The genocide in Myanmar is a challenge to human conscience. Only condemnation is not enough, the world must act. Blood curdling reports of the massacre of Rohingya Muslims of Rakhine state of Myanmar were making shock waves in the world in September and October 2017. During that period the prime minister of the biggest democracy, India, paid a visit to that country. But he kept mum on this most ruthless massacre of 21st century.
United Nations officials had been constantly drawing the attention of the world against this ethnic cleansing. UN Secretary General Antonio Gutterres also denounced these atrocities several times in strongest words.
Now a detailed report has been released by Doctors Without Borders (MSF). This is based on a series of six surveys conducted in Bangladesh camps where about 647,000 Rohingya refugees have been sheltered. The report estimates that at least 6,700 Rohingyas were killed in the military crackdown on hundreds of villagers from 25th August onwards. It graphically describes the atrocities including burning and bombing of hundreds of villages, shooting and killings of men, women and even children and old people.
The MSF report gives details of the horror perpetrated by Myanmar armed forces and the Buddhist mobs. It says that 69 per cent deaths were caused by gunshots, nine per cent of the dead were those burned alive inside houses and five per cent died in fatal beatings. It enumerates hundreds of cases of rapes, arson and deadly attacks which reduced to ashes hundreds of villages. It also says that at least 760 innocent children were killed mercilessly.
This genocide was the culmination of a long history of denial of rights and continued persecution. It is unbelievably strange that some men can be so cruel to their fellow beings. They are worse than brutes and wild animals.
Myanmar government cannot be absolved of committing the worst crimes against humanity. The world community must see that these inhuman crimes are not allowed to go unpunished. Sanctions must be imposed on Burmese government and the army officers who perpetrated these crimes should not go scot free. It is a question of human rights and preservation of human values and humanity. Let the be reminded of God’s declaration that, “killing one innocent person is equal to killing the whole mankind and one who saves one innocent life saves and safeguards the entire mankind.”