'Genocide occurred' against Rohingyas in Myanmar

In a legal analysis of the human rights situation in Myanmar's Rakhine State, the Allard K Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School has found strong evidence of genocide against the Rohingya population.

A paper released by the Clinic yesterday in Bangkok recommends that the United Nations Human Rights Council establish a Commission of Inquiry to conduct an urgent, comprehensive, and independent investigation of the human rights situation in Rakhine State.

Stricken from Burma's 135 officially recognised ethnicities in 1982, the Rohingya have undergone decades of discrimination and disenfranchisement, albeit never to the degree they currently face.

The Myanmar government's official position is that the Rohingya are interlopers from Bangladesh, despite many having lived in the country for generations, and it refuses to even acknowledge their collective name, preferring the loaded term “Bengali.”

Following the 2012 riots, allegedly orchestrated by the military, more than 1,40,000 Rohingyas were relocated to ghetto-like camps.

Based on nearly a three-year investigation, the 65-page analysis titled “Persecution of the Rohingya Muslims: Is Genocide Occurring in Myanmar's Rakhine State?” provides a summary of the circumstances Rohingya have faced in Myanmar.

It then addresses the legal elements of genocide, assessing: 1) whether the Rohingya are a protected group under the terms of the Genocide Convention; 2) whether any of the acts enumerated in the Convention's definition of genocide have been committed; and 3) whether these acts were performed with the intent to destroy the Rohingya group “in whole or in part.”

The Clinic team, under the supervision of Yale Law School Clinical Professor James Silk, concluded that the available evidence strongly suggests that each of the three elements of genocide have been present in the overall situation of Rohingya in Rakhine State.

[Source: Yale News, Time.com and Sky News]