“Tools of Genocide”
METHODOLOGY
This report is based on 628 interviews, including interviews
with 304 women, conducted from 2014 to 2019 by Fortify Rights
in Rakhine State, Myanmar; Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh;
and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This includes 104 qualitative
interviews conducted by Fortify Rights from October 2018 to
August 2019 with eyewitnesses and survivors of human rights
violations in Myanmar as well as with members of civil society
organizations and humanitarian aid workers. This figure also
includes 29 previously unpublished testimonies collected by
Fortify Rights from Rohingya confined to internment camps
in Sittwe Township, Rakhine State and located in other parts
of Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Malaysia in 2014 and 2015.
Lastly, the report draws on select findings from forthcoming
research conducted in July and August 2018 by a team of
Rohingya researchers supported and guided by Fortify Rights
in Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh. The Rohingya research
team interviewed a total of 495 Rohingya refugees, including
264 women, residing in 33 different sections of the refugee
camps in southeastern Bangladesh.
Fortify Rights conducted qualitative interviews with Rohingya
in the Rohingya language with the assistance of an EnglishRohingya interpreter. Everyone interviewed for this report
gave free, prior, and informed consent to be interviewed and
for their testimony to be publicized. No one interviewed for
this report received compensation, and all were informed of
the purpose of the interview, its voluntary nature, and how
the information might be used. Fortify Rights reimbursed
the modest travel costs for three Rohingya to meet in a
secure location. The locations of some interviews, names of
survivors, eyewitnesses, and others, the location details of
the interviews, and other identifying details are withheld or
changed in this report for security reasons.
On August 7, 2019, Fortify Rights sent a letter to the
Government of Myanmar requesting further information
on the NVC process. Myanmar President Win Myint, State
Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, Commander Major General Teza
Kyaw of the Myanmar Army Northern Command, Minister
of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Dr. Win Myat Aye,
Minister for Labor, Immigration and Population Thein Swe,
and the Chairperson of Myanmar National Human Rights
Commission Win Mra received a copy of the letter. At the time
of writing, Fortify Rights had not received a response. The
letter is included as Annex III of this report.