It’s genocide, says International Crimes Strategy Forum on Rohingyas

The International Crimes Strategy Forum (ICSF) says that the actions and subsequent consequences in Myanmar’s Rakhine State have “clearly passed the threshold of genocide, crimes against humanity, and other international crimes”.

The UN Human Rights Council has described the violence following which over 430,000 Rohingyas forced to flee into Bangladesh as ‘textbook example of ethnic cleansing’.

“It is genocide,” the independent global network of experts, justice advocates and organisations said in a statement, calling upon the international community and the neighbouring countries to take actions.

“We believe, ignoring a genocide and crimes against humanity actively invites further such crimes to be committed.”

They applauded the “exemplary” humanitarian response of the Bangladesh government in providing temporary refuge to them but said that the developed countries need t do more giving the scale of the crisis.

“We are deeply concerned,” the ICSF said. “We seek an immediate end to this deepening humanitarian catastrophe, acknowledgement of the rights of the Rohingyas and accountability for the international crimes which have been, and are being, committed against them”.

They called on the Myanmar authorities “pay heed to international opinion and immediately to stop the persecution of Rohingyas, instruct its security forces to exercise restraint, recognise the Rohingyas as an ethnic group."

It also demanded the repatriation of the Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh and elsewhere, lift long-standing restrictions on the community and grant all Rohingyas their full citizenship rights that they deserve”.

It also called on the Myanmar government to allow unfettered access to and security by the UN fact-finding team to assess the level of the recent atrocities, the humanitarian and aid agencies and international press and media.

It also called on neighbouring countries like India, China and other Southeast Asian countries under ASEAN grouping “to denounce the actions of the Myanmar authorities in the strongest possible terms and persuade Myanmar to resolve the crisis immediately including the possibility of sanctions from the international level to effect compliance.”