Number 381 The Rohingya: The World's Most Persecuted Minority In 2016, the world was alerted to the plight of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority living in Northern Myanmar. This Factsheet documents the events of 2016 and after which led to a mass exodus of 600,000 refugees to neighbouring Bangladesh amid claims of widespread destruction of property and human rights abuses perpetrated by the Myanmar military. Figure 2 Regional inequality in Myanmar Myanmar (formerly Burma) is a very poor country, which has been under the control of a hard-line Military dictatorship for more than 50 years. Although there are more than 100 ethnic groups in Myanmar, Buddhists make up 91% of the population and are the dominant cultural and political force. The Buddhist population and the government are particularly antagonistic towards the Muslim minority especially those living in Rakhine province. There have been many demonstrations against Muslims orchestrated by a hard-line group of ultra nationalist monks; Ma Ba Tha (Association for the Protection of Religion), which has inflamed public opinion against Muslims in general and the Rohingya in particular. As Figure 2 shows, the Rohingya are amongst the poorest groups in Mynamar. Figure 1 The location of Myanmar 1
The Rohingya are a Muslim minority living in Rakhine (Rakhaing) province in Myanmar (Figure 3). Figure 5 Timeline to show the persecution of the Rohingya Figure 3 The provinces and main towns of Myanmar The presence of the Rohingya in northern Myanmar dates back to the 8th century when Muslim traders came to the area and Muslim groups gradually filtered from Bengal into what was formerly called the ancient kingdom of Arakan in northeast Myanmar. By the twelfth century Muslims were a well-established presence in Arakan. However, as the timeline shows, present day persecution of the Rohingya is nothing new (see Figure 5). So, persecution and migration are nothing new to the Rohingya. Over the years many have fled to neighbouring countries (as shown in Figure 6 on Page 3), usually by boat. Notice that nearly all refugees have fled to countries where Islam is the predominant religion. Figure 4 A typical Rohingya dwelling which has no electricity, sanitation, mains water supply or a metalled road connection to the rest of the country Why So Persecuted? As Figure 5 shows, the roots of persecution go way back, and there are a number of explanations: The Rohingya homeland was the historical kingdom of Arakan, in the north, so the Arakan people are ethnically and culturally different from the Burmese majority who conquered the region in the seventeenth century. The Rohingya have a different language and practise a different religion (Islam). They are ethnic Bengalis and are seen to align themselves more closely with Bangladesh, than Myanmar which is played upon by hard-line Buddhists and the government to justify actions against them. 2
The Buddhist majority never accepted the mass in-migration of Bengalis forced on Burma during the period of the British Empire in South Asia. They still refer to the Rohingya as Bengalis Post-independence in 1948, the Rohingya pushed for re-integration with Bengal. This led to the government retaliation in the form of expulsion from government jobs and the initial denial of citizenship. There is a history of inter community strife in Rakhine with other local groups amid claims of atrocities committed by both sides (see timeline). The military dictatorship, which held power from 1971 through to 2016 exploited anti Muslim sentiments, often tacitly encouraging Buddhist nationalist demonstrations against Muslims. Figure 6 Destinations of Rohingya migrants (IDP is an Internally Displaced Person, driven from their homes during the recent violence) An interesting take on intercommunal antagonism can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-42899242, suggesting that the roots of community violence are to be found in the extreme poverty suffered by all ethnic groups in the province and a belief that the province is neglected by the government. Denial of Human Rights First see the United Nations Universal Declaration: http://www. un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/. The majority of the Rohingya are denied the basic human rights afforded to the rest of the country. They suffer many restrictions: Access to education, work and travel are restricted. They must obtain permission to marry. The practice of their religion and access to health services has been restricted. They are denied the vote. Limits are placed on them entering certain professions like medicine, law or running for office. The Recent Rohingya Crisis The present situation, however, came to a head in 2016: In 2016, the government reiterated that the Rohingya were not recognized as one of the 135 ethnic groups in Myanmar. This sparked a mass exodus of around 90,000 Rohingya, primarily to Bangladesh. 3
In August 2017, in retaliation for the suppression of the Rohingya, armed militants from a Rohingya insurgent group in Myanmar (ARSA) mounted coordinated attacks on 30 government targets, including police outposts and an army base. In the northern part of Myanmar s Rakhine State 10 police officers, a soldier, and an immigration official were killed. In response, the government began clearance operations in Rakhine province, which amounted to forced evictions and the burning of several Rakhine villages. It led to allegations of massacres, torture, rape and human rights abuses. See this BBC report first shown on BBC Newsnight, Feb. 9 th 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pebrk29zjw8. Note: Some of the scenes you will see may be distressing. More than 500,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine province in the face of the threat of violence from both the army and local Buddhist gangs. Most made the journey on foot to neighbouring Bangladesh, where they have ended up in sprawling refugee camps with minimal services, sanitation, food or shelter. See this report from the New York Times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv9jcpm2mek. The above YouTube reports are starting points for individual or group research. Readers should try to view as many of the reports as possible; for example, interviews with the Buddhist monks; Rohingya crisis: Meeting Myanmar s hardline Buddhist Monks. Impacts on Source Areas Many Rohingya have fled the state sponsored violence in Rakhine province with the result that the population has declined by over 600,000 in the last two years. Large numbers of Rohingya have been killed during government clearance operations with unofficial estimates as high as 43,000. Time Magazine: http://time.com/5187292/rohingya-crisis-missingparents-refugees-bangladesh/. Land vacated by the refugees has been cleared, and whole villages burned by the military presumably to discourage the Rohingya from returning. Satellite images show that at least 288 villages were partially or totally destroyed by fire in northern Rakhine State in Myanmar since August 25, 2017 (Human Rights Watch). The government has been repairing roads and bridges and talks of rebuilding the region, but there is little evidence as yet of progress towards that goal: https://www.hrw.org/video-photos/satelliteimagery/2018/02/23/destruction-howay-yar. Impacts on the Reception Areas: Bangladesh There are more than half a million Rohingya refugees living in mostly makeshift camps just inside the border in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is not well equipped to deal with this flood of refugees. The majority remain unregistered and live in vast sprawling camps with few facilities, little food and next to no medical aid. Refugees in Bangladesh have been banned from leaving the overcrowded border areas. Police check-posts and surveillance have been set up in key transit points to stop Rohingya from travelling to other parts of the country. Instead, Bangladesh s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who visited a Rohingya refugee camp in September, called on the UN and the international community to pressure Myanmar s government to allow the return of hundreds of thousands Rohingya refugees. However, given the fact that many of the Rohingya villages have been bulldozed and their lands cleared, and given the extreme hostility of the Myanmar government and the Buddhist majority population towards the Rohingya, it is hard to see how this could take place. The scale and pace of the migration will clearly have an impact on Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries of the world. The International Response Myanmar faces accusations from all sides of wide-ranging human rights abuses and, by some, of ethnic cleansing. In March 2017, the UN adopted a resolution to set up an independent, international mission to investigate the alleged abuses. In August 2017, Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary general, produced a report putting forward recommendations to surmount the political, socioeconomic and humanitarian challenges that currently face Rakhine State. He concluded, Unless concerted action led by the government and aided by all sectors of the government and society is taken soon, we risk the return of another cycle of violence and radicalisation, which will further deepen the chronic poverty that afflicts Rakhine State The Human Rights Watch has compared Myanmar with pariah states like North Korea and Syria. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of the risk of ethnic cleansing, and called on Aung San Suu Kyi and the country s security forces to end the violence. UN human rights chief Zeid Ra ad al Hussein urged Myanmar to end its brutal security operation against the Rohingya in Rakhine, calling it a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. However, to date, the government and its leader, State Chancellor Aung San Suu Kyi, have not engaged in any discussion of the plight of the Rohingya. They still refuse to recognise the Rohingya as an ethnic group and have blamed violence in Rakhine, and subsequent military crackdowns, on those they call terrorists. The government has also repeatedly rejected accusations of abuses and obstructed independent fact-finding missions. In January 2017, Yanghee Lee, a UN special reporter on human rights in Myanmar, was denied access to certain parts of Rakhine and was only allowed to speak to Rohingya who had been pre-approved by the government. The country has also denied visas to members of a UN probe investigating the violence and alleged abuses in Rakhine. 4
Conclusion The crisis in Rakhine Province may only have just emerged on to the international stage, but the origins of the conflict go way back. The root causes of the current crisis can be found in the following: History. The sense of a great historical wrong perpetrated on the Burmese by the British Empire is still a live issue 200 years on. The large influx of Muslim workers brought over by the British from Bengal was greatly resented by the native Buddhist population and never accepted. To this day, they are seen as illegal immigrants. Culture and Religion. Stark cultural differences between the Rohingya and the rest of the country in terms of language, religion and customs further encourage mutual mistrust and resentment. Politics. It can be argued that the military government exploited anti-muslim feeling for its own ends, partly as a populist policy to maintain the support of the population and at the same time divert attention from the very real problems of poverty and a lack of development faced by the majority of the population. The emergence of a militant terrorist group, ARSA, which has sought to retaliate against the Myanmar regime, giving the Myanmar government the excuse it needed to conduct the campaign described as ethnic cleansing we have seen in Rakhine province. The international community has been forthright in condemning the Myanmar government. Agencies such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have been active in documenting human rights abuses and focusing attention on the plight of the Rohingya. However, these expressions of concern have so far had no impact on the government of Myanmar. In September 2017 Britain suspended a limited form of aid amounting to 300,000 for the education of the military. More recently the Guardian newspaper (22/05/18) reported that a key government committee wants the UK government to refer the Myanmar military to the International Criminal Court, and undertake a review of aid amounting to 100 million (https:// www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/22/mps-push-for-myanmarregime-to-face-international-criminal-court). Drastic reductions in foreign aid from donor countries or the levying of economic sanctions against Myanmar may well prove effective in one way but will only exacerbate the plight of the Rohingya. However, any move by the United Nations to take action against Myanmar will be vetoed by China. This is because China is investing heavily in infrastructure projects in Myanmar as part of its One Belt One Road policy, which means that supporting Myanmar is strategically very important to the Chinese. As a result there is very little leverage that can be brought to bear on Aung San Suu Kyi and her government, and little hope of an end to the current situation. The concern is that, in the case of Myanmar, differences are so deeply entrenched that a solution for the Rohingya may never be found. References and Further Reading Al Jazeera, Special Feature: 2017, Who are the Rohingya? Human Rights Watch: 2016, Historical Background: https://www. hrw.org/reports/2000/burma/burm005-01.htm. BBC News: April 2018, Myanmar Rohingya, What You Need to Know About the Crisis: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41566561. Pagani D: 2016, Rohingya Exodus: Hide, Run, Pay and Stay Alive, published in WION https://www.christianaid.org.uk/emergencies/rohingya-crisis-appeal. YouTube is an excellent source of information (see Factsheet for suggested links or search for videos on the Rohingya Crisis). Update: August 2018 The United Nations published a report in August 2018 calling for six top military figures in Myanmar to be investigated for crimes against humanity and for the case against them to be referred to the International Criminal Court. It also strongly criticises Myanmar s leader Aung San Suu Kyi for failing to intervene to stop the attacks against the Rohingya. See: https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/08/1017802 Acknowledgements: This Geography Factsheet was researched and written by Phil Brighty and published in September 2018 by Curriculum Press. Phil Brighty is a former Geography teacher, with a specific interest in human rights, who has lived in Sri Lanka. s may be copied free of charge by teaching staff or students, provided that their school is a registered subscriber. No part of these Factsheets may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any other form or by any other means, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISSN 1351-5136 5