TEMPO.CO, Rangon – A report entitled "All You Can Do is Pray" by The Human Rights Watch (HRW), a human rights organization based in New York City, the United States, stated the organization's suspicion on an ongoing ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity staged against Myanmar’s Rohingya ethnic.
According to the report that was released on Monday, April 22, more than 125,000 Rohingya ethnics have been displaced since two waves of violence occurred in May and October 2012.
"Satellite images show almost 5,000 structures on land mostly owned by Muslim Rohingya have been destroyed," the report stated.
Further, the report stated that the attacks on October were coordinated by Myanmar government officials, an Rakhine ethnic nationalist and Buddhist monks. The deadliest attack took place on October 23, in which witnesses say at least 70 Rohingyas, including 28 children, were killed. "All of the victims were massacred in the town of Mrauk-U," a witness said.
The United Nations has declared Rohingya as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Most Rohingyas who live in Myanmar's western Rakhine state are denied citizenship by the Myanmar government, who claimed that they are illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh and often refers to them as "Bengali".
The report stated that the Myanmar government has done nothing to prevent the violence and at times, government forces are seen joining the attacks on the Rohingya. The report also said there was a lot of evidence indicating that the Rohingyas are being shot at by the Myanmar police.
A BBC video revealed a number of police officials did nothing but stand while Buddhist attacked the Muslim minorities in Meiktila City. People were robbing and burning gold pawn shops and homes owned by the Rohingya Muslims, even burning a man alive.
Ironically, during this time, the European Union decided to stop giving sanctions the Myanmar government as an appreciation on the nation’s reformation.
AL JAZEERA | BBC | CHOIRUL
