Myanmar Military Takeover: The Rohingya Genocide and Global Governance Insufficiency
One of the most devastating experiences a person can go through is to be deprived of a home. Hundreds of thousands of people are forced through this ordeal in Myanmar. Their right to a safe place to call home has been taken away in Myanmar’s ongoing humanitarian crisis. On the 27th of August 2017, the majority-Buddhist country started displacing the Muslim ethnic minority population cluster, the Rohingya, in response to the mass murder operation conducted by the country’s military. Despite having lived in the region for centuries, the minority group is still not formally recognized by the state, and is perceived as a cluster of illegal immigrants relocated from Bangladesh and therefore deprived of the right to obtain official citizenship of Myanmar.
The Rohingya people are subject to deportation as well as forcible transfer, which constitutes a major human right violation under international law and is therefore considered a crime against humanity according to Article 7 of the Rome statute. The autocracies committed on behalf of the Myanmar security forces are internationally recognized as a national scorched-earth campaign, i.e. a wartime strategy of pursuing the utter destruction of the enemies. In this case, the Rohingya are the main wartime policy contractors' target. Burned houses as well as entire villages, violent physical attacks, and shootings constitute a major ethnic cleansing campaign that has been an ongoing issue since the 1970s when the first discriminatory policies, such as national registration cards confiscations, military attacks on the minority group members, and laws on citizenship based on ethnicity, were launched countrywide.
A major internal escalation occurred on the 1st of February 2021, when the Myanmar military propelled a coup under the auspices of General Min Aung Hlaing. Thereupon, the junta detained the former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and the violent clashes between the parallel oppositionist government known as People’s Defense Force and the military became a common phenomenon throughout the whole country. This also became a point of no-return concerning the severity of the atrocities and brutality toward the minority group. Since then, Myanmar’s junta has launched a nationwide mass campaign of brutal killings, torture, and persecution targeted at the Rohingya. The escalation of the internal military conflict has also contributed to the rise in the sexual violence rate against women and girls from the minority group. As a result of long-cultivated social denial and recent forceful dislocation operations led by the military, up to 100,000 individuals have fled the country and more than a million cases of internally displaced people were recorded with around 700,000 people newly displaced since February 1, 2021.
International Reactions
With numerous economic sanctions and loud political statements, big interventionist international actors, such as the United States have been actively taking part in the conflict resolution and the formation of a global response to what is currently happening in Myanmar. However, when Washington imposes political pressure through condemnation and calls upon The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to step in, Beijing aims to defend Myanmar’s right to sovereignty and internal national security. China withal intends to avoid any explicit statements or allegations due to own similar comportment toward the Uighur Muslim minority in China. Such a vivid example of how power politics shape the international response to grave-scale humanitarian catastrophes can serve as an urgent call to rethink the essential purpose of global governance. That brings up the question whether global governance as an institutional instrument is capable of combating grave human rights violations and protecting human rights worldwide despite the deeply-rooted political interests, preferences, and aspirations.
The UN as the main international body to promote and protect human rights worldwide together with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights have repeatedly denounced the military junta’s attacks on the protected minority and stressed the necessity to shift a larger focus to the condition of human rights in the country. The UN is now also being criticized for the lack of sufficient actions directed at overturning the crisis and for taking too long to organize help for the victims. Although the UN agencies are present in the country and numerous attempts have been made to provide a decent response to the humanitarian crisis, such undertakings are distinctly insufficient in contrast to the scale of the human suffering. Since the 2021 escalation, many UN officers were declined an entry permit, and the activities of humanitarian agencies are currently being severely restricted.
The UN’s immediate allocation of resources to Ukraine in response to the Russian invasion is a stark juxtaposition to their support of the Rohingya. This comparison is often used to assess the UN’s lack of a comprehensive approach to compartmentalize issues of global importance.
Recently, substantial light has been shed on the scandalous cases of the refugees’ forced returns back to Myanmar, also on the international level. In late October 2022, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights officially called for a moratorium on the forced returns of refugees to Myanmar, after more than 100 individual involuntary repatriation cases were recorded in Malaysia earlier that month. In March 2022, the military in Thailand, another popular destination for refugees from Myanmar, destroyed a cross-border footbridge that was commonly used to flee Myanmar. Previously, the Thai government ordered the border agencies to monitor illegal migration, and hence, more than 2,000 refugees were returned to the conflict zone. The issue was also publicly emphasized by the secretary-general’s special envoy on Myanmar, Noeleen Heyzer, who called upon the neighboring ASEAN member states to restrict or eliminate forced returns to Myanmar and work out a joint response to withstand the challenge that Myanmar is facing nowadays.
Thailand has instantaneously reacted to the UN’s messages by passing a new anti-torture law that aims to prohibit forced repatriations to Myanmar and also other countries where torture might be faced. However, it is so far the only country that has legally reacted to the underlined issue, albeit the decree will only enter into force 120 days after it was published in the Royal Gazette.
Nationwide Consequences
The conflict has multidimensionally affected the rest of the population as well. The ongoing military coup and its nationwide implication led to the escalation of a food insecurity issue nationwide. According to the World Food Programme, one-quarter of the whole population of Myanmar, which accounts for over 13 million people which is more than the entire population of Sweden, is currently subject to moderate or severe food insecurity.
Another consequence of the military takeover was Myanmar’s national currency depreciation which quickly led to the growth of essential goods prices, including medicines, fuel prices, and food. Interrelatedly, the level of the country’s economic prosperity has also majorly decreased due to the 2021 military coup. Resulting in a substantial GDP decline, a decreased trade volume, and deteriorated economic relations with foreign suppliers as well as investors.
In the highly digitalized era that the modern world is associated with, a multitude of Myanmar’s municipalities were confronted with a cut-off of mobile and internet services, depriving people of the digital communication channels and access to the information required to stay safe and alert during the crises.
One crucial aspect to highlight in this is that a comprehensive international approach to combating and addressing the human rights violations in Myanmar is essential to prove the global protection mechanisms’ effectiveness and efficiency. The Rohingya people as well as the rest of Myanmar’s population who are directly affected by the ongoing military coup require support and cooperation from the global community. Such crises are to become lessons for humanity to prevent similar atrocities from happening again in the future and further disrupting the world’s peace and security.