An Argument for Reconciliation: How the Burmese Government Should Look toward Countries like Germany in Order to Mend Their Relationship with the Rohingya
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AN ARGUMENT FOR RECONCILIATION:
HOW THE BURMESE GOVERNMENT
SHOULD LOOK TOWARD COUNTRIES
LIKE GERMANY IN ORDER TO MEND
THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH
THE ROHINGYA
I. INTRODUCTION
In August of 2017, after years of persecution, the Burmese
military planned and carried out a massacre of the Rohingya
Muslims in the Rakhine State of Myanmar.1 Rohingya villagers
1. See Hannah Beech, Myanmar Official Line: Rohingya Are Returning. But
Cracks in That Story Abound., N.Y. TIMES (Aug. 2, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/
2018/08/02/world/asia/myanmar-rohingya-rakhine.html (describing military's attack
on Rohingya). Hours after Rohingya insurgents allegedly attacked the police, the
military committed what the United Nations is calling a genocide. Id. However, the
Burmese government is claiming that the Rohingya are terrorists who burned their
own villages. Id. See also G.A. Res. 260A (III), at 1 (Dec. 9, 1948), available at https:/
/www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention
%20on%20the%20Prevention %20and %20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20
of%20Genocide.pdf (defining genocide). The United Nations definition of genocide
given in Article II of their 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide is:
[A]ny of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole
or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a)
Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental
harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group
conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in
whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births
within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to an-
other group.
Id. See also FORTIFY RIGHTs, THEY GAVE THEM LONG SWORDS: PREPARATIONS FOR
GENOCIDE AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY AGAINST ROHINGYA MUSLIMS IN
RAKHINE STATE, MYANMAR 10, 13 (2018) available at https://www.fortifyrights.org/
downloads/Fortify.RightsLongSwords_July_2018.pdf [hereinafter THEY GAVE
THEM LONG SwORDS] (reporting crimes against Rohingya people). The United Na-
tions Office on Genocide Prevention, and organizations like Fortify Rights, have
found that crimes like genocide are 'processes that take time to plan, coordinate and
implement.' These crimes do not occur spontaneously or as isolated events; they re-
quire resources and decisions by people in positions of power. Id. For a year, the
military plotted its attack by disarming the Rohingya minority, while at the same time
enlisting the help of the local, non-Muslim community members. Id. at 11. The gov-
ernment also blocked foreign aid to the region, imposed discriminatory restrictions
such as a Muslim-only curfew and increased its military presence in the area. Id. at
12. See also Angela Dewan, Who are the Rohingya and why are they fleeing?, CNN
(Sept. 13, 2017, 7:47 AM), https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/05/asia/rohingya-myanmar-](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/sujtnlr43&div=16&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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