Myanmar’s Attempt to Destroy Rohingya Muslims

5 minute read
Rohingya Refugees Flood Into Bangladesh
Eleven-year-old Rohingya Azida Begum, shot twice under her arm and her leg by Burmese soldiers, in Palongkhali, Bangladesh on Oct. 10, 2017.Paula Bronstein—Getty Images
Ideas
By Matthew Smith
Matthew Smith is CEO and co-founder of Fortify Rights and a Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Follow him on Twitter @matthewfsmith.

“The world can’t just stand idly by and be witness to the atrocities,” said U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last week, condemning the Myanmar military for its attack on Rohingya Muslim civilians.

Secretary Tillerson is absolutely correct. And his much-needed call to action could start by acknowledging that the situation in Myanmar may constitute the “crime of crimes”: Genocide.

The crime of genocide involves the commission of certain acts with the intent to destroy a group of people, or part of it, on the basis of their ethnicity, religion, race, or nationality. Those acts include murder, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and creating conditions of life calculated to be destructive.

Nearly three years ago, my colleagues and I gave a team at Yale Law School a cache of evidence of human rights violations from Myanmar’s western Rakhine State. Collected over several years, the files included in-depth testimony from eyewitnesses and survivors of violent crimes, photographs, and internal government documents.

Our question was this: Is genocide occurring in Rakhine State?

Largely unnoticed, the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar faced atrocities for decades. Since 2012, the government has confined more than 120,000 Rohingya men, women, and children to dozens of ill-equipped internment camps in eight townships of Rakhine State, and hundreds of thousands of others were forced out of the country, some to certain death at the hands of human traffickers. We were seeing sporadic massacres and progressively alarming patterns of violence and discrimination against Rohingya by Myanmar authorities as well as civilians.

We expected that the team at Yale, led by Professor James Silk, would determine that we had documented serious international crimes, but not genocide.

We were wrong.

Published in 2015, the team’s legal analysis found “strong evidence” that the elements of the crime of genocide against Rohingya civilians in Rakhine State appeared to be in place. Since then, the situation has only worsened.

A year ago this month, Rohingya militants killed nine police officers in a coordinated attack, sparking a horrendous military crackdown. The Myanmar Army descended on dozens of Rohingya villages, killed unarmed civilians, raped women and girls, and arrested men and boys en masse. More than 90,000 fled to Bangladesh.

My colleagues and I at Fortify Rights interviewed more than 180 eyewitnesses and survivors at the time, and survivor after survivor described atrocities. What struck us the most was the systematic nature of it all. Soldiers from different battalions committed similar violations in a similar fashion across disparate geographic locations. These were not spontaneous outbursts of violence or random crimes by rogue soldiers; it was a systematic attack on civilians.

And it was more than that. State security forces appeared intent on destroying Rohingya.

The Rohingya, Burma's Forgotten Muslims by James Nachtwey

Rohingye people, a Muslim population, living in Rakhine State on the northwest coast of Burma have been restricted to their villages and placed in Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps by the Burmese government. They have been the victims of persecution and communal violence by numbers of the Buddhist majority in Rakhine. International NGO's such as MSF have been expelled by the government, leading to a soaring crisis in health care.Photograph by James Nachtwey.
More than 140,000 minority Rohingya Muslims have been forced to live in camps, where disease and despair have taken root. Abdul Kadir, 65, who has a severe stomach ailment and malnutrition, is cared for by his wife in one of the camps.James Nachtwey for TIME
Rohingye people, a Muslim population, living in Rakhine State on the northwest coast of Burma have been restricted to their villages and placed in Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps by the Burmese government. They have been the victims of persecution and communal violence by numbers of the Buddhist majority in Rakhine. International NGO's such as MSF have been expelled by the government, leading to a soaring crisis in health care. Brick kilns operated by Rohingya IDP's. Workers are IDP's. Adults are paid 2,000 kyat per day for about 10m hours of work. Children are paid 1,000 kyat per day. Children in photos are from age 6 to 8 and the oldest is 14. Thek Kay Pyin, 7, an IDP. His father is So Zokorice (small man in white tank top). He was falsely accused of murder and spent 1and 1/2 years in Sittwe Jail, beaten continuously for 8 months before being released without charges against him.Funeral of Ziada Begum, 30, who died of stomach diseasee. Left behind 5 children with no husband.Sham Shi Dar Begum, 18. TB and AIDS. Father died from AIDS. MOther Noor Johan, 50. Has seven daughters, all living in two small rooms in camp.Photograph by James Nachtwey.
Relatives weep at the funeral of a woman who died at 35 of a stomach disease; she left five children behind. James Nachtwey for TIME
Rohingye people, a Muslim population, living in Rakhine State on the northwest coast of Burma have been restricted to their villages and placed in Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps by the Burmese government. They have been the victims of persecution and communal violence by numbers of the Buddhist majority in Rakhine. International NGO's such as MSF have been expelled by the government, leading to a soaring crisis in health care. Brick kilns operated by Rohingya IDP's. Workers are IDP's. Adults are paid 2,000 kyat per day for about 10m hours of work. Children are paid 1,000 kyat per day. Children in photos are from age 6 to 8 and the oldest is 14. Thek Kay Pyin, 7, an IDP. His father is So Zokorice (small man in white tank top). He was falsely accused of murder and spent 1and 1/2 years in Sittwe Jail, beaten continuously for 8 months before being released without charges against him.Funeral of Ziada Begum, 30, who died of stomach diseasee. Left behind 5 children with no husband.Sham Shi Dar Begum, 18. TB and AIDS. Father died from AIDS. MOther Noor Johan, 50. Has seven daughters, all living in two small rooms in camp.Photograph by James Nachtwey.
A mourner weeps as she sits by an internee's coffin. The Rohingya lack medical care since most NGOs are now barred from the camps.James Nachtwey for TIME
Rohingye people, a Muslim population, living in Rakhine State on the northwest coast of Burma have been restricted to their villages and placed in Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps by the Burmese government. They have been the victims of persecution and communal violence by numbers of the Buddhist majority in Rakhine. International NGO's such as MSF have been expelled by the government, leading to a soaring crisis in health care. Brick kilns operated by Rohingya IDP's. Workers are IDP's. Adults are paid 2,000 kyat per day for about 10m hours of work. Children are paid 1,000 kyat per day. Children in photos are from age 6 to 8 and the oldest is 14.Funerals. First a 16 year old girl who drank poison. Sevcond a woman who died from stomach disease.A blind beggar on railway tracks between two IDP camps.Photograph by James Nachtwey.
Two men are seen mourning at the funeral of a woman who died from stomach disease.James Nachtwey for TIME
Rohingye people, a Muslim population, living in Rakhine State on the northwest coast of Burma have been restricted to their villages and placed in Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps by the Burmese government. They have been the victims of persecution and communal violence by numbers of the Buddhist majority in Rakhine. International NGO's such as MSF have been expelled by the government, leading to a soaring crisis in health care. Brick kilns operated by Rohingya IDP's. Workers are IDP's. Adults are paid 2,000 kyat per day for about 10m hours of work. Children are paid 1,000 kyat per day. Children in photos are from age 6 to 8 and the oldest is 14. Thek Kay Pyin, 7, an IDP. His father is So Zokorice (small man in white tank top). He was falsely accused of murder and spent 1and 1/2 years in Sittwe Jail, beaten continuously for 8 months before being released without charges against him.Funeral of Ziada Begum, 30, who died of stomach diseasee. Left behind 5 children with no husband.Sham Shi Dar Begum, 18. TB and AIDS. Father died from AIDS. MOther Noor Johan, 50. Has seven daughters, all living in two small rooms in camp.Photograph by James Nachtwey.
Internees in one camp operate brick kilns to earn money. Adults are paid about $2 a day; children, half that amount. James Nachtwey for TIME
Rohingye people, a Muslim population, living in Rakhine State on the northwest coast of Burma have been restricted to their villages and placed in Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps by the Burmese government. They have been the victims of persecution and communal violence by numbers of the Buddhist majority in Rakhine. International NGO's such as MSF have been expelled by the government, leading to a soaring crisis in health care. Brick kilns operated by Rohingya IDP's. Workers are IDP's. Adults are paid 2,000 kyat per day for about 10m hours of work. Children are paid 1,000 kyat per day. Children in photos are from age 6 to 8 and the oldest is 14. Thek Kay Pyin, 7, an IDP. His father is So Zokorice (small man in white tank top). He was falsely accused of murder and spent 1and 1/2 years in Sittwe Jail, beaten continuously for 8 months before being released without charges against him.Funeral of Ziada Begum, 30, who died of stomach diseasee. Left behind 5 children with no husband.Sham Shi Dar Begum, 18. TB and AIDS. Father died from AIDS. MOther Noor Johan, 50. Has seven daughters, all living in two small rooms in camp.Photograph by James Nachtwey.
Thek Kay Pyin, 7, is among the Rohingya Muslims interned in Rakhine state, on the northwest coast of Burma. He is seen here working at a brick kiln where he earns $1 a day.James Nachtwey for TIME
Rohingye people, a Muslim population, living in Rakhine State on the northwest coast of Burma have been restricted to their villages and placed in Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps by the Burmese government. They have been the victims of persecution and communal violence by numbers of the Buddhist majority in Rakhine. International NGO's such as MSF have been expelled by the government, leading to a soaring crisis in health care. Brick kilns operated by Rohingya IDP's. Workers are IDP's. Adults are paid 2,000 kyat per day for about 10m hours of work. Children are paid 1,000 kyat per day. Children in photos are from age 6 to 8 and the oldest is 14.Photograph by James Nachtwey.
Children working at a brick kiln where they earn $1 a day. James Nachtwey for TIME
Rohingye people, a Muslim population, living in Rakhine State on the northwest coast of Burma have been restricted to their villages and placed in Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps by the Burmese government. They have been the victims of persecution and communal violence by numbers of the Buddhist majority in Rakhine. International NGO's such as MSF have been expelled by the government, leading to a soaring crisis in health care. Brick kilns operated by Rohingya IDP's. Workers are IDP's. Adults are paid 2,000 kyat per day for about 10m hours of work. Children are paid 1,000 kyat per day. Children in photos are from age 6 to 8 and the oldest is 14.Photograph by James Nachtwey.
Workers at a brick kiln are seen tossing bricks.James Nachtwey for TIME
Rohingye people, a Muslim population, living in Rakhine State on the northwest coast of Burma have been restricted to their villages and placed in Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps by the Burmese government. They have been the victims of persecution and communal violence by numbers of the Buddhist majority in Rakhine. International NGO's such as MSF have been expelled by the government, leading to a soaring crisis in health care. Brick kilns operated by Rohingya IDP's. Workers are IDP's. Adults are paid 2,000 kyat per day for about 10m hours of work. Children are paid 1,000 kyat per day. Children in photos are from age 6 to 8 and the oldest is 14.Funerals. First a 16 year old girl who drank poison. Sevcond a woman who died from stomach disease.A blind beggar on railway tracks between two IDP camps.Photograph by James Nachtwey.
At the camp, mourners are seen at a funeral for a 16-year-old girl who drank poison. James Nachtwey for TIME
Rohingye people, a Muslim population, living in Rakhine State on the northwest coast of Burma have been restricted to their villages and placed in Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps by the Burmese government. They have been the victims of persecution and communal violence by numbers of the Buddhist majority in Rakhine. International NGO's such as MSF have been expelled by the government, leading to a soaring crisis in health care.Photograph by James Nachtwey.
Suffering in the camps continues unabated.James Nachtwey for TIME
Rohingye people, a Muslim population, living in Rakhine State on the northwest coast of Burma have been restricted to their villages and placed in Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps by the Burmese government. They have been the victims of persecution and communal violence by numbers of the Buddhist majority in Rakhine. International NGO's such as MSF have been expelled by the government, leading to a soaring crisis in health care.Photograph by James Nachtwey.
Children learning the Quran at a madrassa in one of the camps.James Nachtwey for TIME
Rohingye people, a Muslim population, living in Rakhine State on the northwest coast of Burma have been restricted to their villages and placed in Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps by the Burmese government. They have been the victims of persecution and communal violence by numbers of the Buddhist majority in Rakhine. International NGO's such as MSF have been expelled by the government, leading to a soaring crisis in health care.Photograph by James Nachtwey.
A child suffering from malnutrition in one of the camps is held by its mother. James Nachtwey for TIME
Rohingye people, a Muslim population, living in Rakhine State on the northwest coast of Burma have been restricted to their villages and placed in Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps by the Burmese government. They have been the victims of persecution and communal violence by numbers of the Buddhist majority in Rakhine. International NGO's such as MSF have been expelled by the government, leading to a soaring crisis in health care.Photograph by James Nachtwey.
At a government-run hospital in Da Paing, a mother watches over her 45-year-old son Abdul Salam, who suffers from diabetes. James Nachtwey for TIME
Rohingye people, a Muslim population, living in Rakhine State on the northwest coast of Burma have been restricted to their villages and placed in Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps by the Burmese government. They have been the victims of persecution and communal violence by numbers of the Buddhist majority in Rakhine. International NGO's such as MSF have been expelled by the government, leading to a soaring crisis in health care.Baw Du Ba 2 Camp. Mustawba Khatu, 50 - hepatitis, enlarged liverMa Noor Ul Nisa, 3 1/2 - pneumonia, feverNoor Lang Sering, 25 - TB (girl in foreground, daughter)Sham Shi Dar Begum, 18 - TB, HIV+ (husband died from AIDS) Mother on right, Noor Jahan, 50.MSF had dealt effectively with TYb and HIV. Since the NGO was ejected, people are at risk from lack of medication and a systematic approach to administration of the drugs.In Thek Kay Pyin Pharmacy waiting for treatment from the owner of the pharmacy, who is not a doctor or a pharmacist. Ru Kuma, 10 - worms in stomach. Mother, Bi Bi, 30.Mustawba Khatu - orange blouse, daughter in foregroundNoor Ul Nisa - held by mother, father to leftMa Noor Lang Sering - mother in white scarf, red bag on wall.Baw Du Ba 2 Camp mosque - Friday prayers.Aid goods distributed by UNHCR being sold in market after UNHCR distribution.Fishing boats at low tide.Photograph by James Nachtwey.
A child suffering from stomach worms with her mother at a pharmacy waiting for treatment. The owner of the pharmacy is neither a doctor nor a pharmacist but does his best to help people. International NGOs such as Doctors Without Borders have been expelled from the camp by the government, leading to a soaring crisis in health care.James Nachtwey for TIME
Rohingye people, a Muslim population, living in Rakhine State on the northwest coast of Burma have been restricted to their villages and placed in Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps by the Burmese government. They have been the victims of persecution and communal violence by numbers of the Buddhist majority in Rakhine. International NGO's such as MSF have been expelled by the government, leading to a soaring crisis in health care.Photograph by James Nachtwey.
Malnutrition among the camps' children is commonplace. In June a top U.N. aid official who traveled to Rakhine said she had never before “witnessed [such] a level of human suffering.James Nachtwey for TIME
Rohingye people, a Muslim population, living in Rakhine State on the northwest coast of Burma have been restricted to their villages and placed in Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps by the Burmese government. They have been the victims of persecution and communal violence by numbers of the Buddhist majority in Rakhine. International NGO's such as MSF have been expelled by the government, leading to a soaring crisis in health care.Fishing boatsDapaing IDP Camp:Thein Maung, 46 - HIV+ and AIDS - son, Athassan Ullah, 4MSF had dealt effectively with TB and HIV. Since the NGO was ejected, people are at risk from lack of medication and a systematic approach to administration of the drugs.Ohn Daw Gee, 5Shaw Bi Ullah, 45 - diarrhea, motorbikeKobir Ahmed, 70 - malnutrition due to stomach troubles - twin grandsons Jamal Hussein, Anwar Hussein, 3 - wormsDapaing Hospital:Su Ra Khatu, 70 - fever, stomach ailmentHar Zar Ra Khatu, 70 - suspected TBAbdul Hussein, 65 - suspected TB, paralysis in one legAbdul Salam, 45 - diabetes - wife Shanisida Begum, 22 - baby Noor Harbiba, 3 monthsLatrines at Baw Du Pha 2 Camp.Photograph by James Nachtwey.
Fishermen tend their nets before going out into the Bay of Bengal to fish, one of the main sources of food and livelihood for the Rohingya. James Nachtwey for TIME
Rohingye people, a Muslim population, living in Rakhine State on the northwest coast of Burma have been restricted to their villages and placed in Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps by the Burmese government. They have been the victims of persecution and communal violence by numbers of the Buddhist majority in Rakhine. International NGO's such as MSF have been expelled by the government, leading to a soaring crisis in health care. Brick kilns operated by Rohingya IDP's. Workers are IDP's. Adults are paid 2,000 kyat per day for about 10m hours of work. Children are paid 1,000 kyat per day. Children in photos are from age 6 to 8 and the oldest is 14.Funerals. First a 16 year old girl who drank poison. Sevcond a woman who died from stomach disease.A blind beggar on railway tracks between two IDP camps.Photograph by James Nachtwey.
A blind beggar on railway tracks between two IDP camps.James Nachtwey for TIME
Rohingye people, a Muslim population, living in Rakhine State on the northwest coast of Burma have been restricted to their villages and placed in Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps by the Burmese government. They have been the victims of persecution and communal violence by numbers of the Buddhist majority in Rakhine. International NGO's such as MSF have been expelled by the government, leading to a soaring crisis in health care.Fishing boatsDapaing IDP Camp:Thein Maung, 46 - HIV+ and AIDS - son, Athassan Ullah, 4MSF had dealt effectively with TB and HIV. Since the NGO was ejected, people are at risk from lack of medication and a systematic approach to administration of the drugs.Ohn Daw Gee, 5Shaw Bi Ullah, 45 - diarrhea, motorbikeKobir Ahmed, 70 - malnutrition due to stomach troubles - twin grandsons Jamal Hussein, Anwar Hussein, 3 - wormsDapaing Hospital:Su Ra Khatu, 70 - fever, stomach ailmentHar Zar Ra Khatu, 70 - suspected TBAbdul Hussein, 65 - suspected TB, paralysis in one legAbdul Salam, 45 - diabetes - wife Shanisida Begum, 22 - baby Noor Harbiba, 3 monthsLatrines at Baw Du Pha 2 Camp.Photograph by James Nachtwey.
A boy using an umbrella as a sun shield jumps across a drainage canal behind a row of latrines at Baw Du Pha camp. James Nachtwey for TIME

In August this year, Rohingya militants — calling themselves the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) — made matters worse by attacking the authorities again, targeting 30 police stations and an army base in northern Rakhine State, killing 12 officials.

Just days after the Aug. 25 attack, I traveled to locations along the Naf River separating Myanmar and Bangladesh as well as to refugee camps, forested enclaves, and villages where Rohingya sought refuge. I spoke to more than 50 survivors from 31 villages.

“People were shot in the chest, stomach, legs, face, head, everywhere,” said Mohammed Rafiq from Min Gyi village, also known as Tula Toli, in Maungdaw Township. Trembling as he recalled the events, he told me soldiers gathered a large group on the banks of a local river and opened fire. “They poured fuel on the bodies and burned them.”

Multiple survivors from his village described how perpetrators slit throats, raped women, and burned “piles” of victims, including infant children. Eyewitnesses estimated a death toll of hundreds in that village alone.

Eyewitnesses from numerous other locations described similar atrocities. Soldiers used rocket-propelled grenades to raze entire Rohingya villages across all three townships of northern Rakhine State.

Plumes of smoke dotted the horizon across the Naf River as exhausted, hungry, and traumatized families made their way to Bangladesh in record numbers, seeking refuge.

Read more: ‘These People Don’t Have the Time to Mourn’: A Photo Essay by Dar Yasin

In just over three weeks, more than half a million Rohingya crossed the border — the fastest refugee outflow since the Rwandan genocide. Thousands are still arriving daily, and more are likely to come as the Government of Myanmar prevents nearly all lifesaving aid deliveries from reaching affected areas in northern Rakhine State.

It doesn’t matter whether perpetrators are ultimately successful; the Rwandan Tutsis and Srebrenica Muslims were not completely destroyed but that doesn’t mean they weren’t the victims of genocide. What matters is whether someone intended to destroy the group and took steps to achieve it, and in Myanmar right now, genocidal intent is alive and well.

The intent to destroy must not be confused with motive. While some perpetrators may be motivated to forcibly clear the Rohingya population from Rakhine State — i.e. “ethnic cleansing” — they can achieve that by committing the crime of genocide. And that’s exactly what’s happening now.

ARSA leaders also have blood on their hands. Members of the group murdered Rohingya civilians they suspected of being government informants and routinely threatened Rohingya with beheadings if they didn’t join their cause.

The potential of another ARSA attack, no matter the size, will almost certainly trigger more atrocity crimes by state security forces.

Secretary Tillerson and the Trump Administration should urgently apply unprecedented pressure on U.N. Security Council member states — particularly China — to refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court, which was established to investigate, try, and convict those responsible for atrocity crimes.

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