Attachments
Executive Summary
In August 2017 and in October-November 2016, Myanmar security forces advanced upon numerous Rohingya villages in Rakhine state. The 100-300 assailants, comprised of the Myanmar military, Border Guard Police (BGP), police, and mmobilized Rakhine civilians, besieged the villages from their deployment stations, which typically included BGP camps, military camps, Rakhine villages, schools, and temples. Security forces killed and injured Rohingya villagers with indiscriminate gunfire; raped Rohingya women, and unlawfully arrested Rohingya men.
Security forces burned down Rohingya homes and looted Rohingya property. In the terror after such mass-scale violence and killing, Rohingya villagers escaped to Bangladesh, where they now live in temporary tents within precarious refugee camps.
Premeditation and intent to commit genocide is apparent from security forces’ advance planning and deployment. They commonly began intimidation tactics in the dark hours before dawn, by firing guns, and then attacked the villages in the early hours of the morning. Security forces consistently surrounded Rohingya villages, completely blocking escape or leaving only one of four sides open for egress. They shot indiscriminate gunfire to incite panic and fired at Rohingya people as the civilians fled.
Yet the systematic destruction of the Rohingya people began far earlier than August 2017. Starting from decades earlier, the government confiscated land from Rohingya villagers.
And during the time period of 2012-2016, Rohingya experienced multiple and successive forms of religious discrimination and persecution. This included prohibitions on giving religious sermons, on holding religious events, on practicing Qurban (ceremonial sacrifice of livestock animals), and on performing azan (making calls to prayer). They were forbidden to gather in groups of five or more people, which abrogated religious fellowship. Nor could they freely use their mosque for prayer or provide Islamic education to their children at the madrasa. Security forces physically beat, arrested, jailed, and extorted money from those found in prayer or religious practice.