Rohingya 07 GENOCIDE DAY It is shocking that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi did not help the Rohingya even when she was head of the government and was not totally powerless. She could have saved many Rohingyas’ lives and properties if she spoke out even from a human rights perspective. To the contrary, she said in reply to a question on her European tour in June 2012 that she did not know whether they are Myanmar nationals or Bangladeshi illegal immigrants. While visiting London in October 2013 she was even telling the British Prime minister David Cameron: “They are not really Burmese. They are Bangladeshis”. These blameful words or charges of Aung San Suu Kyi had encouraged the genocidaires to exacerbate the problem. Thus she and her National League for Democracy (NLD) government defended the military brutalities against the Rohingya even at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). However, the same military are now committing mass atrocity crime against the whole Myanmar population, and Aung San Suu Kyi herself has been kept in detention. On 11 September 2017, the United Nations’ human rights chief Zeid bin Ra’ad described the persecution as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. On 5 December 2017, Ra’ad announced “the Rohingya persecution may constitute genocide under international human rights laws”. In September 2018, the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) mandated Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (IIFFMM) released a searing report which concluded that the military, as well as some civilians, have committed genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes against its own people; Burma’s civilian authorities, including State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, have not met their “responsibility to protect the civilian population” and have enabled the commission of atrocity crimes. The report found evidence of ‘genocidal intent’, including policies designed to alter the demographic composition of Arakan (Rakhine) State and a premeditated plan for the destruction of Rohingya communities. The IIFFMM also stated that at least 392 Rohingya villages in Rakhine State had been razed to the ground since 25 August 2017. It called for top military officials, including Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Gen. Min Aung Hlaing to be prosecuted for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. In August 2018, a study estimated that about 25,000 Rohingya people were killed by Myanmar military and local Buddhists, over 18,000 Rohingya Muslim women and girls were raped, 116,000 Rohingyas were beaten, and 36,000 Rohingyas were thrown into fires. There were also mass killings of Rohingyas by the military, police and Buddhist vigilantes in the villages of Chut Pyin, Inn Din, Ali Than Kyaw, Du Cheratan, Tula Tuli, Gudapyin and others in Rathedaung, Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships. Alongside the Armed Forces, the Myanmar Border Guard Police and Rakhine Buddhist militias were also involved in these atrocities. Human Rights Watch stated that the gang rapes and sexual violence were committed as part of the military's ethnic cleansing campaign while Pramila Patten, the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, said that the Rohingya women and girls were made the "systematic" target of rapes and sexual violence because of their ethnic identity and religion. Other forms of sexual violence included sexual slavery in military captivity, forced public nudity, and humiliation. HRW reported of a 15-year-old Rohingya girl who was ruthlessly dragged on the ground for over 50 feet and then was raped by 10 Burmese soldiers. Disregarding the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Gambia v. Myanmar case on Myanmar’s breaches of the genocide convention, in January 2019, the military bulldozed and flattened the burnt Rohingya villages and mass graves in order to destroy the evidence of atrocities committed. Some intact villages that lost their Rohingya inhabitants because of the military crackdown were also bulldozed.