Ethnic-cleansing of Myanmar's Muslims; Crimes against humanity or genocide?

Abstract

For decades from now, the Rohingya ethnic minority has endured grave human rights violations in North Arakan State’s of Myanmar. Hundreds of thousands have fled across the border to Bangladesh towards harsh conditions of life.This paper indicates that it can be said with any degree of certainty that the intent behind such actions is to ethnically cleanse North Arakan State.Ethnic-cleansing means “rendering an area ethnically homogenous by using force or intimidation to remove persons of given groups from the area”. According to international criminal law, the concept of ethnic cleansing on the one hand with crimes against humanity (deportation and forcible transfer) and on the other hand is associated with genocide. However, the growing body of evidence on killing and violence against RohingyaMuslims in Rakhine State demonstrates that this ethnic-cleansing is more than simply the removal of the Rohingya from the land, but is part of a deliberate process of destruction of the Rohingya people and commissionof genocide against them.

Keywords

• The Rohingya ethnic minority; Forced transfer; Deportation; international criminal law