Daily Times

The Rohingya people are a distinct Muslim ethnic group with 1.1 million populations, mainly living in the northwestern part of the Arakan (Rakhine) state in Myanmar (also known as Burma) bordering Bangladesh. They came to Myanmar generations ago. Unlike the Buddhist community, they speak a language similar to the Bengali dialect of Chittagong in Bangladesh. Though the political and economic relationships among the two countries have been strengthened since the 1990s, the ties between Myanmar and Bangladesh have often been disrupted by the Rohingya issue. Rohingya’s are not recognised as citizens of Myanmar and the Ne Win government officially denied their citizenship in 1974, they face persecution in the majority Buddhist country, where many live in crowded camps.

For decades, ethnic tensions have simmered in Rakhine state, with frequent eruptions of violence. Amid the ensuing violence, thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh and government troops expanded their presence in Rakhine state. It is repeatedly reported by human rights groups that the Myanmar government was seeking to rid the country of its Muslim minority, but the government denies the charge. Last month, Myanmar further increased the number of troops in Rakhine when seven Buddhists were found hacked to death. The buildup of troops prompted warnings of a fresh wave of violence. The most recent violence is seen as a major escalation not only because of the scale, but also because of the involvement of a new Rohingya militant group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. It is reported that 400 people have been killed in recent violence. The UN says 123,000 people have fled to Bangladesh. Those who have made it to the border have walked for days, hiding in jungles and crossing mountains and rivers. Many are sick and some have bullet wounds.

More than 30,000 Rohingya are estimated to have sought shelter in the refugee camps of Kutupalong and Nayapara in Bangladesh, which are now believed to be full. Many others are living in makeshift sites and local villages. An unknown number could still be stranded in a narrow strip of no man’s land that separates the two countries, where access to aid is limited. Around 400,000 stateless Rohingya people are thought to be trapped in conflict zones. Rohingya refugees have spoken of massacres in villages, where they say soldiers raided and burned their homes. Aid agencies have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis in overstretched border camps and of the dangers facing Rohingya people trapped in conflict zones.

The Rohingya refugees numbered between 1.5 to 2 million in 1991. These exoduses largely were resolved through agreements on the repatriation between the two government sand relief operations by the United Nations as well as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). However, Myanmar military government has no intention to accept those returnees as a national minority and instead classifies them as foreigners or illegal immigrants.

In 1948, upon achieving independence from Britan, Myanmar struggled with armed ethnic conflict and political instability during a prolonged period of political reformation. In 1962, a military coup produced a one-party, military state informed by socialist notions of governance, it would last for more than sixty years. During that time, the Myanmar army committed numerous human rights abuses, such as killing, raping and torturing the state’s Rohingya Muslim population. Notably, the army subjected the group to mass expulsions in 1977 and 1992, creating what has been widely viewed as a chronic refugee crisis in neighboring Bangladesh. Two years later, many of the Rohingya were forced to return to Myanmar; instances of excessive force by the Bangladeshi security forces and the Myanmar troops (receiving the Rohingya) resulted in some deaths. Those Rohingya who returned were granted limited rights to movement and employment. Thousands remain displaced today, surviving on international humanitarian aid while continuing to endure brutal repression by state border guards.

Such repression includes forced conscription to perform labor, arbitrary detention, beatings, and other mistreatment. The human rights and humanitarian condition of the Rohingya is further exasperated by their official statelessness. The government has also restricted their rights to marry, own property, and move freely, rights guaranteed to non-citizens as well as citizens under international law. Human rights violations continue until present day notwithstanding a nominally civilian Myanmar government ushered in by popular elections in March 2011.

Both private and state actors continue to persecute the Rohingya Muslims even with the country’s current democratic transition. International human rights advocates and political leaders have called for accountability, prompting several related visits by United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Tomas Ojea Quintana. In June 2012, sectarian violence erupted. Initially, the state security forces refused to protect the Rohingya at critical moments, resulting in scores of deaths and some 100,000 people displaced.

The security forces then participated in the persecution, killing, beating and arresting the Rohingya. Myanmar officials also obstructed humanitarian access, further compounding the Rohingya suffering. During the conflict, state media emboldened discrimination by publishing inaccurate, incendiary, anti-Rohingya accounts of the violence. Following the violent outbreak, Myanmar President Thein Sein recommended the mass expulsion of the Rohingya to third countries or UNHCR camps, demonstrating the lack of official accountability and refusal to acknowledge anti-Rohingya persecution. Moreover, Myanmar officials and security forces responsible for the human rights violations were never subject to prosecution. Shortly thereafter, in August 2012, Quintana called for the formation of a ‘truth commission’ to examine Myanmar’s human rights abuses and described it as “crucial for democratic transition and national reconciliation”. It may be significant to note that whereby tribunals and international courts focus on criminal justice, truth commissions represent regional interventions and a compromise between former abusers and their victims, who settle for the limited satisfaction of the truth, rather than receive actual redress through punishment.

Truth commissions are preferred where political stability is fragile and prosecution of criminal perpetrators may undermine peace. In addition to the truth commission, Quintana also urged the Myanmar government to ease restrictions on freedom of movement particularly in the camps for displaced Rohingya. While Myanmar President Thein Sein did not establish a truth commission, he appointed a National Human Rights Commission in September 2011. The Commission, which did not include a single Rohingya representative on the panel, was responsible for receiving and investigating human rights complaints.

Following outbreaks of violence, Myanmar President Thein Sein recommended the mass expulsion of the Rohingya to other countries or UNHCR camps. This demonstrates the lack of official accountability and refusal to acknowledge anti-Rohingya persecution

It was tasked with investigating the June outbreak of violence, and found no government abuses, evidencing an absence of impartiality. It also concluded that all humanitarian needs were being met, while ignoring issues surrounding Rohingya citizenship and persecution. Commentators have observed that the commission’s lack of independence from the government violates The Paris Principles, governing how national human rights commissions should function. As such, perhaps it should strike no one as surprising that communal violence against the Rohingya continues to escalate.

The United Nations has long characterised the Rohingya Muslims as one of the world’s most persecuted minorities. By way of background, anti-Rohingya and anti-Muslim sentiment has long tainted the state’s political and social spheres. More recently, escalating violence has not only exasperated the humanitarian crises confronting the Rohingya Muslims, but also threatened to undermine the Myanmar transition from one-party military rule to democratic governance. With millions expended in humanitarian aid, the UN must address the conflict’s underlying causes by averting further human rights violations in Myanmar, enhancing regional stability and global security with conferring citizenship upon Rohingya Muslims with protection and promotion of freedom of their religion.

The writer is a PhD in Political Science and a civil servant based in Islamabad. He can be reached at zafarkhansafdar@yahoo.com

Published in Daily Times, September 8^th 2017.