HUMAN RIGHTS “An Open Prison without End” WATCH Myanmar’s Mass Detention of Rohingya in Rakhine State “An Open Prison without End” Myanmar’s Mass Detention of Rohingya in Rakhine State Copyright © 2020 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-62313-8646 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people worldwide. We scrupulously investigate abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice. Human Rights Watch is an independent, international organization that works as part of a vibrant movement to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all. 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For more information, please visit our website: http://www.hrw.org OCTOBER 2020 ISBN: 978-1-62313-8646 “An Open Prison without End” Myanmar’s Mass Detention of Rohingya in Rakhine State Maps ................................................................................................................................ i Table .............................................................................................................................. iii Summary ......................................................................................................................... 1 Key Recommendations ................................................................................................... 14 Methodology ................................................................................................................. 16 A Note on Terminology ............................................................................................................ 16 I. A History of State Violence and Abuse ......................................................................... 18 2012 Ethnic Cleansing and Internment .................................................................................... 18 Post-Segregation Violence ...................................................................................................... 22 II. Citizenship and Identity ............................................................................................. 27 Hate and Denial of Identity .................................................................................................... 28 Denial of Citizenship .............................................................................................................. 32 National Verification Cards ..................................................................................................... 35 III. Restrictions on Freedom of Movement ....................................................................... 41 Open-Air Prisons ..................................................................................................................... 41 Arbitrary Detention, Ill-Treatment, Torture ............................................................................... 52 Extortion and Bribes ............................................................................................................... 56 Dangerous Escapes by Sea .................................................................................................... 60 Restrictions on Rohingya Outside the Camps ......................................................................... 62 IV. Economic and Social Rights Abuses .......................................................................... 66 Lack of Access to Health Care ................................................................................................. 67 Squalid Conditions ................................................................................................................ 90 Restrictions on Livelihoods .................................................................................................... 98 Denial of Education .............................................................................................................. 105 V. Restrictions on Aid .................................................................................................... 111 VI. Camp “Closures”: Enshrining Apartheid ................................................................... 119 “Permanent Detainees” ........................................................................................................ 122 Concerns about Humanitarian Complicity ............................................................................. 132 VII. Rights of Displaced Persons under International Law ............................................. 137 Freedom of Movement and Detention .................................................................................... 137 Humanitarian Aid ................................................................................................................. 139 Right to Health...................................................................................................................... 140 Right to Return Home ............................................................................................................ 143 Right to Redress ................................................................................................................... 144 Right to Nationality ............................................................................................................... 145 VIII. Crimes under International Law ............................................................................. 150 Crimes against Humanity ...................................................................................................... 150 Recommendations ........................................................................................................ 157 To the Government of Myanmar ............................................................................................ 157 To the United Nations and Humanitarian Agencies ................................................................ 164 To Governments and Donors ................................................................................................. 166 To Southeast Asian Governments, Australia, Bangladesh, and India ...................................... 168 Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................... 169 Appendix: Letter to the Myanmar Government .............................................................. 170 Maps Central Rakhine Camps ©2020 John Emerson for Human Rights Watch i Sittwe Camps © 2020 John Emerson for Human Rights Watch ii Table Rohingya and Kaman Camps in Central Rakhine State Township Camp name Population Kyaukpyu Kyauk Ta Lone** 993 Kyauktaw Nidin* 546 Myebon Taung Paw* 2,920 Pauktaw Ah Nauk Ywe 5,025 Kyein Ni Pyin* 6,091 Nget Chaung 1 4,786 Nget Chaung 2 4,759 Sin Tet Maw 2,538 Sittwe Basara** 2,369 Baw Du Pha (in host families) 226 Baw Du Pha 1 4,697 Baw Du Pha 2 7,531 Dar Paing 10,892 Dar Paing (in host families) 2,951 Khaung Doke Khar 1** 2,400 Khaung Doke Khar 2** 2,234 Maw Ti Ngar** 3,812 Ohn Taw Chay 4,611 Ohn Taw Gyi (North) 14,499 Ohn Taw Gyi (South) 11,810 Say Tha Mar Gyi 14,526 Thae Chaung 12,380 Thet Kae Pyin** 6,369 Thet Kae Pyin (in host families) 2,942 Total population 131,907 *Camps declared “closed” by the Myanmar government **Camps identified for closure Source: UNHCR and CCCM/Shelter/NFI Cluster Partners, June 2020 iii Summary We have nothing called freedom. –Mohammed Siddiq, lived in Sin Tet Maw camp in Pauktaw, September 2020 Hamida Begum was born in Kyaukpyu, a coastal town in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, in a neighborhood where Rohingya Muslims, Kaman Muslims, and Rakhine Buddhists once lived together. Now, at age 50, she recalls the relative freedom of her childhood: “Forty years ago, there were no restrictions in my village. But after 1982, the Myanmar authorities started giving us new [identity] cards and began imposing so many restrictions.” In 1982, Myanmar’s then-military government adopted a new Citizenship Law, effectively denying Rohingya citizenship and rendering them stateless. Their identity cards were collected and declared invalid, replaced by a succession of increasingly restrictive and regulated IDs. Hamida found growing discrimination in her ward of Paik Seik, where she had begun working as an assistant for local fishermen. It was during those years a book was published in Myanmar, Fear of Extinction of the Race, cautioning the country’s Buddhist majority to keep their distance from Muslims and boycott their shops. “If we are not careful,” the anonymous author wrote, “it is certain that the whole country will be swallowed by the Muslim kalars,” using a racist term for Muslims. This anti-Muslim narrative would find a resurgence years later. “The earth will not swallow a race to extinction but another race will,” became the motto of the Ministry of Immigration and Population. By 2012, a targeted campaign of hate and dehumanization against the Rohingya, led by Buddhist nationalists and stoked by the military, was underway across Rakhine State, laying the groundwork for the deadly violence that would erupt in June that year. Hamida’s ward was spared the first wave of violence, but tensions grew over the months