Observing World Refugee Day today, Aliran condemns the racial and religious violence that broke out in Burma’s western Arakan state between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and ethnic Rohingya Muslims on 8 June 2012.
Fleeing the violence in Arakan state – Photograph: Mehrom
Although the facts of how the trouble started remain unclear with allegations of crimes and atrocities committed against communities on either side, and others from various Burmese quarters adding racial slurs and accusations on social media networking sites like Facebook and other web media, the fundamental problem of Rohingya statelessness remains unresolved.
In their calls for calm and a return to peace, the Myanmar government, the United States and others have not specifically referred to the longstanding issue of statelessness of the Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority in Arakan state.
If President Thein Sein’s government wants to preserve the progress towards democratisation and the opening up of Myanmar, it needs to tackle this issue for an effective solution on the Rohingya status within the country. It serves no purpose except as a blatant violation of human rights to persist in rendering the Rohingya minority stateless.
Allegations that they originated from Bangladesh appear to have no basis, and the Bangladesh government has refused to accept them even as refugees. Women and children in boats attempting to flee the violence by crossing the river border with Bangladesh were reportedly turned back by Bangladesh border security. The UN refugee agency continues to monitor the situation on both sides of the border.
The insistence of their ‘stateless’ status based on the assumptions that the Rohingyas are migrants or descendants of migrants can only be viewed as retribution for some ambiguous and possibly long forgotten offence that could have occurred hundreds of years ago. In the 21st century, the continuance of such retribution does not make any sense whatsoever. Evading or ignoring the issue will not resolve the root causes of racial and religious antagonism, simmering below the surface and waiting to erupt at the slightest provocation.
If the Myanmar government and the international community continue to ignore this problem, treating the Rohingyas as stateless, it would indeed perpetuate the violation of human rights. Without addressing the fundamental issue of statelessness, any other initiative towards enhancing the importance and fundamental nature of human rights by the international community would be meaningless.
The aggression in Arakan state also comes in the wake of long-term conflicts between the Myanmar government and ethnic communities in other provinces i.e. the Shan and Kachin states, more recently. Some of these, like the Karen, find it necessary to resort to para-military units in efforts to defend their ethnic communities from military attacks and human rights violations.
It is in the interest of the Myanmar government and people to engage in genuine peace talks and initiatives with all ethnic communities in the country on equal terms – as states, and not as historically ‘conquered’ territories – and to resolve the statelessness of the Rohingya ethnic minority in Arakan.
The international community should be aware that the ongoing denial of human rights in Myanmar and the apparent singling out of Rohingyas and Burmese Muslims may raise the possibility of the start of religious and ethnic cleansing, akin what happened in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 1990s and the tragedies in Rwanda and Burundi in Africa. The effects of the aftermath of these hostilities still remain etched in the memories of the people involved and the refugees who have not yet come to terms with the atrocities, violence and loss experienced.
Further, refugee influxes from Myanmar to Malaysia and other countries around the region including Australasia, anticipated to subside with the gradual democratisation of Myanmar, could see a surge instead. This would aggravate the migrant flow in various receiving countries already frantically trying to stem the influxes of undocumented and irregular migrants, regardless of whether their economies and infrastructure can accommodate high populations.
Aliran appeals to the Myanmar government, Daw Aung San Su Kyi MP, Asean leaders, and all leaders in the international community to prioritise the problem of statelessness, particularly of the Arakan Rohingya community. We propose that the Rohingya community (including the diaspora) be officially granted recognition as Myanmar citizens with equal status to other Myanmar citizens.
We also ask for all actions perpetuating human rights violations, inciting racial and religious discrimination and antagonism to be stopped immediately. The victims should be redressed for the harm and loss sustained and suffered.
It is hoped that President Thein Sein’s government will act with wisdom and justice to resolve the troubles in Myanmar so that the country can make further progress in peaceful democratisation while upholding the human rights and dignity of all its people, regardless of ethnicity or faith.
Angeline Loh
Executive committee member
World Refugee Day, 20 June 2012
About Angeline Loh
Angeline Loh, a long-time Aliran executive committee member, writes regularly for Aliran. WIth a background in international human rights law, she champions the rights of those who are often forgotten or marginalised in society.
The rohingya are terroist ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.Beleive it or not,But U can see this Link –
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s720x720/392539_265893186851435_923073183_n.jpg
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/s720x720/551216_265891363518284_70973512_n.jpg
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/481317_265557766884977_1808366212_n.jpg
Violence breeds violence and murder breeds murder. Whether or not the Rohingya or other groups engage in so-called terrorists activity is not an excuse to violate their human rights. Every human being’s dignity and basic human rights must be respected and protected. In the view of people who are under oppression, their defenders are human rights defenders or freedom fighters but in the view of the government they are terrorists even if they act in self-defence. It depends on whose view you support. Those who commit crimes are criminals but then one can debate on what crime under the present laws is. It can be a crime to exercise basic human rights under an unjust law, so everything is not as clear as it seems. Laws are not black and white, they are grey areas. So, you may call them terrorists but others may call them human rights defenders or victims of human rights abuse.
Great article! Solve the Rohingya problems all together!
Rakhine peoples’ arms group are fighting Burmese Goverment. Are they terirrorist? No. Not at all. Rakhine youth with long swords roaming around. Are they terrorising people? No. No. They protecting their people. Bravo. Time will come for you all one day. Wait for that.
International Community must strongly denounce so-called Rohingya Bengali committing heinous crimes of terrorising, killing, looting and burning villages of Buddhist Burmese Arakanese”. So-called Rohingya Bengali Muslims are allegedly linked with Islamist Terrorists around the world including Taliban. These so-called Rohingya are Bengali illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. So-called Rohingya Bengali Muslims had (allegedly) massacre tens of thousands of Burmese Buddhist Arakanese people in the past. With the (alleged) support of the global networks of extremist Islamic terrorists, (Bangladesh and Pakistan in the past and may be so far), and the Islamic world, these so-called Rohingya Bengali Muslims hold up the arms fighting against Burmese central government demanding for a separate Islamic state.
In western Burma, in Maung-Daw Township where Burma shares the border with Bangladesh, got 98% population are Bengali Muslims. Rohingya Bengali Muslims are targeting peaceful Burmese Arakanese Buddhist minority in Maung-Daw by (allegedly) setting fire on Buddhist Arakanese Burmese villages, Buddhist houses and Buddhist monasteries. All Burmese Buddhist Arakanese have to flee from the attack of so-called Rohingya Bengali Muslims’ atrocities. So far more than 30 villages have been burnt down to ashes and so-called Rohingya Muslim Bengalis are (allegedly) targeting all non-Bengalis.
We denounce these terrorists’ acts and we call for international community to denounce these terrorist acts of so-called Rohingya Muslim Bengali. We call for President U Thein Sein regime to take action decisively so as to protect the lives of the Arakanese Burmese Buddhists. We call for all parties concerned to take all necessary actions to protect and to prevent such kind of massacre not to happen again in Burma and especially in Arakan. We welcome the bold and brave action taken of the 88-Generation Students Group firmly declaring that so-called Rohingya Bengali Muslims are neither Burmese nor part of Burma.
Burmese Government should take prompt action immediately and decisively to deter and detect Muslims Bengali immigrants entering Burma illegally and their heinous crimes and terrorism. In order to control the border, building of RC-Concrete fence/wall along the Burma-Bangladesh border for which all the Burmese should contribute special tax as part of the solution will be one of the options. A military division should be stationed at the Maung-Daw area in order to control the border securely, to protect the lives of the minority Buddhist Burmese Araknese who are living in the middle of barbaric so-called Rohingya Bengali Muslims.
We call for all the Burmese parliamentarians to put first priority on drafting and adopting of Burmese Citizenship Law so as to prevent illegal Bengali immigrants unlawfully claiming to be the Burmese citizenship. We call for establishing strong immigration law, enforcing and implementing these laws and taking action seriously committing immigration crime. We call for international community to dissociate with these so-called Rohingya terrorists who are telling lies around the world with make-up history. We call for Burmese exile media to stop glorifying so-called Rohingya Bengali Muslim terrorists and stop biasing with them. We call for all Burmese people to put national interest first working for democratisation of Burma. We call for all international media to stop supporting so-called Rohingya Bengali Islamist Terrorists. We call for international community to stop supporting so-called Rohingya Bengali Islamist Terrorists.
We would like to point out here that those Bengali people claiming asylum in third countries called themselves as Rohingya are most likely from the Bangladeshi side of the border not from the Arakan State of Burma since there are a lot of ‘Rohingya Bengali Gangs’ in Bangladesh are involving in human trafficking. We would like to call for international community to stop labelling so-called Rohingya as part of Burma’s ethnics group. We would like to highlight here that Rohingya issue is not about human rights issue of Burma but all about illegal immigration issue. We would like to call for world leaders, international media and all truth loving people to give careful consideration on our raising issues.
We call for all the people around the world to show your support and sympathy on the Burmese Buddhist Arakanese victims who lost their lives, shelters, belongings and lands due to the atrocities of so-called Rohingya Muslim Bengal Terrorists who are (allegedly) committing such heinous crime with the support of Al-Qaeda Islamist terrorists. We call for justice loving Burmese Muslims and Muslims around the world to denounce and dissociate with these terrorists so-called Rohingya Bengali Muslims so as to show solidarity with the suffering of Burmese Arakanese Buddhists. We seriously denounce the terrorist acts of so-called Rohingya Bengali Muslims committing heinous crimes.
Myo Thein seem to have unjustified animorcity towards non-burmese ethnic origins in Myanmar. We can safely assume him a pure racist with strong xenophobia. most of the facts presented are sheer nonsense. By condemning the Rhohingya with groundless evidence like “linked to Alqueda” are very provocative and shouldn’t be used for the sake of the peace of all Myanmar citizens. The wording “they are not burmese” clearly violates the right of a person in any given country to be born freely.Given that he detailed about the way Rhogynga seek asylum in third-world country, he himself must be just another burmese refugee from the States or Australia. I strongly denounce the wording “buddhists, islamists”, even if I myself is a buddhist in personal faith. the Burmese should be more matured now internationally.