Eight Years On: Rohingya Seek for long-Overdue Justice and Accountability
Press Release
Millions of Rohingya across the world mark the eighth anniversary of Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day, while justice and accountability for the genocide remain bleak.
As the Rohingya strive for justice and accountability for the genocide committed by Myanmar Military (commonly known as Tatmadaw) has committed in its recent campaign of genocide in 2017, which has forced over 700,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh, a new player – Arakan Army (AA) – has replaced the military and deployed similar tactics that the military has used against the Rohingya population for decades as the Arakan Army and its political wing United League of Arakan (ULA) have a strong grip on Rakhine State both politically and militarily.
Since their complete control of the vital Myanmar-Bangladesh border in December 2024, Arakan Army has been targeting the remaining Rohingya population with discriminatory policies and atrocities reminiscent to Senior-general Min Aung Hlaing’s Tatmadaw in torture, arbitrary arrest, forced-labour, enforced-starvation, looting, confiscation of lands and properties, heavy taxation, arson attacks, rape and sexual violence, extrajudicial killings, and massacres of the Rohingya civilians. The Arakan Army’s atrocities, which many human rights organisations labelled as “war crimes” and called for the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation, have also resulted in the uprooting of tens of thousands of Rohingya civilians from their homes into temporary shelters and camps controlled by the Arakan Army, and forced approximately 150,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh.
With staggering and unprecedent funding cuts from the international community, which provide vital needs for over a million Rohingya refugees – from food, water, shelter, to limited healthcare and education – the Rohingya refugees are at a crossroad, fighting for their survival in the camps with limited resources and global interests on their plight, and to keeping their hope intact for the protracted and slow international justice and accountability mechanism.
As the 30th September UN High-level Conference on Rohingya Muslims and Other Minorities in Myanmar approaches, the entire Rohingya community remains cautious but holds a glimmer of hope that the conference could address a wide range of issues that the community faces – the urgent humanitarian crisis in the refugee camps, the ongoing persecutions of the remaining Rohingya population under the Arakan Army, the safe and dignified return to their places of origin in Rakhine State, and justice and accountability for the genocide.
Eight years on from one of humanity’s gravest mass-atrocities and the international community’s failure to prevent and protect persecuted communities, the international community and all stakeholders must engage in listening, empowering, cooperating, supporting and standing with the Rohingya people in their endeavours for their future – a future of freedoms, equal rights, the right of homeland, peace, justice and accountability that are long overdue.
