Table of Contents
EARLY LIFE ROHINGYAS
- The Rohingya people are a stateless Indo-Aryan-speaking people who reside in Rakhine State, Myanmar .
- There were an estimated 1 million Rohingya living in Myanmar before the 2016–17 crisis. By December 2017, an estimated 625,000 refugees from Rakhine, Myanmar, had crossed the border into Bangladesh since August 2017.
- Described by the United Nations in 2013 as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world,the Rohingya population is denied citizenship under the 1982 Myanmar nationality law.
- They are also restricted from freedom of movement, state education and civil service jobs.
BACKGROUND
- Muslims have lived in Myanmar since the 11th century AD. In 1921, the population of Muslims in Burma was around 500,000. During British rule, Burmese Muslims were seen as “Indian“.
- In India, many Buddhists had been persecuted by the Mughal empire. There was significant job competition between Indian migrants, who were willing to do unpleasant jobs for low income, and the native Burmese. The Great Depression intensified this competition, aggravating anti-Indian sentiment.
- The British also promised the Rohingya separate land – a “Muslim National Area” – in exchange for support. During the Second World War, for example, the Rohingya sided with the British while Myanmar’s nationalists supported the Japanese. In 1948, when Myanmar achieved independence from the British.
THE BEGINNING
- When General Ne Win came to power in 1962, the status of Muslims changed. The anti-Buddhist actions of the Taliban in Afghanistan (the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan) was also used as a pretext to commit violence against Muslims in Burma by Buddhist mobs.
- Calling them foreigners, the army killed, tortured and raped. They closed Rohingya social and political organizations.
- They also transfered private Rohingya businesses to the government, debilitating the group financially. Further, the Rohingya suffered forced labor, arbitrary detention and physical assaults. In 1991 and 1992, more than 250,000 attempted to escape to Bangladesh RIOTS 1. 1997 Mandalay riots 2. 2001 anti-Muslim riots in Taungoo 3. 2012 Rakhine State riots 4. 2013 anti-Muslim riots in Myanmar 5. 2014 Mandalay riots 6. 2016 Mosque burnings 2016
PERSECUTION
- In late 2016, the Myanmar military forces and extremist Buddhists started a major crackdown on the Rohingya Muslims in the country’s western region of Rakhine State.
- The crackdown was in response to attacks on border police camps by unidentified insurgents, and has resulted in wide-scale human rights violations at the hands of security forces, including extrajudicial killings, gang rapes, arsons, and other brutalities.
- The de facto head of government Aung San Suu Kyi has particularly been criticized for her inaction and silence over the issue and for not doing much to prevent military abuses.
2017 PERSECUTION
- In late 2017, the Myanmar military forces and local Buddhist extremists attacked the Rohingya people and committed atrocities against them in the country’s north-west Rakhine state.
- The atrocities included attack on Rohingya people and locations, looting and burning down Rohingya villages, mass killing of Rohingya civilians, gang rapes, and other sexual violence.
- During the persecution, the military and the local Buddhists killed at least 10,000 Rohingya people, burned down and destroyed 354 Rohingya villages in Rakhine state,looted many Rohingya houses, committed widespread gang rapes and other forms of sexual violence against the Rohingya Muslim women and girls.
- According to the United Nations reports, as of January 2018, nearly 690,000 Rohingya people had fled or had been driven out of Rakhine state.
CURRENT CRISIS
- Violence broke out in northern Rakhine state on 25 August 2017, when militants attacked government forces. In response, security forces supported by Buddhist militia launched a “clearance operation” that has killed at least 1,000 people and forced more than 500,000 to flee their homes.
- Refugees have spoken of massacres in villages, where they say soldiers raided and burned their homes.Satellite analysis by Human Rights Watch has shown evidence of fire damage in urban areas populated by Rohingyas, as well as in isolated villages.
- More than 310,000 people had fled to Bangladesh by 11 September. Most refugees are now living in established camps, makeshift settlements or sheltering in host communities.
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