2016 Rohingya persecution in Myanmar

2016 Rohingya persecution in Myanmar

Location of Rakhine State in Myanmar
Date	9 October 2016 (2016-10-09) – January 2017
Location	Rakhine State, Myanmar
Type	Ethnic and religious persecution Ethnic cleansing (disputed) Genocide (disputed)
Theme	Military crackdown by Myanmar's armed forces and police on Rohingya Muslims
Cause	Attacks on Burmese border police posts by unidentified insurgents Historical mistreatment of the Rohingya by the government Existing tensions between Buddhist and Muslim communities
Outcome	Wide-scale human rights violations at the hands of security forces Mass displacement of refugees Forced relocations
Deaths	1,000+
Publication bans	Media access in northern Rakhine State heavily restricted by the Burmese government.

The 2016 Rohingya persecution in Myanmar occurred in late 2016 when Myanmar's armed forces and police started a major crackdown on Rohingya people in Rakhine State in the country's northwestern region. The crackdown was in response to attacks on Burmese border posts in October 2016 by unidentified insurgents. The Burmese military have been accused of wide-scale human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, gang rapes, arson and infanticides, claims which the Burmese government dismisses as "exaggerations".

The military crackdown on the Rohingya people has drawn criticism from the United Nations (which cited possible "crimes against humanity"), the human rights group Amnesty International, the U.S. Department of State, the government of neighboring Bangladesh, and the government of Malaysia (where many Rohingya refugees have fled). The Myanmar leader and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi has particularly been criticized for her inaction and silence over the issue and for doing little to prevent military abuses.

The Rohingya people have been described as "amongst the world's least wanted" and "one of the world's most persecuted minorities". The Rohingya are deprived of the right to free movement and of higher education. They have been denied Burmese citizenship since the Burmese nationality law was enacted. They are not allowed to travel without official permission and were previously required to sign a commitment not to have more than two children, though the law was not strictly enforced. They are subjected to routine forced labor where typically a Rohingya man will have to give up one day a week to work on military or government projects and one night for sentry duty. The Rohingya have also lost a lot of arable land, which has been confiscated by the military to give to Buddhist settlers from elsewhere in Myanmar.