Mizzima
The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (GCR2P) has issued a statement about the increase in violence and arson attacks in Myanmar.
The statement focuses on the persecution of people in Rakhine State, both the persecution of ethnic Rakhine people by the junta and Rohingya people by the junta and the Arakan Army (AA). It also talks about the situation deteriorating across the rest of the country.
Below is the 13 June 2024 statement.
From 29 May to 2 June Myanmar’s (Burma) military junta killed at least 75 ethnic Rakhine civilians during attacks on villages outside of Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State. Soldiers reportedly entered Byine Phyu and forced residents to the center of the village, where they separated men and women for questioning and subsequently killed many of the residents. A survivor recalled the harrowing event, stating, ‘[The soldiers] started questioning the male villagers. If [the men] had a tattoo on their back, neck or arms, [the soldiers] stabbed the tattoos with knives. They were asked whether they were [Arakan Army] AA or not. Villagers did not have time to answer. They were shot dead immediately.” Reports indicate that the soldiers raped the women before killing them.
The junta’s attacks near Sittwe are the latest deadly incident following weeks of escalating attacks on civilians and intensifying clashes with the Arakan Army (AA) across Rakhine State. The junta has intentionally stoked ethnic divisions and violence in Rakhine State between ethnic Rakhine and Rohingya communities. On 17 May the AA took control of the predominantly Rohingya town of Buthidaung, killing at least 30 people, displacing thousands of Rohingya civilians and reportedly setting fire to the town. Prior to this attack, junta forces, including Rohingya who were forcibly conscripted, set fire to the homes of ethnic Rakhine. The junta has reportedly threatened to restrict humanitarian aid to the Rohingya in Sittwe that dodge the conscription notice, as well as allegedly mandated evacuations of towns surrounding Sittwe. Local residents have claimed that the junta has forced the displaced civilians to relocate to Sittwe, raising fears of the junta’s plans to use them as human shields to defend the capital.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said, “Once again, the world seems to be failing a desperate people in their hour of peril while a hate-driven unnatural disaster unfolds in real time in Myanmar’s Rakhine State… the military’s role is clear in fostering toxic conditions in Rakhine State, from propaganda fueling ethnic tensions to the forced recruitment of young Rohingya men into the junta’s military.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned the escalating violence, calling upon all parties “to exercise maximum restraint, prioritize protection of civilians in accordance with international humanitarian law and prevent further incitement of communal tension and violence.”
Meanwhile, the crises in other parts of Myanmar have significantly deteriorated as the junta continues to use widespread arson and bombing campaigns to target populations, including in Chin, Kayin and Kayah states. On 3 June a junta airstrike on a wedding ceremony in Mingin Township, Sagaing Region, killed at least 28 people. Targeted and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, as well as killing and torture are prohibited under international law and may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The international community must impose additional sanctions on the junta to deprive the military of the funds, jet fuel and legitimacy it requires to continue to perpetrate atrocities against civilians. The AA and military must cease causing harm to the Rohingya and other civilians, as well as refrain from targeting and destroying protected civilian infrastructure.
GCR2P was established in 2008 by supportive governments, leading figures from the human rights field as well as five of the world’s leading international non-governmental organizations (Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group, Oxfam International, Refugees International and the World Federalist Movement).
It saves lives by mobilising the international community to act in situations where populations are at risk of mass atrocity crimes and exists to uphold the norm of the Responsibility to Protect – known as R2P – adopted by the UN in 2005. This principle seeks to ensure that the international community never again fails to halt the mass atrocity crimes of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
