‘Myanmar Army trying to incite violence between Rohingya and Rakhine people’

Rohingya rights groups have expressed grave concern about an online propaganda war being stepped up by the Myanmar Army, the Tatmadaw, in Rakhine State.

The Tatmadaw is trying to instigate more conflicts between Rohingya and Rakhine people and destroy their peaceful co-existence in the state, 29 Rohingya organisations alleged in a joint statement today.

Disturbing developments of such instigation came from multiple reliable sources last week, and this puts the life of the 600,000 remaining Rohingyas in Rakhine State in grave danger, as well as all the Rakhine people living there, the signatories of the statement claimed.

“We, as Rohingya, want peaceful, co-existence with Rakhine people in Arakan State. The show of solidarity between Rohingya and Rakhine people, who are both suffering under the Tatmadaw, is clearly making the Tatmadaw nervous and they are trying to instill discord between our two people.

“The Tatmadaw is trying to portray a false narrative to Rakhine people about our leaders and the Rohingya,” the statement read.

The international community needs to bring this up urgently with the Myanmar government, it said, calling for more states to follow the lead of Canada and the Netherlands and join The Gambia’s case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Every UN member state should also explore opening cases in their own jurisdictions under the principle of Universal Jurisdiction, and support a full referral of the situation in Myanmar to the ICC, which will guarantee a comprehensive investigation of the full range of the Myanmar Army’s crimes against not only Rohingyas but all ethnic people, the statement also read.

“The only price the Tatmadaw has paid for genocide of the Rohingya has been a small number of soldiers being banned from enjoying holidays in the EU and USA. The international community has taken no action at all in response to the military onslaught against Rakhine people and killing of Rakhine civilians,” the Rohingya organisations said in the joint statement.

The signatories called upon all countries to implement all of the recommendations of the Independent International UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar.