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Satellite imagery shows that about 200 homes and other buildings were destroyed by fire in recent weeks in an ethnic Rakhine village in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said – the latest in a series of brutalities allegedly committed by soldiers against civilians of different ethnic backgrounds.

“The burning of Let Kar village has all the hallmarks of Myanmar military arson on Rohingya villages in recent years,” Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at HRW said in a statement on Tuesday.

“A credible and impartial investigation is urgently needed to find out what happened, punish those responsible, and provide compensation to villagers harmed.”

Earlier this month, Myanmar’s military was also forced to acknowledge that its troops abused ethnic Rakhine prisoners, after a video of soldiers battering blindfolded detainees spread on social media.

Myanmar‘s armed forces have been battling the Arakan Army (AA), a rebel group seeking greater autonomy for the western region, for more than a year. Clashes in Rakhine and neighbouring Chin states have escalated in recent weeks, leaving dozens dead and thousands displaced.

Arson attacks

The imagery of Let Kar also bears a close resemblance to patterns of fires and widespread arson attacks by the Myanmar military on ethnic Rohingya villages in Rakhine State in 2012, 2016, and 2017, HRW said.

Satellite imagery recorded on May 16, 2020, at 10:30am showed no signs of damage in Let Kar, the group said.

But at 2:12pm, an environmental satellite detected extensive fires burning there. The HRW damage analysis of 200 buildings burned is most likely an underestimate because internal damage to buildings was not visible, it added.

The satellite imagery is consistent with witness accounts regarding the date and time of the fires and the number of buildings affected.

Residents in the neighbouring village of Bu Ywat Ma Nyo also reported similar attacks by Myanmar soldiers on the same day, with villagers reporting hearing gunfire and seeing flames and smoke.

An aid worker from the town of Mrauk-U told HRW that at about 2pm on May 16, columns of smoke could be seen coming from the direction of Let Kar, about 11km north of the town.

School, homes burned

A former Let Kar resident, who inspected the damage on May 17, counted at least 194 buildings that had been burned down, including his own home, and a school.

A Rakhine State regional member of parliament, Tun Thar Sein, confirmed that a military contingent had been in the area.

“We will urge the union government for compensation and aid to be provided to the residents of Let Kar,” he said.

On May 17, Myanmar’s military said in a statement that its troops had entered Let Kar the previous afternoon while patrolling the area and were attacked by the Arakan Army.

It also issued an aerial image of burning buildings in Let Kar, presumably taken by a drone. The military accused the Arakan Army of setting the fires and damaging at least 20 houses before retreating into the mountains.

On May 19, the Arakan Army issued a statement denying the allegations. A spokesperson, Khine Thuka, urged the media to investigate.

The military has declared the armed rebel group a “terrorist” organisation, meaning anyone who contacts them for comment could be charged under Myanmar’s terrorism laws.

Under the laws of war applicable to the armed conflict between the two forces, attacks on civilians and civilian objects, such as homes, are prohibited, and the destruction of civilian property is considered a war crime.

‘Genocide’ continues against Rohingya

News of the alleged attack by Myanmar’s military comes as the rights group, Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK) said in a report on Sunday that abuses were also continuing against the mainly Muslim Rohingya. While hundreds of thousands fled after a brutal military crackdown in 2017, which is now the subject of an ICJ case, about 600,000 remained in Rakhine.

Tun Khin, president of BROUK, said: “The genocide against the Rohingya is continuing unabated in Myanmar.”

“The government and military have taken no meaningful steps whatsoever to improve the situation in Rakhine State, where women, men and children continue to suffer a hellish existence.”

BROUK’s briefing detailed how the Rohingya in Rakhine continue to face severe oppression by both the civilian government and the military.

“Myanmar has tried to destroy our people for decades, and it is obvious that this government has no intentions of genuinely implementing the ICJ’s provisional measures,” said Tun Khin.

Myanmar faces charges of genocide at the UN’s top court.

The country denies the charges.

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Bangladesh risks creating a “new crisis” for Rohingya refugees if it goes ahead next month with plans to relocate 23,000 refugees to an uninhabited island prone to cyclones, a United Nations human rights envoy has warned.

Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur on Myanmar who visited Bhasan Char recently, told the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday that she was unsure if the Bay of Bengal island was “truly habitable”.

She also warned “ill-planned” relocations without the consent of refugees “have the potential to create a new crisis”.

Rohingya advocates say the refugees would effectively be trapped on Bhasan Char, a muddy, low-lying island that floods frequently during monsoon season and offers few livelihood opportunities.

More than 730,000 Rohingya are confined to overcrowded camps in Bangladesh after fleeing a campaign of arson, murder and rape waged in Myanmar by the country’s military since late 2017.

Despite the objections, the Bangladeshi government hopes to eventually move 100,000 Rohingya to the island, arguing this would relieve pressure on the camps.

‘Everyone will refuse’
Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist, said he believed the only way officials could get people to move to the island was by force.

“Everyone in the camps will refuse for sure,” he told Al Jazeera. “No one wants to be relocated to Bhasan Char.”
Lee’s remarks came as she delivered the findings of a report based on visits she made to Thailand and Bangladesh in January.

The Myanmar government, led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, denied her access to the country during her trip and did not respond to her written questions about the human rights situation in Myanmar.

In a December letter, the government told Lee her visits were “counterproductive”, claiming her previous reports lacked “objectivity and impartiality”.

Lee said in the recently released report that the UN “must be allowed to conduct a full technical and humanitarian assessment” of Bhasan Char and that Rohingya should be given “go and see” visits to determine if they wished to move there.

Bangladesh has enlisted British and Chinese engineers to help prepare the island for the planned arrivals. The involvement of British firm HR Wallingford in the project has sparked criticism from UK-based campaigners.

The advocacy group Burma Campaign UK in December named the firm on a “dirty list” of companies that it said were involved in projects related to human rights violations.

The firm did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on Monday.

A spokesperson has previously told The Guardian the company has no business inside Myanmar and has been engaged in Bangladesh to design flood defences on Bhasan Char to internationally recognised standards.

Thousands flee Rakhine
Lee also told the Human Rights Council on Monday that up to 10,000 civilians have fled their homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine state since November last year due to violence and a lack of humanitarian aid.

While global attention has focussed on the plight of Rohingya inside Myanmar, many ethnically Rakhine people have been affected by clashes between the military and the Arakan Army, a Rakhine rebel group.

In her report, Lee said the clashes had led to the deaths of “several civilians … including of children”.

She also expressed “serious concern” at the Rakhine state government’s decision to instruct aid agencies to suspend their activities in several areas of the state in January.

The move was a “violation of Myanmar’s international humanitarian obligation” to allow access for aid agencies, she said.

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Rohingya Muslims, forced to emigrate from their homeland to escape oppression and horrific massacres, cannot escape their painful memories.

Nearly 1.5 million Rohingya Muslims who fled from ethnic and religious persecution in Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh are struggling to survive in camps in Cox’s Bazar district.

Many Rohingya Muslims, some of whom lost family members, are dreaming of a peaceful life despite their pain.

But they do not want to return to their country unless they are given assurances.
One of the refugees, Zafer Islam, whose mother and father were killed by a firing squad, has been living at the Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar since 2017.

“The Myanmar military killed my mother and father as they were leaving their house. We had to run during the attack. I came here with my wife and three children. It is impossible to forget those days, and I am still carrying the scars,” Islam said.

Ruhlamin and Anuar Begom, a couple, is also staying in the camp with their two children.

They walked with their children for a week and then swam across the Naf River to reach the camp in Bangladesh, said Anuar Begom, adding they are staying in a house made of bamboo with the support of Turkey.

“Turkey is a country that put up a fight for us and does not forget us here. We understand this from Turkish people’s work here,” Begom added.

“The first time we came here, we did not have any place to stay, and later people from Turkey came here to build houses for us.”

Another refugee, Amir Husein, 55, who reached the camp after a one-week walk with his six children, said: “We came here by walking with a group of 500-600 Rohingya. We’re staying at a home built by Turkey.”

“I pray for Turkey,” he added.

Muhammad Nur, 64, who arrived at the camp with his four daughters and wife after they walked for 12 days, said he lost many members of his family on the migration route to Bangladesh.

The largest amount of help in the camp was given by Turkey. Many facilities were also built, including homes, hospitals, mosques and schools, and many wells were drilled in each neighborhood through contributions from philanthropists.

Life in the camps
Life goes on in the camps despite many difficulties. Some adults are earning 50-100 Bangladesh taka ($0.60-$1.19) daily by working at jobs near the camps. Some refugees are also trading in the camps by selling food products they bring from the city center.

Children, who are studying in schools built by Turkey, on the one hand learn how to read and write and receive religious education while on the other hand spend time together by playing football.

Youngsters in the camp occasionally organize football competitions.

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world’s most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, have fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August last year.

Since Aug. 25, 2017, nearly 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces, according to a report by the Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).

More than 34,000 Rohingya were also thrown into fires, while over 114,000 others were beaten, said the OIDA report, titled “Forced Migration of Rohingya: The Untold Experience.”

Some 18,000 Rohingya women and girls were raped by Myanmar’s army and police and over 115,000 Rohingya homes were burned down and 113,000 others vandalized, it added.

The UN has also documented mass gang rapes, killings — including of infants and young children — brutal beatings and disappearances committed by Myanmar state forces.

In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.

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US Vice President Mike Pence told Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday the violence and persecution by her country’s military and vigilantes that sent more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh was inexcusable.

Pence told Suu Kyi in a brief meeting with the media before private talks on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Singapore the United States was anxious to hear of progress in holding people accountable for the Rohingya crisis.

“The violence and persecution by military and vigilantes that resulted in driving 700,000 Rohingya to Bangladesh is without excuse,” he told Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi responded that people have different views.

Pence’s comments follow criticism from Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad who said on Tuesday the Nobel laureate was trying to “defend the indefensible” in backing Myanmar’s military over the brutal crackdown.

‘Indifference’
Mahathir is known for his forthright views, but such public rebukes are rare among ASEAN leaders.

Suu Kyi became a democracy icon during Myanmar’s long years of military dictatorship when she spent some 15 years under house arrest.

But the treatment of the Rohingya and the response of Suu Kyi’s government have fuelled widespread criticism.

Human rights group Amnesty International this week stripped her of its highest honour over what it said was her “indifference” to the plight of the Rohingya.

Pence also said Washington wanted to see a free and democratic press in Myanmar, and the jailing of two journalists last year was “deeply troubling” for millions of Americans.

He did not mention by name Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, two Reuters journalists who were arrested in Yangon in December 2017 as they worked on a story about the Rohingya crackdown.

They were found guilty in September of breaching the Official Secrets Act and sentenced to seven years in prison.
Bangladesh and Myanmar plan to start repatriating some Rohingya this week.

The UN has said the move would put their lives at risk and should be stopped amid ongoing attacks against the Rohingya who remain in the predominantly Buddhist country.

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A UN human rights official has implored Bangladesh to shelve its plans to start the repatriation of Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar this month, fearing they may face violence or abuse.

“I have not seen any evidence of the Government of Myanmar taking concrete and visible measures to create an environment where the Rohingya can return to their place of origin and live there safely with their fundamental rights guaranteed,” Yanghee Lee, the special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said in a statement on the UN website on Tuesday.

Lee said she fears the Rohingya may face suffering, violence, or abuse as Myanmar has failed to take any tangible measures for the Rohingya’s return to the border state of Rakhine in November.

“Not only did the Rohingya face horrific violence at the hands of security forces in 2016 and 2017 with no accountability, they have been subjected to decades-long systematic discrimination and persecution in Myanmar,” Lee said, urging both Bangladesh and Myanmar to call off the repatriation.

“I urge the Governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar to halt these rushed plans for repatriation, to ensure the protection of the Rohingya refugees and to adhere to their international human rights and refugee law obligations to ensure any returns are safe, sustainable, voluntary and dignified,” she added.

Persecution of Rohingya
The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world’s most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

Since Aug. 25, 2017, nearly 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces, according to a report by the Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).

More than 34,000 Rohingya were also thrown into fires, while over 114,000 others were beaten, said the OIDA report, titled “Forced Migration of Rohingya: The Untold Experience.”

Some 18,000 Rohingya women and girls were raped by Myanmar’s army and police and over 115,000 Rohingya homes were burned down and 113,000 others vandalized, it added.

According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly children, and women, fled Myanmar and crossed into neighboring Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017.

The UN has documented mass gang rapes, killings — including of infants and young children — brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by Myanmar state forces. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.

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Genocide continues to take place against Muslim-majority Rohingya in Myanmar and the government is increasingly demonstrating it has no interest in establishing a fully functioning democracy, a UN investigator said.

Marzuki Darusman, chair of the UN fact-finding mission on Myanmar, said the estimated 250,000 to 400,000 Rohingya who remained in the Buddhist-majority country following last year’s brutal crackdown “continue to suffer the most severe” restrictions and repression.

“Atrocities continue to take place today,” Darusman told reporters as he prepared to brief the UN Security Council on the situation on Wednesday. “It is an ongoing genocide that is taking place.”

There is increasing global pressure on Myanmar to act following a military crackdown in the western state of Rakhine that drove some 700,000 Rohingya across the border into Bangladesh, amid accusations of mass rape, murder and torture.

Myanmar’s government has rejected the 440-page UN report on the crackdown, which concluded top military leaders should be prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide for their role in the crackdown.

The UN investigation was “flawed, biased and politically motivated”, Myanmar’s council representative said.

Darusman’s briefing to the Security Council drew objections from six of its 15 members including China, which is Myanmar’s neighbour and ally, and Russia.

‘Human rights catastrophe’
Darusman told the council the mission’s report on the crackdown showed a “human rights catastrophe” that would affect the Rohingya for “generations to come, if not forever”. He urged the council to hold Myanmar accountable.

“National sovereignty is not a licence to commit crimes against humanity or genocide,” said Darusman. “The Rohingya and all of Myanmar’s people, in fact the entire world, is looking at you to take action.”

Myanmar has denied committing atrocities against the Rohingya, saying its military carried out justifiable military action against rebels who had attacked security posts in the region.

The country’s UN ambassador said Myanmar would never accept being referred to the International Criminal Court.
Al Jazeera’s Diplomatic Editor James Bays said a referral was unlikely, with China and Russia able to use their veto to protect Myanmar from any action.

“A Security Council veto could and almost certainly would be used,” Bays said. “But an investigation into the crime of forced expulsion is a possibility because the country many people fled to, Bangladesh, has signed up to the court’s jurisdiction.”

Britain coordinates council action on Myanmar and the country’s ambassador to the UN, Karen Pierce, said she would push for “accountability that genuinely ends the Burmese military’s impunity”.

‘Apartheid situation’
Yanghee Lee, the UN special investigator on human rights in Myanmar, told reporters leader Aung San Suu Kyi was “in denial” about the crackdown, and her government did not appear to be all that different from the military dictatorship of the past.

“The government is increasingly demonstrating that it has no interest and capacity in establishing a fully functioning democracy where all its people equally enjoy all their rights and freedoms,” Lee said.

“It is not upholding justice and rule of law”, which Aung San Suu Kyi “repeatedly says is the standard to which all in Myanmar are held”, she added.

The conditions were not right for any Rohingya to return to Myanmar, she said.

Lee said while there had been progress in terms of economic development and infrastructure, there had been “no progress” in terms of “democratic space” or land rights.

“Repatriation is not possible now,” she stressed. “I will not encourage any repatriation. Right now, it’s like an apartheid situation where Rohingyas still living in Myanmar … have no freedom of movement.

“The camps, the shelters, the model villages that are being built, it’s more of a cementing of total segregation or separation from the Rakhine ethnic community.”

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The top United Nations human rights body on Thursday decided to establish a new independent mechanism to collect and analyze evidence of genocide and human rights violations against Rakhine Muslims in Myanmar.

The UN Human Rights Council voted in its 39th session in Geneva “to establish an ongoing independent mechanism to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyze evidence of the most serious international crimes and violations of international law committed in Myanmar since 2011”.

Thirty-five members, out of 47, voted in favor while China, the Philippines and Burundi voted against the resolution. Seven others abstained.

The motion had been prepared by the European Union (EU) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The quasi-judicial mechanism will be responsible for collecting evidence of atrocities and human rights violations against Rakhine Muslims and prepare indictment for a possible future criminal proceeding.

Persecuted Rohingya
Since Aug. 25, 2017, more than 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces, according to the Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).

In a report, “Forced Migration of Rohingya: The Untold Experience”, the OIDA increased the estimated number of murdered Rohingya to 23,962 (±881) from an earlier Doctors Without Borders figure of 9,400.

More than 34,000 Rohingya were also thrown into fires, while over 114,000 others were beaten, the OIDA report said, adding that 17,718 (±780) Rohingya women and girls were raped by the Myanmar army and police.

More than 115,000 Rohingya houses were burned and 113,000 others were vandalized, it added.

According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly children and women, have fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after state forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community.

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world’s most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

The UN documented mass gang rapes, killings — including of infants and young children — brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by Myanmar state forces. In its report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.

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The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday launched a preliminary investigation into the crimes committed by Myanmar against the Rohingya people.

In a written statement, ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said: “I have decided to proceed to the next phase of the preliminary examination process and to carry out a full-fledged preliminary examination of the situation at hand.”

Bensouda noted that her office has received a number of communications and reports alleging crimes since the end of 2017.

The preliminary examination will be made on the forced displacement of the Rohingya people, including the deprivation of their fundamental rights as well as killing, sexual violence, enforced disappearance, destruction and looting, the prosecutor added.

“A preliminary examination is not an investigation but a process of examining the information available in order to reach a fully informed determination on whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation pursuant to the criteria established by the Rome Statute,” she said.

Her office will evaluate whether crimes such as the crimes of persecution and other inhumane acts may be applicable to the situation at hand.

She added: “While Myanmar is not a State Party to the ICC, Bangladesh is. The Court may therefore exercise jurisdiction over conduct to the extent it partly occurred on the territory of Bangladesh.”

Earlier this month, the court ruled that it has jurisdiction to investigate the crimes against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

Nearly 24,000 Rohingya killed
Since Aug. 25, 2017, nearly 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces, according to a report by the Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).

More than 34,000 Rohingya were also thrown into fires, while over 114,000 others were beaten, said the OIDA report, entitled Forced Migration of Rohingya: The Untold Experience.

Some 18,000 Rohingya women and girls were raped by Myanmar’s army and police, and over 115,000 Rohingya houses were burned down and 113,000 others vandalized, it added.

According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly children and women, fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017.

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world’s most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

The UN has documented mass gang rapes, killings — including of infants and young children — brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by Myanmar state forces. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.

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The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday ruled that it has jurisdiction to investigate the crimes against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

“The Court has jurisdiction over the crime against humanity of deportation allegedly committed against members of the Rohingya people,” the Hague-based court said in a statement.

“The reason is that an element of this crime — the crossing of a border — took place on the territory of a State party [Bangladesh],” it added.

The statement said it “may also exercise its jurisdiction with regard to any other crime set out in article 5 of the [ICC Rome] Statute, such as the crimes against humanity of persecution and/or other inhumane acts.”

The court urged that the prosecutor must take the legally binding ruling into account “as she continues with her preliminary examination concerning the crimes allegedly committed against the Rohingya people.”

The court further said a preliminary examination must be concluded within a reasonable time.

Since Aug. 25, 2017, some 750,000 Rohingya, mostly children and women, have fled to neighboring Bangladesh after Myanmar forces began a crackdown on the minority Muslim community, according to Amnesty International.

At least 9,400 Rohingya were killed in Myanmar’s Rakhine State from Aug. 25 to Sept. 24, 2017, according to Doctors Without Borders.

In a report published last December, the global humanitarian group said the deaths of 71.7 percent or 6,700 Rohingya were caused by violence. They include 730 children below the age of 5.

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world’s most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

The UN has documented mass gang rapes, killings — including of infants and young children — brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by security personnel. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.

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Myanmar rejected Wednesday the findings of a UN probe alleging genocide by its military against the Rohingya, in a strident government response to a damning report on the crisis.

Myanmar has come under immense pressure this week over last year’s military crackdown that pushed more than 700,000 of the Muslim minority into Bangladesh.

On Monday, a UN probe detailed evidence of genocide and crimes against humanity “perpetrated on a massive scale” toward the Rohingya, including acts of rape and sexual violence, mass killings, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.

In a session of the UN Security Council late Tuesday several countries — including the US — called for Myanmar’s military leaders to be held accountable for its alleged crimes.

But Myanmar on Wednesday rejected the remit of the UN mission in a typically defiant defense of its response to a crisis that has heaped international opprobrium on its civilian and military leadership.

“We didn’t allow the FFM (the UN Fact-Finding Mission) to enter into Myanmar, that’s why we don’t agree and accept any resolutions made by the Human Rights Council,” said government spokesman Zaw Htay, according to the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

He pointed to the formation of Myanmar’s own Independent Commission of Enquiry, which he said was set up to respond to “false allegations made by the UN agencies and other international communities.”

The country has “zero tolerance for human rights violations,” Zaw Htay said, but he added that “strong evidence” including records and dates of any alleged abuses must be provided before investigations are undertaken.

The government would take “legal action against any violation of human rights,” he said.

Zaw Htay also lashed out at Facebook for pulling down the pages of Myanmar’s army chief and other top military brass on Monday, saying that the move could hamper the government’s efforts with “national reconciliation.”

The social media giant has admitted it was too slow to react to the crisis, which saw its platform — wildly popular in Myanmar — become an incubator of hate speech against the Rohingya.

Much of Myanmar’s Buddhist-majority public has vilified the Rohingya since the army’s crackdown, with little sympathy for a minority who have for years been stripped of citizenship and denied free movement, access to health care and education within the country.

Myanmar’s leaders, including Nobel laureate and de facto head of state Aung San Suu Kyi, have repeatedly defended the military crackdown as a proportionate response to Rohingya insurgents in Rakhine state.

But the drumbeat of calls for accountability is getting louder, with the International Criminal Court also soon due to rule on whether it has jurisdiction over the crisis because it spilled across the border into Bangladesh.

Myanmar is not a signatory to the court.

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Myanmar’s military carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Muslim Rohingya with “genocidal intent” and the commander-in-chief and five generals should be prosecuted for orchestrating the gravest crimes under law, U.N. investigators said on Monday.

The civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi has allowed hate speech to thrive, destroyed documents and failed to protect minorities from crimes against humanity and war crimes by the army in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states, they said in a report.

In doing so, it “contributed to the commission of atrocity crimes”, the report said.

A year ago, government troops led a brutal crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in response to attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on 30 Myanmar police posts and a military base.

Some 700,000 Rohingya fled the crackdown and most are now living in refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh.

The U.N. report said the military action, which included the scorching of villages, was “grossly disproportionate to actual security threats”.

The United Nations defines genocide as acts meant to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group in whole or in part. Such a designation is rare under international law, but has been used in countries including Bosnia and Sudan and in the Islamic State campaign against the Yazidi communities in Iraq and Syria.

“The crimes in Rakhine State, and the manner in which they were perpetrated, are similar in nature, gravity and scope to those that have allowed genocidal intent to be established in other contexts,” said the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar.

In the final 20-page report, it said: “There is sufficient information to warrant the investigation and prosecution of senior officials in the Tatmadaw (army) chain of command, so that a competent court can determine their liability for genocide in relation to the situation in Rakhine state.”

The Myanmar government, which was sent an advance copy of the U.N. report in line with standard practice, has not commented.

Contacted by phone, Myanmar military spokesman Major General Tun Tun Nyi said he could not immediately comment.

The U.N. panel, led by former Indonesian attorney-general Marzuki Darusman, named the Myanmar army’s commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and five other generals who should face justice.

They included Brigadier-General Aung Aung, commander of the 33rd Light Infantry Division, which oversaw operations in the coastal village of Inn Din where 10 Rohingya captive boys and men were killed.
Reuters was unable to contact Min Aung Hlaing or Aung Aung on Monday.

The massacre was uncovered by two Reuters journalists – Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28 – who were arrested as a result last December and are being tried on charges of violating the country’s Official Secrets Act. The court had been due to deliver its verdict on Monday, but at a brief hearing earlier the proceedings were postponed until Sept. 3.

In April, seven soldiers were sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labor for participating in the massacre.

The report said Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, “has not used her de facto position as Head of Government, nor her moral authority, to stem or prevent the unfolding events, or seek alternative avenues to meet a responsibility to protect the civilian population”.

Suu Kyi’s spokesman, Zaw Htay, could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday.

The top U.N. human rights official Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein has called the crackdown against the Rohingya a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

Suu Kyi’s government has rejected most allegations of atrocities made against the security forces by refugees. It has built transit centers to receive Rohingya returnees to western Rakhine state, but U.N. aid agencies say that it is not yet safe for them to return.

Call for individual sanctions
The U.N. Security Council should ensure all perpetrators are held to account, preferably by referring Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or by creating an ad hoc tribunal, the investigators said.

The Security Council should “adopt targeted individual sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against those who appear most responsible for serious crimes under international law” and impose an arms embargo on Myanmar, they said.

The four other generals the U.N. panel said should be prosecuted were named as the army deputy commander-in-chief, Vice Senior-General Soe Win; the commander of the Bureau of Special Operations-3, Lieutenant-General Aung Kyaw Zaw; the commander of Western Regional Military Command, Major-General Maung Maung Soe; and the commander of 99th Light Infantry Division, Brigadier-General Than Oo.

Reuters was not able to contact those four generals on Monday.

The panel, set up last year, interviewed 875 victims and witnesses in Bangladesh and other countries, and analyzed documents, videos, photographs and satellite images.

Decades of state-sponsored stigmatisation against Rohingya had resulted in “institutionalised oppression from birth to death”, the report said.

The Rohingya, who regard themselves as native to Rakhine state, are widely considered as interlopers by Myanmar’s Buddhist majority and are denied citizenship.

“The Tatmadaw acts with complete impunity and has never been held accountable. Its standard response is to deny, dismiss and obstruct,” the U.N. report said.

The report also criticized Facebook’s response to allegations, including by members of the same U.N. panel in March,that the social media giant had been used to incite violence and hatred against the Rohingyas.

“Although improved in recent months, Facebook’s response has been slow and ineffective. The extent to which Facebook posts and messages have led to real-world discrimination and violence must be independently and thoroughly examined,” it said.

Facebook declined to comment in an emailed statement, saying it had not yet seen the report.

Facebook said in a statement issued 10 days ago following a Reuters investigative report into its failure to combat hate speech against the Rohingya and other Muslims that it had been “too slow” to address the problem in Myanmar and was acting to remedy the situation by hiring more Burmese speakers and investing in technology to identify problematic content.

International courts have a mixed record on prosecutions for genocide.

In 2008, a U.N. court sentenced former army colonel Theoneste Bagosora, accused of masterminding the slaughter of 800,000 people in Rwanda in 1994, to life in prison on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. His sentence was later cut to 35 years on appeal.

In 2016, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was convicted by U.N. judges of genocide for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. He is appealing against the conviction.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for Sudan President Omar al-Bashir in 2009 and 2010 over his alleged role in war crimes including genocide in Sudan’s breakaway Darfur province in 2003. He remains in office.

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Rohingya refugees celebrated Eid Al-Adha after fleeing Myanmar’s state persecution last year at camps in southeastern Cox’s Bazar on Wednesday, with many praying for a chance to safely return to their homes.

In his special Eid prayer at a makeshift mosque at the Jamtoli refugee camp, cleric Sajjad Hossain said: “Oh Almighty! Give us the opportunity to go back to our own land with dignity and safety.”

Around 1,000 Rohingya Muslims attended the special prayer who all wished to return back to their homeland home as Myanmar citizens.

Hossain, 60, said he used to be the head of the Nawapara Hemaetul Islam Madrasah in Buchidawng in Myanmar’s Rakhine State before he was forced to flee to Bangladesh with his surviving family members following a brutal military crackdown on the Rohingya on Aug. 25 last year.

The cleric, who is a father of seven children, told Anadolu Agency said he had been unable to say his Eid al-Adha prayers and carry out the animal sacrifice ritual for the last four consecutive years in Myanmar due to government restrictions.

“We demand our repatriation as Rohingya but in the name of repatriation they took us to Myanmar several times where we were tortured and again sent back to Bangladesh,” Hossain said, recalling the repatriation processes since 1978.

“We demand the same does not happen again,” he said.

Last year, the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar said they had agreed over the repatriation of Rohingya, promising to start the process within three months; however, no concrete steps were taken on the issue since then.

The lack of progress was criticized by international rights groups which also highlighted the safety issues confronting Rohingya wishing to return to Myanmar.

Another Rohingya survivor Abdul Aziz, 45, told Anadolu Agency that during Eid he had prayed for his 18-year-old daughter, Sufia, who was shot in the head and killed by the Myanmar army.

Myanmar must ensure safety

Despite the horrors he faced in Myanmar, he said he wished to return to his “motherland safely”.

“We don’t want to come back to Bangladesh once we are repatriated,” Aziz said.

He urged the Myanmar government to return their properties as well as guarantee their safe repatriation.

“We want to go back as Rohingya,” Aziz added.

Since Aug. 25, 2017, more than 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces, according to the Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).

In its recent report titled Forced Migration of Rohingya: The Untold Experience, OIDA increased the estimated number of murdered Rohingya up to 23,962 (± 881) from the Doctors without Borders figure of 9,400.

More than 34,000 Rohingya were also thrown into fire while over 114,000 others were beaten, the OIDA report said, adding that 17,718 (±780) Rohingya women and girls were raped by Myanmar army and police. Over 115,000 Rohingya houses were also burnt down and 113,000 others were vandalized, it added.

According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly children and women, have fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community.

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world’s most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

The UN documented mass gang rapes, killings ,including of infants and young children,brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by Myanmar state forces. In its report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.

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More than 300 Rohingya shelters in no man’s land were hit by a flood on Tuesday night, a local online broadcaster reported on Wednesday.

“At no man’s land nearly 7,000 Rohingya up to date are sheltering since last year, when they were forced to flee their homes in northern Rakhine state,” Rohingya Vision reported.

No man’s land is a small strip of land along the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Since Aug. 25, 2017, more than 750,000 refugees, mostly children and women, have fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community, according to Amnesty International.

At least 9,400 Rohingya were killed in Rakhine from Aug. 25 to Sept. 24 last year, according to Doctors Without Borders.

In a report published recently, the humanitarian group said the deaths of 71.7 percent or 6,700 Rohingya were caused by violence. They include 730 children below the age of 5.

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world’s most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

The UN documented mass gang rapes, killings, including of infants and young children, brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by security personnel.

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Bangladesh’s government and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have jointly launched an identity verification process for Rohingya refugees living in camps in Cox’s Bazar.

The process is expected to last six months and use biometric data, including iris scans and fingerprints, to confirm people’s identities, said the UNHCR.

“This exercise is a major step forward to establish the legal identity of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar,” said Kevin Allen, head of operations for the UNHCR in Cox’s Bazar.

“It makes clear that the Rohingya exist, that their rights must be respected, and that we are committed to laying the foundations for solutions.”

All refugees older than 12 years will get ID cards after their identities are verified, said Bangladeshi officials.
Some 150 UN and Bangladeshi government field workers are engaged in the verification process.

“We’ll use this database for better planning of aid management, and it’ll help aid agencies and Bangladesh’s government,” Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) Mohammad Abul Kalam told Arab News.

“It’ll help in avoiding service duplication, and ensure that every registered family and all verified people receive necessary aid.”

In November 2017, Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a deal to start repatriating Rohingya refugees by Jan. 22, but Myanmar officials made identity verification a precondition.

“After this UN database, Myanmar’s government won’t get the chance to delay repatriation in the name of verification,” said Rashid Khan, a refugee in Balukhali camp.

More than 1.1 million Rohingya refugees live in makeshift camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

“Verification is an important milestone in contributing to securing the identity of persons who have fled from Myanmar and are now being generously hosted in Bangladesh,” the UNHCR said.

Abul Kalam said: “The repatriation process will continue as agreed. Joint verification will go on. The UNHCR will manage the database and correct any mistakes.”

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Amnesty International has accused and identified 13 senior Myanmar military officials for orchestrating crimes against humanity.

The report titled We Will Destroy Everything: Military Responsibility for Crimes against Humanity in Rakhine State, Myanmar, calls for an international investigation into the army’s brutal crackdown on the country’s ethnic Rohingya minority in northern Rakhine state.

In the report published on Wednesday, Amnesty said that there is overwhelming, credible evidence that Myanmar’s military Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and nine of his subordinates in the armed forces, as well as three others in the Border Guard police (BGP), played a key role in ethnic cleansing.

“Senior military officials knew – or should have known – that crimes against humanity were being committed, yet failed to use their command authority to prevent, stop or punish those crimes, and even attempted to whitewash the overwhelming majority of them in the aftermath,” Amnesty said in a statement.

Those accused include Deputy Commander-in-Chief Vice Senior General Soe Win, Lieutenant General Aung Kyaw Zaw, Major General Maung Maung Soe and Brigadier General Khin Maung Soe.

Myanmar launched a military offensive in August last year after a Rohingya armed group carried out attacks on border security forces.

The ensuing violent crackdown has forced nearly 700,000 Rohingya to flee Rakhine state for neighbouring Bangladesh.

Since August 25, 2017, Myanmar’s security forces committed nine distinct types of crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, deportation, rape, persecution, enforced disappearance and forced starvation, Amnesty’s latest report said, as it put the responsibility on the army’s top ranks.

The rights group said there was sufficient evidence to prompt an investigation into whether some or all military officials may have been “directly involved in planning, ordering or committing murder, rape, torture and the burning of villages”.

‘Orchestrated campaign’
Commenting on the findings, Matthew Wells, Amnesty’s senior crisis adviser and one of the authors of the report, said: “The evidence shows that the ethnic cleansing campaign implicates each level of the Myanmar military from soldiers on the ground, who carried out the atrocities, to field commanders who ordered or directly oversaw the crimes, to ultimately the senior-most levels of the military, including Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.”

Besides the 13 officials identified, Wells told Al Jazeera “there are undoubtedly many others”.

Earlier this month, Amnesty shared their research in detailed letters with the Myanmar authorities, including the state counsellor, the military, and the police.

“The state counsellor’s office confirmed receipt of our letter on June 13, but at the time of publication [of the report], Amnesty International had not received any response from the civilian or military authorities,” Wells said.

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials, MSF, has estimated that at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month of the August crackdown alone.

The United Nations has denounced the army’s bloody crackdown, with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights calling it a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

Myanmar’s military used the deadly attacks by Rohingya fighters as a pretext to launch the brutal crackdown on Rohingya, one of the most persecuted communities in the world.

They have been denied citizenship and basic human rights by Myanmar authories since 1982.

Call for accountability
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has given Myanmar until July 27 to respond to a prosecution request that it consider a case on the alleged deportation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to Bangladesh.

This came after the Guardian newspaper published details of horrific acts of violence, the evidence of which has been sent to the ICC and forms part of the investigation.

Amnesty International as well as other rights groups and activists are calling for those in top military positions to be held accountable and prosecuted by the ICC.

“Those with blood on their hands – right up the chain of command to Senior General Min Aung Hlaing – must be held to account for their role in overseeing or carrying out crimes against humanity and other serious human rights violations under international law,” said Amnesty’s Matthew Wells in a statement.

Win from the Justice for the Rohingya Minority is hopeful that the ICC and universal jurisdiction can grant due justice to the Rohingya victims and prevent further atrocities.

“When the cases are strongly established, the people who are trying to travel around the world, they will be stopped and arrested and they should face consequences for the crimes they have committed,” he said.

Tun Khin, of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation, also believes the ICC is Rohingya’s “main hope”.

“The international community must step in and members of the UN Security Council must refer the situation in Myanmar to the ICC immediately,” Khun said.

Source – Al Jazeera

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Myanmar and the UN have agreed to take steps to create conditions for the safe return of about 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled military-led violence into Bangladesh.

The agreement announced by the government and two UN agencies on Thursday calls for a framework of cooperation that will lead to the “voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable” repatriation of Rohingya refugees “to their places of origin or of their choosing”.

The UN refugee agency said that the conditions for voluntary return are not conducive yet.

The memorandum of understanding, which is expected to be signed next week, “is the first and necessary step to support the government’s efforts to change that situation and is also intended to support recovery and resilience-based development for the benefit of all communities living in Rakhine state,” UNHCR said in a statement.

Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in November to begin repatriating the Rohingya, but the refugees expressed concern that they would be forced to return to unsafe conditions in Myanmar if the process is not monitored by international aid groups.

‘Safety and dignity’
The government said in a statement that it initialed the agreement with the UN Development Program and the UN refugee agency for their assistance so that verified displaced people “can return voluntarily in safety and dignity”.

The UN said the agreement also provides for the two agencies to be given access to western Rakhine state, where most of the violence against the Rohingya has occurred since August.

It said that it will allow the refugee agency to assess the situation, carry out protection activities, and provide information to refugees about conditions in their home areas so that they can better decide whether they want to return.

Myanmar’s security forces have been accused of rape, killing, torture and the burning of Rohingya homes.

The UN and the United States have described the army crackdown as “ethnic cleansing”.

The government has denied the accusations.

The government of predominantly-Buddhist Myanmar says Rohingya are illegal migrants from Bangladesh, even though most have lived in the country for generations.

Myanmar has said so far it will only allow refugees with identity documents, which most Rohingya lack, to return.

Source – Al Jazeera

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“Myanmar is my birthplace and I want to go back to Rakhine,” said Abul Hashem, 38, a Rohingya refugee living in Kutupalang Camp in Cox’s Bazar district with his family. But before repatriation, he demands the right to citizenship of Myanmar.

“We want assurance for the basic five human rights — food, clothes, shelter, education and treatment. Otherwise, what will I do going back to Myanmar?” said Hashim to Arab News.

Bangladesh and Myanmar, along with international agencies, are engaged in negotiations over the repatriation of Rohingya refugees.

Three months after receiving the first list of 8,000 Rohingyas, Myanmar has approved only 1,000 for repatriation.

The names have been finalized after going through seven phases of scrutiny by Myanmar.

“Our preparation for repatriation on ground level is going on and it is a continuous process,” said Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Abul Kalam.

He told Arab News that Bangladesh has already completed the physical structure of a “transit camp,” while the other one will be completed in the next three months. Rohingya refugees will be kept in these transit camps for hours or days during the final stage of repatriation.

In reality, the process of repatriation is moving very slowly. “It is because Myanmar is not responding promptly, particularly on this issue,” said a high official of Bangladesh Foreign Ministry who requested anonymity as he is not authorized to speak about the issue.

Bangladesh authorities have so far been unclear about the fate of the 7,000 from the repatriation list who were not selected.

The two countries are set to hold a joint working group meeting on May 17 in Dhaka, where Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque and Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Myint Thu will represent their respective sides.

“Our prime and foremost agenda will be the speedy repatriation of the Rohingya refugees,” said a Bangladesh Foreign Ministry source.

This slow process of repatriation has created much frustration among the diplomats in Dhaka.

“After three months they are accepting only 1,000 Rohingyas. It doesn’t reflect the seriousness of commitment,” said Humayun Kabir, former Bangladeshi ambassador to the US.

He added that the US tried to “push a strong decision” against Myanmar for grave human rights violations during the last UN Security Council session “but unfortunately it could not happen due to a veto by China as they suggested that the issue was resolved bilaterally,” said Humayun.

Bangladesh should increase its diplomatic engagement with China on the issue of Rohingya refugees, he suggested.

Although Bangladesh and the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, earlier signed a memorandum of understanding over repatriation process, there is no sign of significant development from the UNHCR in Bangladesh yet.

Caroline Gluck, the UNHCR spokesperson in Cox’s Bazar, told Arab News that “a discussion is going on” with Myanmar to finalize the modalities of its engagement in the voluntary repatriation of Rohingyas as the UNHCR is trying to ensure safe repatriation at both ends of Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Bangladesh currently hosts more than 1.3 million Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar District.

Source – Arab news

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The top United Nations human rights official called on Friday for the UN General Assembly to refer alleged atrocities committed against the Muslim Rohingya minority in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for prosecution.

Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, also urged Myanmar’s government to allow monitors into northern Rakhine state to investigate what he called suspected “acts of genocide” against the Muslim minority.
“We are saying there are strong suspicions that, yes, acts of genocide may have taken place. But only a court can confirm this,” Zeid told a news conference in Geneva.

Source – Al Arabiya

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Authorities in Myanmar have robbed, abducted and deliberately starved Rohingya men, women and children, in an effort to make life “so intolerable” for members of the minority group that they will leave the country, Amnesty International says.

In a briefing released on Wednesday, the human rights group alleged that “ethnic cleansing continues” against the Rohingya, nearly 690,000 of whom have fled Myanmar since the state launched a violent crackdown in northern Rakhine state last August.

Security forces have robbed Rohingya families at checkpoints as they attempted to flee to Bangladesh and abducted women and girls from their villages, prompting others to leave in fear, Amnesty reported.

However, the Rohingya said the main reason they continue to flee the country is a shortage of food.

“We weren’t able to get food, that’s why we fled,” Dildar Begum, 30, from a village near the town of Buthidaung in Rakhine state, told Amnesty International.

The food shortage has been caused in large part by the actions of Myanmar’s security forces, who are blocking Rohingya from accessing their rice fields, markets and humanitarian aid, Amnesty said.

“Deliberate actions by the Myanmar authorities … are in effect starving out many Rohingya who have tried to remain in their villages,” the group said.

Amnesty based its findings on interviews conducted in Bangladesh with 11 Rohingya men and eight women who fled their homes in December and January.

“Instead of terrorising the population through killings, rapes, and the widespread burning of Rohingya villages, security forces are today using mainly quieter and more subtle measures to squeeze people out, making life so intolerable that they have little option other than to leave,” the group reported.

Mass graves
Earlier this month, The Associated Press uncovered evidence suggesting that hundreds of Rohingya had been massacred in late August by Myanmar authorities and buried in mass graves.

Yanghee Lee, the United Nations special envoy on human rights in Myanmar, told reporters the killings and disposal of the bodies had all “the hallmarks of a genocide”.

The Myanmar army admitted in January that it killed 10 Rohingya, who were found in a mass grave late last year.

The admission came after months of denials from Myanmar officials to any wrongdoing or mistreatment of the minority group.

The army launched a bloody crackdown in Rakhine state last August in response to attacks on border posts by the armed group, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.

About 688,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar since that time, Amnesty estimates, amid reports of widespread killings, sexual violence, deportations and the burning of villages.

Several hundred Rohingya continue to flee the country every week, Amnesty said in its report, adding that a plan to return Rohingya families to Myanmar “is clearly premature”.

Last month, Bangladesh announced it would delay the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of displaced Rohingya amid fears over their safety once they return.

Source – Al Jazeera

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