The recent atrocities on Rohingyas in Myanmar's Rakhine State intended to destroy the ethnic group permanently, bearing clear elements of genocide, according to a report of the Centre for the Study of Genocide and Justice (CSGJ).

The report, based on testimonies of persecuted Rohingyas who took shelter in Bangladesh, said mass killings -- shooting, slaughtering, beheading and burning alive -- were carried out in Rakhine State. In addition, enforced disappearances of right-conscious Rohingyas took place, while their women were subject to torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence.

Yesterday, the findings were disclosed at a programme at the Liberation War Museum (LWM) in the capital, marking “International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime”. The day was observed globally the same day.

A 12-member team of CSGJ, an affiliated institution of LWM, visited different camps in Kutupalong, Thainkhali and Balukhali areas of Cox's Bazar on October 13-14.

They took testimonies of 67 Rohingyas. Of them, 32 were males and 35 females belonging to both Muslim and Hindu religious groups.

Presenting the report, Naureen Rahim, a member of the research team, said they intended to find out elements of international crimes, if committed, and genocidal elements, if any, from the testimonies.

The research also aimed to analyse those testimonies as per international legal framework on the crime of genocide, and to initiate a proper documentation on the humanitarian crisis of Rohingyas, she said. As per the testimonies, the perpetrators aimed to cause serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, and the perpetrators took measures intended to prevent births within the group.

“There are no Muslim doctors, no educated established Muslims remaining. All were tortured to death by soldiers...," said the report.

“The soldiers would stab them, cut off their fingers and then toss salt on the wounds" to make sure that they suffer before death,” said the report, bearing the testimony of 22-year-old Yakub.

LWM trustee and war crimes researcher Mofidul Hoque said it is a pity that the Genocide Convention, which was adopted alongside the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, largely remained out of discussion. “Genocide is a crime against human civilisation,” he said, calling upon the international community to bring to book the perpetrators, including those who are guilty of committing genocide during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971.

Argentine genocide researcher Irene Massimino spoke, among others.