What You Should Know About the Rohingya Genocide

By Elizabeth Zimmer

As of November 2017, the catastrophic Myanmar genocide has the potential to become the “most significant humanitarian catastrophe” since the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s. For members of the general public, this might come as a surprise. The victims of this catastrophe are known as the Rohingya. They are Indo-Aran people who are currently stateless but originate from Myanmar, a southeast Asia nation. The Rohingya people for decades have been experiencing suppression and aggressive government tactics that led many professionals in the humanitarian field to believe genocide was the likely conclusion.

The suppression experienced by the Rohingya people includes the denial of citizenship to Myanmar, restricted movement, state funded education, and jobs in the civil service department.

The Rohingya people are experiencing brutal and inhumane treatment. They tell stories of rape, murder, and destruction of their property. As a result, tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands have fled to various neighboring countries to avoid persecution. There has been minimal international involvement as thousands of helpless Rohingya rush to escape this harsh treatment.

The Myanmar government has continued to deny the allegations and claims the stories of the Rohingya people are significantly fabricated. The Rohingya people are an ethnic minority. For decades, the Burma Citizenship Law has hindered the Rohingya refugees from returning to their homes by prohibiting their citizenship. The international non-profit organization known as Human Rights Watch has asked the Burma government to repeal the citizenship law that is causing these problems. To date, no action has been taken on behalf of the Burmanese government to amend the law and allow the Rohingya people to gain citizenship.

The evidence does in fact suggest that we could have seen the genocide of the Rohingya people coming. There are actions that international rights organizations need to take to help the Rohingya people return to their country and remain safe from these travesties. However, these requests to change the citizenship laws and aid the Rohingya people have fallen short; the Rohingya people remain stateless and in harms way as they hide from persecution in neighboring countries like Bangladesh.

In the meantime, stories about the Rohingya children losing their parents and their families, remains at the bottom of the media’s headlines. The U.N. has initiated an investigation into the allegations of the Rohingya people while the Myanmar government continues to deny all accusations.

References

Ashley Starr Kinseth, What’s happening in Myanmar is genocide, available at http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/happening-myanmar-genocide-171016114145271.html (Last visited Nov. 5, 2017).

Human Rights Watch, Discrimination in Arkan, (May 2000) available at https://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/burma/burm005-02.htm#P132_34464 (last visited last visited Nov. 5, 2017).

Kevin Pooniah, Who will help Myanmar’s Rohingya’s, BBC (Jan. 10, 2017) available at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38168917 (last visited Nov. 5, 2017).