Myanmar security and police forces allegedly carried out these atrocities. Rakhine villagers, some of whom had recently integrated into the security forces under loosened admission requirements, also participated.

These abuses have taken place in the context of a counterinsurgency operation, which followed a 9 October 2016 attack on three border guard posts in northern Rakhine State. At least nine security officers were killed.

Since early October, almost 90,000 people have been displaced, adding to the approximately 120,000 who were internally displaced in violence that broke out in 2012. It also builds on a pattern of persecution that has endured since the late 1970s, when the Myanmar government initiated policies that eventually stripped the Rohingya community, believed to number around one million, of nationality and other rights. Before this latest round of violence, almost 230,000 Rohingya refugees had already been subsisting in squalid camps in Bangladesh for more than three decades.

The Flash Report is the latest rallying point for advocacy that periodically surfaces with respect to mistreatment of the Rohingya and instability in Rakhine State. It joins a long list of excellent reports by the UN, researchers and human rights organisations which over the decades have raised concerns about crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and more recently, genocide being perpetrated against the Rohingya.

Notably, the report contains no recommendations for what to do about what we have long known are serious violations. While plenty of past reports have put forth sensible recommendations, too often domestic and international responses to the Rohingya crisis suffer from the phenomenon of goal displacement.

Rather than stopping the violence or increasing humanitarian and development assistance, a common response to a newsworthy report is to issue another statement, request another report or investigation, and maybe host a multilateral meeting or set up a commission. The government’s autocratic reaction has been to dismiss media reports as ‘fabrications’ while continuing to disallow journalists access to the worst-hit areas.

Reports, documentation, meetings and commissions can serve an essential function, such as in establishing institutional roles and strategies responsive to the region’s medium to long term challenges. But they can also serve as a stalling tactic, looking like ‘action’ while ultimately doing little to address the urgency of stopping indiscriminate violence and preventing loss of life.

If reports and commissions continue to constitute the response to this crisis, the Rohingya will essentially be documented to death before meaningful steps are taken to afford them security, access to health services and livelihoods and a sustainable place in Myanmar’s future.

Given widespread abuses perpetrated by domestic security forces, the UN should explore deploying international peacekeepers to assure vulnerable populations of their safety during a phase of deescalating tensions.

Poverty and central government neglect have in part fed resentment and despair in Rakhine State, making it ripe for interethnic tensions. Perhaps working through the Central Committee on Implementation of Peace, Stability and Development of Rakhine State, the government and international donors, including ASEAN, must act quickly to incentivise peace and prosperity for all in Rakhine State.

They could condition significant economic assistance on the achievement of benchmarks critical to upholding security and equal rights and access to food, health services, education and livelihoods. Progress in resolving the Rohingya crisis must feature prominently as the European Union reviews extending its arms embargo in April. And private entities such as universities could offer student visas and scholarships to young, displaced Rohingya, potentially saving their lives and better positioning them to help their communities.

The October attacks and hard-line military response mark a turning point in the challenges facing Rakhine State. The presence of a militant group, however miniscule at this point, adds a new dimension. It might complicate the Rohingya minority’s ability to garner international sympathy, despite, as the International Crisis Group points out, most Rohingya leaders have ‘…eschewed violence as counterproductive. The fact that more people are now embracing violence reflects deep policy failures over many years’.

The government’s hard-line approach is ultimately counterproductive to international security. Militant tendencies born of grievance and despair may attract other terrorist networks, as has occurred with groups in Africa, South Asia and elsewhere. A university student in the United States carried out a knife attack last November based partly on outrage over treatment of the Rohingya.

Violent repression within the Myanmar context of growing Buddhist nationalism and religious intolerance exacerbates domestic instability, and in turn strengthens the military’s role in government. As a result, the country’s fragile democratic institutions will weaken, undermining political and economic progress.

Simply put, killing off the Rohingya and allowing their humanitarian crisis to fester is a losing proposition for the region as a whole.

The next report in the chronology of this tragedy will probably be the Rakhine Investigation Commission’s, due out in August. Kofi Annan as head of the Commission will likely use his diplomatic experience to advance vital policies. But we should not need another report to inform us that serious and concerted action to save lives and deescalate tensions is required now.

Katherine Southwick is a Visiting Scholar at George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution.

This article was first published here on New Mandala.