News & Comment
New Wave of Attacks on the Rohingya by the Myanmar Army:
Attacks, Burnings, and Killings

News

The office of Myanmar’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, said military and border police responded to the attacks — which left 12 security personnel and 77 Rohingya dead — by launching “clearance operations.” Advocates for the Rohingya on social media have been reporting many army raids on villages, including killings and the burning down of homes. Human rights groups accused the army of carrying out massive human rights abuses including killing, rape and burning down more than 1,000 homes and other buildings. (The Indian Express, August 26, 2017)

Comment

Thousands of the Rohinyga Muslims are left without shelter, safety, and food and water in a new wave of attacks by the ruthless Myanmar army this week. There is a report that a million Rohingya have tried to flee to the nearest land border to Bangladesh only to be fiercely inhumanely rejected because of the callousness of nationalistic policy and ridiculous allegations by the Bangladesh prime minister, Sheikha Hasina, leaving them stranded in despair and fear. To return to their torched bleak villages only to have a repeat of unspeakable torture in which the women and elderly are particularly at risk or flee to the distant mountains in the exposed environment. Indeed the outcome makes the heart bleed and the eyes swell with sadness. Even when various human right activists try to leak out hidden images and videos, the Myanmar government vehemently denies this and cites gross misrepresentation and agitation by them and so it is swept aside as if a minor matter. Flimsy statements by the major international organizations hold no weight in repercussions to the country whose ruler ironically ‘won the Nobel Peace Prize’.

What an utter shame to have mass genocide and ethnic cleansing as part of their domestic policy to their unrecognized people, who historically have inhabited the land for centuries prior to the forming of current day Myanmar. The current U.N. secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, condemned the attacks on Myanmar security forces Friday. “The secretary-general has been closely following developments in Rakhine State and is concerned over the escalating tensions in the region. He reiterates the importance of addressing the root causes of violence, in particular issues related to identity and citizenship, and reducing intercommunal tensions. He strongly urges all the communities in Rakhine state to choose the path of peace,” his office said in a statement.

Yet the neighboring Muslim majority governments remain deaf, mute and blind to the horrendous acts, while the images and videos fill the spaces of social media yet rarely make major news outlets. If genocide is not seen on the major screens, then perhaps it may not exist—how deluded are they. This is what makes the plight of the Rohyinga even more tragic, accounts of arson, rape, tortures of all ages do not find their issue highlighted in the news. Even worse Sheikha Hasina rambles on and on of no space for them in Bangladesh treating the Muslim country as if it were her private residence and not as a right for the asylum seekers of the Ummah! Even countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Pakistan are meekly silent over this mass extermination. It is as if the Rohingya are doomed spanning decades and decades. It is long overdue that the Ruwaibidah rulers be uprooted and replaced with the sincere leadership, one that has the Taqwa and fear of accountability by their Lord and their Ummah in a system that is upon the methodology of the Prophethood, the Khilafah Rashidah (Righteous Caliphate).

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Manal Bader