Plight of Rohingya Muslims

Tuesday, 12 September 2017

According to the Assembly of Rohingya in Bangladesh, over 6,500 people have

been killed, 8,400 injured, and 23,000 houses were burned down. The
government which is responsible to protect its own citizens is doing nothing in
Myanmar

Historical overview

The aim of this article is to explore the plight of Rohingya Muslims and the role of
the international community. The Rohingya is one of the most persecuted ethnic
minorities in the world, with no protection either from the domestic government
(Myanmar) or from the international community.

Rohingya is a small ethnic minority (Muslims) in the majority

(Buddhist) country and make up around one million of the total 50 million
populations. They hail from the countrys northwest and speak a Bengali dialect.
Almost all live in Rakhine/Arakon, one of the poorest (lack of natural resources)
states, with a population of three million. Though many of them have been living
there for generations they are not considered as citizens by the Myanmar
Government. Instead, they are considered to be illegal immigrants from
Bangladesh.
The 1982 Citizenship Law1 denied the citizenship of Rohingya and even the right
to live and self-identification. They were effectively banned from voting at the last
general election and left without political representation. The Rohingya Muslims
are also subjected to many restrictions in their day-to-day life. They are not
allowed to travel from one place to another, are prohibited from working outside
their villages, cannot marry without permission from the authority, lack livelihood
opportunities, have limited medical care and no education, etc. In fact, the
Myanmar Government has been trying to eliminate the entire Rohingya Muslims
from its own territory.

The history of the Rohingya community in Myanmar goes back to the eighth
century as they claim to be original settlers of Rakhine Province, the country,
while tracing their ancestry to Arab traders. Bengali Muslims from neighboring
Bengal (which then included Bangladesh also) started arriving in Rakhine after
King Narameikhla (14301434) retained his throne with the help of Sultan of
Bengal of that time. Besides, a large number of Bengalis migrated to Rakhine
during the British rule (from 1824 to 1948) which encouraged Bengali inhabitants
to migrate to fertile valleys of Arakan as agriculturalists.

The British census in 1891 reported that there were around 58,255 Muslims were
in Rakhine (Arakan). By 1911, the Muslim population had increased to 178,647.
However as of 2012, there were more than 800,000 Rohingyas residing in
Myanmar, most of them live in the province of Rakhine. The high influx of Muslim
population has created a number of violent incidents between the Rohingya
Muslims and the Local/Rakhine people in Myanmar.

Hostility against Rohingya Muslims is not a new phenomenon; the annexation of

the independent province of Rakhine in 1784 by the Burmese government came
up with discriminatory policies and persecution of Rohingyas. They were
marginalised and the Myanmar Government put several restrictions on their
movement and their marriage, and constantly confiscated their land and drove
them to annihilation. It is said as many as 35,000 Arakanese people fled to the
neighbouring Chittagong region of British Bengal in 1799 to avoid Burmese
persecution and seek protection from British India. The Burmese rulers executed
thousands of Arakanese men and deported a considerable portion of the
Arakanese population to central Burma, leaving Arakan as a scarcely-populated
area by the time the British occupied it.

During World War II, Japanese forces invaded Burma, then under British colonial
rule. The British forces retreated and in the power vacuum left behind,
considerable violence erupted. This included communal violence between
Buddhist Rakhine people and Muslim Rohingya villagers. The period also
witnessed violence between groups loyal to the British and Burmese nationalists.
The Rohingyas supported the Allies during the war and opposed the Japanese
forces. The Japanese committed atrocities toward thousands of Rohingyas,
including rape, torture, and murder. In this period, around 22,000 Rohingya are
believed to have crossed the border into Bengal, then part of British India, to
escape the violence. Some 40,000 Rohingya eventually fled to Chittagong after
repeated massacres by the Burmese and Japanese forces.

In 1947, Rohingya Muslims formed a Mujahid Party which supported jihad

movement in northern Arakan. The aim of Mujahid Party was to create a Muslim
Autonomous state in Arakan. But after the 1962 coup detat by General Ne Win,
military operations targeted them over a period of two decades. The prominent
one was Operation King Dragon which took place in 1978; as a result, many
Muslims in the region fled to neighbouring country Bangladesh as refugees. Over
200,000 Rohingyas are said to have fled to Bangladesh following the King Dragon
operation of the Myanmar army.

Officially this campaign is aimed at scrutinising each individual living in the state,
designating citizens and foreigners in accordance with the law and taking actions
against foreigners who have filtered into the country illegally. This military
campaign, in effect, is directly targeted civilians, and resulted in widespread
killings, rape and destruction of mosques and further religious persecution.
During 1991-92 a new wave of atrocities forced over a quarter of a million
Rohingyas to flee to Bangladesh. They reported widespread forced labour, as well
as summary executions, torture, and rape. They said they were forced to work
without pay by the Burmese army on infrastructure and economic projects, often
under harsh conditions. Many other human rights violations occurred in the
context of forced labour of Rohingya civilians by the security forces. The above
examples show that how the Rohingya Muslims have been persecuted
throughout the history in Myanmar.

The present alarming situation

The recent conflict in Myanmar started in 2012 between the Rohingya Muslims
and Rakhine Buddhists. The first and most deadly incident began in June 2012
when widespread rioting and clashes between Rakhine Buddhists and Muslims,
largely thought to be Rohingya Muslims, left 200 dead and displaced thousands. It
was the rape and murder of a young Buddhist woman which sparked off that
deadly chain of events.

In March 2013 an argument in a gold shop in Meiktila in central Myanmar led to

violence between Buddhists and Muslims which left more than 40 people dead
and entire neighbourhoods razed. In August 2013 rioters burnt Muslim-owned
houses and shops in the central town of Kanbalu after police refused to hand over
a Muslim man accused of raping a Buddhist woman.

In January 2014, the UN said that more than 40 Rohingya men, women and
children were killed in Rakhine state in violence that flared after accusations that
Rohingyas killed a Rakhine policeman. In June 2014, two people were killed and
five hurt in Mandalay, Myanmars second city, following a rumour that spread on
social media that a Buddhist woman had been raped by one or more Muslim men.

Apart from the continuous ethnic cleansing, there was a very famous Buddhist
monk called Ashin Wirathu and his movement 969 also played a major role to
wipe out the Muslims from Myanmar. Ashin Wirathu is a nationalist Burmese
Buddhist Monk and the spiritual leader of the anti-Muslim movement in Burma.
He led a rally of monks in Mandalay (Second largest city in Myanmar) in
September 2012 to promote President Thein Seins controversial plan to send
Burmese Rohingya Muslims to a third country. One month later, more violence
broke out in Rakhine state. Wirathu claims the violence in Rakhine was the spark
for the most recent violence in Burmas central city of Meiktila, where a dispute in
a gold shop quickly spread to other areas. However, evidence shows that Ashin
Wirathu was behind all these killings and he was supporting the President.

In 2016, some armed individuals attacked police posts in Rakhine State, leaving
nine police personnel dead. Weapons and ammunitions were also looted. A
newly-formed insurgent group, Harakah al-Yaqin in Arakan, claimed responsibility
a week later. Following the police camp incidents, the Myanmar army began a
major crackdown in the villages of northern Rakhine state. In the initial operation,
dozens of people were killed and many were arrested. As the crackdown
continued, the casualties increased.

Arbitrary arrest, extrajudicial killings, gang rapes, brutalities against civilians, and
looting were reportedly carried out. According to media reports, hundreds of
Rohingya people had been killed by December 2016, and many had fled Myanmar
as refugees to take shelter in the nearby areas of Bangladesh and India.

In late November, Human Rights Watch released satellite images which showed
that approximately 25,000 Rohingya houses in 50 villages had been burned down
by the security forces. The media and the human rights groups frequently
reported intense human rights violations by the Myanmar military. During one
incident in November, the Myanmar military allegedly used helicopters to shoot
and kill the villagers after some villagers joined the insurgents in an ambush which
killed a senior army officer. The army confirmed that two helicopters mounted
with guns dispersed the crowd but denied they shot at civilians.

As of November 2016, Myanmar had yet to allow the media and human rights
groups to enter the persecuted areas. Consequently, the exact figures of civilian
casualties remained unknown. The Rakhine State was termed an information
black hole. The violence in 2017 continues without an end. No one knows the
exact number of deaths and destruction.

According to the Assembly of Rohingya in Bangladesh, over 6,500 people have

been killed, 8,400 injured, and 23,000 houses were burned down. The above
incidents show that the national army in Myanmar which is supposed to maintain
the law and order has failed to do so but rather it is killing its own citizens without
any mercy. The government which is responsible to protect its own citizens is
doing nothing in Myanmar.

Protection of Rohingya Muslims

Regarding the protection of Rohingya Muslims, the domestic government

(Myanmar) has the primary responsibility to protect people. Rohingya Muslims
have the rights to request their basic needs and to receive protection from the
domestic governments.

They shall not be persecuted for making such request. Every human being shall
have the right to be protected against being arbitrarily displaced from his or her
home of habitual residence. However, it has been found that not all governments
fulfil this responsibility in the same manner nor provide equal protection for its
people.

Many governments are neglectful in their protection regime some deliberately

subject their populations to forcible displacement, starvation, mass killings and
other serious human rights violations, while some others do not have the capacity
to deal with the problem on their own. In situations where the states are
unwilling or unable to protect its own people then the responsibility for
protecting those goes to the international community.

In Myanmar the domestic government which has the sole responsibility to protect
Rohingya Muslims has failed to protect. But it urges the military to kill the people
and forcibly evict them from their homes. In such a situation the international
community has to protect those people.

The role of international community

The United Nations has stated that the treatment of the Rohingya is a crime
against humanity and has labelled it as ethnic cleansing. Following the United
Nations report on 3 February denouncing these crimes, Human Rights Watch has
also said that the ongoing situation reflects devastating cruelty. Other groups
such as UNICEF have also denounced Myanmar as the violations of Rohingya
childrens rights is totally unacceptable. All of these groups have stressed the
importance of the government in Myanmar taking action, and a stronger
response from the international community.

On 4 February, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein
said: The Government of Myanmar must immediately halt these grave human
rights violations against its own people, instead of continuing to deny they have
occurred, and accept the responsibility to ensure that victims have access to
justice, reparations and safety.

Many have spoken out against the leader of the National League for Democracy
and Nobel Peace Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi for remaining so quiet on the issue
and not going into the Rakhine State to try and diffuse tensions. Pearsons, the
Australian Human Rights Watch Director, suspects it is for political reasons, as the
Rohingya are very unpopular in Myanmar. Though she is not the president of
Myanmar, she is considered its de facto leader.

It is reported that around one million Rohingya refugees live outside Myanmar in
Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, etc. However, their living
conditions are very poor in many countries. For example, in Malaysia the
Rohingya refugees cannot move from one place to another. In India, the
government does not provide them proper food or shelter. Many countries where
the Rohingya Muslim lives as refugees do not want to keep them anymore and
consider it as a burden to their country. Therefore, they have closed the borders
and do not let the refugees to come in.

The West is not at all interested about Rohingya Muslims. Up to now none of the
European countries have expressed their concern over the Rohingya Muslims.
Only Turkey has conducted a few dialogues with Myanmar and sent its relief
mission to Myanmar last week.

Conclusion

The overall conclusion is that the Rohingya Muslim is the only ethnic minority
which suffers most in the world now. No protection either from domestic
government or from the international community. Even Arab countries do not
open their borders for this stateless minority.

Footnotes

Myanmar Nationality Law currently recognises three categories of citizens,

namely citizen, associate citizen and naturalised citizen, according to the 1982
Citizenship Law. Citizens are required to obtain a National Registration Card, while
non-citizens are given a Foreign Registration Card. Rohingya people are
considered as naturalised citizens.
Posted by Thavam