Report finds
“reasonable grounds” for ICC arrest warrants, identifies 22 military and police
officials
(BANGKOK and COX’S
BAZAR, July 19, 2018)—The Myanmar authorities made “extensive and systematic
preparations” for attacks against Rohingya civilians during the weeks and
months before militants attacked police on August 25, 2017, Fortify Rights said
in a new report released today. The report finds “reasonable grounds” that
crimes against Rohingya constitute genocide and crimes against humanity, and it
identifies 22 Myanmar Army and Police officials who should be criminally
investigated for their roles in atrocities.
In order for the
International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant, the prosecutor
must find “reasonable grounds” that perpetrators committed genocide and/or
crimes against humanity. The report calls on the United Nations Security Council
to urgently refer the situation in Myanmar to the ICC.
“Genocide doesn’t
happen spontaneously,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer at Fortify
Rights. “Impunity for these crimes will pave the path for more violations and
attacks in the future. The world can’t sit idly by and watch another genocide
unfold, but right now, that’s exactly what’s happening.”
The dominant
narrative about what occurred in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State in 2017
suggests that Rohingya militants attacked dozens of police outposts,
instigating a spontaneous Myanmar Army-led crackdown against Rohingya
civilians, forcing the displacement of hundreds of thousands to Bangladesh.
The 160-page report,
“They Gave Them Long
Swords”: Preparations for Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, Against
Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, Myanmar, https://t.co/kUQOYVgvYH
documents how the Myanmar authorities committed mass killings, rape, and arson
attacks against Rohingya in Maungdaw Township in October and November 2016.
When the international community failed to effectively respond to these
attacks, Myanmar authorities made preparations to commit another attack that
extended throughout all three townships of northern Rakhine State—Maungdaw,
Buthidaung, and Rathedaung.
Stranded on the
Myanmar border with limited or no food and water for up to 20 days after
fleeing Myanmar Army-led attacks, Rohingya refugees finally cross the Naf River
on a makeshift raft made of bamboo and empty palm-oil cans—a five to
seven-hour-long journey. Patrick Brown © Panos/UNICEF 2018
Specifically,
Myanmar authorities: 1) systematically collected sharp or blunt objects from
Rohingya civilians, “disarming” them; 2) trained and armed local non-Rohingya
ethnic citizens in northern Rakhine State, preparing them for violence; 3)
systematically tore down fencing and other structures around Rohingya homes,
providing attackers with a greater line-of-sight on civilians; 4) deprived
Rohingya civilians of food and other lifesaving aid, systematically weakening
them physically ahead of attacks; 5) deployed unnecessarily high numbers of
state-security forces to northern Rakhine State; and 6) committed human rights
violations against Rohingya civilians, including imposing discriminatory
curfews and other violations prior to attacks.
These deliberate actions
fit within the United Nations’ Framework for Analysis of Atrocity Crimes as
“preparatory actions” for genocide and crimes against humanity.
The report finds at
least 27 Myanmar Army battalions, comprising up to 11,000 soldiers, along with
at least three combat police battalions, comprising an estimated 900 police
personnel, were involved in the attacks in northern Rakhine State beginning in
August 2017.
Fortify Rights
identifies 22 military and police officials with command responsibility for the
“clearance operations” in northern Rakhine State. These officials should be
criminally investigated and potentially prosecuted for genocide and crimes
against humanity. The list includes Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung
Hlaing, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Vice Senior General Soe Win, and the Joint
Chief of Staff of the Army, Navy, and Air Force General Mya Tun Oo.
Stranded on the
Myanmar border for up to three weeks, Rohingya refugees cross the Naf River
into Bangladesh—a five to seven-hour-long journey—on makeshift rafts made of
bamboo, tarp, and empty palm-oil cans. Patrick Brown © Panos/UNICEF 2018
The report is based
on a 21-month-long investigation, including 254 interviews conducted by Fortify
Rights in Myanmar and Bangladesh with Rohingya eyewitnesses and survivors,
Myanmar military and police personnel, Bangladesh military and government
officials, members and former members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army
(ARSA)—also known as al Yaqin, a militant Rohingya group—international and local
humanitarian aid workers, medical physicians, and others.
“They came and took
all the knives away,” said “Rahana,” a 50-year-old Rohingya mother of two from
Nyaung Chaung village in Buthidaung Township. “It was around two weeks ago,”
she told Fortify Rights on August 30, 2017.
Myanmar authorities
provided weapons—firearms and swords—and quasi-military training to
non-Rohingya citizens in northern Rakhine State months and, in some cases,
immediately prior to attacks on Rohingya that began on August 25, 2017.
“They gave them long
swords,” said “Mohammed Rafiq,” a 25-year-old Rohingya eyewitness to a Myanmar
Army-led massacre in Tula Toli—also known as Min Gyi—in Maungdaw Township on
August 30, 2017. “I could see it. [The soldiers] handed [Rakhine civilians] swords.
Even young Rakhine boys were given long swords, and they were moving around
with the swords hanging on their backs.”
A Rohingya refugee
uses one of the many man-made dams in Balokhali 2 refugee camp, Cox’s Bazar
District, Bangladesh. Patrick Brown © Panos/UNICEF 2018
While disarming
Rohingya and arming non-Rohingya in northern Rakhine State, the Myanmar
authorities blocked humanitarian aid to Rohingya, including food and lifesaving
aid. This had the effect of systematically weakening Rohingya civilians ahead
of attacks against them.
The government also
restricted access for journalists and human rights monitors before the attacks,
including the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission, established in
March 2017 by the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Fortify Rights
interviewed several current and former members of ARSA who explained their
involvement in hastily planned attacks on police outposts on August 25, which
provided the ostensible spark for the Myanmar Army-led crackdown on civilians.
Those interviewed by Fortify Rights described ARSA as having little to no
military capacity and no training.
Upon ARSA’s assault
on police outposts on August 25, Myanmar authorities activated local
non-Rohingya citizens, some of whom they previously armed and trained.
Together, they attacked Rohingya villages.
Fortify Rights
documented how soldiers, police, and local non-Rohingya citizens hacked
civilians, slit throats, and fatally shot and burned thousands of Rohingya men,
women, and children in a matter of weeks. Soldiers raped masses of Rohingya
women and girls, killed infant children, arbitrarily arrested men and boys, and
destroyed several hundred villages in arson attacks, forcing more than 700,000
to flee to Bangladesh.
Imam Nurul, 53,
during afternoon prayers at a makeshift mosque in Kutupalong refugee camp,
Cox's Bazar District, Bangladesh. Patrick Brown © Panos/UNICEF 2018
“Rashida,” 50,
watched as Myanmar Army and Lon Htein (riot police) soldiers dragged her two
adult sons from her home in Kha Maung Seik—also known as Fora Bazaar—in
Maungdaw Township on August 27. “I was watching the whole time,” she told
Fortify Rights just days after the incident. “The soldiers made them lay down
on the ground, and then they cut their necks. We were shouting and crying.”
ARSA also perpetrated
human rights abuses, including the murder of Rohingya civilians. Fortify Rights
interviewed six members of ARSA, eyewitnesses to ARSA killings of Rohingya
civilians, and 11 civilians who provided credible information that ARSA killed
six Rohingya civilians in the lead-up to the August 25 attacks.
Rohingya survivors
and members of ARSA told Fortify Rights that the militant group threatened,
beat, and, in some cases, killed Rohingyas they suspected of being government
informants. Members of ARSA told Fortify Rights that Atta Ullah, the head of
ARSA, issued the kill orders.
“Decades of
persecution by the Myanmar Army don’t give Rohingya fighters a license to kill
civilians,” said Matthew Smith. “Those responsible for these brutal killings
should be investigated and prosecuted in line with international human rights
standards.”
Noor Haba, 11,
carries her family's belongings to Shamlapur Beach in Bangladesh after the boat
she traveled on from Maungdaw Township, Myanmar arrived safely at 8:43 a.m.
Patrick Brown © Panos/UNICEF 2018
The report finds
there are reasonable grounds to believe that the crimes perpetrated by the
Myanmar Army, Police, and civilians against Rohingya in all three townships of
northern Rakhine State constitute genocide.
The crime of genocide
requires 1) the commission of one of five specified criminal acts 2) committed
against a protected national, ethnic, racial, or religious group 3) with the
intent to destroy the group in whole or part.
Specifically, the
new report analyzes three acts of genocide—killings, causing serious bodily
harm, and creating conditions of life designed to be destructive—committed with
a specific intent to destroy the Rohingya in whole or in part. According to
case law, genocidal intent can be inferred from a number of factors, including
the political doctrine that gives rise to the acts, the use of derogatory
language toward members of the targeted group, the scale of the atrocities, the
systematic nature and atrociousness of the acts, the deliberate and systematic
targeting of victims on account of their membership in a protected group, and
the targeting of all members of the group.
Mohammed H., 23,
carries his father Abdu S., 60, blind and unable to walk since fleeing their
village in Buthidaung Township. Stranded in Myanmar on the banks of the Naf
River for one month, they left behind three surviving family members suffering
from illness. Patrick Brown © Panos/UNICEF 2018
The evidence
collected by Fortify Rights demonstrates reasonable grounds to believe that the
Myanmar Army, Police, and civilian perpetrators acted with genocidal intent to
destroy the Rohingya in whole or in part.
The report also
analyzes the commission of eight crimes against humanity—murder, extermination,
rape, deportation or forcible transfer, torture, imprisonment, enforced disappearance
and persecution—committed by Myanmar Army soldiers and Police personnel against
Rohingya civilians.
In addition to a
U.N. Security Council referral to the ICC, the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN)—to which Myanmar is a member—should hold an emergency meeting
to develop a plan of action to address the Rohingya crisis and ensure
international justice and accountability, Fortify Rights said.
“Rohingya
communities know better than anyone that the authorities have been intent on
destroying them for decades,” said Matthew Smith. “ASEAN has a particular role
to play in ending these atrocities. Governments have the ability to persuade
all members of the Security Council to support an ICC referral vote or at least
abstain from blocking it.”