Rohingya genocide, revisited
Plus: the civil war in Myanmar
February 9, 2025
Myanmar military carried out mass murder, rape and displacement of Rohingya Muslims in 2017.
In 2021, the military overthrew the democratic government, starting an ongoing civil war.
Read: How Facebook contributed to genocide? Who supplies arms to the junta?
The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority from Myanmar's western Rakhine state.
They constitute 1-2% of the total population of 54 million.
Myanmar's government does not recognise them as citizens, claiming they are immigrants from Bangladesh.
Key facts about their origins:
Early settlers: Muslim traders reached Rakhine (then Arakan) as early as the 7th century.
British period: More Muslims arrived as workers during the British colonial rule.
Disputed status: Myanmar's government uses their claimed recent arrival to justify discrimination.
Repression: Since the 1940s multiple violent crackdowns on the Rohingya by the Myanmar military took place.
Legal exclusion: The 1982 Citizenship Law did not include Rohingya as a recognised ethnicity.
Myanmar was run by a group of military officers (a junta) from 1962 until 2011, when a democratic government took power.
However, under the new government violence escalated between the Buddhist majority (88%) and the Rohingya, as well as other Muslim groups.
In 2012, three Muslim Rohingyas were accused of rape and murder of a Rakhine Buddhist woman. 6 days later, 10 Rohingyas were dragged off a bus and killed by Buddhist nationalists, starting a wave of anti-Rohingya riots.
88 people killed: 57 Rohingyas and 31 Buddhists
90,000 people fled the region
2,500+ houses burned: 1,336 of them Rohingyas’ and 1,192 Buddhists’
Violence against the Rohingya population, including women and children, continued.
In 2015, this created a refugee crisis, as thousands of Rohingyas fled the country by sea, with hundreds found dead on the shores of Bangladesh, Malaysia and elsewhere.
Under international pressure, Myanmar granted the Rohingya the right to vote in a constitutional referendum. However, this right was soon removed due to pressure from Buddhist nationalist groups.
The genocide
In 2017, a Rohingya armed group coordinated an attack on 24 police posts which resulted in the death of:
370 Rohingya militants
13 security personnel
2 government officials
14 civilians
The Myanmar military retaliated with a violent crackdown against the Rohingya.
Over 25,000 Rohingyas were killed by the Myanmar military and some armed groups.
Approximately 30-40% of Rohingya villages were destroyed in this crackdown.
Thousands of women and girls were raped, with sexual violence used as an intimidation tactic.
Over 700,000 Rohingyas fled the country, mostly to Bangladesh.
Countries and international organisations condemned Myanmar military’s actions against the Rohingya.
A United Nations report in 2018 found that the Myanmar military had genocidal intent against the Rohingya.
The UN defines genocide as the deliberate and systematic intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group through:
Killing
Causing serious harm
Creating destructive living conditions
Preventing births
Forcibly transferring children
In 2019, Gambia filed a case against Myanmar in the International Court of Justice (ICC) for breaking the UN Genocide Convention.
The ICC authorised an investigation into the situation at the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, where most Rohingya refugee camps were.
In 2022 US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken described the conflict as a genocide
In 2023, 6 other countries joined Gambia’s case:
Canada
Denmark
France
Germany
The Netherlands
The United Kingdom
In 2021, the military retook control of Myanmar and replaced the democratic government.
Myanmar’s military leadership is currently under international sanctions:
US and EU sanctioned top military leaders for human rights violations against the Rohingya.
Oil, gas and mining businesses associated with the military leadership were sanctioned by the US.
UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway banned selling weapons to Myanmar.
These measures had little effect in slowing down the crisis.
Civil War in Myanmar
When the democratic government was again overthrown by the Myanmar military during the COVID-19 pandemic, a civil war broke out.
National Unity Government formed the opposition to the military junta:
Calls for a democratic federal state with high regional independence
Ethnic minority leaders occupy senior roles in the organisation
Formed an armed wing, currently numbering 100,000 troops
Acted from hiding within Myanmar, now controls large areas in the northwest
Various groups, especially of ethnic minorities, have taken up arms against the junta in a complex war.
By 2023, the junta controlled less than 40% of Myanmar’s territory (but held most of the cities).
The Rakhine region is now controlled by the Arakan Army (AA), a mostly Buddhist armed group fighting against the military.
Between November 2023 and March 2024, the military carried out 112 airstrikes on AA positions in Rakhine.
AA’s objective is to gain Rakhine’s independence.
Described as nationalistic and secular, the group is accused of carrying out violence against the Rohingya. The military even conscripted some Rohingya soldiers to fight the AA.
As the conflict intensified, Bangladesh began detaining illegal immigrants, including Rohingyas, crossing into the country.
As a result, there are few opportunities to leave the Rakhine.
In 2024, China has increased its support for the military junta in an attempt to stop them from completely losing control over Myanmar’s territory.
Genocide by social media
Rapid expansion of internet access and social media use in 2013-17 contributed to the spread of violence against the Rohingya.
The 2011 democratic transition had set the stage for the decentralisation of information in Myanmar.
Between 2013 and 2017, the number of internet users in Myanmar increased from 1.8 to 23.6 million.
Facebook usage expanded with the growing internet access.
Facebook made a deal with Myanmar’s largest mobile provider: Facebook app came pre-installed in mobile phones and users could access the app without data charges.
Buddhist nationalists on social media built large followings spreading hate and disinformation about the Rohingyas.
Hate speech built up tensions leading up to the outbreak of violence in 2017.
Hateful content against the Rohingya was barely moderated.
In 2014, there was only 1 Burmese moderator for around 1.2 million users. A 2019 internal investigation by Facebook found that action was taken on 2% of hateful posts.
By 2018, Facebook increased the number of its Burmese-language moderators to 99.
The Myanmar military (then not directly in power, but influential) also ran a propaganda effort, using both online and offline channels to spread hatred towards the Rohingya.
This included the use of fake photos or untrue “facts” about the Rohingya
Some national newspapers claimed that “there is no so-called Rohingya ethnic race” and described them as a “thorn to be removed”.
International media coverage grew particularly during moments of increased violence, like the 2012 riots, the 2015 refugee crisis, and the further escalation of violence in 2017.
However, growing global awareness has had little impact on the conflict.
Today:
1 million Rohingya refugees live in Bangladesh, on average in a family of five. 669,000 of them live in a single refugee camp, where a fire destroyed 2,000 shelters in 2023.
1 in 3 people in Myanmar are in need of humanitarian aid
1 in 4 people suffer from food insecurity
In the Rakhine state, the poverty rate is at 80%
This year, Myanmar’s junta was accused of arresting and threatening food security researchers who were looking to release information about the problem.
The military has allegedly blocked aid in the form of food, medicine, and other essential supplies to the Rakhine region to deal a blow to the Arakan Army.
More than 2 million people in Rakhine (Arakan) are at risk of starvation.
Food prices in the region rose by 154% since October 2023, as the civil war is ongoing.
Author Lisandro Diaz Villarruel
Editor Anton Kutuzov
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