A/HRC/42/CRP.5 span of seventy years. Decades of military rule have empowered it to act with total impunity. Regrettably, the fledgling democratic transition since 2010 has failed to reverse these deeply entrenched patterns. The Mission can only reiterate once again the necessity of a full transformation of the Tatmadaw, with its complete removal from the political and economic life of Myanmar, and the urgent need for civilian oversight of the military, as essential first steps without which these long-standing patterns of abuse will not change. 665. The ethnic communities in Myanmar have common experiences of victimisation and brutality at the hands of the Tatmadaw and of discrimination and marginalisation. Nonetheless, the Mission recognises that their experiences are by no means identical. A. The situation of the Rohingya 666. The situation of the Rohingya stands out in this regard. The arbitrary exclusion of the Rohingya from the list of 135 recognised “national races” has enabled the denial of their human rights and fundamental freedoms under Myanmar’s Constitution and laws. This formal exclusion of the Rohingya has resulted in severe inhumane suffering and persecution, thereby rising to the level of crimes against humanity. The hateful rhetoric, well-documented in the Mission’s 2018 report, which came to the fore at the height of the 2012, 2016 and 2017 violence, demonstrates the hateful, widespread and mainstream perception by Myanmar’s Bamar majority of the “sub-human” status of the Rohingya. Their continued segregation from the rest of Myanmar society through the continued imposition of movement restrictions cements this perception. It is a visible sign of their continued persecution. 667. The Mission found that the underlying structural human rights violations against this ethnic group, culminating in the 2017 “clearance operations”, have continued and that their situation remains largely unchanged from last year. On this basis, the Mission has reasonable grounds to conclude that there is a strong inference of continuing genocidal intent on the part of the State, that there is a serious risk of genocidal actions recurring, and that Myanmar is failing in its obligation to prevent genocide, to investigate genocide and to enact effective legislation criminalizing and punishing genocide. 668. The Government’s rhetoric in relation to “welcoming” back close to one million refugees can only be seen as an insincere attempt to appease the Government of Bangladesh and the international community. This is apparent, not least, by the inadequacy of the current resettlement plans, as well as the Government’s unwillingness to address the structural problems imposed on the remaining Rohingya in Rakhine State. The Mission’s findings should highlight the impossibility of the return of the Rohingya refugees under the current conditions. 669. In light of the Mission’s findings on the continued persecution of the Rohingya population in Rakhine State and the impossibility of the return of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh under the current circumstances, the Mission deems it likely that any business or development actor operational in Rakhine is highly likely to support, directly, indirectly or inadvertently, or even consolidate the Tatmadaw’s persecutory and genocidal objectives with respect to the Rohingya population. The Mission reiterates its view that businesses and development assistance programmes in Rakhine State should take the necessary steps to ensure that their actions, first, do not enrich the Tatmadaw and, second, are of benefit to all the ethnic communities of Rakhine State on the basis of equality. 670. As a starting point, the Government should respect the fundamental freedoms of the Rohingya population, including their freedom of movement. It should close the camps and provide adequate and appropriate land and homes to the refugees and IDPs, free from segregation from the rest of Myanmar’s communities. An essential measure by which the international community can judge the Government’s stated sincerity with regard to welcoming back the Rohingya refugees is for it to implement effective guarantees to acknowledge or recognize the citizenship of Rohingya through a direct citizenship application process, with due process rights guaranteed. Such a process cannot be through the NVC procedures and requires repealing or amending the 1982 Citizenship Law. 175