In Myanmar, the government is destroying Rohingya
villages and the physical evidence of the killings that took place there
All along the rutted road running from Inn Din village to
Maungdaw town in northern Rakhine state, the blackened, headless trunks of palm
trees punctuate the lush landscape. A year after Myanmar’s military launched a
campaign of murder, rape, and arson to drive out the Rohingya, the charred trees are the only visible reminders
that the stateless, Muslim population once lived there. Soon, even these may be
erased. https://www.theguardian.com/world/rohingya
In Inn Din, as in other parts of Rakhine state, the Myanmar government is demolishing areas where
thousands of Rohingya lived before fleeing to Bangladesh. Bulldozers and
backhoes are parked beside new, blue-roofed homes, built by a government agency
chaired by state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. https://www.theguardian.com/world/myanmar
During a government-organised media tour of northern
Rakhine state late last month, Inn Din village administrator Kyaw Soe Moe told
the Guardian the new homes would soon be occupied by “Rakhine, Chin, Bamar, and
Hindu people from other parts of the country”.
According to a UN fact-finding mission, whose report last
month called for Myanmar’s military leaders to be prosecuted
for genocide, the purpose of the bulldozing and construction is “the
removal of the Rohingya and all traces of them and their replacement with
non-Rohingya”. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/27/myanmars-military-accused-of-genocide-by-damning-un-report
‘Tied to trees and raped’: UN report details
Rohingya horrors: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/18/tied-to-trees-and-raped-un-report-details-rohingya-horrors
Another effect of the construction boom is the
destruction of physical evidence that could be useful in a future tribunal.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) estimates at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed
between 25 August and 24 September 2017, but fewer than 100 bodies have been
uncovered, and the Myanmar government has blamed Rohingya insurgents for all
but 10 of the killings.
“It’s a big question I ask myself – where are all the
dead bodies?” said Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, which employs
local networks to document abuses in Rakhine state. “A year later, how will we
find out? If we find bones, how will we know how or when they were killed, or
whether they were killed at all?”
As the past is bulldozed, the future chances of a
Rohingya return look bleak. On the ground, efforts to erase their historical
presence appear to be succeeding. Since Myanmar signed an UN agreement in June
to repatriate more than 700,000 Rohingya refugees, the government has come no
closer to fulfilling this obligation. UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic said
the agency “does not believe that conditions are currently in place in Myanmar
for voluntary, safe, dignified, and sustainable return of Rohingya refugees”.
One massacre, two stories
The destruction of Rohingya lives has been accompanied by
the erasure of their stories. This year, Inn Din gained infamy when a Reuters
investigation revealed that on 2 September, 2017, soldiers, police, and Rakhine
Buddhist villagers massacred 10 Rohingya men and boys. The revelation was
followed by the conviction of seven soldiers for murder, as well as the imprisonment of the two journalists who broke the story – Kyaw Soe Oo and Wa Lone. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/03/myanmar-reuters-journalists-sentenced-to-seven-years-in-prison-rohingya
This, however, is not the story Inn Din residents tell
today. Khin Than Yee, 52, a Rakhine Buddhist whose home lies in a quiet corner
of the village, told the Guardian how she believed last year’s violence began.
“The Muslim community had been planning to attack the village for a long time,”
she said. “Two Muslims killed the father of [Rakhine Buddhist villager] Tun
Aye, and after that, they began shouting and chanting from the top of their
mosque and burned their own homes.”
Her account bears little resemblance to testimonies
shared by Rohingya refugees with the UN fact-finding mission and international
media. Her reference to the father of Tun Aye repeats the military’s claim that
Rohingya insurgents killed a Rakhine resident of Inn Din on 25 August, 2017,
which allegedly sparked the violence that culminated in the massacre a week
later. According to the fact-finding mission, there was no attack by Rohingya
insurgents in Inn Din village that day.
When asked about the massacre. Khin Than Yee grew
impatient, pounding the floor as she said: “Why would Rakhines kill Muslims?
Muslims kill Rakhines 100 times more often than Rakhines kill Muslims. Rakhine
people are kind.”
Khin Than Yee’s incredulity mimics the reflexes of
Myanmar’s leaders. In her first public address on the Rohingya refugee crisis
in September 2017, while people were still streaming across the border to
escape military violence, Aung San Suu Kyi infamously said: “We want to find
out why this exodus is happening.”
‘Destroying evidence … does not prevent
accountability’
Persistent as they may be, efforts to sow doubt about the
facts will not offer any refuge, say investigators and legal experts.
Christopher Sidoti, a member of the UN fact-finding mission, told the Guardian
he and his colleagues were able to collect enough witness and victim evidence
to compile pre-prosecution briefs, which could one day be used by prosecutors. “The
[land] clearance is certainly destroying evidence, including of probable graves
and sites of burning bodies, but it does not prevent accountability because of
the great mass of other evidence,” Sidoti said.
An “independent mechanism” has also been set up by the UN
human rights council to collect evidence for a future tribunal. Unlike the
fact-finding mission, which focused on evidence that crimes occurred and were
systemic, the independent mechanism will focus on collecting “linkage”
evidence, which links individuals to specific crimes.
Kingsley Abbott from the International Commission of
Jurists said linkage evidence included “documentary records, statements
suspects have made, including on social media, and the command structures of
security forces”. Abbott said destroying evidence may leave Myanmar’s leaders
more vulnerable, because it is treated as a separate offence.
A case against Myanmar’s leaders will not come about
quickly. The independent mechanism has yet to begin its work. But when it does,
it may reveal that by destroying graves, Myanmar’s leaders have dug holes for
themselves.
Additional reporting by Cape Diamond