During the past several years, I have been documenting the plight of the Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority by capturing their dire everyday life in the Rakhine region of Myanmar and in Bangladesh, portraying them as human beings deprived of their social, civil and human rights that are so often taken for granted in our society.
My intention is to document the violent ethnic cleansing campaigns turning into genocide while under the pretext of so called security operations by Myanmar forces.
The first attack by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Myanmar border police forces in October 2016 caused a widespread and disproportionate wave of retaliation on the Rohingya community. Although less covered by the media, this wave of atrocities caused some 100’000 refugees to flee to Bangladesh with evidence of summary executions, burning down villages and mass rape as clear indicators of severe ethnic cleansing and more annihilation to come.
Following the 25 August 2017 attack by ARSA on Myanmar police posts, another widespread “security operation” of Myanmar military forces sweeps throughout all the municipalities of Rakhine where Rohingya were present and causes another three-quarter of a million refugees to flee to Bangladesh to date and still counting.
Widespread killings, torture, disproportionate retaliation attacks turn to mayhem of ethnic cleansing evolving into genocide.
Throughout, the access to Rakhine state for media and humanitarian actors has been extremely restricted and nearly impossible, as no witnesses of the denied barbarism are wanted. It’s estimated that no more than 350’000 to 450’000 Rohingya remain in Rakhine nowadays, of which more than half live in open air like prison camps in the periphery of the Rakhine State capital Sittwe and Paktauw township.
Traumatized victims and survivors who have endured the perilous way to the exile now face the ordeal of having lived through the genocide that is still not seeing an end. Hence, there is a huge importance in collecting testimonies of those who coped with fleeing and surviving and found refuge in Bangladesh.
Although a mass humanitarian and aid agencies activities are set on the spot, and despite this response, the situation in refugee camps remains extremely precarious, especially for the victims of torture, women victims of mass rape and children who have endured and witnessed the same. In most cases the women and children are by themselves as their relatives and husbands were executed and as such are prone to further abuse and trafficking.
Because it is nearly impossible to collect evidence of the genocide in Rakhine itself, it is extremely important to document and collect testimonies of the victims and witnesses of these acts of crimes against the humanity. Their individual and personal accounts of massacres shall result in prosecuting the perpetrators and be used in the court of law.
By documenting their stories and making them available for a wider advised audience, journalists, human rights investigators and photographers can play an essential role in countering the “fake news” allegations branded by the Burmese authorities.
