By Philip
J. Heijmans | Bloomberg
Jan. 25,
2020
Analysis
Since
2017, some 740,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar for neighboring
Bangladesh. The mass exodus was provoked, in the words of United Nations
investigators, by security forces practicing “ethnic cleansing” and “crimes
against humanity” with “genocidal intent.” Now two international tribunals are
investigating Myanmar for atrocities committed against the Rohingya, who have
lived uneasily among Myanmar’s Buddhist majority since the country’s
independence from British rule seven decades ago.
1. Who is
investigating?
The
International Court of Justice, the UN’s highest tribunal, is considering
accusations that Myanmar conducted a campaign of genocide using so-called
“clearance operations” that began in earnest in 2017, resulting in the deaths
and rapes of thousands of Rohingya living in western Rakhine state. The case
was brought by the tiny country of Gambia on behalf of the 57-nation
Organization of Islamic Cooperation. While it’s adjudicated, the court said in
a Jan. 23 order, Myanmar must enact emergency measures to protect the Rohingya.
Separately, the International Criminal Court, established by a global treaty in
2002, has opened its own investigation into atrocities committed in Rakhine
state.
2. What
powers do the courts have?
The International
Court of Justice has no powers of enforcement. However, a UN member nation can
seek action from the Security Council based on the court’s rulings. The
International Criminal Court can try individuals for genocide, war crimes and
crimes against humanity, and it can imprison those who are convicted. However,
it relies on member states to make arrests, and Myanmar is not a member.
3. What
does Myanmar say?
A
government-appointed inquiry concluded on Jan. 20 that war crimes as well as
serious violations of human rights and domestic law had taken place during
security operations in August and September of 2017. However it said there was
no evidence of genocidal intent. Similarly, Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San
Suu Kyi acknowledged in an oped in the Financial Times that war crimes “may
have been committed,” but she told the International Court of Justice such
violations “cannot be considered as genocide.” Suu Kyi’s failure to defend the
Rohingya has tarnished the reputation of a Nobel laureate once seen as a human
rights campaigner and an icon of democracy.
4. What
sparked the violence in 2017?
On Aug.
25 that year, a militant group called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army
attacked some 20 police and army posts in Rakhine state, killing a dozen
security officials. The military responded with what it calls “clearance
operations.” The organization Doctors Without Borders estimated that at least
6,700 Rohingya were killed in the early days. Survivors told of mobs led by
soldiers and Buddhist monks setting entire villages on fire, shooting to kill
and maim, and conducting mass rapes, provoking the exodus to Bangladesh. The
military’s response was similar to its reaction after an ARSA operation in
October 2016. An estimated 87,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar then.
5. Who
are the Rohingya?
Many,
though not all, of the Muslims living in the northern part of Rakhine identify
as Rohingya. (The word is derived from the name of the state.) Their numbers
were estimated at over 1 million before the exodus in 2017, and their origins
are hotly debated. The Rohingya stress the fact that a Muslim community existed
in the state, the site of independent kingdoms since antiquity, before Myanmar
took control of Rakhine in 1784. Nationalists describe the Rohingya as foreign
interlopers and emphasize that during British colonial rule, starting in the
1820s, workers from Bengal, in what is now Bangladesh, arrived in Rakhine and
the Muslim community grew significantly. Myanmar’s government refuses to use
the word Rohingya, as that might imply the Muslims of Rakhine are a distinct
ethnic group, deserving of recognition. A minority of Rohingya are Hindus.
6. How
were they treated over the years?
Myanmar’s
authorities have progressively denied the Rohingya rights and, along with vigilantes
sometimes led by Buddhist monks, persecuted them, driving them from their homes
and into neighboring countries, mostly Bangladesh. In 1982, the government
stripped the Rohingya of citizenship. In the name of bringing order to Rakhine,
the army launched an operation in 1991 featuring forced labor, rape and
religious suppression. The Rohingya face numerous legal restrictions. Couples
need government permission to marry and to travel beyond their home town or
move to a new one. Those in two of Rakhine’s cities are limited to having two
children.
7. How
threatening are Rohingya militants?
While
Myanmar’s Rohingya don’t have a history of radicalization, the attacks starting
in 2016 marked the emergence of a new insurgency. The Arakan Rohingya Salvation
Army is a relatively small group. Its support is difficult to gauge, but the
vast majority of Rohingya are believed to be opposed to violence.
8. How
have other countries responded?
Myanmar’s
treatment of the Rohingya has undercut the goodwill the country earned after
transitioning in 2012 to democracy from rule by a military junta, which
detained Suu Kyi for most of the period between 1989 and 2010. Sanctions
against Myanmar were dropped after she was freed for the last time, but U.S.
and European countries have imposed new ones on the country’s military leaders
in response to the Rohingya crisis. After rising fairly steadily since 2012,
foreign direct investment dropped precipitously from $4 billion in 2017 to $1.3
billion in 2018, according to the World Bank.
To
contact the reporter on this story: Philip J. Heijmans in Singapore at
pheijmans1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ruth Pollard at rpollard2@bloomberg.net, Lisa Beyer, Muneeza Naqvi
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