A Deep Dive into the Rohingya Genocide
"At midnight on August 25, 2017, I was woken by the noise of intense gunfire. I had no idea where it was coming from or what was happening. I was in my bed in Maungdaw Township, in Myanmar's Rakhine State. The shooting continued through the night and into the morning. Then the town fell silent…I wonder, if you have ever imagined what it would be like to be a young Rohingya like me who was raised in the shadow of what amounts to a decades-long genocide…I encountered a world where every human right was denied to us. I learned how we were marginalized and discriminated against religiously, socially and politically only for being who we are." - Ro Mayyu Ali, who fled Myanmar in August 2017 and now lives in a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, writes on CNN.
The Rohingya genocide is the ongoing persecution and mass killings of the Muslim Rohingya people by the military of Myanmar/Burma. This genocide dates back to the 1970s but has majorly unfolded in two phases: an initial military crackdown from October 2016 to January 2017, followed by an intensified campaign starting in August 2017. The violence forced over a million Rohingya to flee Myanmar, with most seeking refuge in Bangladesh, leading to the formation of the world's largest refugee camp. Others escaped to India, Thailand, Malaysia, and various parts of South and Southeast Asia, where they continue to face discrimination. These events are widely recognized as ethnic cleansing.
The Rohingya are one of the 136 ethnic groups in Myanmar. They are a predominantly Muslim group who have lived in a Buddhist-majority country, i.e., Myanmar, for centuries. According to most historians and the Rohingya people, they have been here since the 12th century. Most Rohingya reside in the western coastal state of Rakhine, from where they cannot leave without government approval. Rakhine is one of the country's poorest regions, marked by ghetto-like camps and severe shortages of essential services and opportunities. The Rohingya speak Rohingya or Ruaingga. They are not considered one of the country's 135 official ethnic groups and have been denied citizenship in Myanmar since 1982, rendering them stateless. There are also restrictions on their access to state education and civil service jobs. Before the genocide in 2017, when thousands fled to Bangladesh and other states, an estimated 1.4 million Rohingya lived in Myanmar. Now, less than a million remain in Rakhine.
The genocide against the Rohingya dates back to the 1960s and 1970s. Myanmar, formerly Burma, gained independence from Great Britain in 1948 and was democratic until a military coup in 1962. The military, known as the Tatmadaw, established a junta that ruled with heavy repression. In 1974, they enacted a new constitution; later that year, Parliament passed the Emergency Immigration Act, restricting the rights of individuals deemed "foreigners" from Bangladesh, China, and India. Authorities started seizing national registration cards from Rohingyas. In 1982, the government limited Rohingya citizenship. They faced severe persecution and violence during the time of the junta, with escalating violence and displacement between the years 2000 and 2012, and this continued despite the dissolving of the junta in 2011 under public and international pressure. Many armed ethnic organizations were also formed to fight the military. This has resulted in the world's longest-running civil war.
The persecution of the Rohingya arose from the Tatmadaw's need to maintain power in Myanmar. Ethnic conflict allowed the military to stoke nationalist support and weaken democratic leadership while preserving its influence. The Rohingya, being the most vulnerable ethnic minority, were targeted for several reasons: they lack international allies, are falsely portrayed as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, and are predominantly Muslim, making them less likely to garner decisive international intervention. This allowed the Tatmadaw to carry out atrocities in Rakhine with minimal geopolitical repercussions, treating the Rohingya as expendable pawns for political gain.
Clashes in Rakhine erupted in August 2017 after the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) claimed responsibility for attacks on police and army posts. ARSA, formerly known as Harakah al-Yaqin, is a Rohingya insurgent group active in the northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. The government designated ARSA a terrorist organization, prompting a brutal military campaign that destroyed hundreds of Rohingya villages, forcing nearly 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh. According to the international medical charity Doctors Without Borders, at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed within the first month of the attacks, from August 25 to September 24, 2017. Myanmar's security forces reportedly opened fire on fleeing civilians and planted land mines near border crossings used by Rohingya to escape to Bangladesh. The United States imposed sanctions on military leaders and officials who oversaw attacks across Rakhine.
In September 2018, a UN fact-finding panel published a report claiming that the Myanmar government acted with "genocidal intent" against the Rohingya. The panel's chair said it found clear patterns of military abuse, including the systematic targeting of civilians, sexual violence, discriminatory rhetoric against minorities, and fostering a climate of impunity for security forces.
Since early 2018, Myanmar authorities have reportedly cleared abandoned Rohingya villages and farmlands to construct homes, security bases, and infrastructure. While the government claims this is preparation for refugee repatriation, rights activists fear it may be aimed at settling non-Rohingya populations in Rakhine. Critics also question whether the government's actions were a response to ARSA attacks, noting that military policies began nearly a year before ARSA's strikes. Sectarian violence in Rakhine is longstanding; security campaigns in 2012 and 2016 had similarly forced tens of thousands of Rohingya to flee their homes.
Jannat Ara, 25, a refugee at a camp in Bangladesh, told Al-Jazeera, "I am visually impaired. I beg at Thaingkhali unregistered refugee camp to survive…I do not know where I could find a medical camp for the visually impaired…At least nobody is killing me."
Rohingya refugees primarily flee to Bangladesh, which hosts over 900,000 in crowded camps, including the world's largest refugee camp in Cox's Bazar district. Many refugees don't receive adequate education and face disease risks due to poor sanitation. Some seek refuge in Malaysia, where nearly 100,000 Rohingya live without legal status. At the same time, India hosts around 18,000 registered refugees (though Indian officials estimate the actual number to be 40,000) but faces criticism for repatriating some. Thailand serves as a transit hub for human smuggling, and Indonesia has provided aid but treats Rohingya as illegal immigrants. Most refugees face exploitation, health crises, and limited access to essential services wherever they escape.
In 2022, Amnesty International posted an article explaining how Facebook has created an anti-Rohingya echo chamber, propelling the violence and hatred against the Rohingya and allowing Meta to profit off of it. Meta's engagement-based algorithms prioritize content that keeps users on Facebook longer, including inflammatory posts that provoke violence, hatred, and discrimination. In Myanmar, Facebook became a platform for anti-Rohingya disinformation, fueled by military and nationalist actors who portrayed Rohingya as "invaders." Threatening posts, including those from Myanmar's military leader Min Aung Hlaing, contributed to inciting violence and denying the Rohingya's existence. Attempts like Meta's 2014 "Panzagar" or "flower speech" stickers backfired, intensifying hateful content instead. This was supposed to be an anti-hate initiative to counter violence and discrimination on Facebook. It introduced sticker packs with messages like "Think before you share" to discourage harmful content. However, Facebook's algorithms interpreted the stickers' use as engagement, inadvertently boosting hateful posts instead of lowering their visibility. The UN linked Facebook's role to atrocities in Myanmar, where it functioned as the primary internet platform. In 2022, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) moved forward with a genocide case against Myanmar, signaling a step toward accountability.
"I'd like to meet Mark Zuckerberg and his team. Maybe they'd like to come and spend a night or two in the refugee camp?" Sawyedollah, a young Rohingya refugee, writes. "I'd tell them: 'Can't you see your role in our suffering? We asked you, repeatedly, to try and help make things better for us… Yet you ignore our pleas. Tell me, do you feel anything for us? Is it only about the data, is it only about the dollars?"
If the world is to uphold the principles of justice and human rights, it must move beyond rhetoric to enforce accountability. Anything less would send a dangerous signal to authoritarian regimes everywhere that atrocities against minorities can occur without consequence. As said by Tun Khin, President of the Burmese Rohingya Organization UK (BROUK): "The Rohingya genocide was not inevitable; it was allowed to happen and is still being allowed to happen."
References:
Ali, R. M. (2018, April 11). Raised in the shadow of genocide: A young Rohingya’s story. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/11/asia/rohingya-myanmar-bangladesh-intl/index.html
Staff, A. J. (2018, April 18). Who are the Rohingya? Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018/4/18/who-are-the-rohingya
A Timeline of Rohingya History - Burma’s Path to Genocide - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (n.d.). https://exhibitions.ushmm.org/burmas-path-to-genocide/timeline
Albert, E. (2020, January 23). The Rohingya crisis. Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/rohingya-crisis
Khalid, S. (2017, September 24). Untold stories of most vulnerable Rohingya refugees. Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/9/24/untold-stories-of-most-vulnerable-rohingya-refugees
Amnesty International. (2023, October 31). Myanmar: Facebook’s systems promoted violence against Rohingya; Meta owes reparations – new report. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/09/myanmar-facebooks-systems-promoted-violence-against-rohingya-meta-owes-reparations-new-report/
Amnesty International. (2024, August 16). Myanmar: Time for Meta to pay reparations to Rohingya for role in ethnic cleansing. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/08/myanmar-time-for-meta-to-pay-reparations-to-rohingya-for-role-in-ethnic-cleansing/
Staff, A. J. (2024, June 26). Rohingya ‘genocide intensifying’ as war rages in Myanmar’s Rakhine: BROUK. Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/26/rohingya-genocide-intensifying-as-war-rages-in-myanmars-rakhine-brouk
Bi, K. (2018, October 16). Why Myanmar’s Military Targets the Rohingya: The Politics of Slaughter. Harvard International Review. https://hir.harvard.edu/why-myanmar-targets-rohingya/
About the author:
Eema-E-Zahra Shah is currently doing her A Levels in Islamabad, Pakistan. Her past experiences have mostly revolved around social justice and creative communications. She's worked as Content Lead with Mahwari Justice, a period equity NGO in Pakistan, and Director Operations at the Happy Little Family Foundation, an orphan development group. Eema was HR Manager at Shanakht, a welfare-focused NGO, an intern at Al Bayaan Schools, and a writer at iFeminist, DearAsianYouth Karachi, API Impact, GoodForYouth Pakistan, and Sadaa. She is also researching at a biomedical engineering lab.
Outside of this, Eema spends her time reading, journalling, playing basketball, and painting.
