The Slow Burning Genocide of Myanmars Rohingya (1978 - )

Death and Destruction by Design Dr Maung Zarni 28 April 2013

Some
Rohingya as borderlands people Pre-nation state histories Geography, popular ignorance and propaganda THE state-sponsored destruction of Rohingya as a group with communal dimension Not a problem of democratic transition

Methodology
Archival research in BOTH Burmese and English primary and second sources Interviews and guided conversations Interviewees, informants and conversationalists ex-Burmese military officers, Rakhine Presidential Inquiry commissioners, UN and INGO staff, Rohingya vicgtims and refugees in Burma, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, UK & USA 3 years my own research on the military for 20 years; my collaborators 5-years of Rohingya research

Our findings
Together, successive Myanmar governments and non-state actors such as local extremists have been committing a genocide against Myanmars Rohingya, since February 1978. Verifiably guilty of the first 4 genocidal acts Chain of command on Rohingya affairs highest level of Myanmar leaderships since 1978 (decrees, written and oral orders)

Genocidal Acts
Types of atrocities against Rohingya Spikes of killings and the unknown number of deaths (Ducheera Dan, only the best known) since 1978 Destruction of group identity as a matter of policy; forced labor, sexual violence underfeeding (Lemkin) 2-child policy, severe marriage restrictions, periodic forced sterilization

Genocidal acts
acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Devastating Impact on the group

1:73,000 1: 86,000 (doctor patient ratio) {national average is 1:700, worse than Syrias 40: 2 millions} Rohingya death rates among under 5, 3 times national average Extreme malnutrition (UNDERFEEDING, Lemkin) Obstruction of delivery of humanitarian services for caged Rohingya Severe restrictions for Rohingya in open air prisons

An inconvenient genocide
It is an inconvenient to 5 permanent members of the Security Council Criminal disregard for a member states intentional destruction of an ethnic group of 2 million people Human Rights Watch (2009) report no interests are served helping Rohingya INTENT patterns of genocidal acts sustained over nearly 40 years (since 8 February 1978)