The Role of the UNHRC in Preventing the Genocide of Rohingya Muslims

Written By:  S M Irfan Tahir

In the perspective of current affairs, the most important and noticeable issue of the world, in relation to terrorism and extremism, is the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in the Arakan
(now renamed Rakhine) The state of Myanmar.

Dictatorship dominated the country after the independence of Burma in 1948, which did a great damage to the constitution and rules and regulations of the country. The Burmese government declared the Rohingya Muslims as foreign nationals under The 1982 Burma Citizenship Law. They are recognized as refugees from Bangladesh.

Since then, Burma (now known as Myanmar) proved to be a hill fire for the Rohingya Muslims. They have been treated worse than animals while depriving them of their basic human rights. The Rohingya Muslims had to get travel permit while moving from one area (village) to another area in the country. They were denied all the benefits and rights, in regards to public health. They were restricted from getting access to civil service jobs. They were denied free matrimonial rights and restricted to the limit of making no more than two kids (children) each couple, among other such restrictions and limitations imposed on their lives.

After the sectarian war since 2012 and, as a result of other conspiracies, the Rohingya Muslims were slaughtered while cutting into pieces. The government of the country has utterly stopped to protect and respect their properties, honour, lives and basic human rights.As a result, the extremists of the country have started playing with their lives and future (by inflicting atrocities on them).Besides, the Rohingya Muslims started facing more worse situation when 9 personnel of security forces (of Myanmar) were killed, as a result of an attack, that took place on the 25 th
of August this year. Taking advantage of the attack, the military government and administration of the country blamed the Rohingya Muslims for the attack and destroyed their entire villages, while labelling them as terrorists and extremists.

After a period of about 25 years, the National League for Democracy, led by the international Noble Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, won a landslide victory in the elections.
Although she could not become the constitutional head of the state, yet she was made the 1 st State Counsellor of Myanmar after having power and victory in the country. She is the one
who has suffered the sufferings of lengthy imprisonment/house arrest, etc., because of her efforts for restoring peace, law and order situation, democracy and support for the Rohingya
Muslims, but, ironically, she plays the role of a silent spectator due to some personal and political interests while watching the atrocities inflicting on the Rohingya Muslims these days.

Recently, Aung San Suu Kyi attributed the current sufferings of the Rohingya Muslims to the enmity existing among them. She faces international severe condemnation/criticism due to her lack of playing an effective role and her reaction towards solving the problem.Till now, about 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have been forced to flee their country and reach the border of Bangladesh.

They face the lack of such basic human needs, as food,
paraphernalia, shelter and medical facilities. The United Nations Organisation has declared the Rohingya Muslims as the most persecuted and oppressed nation of the world while calling this issue a human crisis. There is a great risk of uncertainty in Asia due to such situation. According to the Human Rights Watch and
Amnesty International, the Myanmar government, the army and extremists/militants are going to root out the Rohingya Muslims by forming a coalition. And some of the critics believe that maybe some of these forces may do so for having a piece of land (as property).

According to a report by the International Crisis Group, the extremist organisations, like the ISIS (the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) and Al-Qaeda, while taking advantage of the mistreatment of the Rohingya Muslims in the sub-continent by others, can instigate militancy and extremism (in parts of the world).

Some Rohingya fighters are already in contact with international militants. The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) (also known by its former name ‘Harakah al-Yaqin’) had been founded in the name of protecting the rights of Rohingya Muslims, led by Ata Ullah from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

The United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva takes effective steps for battling the issue while realising the sensitivity and significance of the spread of militancy and radicalism in the world. An independent investigation team has been made up for resolving the Myanmar Issue, headed by Marzuki Darusman, in order to find the reality and work for uplift of human rights. But it must be the responsibility of the OIC (Organisation of the
Islamic Conference), the Muslim World and the peace-keeping army consisting of 34 countries to do their job sensibly for resolving this issue instead of blaming the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

Despite the fact that the whole world has initiated to sort out this problem, it is very necessary to take a pragmatic and effective action for solving this matter. Such elements and actions, as
the easy access of the Fact Finding Mission to the scene of the event, the free movement of the independent media and the free movement of the international peace missions and human
rights organisations in Myanmar, can play a positive, important and effective role in bringing things to normal in the area. However, war is not the solution of any issue, but peace talks are the only way through which we can provide protection for the rights of each other.