Genocide in Myanmar

The village in western Myanmar where Zahidullah Rahim lived until last year is gone. The road is now lined with charred palm trees and the burnt remains of mosques. Tropical vines grow over what is left of the scorched foundations where homes once stood.

Rahim, a member of the oppressed Rohingya minority, once hoped to become a lawyer and represent his people. Now he lives in a refugee camp in neighboring Bangladesh.

“Everything has disappeared,” Rahim says, “even my dreams.”

Rahim is one of more than 700,000 Rohingya who fled Myanmar in 2017 amid a frenzy of killing, rape, and arson by soldiers and Buddhist mobs. More than a year later, no one has been held accountable for the violence.

The village in western Myanmar where Zahidullah Rahim lived until last year is gone. The road is now lined with charred palm trees and the burnt remains of mosques. Tropical vines grow over what is left of the burnt foundations where homes once stood.

Rahim is a member of the oppressed Rohingya minority. He once hoped to become a lawyer and represent his people. Now he lives in a refugee camp in neighboring Bangladesh.

“Everything has disappeared,” Rahim says, “even my dreams.”

Rahim is one of more than 700,000 Rohingya who fled Myanmar in 2017. They left amid a frenzy of killing, rape, and arson by soldiers and Buddhist mobs. More than a year later, no one has been held accountable for the violence.

The Rohingya are a minority Muslim group from Myanmar that have long been persecuted by the majority population, which is Buddhist. The Rohingya have lived in Myanmar’s Rakhine State for centuries, long before the country gained independence from the British in 1948.

Myanmar’s military leaders deny responsibility for the 2017 violence, but the international community is trying to hold them to account. In August, the United Nations released a report calling the campaign against the Rohingya a genocide and saying Myanmar’s top military leaders should be tried for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

“The report is an enormous deal,” says Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch, a human rights group. “It’s the only official U.N. account of what happened, and all U.N. member states have to take note of it.”

The Rohingya are a minority Muslim group from Myanmar. They’ve long been persecuted by the majority population, which is Buddhist. The Rohingya have lived in Myanmar’s Rakhine State for centuries. They were there long before the country gained independence from the British in 1948.

Myanmar’s military leaders deny responsibility for the 2017 violence. Still, the international community is trying to hold them to account. In August, the United Nations released a report calling the campaign against the Rohingya a genocide. The U.N. also said Myanmar’s top military leaders should be tried for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

“The report is an enormous deal,” says Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch, a human rights group. “It’s the only official U.N. account of what happened, and all U.N. member states have to take note of it.”

The U.N. report estimates that at least 10,000 Rohingya were killed in the violence and cites harrowing eyewitness accounts of mass killings, gang rapes of women and young girls, and the wholesale destruction of villages by the military. The findings are based on 875 interviews, along with documents compiled in field missions to Bangladesh and neighboring countries.

“Only verified and corroborated information was relied upon,” the report states.

Survivors now living in refugee camps in Bangladesh describe similar horrors. “They slaughtered my husband in front of me and my kids,” says Mostafa Khatun, 25, who fled Myanmar last August after she herself was bound with rope and raped as her children watched.

The hatred in Myanmar between the Rohingya and the majority Buddhist population goes back to World War II (1939-45). The Rohingya fought with the Allies, while the Buddhists sided with the occupying Japanese. After the Allies won, the Rohingya hoped to be rewarded with independence. But that didn’t happen.

Instead, leaders of the newly independent Burma (Myanmar’s name before 1989) began blaming the Rohingya for the country’s problems, claiming they were illegal migrants from Bangladesh and stripping them of their rights. They have been denied citizenship since 1982, aren’t allowed to move around the country freely, and have no access to government services like education and health care.

The longtime persecution eventually fueled a Rohingya militant movement. Those militants staged attacks on Myanmar military outposts in August 2017, sparking the violence that caused so many to flee.

The U.N. report estimates that at least 10,000 Rohingya were killed in the violence. It cites disturbing eyewitness accounts of mass killings, gang rapes of women and young girls, and the wholesale destruction of villages by the military. The findings are based on 875 interviews. Documents gathered in field missions to Bangladesh and neighboring countries were also used.

“Only verified and corroborated information was relied upon,” the report states.

Survivors now living in refugee camps in Bangladesh describe similar horrors. “They slaughtered my husband in front of me and my kids,” says Mostafa Khatun, 25. She fled Myanmar last August after she herself was bound with rope and raped as her children watched.

The hatred in Myanmar between the Rohingya and the majority Buddhist population goes back to World War II (1939-45). The Rohingya fought with the Allies, while the Buddhists sided with the occupying Japanese. After the Allies won, the Rohingya hoped to be rewarded with independence. But that didn’t happen.

Instead, leaders of the newly independent Burma (Myanmar’s name before 1989) began blaming the Rohingya for the country’s problems. The leaders claimed they were illegal migrants from Bangladesh and stripped them of their rights. The Rohingya have been denied citizenship since 1982. They aren’t allowed to move around the country freely and have no access to government services like education and health care.

The longtime persecution eventually fueled a Rohingya militant movement. Those militants staged attacks on Myanmar military outposts in August 2017. This sparked the violence that caused so many to flee.

The current government of Myanmar is composed of a combination of military and civilian leadership. Myanmar’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been sharply criticized for failing to speak out against the military for its role in the attacks. Suu Kyi, a longtime democracy advocate who was once held under house arrest by the military, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, and many in the international community expected her to come swiftly to the defense of the Rohingya.

Despite Suu Kyi’s inaction, human rights advocates see some reason for hope in the U.N. report. The report calls for an international effort to preserve evidence of the atrocities for possible future prosecution. Myanmar didn’t sign on to the agreement that created the International Criminal Court, so it’s unlikely those responsible will be brought to trial in the near term. But gathering evidence keeps the door open for justice in the future, says Adams of Human Rights Watch.

“Once the evidence is gathered,” he says, “it will become fairly irresistible to use it to prosecute those responsible.”

The current government of Myanmar is composed of a combination of military and civilian leadership. Myanmar’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been sharply criticized for failing to speak out against the military for its role in the attacks. Suu Kyi is a longtime democracy advocate who was once held under house arrest by the military. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. Many in the international community expected her to come swiftly to the defense of the Rohingya.

Despite Suu Kyi’s inaction, human rights advocates see some reason for hope in the U.N. report. The report calls for an international effort to preserve evidence of the atrocities for possible future prosecution. Myanmar didn’t sign on to the agreement that created the International Criminal Court. That makes it unlikely that those responsible will be brought to trial in the near term. But gathering evidence keeps the door open for justice in the future, says Adams of Human Rights Watch.

“Once the evidence is gathered,” he says, “it will become fairly irresistible to use it to prosecute those responsible.”

With reporting by Nick Cumming-Bruce, Hannah Beech, and Michael Schwirtz of The New York Times.

With reporting by Nick Cumming-Bruce, Hannah Beech, and Michael Schwirtz of The New York Times.