GENOCIDE IN MYANMAR

Executive Summary
In May 2015 scenes of desperate people stranded without food or water on captain-less boats off the
coasts of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia brought global attention to the Rohingya, 1 a 1.1 million-strong
Muslim ethnic group in Rakhine state, Myanmar (formerly Burma). 2 The immediate humanitarian crisis,
however, masked a much deeper and more unpalatable crisis – a genocidal persecution organised by the
Myanmar State from which the Rohingya were fleeing.
Reports of this persecution led researchers from the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) to
explore whether or not well-documented state crimes against Myanmar’s Rohingya do indeed amount
to genocide. ISCI’s detailed research found ample evidence that the Rohingya have been subjected to
systematic and widespread violations of human rights, including killings, torture, rape and arbitrary detention;
destruction of their homes and villages; land confiscation; forced labour; denial of citizenship;
denial of the right to identify themselves as Rohingya; denial of access to healthcare, education and
employment; restrictions on freedom of movement, and State-sanctioned campaigns of religious hatred.
It also found compelling evidence of State-led policies, laws and strategies of genocidal persecution
stretching back over 30 years, and of the Myanmar State coordinating with Rakhine ultra-nationalists,
racist monks and its own security forces in a genocidal process against the Rohingya.
The persecution entered a new and more devastating phase in 2012. Organised massacres left over 200
Rohingya men, women and children dead. Up to 60 Rakhine were also killed during the June violence.
Hundreds of homes, the vast majority belonging to Rohingya, were destroyed.
Around 138,000 Rohingya were displaced and ended up in what are effectively detention camps.
A further 4,500 desperate Rohingya people live in a squalid ghetto in Sittwe, Rakhine state’s capital.
The Myanmar government’s escalating institutionalized discrimination against the Rohingya has allowed
hate speech to flourish, encouraged Islamophobia and granted impunity to perpetrators of the violence.
1 According to UNHCR estimates, between January 2012 and June 2015, some 150,000 people fled from the Myanmar/Bangladesh
border area. See: UNHCR, South-East Asia Irregular Maritime Movements, January - November 2015; UNHCR, South-East
Asia Mixed Maritime Movements, April - June 2015: http://www.unhcr.org/53f1c5fc9.html. Accessed 7 October 2015.
2 Myanmar was renamed Burma by the country’s military regime in 1989. This report uses ‘Arakan’ and ‘Burma’ when referring
to periods before 1989, and ‘Rakhine’ and ‘Myanmar’ following the renaming. The terms ‘Arakan’ and ‘Burma’ have not been
changed in quoted text to retain the original meaning.
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