13, Feb 2018 | CJP Team

Amnesty International has reported that Myanmar’s security forces continue to crack down on Rohingya living in the country’s Rakhine State. Amnesty said that in late January 2018, it interviewed 19 Rohingya men and women who had just reached Bangladesh, and who detailed how they were compelled to escape because of “forced starvation, abductions and looting of property”. The refugees said Myanmar’s military barred their access to their rice fields during the harvest time, in November and December 2017. The security forces were also allegedly involved in stealing the Rohingya’s livestock, razing some local markets and blocking access to others, resulting in severe food insecurity. Amnesty said it also recorded three instances where young women or girls were kidnapped by the military, and also mentioned sexual violence being perpetrated on Rohingya women who were attempting to escape. Myanmar’s forces have been accused of committing widespread sexual violence against Rohingya girls and women. “Myanmar’s security forces are building on entrenched patterns of abuse to silently squeeze out of the country as many of the remaining Rohingya as possible,” said Matthew Wells, Senior Crisis Advisor, Amnesty International. The organisation has alleged that continuing campaign seems to be aimed at making the “northern Rakhine State unliveable for the tens of thousands of Rohingya still there”. A military crackdown that started late August 2017 has forced more than 688,000 Rohingya to flee to neighbouring in Bangladesh. Amnesty International’s full document can be read here:

Amnesty Report on excesses committed by Myanmar Forces on Rohingyas