The Rohingya are a small Muslim minority in Burma, a country that has been ruled by a strict dictatorship for decades. The government wants to Burmanize the country and is therefore making life difficult for all minorities. The Rohingya have had a hard time since their arrival in Burma, but the aggression, turned a blind eye to by the regime, is taking on increasingly serious forms. The Burmese government even officially indicates that it wants to get rid of the population group, for better or for worse.
Burma and the Rohingya
The Rohingya are the largest minority in Burma and originally come from Bangladesh. This concerns a group of 800,000 to 1 million people. She migrated to Burma as a cheap labor force after the British colonized the country in 1886. The word Rohingya is said to come from the Arabic word ‘ Rahim ‘, which means merciful. The Rohingya mainly settled in the Rakhine province and have been present in Burma for more than a century, but still do not have civil rights in the country. A country that has been under an extreme regime for years, which abuses all minorities and tries to Burmanize all minorities. In 1982, the Citizenship Law came into effect, making it impossible for Rohingya to become full-fledged Burmese citizens. Both Burmese law and politics discriminate against the Rohingya. They are limited in their opportunities for education, employment and have limited freedom of movement. Since their arrival in Burma, the Rohingya have been victims of racism, but with the arrival of the military junta, this has turned into a systematized campaign to exterminate them. In 1930, 1938, 1997, 2001 and 2012, large-scale pogroms were held against the Muslim population, during which thousands of Rohingya were massacred. Because the current regime exercises such tight control, it is difficult to obtain precise figures. The Rohingya are referred to as ‘Bengalis’, ‘so-called Rohingya’ or with the negative term ‘Kalar’. Even those who are committed to the civil rights of Burmese and ethnic groups who themselves suffer under the Burmese regime are ready with prejudices against the Rohingya. Aung San Suu Kyi, the champion of human rights in Burma, has also abandoned the Rohingya, stating that she does not know whether the Rohingya are Burmese.
The Escalation of the Conflict in 2012
The 2012 massacres were prompted by a report that a Buddhist Arakan woman was raped and murdered by three Rohingya on May 28. The three young men were arrested and one of them committed suicide. The other two were sentenced to death. The Rohingya version of the story is completely different, according to them it was about a Rohingya man who was in love with a Buddhist girl and after they ran away together they were found and the boy was killed. Two innocent men were subsequently arrested. Whatever the truth, the result was that an inflammatory pamphlet circulated and on June 3, Arakan men stopped a bus, took ten Rohingya men off the bus and killed them (other reports give figures much higher). . The local police and military stood by and watched. Five days later, the Rohingya took revenge: after Friday afternoon prayers, they stormed Maungdaw City and killed an unknown number of people. This was the start of a wave of violence in the city of Sittwe and the rest of the region. Both Arakan and Rohingya burned down houses, raped and murdered people. The anti-Muslim media added fuel to the violent fire and Human Rights Watch received reports from both sides that the government had been able to stop the violence. Eventually they did, but on June 12, the homes of Rohingya and other Muslims were again set on fire and police and paramilitary Lon Thein forces opened fire on the Rohingya. In Sittwe, where the population was 50% Arakan and 50% Rohingya, the Rohingya have been driven from their homes and it is questionable whether they will be given the opportunity to return. In the north of Arakan state, the police, army, customs and paramilitaries have been guilty of killing Rohingya. Together with locals, they have driven people from their homes, shot at people trying to flee and stolen food and other items from Rohingya homes. On July 12, 2012, Burmese President Thein Sein announced that the only solution to the sectarian strife is to deport the Rohingya. To UN-managed camps or to a country that wants them. The local human rights organization, led in Arakan province by Win Mra, an ethnic Arakan, stated that there was no violence on the part of the government, that all humanitarian supplies were in place and made no mention of the persecution of Rohingya or their problems with civil rights.
Assistance
The situation has created a humanitarian emergency for both sides, the Arakan and the Rohingya. But while that situation immediately prompted aid for the Arakan, both from Burmese citizens and the government, the Rohingya were left without aid. Many Rohingya have been in hiding for weeks with little access to food, medicine, clothing and other items. Outside humanitarian aid for the Rohingya was hampered by the Burmese authorities and the Burmese population took a negative view of what they saw as ‘the biased attitude of foreign countries towards the Rohingya’. This even led to threats and intimidation of aid workers by local Arakan.
Bangladesh
The Rohingyas usually try to flee into the water in the hope of reaching Bangladesh, but they are usually escorted by government representatives who take them to waters far offshore. Many boats do not make it to Bangladesh and the few that manage to reach the country are then not welcome in Bengladesh and are sent back to sea. Those who manage to enter the country must then hide. Bangladesh is not complying with international human rights law, which should at least provide temporary shelter to refugees until the situation in their own country is safe again. Human Rights Watch is trying to get various governments to put pressure on both the Burmese and Bengali governments on behalf of the Rohingya.