Myanmar government kills dozens of Rohingya 'attackers'
November 14, 2016
Violence hit Myanmar's Rakhine state again over the weekend. State media claims soldiers have killed about 30 "attackers" from the Muslim minority, but observers say civilians were among the casualties.
Myanmar soldiers patrol the Bangladesh border in the Rakhine region on October 14, 2016.Image: AP
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The Myanmar military said on Monday that it had killed about 30 Rohingya Muslim militants over the weekend, according to state media. This latest bout of fighting between government forces and the Rohingya Muslim minority first flared in early October.
The government said that Sunday was the most violent day, with 28 people killed. According to an earlier statement, six people were killed on Saturday.
Rohingya rights advocates have posted videos online that claim to show that some of the victims were unarmed civilians. The government said the victims were violent attackers and that two government soldiers were also killed. Independent journalists have been blocked from entering the Rakhine region where the killings were said to have occurred, making it difficult to verify the conflicting accounts.
Government sweeps of Rohingya neighborhoods in the Rakhine region of Myanmar have lead to large-scale destruction. Above, people walk through the charred remains of a market outside Maugndaw on October 27, 2016.Image: Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun
It is unlikely, in the wake of this weekend’s violence, that the country will find a quick resolution to the fighting, say observers and diplomats.
Tension has been high in the country's Rahkine region since 2012 when more than 200 people died in communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims. The over 1 million Rohingya Muslim residents of this region are a majority but are denied citizenship on the grounds that many are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
The current violence broke out on October 9 when nine border guards were killed in coordinated attacks blamed on Rohingya militants. The government responded to the killings by conducting sweeps of local villages that observers have linked to widespread destruction of Rohingya homes. On Saturday, Human Rights Watch claimed that damage from these attack was worse than originally feared, saying that satellite footage showed 430 homes had been burned down.
Trafficked and abandoned - the Rohingya exodus
Boats carrying more than 1,600 Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants washed to shore in Indonesia and Malaysia, after human traffickers reportedly dumped the boats in shallow waters. DW takes a look at the refugees' ordeal.
Image: Reuters/R: Bintang
Stranded
On Sunday, May 10, a group of about 600 people arrived in the Indonesian province of Aceh on four boats. At about the same time more than 1,000 others landed in three boats on the northern Malaysian resort island of Langkawi. At least two of these overcrowded boats were towed by local fishermen to the shores. Those rescued were rounded up by the police.
Image: Reuters/R. Bintang
Exhausted
Human traffickers apparently abandoned the ships - which also carried women and children - and left the hungry migrants to fend for themselves. Indonesian authorities and aid agencies believe the rescued group had been at sea for about a week. Many were in need of medical care. The authorities warn more desperate migrants could still be in peril at sea.
Image: Reuters/R: Bintang
A perilous journey
Every year thousands of impoverished Bangladeshis and Muslim Rohingya from Buddhist-majority Myanmar brave perilous land and sea routes in rickety traffickers' boats similar to this one in a desperate attempt to reach Malaysia and Indonesia. UNHCR estimates that some 25,000 Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis boarded people smugglers' boats in the first three months of this year.
Image: Asiapics
Stateless
Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. Most of them are not citizens and outbreaks of sectarian violence have prompted many to flee. "An entire population feels their only option is to seek asylum by sea," Matthew Smith of Fortify Rights told DW. The figure of Rohingya trafficked in Thailand since 2012 could be as high as a quarter million.
Image: Reuters/R: Bintang
Modern slave trade
Seeking to flee discrimination, the Rohingya usually contact a broker who deceives them to think they will be taken directly to Malaysia for the equivalent of up to $200, says Smith. Throughout the journey they're denied adequate food, water, and space, and subjected to beatings, and sometimes killings. The boats travel to Thai waters where they are transported to a makeshift jungle camp onshore.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/S. Yulinnas
Fear of Thailand
Many Rohingya are forced to cross Thailand using vehicles run by smugglers, who hold them in captivity in squalid jungle camps until a ransom is paid by their family back home. However, following the Thai government's recent crackdown on human trafficking, after the discovery of several mass graves (seen here), many smugglers have taken new measures, putting the migrants' lives at greater risk.
Image: Reuters/D. Sagolj
Abandoned
As a result of the crackdown by Thai authorities, Rohingya and Bangladeshi refugees were found wandering around in southern Thailand near suspected jungle camps, apparently after they were abandoned by the smugglers who fled. The authorities have questioned more than 100 migrants near the country's border with Malaysia to determine whether they were victims of human trafficking.
Image: AFP/Getty Images/Str
A wave of migrants
Southeast Asia is being hit by a wave of migrants, partly driven by conflict, persecution and poverty. The Asia-Pacific region recently recorded an estimated 11.7 million trafficked people, the highest figure of any region. The Greater-Mekong Sub-region encompassing Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam features some of the most extensive flows of migration and human trafficking.
