Violence in Rakhine is blocking safe Rohingya return, UN Myanmar Mechanism head says after Bangladesh visit

Mizzima

The head of the United Nations’ Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) said on 12 October that the targeting of civilians in Rakhine State’s ongoing conflict is preventing Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh from safely returning home, as his investigators collect evidence of serious international crimes still being committed there.

Nicholas Koumjian, who heads the Mechanism, made the remarks at the close of a six-day official visit to Bangladesh, during which he met senior government officials and more than 200 people from Rohingya and other communities in the camps around Cox’s Bazar. According to the Mechanism, he said it is investigating very serious international crimes currently being committed in Rakhine by perpetrators “from different ethnicities, religions and political affiliations,” and that recent testimony from Rohingya who had fled across the border was crucial to those investigations.

More than 154,000 Rohingya have arrived in Cox’s Bazar since early 2024 to escape violence during the continuing fighting between the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic armed group battling the military in Rakhine, and Myanmar’s armed forces, according to the Mechanism. The number of displaced Rohingya now sheltering in Bangladesh exceeds 1.2 million.

Most of that population fled an earlier wave of violence. A military-led crackdown in 2017 drove more than 700,000 Rohingya across the border, an operation that is now the subject of a genocide case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

That case, brought under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, is in its final stage. The court is weighing whether Myanmar failed to prevent and punish genocide against the Rohingya in 2016 and 2017, with a ruling expected within months, the Mechanism said.

During the visit, Koumjian met Bangladesh’s ministers for home affairs, disaster management and foreign affairs, along with the foreign secretary and the head of Border Guard Bangladesh, and thanked the government for continuing to support the Mechanism’s investigations.

Ending the violence and delivering justice, he said, are necessary steps before Rohingya can return safely and sustainably, and before rebuilding can begin for all communities in Rakhine.