Myanmar’s Crackdown On the Rohingya : Justification as Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing.

Description: 

"We live in a rapidly changing world in which people often seek about human rights. But it turns meaningless when we see the number of refugees around the world is increasing rapidly. It will be unbelievable to hear that,the present world is facing the most global refugee crisis and we are witnessing a massive shift of humanity due to racial violent disorder, religious virulence, extreme nationalism, political and social conflict. In recent worlds Rohingya Muslims refugee have been the focus of considerable loved ones public concern . It is believed that Rohingya Muslims are the most persecuted population all over the world.They have faced decades of systematic discrimination, stateless and targeted violence since the early 20th century. But the Rohingya affair has been largely ignored by the world community due to geopolitics , something that pushed some scholars to think that they represent a ghost and forgotten ethnic group, suffering slow burning genocide. The UN called the Myanmar authority to put an end the brutal security operation claiming the atrocities against the Rohingya as ‚a textbook example of ethnic cleansing‛ As Myanmar authorities are subjecting the Rohingya Muslim minority to collective punishment ,millions of Rohingya muslims crossed the international border and took shelter in Bangladesh. Bangladesh provided shelter for them from the humanitarian perspective as it was going on for many years with a significant spikes following violent attacks in 1978 ,1991-1992 ,2016 and finally in late August 2017. Following the co-ordinate attack on 30 police camps and an army base by so called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA)1 a group previously known as Harakah al-Yaqin on August 25, 2017,causing deaths of 12 police officers, the Myanmar military began a major crackdown in the villages of Northern Rakhaine State. The atrocities included attacks on Rohingya people and locations, looting and burning down Rohingya villages, mass killing of Rohingya civilians, gang rapes, and other sexual violence. As a result Rohingya Muslims started to flee to save their life to avoid ethnic and religious persecution by Myanmar’s security forces and as a neighbouring country their destination is of course Bangladesh. As of 15 October 2017, the Inter-Sector Coordination Group (ISCG)2 reported that 537,0001 Rohingya refugees have entered Bangladesh since the attacks.But anoher report says that at least 720,000 Rohingya fled after the bloody crackdown and entered Bangladesh to join some 300,000 already living in the camps who took shelter during past influx. More than 6,700 Rohingya Muslims including at least 730 children under the age of five were killed in the first month of the crackdown according to Medcins Sans Frontieres (MSF) an international humanitarian medical non governmental organization (NGO) of French but Myanmar claims officially the figure is only 400. Whatever the figure is, the question arises towards international community whether it will be regarded as ‚Genocide ‚or ‚Ethnic cleansing.‛.....Ethnic cleansing defined: Ethnic cleansing and genocide seems to be same in nature but completely two distinct concept. The term ethnic cleansing is a literal translation of the Serbo-Croatian phrase :‚etnicko ciscenje‛ , that is focused in the context of the 1990’s conflict in the former Youguslavia . But the roots of the term and who started the term is still unknown. It is believed that the term ethnic cleansing is invented by Slobodan Milosevic.3 The expression ethnic cleansing has been used in resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly and has acknowledged in judgements and indictments of the ICTY. There is no international treaty relating to the crime Ethnic Cleansing. As it has not been considered as an independent crime under international law ,so no exact definition will be given or what exact acts will be constituted for the purposes of the ethnic cleansing is not cleared. However a United Nations Commission of experts mandated to look into violations of international humanitarian law in the territory of the former Youguslavia defined ethnic cleansing in its interim report S/25274 as "… rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation to remove persons of given groups from the area."4..."

Creator/author: 

Md. Manir Alam

Source/publisher: 

Jagannath University (Dhaka)

Date of Publication: 

2017-08-00

Date of entry: 

2021-05-03

Grouping: 

  • Individual Documents

Category: 

Countries: 

Myanmar

Language: 

English

Local URL: 

Format: 

pdf

Size: 

333.98 KB

Resource Type: 

text

Text quality: 

    • Good