rohingya genocide essay

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“there we are nothing, here we are nothing”—the enduring effects of the rohingya genocide.

1. Introduction

2. genocide as a social process.

In genocides, survivors experience a social death, to a degree and for a time. Some later become revitalized in new ways; others do not. Descendants of genocide survivors, like descendants of slaves who were kidnapped, may be “natally alienated”, no longer able to pass along and build upon the traditions, cultural developments (including languages), and projects of earlier generations. ( Card 2010 ; Lederman 2017 )

The domestic courts’ interpretation of “intent to destroy a group” as not necessitating a physical destruction of the group, which has also been adopted by a number of scholars…[and] is therefore covered by the wording, read in its context, of the crime of genocide in the [German] Criminal Code and does not appear unreasonable. 9

domestic courts did not construe the scope of that offence narrowly. They considered that the “intent to destroy” a group within the meaning of Article 220a of the Criminal Code, as interpreted also in the light of Article II of the Genocide Convention, did not necessitate an intent to destroy that group in a physical or biological sense. It was sufficient that the perpetrator aimed at destroying the group in question as a social unit. 10

3. Genocide of the Rohingya in Myanmar

And the people are not in peace. (…) they’re thinking about food all the time. I don’t know whether I will be killed today, whether I will be arrested or I can eat food twice… So, this happens since 1942, the genocide started since 1942. So now it’s almost after 60 years, the whole nation became so uneducated not even 1% of the entire nation is educated. And they just think of the food, they just think of the protection. So, the women also became like that. Even if we ask any woman, any Rohingya refugees, if you ask why you came to Malaysia? You know what they will say? “Because we’re not getting food.” They will say that because they don’t know, they’re so innocent that they don’t know why they’re persecuted. This is the main problem. (Interview with 23-year-old Rohingya woman in Malaysia, 2017)

4. Rohingya in Malaysia

It’s just that when you are in another country… people of the society, the police, everyone will make you feel that you’re a refugee and you don’t have any dignity. Something like that. I felt that personally. (Interview with Rohingya woman in Malaysia, 2016)

5. Loss of Rohingya Identity in Malaysia

Thank God, I felt the urge of learning Malay language. Otherwise, friends and neighbours would tease me and think bad of me. My life was difficult when I was small. But I was determined. My parents advised me that we are staying in another people’s country, which means we need to be better … (Interview with Rohingya community leader in Malaysia, 2016)

because Burmese authorities supplied our cows, our land to Rakhine people and there is no justice for us and we are now recognized us foreigners, as Bengali and not recognized as citizens of Burma. After passing standard ten there is no work for us. (Interview with Rohingya elder in Malaysia, 2012)

You know I don’t want my people to be Malaysian. I don’t want my people to practice Malaysian culture. I want my people to practice our own culture our own way, traditional things. I don’t want us to totally become Malaysians or western. I want us to be Rohingyas. I want people to know and call us, recognize us as Rohingya. That’s the thing in me. So people always ask me—Sharifah, people always say that they’re in Malaysia, they have to behave like Malaysian they have to dress up like Malaysian. (Interview with Rohingya community organiser in Malaysia, 2017)

6. Conclusions

Author contributions, conflicts of interest.

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Share and Cite

O’Brien, M.; Hoffstaedter, G. “There We Are Nothing, Here We Are Nothing!”—The Enduring Effects of the Rohingya Genocide. Soc. Sci. 2020 , 9 , 209. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci9110209

O’Brien M, Hoffstaedter G. “There We Are Nothing, Here We Are Nothing!”—The Enduring Effects of the Rohingya Genocide. Social Sciences . 2020; 9(11):209. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci9110209

O’Brien, Melanie, and Gerhard Hoffstaedter. 2020. "“There We Are Nothing, Here We Are Nothing!”—The Enduring Effects of the Rohingya Genocide" Social Sciences 9, no. 11: 209. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci9110209

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Stages of the Rohingya Genocide: A Theoretical and Empirical Study

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Mohammad Pizuar Hossain, Stages of the Rohingya Genocide: A Theoretical and Empirical Study, Holocaust and Genocide Studies , Volume 35, Issue 2, Fall 2021, Pages 211–234, https://doi.org/10.1093/hgs/dcab033

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This article delineates processes of the ongoing Rohingya genocide by analyzing victim narratives through the lens of Gregory H. Stanton’s model of ten stages of genocide. Addressing the issues from theoretical and empirical perspectives offers a structured—if refracted—view of the plans, policies, and actions of the perpetrators. While bringing in historical origins and socio-political factors, the article rests primarily on victims’ accounts, along with evidence gathered by human rights organizations and the international press. The leaders of Myanmar seem intent on limiting international understandings of their program to simple ethnic cleansing—not prosecutable under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. But while internal documents would be required to reveal the regime’s intentions and so validate Stanton’s model, testimonies and witness accounts afford ample grounds to assess the evolution of events as genocide. The following privileges the experiences and narratives of grassroots Rohingya victims.

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Home > LAWREVS > WILJ > Vol. 23 > No. 3 (2014)

Washington International Law Journal

The slow-burning genocide of myanmar's rohingya.

Maung Zarni Alice Cowley

Since 1978, the Rohingya, a Muslim minority of Western Burma, have been subject to a state-sponsored process of destruction. The Rohingya have deep historical roots in the borderlands of Rakhine State, Myanmar, and were recognized officially both as citizens and as an ethnic group by three successive governments of post-independence Burma. In 1978, General Ne Win’s socialist military dictatorship launched the first large-scale campaign against the Rohingya in Rakhine State with the intent first of expelling them en masse from Western Burma and subsequently legalizing the systematic erasure of Rohingya group identity and legitimizing their physical destruction. This on-going process has continued to the present day under the civilian-military rule of President Thein Sein’s government. Since 2012, the Rohingya have been subject to renewed waves of hate campaigns and accompanying violence, killings and ostracization that aim both to destroy the Rohingya and to permanently remove them from their ancestral homes in Rakhine State. Findings from the authors’ three-year research on the plight of the Rohingya lead us to conclude that Rohingya have been subject to a process of slow-burning genocide over the past thirty-five years. The destruction of the Rohingya is carried out both by civilian populations backed by the state and perpetrated directly by state actors and state institutions. Both the State in Burma and the local community have committed four out of five acts of genocide as spelled out by the 1948 Convention on the Punishment and Prevention of the Crime of Genocide. Despite growing evidence of genocide, the international community has so far avoided calling this large scale human suffering genocide because no powerful member states of the UN Security Council have any appetite to forego their commercial and strategic interests in Burma to address the slow-burning Rohingya genocide.

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Maung Zarni & Alice Cowley, The Slow-Burning Genocide of Myanmar's Rohingya , 23 P ac. R im L & P ol'y J. 683 (2014). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wilj/vol23/iss3/8

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Modern-Day Genocide, A Study of the Rohingya Minority in Burma

The Rohingya, a religious and ethnic minority in Burma, went from being citizens to outsiders and became the targets of a sustained campaign of genocide. By exploring the online exhibition  Burma’s Path to Genocide , students learn how government policies and the proliferation of hate speech led to genocide of the Rohingya. Rohingya are still at risk of genocide today. 

Grade level:  Adaptable for secondary and college students Subject:  Multidisciplinary Time required:  Chapter I functions as the introduction. Other chapters may be completed independently depending on desired educational outcomes.

Chapter I: Belonging (60 minutes)

Chapter II: Targeted (60 minutes)

Chapter III: Weakened (60 minutes)

Chapter IV: Destroyed (60 minutes)

Chapter V: Surviving (60 minutes)

Conclusion (20 minutes)

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Lesson Plan (PDF)

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Atrocities against Burma's Rohingya Population

The Burmese military has targeted the Rohingya people because of their ethnic and religious identity. The military’s actions constitute genocide and crimes against humanity. For many Rohingya victims and survivors, the future remains uncertain, as threats against their community continue.

Since Burma’s independence in 1948, the Rohingya have faced periodic cycles of violence and hate speech. They have also experienced official and unofficial persecution, including limitations on freedom of movement and the right to marry.

In August 2017, the Burmese military launched genocidal attacks against the Rohingya. These attacks included mass killings, rape, and the burning of villages. Since then, over 700,000 Rohingya have fled their homes.

A February 2021 military coup installed the perpetrators of the Rohingya genocide at the helm of the country. The estimated 600,000 Rohingya still in Burma remain at risk of genocide.

Introduction

Rohingya walk into a section of the Balukhali refugee camp in Bangladesh, September 2017. 

• Greg Constantine, US Holocaust Memorial Museum

The Rohingya are a Muslim minority group in Burma (also known as Myanmar). Considered one of the world’s most persecuted peoples, Burma’s Rohingya population has faced a long history of severe discrimination and persecution, violence, denial of citizenship, and numerous restrictions at the hands of Burmese authorities. The Rohingya in Burma have been forcibly isolated, cut off from public goods and services, and subjects of hate speech from government actors and others. 1 Footnote 1 1

Most recently, the Rohingya population has suffered mass atrocities at the hands of the Burmese military. These atrocities include crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. Since August 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingya have fled these crimes in Burma to neighboring Bangladesh. There, they live in overcrowded camps and face serious humanitarian needs. Many of those fleeing and crossing the border into Bangladesh have shared reports of mass killings, rape, and the burning of villages.

Prior to 2021, the Burmese government had established commissions to investigate the violence and to promote reconciliation between the Rohingya and those targeting them. However, these investigations were ineffective and lacked impartiality.

In February 2021, the Burmese military launched a coup that installed the perpetrators of the Rohingya genocide at the helm of the country. Since then, the future of the Rohingya has become even more uncertain. 

Both before and after the coup, Burma’s leaders have done little to alleviate the plight of the Rohingya. I nstead they have enforced laws and policies aimed at making life unlivable for them. Conditions in Burma remain too dangerous for those Rohingya who fled their homes to return safely. The Rohingya who would return to Burma, as well as those who still remain in the country, remain at risk of genocide.

The Rohingya are a Muslim minority in Rakhine (also called Arakan) State, which borders Bangladesh and has a Buddhist majority that is ethnically Rakhine. Since Burma’s independence in 1948, the Rohingya have been subjected to periodic campaigns of violence. They continue to face various forms of official and unofficial persecution. 2 Footnote 2 2 This persecution includes limits on the right to marry and bear children; limits on movement; forced labor; restrictions on access to health care and education; and forcible segregation.

Although Rohingya communities have resided in Rakhine State for at least several centuries, Burma’s leaders have not recognized the Rohingya as an official ethnic group. Instead, many in the Burmese government incorrectly classify the Rohingya as “Bengalis” and insist that they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The implementation of Burma’s 1982 citizenship law effectively denies the Rohingya the right to Burmese citizenship. 3 Footnote 3 3  

Though the Rohingya are particularly at risk, they are not the only ethnic or religious group that experiences discrimination in Burma. Other groups, including the Kachin, Shan, and Rakhine ethnicitie s  a mong others, have been targeted by Burma’s military. Rakhine State is one of Burma’s poorest state s. T he Rakhine ethnic group has also long suffered from economic discrimination and cultural repression by the Burman ethnic majority and central government.

Anti-Rohingya Violence and Humanitarian Crisis

Attacks in 2012.

In June and October 2012, tensions between the Rohingya and Rakhine communities erupted into violence against Rohingya civilians. This violence left hundreds dead and more than 140,000 displaced. The vast majority of these people were Rohingya. According to both Rakhine and Rohingya witnesses, 4 Footnote 4 4 Buddhist monks and local Rakhine politicians incited and led many of the attacks. State security forces failed or refused to stop the violence and sometimes even participated in it. The violence forced the Rohingya to abandon many of their communities. Their homes, businesses, and property were then taken or destroyed by the government.

The displaced Rohingya still live in official and unofficial internally displaced persons (IDP) camps under deplorable conditions. Humanitarian aid workers have frequently been prevented from accessing these camps. At a press conference in June 2014, Kyung-Wha Kang, the UN’s Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, stated:

In Rakhine, I witnessed a level of human suffering in IDP camps that I have personally never seen before, with men, women, and children living in appalling conditions with severe restrictions on their freedom of movement, both in camps and isolated villages. 5 Footnote 5 5

Citing the need to maintain security, Burmese officials essentially imprisoned much of the Rohingya population. They used barbed wire and barricades to cordon off not only those in the camps but also thousands more Rohingya in places where Rohingya communities were living. Often denied permission to exit, inhabitants of these camps 6 Footnote 6 6 face significant difficulties in accessing markets, schools, or health care facilities. They are unable to pursue their livelihoods.

Attacks in 2016 and 2017

In October 2016, deadly attacks on police stations in northern Rakhine State—a predominantly Rohingya area—triggered a violent response by the Burmese military. The military pursued those who may have been responsible for the attacks in so-called “clearance operations.” In actuality, these attacks targeted the general Rohingya population. The military attacked men, women, and children, approximately 65,000 of whom were forced to flee into neighboring Bangladesh. In August 2017, following another attack on police posts, the Burmese military launched genocidal attacks on the Rohingya. These attacks included mass killing, rape, torture, arson, arbitrary arrest and detention, and forced displacement of more than 700,000 people. These atrocities were documented in a 2017 report issued by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and Fortify Rights entitled “They Tried to Kill Us All” (PDF) . Those Rohingya still in Burma remain vulnerable to further attack by the military. They face ongoing persecution, restrictions on basic freedoms, and hate speech. The persecution of the Rohingya has forced many to seek refuge in neighboring countries, often by means of risky journeys 7 Footnote 7 7 to Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Many seeking asylum have been vulnerable to violence, human trafficking, and other abuses. 8 Footnote 8 8  

International Response

In March 2017, the United Nations Human Rights Council established 9 Footnote 9 9 a fact-finding mission to investigate human rights violations committed by Burma’s military against the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities in the country. The fact-finding mission released its final report 10 Footnote 10 10 in September 2018. The mission determined that crimes against humanity had been committed in Rakhine, Shan, and Kachin States. It found that there is “sufficient information to warrant the investigation and prosecution” of senior military officials in order to determine their culpability for genocide. In September 2018, the US State Department issued the findings of a survey. 11 Footnote 11 11 The survey focused on the crimes committed in Rakhine State. It showed that the vast majority of Rohingya refugees who fled from Burma to Bangladesh had witnessed extreme forms of violence, and that the Burmese military was identified as the perpetrator in most cases. At the time, US officials termed the violence “ethnic cleansing.” On March 21, 2022, Secretary of State Antony Blinken came to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to announce the US government’s determination that the military’s crimes amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity ( Remarks; external link ).

As a party to the Genocide Convention and under customary international law, Burma has an obligation to prevent genocide. The Gambia, a west African country, brought a case to the International Court of Justice concerning the Burmese government’s failure to uphold its obligations under the Genocide Convention. In January 2020, the Court ordered the Burmese government to take all measures to prevent the commission of genocide. To date, the Burmese authorities have not taken the necessary steps to reduce the risk of genocide to the Rohingya in Burma.

Continued Risk of Genocide

August 25, 2021 marked the fourth anniversary of the Burmese military’s genocidal attacks on the Rohingya population. The anniversary was solemnly commemorated by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide with a virtual discussion about the continued challenges facing the Rohingya community. The event was preceded by a USHMM press statement: Rohingya Remain at Risk of Genocide on Fourth Anniversary of Military’s Attacks .

https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/04/22/burma-end-ethnic-cleansing-rohingya-muslims

https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/burma/

https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/01/13/burma-amend-biased-citizenship-law

https://www.hrw.org/report/2013/04/22/all-you-can-do-pray/crimes-against-humanity-and-ethnic-cleansing-rohingya-muslims

http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/ASG%20Kyung-wha%20Kang%20press%20remarks%20on%20Myanmar%20as%20delivered%2017%20June.pdf

http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/A_HRC_28_72_en.pdf

https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/05/27/southeast-asia-accounts-rohingya-boat-people

https://www.fortifyrights.org/downloads/Fortify%20Rights-SUHAKAM%20-%20Sold%20Like%20Fish.pdf

https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/hrc/myanmarffm/pages/index.aspx

https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/FFM-Myanmar/A_HRC_39_64.pdf

https://www.state.gov/reports-bureau-of-democracy-human-rights-and-labor/documentation-of-atrocities-in-northern-rakhine-state/

Critical Thinking Questions

• How might civilians and officials within a nation identify and respond to warning signs? What obstacles might be faced?
• How might other countries and international organizations respond to warning signs within a nation? What obstacles may exist?
• How can knowledge of the events in Germany and Europe before the Nazis came to power help citizens today respond to threats of genocide and mass atrocity?

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Far from the Headlines: Myanmar – The Rohingya crisis

Over one million Rohingya, a Muslim minority from Myanmar, have fled conflict and persecution in multiple waves of displacement. The most significant exodus occurred in August 2017 when  742,000 ethnic Rohingya fled military persecution  in Myanmar for neighbouring Bangladesh. Those fleeing violence and attacks joined around  300,000 individuals  who had previously sought refuge in Bangladesh. Currently, the region is home to 1.1 million Rohingya refugees who  rely entirely on humanitarian assistance  for protection, food, water, shelter and health. Thousands more refugees have fled to neighbouring countries, and over  2.8 million people are internally displaced  within Myanmar, 90% since the military takeover.

Who are the Rohingya?

The Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority, have lived for centuries in Myanmar, mostly in Rakhine state, the poorest region of predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Despite their historical presence, the Rohingya lack official recognition as an ethnic community. Many Rohingya have no legal identity or citizenship, with statelessness a significant issue. Since 1982, they have been denied citizenship, leading to them becoming the  world’s largest stateless population . This lack of official recognition leaves Rohingya families without basic rights and protection, making them susceptible to exploitation, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), and various forms of abuse. A majority of stateless Rohingya refugees (98%) currently reside in Bangladesh and Malaysia.

What is the crisis About?

The  Rohingya have endured decades of persecution  and discrimination in Myanmar, prompting over 1 million Rohingya refugees to flee violence in successive waves of displacement since the 1990s. The most significant exodus began in August 2017 after widespread violence erupted in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, driving more than 742,000 individuals, mainly women and children, to seek refuge in Bangladesh. During this period, there were widespread reports of human rights violations: entire villages burned to the ground, numerous families suffered fatalities or separations, and many embarked on dangerous sea voyages across the Bay of Bengal in search of safety in Bangladesh. Currently, about one million Rohingya refugees live in Cox’s Bazar, in Bangladesh, one of the world’s most densely populated camp areas.

Cox’s Bazar – the largest refugee settlement in the world

The majority of Rohingya refugees reside across  33 camps in Cox’s Bazar , forming the largest refugee settlement globally. The overcrowded conditions in the camps are incredibly challenging for women and children who face high risks of violence, exploitation, and human trafficking. Ensuring a secure habitat for refugees remains a persistent challenge, especially regarding safeguarding against natural disasters such as floods and landslides during the monsoon season from June to October. Moreover, during this period, inadequate water and sanitation facilities heighten the risk of waterborne diseases like hepatitis, acute diarrhoea, and dengue among the refugee population.

Humanitarian challenges in Myanmar

Over three years after the military takeover in February 2021, Myanmar faces a dire humanitarian crisis, affecting one-third of its population – approximately  18.6 million people   – who urgently require humanitarian assistance. This staggering figure represents nearly nineteen times the pre-military takeover estimates, underscoring the severity of the situation. The military coup and subsequent violent repression have exacerbated the suffering of minority communities, including the Rohingya Muslims, plunging the nation into deep social, political, and economic turmoil.

Since October 2023, clashes between the military and armed opposition factions have escalated and spread throughout Myanmar, intensifying the human rights emergency. The  military’s actions , including the targeting of civilians and forced recruitment campaigns, have led to widespread displacement, with over 2.8 million people now displaced nationwide. In Rakhine State, the escalation of violence between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, a separatist group, has reached an unprecedented intensity, aggravating existing vulnerabilities.

Economic pressures are mounting, exacerbating food insecurity for an estimated  12.9 million individuals  in 2024. The situation is deteriorating even further as disruptions to agriculture persist and poverty continues to escalate. The healthcare system is in a crisis, leaving millions without secure shelter or access to clean drinking water. Women, girls, persons with disabilities and stateless Rohingya people are among those impacted the most.

Moreover, the breakdown in the rule of law in Myanmar has allowed illicit economies to thrive. The country has become a hub for methamphetamine and opium production, as well as the rapid growth of global cyberscam operations, especially in border regions.

According to the  UN High Commissioner for Human Rights , overall, for 2023, the number of civilians reportedly killed by the military rose to over 1,600, an increase of some 300 from the previous year. As of 26 January 2024, credible sources had documented the arrest of nearly 26,000 people on political grounds. More than  4,600  individuals have been killed by the military since February 2021, including hundreds of women and children.

A large number of Rohingya continue to flee to safer countries, often taking immense risks, including dangerous  sea crossings . In 2023, out of the 6,500 individuals travelling by land and sea, nearly all the 569 persons reported as dead or missing resulted from maritime crossings.

In May 2023,  Cyclone Mocha hit Bangladesh and Myanmar  — one of the strongest cyclones ever to hit the region. Cyclone Mocha impacted more than 10 million people in both countries, including the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

In 2024, armed conflicts have increased across Myanmar, including in Rakhine State, as opposition to military rule grows. This has left Rohingya particularly vulnerable, with horrific reports of killings, torture, rape and the burning of villages. Moreover, since the end of June 2024, torrential monsoon rains and overflow of various rivers have submerged several states and regions, exacerbating already severe humanitarian needs and affecting an estimated 393,000 people.

In July 2024, Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar published a report stating that the military coup was a devastating setback for gender equality in Myanmar and has left women, girls, and LGBT people acutely vulnerable to discrimination, violence, and exploitation. On 10 July 2024, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution without a vote , in which the Council strongly condemned all violations and abuses of human rights in Myanmar, particularly following the military coup in February 2021.

In August 2024, the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar released its Annual Report , saying that there is substantial evidence that brutal war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Myanmar military have escalated at an alarming rate across the country.

How is the crisis affecting children?

Children bear the brunt of the crisis, with  6 million  experiencing challenges related to displacement, interrupted healthcare and education, food insecurity, malnutrition, and protection risks like forced recruitment and mental distress.  Rohingya children  in Rakhine State face confinement due to violence, forced displacement, and limitations on freedom of movement.

Until conditions in Myanmar permit  Rohingya families  to return home with essential rights – safety from violence, citizenship, free movement, health, and education – they remain as refugees or internally displaced persons, residing in overcrowded and sometimes hazardous conditions.

UN Response to the crisis: UN Agencies involved and their role

Myanmar is fast becoming a forgotten crisis. The UN’s  2023 Myanmar Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan  received only about 1/3 of its required funding. Humanitarians will need almost a billion dollars to reach 5.3 million people prioritized for urgent assistance.

The  2024 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis  aims to help some 1 million Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar and on the island of Bhasan Char and 346,000 from host communities with food, shelter, health care, access to drinkable water, protection services, education and livelihood opportunities and skills development.

Six UN agencies  including the UN Migration Agency (IOM), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN Women and the World Food Programme (WFP) implement Rohingya refugee response projects at refugee camps in Cox’Bazar and Bhasan Char following the allocation of over USD 9 million from the United Nation’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) in January 2023. They provide life-saving services to the Rohingya refugees staying in camps in Cox’s Bazar district and on the island of Bhasan Char and over 17,800 members of the host community in Ukhiya and Teknaf.

To learn more about how the UN Agencies help the Rohingya, go to the respective pages: 

UNICEF  –  UNHCR  –  WFP  –  UNFPA  –  IOM  –  UN WOMEN

Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews , issued several  statements  urging coordinated international action that supports the heroic efforts of the people of Myanmar.

Last updated: 23 August 2024

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Genocide threat for Myanmar’s Rohingya greater than ever, investigators warn Human Rights Council

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Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya who remain in Myanmar may face a greater threat of genocide than ever, amid Government attempts to “erase their identity and remove them from the country”, UN-appointed independent investigators said on Monday.

In a report detailing alleged violations in Myanmar over the last year, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission , insists that many of the conditions that led to “killings, rapes and gang rapes, torture, forced displacement and other grave rights violations” by the country’s military, that prompted some 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh in 2017, are still present.

HRC SECRETARIAT

Citing the lack of accountability for the perpetrators of these alleged crimes, as well as the failure by Myanmar “to investigate genocide and to enact effective legislation criminalizing and punishing genocide”, the UN-appointed independent panel concludes “that the evidence that infers genocidal intent on the part of the State…has strengthened, that there is a serious risk that genocidal actions may occur or recur”.

Echoing those findings, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee told the Human Rights Council earlier on Monday that Myanmar had “done nothing to dismantle the system of violence and persecution” against the Rohingya who live in the “same dire circumstances that they did, prior to the events of August 2017”.

Citing satellite imagery of destroyed Rohingya villages, Ms. Lee questioned Myanmar’s assertion that it rebuilt areas affected by the violence, given that there were “six military bases that have been built on the site of destroyed Rohingya villages”.

Of nearly 400 Rohingya villages apparently destroyed, “there has been no attempt to reconstruct 320 of them”, the Special Rapporteur noted, and four in 10 villages had been “completely razed to the ground”.

Some of that demolition occurred in 2018 and some even in 2019 “and all of this is completely antithetical to the claim that Myanmar is ready to receive the refugees (back from Bangladesh)”, Ms. Lee insisted.

600,000 Rohingya ‘remain the target’ of Myanmar authorities

According to the International Fact-Finding Mission’s near 200-page report, the abuses it found were not on the same scale as the “clearance operations” conducted against Rohingya communities in the summer of 2017.

Nonetheless, the 600,000 mainly-Muslim Rohingya still in Myanmar “remain the target” of Government efforts to remove them from the country, the expert panel insisted.

The threats the Rohingya minority face include a “continuation of hate speech” and discrimination that affects their ability to work, attend school, seek medical care “or even pray and congregate”, the report notes.

Ongoing gross rights violations still occurring, says rights investigator

Echoing those comments, Ms. Lee insisted that Myanmar “continues to be a State that commits ongoing gross violations of international law”.

Humanitarian access remains severely restricted by the State, she went on, and all those involved in the violence – among them, the Tatmadaw State military and the Arakan separatist army – have been responsible for “indiscriminate…heavy artillery fire, gunfire and landmines in civilian areas” linked to the displacement of some 65,000 people across northern Rakhine and southern Chin states since January.

Highlighting information about “reprisals, surveillance and harassment” of people in Myanmar and outside the country who have cooperated with international human rights mechanisms, Ms. Lee urged the international community to continue to scrutinize events in Myanmar.

“The parties to the conflict must end their hostilities – the people of Rakhine have suffered enough,” she insisted.

In addition to reports of up to six villages being burned deliberately since the end of June, the Special Rapporteur also noted with concern that the Government-imposed internet blackout has been in place for nearly three months in Kyauktaw, Minbya, Ponnagyun and Mrauk-U, “where the worst fighting is happening”.

Conflict escalated on 15 August when separatists launched attacks in northern Shan and Mandalay, Ms. Lee explained, “killing and injuring soldiers, police officers, and civilians”. This sparked intense fighting between the Tatmadaw State military and the ethnic armed organizations in northern Shan which led to the death of a farmer killed when Tatmadaw “reportedly fired mortars into his village as people were fleeing military helicopters conducting air strikes nearby”.

Ceasefires welcomed but peace talks still in doubt

While welcoming the separatists’ unilateral ceasefire declared last week ahead of peace talks with the Government’s National Reconciliation and Peace Commission scheduled for Tuesday, Ms. Lee questioned whether the Tatmadaw were serious about bringing about peace after launching operations against Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) separatists – despite also saying that they were laying down their weapons.

In a related development, UN-appointed independent human rights experts expressed serious concerns on Monday about new restrictions at Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, following a massive “Genocide Day” protest last month.

In a statement, the six Special Rapporteurs said that some 200,000 refugees had gathered for the rally in Cox’s Bazar to mark the second anniversary of their exodus from Myanmar.

Demonstrators called for Myanmar citizenship rights and other guarantees before they would agree to return.

“Since the demonstration at Cox’s Bazar on 25 August, a number of the protest organisers have been questioned and subjected to intimidation,” the experts said.

A curfew is also being strictly enforced on those in the camps, they added, while mobile phones have been banned and confiscated.

Myanmar responds

In response to the allegations, the delegation for Myanmar maintained that the country faced development and human rights challenges, which were one and the same thing.

The Myanmar constitution prohibits the targeting of minorities, Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun insisted, before adding that there had been only temporary internet shutdowns in Rakhine and Shan states in response to insurgents’ alleged use of wireless technology to detonate bombs.

Blaming separatists for the Rohingya exodus in 2017, the Ambassador maintained that the tragedy had been exploited for political purposes.

“It is crystal clear” that there are people who want to return to Myanmar, he added, before rejecting any attempt by the international community to prosecute State military figures allegedly responsible for grave rights violations against the Rohingya unless all national remedies had been exhausted.

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Japan’s Defense of Myanmar and the Rohingya Genocide

Michimi Muranushi

This essay is part of a series that explores the human costs and policy challenges associated with forced displacement crises in the Middle East and Asia. The essays explore the myths or misconceptions that have pervaded discussions about these crises, as well as the constraints or capacity deficiencies that have hampered the responses to them. See  more ...  

Sublime ideas are sometimes evoked for vulgar crimes. This art of sophistry and propaganda is not always performed as a solo. This paper analyzes a harmonious duet of Japan and Myanmar for the sake of the destruction of a Muslim group in the name of democracy and nation-building. The basic elements of the art are as follows.

First, while the Rohingya is a term used in the Japanese media, the Japanese government never uses it except with a quotation mark. The normally used official term is “the Muslims in Rakhine,” an imprecise term including non-Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine. The term “the Bengali Muslims” and “the Bengali residents” are also used by the Japanese government. In the 2012 exchange of notes with Myanmar, written after the so-called communal conflict in Rakhine, Japan officially referred to “Bengali residents.” The Japanese media has never confronted the Japanese government to ask how Japan can justify its preference of this loaded term to refer to “the Rohingya.”

Second, even when Myanmar intensified its campaign against the Rohingya after August 2017 to loot, rape, kill, and burn, Japan’s interest in the human rights situation of the Rohingya never went beyond “grave concern.” Even after the UN report in the fall of 2018, which detailed the patterns of a campaign of slaughter, Japan only reiterated “concern.”

Third, Japan has yet to admit that the atrocities in Rakhine are established facts. For Tokyo, they are still “allegations” of Human Rights violations. Expecting Myanmar to investigate the “allegations,” which Myanmar persistently denies, Japan welcomed the Rosario Manalo commission — started by Myanmar in 2018 — as the vehicle for conducting an investigation, and sees it as a progressive move.

Fourth, Japan cautions the world against pushing Myanmar on Rakhine for the reason that the Burmese democracy is budding and fragile. Arguably with limitless tolerance to Myanmar, Japan never mentions protection of diversity when it refers to the democracy to be built here.

Fifth, Japan promises it will “think together” and “fully support the nation-building’” of Myanmar. This exceptional camaraderie was proclaimed when the Rohingya villages in Rakhine were still burning in 2017. Japan does not reluctantly tolerate but pro-actively supports Myanmar.

Sixth, the term, “nation-building’” has a double meaning. It normally means the development of a modern state structure, but it also means economic growth. Members of the Japanese business community in Myanmar often say that they are proud that they are contributing to nation-building in Myanmar.

Seventh, Japan reiterates that the problem of Rakhine is “complex,” implying that the critique of Myanmar is unprofessionally simple.

The Burmese army is bolstering its solidarity with the NLD democratic government of Myanmar, and Japan is in harmony with that Myanmar. Myanmar, both its government and military, insists that there is no indigenous group identified as the Rohingya and that those Muslims calling themselves Rohingya should instead be called Bengalis — illegitimate interlopers from the Bengal area. Denying any Burmese persecution of the Rohingya, Myanmar procrastinates in its response to the deterioration of human rights in Rakhine by setting up the Kofi Annan Commission, the Advisory Board, and the Independent Investigation Commission. Aung San Suu Kyi says the country has only just started on its path toward democracy (i.e., since the 2015 election), and has little time to handle the many complex problems. Myanmar explains its doubtlessly planned campaign against the Rohingya as an anti-terrorist campaign it was forced to start against its own will.

Japan endorsed as early as 2013 the Burmese position that there are Bengali residents in Rakhine and that they included people without Burmese citizenship. Japan virtually endorsed the Burmese position that Myanmar as a sovereign state can deny what is almost proven crimes committed by its military. Japan virtually endorsed the Burmese position that the violation of human rights almost to the extent of genocide, is merely one of the major national goals grouped together with economic development.

Economic Interests

The deepening of Japan-Myanamr economic ties goes on in parallel with the new wave of Rohingya persecution in Rakhine. In April 2012, Japan resumed its overseas development assistance (ODA) to Myanmar, after the start of reforms under President Thein Sein. [1] In May 2012, the latest attacks on Rohingya started in Rakhine. [2] In August 2016 the Kofi Annan Commission began its work, and in October 2016, the Harakah al-Yaqin (Arabic for “Faith Movement”), later the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), began its activities in northern Rakhine. [3] In November 2016, Japan expressed its decision to give 800 billion yen in ODA to Myanmar for the next five years. [4] Myanmar could probably expect Japan’s incoming support when it started its attacks in 2012 on the Rohingya, and the person who planned the activities of the Faith Movement in the fall of 2016 could probably predict more Japanese support to come.

Japan mentions three reasons for its assistance to Myanmar: 1) Myanmar is a geographically important country between India and China; 2) Its market economy and stability are important for the ASEAN; and 3) the Burmese have had a pro-Japanese orientation. [5]

As a result of the new decision,

• Japan is now the biggest ODA donor to Myanmar, but this status may be challenged by China in the future
• Japan is now a high-ranking trade partner of Myanmar. China is a much bigger trade partner now than Japan. The top destinations of Burmese exports are China (30%), Thailand (18%), Japan (7.9%), and India (5.4%). Myanmar’s leading sources of imports are China (36%), Singapore (13%), India (9.6%), Thailand (5.4%), Malaysia (5,4%), and Japan (4.9%) [6]
• Japan is now a high-ranking investor in Myanmar. [7]

Myanmar is a country belonging to the South/Southeast Asian bloc, where neither America nor Europe dominates. The countries economically deeply involved in Myanmar have views benign to the Burmese persecution, basically on the so-called principle of non-interference. In this competitive environment, the rise of ODA from Japan has the following implications:

First, it can facilitate the Japanese companies’ investment in Myanmar and access to the Burmese market. This will make Japan more sensitive to the sentiment of the Burmese consumers who have been misguided by Buddhist extremism the military has unleased. Japan’s ODA makes Japanese companies advantageous, because their competition relates to recognition and permission by Myanmar. [8]

Second, it will likely make Japan protective of Myanmar’s political stability, in order to ensure that debt is repaid.

Third, it will make Japan oriented more toward economic growth than to human rights and democracy.

The list of Japanese businesses in Myanmar is similar to that of those big business contributors to the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the party in power. These companies and prominent LDP members have constructed several associations of Japan-Myanmar friendship, [9] which means that Japan can anticipate the needs of big business without being told.

The Japanese community in Myanmar is most conspicuously pro-Myanmar. In an interview, a Japanese company representative in Yangon repeats the Japanese embassy’s trite remark that the overseas reports on Rakhine are unfair and exaggerated. He also says that it is the Japanese deplorable inclination to stand by the weak side.         

The current Japanese ambassador to Myanmar, Ichiro Maruyama, an old friend of Aung San Suu Kyi, says, using the term “the Bengali,” that

• the European and other foreign reports on Rakhine are unfair and exaggerated;
• Japan is committed to supporting Myanmar;
• Sanctions against Myanmar have no merit and harm ordinary Burmese; and
• Aung San Suu Kyi’s Myanmar is progressing as a democracy. [10]

Japan’s most recent step was its joint organization with the Rakhine State Government and Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC) of the Rakhine Investment Fair in February 2019. [11] This means business goes to depopulated Rakhine to whitewash the stain of blood. The basic logic Japan upholds is that economic prosperity produces peace and stability.

Explanation

The need to be a good intermediary between the business and Myanmar makes Japan befriend the powers in Myanmar, which can be far more easily done when Aung San Suu Kyi is a part of it.

This is clear when the Japanese ambassador, who claims to be directly connected to Aung San Suu Kyi by cellphone, says that the Japanese business in Yangon should feel free to approach him, as in countries like Myanmar, people cannot do business unless they talk directly with ministers.

With its population ageing and in decline, Japan faces a shrinking domestic market,  Its business needs expanding a foreign market. One such example is Kirin, a Japanese beer and soft drink company, which recently bought the Myanmar beer company. Kirin was criticized by Amnesty International for donating to the Burmese military in 2018, after its campaign in Rakhine. [12] The increase of local wages in China and Thailand motivates Japan’s business to migrate to Myanmar. The intensification of the China-Japan territorial dispute in 2012 accelerated Japan’s retreat from China.

With its technological progress, such as high-speed trains, China is becoming a substitute for Japan in infrastructure-building and as a business partner. This means that Japan is less willing to impose sanctions on Myanmar, because it means not a Burmese pain but a Chinese gain. As the case of the Cambodian economy now shows, Japan losing its competitive edge can use neither its money nor skill as a leverage over Myanmar. What looks like Japan’s morally submissive friendship to Myanmar can be explained by this looming shadow of China, which is proven to be amoral and more prevalent in Asia

This is the critical difference between Japan-Myanmar relations now and the UK-South Africa during the Apartheid. In South Africa, the UK was the biggest and the ultimate investor in South Africa. Its withdrawal of business from South Africa could have an irreversible impact on South Africa. In contemporary Myanmar, however, even if Japan can be the biggest donor and the biggest investor, the position is replaceable. 

Conclusion and Recommendation

The target of the human rights movement should include Myanmar’s supporters. Furthermore, the populations of such supporters need to be alerted and informed. For this purpose, Myanmar needs to be tried for a crime against humanity and genocide. If the legal procedures take time, they can be a wake-up-call for the Japanese, now dormant outside the bureaucratic politics of Japan’s Myanmar policy.

Greed needing fig leaves, the Burmese military and Japan shared common interests in camouflaging new Myanmar as a transition away from military dictatorship. This is why both need Aung San Suu Kyi. If Japan is more forgivable, it is because Japan’s retreat from this Myanmar may have called China deeper into this country without having a meaningful impact on human rights. Perhaps aware of this nightmare, Japan chose to be even closer to the arguably degraded Aung San Suu Kyi when Europe and North America began to strip her of honor.

The developed world was mistaken in rewarding President Thein Sein for his series of reforms in 2010 and welcoming the freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi and her victory in the by-election, instead of waiting for a few more years to reward the victory of the NLD in the 2015 national election and the start of an uphill battle that must be scheduled, including the protection of the Muslims. Nobody reproached the premature alliance of Japan with Myanmar, as it was trendy, and as business competition was intense. Countries whose economic involvement in Myanmar was relatively small, such as Canada, could see the situation more objectively, and took steps that were more easily reversible; however, Japan chose to live with Myanmar.

Human Rights must not be sacrificed for economic development. It is not proven that economic growth is good for Human Rights. Denial by a sovereign state of Human Rights violations should be categorically rejected when there is overwhelming evidence against it. And the world should use subscribe to the terminology used by Rohingya to refer to themselves rather than to that of their persecutors.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) declares that no one should be left behind. In Rakhine, one million expelled to Cox’s Bazar, 13,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), and the rest of the Rohingyas remain trapped. The principle of leaving no one behind is left maximally dishonored on the land where Japan is taking the initiative in international investment. The United Nations should audit investment and enforce SDGs in Rakhine, where Japan has been scheming with Myanmar to develop the sophistry of democracy and nation-building.

[1] “Japan to write off Myanmar debt, restart loans,” Reuters , April 21, 2012, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-japan/japan-to-write-off-myanmar-debt-restart-loans-idUSBRE83K07M20120421 .

[2] “Burma ethnic violence escalates as villagers flee,” AP , appearing in The Guardian , June 12, 2012, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/12/burma-ethnic-violence-escalates . Regarding events in 2012 in Arakan State, see Human Rights Watch, “‘All You Can Do is Pray’: Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic Cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Burma’s Arakan State,” Chronology of Events (April 2013): 21-42, https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/burma0413webwcover_0.pdf .

[3] Katherine Southwick, “A turning point in the Rohingya crisis,” New Mandala , March 3, 2017, https://www.newmandala.org/turning-point-rohingya-crisis/ .

[4] Kyoshi Takenaka, “Japan to provide $7.73 billion in aid to Myanmar, PM Abe says,” Reuters , November 2, 2016, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-japan/japan-to-provide-7-73-billion-in-aid-to-myanmar-pm-abe-says-idUSKBN12X16I . For a longer treatment of Japan’s re-engagement of Myanmar, see Ryan Hartley, “Japan’s rush to rejuvenate Burma relations: A critical reading of post-2011 efforts to create ‘new old friends,’” South East Asia Research 26, 4 (2018): 367-415.

[5] Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) [in Japanese], https://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/gaiko/oda/files/000367699.pdf#page=48 .

[6] Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), Country Profile: Burma , https://oec.world/en/profile/country/mmr/ .

[7] “Japanese investment in Myanmar soars to all-time high,” Japan Times , May 29, 2018.

[8] Regarding Japanese companies’ investments in Myanmar, see Yuichi Nitta, “Japan Inc. pours cash into Myanmar despite Rohingya crisis,” Nikkei Asian Review , May 17, 2018, https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-trends/Japan-Inc.-pours-cash-into-Myanmar-despite-Rohingya-crisis .

[9] The Japan-Myanmar Parliamentary Friendship Association is a case in point.

[10] See remarks quoted in “Japanese Ambassador Urges Rakhine Party to Quickly Resolve Rohingya Crisis,” Radio Free Asia , May 29, 2018, https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/japanese-ambassador-urges-rakhine-party-to-quickly-resolve-rohingya-crisis-05292018165436.html ; Sawako Utsumi and Lee Jay Walker, “Sanctions against Myanmar are ‘Nonsense’ claims the Ambassador of Japan,” Modern Tokyo Times , October 1, 2019, http://moderntokyotimes.com/sanctions-against-myanmar-are-nonsense-claims-the-ambassador-of-japan/ ; and Nanda, “Pressure won’t work to resolve Rakhine: Japan,” Myanmar Times , May 30, 2019, https://www.mmtimes.com/news/pressure-wont-work-resolve-rakhine-japan.html .

[11] See Rakhine Investment Fair 2019, https://www.investrakhine.com/ . See also Simon Lewis and Thu Thu Aung, “‘Tarnished image’: Myanmar touts troubled Rakhine as investment destination,” Reuters , February 20, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rakhine-investment/tarnished-image-myanmar-touts-troubled-rakhine-as-investment-destination-idUSKCN1Q90Z0 .

[12] “The Progress Updates Concerning The Letter From Amnesty International,” Kirin , December 14, 2018, https://www.kirinholdings.co.jp/english/news/2018/1214_01.html .

The Middle East Institute (MEI) is an independent, non-partisan, non-for-profit, educational organization. It does not engage in advocacy and its scholars’ opinions are their own. MEI welcomes financial donations, but retains sole editorial control over its work and its publications reflect only the authors’ views. For a listing of MEI donors, please click here .

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‘Kill All You See’: In a First, Myanmar Soldiers Tell of Rohingya Slaughter

Video testimony from two soldiers supports widespread accusations that Myanmar’s military tried to eradicate the ethnic minority in a genocidal campaign.

The remains of a Rohingya school in Rakhine State in western Myanmar last year. Credit... Adam Dean for The New York Times

Supported by

By Hannah Beech Saw Nang and Marlise Simons

• Published Sept. 8, 2020 Updated Oct. 19, 2021

The two soldiers confess their crimes in a monotone, a few blinks of the eye their only betrayal of emotion: executions, mass burials, village obliterations and rape.

The August 2017 order from his commanding officer was clear, Pvt. Myo Win Tun said in video testimony. “Shoot all you see and all you hear.”

He said he obeyed, taking part in the massacre of 30 Rohingya Muslims and burying them in a mass grave near a cell tower and a military base.

Around the same time, in a neighboring township, Pvt. Zaw Naing Tun said he and his comrades in another battalion followed a nearly identical directive from his superior: “Kill all you see, whether children or adults.”

“We wiped out about 20 villages,” Private Zaw Naing Tun said, adding that he, too, dumped bodies in a mass grave.

552 Light Infantry

Battalion base

Location of mass grave

confirmed by villagers

Thin Ga Net village

Location of another mass grave

May 23, 2017

Burned Rohingya villages

Sept. 25, 2017

Zin Paing Nyar village

Feb. 15, 2017

Nov. 26, 2017

Doe Tan village

Jan. 9, 2018

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Remembering the Rohingya Genocide

Press Statement

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

August 24, 2024

The ongoing humanitarian crisis and human rights abuses in Burma exacerbate difficulties faced by members of many of Burma’s ethnic and religious minority groups, and Rohingya in particular.  The United States stands with the survivors of the Rohingya genocide and is committed to providing life-saving assistance to affected members of Rohingya communities and those affected by the crisis in Burma, Bangladesh, and the region.  Over the past seven years, the United States has contributed nearly $2.4 billion in humanitarian assistance.  We also conduct extensive documentation of the atrocities and abuses committed against Rohingya and all civilians.

Our support for the people of Burma in their aspirations for a democratic, inclusive, and peaceful future is unwavering, as are our calls on all parties to protect civilians from harm.

U.S. Department of State

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Image courtesy of The World Factbook 2021 (Central Intelligence Agency) is unmodified and located in the public domain.

From 1962 until 2011 Myanmar (then Burma) was under the rule of an oppressive military junta.[1] In this majority Buddhist nation, the regime was responsible for major human rights abuses against ethnic and religious minority groups, including the Rohingya Muslims and the Christian Karen. The government was transferred to civilian control in 2011, but the military maintains significant power and human rights abuses continue.[2]

Two-thirds of the population identify as Bamar, but there are over 135 ethnic minority groups.[3] The Burman majority controls the government and military. Many minorities have been pushed to the outer areas of the country where natural resources are scarce, access to education and social programs is restricted, and the ability to participate in the democratic process is nonexistent.

The Myanmar government has been responsible for the perpetration of mass atrocities against the Rohingya and Karen people, including summary execution, severe torture and rape, forced labor, extortion, and displacement.[4]

Recent violence directed at the Rohingya has produced a refugee crisis in the region. In just three months in 2017, over 675,000 Rohingya fled the country for safety in neighboring Bangladesh.[5] Almost one million Rohingya refugees have since been registered in Bangladesh alone.[6] In April of 2020, the Bangladeshi Foreign Minister declared that the country would no longer accept more Rohingya refugees.[7]

Click here to take action.

Myanmar is the second largest country in mainland Southeast Asia. The country is bordered by China, Laos, Thailand, Bangladesh, and India. The country was known as Burma until 1989, when the name was changed to Myanmar. This article uses ‘Burma’ to refer to the country before 1989 and ‘Myanmar’ after that date.

The Pro-Democracy Movement

Image of Aung San Suu Kyi is courtesy of Claude TRUONG-NGOC, is unmodified, and licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 .

In 1962, Myanmar’s post-colonial democracy was overthrown in a military coup. Since then, the military has kept tight control over any pro-democracy movements. The military has engaged in a brutal campaign aimed at denying food, funding, information, and recruits to the rebels.[8]

During widespread pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988, security forces arrested thousands of demonstrators, tortured detainees, and reduced political space for opposition.

In May 1990, the government held the first free elections in almost thirty years. The National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won 392 out of a total of 489 seats. These election results were later annulled by the Burmese government.[9]

Aung San Suu Kyi was placed on house arrest in 2000 and spent the next decade in and out of military confinement. On November 9, 2010, Myanmar’s ruling junta stated that they had won the country’s first elections in 20 years with 80 percent of the votes. The NLD refused to register for the election without Suu Kyi, who was then released from house arrest four days after the election. Pro-democracy groups allege that the military regime engaged in rampant fraud to achieve its result, and the election is regarded as a sham.[10] Thein Sein was sworn in as president the next year, marking the transition from military rule to a façade of civilian democracy.

In 2015, the NLD, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won the election and in 2016, the democracy movement took power; however, the military retains a tight hold on all legislative and executive operations.[11]

The Karen Ethnic Minority

During World War II, the Karen (pronounced ka-REN) fought alongside the British against the invading Japanese, who were aided by the Burmese-led government. The Allied forces recaptured Burma in 1945. The Karen thought that aiding

Karen refugees at Mae La refugee camp in Thailand. Image courtesy of Mikhail Esteves is unmodified and licensed under  CC BY 2.0 .

the British would earn them an independent state, but this never happened, and the Karen have been fighting for independence ever since.[12]

In a struggle to maintain power, the ruling military junta tried to negotiate agreements with all ethnic state armed forces. The Karen state did not give in to the junta; in retaliation, the government launched a systematic offensive against the Karen in January 1990.

A million Karen became displaced due to violence during the next decade. Nearly 250 villages were destroyed in 2007.

Reports from February 2010 showed that the Myanmar government was burning Karen villages, carrying out indiscriminate shelling, abusive sweeps, and forced labor in attempts to terrorize civilians.[13] The government signed a ceasefire with Karen rebels in 2012.[14] Despite this, the Karen minority’s autonomy continues to be blocked, including through media and press

suppression.[15]

The Rohingya Muslims

The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic group in Myanmar, a mostly Buddhist country. There were approximately 1.1 million Rohingya in Myanmar in 2017

(about 4% of the population).[16]

A Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh. Image courtesy of John Owens (VOA) is unmodified and located in the public domain.

In 1978, the Burmese military carried out killings, rape, and arson against the Rohingya, forcing 200,000 to flee. Four years later, the government enacted the Myanmar Citizenship Law and officially stripped the Rohingya of their citizenship. The Rohingya were left  stateless , subject to restrictions on freedom of movement and property ownership, denied access to education, and unable to hold public office.[17]

In 2012, violence between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists turned into a targeted campaign to remove or relocate the state’s Muslims. Political party officials, senior Buddhist monks, and state security forces carried out mass killings and destroyed Rohingan villages. Nearly 5,000 homes and buildings were demolished. The violence left 150,000 Rohingya homeless and caused over 100,000 to flee to Malaysia by boat.[18]

Recently, two Burmese journalists were imprisoned for seven years for investigating the killing of Rohingya men whose bodies were discovered in a mass grave in Rakhine. The journalists’ sentences were harsh, and it was common knowledge that the trial was a farce. Suu Kyi has turned a blind eye to the issue and has been quoted as calling the journalists “traitors” in private.[19] Suu Kyi has also denied visas to United Nations human rights teams investigating the crisis and has prevented international organizations from delivering aid.[20]

Government denial:

Aung San Suu Kyi has said that the violence must be blamed on “terrorist activities, which was the initial cause of events leading to the humanitarian crisis.”[22] She has been widely criticized for her failure to speak out against these tragedies.

Several organizations have revoked awards given to Aung San Suu Kyi because of her inaction on the persecution of the Rohingya. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum withdrew the Elie Wiesel Award that was presented to Suu Kyi in 2012, citing her refusal to stop or condemn the mass killings of the Rohingya.[23] In 2018, the Canadian House of Commons declared the crisis to be genocide and unanimously agreed to strip Suu Kyi of her honorary Canadian citizenship.[24] She has been formally stripped of the Freedom of the City of Oxford Award, Freedom of Dublin Award, and Freedom of Glasgow Award. A global campaign with over 400,000 signatories called on the Nobel Committee to rescind Suu Kyi’s Nobel Peace Prize, but it was not possible to retract the award.[25]

Generals and other officials in Myanmar maintain complete denial as well. Suu Kyi’s stance denying genocide and persecution has been largely supported by the majority population in Myanmar.[26]

Myanmar has made itself the target of many international sanctions.[27] Australia, the UK, the EU and the US are among those who have imposed financial sanctions against both the Myanmar government and individual known perpetrators, due to ongoing human rights abuses.[28] China, however, continues to support and invest in Myanmar and its economy, with its Belt and Road Initiative being one of the primary driving factors in China’s ongoing support. Myanmar is key for China’s access to major seaports that affect Chinese trade routes throughout the region.[29]

In October 2017, the US announced the withdrawal of military assistance to Myanmar after considering the Rohingya crisis,[30] and the following month Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared that the violence against the Rohingya constitutes ethnic cleansing.[31]

A UN report based on nearly a thousand interviews and satellite imagery of the scorched-earth tactics was released on August 25, 2018. The report urges an international court to bring Myanmar’s army commander and five other top generals to trial for the crime of genocide against the Rohingya.[32]

Aung San Suu Kyi receiving the Sakharov Prize award in 2013. Image courtesy of Claude TRUONG-NGOC is unmodified and licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 .

In November of 2019, the International Criminal Court (ICC) declared that it would be investigating crimes against humanity charges for the violence perpetrated against the Rohingya population in Myanmar.[33]

In November 2019, Gambia officially filed a case against Myanmar in the International Court of Justice for the crime of genocide against the Rohingya. During a 3-day hearing, Aung San Suu Kyi vehemently denied any and all genocide charges occurring in Myanmar, despite the mountain of contrary evidence.[34] In January 2020, the ICJ issued a ruling approving provisional measures.[35] This means that Myanmar has been ordered to “take all measures within its p

ower” to protect the remaining 600,000 Rohingya Muslims in the country from genocide. However, it is important to note that while this ruling is binding, there is no way to ensure that it will actually be enforced.[36] Under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction, the federal courts of Argentina have also opened a case of genocide against the leaders of Myanmar.

This crisis is currently ongoing. Rohingya are seeking civil damages against Facebook in international courts for their part in platforming hate speech and enabling this violence.[37] For more on the role of social media and the culpability of Facebook read here .

Updated: Lindsay Hagen, October 2023.

References:

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-12990563

[2] http://scalar.usc.edu/works/current-issues-in-refugee-education/military

[3] http://www.oxfordburmaalliance.org/ethnic-groups.html

[4] https://borgenproject.org/recent-genocides-in-sudan-and-myanmar-highlight-ongoing-issue/

[5] https://www.hrw.org/tag/rohingya-crisis

[6] https://www.unocha.org/rohingya-refugee-crisis

[7] https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/25/bangladesh-rohingya-refugees-stranded-sea

[8] http://time.com/5360637/myanmar-8888-uprising-30-anniversary-democracy/

[9] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11685977

[10] http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/11/09/myanmar.elections/index.html

[11] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33547036

[12] http://karennationalunion.net/index.php/burma/about-the-knu/knu-history

[13] https://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/burma-army-attacks-displace-hundreds-thousands

[14] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-16523691

[15] https://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/karen-human-rights-group-s-statement-covid-19-and-blocking-ethnic-news-websites-enmy

[16] https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/08/rohingya-muslims-170831065142812.html

[17] https://www.hrw.org/report/2013/04/22/all-you-can-do-pray/crimes-against-humanity-and-ethnic-cleansing-rohingya-muslims

[18] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-malaysia/malaysia-ready-to-provide-temporary-shelter-for-rohingya-fleeing-violence-idUSKCN1BJ0G7?il=0

[19] https://www.economist.com/asia/2018/09/08/suu-kyi-keeps-quiet-as-reporters-are-jailed-on-trumped-up-charges

[20] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/02/what-happened-to-myanmars-human-rights-icon

[22] “Generals Escape Consequences a Year after Rohingya Massacres,”  New York Times , Sunday, August 26, 2018, p. 9.

[23] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/07/aung-san-suu-kyi-holocaust-museum-award

[24] https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-house-of-commons-unanimously-passes-motion-to-strip-aung-san-suu-kyis/

[25] https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/29/asia/aung-san-suu-kyi-nobel-prize-intl/index.html

[26] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/15/aung-san-suu-kyi-must-be-held-account/

[27] https://www.state.gov/burma-sanctions/

[28] https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/en-us/knowledge/publications/ac28ff93/new-sanctions-and-export-restrictions-imposed-targeting-burma

[29] https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/burma

[30] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41731108

[31] https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/11/22/tillerson-finally-brands-myanmar-crisis-ethnic-cleansing-rohingya-muslims-war-crimes-genocide-state-department-asia-refugees/

[32] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/world/asia/myanmar-rohingya-genocide.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share

[33] https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/25/bangladesh-rohingya-refugees-stranded-sea

[34] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/14/myanmar-genocide-hearings-victims-fury

[35] https://www.asil.org/insights/volume/24/issue/2/what-does-icj-decision-gambia-v-myanmar-mean

[36] https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/01/27/international-court-justice-orders-burmese-authorities-protect-rohingya-muslims

[37] https://thenextweb.com/news/myanmar-rohingya-meta-court-disinformation

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THE ROHINGYA   REFUGEE CRISIS

Help rohingya refugee children.

In August 2017 over 700,000 people — half of them children — fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh to escape terrifying violence. It was an exodus on a scale not seen since the Rwandan genocide in 1994. 

Many children arrived alone in Bangladesh, severely traumatized, having seen their parents, relatives and friends killed right in front of them. Children were often  targeted for brutal sexual violence and killed and maimed indiscriminately . So many struggle with severe mental health issues.

Three years on, amid a global pandemic , nearly one million people remain stranded in Cox's Bazar, the largest refugee camp in the world. They live in shelters made of highly flammable bamboo and tarpaulin. The recent deadly blaze that left 50,000 people in the camp homeless was a stark reminder that conditions are rife not only for the spread of disease but rapid-moving fire. 

With your help, Save the Children has been providing essential services to nearly 600,000 Rohingya refugees and the local community since 2017. In July 2020, we opened a new isolation and treatment center to help prevent, prepare for and reduce the spread of COVID-19. Your continued support is so vital now and more than ever before. 

ROHINGYA CRISIS TIMELINE

1982 - 2010, 2015 - 2016.

In 1982, Myanmar passes a new citizenship law that denies Rohingya people nationality and leaves them stateless. 

Ten years later, more than 250,000 Rohingya people are forced out of northern Rakhine state, Myanmar, as a result of increased military operations in the area. 

They find refuge in Bangladesh.

With a sustained presense in Bangladesh since 1970, Save the Children begins to deliver on the ground support to children and families in Rakhine state.

At least 33,000 Rohingya people flee Myanmar on dangerous and overcrowded boats to try to reach Malaysia and Thailand. 

In 2016, nine Myanmar policemen are killed by an armed group in a Rakhine border attack. A military crackdown follows. According to the UN, more than 1,000 Rohingya people are killed. Nearly 90,000 are displaced.

In August 2017, after more policemen are killed, authorities launch clearance operations that trigger an exodus of Rohingya children, women and men. Over the next four days, the number of refugees reaching Bangladesh on foot and by boat soars to several thousand.  

In September, Save the Children expands our work on the ground in Bangladesh to get immediate support to the new arrivals. By the end of the month we’ve reached 150,000 people with vital aid and food. 

By December, over 700,000 Rohingya refugees including at least 370,000 children have arrived at what has become the largest refugee settlement in the world. 

Over 700,000 Rohingya refugees including at least 370,000 children have now arrived at what has become the largest refugee settlement in the world. 

With more than half the population of the camps children under 18, we establish hundreds of temporary learning centres, and distribute backpacks full of learning materials. We also begin to prepare for the monsoon. 

By the end of May, we’re running more than 90 child-friendly spaces. We’re also distributing child identity bracelets, just in case children become separated. 

Our new 20-bed primary health care centre opens to families.

Rohingya families continue to be driven to take desperate measures they think will give their children the best possible future. In April, Bangladesh’s coast guard rescues a boat with hundreds of Rohingya people that had been drifting at sea for two months.

By May, the first case of coronavirus is reported in the refugee camps. With only an estimated 2,000 ventilators in all of Bangladesh, serving a population of 160 million people, healthcare capacity across the country is overwhelmed. 

To meet the urgent health needs of the community, Save the Children opens a new isolation and treatment center. The center is staffed by an expert team of 80 health professionals, including Save the Children’s Emergency Health Unit, who have extensive experience in managing disease outbreaks. 

A huge fire sweeps through Cox's Bazar.

The flames killed an estimated 11 people, including children, and left 50,000 people homeless. Hundreds of people are still reported missing in the weeks following the blaze. Save the Children’s family tracing and reunification team works to locate missing children, reuniting 289 children with their families after they were separated in the chaos.

The fire also destroyed 163 learning spaces, putting education out of reach for 13,226 Rohingya children. Save the Children estimates that it will take more than three months to rebuild these facilities, pushing Rohingya children further behind when their peers in other parts of Bangladesh go back to school in May following COVID-19-related closures.

How to Help Rohingya Refugee Children

For Rohingya children and children around the world, millions of boys and girls are on the frontlines of conflict, their lives and futures at grave risk. Please help us save lives, and futures, with a donation to our Children's Emergency Fund . 

Rohingya Crisis: Questions

How is Save the Children responding to the Rohingya crisis? How did the Rohingya crisis start? Where is the Rohingya crisis? Who are the Rohingya refugees? How many refugees have fled Myanmar? How many Rohingya refugees are in Bangladesh? What are camp conditions like for Rohingya children and families? What’s life like for Rohingya refugee children? How is Save the Children responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in Cox's Bazar? What is Save the Children’s history of working in Bangladesh? What is Save the Children’s history of working in Myanmar?

How is Save the Children responding to the Rohingya crisis?

Through the support of our donors, Save the Children has been providing essential services to around 600,000 refugees and the local community since 2017.

Over the last three years, donor support has created enough learning spaces to serve 13,800 children. Together, we've built safe spaces to enable children to learn and play. We’ve integrated health and hygiene activities into education and trained teachers on how to support children’s mental health and psychological well-being.

We've ensured nearly 470,000 refugees here, including almost 280,000 children, get staple food like rice, lentils and cooking oil on a regular basis. 

Most recently our donors have helped to build a major COVID-19 treatment centre — allowing children and their families to get the care they need at this crucial time.

How did the Rohingya crisis start?

In 1982, Myanmar passed a citizenship law that denied Rohingya people nationality and left them stateless. Over the years, the Rohingya people experienced continuous violence and persecution and were denied rights granted to Myanmar citizens.

On August 25, 2017, following a series of attacks on Myanmar police and border guard posts by a loosely organized Rohingya armed group, the Myanmar security forces began a systematic campaign of violence against the Rohingya population in northern Rakhine State.

Almost 300,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh over the next two weeks as disturbing reports surfaced of hundreds of people, including children, being killed. In just a short amount of time, over 700,000 people — half of them children — had fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh.

In and around Cox’s Bazar, a Bangladeshi district near the Myanmar border, thousands of Rohingya families including children were forced to sleep out in the open or by a roadside because they didn't have anywhere else to go. Lacking enough food or clean drinking water, the risk of children being exploited, abused or even trafficked was of grave concern.

The scale of the influx of Rohingya arriving in Cox’s Bazar was unprecedented and put huge stress on host communities and humanitarian agencies. Today, three years on and amid a global pandemic, nearly one million people remain stranded in the largest refugee camp in the world.

Where is the Rohingya crisis?

The mass displacement of Rohingya people followed an alarming escalation of violence in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar.

Bangladesh’s southern district of Cox’s Bazar, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas have fled, is now home to the largest refugee camp in the world.

Who are the Rohingya refugees?

The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority who reside in Myanmar.

Faced with decades of systematic discrimination and targeted violence in Rakhine State, the Rohingya fled in a mass exodus on August 25, 2017.

"The process of returning Rohingya refugees cannot begin until it is guaranteed that they will be safe in Myanmar’s Rakhine State with a clear process in place to ensure justice and accountability for the serious human rights abuses they have suffered" ; Save the Children warned at the onset of the crisis.

How many refugees have fled Myanmar?

Since 2017, more than one million Rohingya refugees, half of whom are children, have lived in cramped camps after being violently forced from their homes across the border in Myanmar to escape unimaginable violence.

How many Rohingya refugees are in Bangladesh?

Over 450,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are children.

Three years on from the beginning of this crisis, hundreds of thousands of children remain stranded on the steep hillsides of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

What are camp conditions like for Rohingya children and families?

While safe from the brutal violence that forced them to leave Myanmar, the camps in Bangladesh are no place for a child.

Access to education and other essential services is limited, and children are at risk of violence, exploitation and abuse. To make matters worse, the camps are now facing the prospect of a COVID-19 outbreak, with potentially devastating consequences.

“Put simply, despite the relentless efforts of humanitarian communities, a refugee camp is no place for a child to grow up," said Save the Children's Country Director in Bangladesh Onno van Manen.

What’s life like for Rohingya refugee children?

Rohingya children have witnessed and suffered from some of the worst human rights abuses of the 21st century. They have faced a ruthless campaign of military violence that has been systematic, targeted and deliberate.

Many children arrived alone in Bangladesh, severely traumatized , having seen their parents, relatives and friends killed right in front of them. Now, three years on, Rohingya refugees are still living in makeshift settlements in one of the most densely populated places in the world.

These are some of the shocking realities for Rohingya refugee children:

• Over 450,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are children.
• An estimated 75% of babies are born in the unsafe and unsanitary bamboo shelters.
• Almost 1/3 children under five have had their growth stunted by lack of food.
• Only 13% of boys and 2% of girls aged 15-18 are in school.
• 40% of children are scared of dying or losing a family member to COVID-19

Rohingya children are some of the most marginalized on the planet. "Children stuck in the camps in Cox’s Bazar face a bleak future with little freedom of movement, inadequate access to education, poverty, serious protection risks and abuse including child marriage," said Onno van Manen."

How is Save the Children responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in Cox's Bazar?

As the coronavirus continues to impact children, families and communities, our teams are working around the clock to deliver vital health services. Our new isolation and treatment centre has 60 beds to care for COVID-19 patients. The centre is open 24/7 and staffed by 80 health and support workers, including our highly experienced Emergency Health Unit.

Our community volunteers are providing information to families about how they can protect themselves from the virus.

What is Save the Children’s history of working in Bangladesh?

Save the Children has sustained a presence in Bangladesh for nearly 50 years, since 1970. Since 2012, we have addressed education, protection and water/sanitation needs of refugee Rohingya children from Myanmar. We are now working around the clock to alleviate the urgent needs created by the massive exodus of Rohingya children and adults who have fled atrocities and horrors in Myanmar since late August of 2017.

Save the Children is committed to conducting humanitarian relief for as long as Rohingya remain in Bangladesh and require aid.

What is Save the Children’s history of working in Myanmar?

Save the Children has worked in Myanmar since 1995. Our staff are experienced in humanitarian relief after disasters and for those displaced by conflict and are prepared to deploy flood relief if needed. Thanks to the generous support of our donors, our teams have helped over 350,000 children since the start of the crisis.

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Biden administration rules Myanmar army committed genocide against Rohingya

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Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Simon Lewis; Editing by Mary Milliken, Daniel Wallis and Himani Sarkar

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Thomson Reuters

Humeyra Pamuk is a senior foreign policy correspondent based in Washington DC. She covers the U.S. State Department, regularly traveling with U.S. Secretary of State. During her 20 years with Reuters, she has had postings in London, Dubai, Cairo and Turkey, covering everything from the Arab Spring and Syria's civil war to numerous Turkish elections and the Kurdish insurgency in the southeast. In 2017, she won the Knight-Bagehot fellowship program at Columbia University’s School of Journalism. She holds a BA in International Relations and an MA on European Union studies.

Turkey's Erdogan calls for Islamic alliance against Israel

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday Islamic countries should form an alliance against what he called "the growing threat of expansionism" from Israel, drawing a rebuke from the Israeli foreign minister.

Thousands of Rohingya flee to Bangladesh from Myanmar violence

PUBLISHED : 4 Sep 2024 at 13:40

WRITER: Reuters

DHAKA - Around 8,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh in recent months, escaping escalating violence in Myanmar 's western Rakhine state, according to Bangladeshi officials.

The violence has intensified as fighting between Myanmar's ruling junta and the Arakan Army, a powerful ethnic militia drawn from the Buddhist majority, continues to worsen.

"We have information that around 8,000 Rohingya crossed into Bangladesh recently, mostly over the last two months," said Mohammad Shamsud Douza, a senior official in charge of refugees for the Bangladeshi government.

"Bangladesh is already over-burdened and unable to accommodate any more Rohingya," he told Reuters on Wednesday.

The Bangladesh government has not previously provided any estimate of how many Rohingya have crossed over in the last few months.

The government will hold a "serious discussion at the cabinet" within the next two to three days to address the crisis, Bangladesh’s de-facto foreign minister, Mohammad Touhid Hossain, told reporters late on Tuesday.

While expressing sympathy for the Rohingya, Hossain said that the country no longer has the capacity to provide humanitarian shelter to additional refugees.

"It is not possible to fully seal the border," he said, adding that efforts will be made to prevent further infiltration.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh held rallies in camps on August 25, marking the seventh anniversary of the 2017 military crackdown that forced them to flee Myanmar, demanding an end to violence and safe return to their homeland.

Rohingya refugees gather to mark the seventh anniversary of their fleeing from neighbouring Myanmar to escape a military crackdown in 2017, during heavy monsoon rains in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Aug 25, 2024. (Photo: Reuters)

Over one million Rohingya currently live in overcrowded camps in southern Bangladesh, with little hope of returning to Myanmar, where they are largely denied citizenship and other basic rights.

The recent surge in violence is the worst the Rohingya have faced since the 2017 Myanmar military-led campaign, which the United Nations (UN) described as having genocidal intent.

Rohingya who recently fled to Bangladesh have urged the government to provide them with shelter.

"How long can we stay with relatives in such a cramped space?" said a Rohingya refugee who fled to Bangladesh last month with his wife and parents.

"We appeal to the government to provide us with shelter and ensure we receive food and other essential assistance."

Last month, Hossain told Reuters Bangladesh cannot accept more Rohingya refugees and called on India and other countries to take greater action.

He also urged the international community to apply more pressure on the Arakan Army to cease attacks on the Rohingya in Rakhine state.

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