Hundreds of Thousands of Rohingya and Kaman Muslims remain in Myanmar Prisons
For nearly 10 years, more than 135,000 Rohingya and Kaman Muslims remain in the central Rakhine camps, detained arbitrarily and indefinitely.
As the central Rakhine camps were set up in 2012 and 2013, authorities began imposing overlapping systems to restrict Rohingya’s movement—checkpoints and barbed-wire fencing, curfews, draconian permission procedures and police escorts, harassment and threats, and daily extortion and bribes.
The 2012 violence and ensuing displacement inflamed anti-Muslim sentiment throughout Myanmar and ushered in an era of increased oppression, in both policy and practice, that laid the groundwork for more brutal and organized military atrocities in 2016 and 2017.
Myanmar officials have constructed a web of restrictions to deprive Rohingya of their liberty and erode their capacity to survive.
This oppressive regime amounts to the crimes against humanity of apartheid, persecution, and imprisonment, carried out by successive civilian and military authorities.
The roots of the coup and the bloodshed that has followed lie in the impunity that the military has long enjoyed.
Therefore, we call on concerned governments to explore every avenue for justice and accountability for the Myanmar security forces’ crimes against humanity, war crimes, and acts of genocide.
