{"id":84351,"date":"2016-12-12T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2016-12-12T12:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=84351"},"modified":"2016-12-12T11:17:48","modified_gmt":"2016-12-12T11:17:48","slug":"burma-could-be-guilty-of-crimes-against-humanity-as-rohingya-crackdown-intensifies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/12\/burma-could-be-guilty-of-crimes-against-humanity-as-rohingya-crackdown-intensifies\/","title":{"rendered":"Burma Could Be Guilty of \u2018Crimes against Humanity\u2019 as Rohingya Crackdown Intensifies"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>

Rohingya Muslims who have fled from violence in Burma take shelter at the Leda unregistered Rohingya camp in Teknaf, Bangladesh, on Dec. 5 2016.
Zakir Hossain Chowdhury\u2014Anadolu Agency\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

“Things are not as they are being portrayed by the government.”<\/em><\/p>\n

11 Dec 2016 – <\/em>Reports from Burma\u2019s northern Arakan state, where violence against the country\u2019s Rohingya Muslim minority has forced tens of thousands<\/a> to flee for their lives, suggest the situation there is \u201cgetting very close to what we would all agree are crimes against humanity,\u201d the U.N.\u2019s top human-rights investigator for the country has said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am getting reports from inside the country and from neighboring places too that things are not as they are being portrayed by the government. We are seeing a lot of very graphic and very disturbing photos and video clips,\u201d Yanghee Lee, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the country, tells TIME.<\/p>\n

Burma has imposed a lockdown<\/a> on the affected areas, as it conducts what it calls \u201cclearance operations\u201d following an attack on three border guard posts in early October. Nine policemen were killed<\/a> in the attack, which the Burmese authorities blamed on Islamist militants.<\/p>\n

Read More:<\/em><\/strong> Something Shocking Is Happening to Burma\u2019s Rohingya People. Take a Look at This Timeline<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But fears have been growing for the million-strong Rohingya people who live in the area, amid allegations of rape<\/a>, extrajudicial killings and the torching of Rohingya villages by the Burmese military, which denies the claims.<\/p>\n

Seen as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh and denied citizenship rights, the Rohingya have long been marginalized in Burma. In 2012, some 125,000 people were displaced amid communal fighting between Arakanese Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, with rights groups accusing security forces of either standing aside or actively participating in the violence.<\/p>\n

Read More:<\/em><\/strong> [Nobel Peace Laureate] Aung San Suu Kyi Can\u2019t, or Won\u2019t, Rein In Burma\u2019s Army<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As Arakan burns again, with around 21,000<\/a> people fleeing to Bangladesh in recent months, Lee called on the Burmese authorities to allow full humanitarian access to the northern section of the state that is also known as Rakhine. She also expressed her dissatisfaction with a government-supervised trip to some of the affected areas by a group of foreign diplomats and a U.N. official in early November. \u201cNo one should be satisfied with the trip,\u201d she says. \u201cThis was a guided tour. Even though there was a heavy security presence there, people started to come out and try to speak to this delegation. And of course, afterwards, we\u2019ve also heard that there were reprisals. These people were hunted down.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Dec. 9, 14 diplomatic missions<\/a>, including the embassies of the U.S. and France, also called on Burma to give humanitarian agencies \u201cfull and unfettered access\u201d to northern Arakan, \u201cnoting that tens of thousands of people who need humanitarian aid, including children with acute malnutrition, have been without it now for nearly two months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 time.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

11 Dec 2016 – Reports from Burma\u2019s northern Arakan state, where violence against the country\u2019s Rohingya Muslim minority has forced tens of thousands to flee for their lives, suggest the situation there is \u201cgetting very close to what we would all agree are crimes against humanity,\u201d the U.N.\u2019s top human-rights investigator for the country has said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}