UNHRC Reports Frightening and Disturbing Reports from Northern Rakhine State in Myanmar
By
Asad Mirza, New Age Islam
27 May 2024
Latest
reports from Myanmar, speak of new atrocities and crimes being committed in a
concerted campaign of violence and destruction by Myanmar’s military against
the largely Muslim Rohingya people in northern Rakhine state.
The UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights has reported of receiving frightening and
disturbing reports from northern Rakhine state in Myanmar of the impacts of the
conflict on civilian lives and property.
Rohingya stranded off the coast of Thailand in May. Photo: Christophe
Archambault/AFP.
-------
Liz
Throssell, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said
Friday 24 May in a briefing to journalists in Geneva, that “Some of the most
serious allegations concern incidents of killing of Rohingya civilians and the
burning of their property, has been received by the UN”, noting that tens of
thousands of civilians have been displaced in recent days by fighting in
Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships.
She said
that the information gathered in testimony from victims, eyewitnesses,
satellite images, and online video and pictures over the last week indicate,
“Buthidaung town has been largely burned.”
“We have
received information indicating that the burning started on May 17, two days
after the military had retreated from the town and the Arakan Army claimed to
have taken full control,” she said.
Speaking in
Bangkok, James Rodehaver, head of Myanmar Team, Office of the High Commissioner
for Human Rights, said his team had spoken to many sources on the ground and
reviewed numerous materials, many of which “were deemed to be credible.”
“Our
offices are corroborating information further, particularly in establishing who
were the perpetrators of the burning. One survivor described seeing dozens of
dead bodies as he fled the town. Another survivor said that he was among a
group of displaced persons numbering in the tens of thousands, who attempted to
move outside of the town to safety but were blocked by the Arakan Army,”
Rodehaver said, pointing out that the Arakan Army had abused survivors and
extorted money from them as they fled the town.
Earlier
History
The latest
fighting comes in the context of a civil war in Myanmar that began after the
army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, leading to an armed
resistance opposing military rule.
The
pro-democracy fighters are allied with several of the ethnic minority groups
that have been fighting for greater autonomy for decades, and have well-trained
military forces.
The Arakan
Army is an armed ethnic group fighting as part of an alliance against the
Myanmar military. The AA says it is fighting for more autonomy for the ethnic
Rakhine population in the state, which is also home to an estimated 600,000
members of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority, who have chosen to remain
in the country. The Arakan Army had a loose cease-fire with the military
government until last October, when it joined with two other ethnic armed
groups to capture territory in northeastern Myanmar.
The
Rohingya were the targets of a brutal counterinsurgency campaign incorporating
rape and murder that saw an estimated 740,000 flee to neighbouring Bangladesh
as their villages were burned down by government troops in 2017.
Rohingya
have lived in Myanmar for generations, but they are widely regarded by many in
the country’s Buddhist majority, including members of the Rakhine minority, as
having illegally migrated from Bangladesh. The Rohingya face a great amount of
prejudice and are generally denied citizenship and other basic rights.
Latest
Incidents
In the
weeks leading up to the burning of Buthidaung, the Myanmar team of the UN human
rights offices has documented renewed attacks on Rohingya civilians by both the
Arakan Army and by the military in northern Rakhine state, including many by
aerial strikes and drones.
He said his
office also has received reports of shooting at unarmed fleeing villagers,
multiple disappearances and burnings of homes, and has confirmed four cases of
beheadings.
Rodehaver
said the military has been actively targeting the Rohingya for years and has
“actively enforced draconian and discriminatory restrictions affecting all
aspects of their lives.”
“It is one
of the reasons why the Rohingya, whenever they were asked to leave Buthidaung
and other villages, have been very reluctant to move because they have needed
special permission to move outside of their township of residence. They also
have nowhere else to go.
“They, of
course, have learned very hard lessons in 2017, knowing that whenever movement
starts, it usually ends with them leaving their homes, never to see them
again,” he said.
The Myanmar
junta, which has been at war with its people for decades, recently has suffered
many defeats. One consequence is young men have been conscripted from the
Rohingya to fight its battles, by promising them many benefits, such as more
food rations for their families and a promise of citizenship. Rodehaver calls
that an insidious ploy by military leaders.
Tom
Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar,
warned Thursday of “ominous signs of another Rohingya bloodbath in Rakhine
state” if the international community were to continue to turn a blind eye and
fail to take action to save the lives of thousands of Rohingya.
“Once
again, the world seems to be failing a desperate people in their hour of peril,
while a hate-driven unnatural disaster unfolds in real time in Myanmar’s
Rakhine state,” he said.
Mirroring
that assessment, UN human rights chief Volker Türk is calling for “an immediate end to the violence,
and for all civilians to be protected without any distinction based on
identity. “Prompt and unhindered humanitarian relief must be allowed to flow, and
all parties must comply fully and unconditionally with international law,” he said.
More than a
million Rohingya have taken shelter in neighbouring Bangladesh after fleeing
Rakhine, including hundreds of thousands in 2017 during an earlier crackdown by
the military that is now the subject of a United Nations genocide court case.
What
perplexes one here is the ominous silence of the so-called Muslim states
against the Myanmar’s junta, for targeting the Rohingyas. Even the Muslim
organisations like the OIC have not moved beyond passing resolutions against
the massacre of Rohingyas, and have refrained from taking any firm action at
the ground level to force the junta to put a stop to these inhuman massacres.
The same applies to the plight of Uyghur Muslims in China.
-------
Asad
Mirza is a Delhi-based senior political and international affairs commentator.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-politics/unhrc-rakhine-myanmar-frightening/d/132389
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism