Human rights activists and Rohingya refugees shared a stage here on Tuesday to highlight the fresh exodus of the Muslim-majority group from Myanmar to escape genocide.
Speakers at the event held at the Press Club of India included deputy minister of the country’s government in exile Aung Kyaw Moe — a Rohingya who joined online from the US.
Moe said: “Anyone regardless of their political ideology who has committed atrocities, war crimes or genocide, we should ensure that… the perpetrators are held accountable. Just because they are our political allies doesn’t mean they should enjoy immunity.”
The media conference was held to highlight a series of massacres of Rohingyas by the Arakan Army, an ethnic Rakhine insurgent group that has denied the allegations. Video footage of an alleged massacre carried out by combat drones on Rohingyas fleeing to Bangladesh was also shown.
Ali Johar, a Rohingya refugee who is part of the Global Movement Against Statelessness, said: “In August 2017, the world witnessed the systematic extermination of the Rohingya, with more than 30,000 killed and over a million displaced…. Such acts were not mere moments of violence but a carefully orchestrated campaign of dehumanisation and a genocide through otherisation of Rohingya and massive hate campaigns against the community.”
He added: “While victims are waiting for justice, we witness the Arakan Army, a group that claims to be liberating the people of Arakan from military oppression, following a pattern of similar atrocities, propaganda, hate speech and racism against the Rohingya…. While the Arakan Army is finishing an unfinished genocide started by Myanmar’s Junta, a large civil society in Myanmar has chosen silence.”
Sabber Kyaw Min of the Rohingya Human Rights Initiative narrated how his relatives were among an estimated 135 people allegedly killed by the Arakan Army on May 1 in Houya Seri village. He demanded that the international community intervene, and the UN deploy a peacekeeping force.
Retired ambassador K.P. Fabian said even after several countries supported Myanmar’s prosecution in the International Court of Justice for the 2017 pogrom, “the genocide continues and the international community is unable to stop it…. Where is the Global South? If we in India believe Vasudhaiva
Kutumbakam (the whole world is a family), we have to act.”
