Treatment of Rohingya is ethnic cleansing: HRW
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Officials accused of abuses, crimes against humanity since June 2012
New York-based Human Rights Watch has accused Myanmar authorities and Arakanese groups in a new report released yesterday of committing crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State – since June 2012.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned during a press conference in Bangkok yesterday that the situation is likely to get worse.
“A humanitarian disaster is already taking place. This will get much worse,” he said, adding that all Muslims have been driven away from Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state. Formerly known as Arakan, the state is now known as Rakhine although HRW continues to refer to it as Arakan state and refers to Myanmar as Burma.
Robertson said Myanmar authorities had put the death toll of people killed in June to October last year at 211, but HRW believed this was well under the number really killed.
HRW claims there have been death threats, demolition of homes, denial of access to school and employment to Muslim Rohingya in Rakhine state. Muslims in the state are also forced to bear badges that identify them as Muslims.
“Arakanese mobs attacked Muslim communities in nine townships, razing villages and killing residents while security forces stood aside or assisted the assailants. Some of the dead were buried in mass graves, further impeding accountability,” part of the report states.
The report says satellite images obtained by the organisation from five out of 13 townships that experienced violence since June showed 27 unique “zones of destruction”, including 4,862 structures on 348 acres of mostly Muslim-owned residential property.
Robertson urged the Myanmar authorities to immediately order security officers to stop mass arrests on religious and ethnic grounds.
He criticised the European Union (EU)’s latest decision to lift all sanctions against Myanmar except its arms embargo, saying the move was premature. Asean was also criticised for saying “basically nothing” about the violence.
“Asean’s response has been very poor. Asean has said basically nothing,” he said, adding that it should reconsider having Myanmar as regional chairman next year, as it may not be fit for the position.
He urged the Thai Buddhist Sangha to also try to communicate with their Myanmar counterparts to refrain from fanning religious hatred between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar, although the group acknowledges that not all Buddhist monks in Myanmar preach religious hatred and violence.
