UN documents 'shocking crimes' by Myanmar army: ''Genocide''

Source Aljazeera, 

Top Myanmar generals led brutal campaign against Rohingya involving 'gravest crimes under international law"'. 

Rohingya refugees pray at a protest on Saturday marking the one-year anniversary of their mass exodus [Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]  

Myanmar's military carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya with "genocidal intent" and the commander-in-chief and five generals should be prosecuted, UN investigators said on Monday.

It was the first time the United Nations explicitly called for Myanmar officials to face genocide charges over their campaign against the Rohingya, and is likely to deepen the Southeast Asian nation's isolation.

The UN mission found Myanmar's armed forces had taken actions that "undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law", forcing more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee starting in late August 2017. 

Speaking in Geneva on Monday, Marzuki Darusman, the mission's chairman, said his researchers amassed evidence based on 875 interviews with witnesses and victims, satellite imagery, and verified photos and videos.

Marzuki said victim accounts were "amongst the most shocking human rights violations" he had come across and would "leave a mark on all of us for the rest of our lives".

WATCH: One year since Myanmar army crackdown, Rohingya seek justice (2:44)

He described Myanmar's military as having shown "flagrant disregard for lives" and displayed "extreme levels of brutality".

"The Rohingya are in a continuing situation of severe systemic and institutionalised oppression from birth to death," Marzuki said.

The UN does not apply the word "genocide" lightly.

Its assessment suggests crimes against the Rohingya could meet the strict legal definition used in places such as Bosnia, Rwanda and Sudan's Darfur region.

'Burning entire villages'

The team cited a "conservative" estimate from aid group Reporters Without Borders that some 10,000 people had been killed in the violence, but outside investigators have had no access to the affected regions, making a precise accounting elusive, if not impossible.

The UN report said military generals, including Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing, must face investigation and prosecution for "genocidal intent" in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state, as well as crimes against humanity and other war crimes in the states of Kachin and Shan.

The report singled out Myanmar's military, known as the Tatmadaw, but added that other Myanmar security agencies were also involved in abuses.

"Military necessity would never justify killing indiscriminately, gang-raping women, assaulting children, and burning entire villages," the report said.

"The Tatmadaw's tactics are consistently and grossly disproportionate to actual security threats, especially in Rakhine state but also in northern Myanmar."

A Rohingya family in Balukhali camp [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]

In Rakhine state, there was evidence of extermination and deportation, the report added.

"The crimes in Rakhine state, and the manner in which they were perpetrated, are similar in nature, gravity and scope to those that have allowed genocidal intent to be established in other contexts," the UN mission concluded, adding there was "sufficient information" to prosecute the military's chain of command. 

Christopher Sidoti, a member of the investigatory committee, urged the UN Security Council and General Assembly to act on the report's findings.

"We are convinced the international community holds the key to dismantling the destructive veil of impunity in Myanmar," he said.

'This is extremely significant'

Mohammed Jamjoom, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Cox's Bazar

"What we've heard in the report really lines up with witness testimonies I've heard here.

For most of the past year, when official bodies of governance spoke about the atrocities committed in Rakhine state, they called it ethnic cleansing. 

Now there's a very extensive UN fact-finding mission recommending that top tier military officials in Myanmar be prosecuted and investigated for genocide.

When the members of the panel in Geneva laid out their investigation, they said that they conducted 875 interviews, they talked about the destructive veil of impunity in Myanmar and they said that until that is lifted, the cycle of violence in Myanmar will continue.

They said there needs to be a mechanism by which these crimes can be prosecuted and the cycle of violence in Myanmar can be ended.

That's going to be very difficult, we don't know exactly where this goes. At some point, it will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council and then potentially to the UN Security Council.

But we must remember that Myanmar is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, so the International Criminal Court does not have jurisdiction."

Criticism of Aung San Suu Kyi

Investigators compiled a list of suspects, which included Min Aung Hlaing and other military commanders.

The mission said a full list of suspects will be made available to any credible body pursuing accountability, adding that the case should be referred to the International Criminal Court, or an ad hoc criminal tribunal. 

Myanmar's civilian leadership also drew criticism for its failure to prevent the abuses.

"The State Counsellor, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has not used her de facto position as Head of Government, nor her moral authority, to stem or prevent the unfolding events in Rakhine State," the report said. 

The Government and the Tatmadaw have fostered a climate in which hate speech thrives, human rights violations are legitimized, and incitement to discrimination and violence facilitated.

UN REPORT

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been criticised internationally for her failure to speak out against abuses in Rakhine State and has had several human rights awards rescinded for her stance.

WATCH

45:21

The Rohingya: Silent Abuse

In August 2017, Myanmar's armed forces launched a campaign ostensibly against Rohingya armed groups in Rakhine state.

Investigators documented mass killings, the destruction of Rohingya dwellings, and "large-scale" gang rape by Myanmar soldiers.

The UN's report drew praise from the ground in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, where refugee camps have taken in hundreds of thousands of Rohingya from across the border.

"We are happy for this. If these army people are punished the world will take note of it. They are killers. They must be punished," said Mohammed Hasan, 46, who lives in the Kutupalong refugee camp.

"They killed thousands, we have seen that. They torched our homes, that's a fact. They raped our women, that's not false." 

Forced Migration of Rohingya: The Untold Experience

Source researchgate, 

As you know, to mark the one year of Rohingya Crisis, a research consortium consisting of academics, practitioners and organisations launched a report entitled "Forced Migration of Rohingya: The Untold Experience". The key findings of the research, based on 650,000 refugees, are as follows:

§ An estimated 116,000 Rohingya were beaten by Myanmar authorities when family members are included.
§ An estimated 43,000 Rohingya received gunshot wounds when family members are included.
§ An estimated 36,000 Rohingya were thrown into fire.
§ An estimated 25,000 Rohingya were murdered.
§ An estimated 19,000 Rohingya women and adolescents were raped
§ 82% of participants reported witnessing their neighbours' death or saw dead bodies in Myanmar before fleeing to Bangladesh.
§ 59% of participants reported witnessing neighbours who had been victims of raped by Myanmar authorities.
§ 85% of participants reported witnessing of the burning down of their own or neighbours' homes.
§ 96% of Rohingya demanded Myanmar citizenship.
§ 96% of Rohingya demanded justice through prosecution of the perpetrators. 
§ Over 93% of Rohingya wanted UN peace force deployment in Rakhine as a precondition for their repatriation to Myanmar.

Putting this together published our research activity on Rohingya Crisis in a Book "Forced Migration of Rohingya: The Untold Experience". All the facts, stories and summaries very heart breaking.

I encourage you all to have a look a share with your network for a wider response and maximum impact on the media. This book is not for sale, free download here:

https://www.researchgate.net/…/326912213_Forced_Migration_o…

Please share with your network for maximum impact on the news and media.

Thanks"

SUU KYI IS MOST POLISHED MOUNTHPIECE OF MYANMAR MILITARY

Source freerohingyacoalition, 25 Aug

Free Rohingya Coalition co-founder Maung Zarni says time to reject false messiahs in Myanmar beginning with Aung San Suu Kyi

LONDON — Watching YouTube Myanmar State Counsellor's 43rd Singapore lecture — 1-hour lecture including the questions and answers – entitled, "Democratic Transition in Myanmar: Challenges and the Way Forward," left me deeply disturbed, pained and outraged. 

The degree of her delusions, distortions and concoctions made me realize that my fellow Burmese dissident has become nothing more than the most polished mouth piece for her former captors, namely the murderous military regime.

Aung San Suu Kyi wasn't simply one dissident leader among several potential leaders of significance that I, like millions of other Burmese Buddhists, supported in those long years of vibrant anti-dictatorship opposition after the nationwide uprisings of 1988.

My sentimental ties to Aung San family is more personal and goes far deeper.

One late great uncle of mine was her father's next-door neighbor, class mate and a friend at Pegu Hall (dormitory) when both were young undergraduates who hailed together from the Buddhist heartland of the then Upper Burma to study Pali, literature, law, etc. at the colonial Rangoon University in the early 1930's.

Through my relative's first-hand accounts of Aung San, the anti-colonial revolutionary and founder of Burma Independence Army under WWII Japan's fascist patronage, as well as my own study of the slain national hero's voluminous speeches and writings, I have developed a lifelong admiration for the man's strength of character, integrity, Marxist-influenced non-racialism and unwavering sense of service to the oppressed of colonial Burma, not just Buddhists nor the majority Burmans or Bama, but all people who considered Burma their home.

In fact, in my high school days in Mandalay of 1970's I learned the worthy English phrase "love of truth" from one of his writings wherein he pointedly said as a father he wanted to instill the love of truth in his three children.

So, when I watched Suu Kyi's speech act performed at the Grand Hyatt in Singapore, available on YouTube, I noted with deep pains and rage that my hero's world famous, or infamous, daughter packed lie after lie – all verifiable – in her prepared lecture, which she proceeded to deliver with a straight face.

Suu Kyi's Singapore lecture August 22 was a speech her own martyred father would most definitely feel so ashamed about.

Two years since Suu Kyi's assumption of her self-declared 'Above-the-President' office as State Counsellor with her reportedly autocratic control over all ministries save the security-related ministries such as Home Affairs, Defense and Border Affairs, her leadership is noted only for serial failures.

The commissions she has formed to address the country's defining problem — crimes against Rohingyas — have become a butt of international jokes. As the country's most revered politician since her father's murder in 1947, Suu Kyi has been unable to deliver on every one of the party's official major priorities: "rule of law, peace, development, amendments to the Constitution". 

And yet in the lecture, the NLD leader served up the typically democracy-indifferent and docile Singaporean audience a rose-tinted view of her leadership and governmental performance, which the official hosts on the panel dutifully clapped and heaped praise on.

For someone who grew up under General Ne Win's "Burmese Way to Socialism" (1962-1988), Suu Kyi's speech sounded more like a typical party General Secretary's report to the Socialist Polit Bureau presided over by Chairman (despot) Ne Win in the 1960's and 1970's.

The State Counsellor in her own words: "In each of the three panglong (peace) meetings held over the last two years, we made valuable progress. in the First Union Peace Conference, a seven-step roadmap for peace and national reconciliation was achieved. In the Second Conference, 37 principles were adopted. Before the Third Conference, two more ethnic armed groups signed the ceasefire agreement and during the Conference itself, 1"4 more principles were adopted."

Not only her words are unpersuasive and uncorroborated by the harsh realities of Myanmar ethnic minorities, particularly more than 100,000 Kachin war refugees in the country's eastern and northern border regions but the world of Myanmar watchers who actually set their foot in these conflict zones offer an assessment radically different from Ms. Suu Kyi's. Virtually all news reports and field studies about the Burmese military's internal colonial war of pacification note not only the regression of the country's peace process under Suu Kyi's incompetent and failing leadership, typically rich in rhetoric and empty of substance, but also the disappearance of the so-called democratic space even for the ethnically dominant Burman Buddhist public.

That "democratic space" was deliberately allowed by the quasi-democratic regime former General Thein Sein in 2010 designed to tango with the Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton administration as the generals sought to rebalance the military's overreliance on the increasingly aggressive and invasive China in the Burmese affairs. 

The emerging, if belated wisdom in Washington is that the Obama's Myanmar embracement policy, once held up as one of his signature achievements emboldened, sped up and facilitated the genocidal destruction of Rohingya people.

Under Suu Kyi's leadership, Myanmar now faces a growing chorus of international calls for the Security Council for the International Criminal Court referral for international crimes in Western Myanmar state of Rakhine, irrespective of whether such calls will bear fruit. Suu Kyi stands accused, with good reasons, of culpability and complicity in the military's crimes against humanity and even genocide against Rohingya people.

It is matters pertaining to Rohingya persecution — which my researcher colleague Natalie Brinham and I call "the slow burning genocide," because of its decades-long nature — on which Suu Kyi's speech act morphed from detectable delusions into deliberate distortions. 

With no basis in reality, Suu Kyi boasted of having implemented most of the Kofi Annan Commission recommendations, thus: "(t)he recommendations of Dr. Kofi Annan's Commission, 88 in all, of which we have to date implemented 81, aim at the establishment of lasting peace and stability in Rakhine." 

Kofi Annan is no more to do the fact-checking. But former ambassador Laetitia van den Assum, one of his fellow Rakhine Commission members, is still alive to know the untruths, nah, outright lies of Ms. Suu Kyi. Van den Assum tweeted "The underlying reasons for their (Rohingyas') flight remain unaddressed". The tweet, which can be seen at https://twitter.com/lvandenassum/status/1032527791303139328, came on the eve of the one year anniversary of Myanmar's large scale military attacks on the unarmed and peaceful Rohingyas in more than 300 villages across northern Rakhine region. 

As a researcher who has spent the last six years concentrating on my own country's decades-long, state-directed persecution of Rohingyas, I find it morally repugnant and empirically false Suu Kyi's disingenuous framing of the largest refugee crisis her military partners in power have created as initially "terror"-related. 

She in effect added insult to the collective injury of the nearly 2 million Rohingya survivors, internally displaced inside Myanmar, internationally deported across the border to Bangladesh, or the diaspora, when she said, "the danger of terrorist activities, which was the initial cause of events leading to the humanitarian crisis in Rakhine, remains real and present today. Unless this security challenge is addressed, the risk of inter-communal violence will remain." 

Suu Kyi words echo how Myanmar military has long framed the Rohingyas — a threat to security — and justified their institutionalized killings of the latter. 

For the first 15 years since the country's popular uprisings in 1988, I had been one of the most hard-working and effective foot soldiers for Suu Kyi in her international campaigns to ostracize and punish Myanmar military leaders. 

I have studied closely Suu Kyi's leadership and poured over every speech of hers, over the last 30 years since she first parachuted onto the Burmese political stage as "the daughter of General Aung San," as she put it. 

Painfully, I have concluded that the daughter of my nationalist hero is no longer part of Myanmar's solution. For she has for all intents and purposes morphed into the most polished mouthpiece of the military perpetrators. 

Suu Kyi even had the audacity to call three generals in her Cabinet "rather sweet" amidst international calls to haul Myanmar generals to the International Criminal Court. 

On Aug. 25, 700,000-plus Rohingya survivors of Myanmar genocide in 35 camps in Kutupalong meet to mourn, memorialize and honor loved ones who were senselessly maimed, mass-raped, slaughtered and burned alive a year ago. The least the world, both grassroots communities and governments, could do is to drop the decades-old policy delusions, globally, that Suu Kyi represents hope, liberty and liberalism. 

As a Burmese, a dominant Bama, Buddhist from an extended military family at that, I will say for the record Myanmar's State Counsellor no longer speaks for me. 

Nor does she represent the humanistic values which I learned to embrace through her father's writings. I know for a fact that there are fellow dissidents inside Myanmar, however small their numbers, who share my categorical rejection of Suu Kyi and her military partners in crimes. 

Let's remember Rohingya victims today. And let's reject false messiahs of Myanmar, starting with Aung San Suu Kyi.

Enough talk. Let’s have action on Rohingya massacres

Source theguardian, 26 Aug

Inquiries were held on the mass killings in Rakhine state and some visa bans imposed; here's what must happen next

The mass exodus of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar into Bangladesh in October 2017. Photograph: Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images

A fter the genocides in Rwanda and Srebrenica, the words "never again" were uttered like a mantra by many in the international community. Yet a year ago in Myanmar's Rakhine state, "never again" happened all over again.

On 25 August 2017, the army unleashed a military offensive that forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee their villages into neighbouring Bangladesh. It is believed that thousands were killed. Human rights organisations have reported mass rape and eyewitness accounts describe babies and children snatched from their parents' arms and thrown into burning homes or drowned in rivers. Families were burned alive in their homes, villagers lined up and shot and civilians targeted indiscriminately. Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein, the outgoing United Nations high commissioner for human rights, described what happened as "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing", and the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, said she saw "the hallmarks of genocide".

Within the next few weeks, two significant reports will be published. The United States is expected to release the results of its investigation, which may conclude that what has occurred is genocide. The UN fact-finding mission, established before the offensive began last year, will present its report and may well recommend mechanisms for accountability. The evidence and recommendations of these reports must receive serious attention – it is essential that the international community summons the political will to act. This coming week, the UN security council will discuss the situation again, as it has done on several occasions already. Such discussions are vital, but they must move from talk to action.

And yet of course the crisis did not begin a year ago. The plight of the Rohingya has been severe for decades. This predominantly Muslim population has been subjected to dehumanisation and marginalisation, stripped of citizenship rights, rendered stateless and facing restrictions on movement, marriage, access to education and healthcare and freedom of religion or belief.

In 2012, violence broke out between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, leaving thousands displaced and parts of the state smouldering. Rohingya were held in dire conditions in camps that observers compare to internment centres. A new campaign by the Myanmar military broke out in October 2016, a prelude to last year's dramatic escalation.

What, then, should be done? The European Union, the US and Canada have imposed visa bans on a few military and security personnel, which is a welcome step, and Washington has recently strengthened some sanctions against some individuals, although not yet the man ultimately responsible, the commander-in-chief, Min Aung Hlaing. But there is no global arms embargo, no targeted sanctions against military-owned enterprises and no action to end impunity by referring the perpetrators of crimes against humanity to the international criminal court. These are steps that the UN and its member states should now adopt.

No steps have been taken against Myanmar's commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. Photograph: Lynn Bo Bo/Pool/Reuters

Ending impunity is essential because history shows that if those who perpetrate crimes against humanity get away with it, they or others will take it as a signal that they can repeat the same crimes. We warned of this 18 months ago.

But we must also consider what else can be done in addition to justice and accountability. Myanmar has been torn apart by decades of ethnic conflict, fuelled in recent years by religious intolerance and hatred. Constructive steps towards long-term peace-building and reconciliation are needed, to counter the voices of intolerance and promote the principle of freedom of religion or belief, based on respect for human dignity, for every person of every race in Myanmar. Narratives need to be challenged, hate speech countered, the citizenship rights of the Rohingya respected, voices of peace within all religions strengthened and a genuine peace process and political dialogue enhanced.

Perhaps there is a role for trusted international mediators whose only agenda is the basic dignity of all. Pope Francis visited the country last year and delivered this message – perhaps his good offices could play a role in bringing the different peoples of Myanmar, of different races and religions, including the Rohingya, together in dialogue. For one thing is absolutely certain: if hatred, deeply entrenched in society but manipulated by Myanmar's still powerful military, is not addressed, we will be lamenting "again and again" our failure to live up to our responsibility to protect.

Jan Figel is the European Union's special envoy for freedom of religion or belief outside the EU

Benedict Rogers is East Asia team leader at the human rights organisation CSW

Violence Against Rohingya Planned Months in Advance: Report

Source tricycle, 8 Aug

Myanmar disarmed Rohingya, cut off aid, and moved forces into the Rakhine State prior to its violent crackdown.

Rohingya women and children at a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh in July. Photo by Tanvir Murad Topu for World Bank |https://tricy.cl/2vgYos9                       

Months before a surge of genocidal violence forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya from their homes in Myanmar's Rakhine State, the Burmese government made "extensive and systematic preparations" to perpetrate violence against the stateless Muslim minority, according to a report released this month by the advocacy group Fortify Rights.

The report—titled "They Gave Them Long Swords"—claims that in the months leading up to the coordinated state-led attacks on the Rohingya in August 2017, the government took several steps to lay the groundwork. These steps included collecting sharp or blunt objects from Rohingya civilians, which could otherwise be used in self-defense; training and arming Buddhist and other non-Rohingya civilians in the northern Rakhine State; tearing down fencing and other protective or obscuring structures around Rohingya homes; expelling or refusing access to aid organizations and NGOs in an effort to deprive Rohingya civilians of food and other lifesaving aid in order to weaken them; and deploying high numbers of state-security forces. The Rohingya possess almost no civil rights to prevent these measures.

As the report points out, these preparations fit within the United Nations' Framework for Analysis of Atrocity Crimes as "preparatory actions for genocide and crimes against humanity."

The report, which is based on a 21-month investigation, recounts how the Burmese military, the Tatmadaw, provided weapons—including firearms and swords—to non-Rohingya citizens in the Rakhine State. This occurred months before the attacks on Rohingya that began on August 25, 2017, in which armed  citizen "vigilantes" took an active part.

Human rights groups, including Fortify Rights and Human Rights Watch, as well as the UN, have extensively documented the Myanmar government's systematic use of arson, murder, torture, and rape against the Rohingya.

The Fortify Rights report also alleges that the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a small militant Rohingya group, perpetrated human rights abuses, including the murder of Rohingya civilians. Rohingya survivors and members of ARSA told Fortify Rights that the militant group threatened, beat, and in some cases killed Rohingya they suspected of being government informants. ARSA members also told Fortify Rights that Atta Ullah, the head of ARSA, had ordered the murders.

Meanwhile the nearly one million Rohingya in refugee camps in Bangladesh continue to reckon with the aftereffects of their exile as they face an  uncertain future. There has been a wave of children born in the camps, the result of the rapes perpetrated against Rohingya women that began more than ten months ago. Reports tell horrific stories: Women who have conceived babies as a result of being raped are stigmatized and abandoned, or forced into unsafe abortions. In some cases, the women, rejected by their husbands and families, grapple with seeing their newborn children as  unwanted burdens and reminders of trauma.

Myanmar and the UN signed a secret repatriation agreement in June which, after a leaked copy surfaced, was rejected by Rohingya leaders due to its failure to give citizenship rights to the Rohingya. Meanwhile, the government of Bangladesh and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have started an exhaustive process to record and verify the identities of the Rohingya refugees. The six-month effort, which includes fingerprinting, retina scans, and the creation of ID cards for each refugee, began in June and aims to help document and protect the Rohingya.  

Myanmar, for its part, continues to deny wrongdoing. Kyaw Moe Tun, director-general of Myanmar's foreign ministry, recently claimed while speaking to a UN human rights commission that reports contained distorted and exaggerated information. "The root cause of the tragedy was terrorism," Kyaw said, "and terrorism cannot be condoned under any circumstance." The reference to terrorism addresses the ARSA attacks in August 2017, which the government claims were the cause of the "crackdown" on the Rohingya. The claim, however, is contradicted by the Fortify Rights report. The rights group is not alone in resisting the narrative Myanmar has been trying to popularize; UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee told an audience at the Berlin Conference on Myanmar Genocide in February that she was skeptical that the ARSA attacks could have been executed without the foreknowledge of the Myanmar government, which has an extensive security apparatus.

Still, Kyaw Moe Tun insisted at his July 4 meeting with the UN commission that his government was committed to "the defense of human rights."  

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, responded, "In my four years as high commissioner I have heard many preposterous claims. That claim is almost in its own category of absurdity. Have you no shame, sir, have you no shame? We are not fools."

The Myanmar official did not reply to Zeid's comments.

Related: Rohingya in "Last Stages of Genocide"

Despite growing recognition of the genocide inflicted upon the Rohingya community, the international response has been mixed. Israel, which has continued to provide arms and training to the Burmese military, recently signed a deal with Myanmar allowing the two countries to edit each other's school history textbooks, a move apparently aimed to protect both countries from criticism of their human rights record. Ro Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist, told Tricycle that many major corporations continue to do business in Myanmar, including Microsoft, Starbucks, Visa, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Ford, General Motors, General Electric, the GAP, KFC, and many others.

Canada and the European Union placed new sanctions on seven Myanmar military officials in June, one of whom was fired afterward. Myanmar says the official was dismissed due to weakness in his response to attacks on police outposts by ARSA, casting doubt on the assumption that his dismissal is related to the moral message of the sanctions.

Human rights organizations are also advocating a UN Security Council referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Fatou Bensouda, the ICC's chief prosecutor, has raised the question of whether the ICC could address the actions of Myanmar, which does not recognize its authority, as a result of the deportation of the Rohingya into Bangladesh, where their authority is recognized.

Fortify Rights has also called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member, to hold an emergency meeting to "address the Rohingya crisis and ensure international justice and accountability."

"Genocide doesn't happen spontaneously," said Matthew Smith, chief executive officer at Fortify Rights, in a press release. "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."