who have lived for centuries in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar. Despite living in Myanmar for many generations, the Rohingya are not recognized as an official ethnic group and have been denied citizenship since 1982, making them the world’s largest stateless population. Several Rohingyas remain in indefinite captivity and detention without fair trial within Myanmar. There are several reports and videos of women being brutalised, raped and pushed into sexual slavery while men have been tortured and cruelly slaughtered in bloody conflict in Myanmar. Children were impaled on steel rods and thrown into fires, adults were shot and villages were burnt by the Myanmar’s military. Rohingyas in Myanmar continue to face severe violence, particularly sexual and gender-based violence by the military, police and civilian mobs. Approximately 9,000 Rohingyas were brutally killed between 2016 and 2017.

Following the armed conflict and genocide, several Rohingya groups fled to various countries including Bangladesh and India. According to the Indian Home Ministry and Reuters, an estimated 40,000 Rohingyas sought asylum in India. In January 2019, UNHCR India acknowledged the presence of 18,000 Rohingyas who are registered as refugees. However, their rights as asylum seekers and refugees remain diminished due to the absence of a clear refugee policy in India amongst other factors. The refugee camp in Madanpur Khadar in New Delhi houses approximately 50 families. The settlements do not have any ceilings, there are no doors, toilets, and sanitation or hygiene standards. The Rohingya community in general is a community that has been historically deprived of all social resources and benefit

Conclusion:

However, the SoP establishes that when deportation is not possible, it is up to the Ministry of Home Affairs to initiate a third country resettlement for the detainees. But in the present practice, several years pass before the MHA even initiates the conversation on the resettlement of these detainees to any other countries. The findings suggest that the infection of Hepatitis C is strikingly high amongst the Rohingya women detainees. The unfortunate death of Hamida Begum, a young adult who was actually a minor at the time of detention remained inconsequential, and could not change the way things worked in the detention centres.

The report stressed that it is a matter of immediate urgency that the provisions of the Foreigner’s Act, 1946, the Standard Operating Procedures and the Constitution of India be followed ad verbatim in the treatment of the Rohingya detainees across detention centres. Not only should their refugee status determination procedures be timely completed, further steps for their stay, deportation, third-country resettlement or other appropriate mechanism be utilised. For the context at hand, it is also pertinent that the complete medical history of the detainees be carefully assessed and accordingly caregiving must be arranged in consultation with organisations from the social sector who may want to work with the authorities to provide medical services, vocational training, mental health support and various other services inside the detention centre as well as in the refugee camps.

The full report can be found here:

Related:

Rohingya migrants are ‘threat’ to national security: BJP

Rohingya Human Rights Initiative: A silver lining in the cloud of the Rohingya crisis

Cut in WFP funding threatens Rohingyas with hunger, deprivation: Bangladesh

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An ethnic Rakhine man holds homemade weapons as he walks in front of houses that were burnt during fighting 
between Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya communities in Sittwe June 10, 2012 Reuters 

With the International Court of Justice (ICJ) taking up the issue of Myanmar’s brutal crackdown on Rohingya Muslims, international news channel Al Jazeera has shed new light on some of its alleged crimes.

In a video documentary released on Sunday, Al Jazeera depicted Myanmar soldiers kicking and beating captive Rohingyas. 

The video shows Rohingya villagers fleeing their homes attempting to make their way to Bangladesh. It also shows fires burning in the distance and hundreds of people hiking up muddy jungle paths and crossing rivers with sacks and baskets crammed with their belongings. Al Jazeera has shown at least two images of corpses.

In the documentary, talking to Al Jazeera, Myanmarese academic Dr Maung Zarni said: “As early as 1966 the Burmese military started to see the Rohingya as problem.” 

Through the years the Myanmar government has even set up special forces to “deal” with the: Rohingya minority.

Zarni compares Myanmar’s infamous special forces Nasaka to SS, the acronym of Schutzstaffel, a paramilitary force under Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.  

He said, “Nasaka was essentially the Burmese equivalent of SS. Nasaka was the executioner.”

Myanmar military’s former chief of intelligence General Khin Nyunt also talked about Nasaka with Al Jazeera.

Nyunt said: “These problems with Muslims have existed since the British rule because they brought labour from Bangladesh,” ignoring the fact that Bangladesh was then also a part of British Empire.

He said: “I created Nasaka to stop people from crossing the borders. It was the right thing to do. They are migrants. They are guests from Bangladesh. We did not want to accept guests. Otherwise there are no more Rakhines. Just more and more Muslims.”

More than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since a 2017 crackdown by Myanmar’s military, which UN investigators say was carried out with “genocidal intent.” Buddhist majority Myanmar denies accusations of genocide.

Gambia, a mainly Muslim West African state, lodged a lawsuit with ICJ after winning the support of the 57-nation Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC). 

Days after Gambia filed the case at the ICJ, Rohingya and Latin American human rights groups submitted a lawsuit in Argentina under “universal jurisdiction,” a legal premise that deems some crimes as so horrific that they can be tried anywhere in the world.

Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to defend her military against allegations of genocide at the ICJ. 

Courtesy: Dhaka Tribune

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Fact-finding mission completes task, shares information with new UN investigative mechanism

File photo: Rohingya refugees leave after attending a demonstration at Camp No 4 (Extension) at Kutupalong’s Modhurchhara in Ukhiya on August 25, 2019 Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka Tribune

The United Nations Independent Fact-Finding mission on Myanmar has identified more than 150 individuals who are suspected of being involved in numerous international crimes.

The mission completed its task and shared its findings with a new UN body, called the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, which will now be responsible for follow up and preparing of files for criminal prosecutions.

“Exactly one year ago, this mission concluded that the Myanmar authorities, in particular the Tatmadaw, committed crimes against humanity and war crimes against ethnic communities in Myanmar. We found genocidal acts and the inference of genocidal intent in the Tatmadaw’s 2017 ‘clearance operations’ against the Rohingya population,” Marzuki Darusman, chair of the body, said in a statement at the 42nd session of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva on Monday.

“We recommended further investigation of these crimes, to establish individual criminal responsibility as a basis for future prosecution. I commend this Council for taking the historic decision to mandate an Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar to do exactly that, and I am pleased to report that the Mission has completed the transfer of its materials to the Investigative Mechanism in full compliance with the mandate given to us,” he added.

Darusman further said: “This includes 1,227 interviews with victims and witnesses from a total of 56,500 files. We are confident that the materials we have shared, including a list of over one hundred and fifty people suspected of involvement in numerous international crimes, will serve as an important foundation upon which potential prosecution cases can be prepared. 

“We underline the time-sensitive nature of this information and we encourage the Myanmar Mechanism to make the best use of these files,” he added.

How culpable is Suu Kyi?
Darusman called for an expert evaluation on whether Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi can be legally implicated in the abuses committed against the Rohingya minority in Rakine, reports AFP.

“It will become a legal issue whether or not there is an element of culpability here,” he added, mentioning that the mission was not equipped to determine what level of responsibility Suu Kyi should shoulder for the Rohingya crisis.

Furthermore, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee urged Suu Kyi to “feel with her heart before it is too late.”

“I would like to ask the State Counsellor if the Myanmar that exists today is what she had truly aspired to bring about throughout the decades of her relentless fight for a free and democratic Myanmar? I implore you Madame State Counsellor to open your eyes, listen, feel with your heart, and please use your moral authority, before it is too late,” Lee told the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Economic disengagement and Myanmar’s crimes
Over the last year, the UN mission produced three additional thematic reports as conference room papers; one on the economic interests of Myanmar’s military, one on sexual and gender-based violence and the gendered impact of Myanmar’s ethnic conflicts, and one on conflict-related and other human rights violations.

In mapping out the Tatmadaw’s vast economic interests in Myanmar, the mission sought to provide a roadmap for economic disengagement from the Tatmadaw, aimed not only at states and inter-governmental organizations, but also at the business community, including international and domestic investors. The purpose of this research is to deter continued and future violations, and ensure accountability for perpetrators. Following the publication of the research, a number of entities have already indicated that they will halt economic dealings with Tatmadaw businesses. 

“I call on other businesses and states to follow suit. I also reiterate our recommendation regarding the need for targeted sanctions against Tatmadaw leaders and their businesses, and for investors to prioritize investing in non-military sectors of the Myanmar economy,” Darusman said.

Regarding sexual and gender-based violence, the mission presented a detailed and painful picture of patterns of rapes, gang rapes and other gender-based violence against ethnic communities in Myanmar, including against men, boys and transgender people. 

The mission renewed its call to action for accountability for these grave crimes, as action so far taken has been very inadequate.

Rohingya situation in Rakhine has worsened
Contrary to the Myanmar government’s claims, camps for internally displaced persons have not been closed. Those who live in them continue to face daily hardships associated with being segregated from the other communities. If anything, the situation of the Rohingya in Rakhine State has worsened, as they endure another year of being subjected to discrimination, segregation, movement restrictions and insecurity, without adequate access to livelihoods, land, and basic services, including education and health care, or justice for past crimes committed against them by the Tatmadaw.

According to the UN mission, the policies, laws, individuals and institutions that laid the groundwork for the brutal “clearance operations” in 2016 and 2017 remain in place and strong. Human rights catastrophe, impunity, discrimination, hate speech, and persecution continue and the Myanmar government is unconcerned.

The return of close to one million Rohingya refugees to Rakhine State is simply impossible under the current circumstances. There is nowhere safe and viable for them to return to. Rohingya lands and villages have been destroyed, cleared, confiscated and built on, including new structures that resemble camps, with Rohingya forced labour. The government’s repatriation plans are inadequate.

“For this reason, we recommend a moratorium on domestic and international investment and development assistance in Rakhine State to ensure that investment and development assistance do not directly, indirectly or inadvertently consolidate the Tatmadaw’s persecution and genocidal intentions against the Rohingya population,” the statement from the UN mission said.

“This mission firmly believes that international monitoring and public reporting are essential to ensure fact-based advocacy,” it added.

First published in Dhaka Tribune

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First Published in Dhaka Tribune
 

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Image Courtesy: AFP

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Yanghee Lee, a UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, has lamented the decades long cycle of violence perpetuated by the authorities against ethnic minorities in Myanmar, including Rohingya Muslims, and said talk of repatriating hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas anytime soon was premature.

In an end of mission statement following visits to Thailand and Bangladesh last month, Lee said what the Myanmar government claims to be the conduct of military or security operations was actually an established pattern of domination, aggression and violations against ethnic groups.

“Recent reports of attacks against civilians; against homes and places of worship; forcible displacement and relocation; the burning of villages; land grabbing; sexual violence; arbitrary arrests and detention; torture and enforced disappearances; are acts that have been alleged against the military and security forces for generations,” she said.

“While reports from Rakhine State have rightly provoked international outrage; for many in Myanmar, they have elicited a tragic sense of déjà vu.”

She said the atrocities committed against the Rohingya in the aftermath of the 9 October 2016 and the 25 August 2017 attacks have been repeatedly witnessed before, albeit not on the same scale of the recent attacks against the Rohingya, according to a statement from Seoul on Thursday.

“I was told repeatedly by the other ethnic groups I spoke to – be they Kachin, Karen, Karenni, or Shan – that they have suffered the same horrific violations at the hands of the Tatmadaw over several decades and – in the case of some groups – continuing today,” Lee said.

“In Thailand, representatives from different ethnic groups that I met expressed their concern that as the world’s attention is focused on the atrocities in Rakhine State, potential war crimes are being committed in Shan and Kachin State without so much as a murmur of disapproval from the international community.”

Lee said that set against this background of violence in the ethnic areas of Myanmar, was a continuing erosion of democratic space. “The civilian government has failed to usher in a new era of openness and transparency and is instead persisting with repressive practices of the past.”

Lee, who was informed by the Myanmar authorities last year she would no longer be allowed to visit the country on the grounds her reporting was unfair and biased, called on the democratic government to break with the repressive practices of the past, and to allow people who have fled their country to return home – to where they belong.

But she added: “For returns to be ever realized in a way that is voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable they must be treated as equals – citizens of Myanmar with all the rights that that status affords.”

She said that while the government of Bangladesh had made it clear that no refugees would be forced back to Myanmar, the international community must pressure Myanmar to create conditions for their return before it is too late.

“This must be done in a principled way that prioritizes the need for these people to be recognized as Rohingya and as citizens of Myanmar,” she said.

Lee said that during her visit to a camp in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, she saw great anxiety and fear when speaking to refugees about the prospect of returning to Myanmar. “One mother said to me, ‘Our beautiful children were slaughtered, how can we go back?’ Refugees have been entirely excluded from conversations about their fate, and going forward they must be involved in a meaningful way.

“Without equality, Myanmar will never be free from violence and the country’s tragic déjà vu will reverberate through the future as it has through the past. The cycle of violence must end, and Myanmar must be supported in implementing the profound and meaningful reforms that are so urgently needed.”

Lee said she hoped to regain access to Myanmar. “I remain ready to work with the Government and other stakeholders to promote and protect the human rights of all people in Myanmar,” she said.

This article was first published on Dhaka Tribune
 

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A military crackdown has led to staggering 600,000 people fleeing Myanmar on foot since late August. Ronan Lee, Author provided

I’ve been visiting Rohingya refugee camps close to the Bangladesh/Myanmar border, and the scale of the forced migration is truly horrifying. Land unoccupied in late August is now a cramped shanty city of bamboo, tarpaulin and mud that seems to go on forever.
Interviews in the camps paint a desperately sad picture. The details of these interviews are invariably confronting and often distressing, and explain why so many Rohingya fled Myanmar so quickly.

A farmer becomes understandably emotional when he tells me:
 

I lost my two sons, and two daughters. At midnight the military come in my house and burnt the house, but first they raped my two daughters and they shot my two daughters in front of me.
I have no words to express how it was for me to suffer to look at my daughters being raped and killed in front of me. My two sons were also killed by the government. I was not able to get the dead bodies of my daughters, it is a great sorrow for me.

The Honey Stream at Kutupalong Camp. Ronan Lee, Author provided

Background to the refugee crisis

The military’s ongoing “clearance operation” began in late August with the supposed aim of ridding Myanmar of a recently emerged militant group. But this campaign’s real intent is now widely regarded as being to force the ethnic Rohingya, a Muslim minority, from their homes, away from their land, and out of Myanmar.

Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, has used tactics that are brutal, indiscriminate, and yet sadly familiar to the Rohingya and other groups in Myanmar such as the ethnic Kachin and Karen.

Witnesses described to me how, when the Tatmadaw arrived at their village, the soldiers fired weapons and killed people inside wooden homes, arrested young men, raped women, told residents to leave, and then burned homes to prevent the residents’ return.

Myanmar’s Rakhine State, where the Rohingya have mostly lived, remains locked down by the Tatmadaw, preventing media and humanitarian access. But NGO Human Rights Watch has released satellite images showing almost 300 Rohingya villages razed.

Video courtesy and copyright the author (Ronan Lee).

In some instances, these burnt Muslim villages stand adjacent to fully intact Buddhist communities. Disturbingly, at the camps in Bangladesh, UN doctors have treated dozens of Rohingya women for injuries consistent with violent sexual assaults.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights describes Myanmar military’s actions as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. French President Emmanuel Macron has called it “genocide”. He is not the first to make this assertion.

In 2015, the International State Crime Initiative published a detailed research report that concluded the Rohingya were victims of a process of genocide, and predicted the ferocity and intent of the current Tatmadaw campaign.

Aid queue at the Kutupalong Camp. Ronan Lee, Author provided

Stories from the ground

The result of this crackdown has been one of the fastest and largest forced migrations in the region since the second world war. Within just eight weeks, and during the monsoon season, a staggering 600,000 people have fled Myanmar on foot.

These new arrivals are not the only Rohingya here. They are joining hundreds of thousands already forced to live in Bangladeshi camps who are victims of previous intensive Myanmar military persecutions. This highlights the decades-long discrimination against the Rohingya in Myanmar.

I conducted interviews with male residents of unregistered camps and at Kutupalong Camp. One elderly man who has recently arrived in Kutupalong Camp explained that ten men were arrested in his village. Their families, he said, had not heard from them since. He said the military told his village’s residents to leave:
 

The military led us to prayer and some kind of religious work, and they openly told us to go to Bangladesh – otherwise you will be killed.

A Rohingya man, dressed in a traditional Burmese Longyi skirt, said his village was “friendly” and “quiet”:
 

We were living there, very friendly. At midnight we heard the sound of bullets, we went outside to see what is happening. I think they behaved like this – arresting, torturing, shooting, hitting – because we are Rohingya and Muslim. We’re not at fault, we are really innocent.

When asked if anyone in his village was hurt, he said:
 

No-one in my family was killed, but some near my home were killed.

A 60-year-old man from Buthidaung explained his village was burnt, showing me a large bandaged leg wound he said was from a bullet injury:
 

Among my four sons, one was killed by the military in front of me, and one arrested, and one of my daughters – my adult daughter – was arrested but I don’t know where she is.

Explaining how he travelled to Bangladesh, a man in his 20s said:
 

When our village was burned we moved to another village, and then they came to burn that village, and we moved another village, and when they came to burn that village and we moved, and that’s how we came here at last. They used the helicopter to burn the villages.

I am grateful to camp residents for their courage in sharing still-raw experiences with me in the hope the international community would hear them and help them.

Myanmar has denied the Rohingya their human rights, so it’s up to the international community to provide the Rohingya with the protections they are entitled to as human beings. They deserve no less.

A Rohingya man in his 20s asked:
 

I humbly request to you that, we want to be human, live as a human, but Myanmar treats us as animals. We want to go back there as humans.

He should not need to ask.

Video courtesy and copyright the author (Ronan Lee).

Yahiya Khan contributed to this article.

Editor’s note: The syntax and grammar has been edited in some of the quotes to ensure they are comprehensible for readers.

The post ‘They shot my two daughters in front of me’: Rohingya tell heartbreaking stories of loss and forced migration appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Yanghee Lee, the United Nations investigator of human rights abuses in Myanmar, has expressed deep disappointment in Aung San Suu Kyi for her indifferent response to the Rohingya crisis.

Speaking to reporters at the United Nations on Thursday, the investigator underscored international frustrations over the behaviour of the state counsellor of Myanmar regarding the persecution of the Rohingya.

Child rights expert Yanghee Lee of South Korea was appointed to her United Nations human rights post in 2014, reports the New York Times.

“Well-documented accounts of killings, rapes, burned villages and forced displacement gets no coverage in Myanmar’s news media,” Lee said while talking about the hatred and hostility against the Rohingyas in Myanmar.

She said: “It has really baffled everyone, and has really baffled me, about Daw Aung’s non-position on this issue.

“She [Suu Kyi] has not ever recognised that there is such a people called Rohingya — that’s a starting point. I’m very disappointed.”

The UN investigator added: “If the Myanmar leader [Suu Kyi] were to reach out to the people and say, ‘Hey, let’s show some humanity,’ I think people will follow her — she’s adored by the public.”

“Unfortunately, there seems to be little sympathy, let alone empathy, for the Rohingya people in Myanmar,” Lee said. “For decades, it has been cultivated in the minds of the Myanmar people that the Rohingya are not indigenous to the country and therefore have no rights whatsoever to which they can apparently claim.”

Suu Kyi skipped the annual United Nations General Assembly in September what was widely viewed as a way to avoid hard questions and confrontations over the Rohingya crisis.

She was criticised by other leaders, including some fellow Nobel laureates, for her response towards the torture on the Rohingyas in her country.

According to United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR), at least 604,000 Rohingyas have entered Bangladesh fleeing the violence that erupted in Myanmar on August 25.

Myanmar’s de-facto leader last month publicly addressed concerns over the deadly conflict in Rakhine State, highlighting her government’s commitment to restore peace, stability and rule of law in the region scarred by armed conflict between insurgents – the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) – and security forces.

Without mentioning the word Rohingya, she said carefully-worded lines of condemnation, saying that Myanmar has “never been soft on human rights”.

Earlier, on August 29, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that satellite data accessed by the rights body had revealed widespread fires burning in at least 10 areas in Rakhine State, where local residents and activists have accused soldiers of shooting indiscriminately at unarmed Rohingya men, women, and children, and carrying out arson attacks.

Myanmar authorities, on the other hand, claim that Rohingya “extremist terrorists” have been setting these fires during fights with government troops. Human Rights Watch reports they could not obtain any comments on this issue from any government spokesperson.

This article was first published on Dhaka Tribune
 

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