INTRODUCING ROHINGYAS: AN EPITAPH OF HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

I have always claimed that 'life is indeed beautiful but that is not the case with your planet earth'. The anathema of being Rohingya is a quintessential testament that "beautiful life" may exist on some other planet but earth.

WHO ARE ROHINGYA?

Rohingya are an ethnic group, largely comprising Muslims, who predominantly live in the Western Myanmar province of Rakhine. Their name refers to the area they claim as home. Rohang derives from the word Arakan, the former name of Rakhine State, and ga or gya means from. They speak their own language, as opposed to the commonly spoken Burmese language, which isn't recognized by the state.

The Rohingya trace their origins in Rakhine to the 15th century or earlier.  They have their own culture and say they are descendants of Arab traders and other groups who have been in the region for generations.

This photo of Rohingya men and boys was taken in 2014, before the current crisis.

MYANMAR AND ROHINGYA

Government of Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country, denies the Rohingya citizenship. It sees them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh who came to Rakhine under British Rule.

Myanmar brand them as “Bengali”, intended to underline that they came to Rakhine as part of the British East India Company’s expansion into Burma after it defeated the Burmese king in 1826.

During the more than 100 years of British rule (1824-1948), there was a significant amount of migration of labourers to what is now known as Myanmar from today's India and Bangladesh.

After independence, the government viewed the migration that took place during British rule as "illegal, and it is on this basis that they refuse citizenship to the majority of Rohingya.

STATELESS ROHINGYA

Shortly after Myanmar's independence from the British in 1948, the Union Citizenship Act was passed. Rohingya were initially given identification card or even citizenship under the generational provision.

After the 1962 military coup in Myanmar, things changed dramatically for the Rohingya. All citizens were required to obtain national registration cards. The Rohingya, however, were only given foreign identity cards, which limited the jobs and educational opportunities they could pursue.

In 1982, a new citizenship law was passed, effectively rendering the Rohingya stateless. Under the law, Rohingya were again not recognised as one of the country's 135 ethnic groups.

Things changed little for the Rohingya even after the political reforms in 2011 that eventually led to the first general elections in 2015, as the democratically-elected government-headed by President Htin Kyaw has been unwilling to grant citizenship.

THE CRISIS

With the Myanmar government refusing to recognise Rohingyas as its citizens, thousands of them had to flee to neighbouring countries. In the last few years, before the latest crisis, thousands of Rohingya were making perilous journeys out of Myanmar to escape communal violence or alleged abuses by the security forces.

Rohingya have fled Myanmar in large numbers since late August when Rohingya rebel attacks sparked a ferocious military response, with the fleeing people accusing security forces of arson, killings and rape. Triggered by the rape and murder of a Rakhine Buddhist woman, allegedly by two Rohingya men, sectarian violence between Rohingyas and Rakhine’s Buddhist natives began flaring up in June 2012, resulting in a number of deaths and displacing over lakhs of people. Due to ongoing violence and persecution, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled to neighbouring countries either by land or boat over the course of many decades.

Rohingya refugees crossing from Myanmar into Bangladesh.

After the killings of nine border police in October 2016, the government blamed what it claimed were fighters from an armed Rohingya group and troops started pouring into the villages of Rakhine State. A security crackdown on villages where Rohingya lived ensued, during which government troops were accused of an array of human rights abuses including extrajudicial killing, rape and arson - allegations the government denied.

The latest exodus began on 25 August 2017 after Rohingya ARSA militants attacked more than 30 police posts and an army base in Rakhine state. The ARSA ( Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army) is an armed guerilla outfit, which is active since 2016, claiming to fight for the rights of the Rohingya. At least 6,700 Rohingya, including at least 730 children under the age of five, were killed in the month after the violence broke out, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). Amnesty International says the Myanmar military also raped and abused Rohingya women and girls.

Before August, there were already around 307,500 Rohingya refugees living in camps, makeshift settlements and with host communities, according to the UNHCR. A further 655,000 are estimated to have arrived since August 2017. Most Rohingya refugees reaching Bangladesh - men, women and children with barely any belongings - have sought shelter in these areas, setting up camp wherever possible in the difficult terrain and with little access to aid, safe drinking water, food, shelter or healthcare.

THE GOVERNMENT

Aung San Suu Kyi and her government do not recognise the Rohingya as an ethnic group and have blamed violence in Rakhine, and subsequent military crackdowns, on those they call "terrorists". The Nobel Peace Prize laureate does not have control over the military but has been criticised for her failure to condemn the indiscriminate use of force by troops, as well as to stand up for the rights of the over one million Rohingya in Myanmar.

In September 2016, Aung San Suu Kyi entrusted former UN chief Kofi Annan with finding ways to heal the long-standing divisions in the region. The Commission strongly recommended a review of the 1982 citizenship laws. The commission urged the government to end the highly militarised crackdown on neighbourhoods where Rohingya live, as well as scrap restrictions on movement and citizenship. The government has often restricted access to northern Rakhine State for journalists and aid workers.

A Holocaust museum in the US has rescinded an award- Elie Wiesel award- to Aung San Suu Kyi for failing "to condemn and stop the military's brutal campaign" against the majority-Muslim Rohingya in Rakhine State. The museum reminded Aung San Suu Kyi that Wiesel once said: "Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormenter, never the tormented."

Most of the critics are entirely justified in calling out the person who admitted in her book Freedom from Fear, “Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it.” And in the acceptance speech she was able to give long after receiving the Nobel, she declared: “Wherever suffering is ignored, there will be seeds of conflict, for suffering degrades and embitters and enrages.”

That sentiment certainly helps to explain the emergence of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army whose terrorist actions in recent months seem to have provided an excuse for accelerated “ethnic cleansing”

THE REPATRIATION

Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed in October 2017 to set up a working group to plan the repatriation of more than half a million Rohingya muslim refugees. The neighbours have agreed on repatriation plans before, but the fundamental problem- the statues of Rohingya in Myanmar-remains unsettled.

In November 2017, they signed an accord over terms of return for those who could present identification documents issued to them by Myanmar government in the past. The memorandum of understanding was based on the 1992-1993 repatriation agreement between the two countries which had been inked following a previous spasm of violence in Myanmar.

Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in January to complete a voluntary repatriation of the refugees in two years. Myanmar set up two reception centres and what it says is a temporary camp near the border in Rakhine to receive the first arrivals. They would be issued National Verification cards if they are in line with rules. Also recently, Bangladesh has rejected as farce a claim by Myanmar that it has repatriated first five Rohingya Muslim refugees.

Diplomats and aid workers have said the key elements of the deal will be the criteria of return and the the participation of the international community such as the UN refugee agency, in the process.

“From what I’ve seen and heard from people- no access to health services, concerns about protection, continued displacements- conditions are not conducive to return,” Ursula Mueller, UN’s Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs said.

Myanmar is continuing its "ethnic cleansing" of Rohingya, while claiming it is ready to receive them back from Bangladesh, according to a UN human rights envoy Andrew Gilmour. "The nature of the violence has changed from the frenzied blood-letting and mass rape of last year to a lower intensity campaign of terror and forced starvation that seems to be designed to drive the remaining Rohingya from their homes and into Bangladesh."

SOURCE:- International Newspapers Reports.