The flagrant and large-scale violation of human rights around the globe outrages the public conscience. The individuals’ fundamental rights, i.e. the rights to life, liberty and estate are trampled upon widely and streams of blood are spilled on the basis of one’s racial and religious backgrounds. Intolerance, ideological differences and lack of acceptance have been the root causes of war and carnage throughout the history. Mankind still fall victim to radical ideology, ethnocentrism and racial superiority. Innocents and minorities are believed to bear the brunt of violence and segregated due to their faiths and beliefs.
On the one hand, Muslims are changed into the sacrificial lamb of terrorism and pay the highest number of casualties, on the other hand, they are stereotyped and their rights and freedoms are curtailed for being Muslim. In other words, Muslims are susceptible to both radical ideology of the fundamental groups. History also reveals the unmistakable fact that Muslims suffered severely in one way or another. Have the pains and sufferings of Muslims stopped?
Of late, Myanmar’s security forces have committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burned down villages since October in a campaign that likely amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing, according to the United Nations. “The ‘area clearance operations’ have likely resulted in hundreds of deaths,” a report from the UN’s human rights office said, referring to a military crackdown launched in the wake of an attack on a military post.
The report, which was based on interviews with 204 Rohingya refugees who fled to neighboring Bangladesh, recounted gruesome violations allegedly carried out by members of Myanmar’s security services or civilian fighters working alongside the army and the police. Of the 101 women interviewed, more than half said they had been raped or sexually assaulted. Several women told UN investigators how their young children, including a newborn, were trampled or cut to death. Security forces were also accused of opening fire at people fleeing and burning entire villages, as well as of “massive and systematic rape and sexual violence; deliberate destruction of food and sources of food”.
Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said that Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi promised on Friday to investigate the allegations. “She informed me that an investigation will be launched. She said that they would require further information,” he is cited as saying. The UN said it had reports of three children aged six or younger being “slaughtered with knives”. Citing witness accounts, the rights office said, “An eight-month-old baby was reportedly killed while his mother was gang-raped by five security officers.” UN rights Chief Zeid Raad al-Hussein said in the statement, “What kind of hatred could make a man stab a baby crying out for his mother’s milk. What kind of ‘clearance operation’ is this? What national security goals could possibly be served by this?”
The Rohingya, numbering about 1.1 million, are loathed by many among Myanmar’s Buddhist majority and live in apartheid-like conditions in the Muslims majority Rakhine state in the north. Yangon refuses to recognize the Rohingya as an ethnic minority, instead describing them as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh, even though many have lived in Myanmar for generations.
About 66,000 people have fled from Rakhine to Bangladesh since the army launched a security operation in response to attacks on police border posts on October 9. The UN humanitarian office has recently put the figure at 69,000.
The flagrant violation of human rights and dignity is highly outrageous and against the international law. The war in Middle East, which has been changed into a political game, inflicts heavy casualties upon innocent individuals and the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group is largely engaged in dishonoring women and shedding the blood of people, including the children, in Syria and Iraq. A large number of men, women and children from Moslem ethnicity suffer in Palestine for years despite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and United Nation’s Charter.
The UDHR declares that “disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts” and was endorsed to alleviate the sufferings of mankind and put an end to global violence and bloodshed. Respect for human rights and dignity and believing in men’s natural rights are said to be the panacea for the bleeding wound of human societies. However, lack of a strong sanction behind the UDHR is the main reason for failing to soothe the sufferings and anguish of the international family. The violators of human rights are at large and hardly prosecuted.

The international community will have to protect the rights and dignity of all mankind regardless of their caste, color and creed. To put an end to the unmitigated violence, the international community must disarm all warring parties, wherever they are, and launch a strong military campaign against all terrorist networks. After all, if a country commits systematic violence against an ethnic group or cannot prevent it, the international community should directly engage in the issue. The systematic violence and killings of Muslims in Myanmar is really heart-wrenching and needs an instantaneous attention of the world. It is despicable for the world to see that one, be it Muslims, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, etc, is discriminated on the basis of their race or beliefs.