Wednesday, December 05, 2018

Studies Conclude Atrocities Against Rohingya Constitute Genocide

On Monday, the Public International Law and Policy Group, a global pro bono law firm, issued a 105-page report (full text) titled Documenting Atrocity Crimes Committed Against the Rohingya In Myanmar's Rakhine State. Here is an exceprt:
In March and April 2018, the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), undertook an as yet unprecedented large-scale and comprehensive human rights documentation investigation mission in the refugee camps and settlement areas in Eastern Bangladesh. The purpose of this investigation mission was to provide an accurate accounting of the patterns of abuse and atrocity crimes perpetrated against the Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine State and to help inform the policy decisions related to accountability in Myanmar....
Following its investigation mission, and with substantial support from an array of international attorneys and international criminal law experts, PILPG conducted a comprehensive legal analysis of the investigation’s factual findings....
The investigation mission documented a range of crimes amounting to crimes against humanity, including the particularly prevalent crimes of extermination, murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence, enslavement, forcible transfer, and persecution.... 
With regard to the crime of genocide, this Report concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe that genocide was committed against the Rohingya in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State....
Finally, this Report concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes were committed in relation to abuses and violence committed against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine State.....
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, citing other studies, also issued a statement (full text) reaching a similar conclusion. Politico reports that the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to pass H. Res. 1091 expressing the sense of the House that genocide and crimes against humanity have been committed.