"It has gone far beyond a mere humanitarian crisis. This, the deliberate killing of a specific ethnic group, is genocide''. - The Sydney Morning Herald (Editorial, December 18, 2017)
The United Nations Human Rights (UNHR) chief Zeid Raad Al Hussein has now raised the possibility of Myanmar's supreme leader Aung San Suu Kyi (ASSK) being charged over atrocities committed against the Rohingyas. This will also include the head of the armed forces General Aung Min Hlaing. Both may stand on the dock on charges of genocide. He further said both could face charges because of the gravity and scale of the crime committed in the Rakhine state of Myanmar and that requires a response by the international community.
However, UNHR chief is not in a position to determine whether genocide has been committed. That would have to be determined by an international court. Zeid has called for international criminal investigation into the perpetrators and warned "if it came to your knowledge this was being committed , and you did nothing to stop it , you could be culpable as well for that''.
According to the Doctors without Borders (MSF), at least 6,700 Rohingyas were killed in the first month of violence and the number of the killed has risen to about 14, 000 till now. That figure includes at least 730 children under the age of five. Many, however, consider these figures are an underestimate. The genocidal attacks on the Rohingyas caused 650,000 Rohingyas to flee their homes within the first couple of months. A mass grave was unearthed in Inn Din Village in Southern Maungdaw Township in Rakhine State. Two Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who had visited the village in recent months, were arrested. The charges against them include leaking of brutal military-led atrocities against Rohingyas in Rakhine State. Human right violations have now extended to journalists.
In a 30-page report, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) detailed the massacre in a village called Tula Toli in Rahhine state on August 30 this year. The report provided the evidence of a planned massacre of several hundred Rohingyas. The killing and rape of hundreds of Rohingyas in Tula Toli were carried out with utmost cruel efficiency by Myanmar army personnel. This could only be possible with a well-thought-out advanced planning. The report provides in detail how the army trapped their Rohingya victims along a river bank to kill and rape, and torch the village. The Human Rights watch also provided satellite imagery of more than two hundred Rohingya villages torched to the ground since genocidal attacks began on August 25.
ASSK and her government claim that the military action was in response to terrorists attacks in August, where 12 security personnel were killed. But BBC Panorama programme has gathered evidence that preparation for the continued attacks on the Rohigyas began well before that and the Myanmar state itself trained and armed local Buddhists to become a part of the local armed forces. These volunteer militia groups are closely involved with the army in killing, raping and burning houses. Matthew Smith, chief of the human rights organisation Fortify Rights who investigated this year's violence, commented "This was a decision made effectively to perpetrate atrocity crimes against the civilian population". UN investigators also have heard Rohingya testimony of a "consistent, methodical pattern of killings, torture, rape and arson''. UN Human Rights Council chief thinks that it was a well-thought-out and planned attack. The doctors working for the International Organisation for Migration ( IOM) told Agence France Press (AFP) that they had found scores of Rohingya women who had fled to Bangladesh were subjected rape and they were consistent with horrific sex attacks. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson described the massive human rights violations against the Rohingyas as ''ethnic cleansing''. Musician and activist Bob Geldof described ASSK as ''a handmaiden to genocide''. Zeid said he personally warned ASSK to stop the killing in a phone call earlier this year but nothing happened. ASSK probably sanctioned the military action against the Rohigyas, he added.
Despite such mounting evidence ASSK's language has been remarkably very similar to that of her Generals denying any wrong-doing. Her unqualified support for the military's brutal massacre of Rohigyas is the price she is a ready to pay for her ascension to power. By doing so she has proved to be a political opportunist and an accomplice of the army's brutal campaign against the Rohingyas. Under her leadership radical Buddhist nationalism has been encouraged and allowed to spread completely unchecked so much so that her party National League for Democracy (NLD) is thoroughly permeated with Buddhist Bamar (the largest ethnic group in Mynmar and she herself belongs to this group) chauvinism. For all practical purposes she is now in complete partnership with the army. She and her government, in collaboration with the army, have now created an environment for an upsurge of nationalised bigotry and violence - Buddhist monks, laypersons and Buddhist vigilante groups and soldiers shout obscenities while killing and raping not only Rohingya Muslims but also other Muslims. Her office even described the rape of women and girls as fake news, not to speak of other terrible atrocities committed against the Rohingyas.
Rohingya refugees are still streaming into Bangladesh though Myanmar has very recently signed a deal with Bangladesh on the repatriation of Rohingya refugees which should commence in January 2018. One million Rohingya refugees are living in squalid conditions in the border areas in Bangladesh. A few thousand more are waiting on the Myanmar side to cross border into Bangladesh. How effective this bilateral deal is going to be, is anybody's guess. One can not obviously put much hope in it if one looks at messages coming across from Myanmar. ASSK herself said the refugees can come only if they could prove they used to live in Rakhine. That's a flinty condition given these people were stripped of their citizenship in 1982 and they in all probability fled their burning homes in most instances without any documents. Myanmar even blamed Bangladesh for not wanting to send Rohingya refugees back, because the Bangladesh government is afraid of losing international donations. This is the most outrageous comment about a country which has voluntarily and at an enormous cost to the country provided shelter to now 1.1 million Rohingya refugees.
Zeid believes that the Myanmar army was emboldened when the international community took no action against them after the violence in 2016 and the Myanmar army drew a conclusion that they could continue their criminal activities without fear. He criticised ASSK for failing to use the term ''Rohingya'' and said striping their name is dehumanising to the point where anything is possible. In effect, this is the core issue for the Rohigyas.
It now appears that at long last the UN Human Rights chief has taken a definitive position. He told BBC in an interview ''The elements suggest you can not rule out the possibility that acts of genocide have been committed''. He added the thresholds for proof are high but he would not be surprised if in the future a court were to make such a finding on the basis of what we see. Zeid pointed out ASSK might be culpable of failing to act. And also there is the crime of omission. Human right lawyers are already planning to initiate international court action over the massacre.
ASSK's behaviour has been described by a law professor at Queen Mary University of London as those consistent with typical behaviour of a state criminal. I wrote in my article published in this newspaper on October 22 this year: ''As her (ASSK) NLD-led government continues to perpetrate genocidal atrocities against the Rohingyas, she is likely to graduate into an even higher level international criminal in the eyes of the international law and the international community''. That's what she exactly has become now.
The writer is an independent economic and political analyst.
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