The Rohingya in Myanmar fear the return of the military regime to power, fearing new violence in Rakhine State, as population groups have declared their support for the new authorities.
A large segment of this Muslim minority, whose members do not have a citizenship, spent years in crowded displacement camps in conditions described by human rights defenders as amounting to apartheid.
The oppressed still have the military repression ahead of them, which saw the destruction of entire villages and about 750,000 of them fleeing to Bangladesh to escape the atrocities, rape and extrajudicial killings.
The authority in Myanmar had faced prosecutions in the International Court of Justice on charges of genocide during the violence that was committed in 2017 in Rakhine, where the majority of the Rohingya lived in Myanmar before their displacement.
The army chief, Min Aung Hling, who has led the military council since the coup, has repeatedly said that repression was necessary to end the state of rebellion in Rakhine.
“There is a real risk that this system will lead to more violence in Rakhine,” said Ton Khin, head of the Rohingya NGO in Britain.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto head of government during the crackdown in 2017, defended the military during hearings held by the International Court of Justice in 2019 against the background of the accusation of genocide.
Despite this, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have sent messages of support to protesters who challenge the military rule, calling for Aung San Suu Kyi’s return.
