Titled “Countdown to Annihilation: Genocide in Myanmar” and written by a team of scholars, activists and journalists, the research is an in-depth analysis of the policies implemented by successive Burmese governments toward the Rohingya community. It concludes that beyond any reasonable doubt, these were implemented with genocidal intents.
The Rohingyas inhabit Rakhine State, on the border with Bangladesh. A law passed in 1982 deprived them of their right …show more content…
Besides taking away their citizenship, the government began framing them as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh and eliminating their historical past, for instance by demolishing local mosques – unmistakable signs of their presence in non recent times. In 2012, 33 were destroyed in Sittwe alone, according to the …show more content…
Many, apparently, refused to do so.
The situation has worsened significantly since the 2012 clashes, which Human Rights Watch (HRW) labeled ethnic cleansing and said were perpetrated by local political groups with support from central authorities. According to HRW, 128 people were displaced, while recent data from the United Nations quoted by Amnesty International show that about 416,000 people are currently affected by inter-communal violence.
These are the men and women who, in an effort to reach other countries, triggered the 2015 South East Asian refugee crisis and who, according to Amnesty International, may wind up at the center of another as the monsoon ends.
According to ISCI, the attacks were organized down to the smallest detail by local activists in league with the Arakan National Party (ANP), a local Rakhine political group. The report says that when the time came to raid Rohingya villages, special buses were set up to transport Rakhine men selected for the purpose. Others apparently blocked all of the villages’ exits but for those that led to the IDP