Bangladesh, Myanmar: Rohingya Repression in International Spotlight
This post is part of our special coverage Myanmar's Rohingya.
Six weeks after clashes between Rohingya and Rakhaine broke out in Western Myanmar, which resulted in another influx of refugees towards the Bangladesh border, Amnesty International is reporting that targeted attacks and other violations by security forces against minority Rohingyas and other Muslims have increased. More than 100 people have been killed since the violence began and more than 50,000 people are estimated to have been displaced. BBC published eyewitness accounts of the terror Rohingyas had to face. Meanwhile there are reports from the Burmese sites that Rohingya lynch mobs also escalated the attacks.
On 10th of June, 2012, the Myanmar government had declared a state of emergency in Rakhine State which still remains in effect in some areas. Amnesty International also reports:
Myanmar’s Border Security Force (nasaka), army, and police have conducted massive sweeps in areas that are heavily populated by Rohingyas. Hundreds of mostly men and boys have been detained, with nearly all held incommunicado, and some subjected to ill-treatment.
Restless Beings, which has a project in Myanmar, reports:
In the last two weeks, Burma has had restrained and limited pressure from the international community. With the Burmese economic opportunities being highlighted even more so and America in decisions of lifting the sanctions on Burma, 40 days and counting, the cry of the Rohingyas is still yet to be heard worldwide.
Our sources tell us how thousands of Rohingyas are being arrested in the Maungdaw township and being taken to the Buthidaung Jail where they suffer continuous tortures – 40 prisoners were taken out from the cells to be beaten severly morning and evening time.
This video shows raw footage of the repression against the Rohingyas [Warning: graphic images]:
Mohamed Mufiz, a son of a victim from Rakhine state reports:
Our Rohingyas community in Rakhine state is in the mouth of death ghost (Rakhine chauvinistic and organized hooligans) and we earnestly request international community to save us in time from the unsafe plan of both government of Myanmar and Rakhine people’ master plan to annihilate us from our ancestral land.
A coalition of 58 civil society groups – led by Refugees International, the Arakan Project, and the Equal Rights Trust – condemn the atrocities against the Rohingya community.
However, Reports say that some monks’ organisations have issued pamphlets telling people not to associate with the Rohingya community, and have blocked humanitarian assistance from reaching them.
Angry Asian Buddhist writes:
I believe in the rights of Rohingya Muslims in Burma just as I believe in the rights of Jumma Buddhists in Bangladesh. I condemn the violence against both groups, and I condemn the history of persecution and oppression which cannot simply be washed away overnight. I furthermore condemn the simplification of political and socio-economic conflicts into religious terms of “Buddhist” versus “Muslim.”
Rohingya Muslims in Thailand assemble in front of UN to call for help. Image by Anuchid Lermsum. Copyright Demotix (3/7/2012)
- New Delhi: Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and numerous other socio-political organizations held a sit-in protest outside the Myanmar Embassy on the 26 July, 2012.
- Tehran: Hundreds of Iranians gathered in front of the UN office in Tehran on 24 July, 2012 condemning the atrocities against the Rohingya Muslims.
- Pakistan: The Pakistani Taliban threatened to attack Myanmar to avenge crimes against the Muslim Rohingya. It has demanded Pakistan to stop all relations with Myanmar and shuts its embassy in Islamabad.
- Jakarta: Indonesian conservative parties protested in front of Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta to stop the killings of Rohingya Muslims in the wake of deadly communal unrest.
In an interview Dr Habib Siddiqui explained what was actually happening in Myanmar:
The heart of the problem goes back to 1982 Citizenship Law which says that Rohingyas are not citizens in Burma. They are outsiders. They have to prove their citizenship. And this law is absurd given the fact that the forefathers of Rohingyas had entered into Arakan thousands of years ago. As historians would tell you the Rakhine or the Buddhist people did not enter Arakan until possibly as late as the tenth century. Earlier dynasties were said to be Indians that ruled over people similar to Bengal.
A Rohingya child at the protest. Image by Anuchid Lermsum. Copyright Demotix (3/7/2012).
Zaw Lwin Oo shows that contrary to popular belief that the Muslims in Arakan are recent settlers, they have been living here for centuries. The blogger lists the name of Muslim Kings from the fifteenth century.
Nizam Ahmed at E-Bangladesh reports:
The number of these registered refugees in two camps at Kutupalang and Nayapara under Cox’s Bazar district swelled to more than 30,000 early this year as Myanmar did not take them back despite of repeated pledges and promises.
The Bangladesh foreign Minister Dr. Dipu Moni has requested the Myanmar Government for an immediate start of the repatriation of Myanmar refugees and undocumented Myanmar nationals from Bangladesh.
Here are some Twitter reactions:
@pirate_larry: RT @akrockefeller: Thein Sein: Burmese Gov’t Will Not Recognize 800,000 #Rohingya Citizens http://t.co/liz3vwFe #Myanmar #Burma
@aroushimee: RT @HAQnewsorg: “Extremist Buddhists in Rakhine state have raped at least one thousand Rohingya Muslim girls. Some three thousands corpses have been dumped.
@RestlessNadia: Can't imagine what the Rohingya of Arakan are breaking their fast with- no food/aid. Consequences of a racist state and years of oppression.
This post is part of our special coverage Myanmar's Rohingya.
24 comments
One thing not to be confused with propagated history facts, those Myanmar Kings had their names in the language that Muslim speaks because they had ruled the area where Muslims lived. Plus, those Muslims are NOTHING related to the modern group of Rohingyas. Their only similarity is following “Islam”.
In India, though Buddhism is almost vanished, the buildings related to Buddhism are still there. In Afghanistan, there’s proof that Buddhist statues were demolished. In Indonesia, there’s Borobudur which means a historical fact need to be proved by the existing buildings/things as well. In Arakan state aka Rakhine, there are uncountable number of pagodas built centuries ago which are nothing related to Islam.
i dnt no why muslim country’s are not doing anything
The Rakhine State belongs to the Rohingya People. And they can either fight for their own rights in their own land and claim it, stay independent and/or merge with Bangladesh or continue suffering. The Burmese and the British swapped this Rohingya Land for their own sweet purposes over time. No one cared for these peoples over the centuries. They were only conquered. It was the land that everyone wanted or gives a damn about. The Rohingyas need to find its own leaders and arm themselves with sponsors. The UN talks big with Hasina, the BBC and Al-Jazeera also. BUT laying this problem on BD’s feet WILL SIMPLY NOT DO. I am not at all a supporter of this women. But she made a smart move by sending back the problem of the Myanmar junta to their doorstep…..Long Live Rohingyas
I don’t see any future for these hapless people as things are getting complicated and the Burmese Generals, in disguise of political leaders, are gaining grounds in the international arena. It appears that DASSK is also been bought by them at last. I don’t blame her. No one wants to spend most of her lifetime in prison. And her party is getting dismantled in her absence as well. The Japanese are investing more than 20 billion dollars in Burma. This will only strengthen the hands of the Generals for most of these assets will be owned by them or by their relatives. Americans have become soft on them for geopolitical reasons and will soon open their market for the Japanese invested products. Offshore drilling will also bring in bounties for the Generals, which they will spend to subjugate their ‘own’ people, forget about the ethnic minorities including Rohingyas.
It appears that these people will be evicted from their motherland, today or tomorrow without fail. We, in Bangladesh, can only have sympathies for the Burmese people in general and these people in particular as it will not be possible to rehabilitate about one million people in our country, which is already overpopulated with 160 million citizens living in one tenth of physical space compared to Burma. And 300,000 odd Rohingyas , who already exist in Bangladesh, are creating socioeconomic and security problems. The so called Muslim Ummas will do nothing for them, we are afraid, for they are busy quarreling among themselves and their leaders have become subservient to the West.