On 25 August a ceremony was held to remember those lost in the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar in 2017.
The plight of Myanmar
Myanmar, or Burma as it is also known has been a country of great suffering for over 60 years now. It was in March 1962 that the military under General Ne Win launched a coup which saw a military government installed in the country.
Since then, the people of Myanmar have been subjected to terrible human rights abuses, with a military government, which has basically done whatever it has wanted to enrich its leaders and with almost complete impunity as the world community has generally looked away.
Myanmar is a kaleidoscope of a country with many ethnic minorities. They hoped after the Second World War, the defeat of the occupying Japanese troops and the withdrawal of the British from their colonial possession, that a federal state would be established, which would recognise the rights of the different minorities. Sadly, that dream died with the assassination of General Aung San, Aung San Suu Kyi’s father on 19 July 1947.
Since then there has been wave after wave of violence towards ethnic minorities in Myanmar, including the Karens, the Karennis, the Kachins and a host of others. I have visited and taught in Karen refugee camps, a few miles across the border into Thailand where Karens had to flee to and have seen the very difficult conditions in which people have to live.
Arguably the worst treated minority of all have been the Rohingyas who were denied even the basic right of citizenship under General Ne Win’s Citizenship Law in 1982. Losing the basic right of citizenship made the Rohingyas very vulnerable, leading to the genocide against the Rohingyas in 2017.
Rohingya Genocide Remembrance event in Newcastle
Remembering the genocide, a ceremony was held in Newcastle to remember those lost in 2017. 25 August is Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day as it commemorates the events that began on 25 August 2017. This was when the Myanmar military launched operations in Rakhine State that resulted in widespread human rights abuses, mass killings and the displacement of more than 700,000 Rohingya people.
The world’s first permanent memorial dedicated to the victims and survivors of the Rohingya genocide, was unveiled on 12 April 2026 in Newcastle upon Tyne. Located in Newcastle City Council’s Peace Garden, the memorial stands as a permanent tribute to those who lost their lives and those forced to flee their homeland.
The event
At the event we heard from campaigners for the Rohingya people.
Ex Newcastle city councillor Habib Rahmn reminded us that remembrance is important and that the event would give us insights about life in the camps. He also asked us to remember the work of Councillor Nigel Todd who passed away in 2021 and showed us some images of when Nigel visited the camps.
We then heard from Tun Khin, who is a Rohingya. He noted that it was a great event for our community and that people should never forget our community resilience. He then said a little about Rohingyas and where they live and how before the military came to power, his grandfather had been a Member of Parliament in Myanmar.
Tun Khin mentioned that at first Rohingyas could go to university and had a vibrant culture but after the 1962 military coup, General NE Win stopped the Rohingya language radio broadcasts
The military began to arrest Rohingya leaders in 1970s and Rohingyas then began to flee to Bangladesh.
Tun Khin said that having been born after 1982 he has never been recognised as a Myanmar citizen and that Rohingyas have to get a pass to go any long distance across their own country.
He argued that the 2010 reforms in Myanmar were not real reforms, but just to get support from international community, while in 2012 Rohingya homes were burnt.
Then of course, the military attacked the Rohingyas in 2017 leading to as many as one million fleeing and thousands of women being raped.
The Rohingyas are now trying to get an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of the military regime in 2017 and are hoping for justice from International Criminal Court.
Genocide is still being practised against the Rohingyas by the Burmese military, and the international community must not forget what is happening.
We then heard live from two doctors at a Rohingya camp attended remotely, Dr Sunshine and Dr Kay and they told us about conditions in one of the refugee camps and how language is a major barrier and how people have to be very careful about what they are eating.
Renowned photojournalist Salim Khan joined us live from the huge Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. His book, A Million Faces of Resilience: Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh, was available for purchase during the event.
Even after nine years, there are still many refugees are living in tents and at different times of the year, the threat of fire floods and landslides.
Newcastle City Councillor Halimah Begum spoke about the genocide and compared her life to that of the Rohingya refugees, while the Amnesty speakers spoke of lack of education in the camps and the harmful impact of aid funding cuts for Rohingya refugees among other things.
The event concluded with a walk to the Memorial Garden for a moment of reflection and prayer.
For more information on Rohingya Action North East please here.
For more information on how to help the people of Myanmar, please see here.
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