A/HRC/39/CRP.2 8. Conclusion 622. The level of oppression faced by the Rohingya is hard to fathom. Cumulatively all the rules, regulations, orders and practices laid out in this section have made life for the Rohingya in Rakhine State slowly but steadily unbearable. Rights were eroded and removed, in a process of marginalisation, exclusion and “othering”. Layers of discrimination and illtreatment have been added. This occurred in the context of hateful and divisive rhetoric targeting the Rohingya on the basis of their ethnicity, religion and status. The multiple elements of oppression are based on State-sanctioned policies and practices and occur in the context of State-sanctioned discriminatory rhetoric. The Mission concludes that this severe, systemic and institutionalised oppression, from birth to death, amounts to persecution. 623. This persecution has put the Rohingya population in a situation of extreme vulnerability, undermining all aspects of their lives and eroding their living conditions and their coping mechanisms. The daily attacks on human dignity have created intolerable conditions, and have weakened individuals, families and communities, pushing them further into destitution and insecurity. It is this oppressive climate, and the fear and desperation resulting from it, that forced thousands of Rohingya to leave Rakhine State by boat in the years since 2012. It is also against this backdrop that the episodes of violence in 2012, 2016 and 2017 must be examined. C. 1. Violence in 2012 Emblematic incidents 624. Two events that took place on 28 May 2012, in Ramree Township, and on 3 June 2012, in Toungup Township, played a key role in the violence that erupted in Rakhine State on 8 June 2012. While the Mission did not investigate these two events, the following is a summary based on publicly available information, including accounts in the State-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar, and the report of the Myanmar Government’s “Inquiry Commission on Sectarian Violence in Rakhine State” (the Rakhine Inquiry Commission). 625. On 28 May 2012, Ma Thida Htwe, a 27-year-old Buddhist woman, was killed in the Kyauk Ni Maw village tract of Ramree Township in the south of Rakhine State. On 5 June 2012, The New Light of Myanmar reported the case as murder and rape. It published the names of the three suspects, along with a mention of their origin as being “Bengali/Islam”. 1302 The three accused were subsequently prosecuted and sentenced to death. One of them reportedly hung himself while in custody on 9 June 2012.1303 There appears to be no doubt about the murder of the woman but the Mission understands there are doubts about the rape allegation and the ethnic origin of the accused.1304 In the following days and weeks, it was mainly the rape allegation, more than the murder, which was used to incite violence and hatred against the Rohingya. The Mission notes that other episodes of anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar followed rape allegations, some of which were later found to be untrue. 1305 626. Prior to the coverage of this incident in The New Light of Myanmar, graphic images of the woman’s dead body were disseminated, accompanied by incendiary comments blaming the incident on “Kalars”.1306 The Rakhine Inquiry Commission noted the rapid 1302 1303 1304 1305 1306 New Light of Myanmar, “Three murderers who raped, stabbed a woman to death to be brought to trial soonest” (5 June 2012). MNA (Myanmar News Agency), “Two who rob, rape and murder a woman from Kyauknimaw Village sentenced to death” (The New Light of Myanmar, 19 June 2012), available at: http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs13/NLM2012-06-19.pdf, p.2; DI-012. DI-012, DI-077, DM-066. See this chapter, section C.6.b: Pre-planning, instigation and role of security forces. See, for example, the following two blog posts: http://hlaoo1980.blogspot.com/2012/06/arrakan-boiling-with-anti-islamic-fever.html (accessed August 2018) and http://terrorist2012.blogspot.com/2012/08/blog-post.html (accessed August 2018). Many such articles have since been deleted. 147