Mizzima
The Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation in Malaysia (MERHROM) issued a statement 29 March urging the UN Security Council (UNSC), the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), world leaders, and the international community to intervene immediately in order to restore peace and save the Rohingya, especially in Rakhine State.
The following is the abridged text of the statement:
For the past few months, the Myanmar military has been intensifying genocidal attacks against the Rohingya villages resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocent Rohingya villagers including women and children. Hundreds of Rohingya suffered severe injuries following the attacks. Not only that, the Myanmar military is forcibly recruiting Rohingya villagers to join the Myanmar military, particularly from Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Minbya, Rathedaung, and Sittwe Township. This is strange as Rohingya were not recognized as citizens. This has forced an unknown number of Rohingya villagers to flee Arakan State.
The Rohingya villagers are also facing ongoing genocidal attacks from the Arakan Army (AA) where the Rohingya were arrested, kidnapped, tortured, blackmailed, and killed. Hundreds or even more Rohingya villagers were killed during the war between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army. In mid-March 2024, about 100 Rohingya villagers were killed during their war as the military forced the Rohingya to be human shields.
Rohingya women were raped by both parties. In early March, a 4-year-old Rohingya girl was kidnapped by the Myanmar junta’s ally, the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP). They asked for a ransom of 15 million Kyat from the family for her release. However, they did not release her after receiving the ransom money. Finally, on 14th March, the girl’s dead body was found near the ALP’s office in Bumay. No Rohingya is safe in Arakan.
On 18th March 2024, the Myanmar military carried out an air bombardment over the Rohingya village in Minbya Township resulting in 25 Rohingya being killed and 60 Rohingya villagers injured.
This situation has forced the Rohingya to flee the country to seek refuge. Both the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army forced the Rohingya villagers to leave their villages as they wanted to fight each other. The truth is that the fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army is a genocidal strategy by the military as more Rohingya were killed compared to the fighting parties.
Both the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army have committed genocide against the Rohingya. Last week, United Nations Chief Antonio Guterres warned about the situation of Rohingya in Arakan State. We urge the UN Security Council to take effective measures to stop the ongoing killing of the Rohingya and the genocide by deploying the UN Peacekeeping Force to Arakan State. These are the evidence for the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ) cases against the Myanmar military and they must be documented carefully and comprehensively.
We regret the genocidal attack against the Rohingya continued during the holy month of Ramadan. The delayed actions by the United Nations and the international community will only allow the ongoing killing of Rohingya in Myanmar to increase the number of refugees and internally displaced persons, and have a tremendous impact on regional security and stability.
The timely interventions and international support to the people of Myanmar are very crucial at this time and the delayed actions sacrifice more lives than ever. The military must be made accountable for the Genocide and atrocities without further delay. The ICJ and ICC process must be ongoing in whatever situation to deliver justice to the victims of Genocide and the people of Myanmar.
This is a real challenge for the UN leadership, as the mandated body is tasked with ending the Rohingya genocide that continues to this day. This means the international community has not learned anything from the Rwanda genocide. Delayed intervention will cause more Rohingya to die at this last stage of the Rohingya genocide. In Arakan, now Rakhine State, we cannot speak for ourselves as there will be repercussions. We need you to speak for us. Our liberty has been taken away.
We need urgent help from the outside world to change our fate. Any delay means more Rohingya will die. Therefore, we urgently appeal to world leaders, OIC, EU, ASEAN, and the United Nations to urge UNSC and UNHRC to find a permanent solution to the Rohingya genocide. The UN Security Council must send its UN Peacekeeping Mission to Arakan State urgently to end Rohingya genocide and atrocity against the people of Myanmar and monitor human rights violations.
We thank UNSC and UNHRC very much for your sincere commitment and intervention to stop the Rohingya Genocide and atrocity to the establishment of real democracy and human rights in Myanmar. We look forward to your active interventions to uphold democracy and human rights globally.
