October 2012
The All-Arakanese Monks’ Solidarity Conference is held in Sittwe. The monks, who hold very high moral authority among the Arakanese Buddhist population, issue a virulently anti-Rohingya statement that urges townships to band together to “help solve” the “problem.”
Sectarian violence reignites across nine townships in Arakan/Rakhine State, displacing another 35,000 people, mostly Muslims.
Human Rights Watch reports that the October attacks against Rohingya and Kaman Muslim communities were organised, incited and committed by local Arakanese political party operatives, the Buddhist monkhood and ordinary Arakanese, at times directly supported by state security forces. Rohingya men, women and children are killed, some buried in mass graves, and their villages and neighbourhoods are razed.
“First the soldiers told us, ‘Do not do anything, we will protect you, we will save you,’ so we trusted them,” a 25-year-old survivor told Human Rights Watch. “But later they broke that promise. The Arakanese beat and killed us very easily. The security did not protect us from them.”
ASEAN secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan says that the government of Myanmar has rejected an offer by ASEAN to open tripartite talks between ASEAN, the UN and the government aimed at quelling the violence in Arakan/Rakhine State.
The violence since June displaced at least 125,000 Rohingya and other Muslims, and a smaller number of Arakanese, to internally displaced persons (IDP) camps.
November 2012
Navi Pillay calls upon the government of Burma/Myanmar to review the 1982 Citizenship Law, which rendered Rohingya Muslims stateless, “to ensure that Rohingya have equal access to citizenship.”
The UN General Assembly adopts a resolution on the human rights situation in Burma/Myanmar, expressing concern about ongoing violations and calling upon the government “to address the continuing armed conflict in Kachin State and the outbreak of deadly violence in Rakhine State, and the discrimination and human rights violations affecting ethnic minorities, especially the Rohingya.”
The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus releases a statement welcoming the November 26 General Assembly resolution and saying that the government’s refusal to recognise the Rohingya could exacerbate inter-communal tensions and the spread of violence.
Rohingya men accused of raping and killing a Buddhist woman. Buddhist nationalists respond by burning Rohingya homes, killing more than 280 people and displacing tens of thousands. Human Rights Watch characterised the anti-Rohingya violence as “crimes against humanity” carried out as part of a “campaign of ethnic cleansing.”
US President Barack Obama visits to offer “the hand of friendship” in return for more reforms. He urges reconciliation with the Rohingya minority.
Rioting between Rohingya and Rakhine Buddhists killed more than 100 people, mostly Rohingya. Tens of thousands of people were driven into Bangladesh. Nearly 150,000 were forced into camps in Rakhine.
January-February 2013
The army surrounds Laiza, the biggest town controlled by Kachin rebels. The government and rebels agree to disengage and start a political dialogue after China-sponsored talks.
March 2013
Inter-communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims engulfs the town of Meiktila and sweeps through several other regions, killing at least 40 and displacing another 12,000. President Thein Sein declares a state of emergency in Meiktila.
Satellite images obtained by Human Rights Watch from just five of the 13 townships that experienced violence since June 2012 show 27 unique zones of destruction. Images of affected areas in Sittwe, depicting destruction that occurred in June 2012, show 2,558 destroyed structures. Those from four of the nince townships that experienced violence in October show 2,304 destroyed structures. This partial picture of the violence means that at least 4,862 structures were destroyed in Arakan State since June, altogether covering 348 acres of mostly residential property.
The UN Human Rights Council adopts a resolution urging the government to ensure accountability for those responsible for violence in Arakan/Rakhine State, facilitate effective humanitarian assistance and end discrimination against Rohingya.
UN special papporteur on human rights in Myanmar expresses concern over the spread of violence between Muslim and Buddhist communities and calls upon the government to take immediate action to stop it from spreading. He says the government has not done enough to address the spread of discrimination and prejudice against Muslim communities.
April 2013
The EU lifts all sanctions against Burma/Myanmar with the exception of the arms embargo and the embargo on equipment which might be used for internal repression.
Human Rights Watch releases a report after an investigation into the role of the central government and local authorities during the June and October 2012 violence in Arakan/Rakhine State, finding that “the criminal acts committed against the Rohingya and Kaman Muslim communities in Arakan State beginning in June 2012 amount to crimes against humanity carried out as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
The Rakhine State Conflicts Investigation Commission releases its report on the June and October 2012 sectarian violence, calling upon the government to increase humanitarian support to displacement camps and ensure that the human rights of all groups are protected.
May 2013
President Thein Sein visits Washington. President Obama praises Myanmar’s political and economic progress, but criticises violence against Rohingya Muslims. Six Muslims are jailed over the Meiktila clashes in March. No Buddhists are convicted.
Obama extends current US sanctions against Burma/Myanmar for one year, while lifting the 1996 visa ban.
Government authorities in Maungdaw district, Arakan/Rakhine State impose a two-child limit on Rohingya families.
Anti-Muslim violence breaks out in Lashio, Shan state. Buddhist rioters destroy a mosque, orphanage and Muslim-owned businesses, displacing at least 1,400 Muslims.
UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar calls upon Myanmar’s central government to respond to the revival of the local order limiting Rohingya families to two children, saying the order “is a clear-cut human rights violation targeting a particular ethnic and religious group.”
June 2013
The EU adopts a resolution condemning the grave violations of human rights and the violence perpetrated against Rohingya Muslims and urging the government to ensure the protection of Rohingya and to authorise the establishment of a UN human rights office within the country to allow for adequate monitoring of the human rights situation.
The UN Human Rights Council expresses deep concern at the gross violations of human rights in Burma/Myanmar, in particular against Rohingya and other Muslims in Arakan/Rakhine State, urging the government to take immediate measure to end all acts of violence and to grant full citizenship rights to the Rohingya.
Buddhist monks meet at a Buddhist leaders’ conference in Yangon and propose an interfaith marriage law to impose restrictions on Buddhist women seeking to marry a Muslim man, including making it necessary to obtain permission from authorities and for the Muslim man to convert to Buddhism.
UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Myanmar Ashok Nigam reports that 140,000 people remain displaced since the June and October 2012 violence in Arakan/Rakhine State which caused the death of 167 people and destroyed over 10,000 buildings.
Navi Pillay calls upon the government of Burma/Myanmar to tackle the continuing discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities.
Organisation for Islamic Coorperation secretary-general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu urges the government of Burma/Myanmar to assume its responsibility to eradicate all incitement and discrimination against Muslims, including the law limiting Rohingya families to two children.
President Thein Sein announces the disbandment of the border security force, NaSaKa, which was long-accused of committing grave human rights violations against the Rohingya, including extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrest and detention, and torture.
January 2014
New waves of state-sponsored violence perpetrated against the Rohingya in Maungdaw and Sittwe (Rakhine’s State capital).
Government withdraws staff and medicine from the only state-run hospital for the Rohingya Thae Chaung refugee camp near Sittwe.
February 2014
President Thein Sein announced his support for a Bill to restrict interfaith marriage between Muslim men and Buddhist women.
Government expels the medical aid NGO Médecins Sans Frontières, effectively removing all available emergency and health care services in northern Rakhine State.
Thailand announces it has deported around 1,300 Rohingya refugees since November 2013 back to Burma/Myanmar.
UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar concludes his final visit to the country, raising concerns about the “campaigns to incite hatred against the Rohingya community,” the ongoing segregation of Muslim communities and impunity for perpetrators of anti-Muslims abuses and killings. Protesters complain about his sympathy to “Bengalis”, refusing to acknowledge Rohingya identity.
MSF releases statement about the fate of tens of thousands of patients currently under its care after the government of Burma/Myanmar orders MSF to cease all activities in the country.
March 2014
Rakhine nationalists
attack foreign aid groups providing assistance to Rohingya communities.
Government Investigation Commission releases its final report on the events in Du Chee Yar Tan village, finding “no evidence” of deaths and dismissing all allegations that anti-Rohingya violence occurred.
UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar releases his final report, saying that there has been no “clear action at the State and Union level to address the widespread discrimination and human rights violations occurring” in Arakan/Rakhine State and that the pattern of “widespread and systematic human rights violations” committed against Rohingya, in particular since the June 2012 violence, may amount to crimes against humanity.
Buddhist groups begin two days of attacks on the offices and homes of international aid groups and UN agencies working in Sittwe, forcing over 120 international staff to temporarily flee the region.
The UN Human Rights Council unanimously adopts a resolution on “the human rights situation in Myanmar,” extending the mandate of the special rapporteur for one year, reiterating serious concern about the situation of the Rohingya and other minorities, and requests and independent investigation into all reported incidents of violence and abuses.
The ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) calls uponMyanmar’s legislators to vote down a proposed law that would place restrictions on interfaith marriage, calling the draft law “discriminatory” and “in direct conflict with international treaties on fundamental rights to liberty and religious beliefs.”
Myanmar begins conducting its first census since 1983 after announcing it will not recognise “Rohingya” as an ethnic group.
April 2014
Muslims prohibited from registering as ‘Rohingya’ in the country’s April 2014 census, the first to be held in three decades.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that humanitarian operations in Arakan/Rakhine State have been “severely affected” by the disruption of assistance following the Sittwe attacks.
UNFPA (now UN Population Fund) says the country’s census is nearly complete, with an estimated 90% of the population counted. Those excluded were the Rohingya in Arakan/Rakhine State and people in conflict areas controlled by the Kachin Independence Organization in Kachin state.
At least 22 people are killed in fighting between government troops and ethnic Kachin rebels in the north
May 2014
US extends some sanctions for another year, saying that despite the recent reforms, rights abuses and army influence on politics and the economy persist.
Queen Mary College of London research group writes to UK Prime Minister David Cameron: “State practice surrounding escalating violence and discrimination against the Rohingya reflects that observed in Rwanda, Germany and Bosnia in the periods preceding mass killing.”
June 2014
UNHCR says it is receiving increasing reports of abuse and exploitation of Rohingya and other Muslims who flee Myanmar by boat to escape persecution and violence in Arakan State, estimating that over 86,000 people have fled on boats since June 2012, including 55,000 during 2013 and 15,000 between January and April 2014.
UN deputy humanitarian affairs coordinator Kyung-wha Kang says that the current capacity of the humanitarian community in Arakan is “still less than 60 percent of previous levels,” since the March attacks on aid workers.
Three UN special rapporteurs on freedom of religion, minority issues, and the human rights situation in Myanmar call upon the government of Burma/Myanmar to discard a draft bill on “Religious Conversion,” warning that the bill may lead to discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities and “signals the risk of Myanmar going off-track on its path to being a responsible member of the international community that respects and protects human rights.”
APHR reportS that many Rohingya have died of preventable causes since the government banned MSF.
July 2014
In Mandalay, Muslim-owned shops, homes and a mosque were attacked, leaving two dead.
August 2014
UNHCR reports that some 87,000 people, mostly Rohingya, fled from Arakan/Rakhine State by sea from the Bay of Bengal since the June 2012 outbreak of violence, during which at least 200 people died.
October 2014
UN special rapporteur on Myanmar addresses the UN General Assembly, warning against signs of backtracking on Burma/Myanmar’s reform process, including the “profoundly disturbing” situation in Arakan/Rakhine State, where “restrictions on freedom of movement severely affect basic rights such as access to health services, livelihoods, water, food and sanitation,” and “the long history of discrimination against the community that identifies themselves as Rohingya further compounds human rights violations.”
Parliamentary elections set for October-November 2015. Government announces release of 3,000 prisoners. Myanmar watchers say they include ex-military intelligence officers imprisoned along with former Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, who was freed in 2012.
November 2014
US President Obama tells press during East Asia Summit in Nay Pyi Taw that the US “would like to see a new plan that will allow the Rohingya to become citizens through a normal process without having to do that type of self-identification.”
UN General Assembly’s Third Committee adopts a resolution expressing serious concern about the situation of the Rohingya and calling upon the government of Burma/Myanmar to allow freedom of movement, grant equal access to full citizenship, and allow self-identification for the Rohingya.
January 2015
Rakhine National Party spokesperson
declares in interview, “When the international community give them [Rohingya] a lot of food and a lot of donations, they will grow fat and become stronger, and they will become more violent.”
February 2015
Flare up in fighting with Kokang separatists in Shan State near the border with China leaves nearly 50 soldiers dead. Government puts Kokang region under temporary martial law.
Government withdraws temporary voting rights from Muslim Rohingya ahead of proposed constitutional referendum, following street protests by Buddhists.
March 2015
UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar releases a statement following her visit, reporting on the “severe curtailment of the rights” of Muslim IDPs in detention, with “limited access to essential services.” She reiterates that the government should allow “equal access to full citizenship for the Rohingya minority.”
Myanmar invalidates the identification cards (“white cards”) held by many Rohingya, forcing them to apply for citizenship as “Bengalis,” suggesting their illegal migration from Bangladesh.
A draft ceasefire agreement is signed between the government and 16 rebel groups.
May 2015
Queen Mary University of London-based research group reports that 100,000 Muslims, formerly living in mixed communities, forced into squalid camps in an overcrowded and isolated detention complex on the outskirts of Sittwe. A further 4,250 Rohingya live a precarious existence in downtown Sittwe’s militarised ghetto, Aung Mingalar.
Hundreds of Muslim Rohingyas migrants leave by sea in flimsy boats, along with migrants from Bangladesh. UN criticizes failure of south-east Asian states to rescue them.
The UN high commissioner for refugees, International Organization for Migration and the UN special representative of the secretary general for international migration and development release a statement urging the leaders of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand to protect migrants and refugees stranded on vessels in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea, to facilitate safe disembarkation and to give priority to saving lives, protecting rights and respecting human dignity.
Five UN special rapporteurs release a statement expressing alarm at the enactment of the Population Control Healthcare Bill, the first of four so-called “Protection of Race and Religion” bills, saying the bills “particularly discriminate against ethnic and religious minorities and have the potential to fuel existing tensions in the country.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu warns of a “slow genocide being committed against the Rohingya people.”
Oslo Conference to End Myanmar’s Persecution of Rohingya
held.
July 2015
UN Human Rights Council adopts a resolution urging the government of Burma/Myanmar to grant the Rohingya citizenship and address the spread of discrimination and prejudice against Muslims.
October 2015
UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar releases a report to the UN General Assembly, finding “no major improvement in the human rights concerns previously highlighted, in particular the long-standing and institutionalized discrimination against the Rohingya community.”
November 2015
Burma/Myanmar holds its first general elections since 1990. The opposition NLD – led by Aung San Suu Kyi – wins enough seats in parliamentary elections to form a government.
February 2016
The UNHCR reports that some 2,000 people, mostly Rohingya Muslims, died trying to cross the Bay of Bengal since 2012.
March 2016
Htin Kyaw sworn in as president, ushering in a “new era” as Suu Kyi’s democracy movement takes power after 50 years of military domination.
October 2016
Police claim three border-guard posts were attacked by hundreds of Islamic militants, killing nine policemen. Police initially claimed the attackers had links to a group called the Rohingya Solidarity Organization, a militant group believed to have been defunct for decades. The area is declared a counterterrorism “operation zone.” Later, the government claimed the assailants were members of a jihadist group, Aqa Mul Mujahidin, led by a man who was trained by the Taliban in Pakistan. A few days later, while on a trip to India, Suu Kyi told the
Hindustan Times, “That is just information from just one source, we can’t take it for granted that it’s absolutely correct.”
Troops deployed to the areas surrounding Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung towns in northern Arakan state. Within days of the lockdown, more than 800 Arakanese Buddhists arrived in the state capital Sittwe. More than 1,200 Muslims fled their villages and sought shelter in Buthidaung town. State media reports that Buddhists were being evacuated by helicopter citing safety concerns.
New York Times reports that a dozen people may have been extrajudicially killed since the initial attacks.
Fiona MacGregor, a Scottish investigative journalist for the
Myanmar Times,
reports that rights groups had documented dozens of sexual-assault cases committed by Burmese security forces against Rohingya women in the operation zone. MacGregor is then
fired for “damaging the good name of the paper.” Her editor, Douglas Long, is
fired two weeks later for “undermining the mission of the paper” shortly after he spoke about the incident with a representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
November 2015
Arakan state police chief Colonel Sein Lwin says that local police would begin arming and training a civilian security force of non-Muslim residents. International Commission of Jurists has referred to it as “a recipe for disaster.” Reuters reports that the plan is already under way in the state capital Sittwe.
Burmese army opens fire with helicopters near villages in Maungdaw. The two days of ensuing violence displaced an estimated 15,000 people. Some observers have compared it to the “four cuts” strategy used throughout the decades to isolate the country’s myriad armed ethnic insurgent groups.
Burma’s state media introduced the True News Information Team of Defense Services, which singled out local and regional media outlets for publishing “fabrications” about casualties and damaged property. At least one local Muslim journalist has since been subjected to extreme online harassment, including death threats.
December 2015
US President Obama lifts sanctions against Myanmar, saying that the country had made strides in improving human rights. The move comes amid a crackdown on Rohingya and is criticised by some as premature.
August 2017
Rohingya insurgents attack 30 police stations, triggering a massive military response. Thousands of Rohingya flee from Rakhine state.
September 2017
Bangladesh initially deploys Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) with guns to turn refugees back. Hundreds die as they try to cross the Naf River, which runs along the border of Bangladesh and Myanmar.
As images of dead children and sunken boats in Naf circulate, Bangladesh is set alight with protests demanding the refugees be allowed in. The government reverses stance and starts allowing Rohingya in.
As the crisis unravels at high speed, international community struggles to respond. The United Nations convenes emergency sessions, but China makes clear it will veto any resolution.
Suu Kyi dismisses reports of atrocities: “That kind of fake information … was simply the tip of a huge iceberg of misinformation calculated to create a lot of problems between different communities and with the aim of promoting the interest of the terrorists.
UN report indicates that 125,000 Rohingya have fled the country to Bangladesh on foot. A second UN reports that nearly 30,000 of the refugee Rohingya are trapped in the mountains of Rakhine State, not having any access to food or water.
UN states up to 300,000 Rohingya could flee violence in northwestern Myanmar to Bangladesh, warning of a funding shortfall for emergency food supplies for the refugees. Internal private estimates say final number will be 500,000.
Rohingya who made it to Bangladesh are reporting rapes, massacres and mass burning of men, women and children. Satellite images suggest the Rohingya villages have been burned to the ground.
Police stop left political party Gana Sanghati Andolan’s attempt to seize the UN’s office in Dhaka.
In the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh’s indigenous Jumma community, themselves waging a three-decade long struggle for autonomy, fear reprisal attacks due to their Buddhist faith. The parallels with the 2012 Ramu attacks in Bangladesh worry Jumma activists.
UN rights chief accuses Myanmar of “textbook” ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims.
https://thewire.in/179759/rohingya-myanmar-timeline/
