‘NON-ROHINGYA GIVEN WEAPONS’
Mass-killing survivors detail systematic preparations by authorities in report
“THEY gave them long swords,” said “Mohammed Rafiq”, 25, (his real name is withheld for security reason).
The Rohingya accused Myanmar authorities of handing out weapons to non-Rohingya civilians in Rakhine State to commit genocide against his long oppressed community in the Southeast Asian country.
“I could see it. (The soldiers) handed (Rakhine civilians) swords. Even young Rakhine boys were given long swords and they were moving around with the swords hanging on their backs,” he said in interviews with human rights organisation, Fortify Rights.
On Aug 30, he witnessed a Myanmar Army-led massacre in Tula Toli (also known as Min Gyi) in Maungdaw township.
His account, contained in Fortify Rights’ recently-released 160-page report titled “They Gave Them Long Swords”: Preparations for Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity Against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State.
In another interview, “Abdul Hussein” accused Myanmar soldiers of not only handing out weapons to Rakhine civilians, but also trained them to use firearms.
“I could see (Myanmar soldiers) training them. They taught them how to fire guns,” said the father of three, who survived mass killings in Khun Thi Pyin village (Kuan Si Paun) also in Maungdaw township on Aug 29.
Fortify Rights’ authored report was based on a 21-month-long investigation and included 254 interviews with individuals in Myanmar and Bangladesh, like genocide survivors “Mohammed Rafiq” and “Abdul Hussein”.
In the report, the human rights organisation found Myanmar authorities had made “extensive and systematic preparations” for attacks against Rohingya civilians months before Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa) attacked police outposts in Maungdaw, Rathedaung and Buthidaung on Aug 25.
According to its chief executive officer, Matthew Smiths, the report found there were reasonable grounds to believe the crimes perpetrated by the Myanmar army, police and civilians against the Rohingya in all three townships in northern Rakhine constituted a genocide.
“Genocide doesn’t happen spontaneously,” he said when revealing contents of the report at Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand here recently.
The report, among others, noted that between October 2016 and August last year, Myanmar authorities systematically “disarmed” Rohingya civilians, confiscating household items that might be used as weapons or in self-defence and the arming of non-Rohingya civilians in northern Rakhine State.
The authorities, said the report, also tore down fencing and other structures around Rohingya homes, suspended humanitarian aid and access to Rohingya, enforced a discriminatory Muslim-only curfew and built up an usually sizeable military presence.
These deliberate action according to Fortify Rights, fit within the United Nations’ Framework for Analysis of Atrocity Crimes as “preparatory actions” for genocide and crimes against humanity.