page_title: Rohingya genocide
section_title: Criticism
hierarchical_section_title: Rohingya genocide / Criticism
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Conférence de presse de Aung San Suu Kyi en compagnie du président du Parlement européen Martin Schulz à Strasbourg le 22 octobre 2013, à l’occasion de la remise du Prix Sakharov.
context_page_description: The Rohingya genocide is a series of ongoing persecutions by the Myanmar government against the Muslim Rohingya people. The genocide has consisted of two phases to date: the first occurred from October 2016 to January 2017 and the second has been occurring since August 2017. The crisis forced over a million Rohingya to flee to other countries. Most fled to Bangladesh while others escaped to India, Thailand, Malaysia, and other parts of South and Southeast Asia.
  The largest wave of Rohingya to flee Myanmar happened in 2017, which resulted in the largest human exodus in Asia since the Vietnam War.
  The 2016 military crackdown on the Rohingya people drew criticism from the UN, the human rights group Amnesty International, the U.S. Department of State, the government of neighboring Bangladesh, and the government of Malaysia. The Burmese leader and State Counsellor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been criticized for her inaction and silence over the issue and has done little to prevent military abuses. Myanmar has also drawn criticism for the prosecutions of journalists under her leadership.
context_section_description: The ongoing genocide against the Rohingya people garnered strong criticism internationally and generated serious concern about the human rights issues. International communities and human rights officials have described the violence as ethnic cleansing and genocide. Soon after the security forces and Buddhist militia started "clearance operations", the world leaders warned the Myanmar authority to avoid civilian casualties. In late September, a seven-member panel of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal accused Myanmar of conducting genocide against the Rohingya and the Kachin minority groups. The verdict came after a five-day trial, held at the law faculty of the University of Malaya, which examined various documentaries, expert views, and the testimony of victims. The tribunal made 17 recommendations including demilitarization of Rakhine State and the end of discriminatory citizenship law. 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 that the Rohingya persecution may constitute genocide under international human rights laws. In November, British prime minister Theresa May and United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson described the situation as "ethnic cleansing" while the French President Emmanuel Macron called it genocide.
  After a two-year investigation into the Rohingya ethnic minority, the human rights group Amnesty International described the restricted situation of the Rohingya people as "an open-air prison" as they are under a "vicious system of institutionalized discrimination and segregation" which is limiting their human rights, their freedom of movement, and their access to food, healthcare, and education in their report. Amnesty International mentions that the Rohingya minority are confined to their villages, townships, and poorly-maintained camps which are cut off from the rest of Myanmar, and travel between their own villages is severely restricted. Travel between townships is subject to a complicated process of obtaining permission, and even then those permitted to travel are routinely harassed, physically tortured or arrested. All these "systematic" acts of discrimination and persecution amount to apartheid, the rights group said.
  In 2016, Aung San Suu Kyi was criticized for her silence over the issue and supporting the military actions. She was relieved of her 1997 Freedom of Oxford award over "inaction" in handling the raging violence. Others argue that since the military retains significant autonomy and power in the government, she may be powerless to control them. Her inaction, on behalf of the Rohingya, brought a plea for action from fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai. Numerous people have called for Suu Kyi's Nobel Prize to be revoked. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu also criticized Suu Kyi's stand to defend the military actions. The Economist criticized Suu Kyi's stance, arguing: "the violence in Rakhine has reached such an unconscionable level that there can be no justifying continued passivity."
  Direct sanctions against the Burmese military and penalties for firms that do business with companies linked to it, as were in place by America and other countries in the past, have been suggested as the best response to the violence. According to The Economist, "The Burmese army is not easy to influence, but economic and diplomatic isolation does seem to have played a part in persuading it to surrender power in the first place."
caption: Myanmar leader and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi
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