- Stars (0)
Rohingya: A people Under Endless Tyranny
By Nurul Islam – is the current Chairman of the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO).
The Rohingya people have a long history of crisis. The crisis is not an issue of illegal immigration but of intolerance. The Rohingya have faced a continuous process of de-legitimization, systematic persecution and worsening abuses culminating in genocide. Since 1942, intermittent waves of Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh and other countries to escape persecution. The United Nations has described the Rohingya as the most persecuted people in the world. In 2017, hundreds and thousands of Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh when families were massacred, villages scorched, women gang-raped and babies thrown into the flames.
The foremost priority of the Rohingya people is to return home in safety, in dignity and with justice. But they cannot return where genocide is still ongoing. There must be credible accountability to ensure victims see justice served and the cycle of violence is not repeated. For a permanent solution the root causes of the crisis must be addressed effectively. Their ethnic identity “Rohingya” and “full citizenship” must be legally recognized and restored. They should be able to peacefully coexist in Rakhine State as equals with their “collective rights’ on par with other ethnic nationalities of the Union of Myanmar.
The Rohingya people live in Arakan (renamed by the military as Rakhine State in 1974), in Burma/Myanmar and have a long history. They are one of the world’s most persecuted people. Historically, Arakan was an independent kingdom ruled by Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims. It was never a part of Burma until Burmese king Bodawpaya invaded and occupied it in late 1784. Arakan had deep historical relations with Indian subcontinent and Muslim Bengal in the fields of culture, religion and politics. “Having genealogical link to the ancient Arakan people of Chandra dynasty, Rohingya have developed as a distinct ethnic group in Arakan from peoples of different ethnical backgrounds over the many centuries.”
Burma’s parliamentary government (1948–56; 1957–58; 1960–62) of U Nu recognized Rohingya as an ethnic group and they enjoyed all benefits of citizenship in the country. But from 1962 military ruling the Rohingya have faced a continuous process of delegitimization and institutionalized persecution. They are not listed among the 135 so-called national races that Burma has recognized as indigenous. In 1982, the military regime enacted a new citizenship law that reflects anti-Indian and anti-Muslim racism. It serves as an oppressive legal tool particularly against Rohingya people rendering them stateless in their own homeland on grounds of their religion and ethnicity.
This article aims to address the Rohingya issue in an historical context. It argues that the Rohingya ethnic identity and citizenship are crucial for a permanent solution to their longstanding problem. It also argues that accountability, justice and guaranteeing full citizenship are indispensable and essential conditions for safe, dignified and sustainable repatriation of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to their homeland. The main focus of this article is the persecution of the Rohingya, based upon their identity as a distinct ethnic and religious group, and to find a solution to their crisis. Despite historical and administrative documents, the ethnic Rohingya are excluded from the nation-building process and have been annihilated since military rule in Burma in 1962. This research investigates the consequences of Rohingya statelessness and humanitarian tragedies affecting the entire region and beyond. The overall objective of this research is to analyze the role of the Burmese government as well as its hostile attitude toward and mistreatment of the Rohingya population, a mistreatment which has prompted international calls for Rohingya to be protected.
The nature of this article relates to case study method which involves simply observing or reconstructing “the case history” of individuals and groups. Through the case study method, the author has investigated the Rohingya crisis from his decades-long experience on the issue. The author has evaluated available literature of private and public documents, reports from United Nations officials and agencies, the UN mandated Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, non-governmental organizations and the news media, as well as academic studies and scholarly books and articles. The author examines how Rohingya are being destroyed in Burma and looks at the global response to this human tragedy which is of great international concern.
The Rohingya are a predominantly Muslim community. They are a borderland people living mainly in northern Arakan State with bona fide historical roots in the region. Despite being peace-loving and law-abiding people, they are not tolerated in Burma and are oppressed and persecuted beyond one’s comprehension for their ethnicity, religion and South-Asian appearance in contrast to the Southeast Asian appearance of dominant Bamar (Burman) people. This was done in order to rid Arakan of the Muslim population. “The United Nations has described them as the world’s most persecuted minority.”
In terms of their origin and culture as well as their present geographical location, the Rohingya have mixed more with Indian people than with the Burmese. Being an ethnic mix of native Indo-Aryan, Bengalis, Persians, Moghuls, Turks and Pathans, they have evolved distinct ethnic characteristics over the past several centuries and developed a culture and language which is unique to the region and different from other people.
Arakan in historical perspective Arakan sits at the crossroad of South Asia and Southeast Asia, between Muslim-Hindu Asia and Buddhist Asia, and amidst Indo Aryan and Mongoloid races, and Rohingya people reflect this geographic reality. Located in the north-western region of Burma beside the south-eastern border of Bangladesh, historically Arakan has more interaction with the west or Bengal. During its days as an independent kingdom until 1784, Arakan encompassed the Chittagong region in the southern part of what is today known as Bangladesh. “Because of the political, cultural and commercial links between two territories, Arakan used to be called extended Chittagong”6 and Chittagong as Greater Arakan.
