Amnesty International’s latest briefing report on the Rohingya crisis has managed to create a stir in an already riotous social media scene around Myanmar. The report has attracted widespread condemnation, including a comment by the Bangladesh foreign minister, branding it “illogical.”
The report focuses on a particular massacre of Hindus in Northern Rakhine state.
Eight months ago, over the course of two days, the Myanmar authorities dug up the remains of 45 people, purportedly of Hindus, and instantly laid the blame on the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).
Myanmar authorities dated the killings to 25 August, the very day it launched its clearance operations in Rakhine state in response to alleged ARSA attacks throughout the state.
Rohingya activists have been outraged and have taken to social media to question Amnesty’s motives in releasing such a report.
Others have weighed in saying that whatever the shortcomings, in the context of an information black hole, the report adds to the case for a full International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation of the Rakhine crisis.
Amnesty claims to have reviewed the evidence and are able to categorically conclude that “ARSA fighters are responsible for the massacre.”
This has stung the various Rohingya advocacy groups, not because ARSA has been blamed, but because Rohingya, who have been at the receiving end of human rights violations for decades, are now associated with violations themselves.
Their immediate fear is that the incendiary report further endangers the already extremely vulnerable Rohingya who still remain in Rakhine state. They feel particularly aggrieved because Amnesty’s methodology and review of evidence appear to flout all semblance of independence and rigour.
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