HISTORY OF ROHINGYA

A SHORT HISTORY OF ROHINGYA IN ARAKAN MYANMAR

A Muslim minority, “Natives of Arakan”, who lived in the independent Arakan Kingdom before the invasion and annexation by Bamar King Bodawpaya in 1784.

“Rohingya did not come to Burma. But Burma came to Rohingya.”
AMARTYA SEN, Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics

"Muslims of Arakan (Rohingyas) certainly belong to one of the indigenous races of Burma.... In fact, there is no pure indigenous race in Burma, if they do not belong to indigenous races of Burma, we also cannot be taken as indigenous races of Burma.”
SAO SHWE THAIKE
The First President of Union of Burma

“The people living in northern Arakan are our national brethren. They are called Rohingyas. They are on the same par in the status of nationality with Kachin, Kayah, Karen, Mon, Rakhine and Shan... They are one ethnic people living within the Union of Burma.”
U NU
The First Prime Minister of Union of Burma September 25, 1954

"In the stone inscription from AD 1442, the kings were found to bear Muslim names. There is a very high probability that the people who lived in the Mayu region (to the east of Naaf River and to the west of Kaladan) were the Rohinjas."
DR. THAN TUN
Prof. of History at Mandalay University and World’s Authority on Ancient Burma
August 28, 1994

HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

Restrictions on
Freedom of Nationality
Freedom of Religion
Freedom of Self-Identification
Freedom of Movement
Freedom of Marriage
Freedom of Education
Freedom of Life, Liberty & Security
Freedom of Fair Employment
Subjected to

  • Rape
  • Torture
  • Force-Labour
  • Extortion
  • Arbitrary Taxation
  • Land Confiscation

Source: Irish Centre for Human Rights, “Crimes against Human Western Burma: the Situation of the Rohingyas”, 2010

1988 ROHINGYA EXTERMINATION BLUEPRINT

Proposed by Col. Thar Kyaw and adopted by the Myanmar Junta’s State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) in 1988, to exterminate Rohingya

  • Muslims [Rohingya] are not to be provided with citizenship cards by identifying them as insurgents
  • Reduce the population growth by gradual imposition of restrictions on their marriage and by application of all possible methods of oppression and suppression.
  • Strive for the increase in Buddhist population to be more than the number of Rohingya by way of establishing Natala villages with Buddhist setters from different townships and from out of the country.
  • Allow them temporary moment from village to village with Form 4 and totally ban them travelling to Sittwe.
  • Forbid higher studies to Rohingya
  • No Muslim to be appointed in government services
  • Forbid them from ownership of lands, shops and buildings. Any such properties under their existing ownership must be confiscated for distribution among the Buddhist. All economic activities must be stopped
  • Ban construction, renovation, repair and roofing of mosques, Islamic religious schools and dwelling houses of the Rohingya
  • Try secretly to convert the Muslims into Buddhism
  • Whenever theirs is a case between Rakhine and Muslim, the court shall give verdict in favour of Rakhine; when the case is between Muslims themselves, the court shall favour the rich against the poor Muslim so the latter leaves the country with frustration
  • Mass killing of the Muslim is to be avoided in order not to invite the attention of the Muslim countries.
  • International State Crime Initiatives, “Countdown to Annihilation: Genocide in Myanmar”, 2015

SYSTEMATIC STEPS

  • General Ne Win’s COUP D’ÉTAT: 1962
  • Ne Win put northern Arakan under Sittwe Administration: 1964
  • Rohingya Language Programme cancelled: 1965
  • Arakan renamed to Rakhine State: 1974
  • The 1982 Citizenship Law: 1982
  • “SPDC Rohingya Extermination Plan”: 1988
  • Stopped issuing Birth Certificates: 1994
  • Two-Child Policy for Rohingya: 2001
  • Started building Fences along the border: 2009
  • Reaffirmed Policies on Rohingya by Thein Sein Government: 2011
  • “Rakhine Action Plan”: 2014
  • Withdrawal of “White Cards”: 2015
  • Disenfranchisement of Rohingya: 2015

MAJOR MILITARY OPERATIONS

  • Mayu Operation: 1952-53
  • Mone Thone Operation: 1954
  • Combined Immigration and Army Operation: 1955
  • Union Military Police Operation: 1955-58
  • Captain Htin Kyaw Operation: 1959
  • Shwe Kyi Operation: 1966
  • Kyi Gan Operation: 1966
  • Ngazinka Operation: 1967-69
  • Myat Mon Operation: 1969-71
  • Major Aung Than Operation: 1973
  • Sabe Operation: 1974-78
  • King Dragon Operation: 1978-79
  • Shwe Hintha Operation: 1978-80
  • Galone Operation: 1979
  • Pyi Thaya Operation: 1991-92
  • Genocidal Campaign: 2012 - ongoing
  • Clearance Operations: Oct. 2016 – June 2017
  • Clearance Operations: Aug. 25, 2017 – Present

SINCE 1978

1.1 million Rohingya refugees in BANGLADESH
350,000 in PAKISTAN
200,000 in SAUDI ARABIA
150,000 in MALAYSIA
40,000 in INDIA
10,000 in UAE
5,000 in THAILAND
1,000 in INDONESIA

SINCE JUNE 2012

More than 120,000 Rohingya are confined in Internally Displaced Persons IDP Camps across Rakhine State, denied of returns to their places of origin, education, healthcare, movement, livelihood, etc.

Nearly 364,000 Rohingya civilians live in ghettos and isolated villages in Apartheid conditions in Rakhine State.

Source: IOM, UNHCR, Al Jazeera and agencies,
September, 2017

SINCE AUGUST 2017

725,000 Rohingya became refugees in Bangladesh. Over 390 Rohingya villages and mosques were destroyed. At least 12,000 Rohingya men, women and children were killed.

Hundreds of women were raped and gang-raped. Thousands men, youths and scholars are indefinitely detained.

Source: UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar Report, September 2018

REPATRIATION

Myanmar signed an agreement with Bangladesh to begin the process of repatriation without consultation with Rohingya or guarantee of safety, returns to the places origin, citizenship and basic human rights, while Myanmar builds more concentration camps to accept the Rohingya refugees.

RELOCATION

At the same time, Bangladesh plans to relocate over 100,000 Rohingya refugees from Cox’s Bazar region to the flood and cyclone-prone Bhasan Char, “Floating Island” which emerged in the Bay of Bengal 11 years ago.

LIMBO

Rohingya population lives on in limbo while the long- awaited justice and the accountability of genocide seem in an untouched distance.

THE RISE OF BUDDHIST NATIONALISM

Buddhist monks with the backing of the military celebrate the genocide, call for more policies to further suppress interfaith communities and multi-culture.

WHILE OTHER SEES AS ‘THE POSTER GIRL FOR THE ARMY’

Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Founding Father of Myanmar’s Multiculturalism is proud to associate and walk with the military which brought nothing, but war, conflict, genocide and importantly – HATRED AND INTOLERANCE.

THE UNITED NATIONS

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Article 2 GENOCIDE is defined as "... any of the following acts committed with INTENT TO DESTROY, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

  • Killing members of the group;
  • Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
  • Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole of in part;
  • Imposing measures intended to prevent births with the group;
  • Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

THE BIRTH OF A GENOCIDE

"What Rohingyas are facing is a text book case of genocide in which an entire indigenous community is being systematically wiped out by the Burmese government."

SEVEN NOBEL PEACE LAUREATES

  • Desmond Tutu
  • Mairead Maguire
  • Jody Williams
  • Tawakkol Karma
  • Shirin Ebadi
  • Leymah Gbowee
  • Adolfo Perez Esquivel

May 28, 2015

MYANMAR

Also known as Burma, a Buddhist majority country of 54 million people Riches in diverse cultures, religions and ethnicity Founded on the basis of Equality, Diversity, Freedom and Tolerance.

GENERAL AUNG SAN

"The dream of a unified and free Burma has always haunted me. If we mix religion and politics, then we offend the spirit of religious itself."
Source: The Architect of Independence
February 11, 1947

SUPPRESSION OF MINORITIES

The Buddhist Bamar military and politicians draw line based on ethnicity and religion leaving minorities in extreme poverty and deprived of their rights.

CIVIL WARS AND CONFLICTS

Ethnic minorities take arms to fight for freedom, equality and federal democracy. They feel betrayal by Bamar Ethnic Majority controlled Myanmar Military.

MULTICULTURALISM

Myanmar flourished under multiculturalism following its Independence from the British Rule in 1948

ANTI-MULTICULTURALISM

The military regime reversed everything that the fathers of Independence strived for. It soon controls the vast natural resources, mostly found in ethnic minorities regions. Its suppressions of ethnic and religious minorities take roots.

THE END OF MULTICULTURALISM

The democratically elected government was short-lived after it was overthrown by General Ne Win’s coup in March 1962

GENERAL NE WIN

“I have to inform you, citizens of the Union that Armed Forces have taken over the responsibility and the task of keeping the country’s safety, owing to the greatly deteriorating conditions of the union.”
The Burmese Dictator
March 2, 1962

BUDDHIST, CHRISTIAN and MUSLIM

The pre - independence cabinet was made up of diverse faiths – BUDDHIST, CHRISTIAN and MUSLIM before all were assassinated in July 1947