Muslims
in Myanmar Face Escalating Repression and Grave Human Rights Violations
The Burma Human
Rights Network reported on Wednesday that Muslims in Myanmar are facing
increasing repression and serious human rights violations, amid the continued
grip of the military on power since the 2021 coup.
The UK-based network
called on the international community to impose sanctions on the country’s
ruling military regime, in a statement issued to mark the 77th anniversary of
the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In its statement,
the network said that while 77 years have passed since the adoption of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights—which affirms every individual’s right to
security, dignity, and equality before the law—these principles have been
systematically violated in Myanmar for decades through persecution,
displacement, and violence carried out by the military with impunity.
Systematic
Violations Against Muslims
The statement noted
that the Myanmar military has committed widespread violations against Muslims,
particularly Rohingya Muslims, as well as other minorities. These abuses
include forced displacement, denial of citizenship and legal residency, mass
killings, and the destruction of residential areas and places of worship.
It emphasized that
violence by the military junta has escalated markedly since the coup of
February 1, 2021, with military attacks leading to the displacement of large
numbers of civilians.
The network pointed
out that arbitrary arrests, extortion, torture, and deaths in detention
continue in the absence of any legal oversight, while civilians are deprived of
food, shelter, and healthcare.
It added that the
growing repression against Muslims has not received sufficient international
attention, despite broader focus on the violence that followed the coup.
Calls
for Sanctions and International Accountability
The network stressed
that discriminatory laws and policies have condemned hundreds of thousands of
Muslims to live under harsh humanitarian conditions, urging governments to
impose sanctions to prevent the Myanmar military from accessing weapons,
aviation fuel, and financial resources.
The statement also
underscored the need not to recognize the elections that the military
authorities intend to hold between December of the current year and January
2026.
Furthermore, it
called on the UN Security Council to refer the Myanmar situation to the
International Criminal Court, and urged the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) to bar Myanmar from participating in all its meetings and to
support the imposition of sanctions.
The statement
highlighted the importance of neighboring countries—particularly India,
Thailand, Indonesia, and Bangladesh—developing a comprehensive regional
response to the refugee crisis, while providing protection and humanitarian and
legal support to displaced persons, and urgently opening cross-border aid
channels.
Ethnic
Cleansing of Arakan’s Muslims
The roots of the
suffering of Muslims in Myanmar date back to 2012, when clashes erupted between
Buddhists and Muslims in Arakan State, resulting in the killing of thousands of
people, most of them Muslims, and the destruction of hundreds of homes and shops.
On August 25, 2017,
the Myanmar military and Buddhist nationalists launched a widespread campaign
of violence, under the pretext of attacks targeting border posts in the state,
triggering a massive wave of displacement.
According to the
United Nations, more than 900,000 people have fled to Bangladesh since August
2017 to escape repression and persecution, while international human rights
organizations have documented, through satellite imagery, the destruction of
hundreds of villages.
The United Nations
and international human rights organizations describe what Rohingya Muslims are
facing as ethnic cleansing or genocide.
(Source:
Agencies)
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