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Plight of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar

Attacked with impunity, stripped of the vote and driven from their homes, the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority of about 1.3 million in the predominantly…

Attacked with impunity, stripped of the vote and driven from their homes, the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority of about 1.3 million in the predominantly Buddhist Myanmar (formerly Burma), are considered as the most persecuted minority in the world.

The Rohingya, according to many historians and Rohingya groups, probably arrived in what was then the independent kingdom of Arakan (now Rakhine) as long ago as the 8th century. They were seafarers and traders from the middle-east and were joined in the 17th century by tens of thousands of Bengali Muslims captured by the raiding Arakanese. “Rohingya” simply means “inhabitant of Rohang,” the early Muslim name for Arakan. The kingdom of Arakan was later conquered by the Burmese army in 1785.

With the British conquest of Arakan in 1825, Arakan and Burma were administered as part of British India. Thousands of laborers from Bangladesh and India migrated to what is now known as Myanmar, such migration was considered as internal, according to the Human Rights Watch (HRW). The migration of laborers was viewed negatively by the majority of the native population.

After gaining independence in 1948 from Britain, the Burmese government refused to recognize the Rohingya as Burmese citizens. The government viewed the migration that took place during the British rule as “illegal”. This led many Buddhists to consider the Rohingya offensively as “Bengali”, a recent invention created for political reasons. After the military coup in 1962, things only worsen for the Rohingya, the fact that they were only given foreign identity cards, which limited the jobs and educational opportunities they could pursue and obtain.

The new citizenship law passed in 1982, effectively rendered the Rohingya stateless. The government did not recognize the Rohingya as one of the country’s 135 ethnic groups. As a result of the law, their rights to study, work, travel, marry, practice their religion and access health services have been and continue to be restricted under successive Burmese military dictators.

Confined to the western coastal state of Arakan (Rakhine), bordering the Bay of Bengal to the west, Bangladesh to the northwest, Burma’s Chin state to the north, and Magwe, Bago, and Irrawaddy Divisions to the east, Rohingya live in Nazi-like ghetto camps – that lack basic services and opportunities. Arakan is one of the poorest states in Myanmar. The Burmese government denies them freedom of movement without a government permit.

For almost half a century, Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar in droves to escape persecution. Refugees that flee to neighboring countries – Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian countries have often reported gang rapes, torture, arson, infanticide, extrajudicial killings and murder by Myanmar security forces. The UN has described the mass exoduses of the Rohingya as “ethnic cleansing”. The crackdowns by the security forces in 2012, 2015 and late 2016 were among the most horrifying – with thousands of women, children and the elderly killed and hundreds of thousands fleeing to Bangladesh – those not lucky drown during the tortuous journey.

International organizations have lashed out at Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, that came to power in a historic 2015 election, for denying and defending the army’s crimes against humanity. She has been accused of being complicit and inciting violence against the Rohingya – which she herself termed as “Bengalis”. Ms Suu kyi, is just another war criminal with a Noble Peace Laureate award like other war criminals – Henry Kissinger, Theodore Roosevelt, Shimon Peres, Barack Obama among others that that were given the prestigious award because of political reasons.

The recent crackdown of the past weeks, sparked by attacks on border posts, army bases and police posts in Rakhine state by the newly formed Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), formerly known as Faith Movement – Rohingya villagers armed with homemade weapons – that declared they are obligated to “defend, salvage and protect the Rohingya community”, have caused more persecution of the Rohingya. Over the past few days, more than 140,000 people have crossed into Bangladesh according to the UN and over 400 people have been killed in the violence.

Bangladesh which hosts many Rohingya refugees, also refuses to recognize them as citizens. Bangladesh often tried to prevent Rohingya refugees from crossing its border and in the past, planned to relocate tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees to a remote island that is prone to flooding (completely floods during the annual monsoon season) which has also been called “unhabitable” by rights groups.

“The Rohingya are probably the most friendless people in the world. They just have no one advocating for them at all,” Kitty McKinsey, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said in 2009.

The international community have to intervene to stop an impending Southeast Asia’s Srebrenica (the massacre of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims who were meant to be under UN protection) – a dark stain on Europe’s human rights record. The Burmese government have to immediately stop its crackdown in Rakhine and allow UN observers to access and monitor the situation on the ground. Bangladesh has to do more for the refugees escaping violence and persecution. As for the West, coverage of humanitarian crisis shouldn’t be with one-sided passion, the Rohingya crisis have to be addressed equally as other humanitarian crisis – like that of the Yazidis in Iraq.

Yusuf wrote this piece from Jos, Plateau state

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