Myanmar’s Genocidal Acts Against Rohingya Muslims

Ten Rohingya Muslim men being held captive by Myanmar soldiers before execution Ten Rohingya Muslim men being held captive by Myanmar soldiers before execution Thomson/Reuters

5 June 2018

Genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar: victims found in mass graves

Five mass graves have been discovered in the Rakhine State after heavy rainfall left the hidden bodies exposed to the public. In one massacre that occurred on 27 August 2017, Burmese troops fired at a group of men in the village of Gu Dar Pyin while they were playing the traditional game of chinlone. According to Reuters, it is highly likely that these men were targeted at random in an act of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya Muslims. To leave the bodies of the men unidentifiable, acid was poured on their faces and hands. One survivor stated that he was only able to identify victims by the color of their clothing. Al Jazeera predicts there have been as many as 400 more Rohingya Muslims murdered by the Myanmar military.

The majority of the citizens in Myanmar are Buddhist Rakhine, while the minority remains Rohingya Muslim. Due to this difference, the Myanmar government refuses to grant citizenship to Rohingya Muslims and identifies them as illegal immigrants.Furthermore, after a series of violent acts against Myanmar police a year and a half ago, assumed to have been carried out by Rohingya Muslims, Myanmar’s Rakhine State has been in a state of emergency. As a result, the human rights of Rohingya Muslims have been repeatedly violated by the Myanmar military and Buddhist extremists, which has now escalated to genocide.
   

In response to the killings of Rohingya Muslims, international human rights organizations emphasize the need for an arms embargo led by the United Nations. They also urge the European Union and United States to hold Myanmar commanders and soldiers accountable for their atrocities by identifying and leveling targeted sanctions against them.

To know more, please read:

http://crossasia-journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/iaf/article/viewFile/3693/3794
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-grave/ten-bodies-found-in-mass-grave-in-myanmar-army-newspaper-idUSKBN1ED2AZ
http://journal.unpad.ac.id/pjih/article/view/15110/8069
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/evidence-rohingya-mass-graves-uncovered-myanmar-180201052413608.html

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