08 ROHINGYA GENOCIDE DAY Since November 11, 2019, three separate developments have taken place in different corners of the world within a span of just one week that have shone on Myanmar over its alleged genocidal crimes perpetrated against the Rohingya people. Its civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and army chief Min Aung Hlaing and others stand to face indictment in various courts. The first one was filed on November 11, at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) by The Republic of Gambia on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). On November 13, with the initiative of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation’s President U Tun Khin, the second case was submitted in Argentina under the principle of universal jurisdiction, a legal concept enshrined in many countries’ law. One day later, on November 14, the International Criminal Court (ICC) approved a full-scale investigation into alleged crimes against humanity perpetrated against the Rohingya by the Myanmar military.On March 21, 2022, the United States determined that members of the Burmese military committed genocide and crimes against humanity against Rohingya. The Rohingya are now facing renewed threat of violence from both junta and Arakan Army (AA) as they have become trapped in the middle of armed conflicts between them. They are targeted for forced conscription, arrests, killings, extortion, loots, confiscation of property, destruction of homes and expulsion from their hearth and home. During recent months an estimated 3,000 Rohingya civilians were killed in northern Arakan. They have been killed by bombs, drone, bullets, fire and drowning. Currently Rohingya educated people and elites are increasingly targeted by warring factions. On 4 August 2024, AA killed some Rohingya residents of Maungdaw in several places by drone attacks, including an 81year-old prominent medical practitioner Dr. Mohamed Kamal of Fayazi quarter at 8:30 p.m. at his residence. On 19 August, at about 5 a.m. his wife Ruksana alias Kyi Kyi Hla, who was injured by the same drone attack was drowned in boat together with 26 others, most of them women and children, while they were escaping the risk of AA’s deadly violence across the Naf River to Bangladesh for medical treatment and safe shelter. On 5 August AA also killed and drowned at least 200 Rohingya civilians, most of them women and children, when they were fleeing homes on the order of AA. The AA has manifest intent to destroy the remaining Rohingya population. Rohingya genocide is an enormous challenge for the international community. It is one of the greatest humanitarian issues of our time. But the international community has failed them again and again, and it must not fail them again. It has a responsibility to protect this population from the risk of further atrocities. The utmost important for the Rohingya now is to return home from Bangladesh and elsewhere. But they cannot return where genocide is ongoing. Suitable conditions must be created for their voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return to their places of origin or choice in their homeland with appropriate reparation. Last but not least, no genocide can be prevented or stopped without intervention. The popular slogan in the country is “to be a Burmese is to be a Buddhist”. In Arakan, the Rakhine ultranationalists have been harping on the tune of “Arakan is for Rakhine only, Bengali or Rohingya have nothing to do in Arakan.”