Staff Reporter :
The UN found that the Myanmar military had a plan to commit genocide of the Rohingyas much before the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked Myanmar Military personnel.
In a report, the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar said, “Although the Government (of Myanmar) has stated that ARSA burned Rohingya villages, the Mission found no such evidence.”
Citing the imaginary attacks by ARSA, the Myanmar government, including its de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi repeatedly lied saying that ARSA’s attack forced the Myanmar army to launch the crackdown.
According to the report, ARSA attacks and ensuing “clearance operations” did not occur in a vacuum. “They were foreseeable and planned”.
In May-July 2017, ultranationalist monk Wirathu visited northern Rakhine twice, delivering induced sermons. The village of Zay Di Pyin (Rathedaung Township) was blockaded by Rakhine villagers and security forces throughout August, the report said.
Amid heightened tension immediately before August 25, 2017, Myanmar media increasingly reported on alleged ARSA activity in an inflammatory manner; state-sponsored hated speech against the Rohingya continued, it claimed.
According to the report, a large build-up of troops and other military assets across northern Rakhine began in early August 2017, following a meeting between Rakhine politicians and the Tatmadaw Commander-in-Chief.
Soldiers from the 33rd and 99th Light Infantry Divisions were airlifted into Rakhine State, with additional deliveries of military equipment, the mission finds. “The increased presence was evident.”
Soldiers took over Border Guard Police posts. Rakhine men were recruited into the security forces, including “fast track” recruitment into the police. Other local Rakhine men were mobilised and armed, the report said.
This build-up was significant, requiring logistical planning and time to implement, indicating that the subsequent operations were foreseen and planned.
The report contains the main findings and recommendations of the mission on Myanmar.
The United Nations has denounced Myanmar’s “brutal security operation” against Rohingyas in Rakhine State as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.
The three-member mission, established by the UN Human Rights Council in March 2017, meticulously assembled hundreds of accounts of displaced Rohingyas, research, analysis, satellite footage and other information to prepare the report.
According to the report, in the early hours of August 25, 2017,ARSA launched coordinated attacks on a military base and up to 30 security force outposts across northern Rakhine State, in an apparent response to increased pressure on Rohingya communities and with the goal of global attention.
A small number of minimally-trained leaders had some arms, and a significant number of untrained villagers wielded sticks and knives. Some had improvised explosive devices. Twelve security personnel were killed.
The security forces’ response, starting within hours, was immediate, brutal and grossly disproportionate. Ostensibly to eliminate the “terrorist threat” posed by ARSA, in the days and weeks that followed, it encompassed hundreds of villages across Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung. The operations targeted and terrorised the entire Rohingya population.
The authorities called them “clearance operations”. As a result, nearly 725,000 Rohingya had fled to Bangladesh by mid-August 2018.
