You would think that after the Rohingya genocide of 2017, when the British Foreign Office ignored warnings of escalating violence against the Rohingya, that they might have learned some lessons.
The world watched in horror as hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, mostly children, fled into neighbouring Bangladesh. They described the most horrific human rights violations, gang rape, babies thrown into burning homes or having their throats slit, massacres and mass graves.
From 2012 to 2017 Burma Campaign UK and others had repeatedly warned the British government, including Boris Johnson when he was Foreign Secretary, that failing to act on growing violations against the Rohingya would encourage the military to believe that they could get away with much more. They didn’t listen. They didn’t act.
Now as new conflict spreads in Rakhine State, where most Rohingya in Burma live, the current Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, appears to be making a similar mistake.
The highest court in the world, the International Court of Justice, is hearing a case that Burma violated the Genocide Convention. The court was so alarmed by what was happening to the Rohingya, ongoing human rights violations and policies depriving the Rohingya of basic rights and even their own identity, that they made special orders that Burma has to abide by to prevent ongoing genocide.
The Burmese military is ignoring those orders. It has continued with laws and policies designed to make life so unbearable for the Rohingya that they flee to another country.
Rohingya communities called on the British government, as lead country on Burma at the UN Security Council, to convene an urgent meeting about the Burmese military ignoring the orders of the UN World Court.
They didn’t. Once again the Burmese military were allowed to get away with violating the rights of the Rohingya, and the British government didn’t even try to organise a meeting about it.
Now as the Arakan Army fights to free Rakhine State from Burmese military control, violence against the Rohingya is escalating again and has the potential to get much worse.
The Arakan Army is mostly made up of ethnic Rakhine people, and they have successfully been taking control of more and more of Rakhine State, including areas where Rohingya live.
The Burmese military is indiscriminately bombing villages, including Rohingya villages, if it suspects Arakan Army soldiers might be there. These are war crimes. Unlike villagers in most other parts of Burma, who can try to flee Burmese military attacks, Rohingya villagers are restricted in where they can run to.
The Burmese military is now also forcibly recruiting Rohingya villagers to fight for them or act as human shields. This is a deliberate divide and rule tactic by the Burmese military to exploit tensions between communities.
Now Rohingya communities worldwide have issued a new, desperate appeal to the British government and UN Security Council to meet and send a warning to the Burmese military not to escalate violence against the Rohingya, and to end its genocidal policies now.
All communities in Burma are suffering from attacks by the Burmese military. But in an area where there is ongoing genocide following the previous military offensives, the risk of sudden spiraling violence is real. Rohingya organisations warn that what is happening now could potentially have long term consequences for the prospect of peaceful coexistence between ethnic Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine in a future democratic Burma.
For the sake of everyone in Rakhine State, the UNSC needs to act now.
