Rohingya Genocide Day Statement (Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) – August 25, 2025)
Augst-25,2017: A Day Etched in Blood and Memory
On this day, August 25, 2025, the Rohingya people mark eight years since one of the darkest chapters in our history. In 2017, the Myanmar military launched coordinated “clearance operations” that led to the deaths of more than 30,000/- Rohingya civilians, the rape of countless women, the destruction of entire villages,Township, and the mass exodus of over 1.2 Milion Rohingya into Bangladesh. What the world witnessed was not a security operation—it was a full-scale, state-planned genocide.
Today is not simply a memorial. It is a reaffirmation of our collective memory and our unshakable pursuit of justice. As Rohingya survivors and descendants, we carry forward the stories of those silenced. We are not just victims. We are witnesses, advocates, and the rightful heirs to a homeland we were forced to flee. Eight years on, we declare clearly: we will never accept a future built on injustice, denial, or erasure. Our right to return with dignity is non-negotiable.
The Crimes of 2017: A Genocide by Design
The atrocities committed in 2017 were not spontaneous or isolated. the Myanmar military operated with calculated brutality. Men were separated and executed, women were raped in front of family members, and children were deliberately targeted. Eyewitness accounts from survivors confirm the use of fire, bladed weapons, and sexual violence not as collateral damage, but as instruments of terror and ethnic cleansing. Rohingya villages were razed, homes looted, mosques desecrated, and religious leaders killed. This was not war—it was the deliberate destruction of a people’s identity, future, and claim to land.
Rape was systematically deployed as a tool of genocide. The accounts of survivors—many now in refugee camps—testify to the inhumanity inflicted upon them. Their bodies were treated as battlegrounds, and their dignity attacked to shatter community cohesion. International investigations have since confirmed that these crimes were widespread, organized, and carried out with genocidal intent.
The Genocide Continues: New Uniform, Same Objective
The genocide that began in 2017 has never stopped. While the Myanmar military remains a primary perpetrator, a new actor has emerged with equal cruelty: the Terrorist Arakan Army (AA). Once seen as a local insurgent group, the AA has transformed into a major force in Arakan State—and has adopted the same anti-Rohingya agenda it once claimed to oppose.
Since 2022, the AA has engaged in widespread violence against Rohingya civilians: abductions, torture, forced recruitment, and the burning of homes. On August 6–7, 2025, in Buthidaung, the Arakan Army carried out a coordinated operation to expel the entire Rohingya population. They forced civilians to flee, fired upon fleeing families, looted properties, and torched neighborhoods. These actions mirror the Myanmar military’s tactics from 2017, proving that both actors, despite political differences, share a common goal: the removal of the Rohingya people from Arakan.
Today, Rohingya face a dual threat. The Myanmar junta targets us with forced conscription and starvation policies, while the AA paints us as collaborators and continues its campaign of terror and ongoing genocide. This is not crossfire—it is a calculated strategy of genocide from multiple sides.
The International System Has Failed Us
Eight years on, the Rohingya people have received sympathy, statements, and symbolic gestures—but no justice. The United Nations has declared the events of 2017 as genocide in multiple investigations, yet no referral to the International Criminal Court has been enforced. The Security Council remains deadlocked. Powerful countries have condemned, but few have acted decisively.
Regional bodies like ASEAN have proven powerless, clinging to principles of “non-interference” while genocide unfolds within one of its member states. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), despite important legal support at the ICJ, has failed to mobilize the full weight of the Muslim world in a coordinated response. Meanwhile, humanitarian aid to refugees in Bangladesh has been slashed, leaving over one million Rohingya in worsening conditions.
The global architecture built to prevent atrocities has been exposed as weak and politically compromised. The Rohingya have been abandoned not only by perpetrators, but by protectors.
Our Identity Is Not Up for Debate
We are Rohingya—indigenous to the land of Arakan. The attempt to erase our name and history is a continuation of the genocide through language. Our historical presence in Arakan predates colonial boundaries and modern statecraft. From the golden era of Mrauk-U to the British period, our ancestors lived, traded, and built communities as rightful citizens of that land.
The 1982 Citizenship Law, which stripped us of our legal status, is not just unjust—it is the legal cornerstone of our persecution. No future peace in Myanmar is possible without repealing this law and restoring full citizenship and rights to the Rohingya people. We reject every attempt to rename, recategorize, or reframe our identity. Our name is our resistance.
To Our People: You Are the Flame That Cannot Be Extinguished
To every Rohingya mother raising her children in the face of despair, to every youth striving to educate themselves under restrictions, to every elder holding firm to the memory of our homeland—this message is for you: do not give up.
The road ahead is difficult, but our resilience has already defied the intentions of those who tried to erase us. Every time we speak the truth, study our history, teach our children, or help one another—we are resisting.
Let no one convince you that your voice is too small or your contribution too weak. The future of the Rohingya will not be handed to us. It will be built—by our courage, by our unity, and by our willingness to stand for justice no matter how long it takes.
We urge every Rohingya youth, scholar, activist, and professional to rise with purpose. Stand for your people. Protect our history. Refuse division. Fight ignorance with knowledge. Fight fear with faith. And always believe: we will return not as beggars, but as rightful sons and daughters of Arakan.
Our Demands Are Non-Negotiable
We call for the immediate referral of the Myanmar situation to the International Criminal Court, including indictments against both the Tatmadaw and Arakan Army leadership. We demand targeted sanctions on all entities funding and supporting these perpetrators and genocide.
We Were Never Defeated
Eight years ago, they burned our homes, but they could not burn our memory. They killed our people, but they could not kill our voice. Today, we declare: we will not disappear. We will not be forgotten. And we will never surrender our right to return.
We will remember. We will resist. We will have justice insha-allah.