Inside Story

Has the world failed the Rohingya Muslims?

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar face a ‘serious risk of genocide’, the UN has warned.

Two years after Myanmar’s military crackdown on the Rohingya, UN investigators say conditions remain “deplorable” for the Muslim ethnic minority in the country.

According to a UN report released on Monday, 600,000 Rohingya living in Rakhine state face a serious risk of genocide and it is impossible for hundreds of thousands who fled to Bangladesh to return.

Last year, the UN fact-finding mission found that military officers carried out a campaign against the Rohingya with “genocidal intent”.

The investigators are now calling for Myanmar to be held responsible, and army generals to face trial over rapes and killings.

But would that be enough to end the suffering of one of the most persecuted minorities in the world?

Presenter: Mohammed Jamjoom

Guests:

Anita Schug – head of women, children and public affairs for the European Rohingya Council

Ronan Lee – visiting scholar at Queen Mary University of London’s International State Crime Initiative

John Quinley – human rights specialist at Fortify Rights, a non-profit human rights organisation