The European Rohingya Council
Press Release
1st November 2015
The European Rohingya Council (ERC) firmly stands by the findings of Yale Law School’s Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic, and strongly reiterates its call on the U.N Human Rights Council for “an urgent, comprehensive and independent investigation” of “strong evidence” that genocide is being committed against Rohingya.
The three-year research “Persecution of the Rohingya Muslims: Is Genocide Occurring in Myanmar’s Rakhine State? A legal Analysis”, produced by Fortify Rights group strengthens our stand and substantiate our claims on the persistent involvements of Myanmar authorities, security forces, police and local nationalist Rakhine against the country’s Muslim minority “group”, Rohingya in committing serious human rights abuses and participating in “genocidal acts” with “intent to destroy the Rohingya” completely from Rakhine (Arakan) State.
It is not the first time that “the existential threats” faced by Rohingya being highlighted in major international fact-finding missions. The finding of the Yale Law School is invariable with that of United to End Genocide, titled “Marching to Genocide in Burma” which found that “nowhere in the world are there more known precursors to genocide than in Burma today” against Rohingya.
The Yale Law Clinic’s findings reinforce similar conclusions – that Myanmar is guilty of commissioning 4 out 5 acts of genocide – reached in the pioneering three-year research publication on the history and mechanisms of Rohingya Persecution in Myanmar by Dr. Maung Zarni and Alice Cowley in “The Slow-Burning of Genocide of Myanmar’s Rohingya”, Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal in Spring 2014
In its report – “Countdown to Annihilation: Genocide in Myanmar”, International State Crime Initiative, Queen Mary University of London in February 2015 also found “compelling evidence” of the government sponsored polices, laws and strategies of “genocidal persecution” against Rohingya.
Over the periods of military juntas and subsequent the quasi-civilian government of Thein Sein, the precedence of genocide against Rohingya has been set systematically. The right to citizenship and the right to identify as Rohingya were stripped off with the implementation of the citizenship law in 1982. The law further encourages committing widespread killing, torture, rape, arbitrary arrest, forced labour, destruction and confiscation of land and properties along with restrictions on freedom of religion, movement, marriage, education, healthcare, employment and birth (“biological genocide”).
The genocidal acts reached a devastating level in 2012 when Thein Sein’s government authorities, police, now-dissolved border security force and Rakhine extremists launched the campaign to completely remove Rohingya from the state. The acts have caused hundreds of Rohingya men, women and children dead, more than 140,000 of Rohingya internally displaced in (detention) camps, more than 165,000 of Rohingya fled the country ended up drowning and to human trafficking networks and more than 10,000 of Rohingya live in “squalid ghetto” in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State.
Contrarily to the evidences, Thein Sein’s government continues to deny the very crime his government has committed, meanwhile allowing and encouraging to spread hate speech, Islamophobia and anti-Rohingya sentiment, providing a greater impunity to the perpetrators, and further institutionalizing the genocidal intents and acts by stripping off Rohingya rights to vote and participate in election, and signing four controversial Race and Religion Laws which especially target Rohingya.
Having satisfied the criminal elements required by the 1948 Genocide Convention, ERC unwaveringly stands on the call for the U.N Human Rights Council of Inquiry on genocide against Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar, and strongly endorses on the call of former U.N Rapporteur on Myanmar, Ojea Quintana to investigate Thein Sein’s government and the various ministries’ involvements in the process of genocide against Rohingya.
Khairul Amin (Chairman)
For more information please contact;
Khairul Amin + 4792428989
U Hla Tin +4571695027
http://www.theerc.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/ERC-Calls-for-a-U.N-Commission.pdf
