Bangladesh documents 161 testimonies of atrocities
The Myanmar army along with local Buddhist communities
began a barbarous crackdown on Rohingyas on August 25, 2017, a recent
investigation conducted by Bangladesh’s Liberation War Museum has concluded.
The museum’s report, “The Rohingya Genocide: Compilation
and Analysis of Survivors’ Testimonies”, found the perpetrators of the Rohingya
genocide in Rakhine state of Myanmar used rape and sexual violence as a weapon
against the ethnic community in the name of their “clearance operation”.
It said Rohingya women and girls were molested by the
attackers in their own residences or neighbourhoods.
More than 700,000 Rohingyas, mostly children and women,
have crossed into Bangladesh in fear of their lives in the past 14 months.
They have joined more than 400,000 others who were
already mostly living in squalid and cramped camps inside Cox’s Bazar.
A team of researchers from the Centre for the Study of
Genocide and Justice (CSGJ) of Bangladesh Liberation War Museum, after a series
of visits to eight makeshift camp-sites, have documented 161 testimonies of
discriminations and atrocities from the Rohingya survivors, eyewitnesses and
victims who fled the violence.
The editor of the 94-page paper, Mofidul Hoque, said the
research would assist any future ICC trial process to ensure international
justice for the Rohingya victims of genocide.
“The findings are evident in stating that a widespread
and systematic attack through means of rape and acts of sexual violence against
the civilian population has indeed been committed by the Myanmar Military
forces aided by the locals,” he said.
“Among the victims were Rohingya women who suffered
violations of rape, gang rape, mutilation, assault, and torture, and who also
witnessed the death of their family members.
“The largely Muslim minority have been systematically
stripped of their legal rights, leaving them stateless and especially
vulnerable to human rights abuses having no legal government protection.”
Rape as a weapon
Gita Sahgal, the former head of Amnesty International’s
gender unit, said rape and sexual violence were used as a common military
strategy in conflict-torn places such as the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and
Sudan.
“Rape is often used in ethnic conflicts as a way for
attackers to perpetuate their social control and redraw ethnic boundaries,” she
said.
“It instills fear by exercising vicious and calculated
exercise of power on a helpless and destabilized community which is already
suffering from conflict situation.”
In the case of Myanmar, hundreds of women have entered
Bangladesh in ripped clothes, traumatized from being either a victim or a witness
to the heinous crimes.
From the testimonies collected, the legal framework and
the cases cited, it is apparent that rape and sexual violence has been used as
an instrument by Tatmadew, Myanmar’s autonomous military.
The research also finds that that Myanmar’s military
force, in collaboration with local ultra-nationalists and extremists, has been
committing genocide and other crimes against humanity by targeting the Rohingya
women with an intent to destroy and eliminate the ethnic community as a whole.
Liberation War Museum Trustee and CSGJ Director Mofidul
Hoque told the Dhaka Tribune: “The study report could be considered as a
reliable piece of research work which documents the crime of genocide against
the Rohingya ethnicity.
“Many international organizations have already conducted
similar research but Bangladesh has surveyed for the first time and said that
the attack on Rohingyas can be termed as genocide.”
The research said the discrimination and widespread
atrocities against the Rohingya minority of Myanmar is a historic occurrence.
It said: “The atrocities that took place before and
continued till August 25, 2017, were conducted as attacks on the Rohingya
ethnic population, not only targeting the mass individuals, but as members of a
specific ethno-religious group.
“The group identity is dual here: namely ethnic identity
as Rohingya and religious identity as Muslim. It is sufficient to establish
that the Rohingyas were targeted and persecuted because of their group
identity.
“Furthermore, the intent of the perpetrators was to
wholly and permanently erase the name ‘Rohingya’ from the social, cultural and
political landscape of Myanmar’s history.
“The findings prove that the atrocities in Rakhine were
as brutal as a clear case of genocide under the legal framework of
International Criminal Law.”
‘Shame for humanity’
Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee President
Shahriar Kabir told the Dhaka Tribune that the atrocities committed against the
Rohingyas can be termed as genocide as the nature of the attacks on the ethnic
community matches with almost all definitions of genocide.
“It’s a shame for humanity,” he said. “Many ethnic groups
and races have been lost from the world due to such kinds of inhuman acts.”
Terming the Rohingya prosecution as “slow poison” -
according to the opinions of
international experts – Shahriar, who is a member of a 35-member Citizens’
Commission for Investigating Genocide and Terrorism in Burma, said: “The
Rohingyas will be lost forever from Earth if such acts of genocide continues.”
The research praised the humanitarian response of the
Bangladeshi people to the refugee influx.
It said: “Bangladesh, being a neighbouring country, has
opened its borders to the persecuted Rohingyas and provided them primarily with
facilities such as shelter in makeshift camps, food, clothing, and medical services
and relentlessly working to provide other facilities concerning education and
registration.
“A victim nation of 1971’s genocide is now standing by
the victims of 2017’s genocide – Bangladesh presents an exceptional example of
humanitarianism.”
Source: DT
Source: DT