Rohingya refugees hold banners at a protest rally in Kutupalong refugee camp, Bangladesh, August 25, 2018, marking the one-year anniversary of a crackdown by the Myanmar army that led to mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh.
Credit: AP Photo/Altaf Qadri
Six years ago today, August 25, 2017, the Burmese army poured into Rakhine State, unleashing unimaginable violence against my people, the Rohingya. Over the course of several weeks, soldiers and their proxies killed thousands of women, men and children, razed entire villages and forced nearly 800,000 people to flee to Bangladesh.
Six years later, not only are the Rohingya still an endangered people, but the masterminds of the genocide against us are still in power in Myanmar, which is a disgrace to the world. Still, the Rohingya and the people of Myanmar have been largely forgotten on the world stage, with other crises dominating global headlines. Now is the time for the world to act to end the genocide against the Rohingya, starting by supporting international justice efforts.
The deadly violence in August 2017 was the culmination of decades of efforts by the Myanmar government and military to exterminate the Rohingya. The Rohingya live in slum-like conditions in Rakhine State, where a series of dehumanizing laws and policies prevent us from accessing healthcare, education, and a labor market. I myself had to flee Rakhine State in the early 1990s because I couldn’t go to university just because I was Rohingya. Before 2017, military-led violence against the Rohingya in 1978, the early 1990s and 2016 also caused hundreds of thousands to flee.
We Rohingya learned early on that the only way to describe what we faced was the “crime of crimes”: genocide. Thankfully, the world is finally starting to catch up. In March 2022, the U.S. government officially announced that the Myanmar military had “committed genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya people.” The UN’s top human rights expert on Myanmar, Tom Andrews, similarly condemned the attacks on the Rohingya as “genocide”, while the UN’s top judicial body, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, ordered Myanmar to stop targeting the Rohingya. human violation. genocidal practices.
Six years after the 2017 events, the Rohingya are on the brink of extinction. Nearly one million Rohingya live as refugees in the Cox’s Bazar region of southern Bangladesh, crammed into overcrowded camps with little hope of building a dignified future. While Bangladesh has generously opened its doors to Rohingya who do flee for their lives, the government also continues to limit refugees’ access to education and the labor market. Recent aid cuts will also have a devastating impact on refugees.
Inside Myanmar, some 600,000 Rohingya live in de facto open-air prisons. Rohingya are largely confined to their villages, unable to go to hospitals, schools or find work. The February 2021 military coup in Myanmar further adds to the uncertainty. The military junta waged a brutal war against its own people, killing thousands and dismantling the nascent democracy. In Rakhine State, the Rohingya have been targeted by soldiers and ethnic armed groups fighting them.
However, international justice efforts have steadily gained momentum in recent years, and the Rohingya still see a glimmer of hope. In 2019, the International Criminal Court launched an investigation into crimes against humanity committed by the Myanmar military against the Rohingya. That same year, the International Court of Justice began the genocide trial of Burmese civilian and military leaders; last year, the trial was finally given the green light to continue after Myanmar’s last desperate attempt to disrupt it was shot down.
My own organization, the British Myanmar Rohingya Organization (BROUK), has also successfully petitioned the Argentine judiciary to bring a case of universal jurisdiction against the Burmese military. Significant progress has been made since the 2021 case was accepted. In June, we brought seven Rohingya victims (one man and six women) who had survived sexual and other atrocities to Buenos Aires to testify in court. It is the first time a victim of the 2017 violence has appeared in court anywhere in the world.
We have now assembled strong forensic evidence that the perpetrators may soon be targeted. The court also wants to examine the impact of social media on spreading hate speech in the context of genocide and has sent a formal request to Facebook for more information.
I must emphasize that we are not only fighting for justice for the Rohingya, but for everyone in Myanmar who suffers under the military.
The Rohingya need the world’s help now more than ever. International governments must pressure the military by any means possible to end the genocide. A critical first step is to expand sanctions on Myanmar, particularly targeting the military’s economic interests. Governments must also do what they can to support international justice efforts, such as launching their own universal jurisdiction cases. Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK have also shown real moral leadership by formally supporting the ICJ genocide case.
Six years after the vicious violence of 2017, the Rohingya still face genocide, while Myanmar has been devastated by a ruthless military junta. This is something the world should not forget.
