Once full members of Myanmar society, the Rohingya gradually lost their citizenship rights beginning in the late 70s and concluding with the 1982 Citizenship Law. Without citizenship, stateless Rohingya are vulnerable to systemic discrimination and bear restrictions affecting their movement, marriage, and access to health and education. These dire apartheid-like conditions would drive many Rohingya “boat people” to journey perilously to neighboring countries like Malaysia and Thailand in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s, but those who could not leave remained confined to Rakhine state with members of the Rakhine ethnic group. These two oppressed ethnic minority communities eked out an existence in one of Myanmar’s poorest states. Violence erupted between the Rakhine and Rohingya communities in 2012 following the alleged rape and murder of Thida Htwe, a Rakhine woman, at the hands of three Rohingya men. The first wave of violence lasted until August 2012 followed by a second series of riots in October 2012. The last incident of violence occurred in 2013. The riots affected 12 townships and three ethnic communities: the Rohingya, Rakhine, and Kaman.22 The UN estimates over 140,000 people were displaced by the riots. 95 percent of the displaced were Rohingya, who were then confined to IDP camps in Rakhine.23 Although the 2012-2013 violence was serious, it pales in comparison to the Tatmadaw’s 2017 “clearance operations,” which destroyed hundreds of Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine and forced more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees to flee to Bangladesh. The military claims it was pursuing the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (“ARSA”) and “terrorist elements,” after a coordinated attack on thirty border police outposts left twelve dead.24 Another story emerges from the harrowing accounts from Rohingya survivors, chronicled in a report from the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (“FFM”), which was established in response to the Rohingya crisis and ongoing armed conflict in Kachin and Shan states.25 They reveal a brutal military operation, tactically SIMilar to the other Tatmadaw campaigns waged over the decades against civilians in other ethnic regions. Indiscriminate targeting and killing of civilians; widespread use of sexual violence; dehumanizing, racist rhetoric; and complete impunity for the military’s actions. The FFM presented its findings in August 2018 and recommended that senior generals in the Tatmadaw be investigated and prosecuted for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.26 After the FFM’s mandate ended in September 2019, the UN Human Rights Council established the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar as a repository of evidence. Subsequently, in November 2019, the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court opened an investigation into 22 The Kaman are another Muslim community in Rakhine, who unlike the Rohingya, are citizens under 1982 Citizenship Law. 23 “Area based programming: UNDP in Rakhine,” United Nations Development Programme, http://www.mm.undp.org/content/myanmar/en/home/area-based-programming/rakhine.html. 24 Wa Lone and Shoon Naing, “At least 71 killed in Myanmar as Rohingya insurgents stage major attack,” Reuters, August 25, 2017, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya/at-least-71-killed-inmyanmar-as-rohingya-insurgents-stage-major-attack-idUSKCN1B507K. 25 United Nations Human Rights Council, “Myanmar: Tatmadaw leaders.” 26 United Nations Human Rights Council, “Myanmar: Tatmadaw leaders.” 9