The Rohingya: Myanmar's outcasts

Millions of residents of western Myanmar have been stripped of citizenship and basic human rights. Will Suu Kyi help?

The Rohingya ethnic group of Myanmar is not recognised by the government [GALLO/GETTY]

This article is the first in a series by Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, a former Pakistani high commissioner to the UK, exploring how a litany of volatile centre/periphery conflicts with deep historical roots were interpreted after 9/11 in the new global paradigm of anti-terrorism - with profound and often violent consequences. Incorporating in-depth case studies from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, Ambassador Ahmed will ultimately argue that the inability for Muslim and non-Muslim states alike to either incorporate minority groups into a liberal and tolerant society or resolve the "centre vs periphery" conflict is emblematic of a systemic failure of the modern state - a breakdown which, more often than not, leads to widespread violence and destruction. The violence generated from these conflicts will become the focus, in the remainder of the 21st century, of all those dealing with issues of national integration, law and order, human rights and justice. 
Washington, DC - The image of a smiling Daw Aung San Suu Kyi receiving flowers from her supporters is a powerful message of freedom and optimism in Myanmar, the symbol of democracy in a country which has known nothing but authoritarian oppression for decades.
Yet few ask one of the most pressing questions facing Daw Suu Kyi. How will she deal with the Rohingya?
"The Rohingya," you will ask. "Who are they?"
The Rohingya, whom the BBC calls "one of the world's most persecuted minority groups", are the little-publicised and largely forgotten Muslim people of the coastal Rakhine state of western Myanmar. Their historic lineage in Rakhine dates back centuries, as fishermen and farmers. Over the past three decades, the Rohingya have been systematically driven out of their homeland by Myanmar's military junta and subjected to widespread violence and the total negation of their rights and citizenship within Myanmar. They are a stateless Muslim minority.
The continued tragedy of the unrecognised Rohingya, both in Myanmar and as refugees abroad, casts a dark shadow over the bright hopes and prospects for democracy in a country plagued by violence and civil war. Suu Kyi is ideally placed to extend democratic reforms to all ethnic peoples, including the Rohingya, in a free Myanmar.
Though the Rohingya may be small in number at less than two million, the real lesson of the Arab Spring is that no notion of democracy can succeed without the inclusion of all people within a country's borders. Every member of society, regardless of race and religion, must be given their due rights as citizens.

"While many ethnic minorities in Myanmar have been the victims of the central government's oppressive measures, the Rohingya stand apart in that their very existence is threatened."

While many ethnic minorities in Myanmar have been the victims of the central government's oppressive measures, the Rohingya stand apart in that their very existence is threatened. The Rohingya's plight abroad as refugees in places such as Bangladesh and Thailand has seen glimmers of the media spotlight, but less attention has been brought to the underlying cause of their flight: the violence and cultural oppression at home.
These policies were enacted by Myanmar's government to force the Rohingya outside of Myanmar as a result of their being Muslim and ethnically non-Myanma. The government erroneously labelled them as "illegal Bengali immigrants" in their efforts to eradicate the Rohingya culture.
Kings to refugees
Yet, the long history of the Rohingya and the Rakhine state contradicts the government's claims. The medieval Kingdom of Arakan, encompassing the Muslim Rohingya, was once an enlightened centre of culture, knowledge and trade, displaying a harmonic blend of Buddhism and Islam in its administration and court life. The kingdom's cosmopolitan and international capital city, Mrauk U, was described in the 17th century as "a second Venice" by a Portuguese Jesuit priest and was often compared to Amsterdam and London by travellers and writers of the time.
It was the 1784 military conquest by Bodawpaya, the king of Burma (now Myanmar), that transformed this once vibrant kingdom into an oppressed peripheral region. After this, many haunting tales began to circulate of Burmese soldiers rounding up the Rohingya in bamboo enclosures to burn them alive, and marching thousands to the city of Amarapura to work, effectivley as slave labour, on infrastructure projects.

Rohingya boat people stuck in limbo

With the rise to power of the military junta in 1962 under General Ne Win, a policy of "Myanmarisation" was implemented as an ultra-nationalist ideology based on the racial purity of the Myanma ethnicity and its Buddhist faith. The Rohingya, as both Muslims and non-Myanma, were stripped of their legitimacy and officially declared foreigners in their own native land. With the passage of the junta's 1982 Citizenship Law, they effectively ceased to exist legally.
Stripped officially of their citizenship, the Rohingya found their lives in limbo: prohibited from the right to own land or property, barred from travelling outside their villages, repairing their decaying places of worship, receiving an education in any language or even marrying and having children without rarely granted government permission. The Rohingya have also been subjected to modern-day slavery, forced to work on infrastructure projects, such as constructing "model villages" to house the Myanmar settlers intended to displace them, reminiscent of their treatment at the hands of the Burmese kings of history.
The denial of citizenship and rights was accompanied by a military strategy of physical and cultural war designed to drive the Rohingya out of Myanmar.
The initial push of the military's ethnic cleansing campaign came in 1978 under Operation Naga Min, or Operation King Dragon. The purpose of this operation was to scrutinise each individual within the state as either a citizen or alleged "illegal immigrant". This resulted in widespread rape, arbitrary arrests, desecration of mosques, destruction of villages and confiscation of lands among the Rohingya people. In the wake of this violence, nearly a quarter of a million Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh, many of whom were later repatriated to Myanmar where they faced further torture, rape, jail and death.
In 1991, a second push, known as Operation Pyi Thaya or Operation Clean and Beautiful Nation, was launched with the same purpose, resulting in further violence and another massive flow of 200,000 Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh.
Non-governmental organisations from Europe and North America estimate that 300,000 Rohingya refugees remain in Bangladesh, with only 35,000 residing in registered refugee camps and receiving some sort of assistance from NGOs.
Acknowledging the Rohingya
Those remaining, more than 250,000, are in a desperate situation without food and medical assistance, largely left to slowly starve to death. The December 2011 refugee repatriation agreement reached between Myanmar President Thein Sein and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will exclude the Rohingya, due to their lack of Myanmar citizenship, one of the conditions for repatriation for the expected 2,500 returning refugees.
The Rohingya predicament underlines a paradox for the world's great faiths, straddling the divide between Islamic Asia and Buddhist Asia. Each emphasises compassion and kindness and yet, we see little evidence of this in their dealings with the Rohingya people.
As part of this current study on the relationship between centre and periphery in the Muslim world, we recently interviewed Dr Wakar Uddin, Chairman of The Burmese Rohingya Association of North America (BRANA). A gentle and learned man, he is an energetic ambassador for his Rohingya people with a firm grasp of regional history. All the Rohingya want is the reinstatement of their citizenship in their own land, as revoked by the former dictator General Ne Win, and the dignity, human rights and opportunities that come with it.
Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy have a unique opportunity to reach out to the Rohingya people and include them in the new democratic process. The NLD should work with the central government to expand the role of all ethnic minorities as full Myanma citizens.
By acknowledging their rights, the government will bestow upon the Rohingya the dignity and the responsibilities of citizenship and present opportunities for mutual cultural understanding and the repatriation of the thousands of refugees existing in purgatory, separated from their homes and families. Great strides have recently been made by the Myanmar government towards the creation of an open and democratic political system and an end to ethnic violence, yet this is only the beginning.
With the recognition of the Rohingya as Myanma citizens, Suu Kyi will honour the memory of her father, Aung San, as he, before his untimely and tragic death, also reached out to ethnic minorities to participate in an independent Myanmar. Only then can a democratic and modern Myanmar be legitimate and successful in the eyes of its own people.
But the first step is to acknowledge the Rohingya exist.
This article is based on research being conducted by Professor Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University, Washington, DC, and Harrison Akins, a Research Fellow attached to the Chair, for the forthcoming study, Journey into Tribal Islam: America and the Conflict between Center and Periphery in the Muslim World, to be published by Brookings Press, exploring the conflict between Muslim tribal groups and central governments across the Muslim world in the context of the US-led 'war on terror'. 
Ambassador Ahmed is a former Pakistani High Commissioner to the UK and former administrator in Waziristan and Balochistan. He is the award-winning author of numerous books, including Discovering Islam, and Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam (Brookings Press, 2010).

Villagers Fear Arrest after Refusing to Pay Paddy to Army

The villagers from Palaypauk (Balipauk) Village in Minbya Township in Arakan State are in fear of arrest after being threatened by the army because they were unwilling to sacrifice their paddy harvests which are charged by the army as rent for their confiscated farmlands.

One of the villagers told Narinjara that the Military Operation Command or Sa-Ka-Kha (9) based in nearby Kyauktaw Township has threatened to arrest the villagers because they were hiding when the army personnel came to collect paddy from them.
“The army personnel from Sa-Ka-Kha (9) led by Major Ne Win and Corporal Ar Jone came to our village on the 31st of January to collect paddy from us. All the villagers were hiding when they came. After this they went to the village monastery and informed the monk of the monastery that they would arrest us if we do not pay the paddy to them”, said the villager.
Palaypauk Village is situated in the place where Minbya and Pauktaw Townships meet in north eastern Arakan State. According to the villagers, the Sa-Ka-Kha (9) has forcibly confiscated over 300 acres of paddy farmlands that were owned by the villagers, and have then been leasing the lands back to the owners with a rent of 25 baskets of paddy per acre.
“The army personnel even picked a quarrel with the monk as the monk requested they spare the villagers the rent this year. The monk told them the paddy harvest in the village was very poor this year, and the villagers are very poor, and then they asked the monk if he would pay, or who would pay 40,000 baskets of paddy that the government has ordered them to annually contribute to the state”, said the villager.
According to the source, there are only two villages in the Palaypauk Village Group namely Palaypauk and Dokekanlae, and the army have been annually collecting 15,000 baskets of paddy harvests—9,000 baskets from Palaypauk and 6,000 baskets from Dokekanlae—since it confiscated the farmlands from those villages.
“We villagers here are very poor farmers who are mainly living on the traditional paddy farming and we have been facing a lot of trouble in our livelihood since we have had to pay our harvests to the army. That is why we are unwilling to pay our harvests anymore, and we have recently written an appeal to the President U Thein Sein”, said the villager.
The villager said they are worrying about arrest by the army, as the army personnel have informed them that they would come again on 5 February threatening they would take action against those who fail to pay the paddy to them on that day.

Nasaka’s harassment increased in north Arakan

It is indeed a matter of serious concern that Arakan north remain as dangerous as ever, courtesy of the persistent harassments being perpetrated by the Burma’s border security force (Nasaka), army, despite a number of changes in Burma after elections in November 2010.

According to reports in the last few days, the situation in north Arakan appears to have worsened. For instances, from January 19 to 21 (within three days) the Nasaka arrested 20 villagers from Kawarbill village of Maungdaw Township while going to forest to collect firewood and are being detained in Nasaka headquarters of Kawarbill (Kyigan Pyin). They were arrested by the Nasaka of Nasaka headquarters because some of villagers gave complaints to the Parliament members about the Nasaka’s harassments when the parliament members held a meeting inviting local villagers at Kawarbill village on January 12.

Presently, Nasaka seriously restricts the movement of Rohingya people, increases in night sentry at villages and taking huge amount to give permission to build or renovate houses. Besides, the Nasaka specially creates a new chapter of black list of Rohingya kids. All these were made after giving speech on January 12 in public meetings held in Maungdaw north by U Aung Zaw Win and U Htay Win, the upper house and lower house parliament members respectively. The two MPs are the members of Union Solitary and Development party (USDP).

The parliament members are U Aung Zaw Win (Upper Parliament member) and U Htay Win (Lower Parliament member), both are from Union Solidarity and Development Party and arrived at Maungdaw on January 9, from Rangoon. In the meeting, the parliament members asked to the participants to appraise any difficulty they have been facing in their villages. Getting this opportunity, some of the villagers appraised the harassments of Nasaka against the Rohingya community. This made Nasaka very angry and tried to take revenge on the villagers whenever they got a chance. As a result, they arrested 20 villagers while going to forest for firewood collection and brought to the Nasaka headquarters where they were detained. After that they asked the arrestees to come back the said parliament members from Rangoon to release them. The parliament members are assaulted by them.

The arrestees are not fed from the camp and the relatives of the victims have to pay Kyat 2,000 per head everyday for their food, moreover, they paid extra Kyat 20,000 per each for excluding from torture.

On January 24, a  group of Nsaka from Nari Bill out-post camp went to the house of Mohamed Sidique (60), son of Oli Ahmed, hailed from Nari Bill west village of Maungdaw Township and took away 100 bamboos from his house without giving any allegation. The current value is about Kyat 40,000 per 100 bamboos. He bought it from Bawli Bazar for his house’s renovation and had already paid Kyat 3,000 tax to the concerned authority. He has not committed any fault. The Nasaka is doing against the Rohingya community as they like because there is no action against the culprits, but they are rewarded.

So far, the Nasaka and army are taking forced labor from villagers and force them--- to carry water for their kitchen, collect firewood from nearby forest, clean their latrines, grow paddy and vegetables in their compound, build camp and renovate the houses in the camp and to cut bamboos from the forest, etc. They also force the villagers to give night sentry at their own village. It makes them very difficult to the villagers.

If a villager wants to go from one place to another, he/she will pay Kyat 500 to the Nasaka whether it has documents or not from the concerned authority.  

Since January 21, the Nasaka personnel of Nasaka area No.6 of Maungdaw Township have been trying to arrest Maulana Ismail (40), hailed from Paung Zaar village of Maungdaw Township as he had appraised the Nasaka’s harassments in the said meeting which was held on January 12. The Nasaka is moreover trying to arrest other villagers who gave complaints against the Nasaka in the meeting which was held by the parliament members in Maungdaw north.  

President Thein Sein has introduced a series of political and economic reforms. He has announced cease-fires with armed ethnic minorities that have been fighting the government for decades. Many groups have reached a truce with the government, while others are in negotiations. He has also relieved restrictions on the media, and a significant number of political prisoners were released in recent months.
We believe that the government only wants in order to get recognition from the international community by showing they are working towards peace in the country. The main thing the government needs to change is the 2008 constitution because the military has able to take all the main positions in the government. It is also required to release all political prisoners, freedom of the press and freedom of movement.

Last year, the USDP members and Nasaka Director gave assurance on stopping harassments against the Rohingya community in north Arakan. But, so far, there are so many forced labors, restriction of movements, restriction of marriage and arbitrary extortion. On one side they have a cease-fire, while on the other side there is brutality practiced against minorities.

Nasaka has now resorted to medieval (AD 1100-1500) forms of harassments against the Rohingya community. The bigger question now is whether the ongoing trend of reform can bring a durable peace and stability to the country.

Tropical diseases spread in Rohingya refugee camp

Ukhiya, Bangladesh: Tropical diseases -- chicken pox, pneumonia and measles-- have spread inside Kutuplong makeshift (unregistered) camp and Lada camp recently, said a refugee elder from the Kutupalong makeshift camp.

Many children have fallen ill with various diseases and illnesses such as chickenpox measles and fever
”Many refugee children including some woman have been suffering from chicken pox and measles since middle of January 2012. The affected children are taken to the clinic of Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) where doctor provided medicine to refugees.”

“Mostly the refugee children under five to seven years old are suffering with these diseases.”

The Kutupalong makeshift camp is situated on the hills and open field where cool air waves cross the camps where the shacks of the refugees are made with plastics, bushes and branches. The refugees are suffering cool as they have no warm cloth to protect the cool waves. The refugee children are now suffering with pneumonia, cold and etc., said a refugee health worker from the camp.

A refugee kid with skin diseases  in the camp

Similarly, over 12,000 undocumented refugees live in the Leda (unregistered) camp is also facing topical diseases recently, said an aide who works in the Muslim Aids.

Over 40,000 Rohingya refugees live in Kutupalong makeshift and more than 12000 refugees in Lada camp, without recognizing from UNHCR or Bangladeshi authorities.

The refugees are working with their own styles to survive their live but some time the authority and local people bar to them to go for work, said an aide member of NGO form border.