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| Rohingya Refugee Camp in Bangladesh |
SHUDEEPTO ARIQUZZAMAN traces the ‘slow burning genocide’ of the Rohingya community.
One fateful night two decades ago, in Burma, the military kidnapped
her husband, an elderly scholar in the community. The military then
lined him up, along with 17 others, buried them to the neck and
summarily executed them. A heartbroken Begum along with her two little
boys went to beg the military officer to return the body of her beloved
husband for a decent funeral. Instead, the military killed the two boys
and shot her in the leg. Their only fault — their religious identity.
Two decades later, Begum lies on the floor of her meagre hut in a
refugee camp of Teknaf, Bangladesh, groaning in pain. She has just been
struck on the head with an axe by a local politician. Her only fault —
her ethnic identity. Gruesome as her life story is, it is hardly an
isolated incident in her community.
Meet the Rohingyas, a religious and ethnic minority inhabiting the
Arakan region of Myanmar. They are a people driven from their homeland,
and unwanted anywhere else. In Bangladesh, they are mostly known as
unwanted refugees from Myanmar. Little is known of the injustice and
persecution they face in their homeland owing to their cultural and
religious identity.
Existence denied
How does the government of Myanmar justify the oppression directed
against this community? The very word ‘Rohingya’ is unmentionable in the
government circles of Myanmar. Before detailing on the status of the
Rohingyas in Myanmar, it should be mentioned that all of Myanmar’s
population is colour coded, i.e. they have been issued with identity
cards by the authorities, and respective colours are used to describe
their status in Myanmar. Pink is used to describe those who are full
citizens, blue for associate citizens, green for naturalised citizens
and white for foreigners. As the identity cards were issued, the
Rohingyas were informed that they do not fall under any of these
categories; they are not even ‘white’ but ‘Myanmar residents’, an
illegal status. Mostly, they have been described as ‘illegal immigrants
from Bangladesh’.
So how did the Rohingyas become illegal immigrants in their home
country? While there is some truth to the opinion of the authorities
that Rohingyas are Bengali Muslims who have migrated to the Arakan
during the British colonial era, the fact that the forefathers of
present day Rohingyas have existed long before the arrival of even the
Burmese invaders is indisputable.
It was at least since the advent of the Mrauk U period in 1430 that
a sizable Muslim community from East Bengal had settled in Arakan. They
arrived as soldiers in the services of King Min Saw Mon, the founder of
Mrauk U dynasty. Another factor that led to the presence of Arakanese
Muslims during this time was that the Chittagong region would be
conquered by this dynasty in 1459 and would remain so until 1666.
In short, it can be said that the northern part of Arakan, today
called the ‘North Arakan’, was the point of contact with East Bengal.
These geographical factors significantly account for the distinct
historical development of that area — both generally and in terms of its
Muslim population until the Burmese king Bodaw Paya conquered it on
December 28, 1784.
However, the mass migration of Muslims to Arakan from the
Chittagong region, and the subsequent economic development of Arakan
that accompanied this inflow of labour would take place during the
British era. The British colonial rulers were quick to realise that vast
opportunities existed in the rich and fertile lands of the Arakan. The
flow of labourers and farmers from the Chittagong region, many of them
who would later settle in these lands, provided an impetus for
development in the region and huge profits for the British colonial
administration. The migrants, mostly destitute peasants looking for
opportunities to provide for their families first went in as seasonal
labourers and many would make Arakan their permanent abode. It is this
mass migration that is singled out by the Myanmar authorities to cite
Rohingyas as ‘illegal immigrants from Bangladesh’. Their struggle that
led to the development of Arakan has been conveniently ignored, as has
been the existence of the Muslim community of Arakan predating this
bloody invasion.
The Burmese conquest of Arakan that resulted in the massacre of
more than 200,000 men, women and children in 1784 and destroyed the
cultural heritage is totally ignored in this chronicle of history.
Neither community, i.e. the Arakanese Buddhists or the Muslims escaped
the wrath of the Burmese invaders. Hundreds of thousands of people,
irrespective of their cultural or religious identity, fled into present
day Bangladesh. Even to this day, there is a Rakhine Marma community
inhabiting parts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts region of Bangladesh who
had fled the terrible Burmese invasion, a community different from the
Jhumia Marma who has inhabited the region from a much earlier time.
When the British took over Arakan from the Burmese, many Arakanese
Muslims, along with Arakan Buddhists went back to their ancestral homes.
The fate of the Arakanese Muslims would become more closely tied to the
British colonial forces, when the Japanese seized Arakan during the
Second World War. The Japanese considered the Muslim community of Arakan
as pro-British and many of them escaped into British India, never to
return again.
However, there were those who did not want to abandon Arakan, a
land that they considered their motherland. They allied with the British
and fought against the Japanese for their survival in Arakan. The
Arakan Buddhist community on the other hand was more favourably disposed
towards the Japanese. It was a time of vulnerability, dejection and
despair for the Muslims of Arakan. It was during these hard times that
they sought their identity in a new word ‘Rohingya’ in an attempt to
unite in their ranks for the bloody struggle. The Arakanese Buddhists
came to be known simply as Rakhines, a term hitherto used to describe
all the inhabitants of Arakan, irrespective of Buddhists or Muslims.
A Japanese defeat would allow many Rohingyas to return again, but
their fate would be less certain. The term ‘Rohingya’ as a separate
ethnic identity was recognised in the history of independent Burma only
by the democratically elected government of U Nu that ruled from
1948-58. But this was denied by later governments and as the military
ascended to power in 1962, the situation began to take a dangerous turn
for the Rohingyas. The gruesome persecution of this community that would
lead to the present day refugee crisis and the dismal state of the
Rohingyas was about to start.
The military junta once in power began to follow a policy of
‘divide and rule’, trying to drive a wedge between the Rohingyas and
Rakhines, so as to ensure that the century old Arakan freedom movement
does not turn into a threatening force. The military junta has been
fighting ethnic insurgencies on almost all its frontiers. Naturally they
are wary of a united front represented by the Rohingyas and Rakhines
that can threaten the status quo of Arakan, a region separated from the
rest of the country by unfriendly terrain. As Rohingya settlements are
concentrated on the border region, there has always been a sense of
unease among the authorities that it will be easier for this community
to smuggle in arms and ammunition in the event of a conflict in the
Arakan. This is another reason why the military has been consistent in
denying the Rohingyas any chance of a decent existence in Myanmar.
Persecution of Rohingyas in their homeland
The primary factor that has led the Rohingyas to suffer is their
religion, Islam. The military junta relies heavily on Theravada Buddhism
for their acceptability and has devised and implemented policy aimed at
persecuting religious minorities, especially the Muslims. All Muslim
communities in Myanmar have been subjected to gross violation of human
rights without exception.
Burma’s large and much feared military intelligence service, the
Directorate of Defense Security Intelligence, is commonly believed to
have agents working within networks of Burmese monks. These so-called
Buddhist Monks have involved themselves in deadly riots against the
country’s Muslim population. It is worth mentioning that most Buddhist
monks, a people known for their commitment to peace and tolerance, have
opposed the bloody pogrom perpetuated by the regime’s monks.
The Rohingyas, with their distinct South Asian physical appearance,
have been more vulnerable than the other Muslim communities of Myanmar.
Arbitrary killings, rape, property confiscation, theft and so on,
perpetuated by the authorities in cohort with local miscreants, are
widespread. The phenomenon, very common since the military junta took
over in 1962, can be described as ‘slow burning genocide’, devised to
escape international attention but quietly and gradually achieving the
ultimate intention — complete ethnic cleansing and/or driving the
Rohingyas into Bangladesh.
This process of ‘slow burning genocide’ has not always been the
norm. In 1978, the Burmese military devised and implemented operation
‘Nagamin’ (Dragon King). Officially, this campaign 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’. In practice,
this meant mass killings of Rohingya civilians, rape, tortures,
religious persecution and more. More than 200,000 Rohingyas fled the
country into Bangladesh during this time.
Rohingyas are totally prohibited from practising their religion
publicly. Even private practice of Islam is frowned upon. Those who have
tried to practise their religion publicly have been executed, tortured
or maimed.
Movement from one village to another is restricted. They are
prohibited to marry without permission from the local authorities, and
permission is only granted after the payment of a hefty bribe, which is
beyond the means of most Rohingyas.
From the Bangladesh side of the border, one can notice labourers
are hard at work building a fence on Myanmar’s side, supposedly to stop
smuggling. These labourers, used by Myanmar’s paramilitary border force,
consist entirely of Rohingya ‘forced labour’ who do not get paid. This
is only one glaring example of ‘forced labour’, a routine practice of
the Myanmar authorities.
A bleak future
In the last year, Myanmar government has made unexpected political
reforms and have won praise from many quarters expecting, perhaps a bit
too optimistically, a gradual transformation to democracy. Not so the
Rohingyas. The legendary icon of Burma’s democratic movement, Aung San
Suu Kyi has been surprisingly silent on the issue of the Rohingyas. This
is in spite of the fact that most refugees in the camps of Bangladesh
will confirm their support for Suu Kyi almost unanimously. Many Rohingya
refugees say that they will go to their country once Burma has gained
freedom and for them freedom means the day when Suu Kyi and the NLD will
be in power. However, recent comments made by vice president of the NLD
U Tin Oo describe Rohingyas as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Different Rohingya organisations have requested their beloved leader Suu
Kyi to explain her position. The Lady did not respond to any of their
appeals.
Having counted on the democracy movement spearheaded by NLD to
rescue them from their plight, the reality is gradually descending on
the desperate Rohingyas. They can expect little from neighbouring
Bangladesh, where the vast majority of refugees spend their lives in
squalid huts, deprived of any opportunity for a decent survival. Western
nations are apprehensive of advocating for the rights of a Muslim
minority and in any case, the last year has witnessed a change in the
attitudes on their part as they seek to counter balance China’s
influence in the country and seek to tap into Myanmar’s vast natural
resources. Unlike the Palestinians, the Rohingya plight has not received
attention in the Muslim world, and the two powerful Islamic countries
of South East Asia — Indonesia and Malaysia — have chosen to ignore the
plight of the Rohingyas in the interest of economic development. For the
time being, the Rohingyas — and the other Muslim communities of Myanmar
— are on their own.
Shudeepto Ariquzzaman is a Bangladeshi sympathiser of the Rohingya cause.
Source here
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