Open letter to H.E. Mr. António Guterres Secretary-General of the United Nations Executive Office of the Secretary-General S-3800, United Nations Secretariat Bldg New York, NY 10017 Subject: Genocide in Myanmar a very serious international crimes against Rohingya’s Muslims,,,BY.ASGHARAR ALI MUBARAK

H.E. Mr. António Guterres
Secretary-General of the United Nations
Executive Office of the Secretary-General
S-3800, United Nations Secretariat Bldg
New York, NY 10017
Subject: Genocide in Myanmar a very serious international crimes against Rohingya’s Muslims

Excellency,
Hope all is well with you’’ May I introduce myself my name is Asghar Ali Mubarak a senior Pakistani journalist and founder President Diplomatic Correspondents Forum of Pakistan. As you well aware about current situation in Myanmar ‘’ genocide in Myanmar is a very serious international crimes against Rohingya’s Muslims. The crimes reportedly committed against the Rohingya are unquestionably serious, but do they constitute genocide? Speaking on the situation in Myanmar during a recent speech in Istanbul, the Turkish President Recap H.E .Mr. Tayyip Erdogan said, “There is genocide there.” “Those who close their eyes to this genocide perpetrated under the cover of democracy are its collaborators,” he added. This was a strong word for H.E .Mr. Tayyip Erdogan to use, considering the controversy over the fact the Turkish government has long been unwilling to officially designate the mass killings of Armenians during World War I as “genocide.” More officially, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide — approved by the UN in 1948 — defines genocide as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”Top UN officials have characterized what’s occurring in Myanmar as “ethnic cleansing,” but have not used the term “genocide.” Unlike genocide, ethnic cleansing has not been designated as an independent crime under international law. The Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority group in Myanmar, have been systematically disenfranchised and increasingly marginalized, including through denial of citizenship and restriction of movement. Over the years successive UN Special Reports’ on the situation of human rights in Myanmar have reported serious continuing human rights violations against this community. The social media raised concerns regarding widespread fear amongst civilians of potential reprisals as punishment for speaking out. We demand for the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry upon the current situation in Myanmar against Rohingya’s Muslims. As you know, on 3rd February 2017 the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a report based on interviews with Rohingya who had fled from Myanmar, which detailed “widespread and systematic” attacks against the Rohingya and reiterated “the very likely commission of crimes against humanity” – as had already been concluded by the High Commissioner in June 2016.The High Commissioner, likewise, has called for a Commission of Inquiry.Before the recent attacks on Rohingya’s Muslims a series of attacks were reported on border guard posts on 9 October 2016 and subsequent joint army-police counterinsurgency operation, there have been consistent reports of extrajudicial executions, rape and other crimes of sexual violence, torture and ill-treatment, enforced disappearances, mass arrests, and the widespread destruction of Rohingya’s Muslims buildings and mosques. During your tenure as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, you witnessed first-hand the discriminatory treatment of the Rohingya, including the proposal by then-President Thein Sein to settle all Rohingya’s Muslims in refugee camps or send them to third countries. The situation is now a day is more miserable. More than 120,000 Rohingya’s Muslims to flee in the last two weeks for Bangladesh, while 24,000 people remain internally displaced in Myanmar. Despite the announcement on 16 February of the termination of the four-month counterinsurgency operation, the government continued to deny allegations of human rights abuses in Rakhine State. A number of Rohingya’s Muslims reached Bangladesh in recent days is estimated to be 123,600. Up to 15,000 Rohingya’s Muslims refugees are expected to cross the Naf River into Bangladesh each day this week, joining the tens of thousands already taking shelter in overcrowded camps and makeshift settlements.The Myanmar authorities have established several national commissions to investigate allegations of human rights violations; however none of these commissions are independent or credible. Two investigations are being conducted by the police and military respectively, raising concerns about their ability to investigate allegations of abuses within their ranks. The third Commission, established in December 2016, claims to have found insufficient evidence of human rights violations, despite mounting reports to the contrary. Another commission – the Advisory Commission on Rohingya’s Muslims State, led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, does not have a human rights mandate and will not be conducting investigations into the allegations of abuses. On 6 February 2016 the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, stated that the failure to address these violations puts populations at “the risk of very serious international crimes.” According to media reports the United Nations aid agencies continue to block from delivering food, water and medicine to the Rohingya, while humanitarian workers on the ground say warehouses stocking vital emergency supplies are being looted. Myanmar government has blocked all United Nations aid agencies from delivering vital supplies of food, water and medicine to thousands of desperate civilians at the centre of a bloody military campaign against the country’s Muslim Rohingya minority.The UN halted distributions in northern Rakhine state after militants attacked government forces on 25 August and the army responded with a counteroffensive that has killed hundreds of people. In a recent report the office of the UN resident coordinator in Myanmar said deliveries had been suspended “because the security situation and government field-visit restrictions rendered us unable to distribute assistance”.The UN asked authorities to ensure that humanitarian operations can resume as soon as possible,” the office said. Aid was being delivered to other parts of Rakhine state.In the deadliest outbreak of violence in the area for decades, the military has been accused of atrocities against the persecuted Rohingya minority, tens of thousands of whom have fled burning villages to neighboring Bangladesh, many with bullet wounds. As the international outcry over the crisis grew, an aid group that has been rescuing tens of thousands of refugees from the Mediterranean Sea announced it was redirecting its ship to south-east Asia. The unrest has raised fears of a humanitarian crisis in overstretched border camps, with another 400,000 of Rohingya’s Muslims the Muslim ethnic minority estimated to be trapped in conflict zones in western Myanmar since more “clearance operations” by security forces in Rakhine state began last month. When asked a question about the situation in Myanmar, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department did not specifically address the discussion of genocide, but tells media, “The United States is in close contact with Burma’s government about the situation in Rakhine and have publicly and privately discussed this issue at the highest levels,” adding, “As government and security forces act to bring those responsible for the attacks to justice, we urge them to do so in a way that is consistent with the rule of law and that respects human rights.”Based on comments from the USHMM, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and others, the U.S. government and the international community more generally could arguably be doing far more to pressure Myanmar’s government to cooperate with efforts to stop the violence against the Rohingya.The Rohingya’s Muslims called the most persecuted minority in the world. The 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims squeezed precariously into the north-west state of Rakhine, in mainly Buddhist Burma, bordering majority Muslim Bangladesh, are stateless and unwanted Neither country will give them citizenship even though their families’ roots in modern-day Rakhine, once called Arakan, can be traced back to the Eighth Century. Since World War Two they have been treated increasingly by Burmese authorities as illegal, interloping Bengalis, facing apartheid-like conditions that deny them free movement or state education while government forces intermittently drive out and slaughter them.Over the past year, military operations against Rohingya villages have been so intense and cruel that the minority’s defenders have warned of an unfolding genocide. The United Nations has reported that the army may have committed ethnic cleansing. The inhumane treatment of the Rohingyas has tarnished the image of Myanmar’s civilian leader and Nobel peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, once a famously unflinching defender of human rights and darling of the West.She now faces international fury, particularly from Muslim nations, for failing to stand up to armed forces chief General Min Aung Hlaing, whose soldiers are accused of rape, murder, arson, and of ripping Rohingya babies from their mothers’ arms and throwing them into rivers and fire.Ms Suu Kyi has publicly stuck to the military’s line that the Rohingya are illegally squatting on the Burmese territory, tragedy. The latest military crackdown, which began on August 25, caused almost 90,000 Rohingyas to flee under fire to squalid, overflowing relief camps across the Bangladeshi border in just two weeks. Officially close to 400 people had died by early September, but human rights activists claim to have confirmation of at least 1,000 deaths and believe the figure is much higher. The death toll will inevitably rise after Burma, also known as Myanmar, blocked UN agencies from delivering vital food, water and medicine supplies to 250,000 Rakhine residents desperately in need. Ongoing persecution of the Rohingya has inevitably led to an armed, if disorganized, resistance. The army “clearing operations” which sparked the mass exodus of civilians in both October 2016 and in August 2017, were launched after insurgents known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked several paramilitary check posts. ARSA has so far been described as a rag-tag collection of small groups armed with knives, sticks and some basic IEDs, rather than a robust military force or mass mobilization. A report released in early September by the Burma Human Rights Network documents the rise of systematic abuses against Burmese Muslims since 2012, including the creation of “Muslim-free zones”, denial of ID cards, and the banning of Islamic holidays. The oppression has been mirrored by an upsurge of ultra-nationalist Buddhist groups who encourage an anti-Muslim rhetoric. Mr. Matthew Smith, director of Fortify Rights, a human rights group working with Rohingya refugees, said there was a danger of escalation.“There is certainly a risk that international extremist organizations will seek to be involved in northern Rakhine state,” he said. “The best way to prevent this from escalating is to protect the rights of the civilian population. Myanmar is doing the exact opposite.This is important to mention here that the government in Myanmar does not control the military, but that doesn’t mean it can’t influence the current situation. Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s iconic de facto leader and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, has been heavily criticized for not taking a more forceful, vocal stance on this issue. Some seem to feel her legacy is already tarnished irrevocably over her silence on the plight of the Rohingya. According to Thai journalist PARITTA WANGKIAT report in Myanmar about 100 people have been killed since militants from the Muslim insurgency group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).The international community has urged the governments of Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia to accept the Rohingya who fled to their countries as refugees. I would like to say that the Myanmar government and Buddhist nationalists can help solve the problem by trying to look at it by recognizing universal principles. They should try to leave their hatred and bias against the Rohingya behind and apply the following three principles. First, respect for human rights. Whether a majority or a minority in a country, everyone should be treated based on the principles of human rights. They deserve equal treatment. For the crisis in Rakhine State, no one deserves to be killed just because they are seen as an enemy or outsider. Second, all parties should try to adopt peaceful approaches, such as negotiation. This can pave the way for long-term solutions. Third, the Myanmar government and its authorities should treat their people with dignity. Whenever any government suppresses people by limiting access to basic rights and opportunities and treating them differently to how it treats the majority of people, it takes away their pride. When a government dehumanises its minorities that takes away their dignity. When people lose their dignity, they are forced to live like they are in a dark hole. Some of them will resist by perhaps opting to use violence to regain their dignity. Then a war breaks out, similar to the situation in Rakhine State.
I always welcome your commitment to human rights, peace and conflict prevention, as well as your stated readiness to advance these causes through your good offices and personal engagement as UN Secretary-General. Given the intensive promotion of anti-Muslim sentiment in Myanmar.
With regards
Sincerely
ASGHAR ALI MUBARAK
Founder President Diplomatic Correspondents
Forum of Pakistan
CHIEF REPORTER’’ THE DAILY MAIL ISLAMABAD’’
asgharalimubarak@yahoo.com

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