Alwaght- Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar are facing ethnic cleansing and genocide of unprecedented proportions in the Buddhist country while the world watches indifferently.
A glance at the history of Rohingya Muslims is necessary to understand the current persecution they are facing in Myanmar also known as Burma.
Arakan or Rakhine state, formerly called Rohang, lies on the north–western part of Myanmar with 360 miles’ coastal belt from the Bay of Bengal. It borders 167 miles with Bangladesh both by land and sea.
Brief History of Rohingya Muslims
According to the Arakan Rohingya National Organization, Rohingyas have been living in Rakhine from time immemorial. Rohingya Muslims are people with distinct culture and civilization of their own. They trace their ancestry to Arabs, Moors, Pathans, Moghuls, Bengalis and some Indo-Mongoloid people. Early Muslim settlements in Rakhine date back to 7th century CE. Muslims are indeed that majority in Rakhine state yet they face unprecedented persecution from successive Myanmar regimes. Following state perpetrated brutality and atrocities through ethnic cleansing and genocidal action against them, about 1.5 million Rohingya Muslims have been forced to leave their ancestral land since Myanmar's (Formerly Burma) independence in 1948.
Most of the displaced Rohingya Muslims have found refuge in neighboring Bangladesh and in Pakistan, Thailand and Malaysia while others have move to West Asia region countries where they work as laborers and other professions. Currently Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar account for about nine percent of the country’s population of nearly 60 million in the Buddhist majority country.
Recent Persecution of Rohingya Muslims
Rohingya Muslims retained their citizenship in Myanmar until 1982 when a new law by the military regime took away their citizenship on the false accusation that they came to this country only after 1823 British occupation of Rakhine State.
Rakhine, home to around one million Rohingya Muslims, has been the scene of communal violence at the hands of Buddhist extremists since 2012. Muslims in Myanmar are not allowed to have more than two children without government permission.
The general census in 2014 made things worse as the military Junta gave 135 so-called ethnic peoples a code number so each group to be counted in the census but refused to give Rohingya Muslims and instead registered them in “foreigner” column, which allows the authorities to deport them from their own country.
Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide Twin Evils Facing Rohingya Muslims
Last November, the UN confirmed that the Burmese army is carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya Muslim minority. John McKissick, a representative of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said Burmese troops have been “killing men, shooting them, slaughtering children, raping women, burning and looting houses, forcing these people to cross the river” into neighboring Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi government is discouraging Rohingya Muslims from entering the country since if they all leave this would imply the Mynmar regime would have achieved its ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority. Meanwhile those who remain behind or unable to leave are now facing genocide perpetrated by the army and Buddhist extremist gangs of terror including ultra-nationalist "monks".
Nobel ‘Peace’ Laureate Presides over Genocide
There was misplaced hope following the establishment of a so-called democratic government in Myanmar whose de facto leader is Western-backed Nobel ‘Peace’ Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. She has not only failed to take any concrete action to stop the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Muslims but is actually presiding over these atrocities thus further denting the image of the already battered Nobel Peace prize which has a dubious distinction of being awarded to war criminals in the recent past.
The UN has recognized Rohingya Muslims as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. They face endless tribulations including segregation, hate speech, physical violence, restrictions of movement, sexual violence, and voting restrictions etc. Therefore, the international community must act now before it is too late to stop the genocide and ethnic cleansing and restore the fundamental rights of Rohingya Muslims including return to the ancestral lands in Myanmar and restoration of full citizenship with all its rights.
