The re-ignition of the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine state one month ago has resulted in the displacement of approximately one third of the Rohingya population. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), approximately 436.000 people have crossed the border into Bangladesh to flee attacks by the Myanmar military. Approximately 50% of the displaced people are children, many of whom left alone after their parents were killed.
Myanmar’s military attacks include mass burning, killings and other abuses. Human Rights Watch, in its latest report released on September 25th, 2017, accused the Myanmar army of crimes against humanity and declared that the analysis of satellite images revealed 284 villages in Rakhine have suffered over 90% structural damage.
In Rakhine “a genocide is taking place”, according to the Bangladesh’s foreign minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali. The UN human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, called on the government to end the cruel military operations and discrimination against the Rohingya, which he defined as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. This declaration was followed by the words of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council, which called on Myanmar's government to end its military campaign against the Rohingya. The UNHCR also declared that the challenges faced by Bangladesh are immense and “massive international assistance” is needed to feed and shelter the displaced Rohingya people.
The muslim Rohingya, described by UN as the world’s most persecuted people, suffer discrimination since 1982, when they haven been denied citizenship in buddhist Myanmar.
To know more, read:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/09/myanmar-crisis-textbook-ethnic-cleansing-170911081528888.html
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/09/urges-rohingya-violence-170913174112622.html
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/25/crimes-against-humanity-burmese-security-forces-against-rohingya-muslim-population
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/09/rohingya-bangladesh-massive-assistance-170924110654841.html
