Rohingya Refugee Crisis
Rohingya Refugee Crisis
The Rohingya refugee crisis is a very complex case. The Rohingya have been persecuted since the 1970s. In 1982, the military junta in Myanmar passed a citizenship law that listed 135 ethnic groups entitled to citizenship, which excluded the Rohingya who had enjoyed citizenship rights since independence in 1948. As a result, all Rohingya legally lost their citizenship and became stateless overnight.
The conflict between Muslim Rohingya and Buddhists in the Rakhine State intensified in 2012, 2015, 2016, and 2017.
In June and October 2012, Arakanese political party members, Buddhist monks themselves, and ordinary Arakanese organized, incited violence and attacked Rohingya and Kaman Muslim communities. As a result of this violence, at least 125,000 Muslims were displaced internally. Many were killed and buried in mass graves.
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| https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41566561 |
Causes and effects of the current crisis
Since late August 2017, more than 671,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Burma’s Rakhine State to escape the military’s large-scale campaign of ethnic cleansing. The atrocities committed by Burmese security forces, including mass killings, sexual violence, and widespread arson, amount to crimes against humanity.
Military and civilian officials have repeatedly denied that security forces committed abuses during the operations, contradicted by extensive evidence and witness accounts.
The Rohingya have faced decades of discrimination and repression under successive Burmese governments. Effectively denied citizenship under the 1982 Citizenship Law, they are one of the largest stateless populations in the world. Restrictions on movement and lack of access to primary health care have led to dire humanitarian conditions for displaced by earlier waves of violence in 2012 and 2016.
International humanitarian law states that reprisals against a civilian population and their property are forbidden. It also establishes that Rohingya civilians must be spared from military attacks under all circumstances and at all times.
Both Article 3 common to all four Geneva Conventions and Protocol II additional to these Conventions affirm that
- there should always be a distinction between the armed forces and civilians;
- all persons taking no active part in the combat, including the wounded and the sick, must be treated humanely;
- the only legitimate objective is to weaken the enemies armed might;
- Moreover, the civilian population, including women and children, and civilians’ homes, property and cultural objects must be protected, as they are not military targets.
Most of the persecuted Rohingyas fled to Cox’s Bazar in neighbouring Bangladesh to seek refuge and a haven, where the Bangladeshi government welcomed them. After Rohingyas left their villages, their houses and properties were bulldozed. At least 55 Rohingya villages were destroyed in order to eliminate the evidence.
About half a million Rohingyas remain in the Rakhine State in Myanmar. UN envoy Yanghee Lee claims that mass graves show “hallmarks of genocide”. At that time, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, called the maltreatment of the Rohingya a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. A group of Nobel Peace Laureates called on the UN Security Council to protect the Rohingya from further attacks.
India and Japan support Myanmar. China and Russia oppose UN resolutions on the Rohingya issue. The European Union (EU) and the US imposed economic sanctions on top military officials as punishment. The UK is calling for repatriation, while China mediates between Bangladesh and Myanmar on repatriation. With China’s overtures, Bangladesh and Myanmar signed an agreement to implement the Chinese peace plan for the repatriation of the Rohingya from Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh to the Rakhine State in Myanmar.
Bangladesh is now struggling to cope with the pressure of hosting approximately 1 million stateless Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar. Not allowed to work in Bangladesh, the stateless Rohingya refugees are desperate and are only permitted to work as part-time volunteers. Over 200 aid agencies are operating in the Rohingya camps. Sixty-five shipwrecked Rohingya who was survivors of human trafficking were found stranded in southern Thailand. Human trafficking of vulnerable Rohingya refugees is on the rise. Rohingya girls are the targets of sex trafficking.
The attacks on the Rohingya civilian population violate international human rights law and international humanitarian law, also known as the laws of war. The crimes committed include crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. UN Secretary-General expressed that “the Rohingya are one of the most discriminated against population in the world — and that was even before the crisis….”
Rohingya Genocide Case
The Gambia vs Myanmar (ICJ, 2019).
Facts of the Case
On 11 November 2019, the Republic of The Gambia filed a case in the International Court of Justice through an Application against the Republic of the Union of Myanmar concerning alleged violations of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,1948 (“Genocide Convention”).
In its Application, Gambia argues in particular that Myanmar has committed and continues to commit genocidal acts against members of the Rohingya group, which it describes as a “distinct ethnic, racial and religious group that resides primarily in Myanmar’s Rakhine State”.
The Application contained a Request for the indication of provisional measures, seeking to preserve, pending the Court’s final decision in the case, the rights of the Rohingya group in Myanmar, of its members and The Gambia under the Genocide Convention.
Provisional Measures of 23 January 2020
In summary, the provisional measures the Court ordered are that:
- Myanmar must refrain from acts of genocide against the Rohingya.
- Myanmar must ensure that the military or other groups or organizations subject to Myanmar’s control refrain from acts of genocide or acts related to it (including conspiring, inciting, or attempting);
- Myanmar must “prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of any evidence related to” allegations of genocide; and,
- Myanmar must submit a report in four months regarding its steps to implement these measures and submit a new report every six months after that.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/opinion/rohingya-refugees-myanmar-return-bangladesh.html
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