Inside The Rohingyas

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Authors Simonet-Keller, Eugenie Marie-Therese Alizee

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INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING

BY

EUGENIE MARIE-THERESE ALIZEE SIMONET-KELLER

______

A Thesis Submitted to The Honors College

In Partial Fulfillment of the Bachelors degree With Honors in

Criminal Justice

THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

M A Y 2 0 1 9

Approved by:

______

Dr. Alex Braithwaite Department of School of Government & Public Policy

INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 2

Abstract

The thesis presented is going to examine the relationship between the Burmese

(Buddhists) and the Rohingya (Muslims) in the Republic of , and the ethnic cleansing against them. The questions that will be answered through this thesis are: What factors explain the targeting of the Rohingya population by Myanmar's government, and to what extent can we hold Suu Kyi and/or the broader international community responsible for these clearance operations? In order to answer to these questions, the thesis will provide background information about the Republic of Myanmar and its evolution but also about the Rohingya and their history within the country. The second part will tackle the violations imposed on the

Rohingya community by the government. The third part will discuss the military influence on the killings of the Rohingyas. The fourth part of this thesis will develop the impact of Aung San Suu

Kyi and her family on the Republic of Myanmar and its government. Within this part will be discussed the hopes and expectations about that Burmese and Rohingyas citizens have, as well as those of the other countries. To finish, the fifth part of this thesis will talk about the and other international organizations and the violations against the Rohingya’s community.

Keywords: Rohingyas, Burmese, ethnic cleansing, strategic displacement, , and

Aung San Suu Kyi

INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 3

Introduction

Inside the Rohingyas Ethnic Cleansing

As of 2010, millions of civilians in over fifty countries have been recorded as victims of massive strategic displacement (Steele, 2011). This thesis will demonstrate how the Rohingyas are being subject to ethnic cleansing because of a strategic displacement ordered by the military.

They are subject to this cleansing because they are one of the only ethnicities in Myanmar who, with full power and rights, could be a threat to the Buddhists. By stripping them of their rights and pushing them to one part of the country, the Burmese (Buddhists) have control over the

Rohingyas (Muslims). It is a strategy that takes time to be put in place. As described by Abbey

Steele, “armed groups displace strategically when they attempt to gain control over a territory”

(2011). The Burmese are trying to gain power to avoid any reprisals from the Rohingyas.

Moreover, the democratic government, Prime Minister Aung San Suu Kyi, and the international community can be held responsible for this . The laws in place in

Myanmar have not changed, as will be described in the following parts. The government has laws that limit the Rohingyas to have a certain number of children, jobs or even to get married.

As long as these laws are in place, no Rohingyas can hope for a better future. Moreover, neighboring countries are closing their borders and no help is being sent. Also, no international laws are being put in place in order to help the Rohingyas. Organizations and leaders are failing the Rohingyas. No sanctions have been put in place so far, the international community should impose sanctions to Myanmar because Myanmar’s leaders have not been able to stop this ethnic cleansing on its own. For instance, they should demilitarize Myanmar like they did to Germany after World War I, so without a military other countries will be able to enter Myanmar and help the Rohingyas. Moreover, the Rohingyas will not have to be scared about an ethnic cleansing INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 4 because nobody within the country will have ways to defend themselves or attack others. Aung

San Suu Kyi should also be stripped of her Nobel Peace Prize because she has not yet taken any actions to stop this conflict and she is also denying any ethnic cleansing.

It is important for the reader to keep this information in mind while reading the thesis because every detail explained will help answer the main questions mentioned above. For instance, the Rohingyas are currently living under the most military controlled part of Myanmar.

This means that the military controls the borders and that the government cannot directly intervene in this area. Another important aspect to note is that fact that the Rohingyas previously occupied important political positions in the government, which shows that the citizens of

Myanmar were able to overcome their conflicts and differences at some point in the Myanmar history. Unfortunately, this situation did not last. The history of the Rohingyas in Myanmar is a puzzle that needs to be rebuilt in order to understand why the Buddhists are doing this ethnic cleansing. The reader will also have to bear in mind that there are not any known answers to these thesis questions. The situation in Myanmar is complex when thoroughly analyzed into details.

Geographical location of Myanmar and ethnicities within the country

The Republic of the Union of Myanmar is located in . There are a few main border countries such as , , and . Myanmar is also an interresting country because there are 135 ethnic groups that are divided into multiple main groups: Bamar,

Shan, Karen, Rakhine, Mon, and other groups (The World Factbook, n.d.). This means that

Myanmar is an open country with many ethnicities, yet the government is only targeting the

Rohingya (the Rakhine ). The act of targeting only the Rohingyas leads to uncertainty about the reasons why the Muslims are the only group targeted. Most of the INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 5 ethnicities arrived at the same time as the Rohingyas and they have different besides

Buddhism, but they are not persecuted. This question will be answered through this thesis and the reader will also understand that the conflicts between the Buddhists and Muslims started centuries ago, but what really triggered this ethnic cleansing was the gang and murder of a

Buddhist girl by the Muslims in 2016.

Overall facts about the Rohingya, the discrimination and persecution against their community

As briefly mentioned above, the Rohingyas have been present in the Republic of Myanmar since the 7th century. They arrived in what is today Myanmar, thanks to commerce trades occurring in . They tried to convert the Buddhists, already present, to become Muslims.

They also married women from other ethnicities. Unfortunately, there is not any concrete historical proof that the Muslims were present in Myanmar until the 1430s where artifacts of money were found. The question of when the Rohingyas first appeared in the country is also a reason of why the Burmese (Buddhists) are at war against the Rohingyas (Muslims). Buddhists have been trying to push the Rohingyas away from Myanmar for decades, but they were unsuccessful until the military took over the government thanks to a coup d’état organized by

General in 1962. With this military in power, laws were created stating that the

Rohingyas needed permission to get married and also that the military was allowed to take over some of the lands from Rohingyas. This action of taking the lands limited the Rohingyas economy because they were mainly living off agriculture. This was the beginning of a certain ethnic cleansing.

INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 6

Definition of a genocide, ethnic cleansing and strategic displacement

Before diving into this topic further, it is important to understand the three concepts of genocide, ethnic cleansing and strategic displacement. Genocide means that there is a deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group (Merriam-

Webster, 2019). Ethnic cleansing means that there is an attempt to create ethnically homogeneous areas, thanks to deportation or force displacement of people from a particular ethnic group (Andreopoulos, 2019). Strategic displacement was a term created by Steele (2011), who studies Columbia and the country’s history. In her study she develops the fact that an armed group strategically displaces another group, most of the time an unarmed group, in order to attempt to or gain control over a territory (Steele, 2011). This is exactly what the Burmese are doing with the Rohingyas, and this will be developed through the thesis.

Background

Evolution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (Burma) and its ethnic diversity

On the World Map, n.d. INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 7

The Republic of the Union of Myanmar is also known as Burma and is located in southeast Asia. The country is bordered by a few different countries. There are India and

Bangladesh to the West of Myanmar, then Thailand and Laos to the East and China that is located to the north and expands to the northeast of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.

Myanmar also has a coastline along the Bay of and the .

The Republic of Myanmar started to see its first city, Arakan, emerge during the second century BC. This city was founded by the Pyu who were speaking Tibeto-Burman at the time.

The Pyu are the earliest known inhabitants from Myanmar (Moore, 2007). Due to its close proximity to India, the trade relationship between the two countries brought to

Myanmar (Myint, 2006). Another major change experienced by Myanmar happened during the

9th century. The helped in the development of one of the several competing city- states named Pagan (Lieberman, 2003). The proximity from the countries listed above and the massive immigration started to take place during the 12th century.

World news, 2013

INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 8

These immigration waves brought to the Republic multiple ethnicities, religions and languages. The official language of the Myanmar is Burmese. The became the main language when the Pagan Empire and the Khmer Empire were the most powerful empires in Myanmar (Maung, 1967). However, each region kept their own languages. There are Kachin,

Kayah, Karen, Chin, Mon, Rakhine, and the Shan. As stated earlier there are multiple ethnicities:

Bamar (68%), Shan (9%), Karen (7%), Mon (2%) and others (10%) (The World Factbook, n.d.).

Maps of the World, n.d.

The Republic of Myanmar was also

under British reign from 1824 to 1948,

which is when Myanmar became

independent. The British saw an interest in

Myanmar because they wanted to conquer

the country to expand India. The British-

Indians fought for their independence

during three wars. The first Anglo-Burmese

war took place from 1824 to 1826, the

second war from 1852 to 1853 and the third

war was in 1885 (Beck, 2007). The

Burmese people and their culture were

disrespected by the British, so the Buddhist

monks started the independence movement

(Bechert, 1984). For instance, “U Wisara

was imprisoned several times for his public INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 9 speeches and died in jail in 1929 after 166 days of a hunger strike. His prison sentences included terms of hard labor, and he was also defrocked” (Zaw, 2018). After its independence in 1948, the

Republic of the Union of Myanmar went from being a country ruled by military and then by democracy. The main ethnicity that this thesis will be focusing on through all of these changes is the .

Place of the Rohingya people and their representatives in the history of the Republic of the

Union of Myanmar.

Ever since the people from Myanmar can remember there has always been a conflict with the Rohingya about their part in the government and in the past of the country. Rohingya people are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group who live in . As of 2017 there are on average

400,000 Rohingya in Myanmar (Mahmud, 2017). However, there were over one million stateless

Rohingya before the attacks between the Buddhists and the Muslims in 2016 (Mahmood, Wroe,

Fuller & Leaning, 2017).

The first Rohingyas seemed to have been present in Burma since the 7th century. They settled in Myanmar thanks to the trade that occurred with the city of Arakan (Ibrahim, 2016).

The first people who settled in this region happened to convert Buddhists to and the traders/missionaries ended up marrying some of the women (Ibrahim, 2016), which helped the

Muslim population increase and to have a bigger impact within the country. However, there is a conflict between the Buddhists and the Muslims about when the first Rohingyas settled in

Rakhine. Some Muslims claim that their ancestors were present before the 1st century and the

Buddhists claim that there is no historical trace to prove it (Ibrahim, 2016). As written in book

The Rohingyas Inside Myanmar’s Genocide, the Buddhists strongly believed that these stories are just myths and that Muslims came later from Bangladesh (Ibrahim, 2016). There has been a INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 10 historical trace of the Muslims around the 1430s in the Kingdom of , when the Muslims helped the regain control of his territory (Ibrahim, 2016). In compensation, the first was built. During the 17th century, the Muslims were persecuted by the Portuguese pirates who showed a hatred toward them (Abdul Bari, 2018). They were sold as slaves to priests who tried to convert them to Christianity (Abdul Bari, 2018). The ones who were not sold were pushed into the city limits of Arakan, which increased the number of Muslims within the city

(Abdul Bari, 2018). By the end of the 17th century going into the beginning of the 18th century tensions decreased, and Muslims were being accepted. For instance, coins and medallions inscribed with the Muslim Kalimah were found by historians today (Abdul Bari, 2018).

Moreover, the Muslims started to thrive in the agriculture business.

The Muslims also took part in the political life of the country. For instance, there were at least three prime ministers who were Muslim: Magan Thakur, Sayyid Musa, and Nabaraj Majlis.

There were also three defense ministers named Burhanuddin, Ashraf Khan and Bara Thakur.

Moreover, two ministers were Muslim: Sayyid Muhammad and Srimanta Sulaiman (Abdul Bari,

2018). Furthermore, some Muslims were also involved in the justice life of the country and some were appointed judges. There were also poets and Sufi. A Sufi is a Muslim mystic (Merriam-

Webster, 2019). During the Anglo-Burmese war the Muslim population experienced an increase in the social area thanks to an increase in the Muslim population. For instance, there were around

58, 255 Muslims in Akyab District in 1872 and by 1911 there were around 178,647 Muslims

(Chan, 2005). The increase happened because of the colonialization. The Anglo-Indians were offering work that attracted the people from Bengal (Myint-U, 2006). This is why there is an issue between the Buddhist historians and the Muslim historians today, because both think that the Muslims arrived at a different time. The Buddhist historians believe that they arrived during INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 11 the 19th century, and the Muslims believe that they arrived during the 7th century. Unfortunately, another conflict emerged between the Buddhist and Muslims when the Japanese invaded

Myanmar and the British retracted during World War II. The Buddhists started a fight against the

Muslims which forced them to leave the region and to move toward Bengal and the North of

Arakan. This also led to retaliation from the Muslims against the Buddhists. They tried to push away from the South of Arakan (Christie, 1998).

The slow fall into disgrace of the Rohingya people.

At the end of these conflicts the Burmese had issues with the people who supported the

English. These people were Muslim. But General Aung San, who founded the Burmese armed forces and also led the country to its independence, declared that everybody who lives within

Burma’s borders should be considered as equal citizens (Abdul Bari, 2018). Unfortunately, he was assassinated in 1947. The Rohingya were seen as being an indigenous ethnic group during the democratic government in the 1950s (Abdul Bari, 2018). But unfortunately, after the 1962 military coup the living situation of the Rohingya worsened (Abdul Bari, 2018). During this period the Muslim population had been facing numerous arrests, detentions, extortions, restrictions of movements, discrimination in education and employment, and also confiscation on property and forced labor (Abdul Bari, 2018). All of these incidents were followed by the government taking over private Rohingya businesses and long civil wars between the Buddhists and the Muslims. The radio shows in the were also terminated which meant that Muslims were losing more and more of a representation and a voice (Abdul Bari, 2018).

These actions fit the descriptions of strategic displacement developed by Abbey Steele. For instance, “displacement is a massive feature of civil war violence” (Steele, 2011). They are characterized by an “imbalance of resources between strong militaries and allied militias and INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 12 weak insurgents, leading insurgents to avoid military confrontations with the state” (Steele,

2011). Based on this definition the insurgents are the Rohingyas and the strong military is the

Burmese. As stated earlier the Burmese are stripping the Rohingyas from any rights. Thus, the

Rohingyas do not have any ways of retaliating.

The actions put in place by the government in order to deny the nationality and any status to the Rohingya did not stop at the actions cited above. The government did not recognize the

Rohingya as citizens in the 1947 constitution. Moreover, the military started an operation on the

6th of February 1978 (Abdul Bari, 2018). This campaign was named Nagamin, or the Dragon

King, and because of this campaign over 250,000 Rohingya sought refuge in Bangladesh (Abdul

Bari, 2018). After this episode, the United Nations reached an agreement with Burma and

Bangladesh (Abdul Bari, 2018). Thus, some Rohingya were sent back to Rakhine. However, the

Burma government did not follow the agreement, and in 1982 the Burma Law was implemented. This declared the Rohingya stateless (Abdul Bari, 2018).

Korybko, 2017

INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 13

The current conflict between the Buddhists and the Rohingya was triggered, in 2012, by a and murder of a Rakhine Buddhist by Rohingya Muslims, which led to the death of ten

Muslims through Buddhist retaliation (Ware & Laoutides, 2018). The rape was never proven beyond a reasonable doubt that it was committed by Muslims (Ware & Laoutides, 2018). Thus, on 8 June 2012, Muslims retaliated by burning Buddhist houses (Ware & Laoutides, 2018).

These episodes led to multiple events where the Buddhists ended up transferring the Muslims into refugee camps as illustrated with the pictures. Muslim hate was preached by Buddhist monks. One of these preachers was , a monk. His movement led to the socio- economic excommunication of Rohingyas (Ware & Laoutides, 2018). In 2016, nine Buddhist police officers were killed, based on officers from Myanmar, the armed men were from the

Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). This tragic episode forced over 80,000 Rohingyas to flee the country. In 2017, the United Nations accused Myanmar of doing an ethnic cleansing which the country denied (Ware & Laoutides, 2018).

The Daily Mail, 2017

INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 14

The violations imposed by the government on the Rohingya community

Clearance operations; violations and exactions committed against the Rohingya villages and their inhabitants.

The Burmese and the Republic of Myanmar have been accused of human rights violations but have been denying for years. The covered a large range of acts. With the passing of the 1982 Burma Citizenship Law, the Burmese people denied the citizenship of the

Rohingyas in Myanmar. For instance, they cannot travel out of northern Rakhine without an authorization, which is often denied (Head, 2009). Moreover, the Rohingyas are subject to forced labor such as a day or more of work on a government or a military project. The Muslims also lost a lot of land to the government which also decreased the amount of money they could make from agriculture (Head, 2009). The Rohingyas also have to ask for permission in order to get married and also to be intimate with one another. If the couple does not respect this rule, they are subjected to arrest. This is a way for the government to steal money from the family and to make the process of marriage approval last longer (Head, 2009). Because of this marriage clause, the

Rohingyas also agree not to have more than two children (Head, 2009).

As stated earlier in 2016 Muslims were accused of killing police officers, which led to a massive crackdown. This crackdown led to dozens of killings of Muslims and around 230

Rohingyas were arrested (Griffiths, 2016). Unfortunately, this crackdown also led to extrajudicial killings, gang , brutalities and looting (Broomfield, 2016). In November 2016, around 1,250 houses were burned down by Burmese law enforcement (Laccino, 2016). During the same month, the Burmese authorities also authorized the killing of Muslim villagers by helicopter (Holmes, 2016). However, what sparked the increase in violence and what led to the events stated above is the gang rape and murder of a young Buddhist woman. INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 15

The spark that started the fire against the Rohingya people.

As stated above the spark that started this hatred and conflict against the Rohingya population did not happened over night. There has been constant tension between the Buddhists and the Muslims that dates back to the 17th century. The Buddhists saw this rape and murder as being an act of war and wanted revenge. The Buddhists used any opportunities to blame the

Muslims, and the Muslims were retaliating as well. These conflicts have formed a never-ending circle. An initial action happens and then the other group retaliates. For instance, in the case of the gang rape and murder of the Buddhist woman, the Muslims were targeted and killed.

Unfortunately, this tragedy did not stop there. The Muslims who claimed that they did not have anything to do with this event and were wrongfully accused and killed, decided to retaliate as well. All of these attacks on Muslims forced the Rohingyas to flee Myanmar to the neighboring countries.

The mass exodus of thousands of Rohingyas

The Nation, 2017 INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 16

The mass exodus of Rohingya did not happen overnight. In fact, in 1978, after the King

Dragon disaster, around 200,000 Rohingyas fled the country to Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.

During the 20th century the attacks from the Burmese against the Muslims forced the Muslims to flee the country to Bangladesh and other neighboring countries. By 2017 the crackdown led to over 92,000 displaced, and 65,000 migrated to Bangladesh while 23,000 migrated within

Myanmar to another part of the country (BBC, 2017). Bangladesh also gives the statistics that

232,000 Rohingya migrants were already in the (BBC, 2017). India also shared the number of 40,000 Rohingyas within the country who migrated there because of previous and current attacks (Das & Miglani, 2017). The United Nations states that they are a total of 727,000

Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh (2018). As of the 16 March 2018, the United

Nations made a call for help in order to raise money because the number of Rohingya refugees, either outside of Myanmar or within the country, rose up to 1.3 million people (2018). Part of this raise had to do with the involvement of the Burmese military.

The Military influence on the killings of the Rohingyas.

The different political parties and their evolution in the Republic of the Union of

Myanmar.

The two major and main political parties of Myanmar today are the National League for

Democracy and the Union Solidarity and Development Party. But, before the country was able to be under a Democracy, multiple parties were at the head of the country. In 1948, the country became independent under the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League (AFPFL) (Nations

Encyclopedia, 2019). This party was the main political party from 1945 to 1958, and was governed by Aung San, who is Aung San Suu Kyi’s father, from 1945 to 1947. The party was then led by from 1947 to 1958 (Nations Encyclopedia, 2019). Two other parties present INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 17 during this period were the White Flags and the Red Flags. Both of these parties were communists, but they were defeated by the government in 1975 and 1962 respectively (Nations

Encyclopedia, 2019).

In 1962, the Military socialist era began. A coup d’état was led by General Ne Win, who established a socialist military government (Ware & Laoutides, 2018). The military took over the private business and installed an autarky. An autarky is a policy to establish a self-sufficient and independent national economy (Merriam-Webster, 2019). The government exerted a policy of no protest. They constantly shut down any demonstrations that were put in place to denounce the government (Wikipedia, 2019). For instance, in 1988 a democratic protest called 8888 Uprising happened (Wikipedia, 2019). Law enforcement killed over thousands of demonstrators and

General Saw Maung staged a coup d’état to form the State Law and Order Restauration Council

(SLORC) (Wikipedia, 2019). In May 1990, for the first time, the government held free election and that is when the party of Aung San Suu Kyi won with the National League for Democracy

(NLD). However, the military did not recognize the democratic power and refused to cede power

(Ibrahim, 2016). In 2011, the military government was finally revoked.

In 2010, elections were held with 40 parties allowed to participate. The NLD decided not to participate because of the incident in the 1990 elections (Ibrahim, 2016). The Union Solidarity and Development Party won this election. In 2015, another election was held and the NLD finally won and took over the power and the government (Ibrahim, 2015).

The influence of the military over the political parties.

The military has long influenced Myanmar. As stated in the previous part there has been a military regime (dictatorship) in the Republic of Myanmar since 1962. Because of this military INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 18 socialist era, the rules were made to adapt to a dictatorship type government. For instance, no protests were allowed. After the switch to a democracy, the military still kept a certain grip on the politic aspect of the country. The military still governs three ministries, which are the home affairs, defense affairs and border affairs (Brady, 2013). This means that the democratic party does not have full control over the decisions that need to be made about the defense of Myanmar.

Moreover, the military is also strongly present in Northern Rakhine, which is where most of the

Rohingya live or are trying to flee to other neighboring countries from in order to escape the ethnic cleansing taking place in Myanmar. Due to this extended control from the military in northern Rakhine, this means that Suu Kyi’s government cannot order the military to cease their actions of ethnic cleansing, because the military is able to overrule her laws and attempted actions.

Suu Kyi Family

Influence of the Suu Kyi family over the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.

The Suu Kyi family had a strong impact and influence on the Republic of Myanmar. It started with Aung San who is Aung San Suu Kyi’s father. Aung San was born February 13, 1915 and died July 19, 1947. He was a Burmese nationalist leader and he led to the independence of

Burma against the British (Britannica, 2019). Before he became a figure of independence, Aung

San became the secretary of the students’ union at Rangoon University (Britannica, 2019). He also led the students’ strike of February 1938 (Britannica, 2019). Aung San also worked for the nationalist Dobama Asiayone which means “We-Burmans Associations”, and for which he became the secretary general in 1939 (Britannica, 2019). However, Aung San experienced some issues with the alliance made with the Japanese during World War II. Thus, in 1945, he switched his alliance and decided to join the Allied cause (Britannica, 2019). In 1944, General Aung San INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 19 used the help from the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League (AFPFL) to become deputy chairman of Burma’s Executive Council late in the 1946 (Britannica, 2019). Unfortunately, after his encounter with the English Prime Minister, General Aung San was executed in the council chamber (Britannica, 2019). General Aung San is a member of Burman history. He is also respected because of his fight for the independence of Burma during his life. General Aung San also had a daughter in 1945 named Aung San Suu Kyi, who became the prime minister of

Burma, and he was married to a woman named Khin Kyi, who became the first Ambassador of

Burma in India.

Khin Kyi was a Burmese politician and diplomat. She was a teacher at the national School in

Rangoon before she became a nurse. Aung Sun and she met in 1942 when General Aung Sun was getting treated for injuries that he had procured the Burma Campaign. She then served as a member of the parliament the first year of post-independence and in 1953 she was appointed as

Burma’s first Minister of Social Welfare (Wikipedia, 2019). In 1960 she was appointed as

Burma’s Ambassador to India and then she was the first woman in India to serve as the head of a diplomatic mission (Wikipedia, 2019). Her daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi, created the Daw Khin

Kyi foundation in her honor. The foundation was created in 2012 with a purpose of promoting

“health, education and living standards of the people of the country, focusing its attention especially on the needs of Burma’s least developed areas” (Daw Khin Kyi Foundation). This organization is supposed to promote the main values of Khin Kyi represented.

Aung San Suu Kyi, also known as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was born June 19, 1945 at

Rangoon in Burma. She is currently the equivalent of a Prime Minister for the Republic of

Myanmar. She is also the daughter of Aung San, who was a national hero for the independence of Burma in 1948. Aung San Suu Kyi is the figure of democracy in Myanmar, and she also won INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 20 the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 (Britannica, 2019). She left to go to the where she met her husband and had her two children with him. However, she had to return to

Burma in 1988 to help her mother who was dying at the time (Britannica, 2019). During her trip back to Burma, she started seeing and realizing the impact that the military have on the country and she decided to start a non-violent protest for democracy and human rights (Britannica, 2019).

Because of this protest, she was arrested and placed under house arrest in 1989 (Britannica,

2019). The military offered to release her under the condition of leaving the country, but she refused. She was then offered the Nobel Peace Prize but was not able to accept it herself, so her son went to the ceremony for her (Britannica, 2019). She was finally freed in 1995 and continued with the democratic protest. “In 1998, she announced the formation of a representative committee that she declared was the country’s legitimate ruling parliament” (Britannica, 2019).

From 2002 to 2010, Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest again (Britannica, 2019). Numerous people think that this was a way for the military government to prevent her from participating in the elections (Britannica, 2019). In 2011, Suu Kyi was able to meet other country representatives and to travel within the country (Britannica, 2019). In April, Suu Kyi was sworn into office and represented the NLD (Britannica, 2019). In 2015, Suu Kyi and her party fought for openly contested election (Britannica, 2019). She also became Prime Minister, which gave her more power than the President himself (Britannica, 2019).

Hope and genocide.

Aung San Suu Kyi received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, while she was under house arrest.

The reason she received the prize was for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights (The Nobel Prize, 2019). Thanks to this prize people had high hopes for the country of

Myanmar. People saw this action as being an opportunity to install democracy in the country, but INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 21 unfortunately Suu Kyi stayed under house arrest for another 15 years (The Nobel Prize, 2019).

Suu Kyi also used her position as prime minister and as a Peace Prize receiver to create a foundation to honor her mom and also to help minorities and the different ethnicities in

Myanmar.

Unfortunately, this position and holding a Nobel Peace Prize is putting a large amount of pressure on Suu Kyi and the citizens of Myanmar. At the same time, the citizens and governments from other countries also have these high expectations of Suu Kyi. During her speech for the national assembly that took place in Nay Pyi Taw, Aung San Suu Kyi explained that people are expecting her and her government to break the culture and way of thinking that have been taking place since decades overnight (Al Jazeera, 2017). Stopping the differences between the Burmese and the Rohingya was not something that could be done in 18 months (Al

Jazeera, 2017). However, after this speech there were doubts that she was going to condemn the ethnic cleansing that is currently taking place in her country, even though she stated that she and

Myanmar condemn all human rights violations (Al Jazeera, 2017).

Aung San Suu Kyi’s failures in the management of the abuses undergone by the Rohingyas.

Suu Kyi has not been vocal about the Rohingya situation in her country. She officially denied that Muslims are undergoing an ethnic cleansing (Brady, 2013). She states that Myanmar has long been under a military/dictatorship regime. People have not learned how to trust one another

(Brady, 2013). Also, developed in an article from BBC in 2018 is the fact that Myanmar is a country that was/is dominated by military forces. As stated previously, the military has always had a big impact on the government and the way of living in Myanmar. Moreover, the country is mainly influence by Buddhists, who give hate speeches about the Rohingyas on a constant basis.

During this genocide there seems to be no limits. For instance, in an article written in 2013 by INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 22

Brendan Brady, one man was killed by his longtime Buddhist friend and neighbor, whom, before he executed his neighbor, told him and his family that he is doing this to fight for his people

(Brady, 2013). Unfortunately, the military still governs three ministries in the Republic of

Myanmar. These three ministries are home affairs, and defense and border affairs (Brady, 2013).

Because the military has this control, Suu Kyi is experiencing issues in northern Rakhine. She cannot change the laws and deal with the issues of the Rohingya the way she wants (Brady,

2013). Moreover, most of the citizens express so much hate against the Rohingyas that Suu Kyi also needs to take into consideration her citizens if she does not want to experience retaliation from them (Brady, 2013).

What seems to be a failure on the side of the Ms. Suu Kyi is the fact that she does not officially address with the press the issue of genocide happening in her country. She keeps denying any ethnic cleansing. For instance, during the attack against the Rohingyas when some of them were accused of killing police officers, which led to 100 deaths, Ms. Suu Kyi claimed that the military was acting while following the “rule of law” (BBC, 2018). In an interview in

2016, she acknowledged that there were some issues within Myanmar with the Muslims, but she thinks that “ethnic cleansing” is too strong of a term to be used (BBC, 2018). She also did not attend the UN national assembly in New York where the issue of the genocide of the Rohingyas was on the agenda. Aung San Suu Kyi seemed to be stocked in the middle of two situations. She seems to want to take actions, but she also seems to be controlled indirectly by the military government which minimizes her powers over the situation.

INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 23

The United Nations and the human rights violations against the Rohingya community

Immigration to neighboring countries

As stated previously, the Rohingyas are categorized as the most persecuted ethnicity in the world. The conflicts between the Buddhists and the Muslims forced the Rohingyas to flee the country in order to seek protection and peace in other countries. As of August 2017, over

700,000 Rohingya refugees fled to Bangladesh (Médecins sans frontiers, 2017). Some refugees also went to the United Sates. As written in an article from Rebecca Holland in 2018, Chicago and Milwaukee are the two places that have the biggest Rohingya population because of the crisis that started in 2016. There are around 400 families in Chicago and 600 in Milwaukee

(Holland, 2018). Other refugees fled to , but the exact number has not yet been shared with the public. Rohingya have also sought refuge in . Around 1,250 refugees are in

Australian camps (, 2017). One last country affected by the Rohingya migration is

India. It is evident that a worldwide entity needs to address this situations by passing laws, giving aid or sending military troops.

International laws concerning the protection of minorities and genocide

Based out of the United Nations Office, there are laws that were put in place in order to condemn genocide and in order to help victims of genocide. These laws apply to any countries worldwide. First, the United Nations defined genocide as a crime under (United

Nations). The Article II also states that a genocide means that a country is: killing members of a group, causing serious bodily and mental harm to the people of this group, deliberately inflicting life calculated physical destruction, imposing measures that intend to prevent births within the group, and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group (United Nations). INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 24

Myanmar is denying any genocide within its country borders, but based on the definition by the

United Nations, the Rohingyas are facing a genocide.

Another law that was drafted in 1951 is the United Nations High Commissioner for

Refugees. With this law, countries have to offer help to refugees who seek it. Unfortunately, the international laws are failing the Rohingyas, as written by Simiran Nayak in 2017. The countries surrounding Myanmar, and who did not sign the UN Refugee convention and its 1967 Protocol, are starting to refuse to help the Rohingyas. For instance, India is deporting 40,000 illegal

Rohingyas back to Myanmar, Bangladesh is closing its borders, and China expressed its support to Buddhists in Myanmar (Nayak, 2017). Australia has also spoke on the issue of the Rohingyas who migrated to the country. Peter Dutton, who is the immigration minister of Australia, denied the allegations that the country is offering $25,000 to any Rohingyas who will accept to go back to Myanmar (The Guardian, 2017). Moreover, any countries that are part of Associations of

Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) cannot directly intervene in an issue of national sovereignty

(The Guardian, 2017). Furthermore, Myanmar has such a strong military force which limits the actions any other government could take including sending military aid. Thus, all of these actions from other countries limit the reach of the United Nations.

The international organizations’ actions to hinder the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya community.

As stated earlier, there are laws that were put in place by the United Nations to help countries or victims of genocide. Moreover, in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the United Nations states that any person or representative of a country who commits genocide against a group of people will be judged by an international court (United

Nations). The United Nations asked for help from China and Russia to ally with the other INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 25 western countries in order to condemn the actions taken by Myanmar (Curtin, 2018).

Unfortunately, so far China and Russia have not offered to help of the Rohingyas and the United

Nations. Moreover, organizations such as UNICEF and International Rescue Committee ask for donations in order to provide food and shelter for the Rohingya children and the families.

Another organizations that helps the Rohingya is Médecins sans Frontieres. They help by providing medical assistance and treatments to the refugees. The United Nations also took the opportunity of the New York summit to talk about the Rohingya crisis. Unfortunately, Aung San

Suu Kyi, knowing that she will have to face the accusations, decided to cancel on it and to not attend. APEC and ASEAN also decided to attend the United Nations meeting in southeast Asia, but so far, no official actions have taken place.

Discussion

It is evident that the Rohingya crisis is a complicated situation. There are multiple theories that would explain this strategic displacement. The first is the history of the Muslims in

Myanmar. The Buddhists do not believe that the Muslims arrived before or at the same time as they did, so they are not entitled to claim citizenship. The second theory is that the Buddhists are protecting themselves against the Muslims. They are trying to avoid the Rohingyas taking over the government or making Islam the country’s national religion. Lastly, the Burmese are doing this strategic displacement because of the gang rape of one Buddhist girl by a group of Muslims.

All of these have been widely accepted theories as to why the Rohingyas are being targeted today.

This situation is also a national and international matter. Aung San Suu Kyi appears to be trapped in this situation and does not officially address where she stands. Furthermore, the conflicts between the Muslims and the Buddhists have been part of this country for decades, and INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 26

Aung San Suu Kyi grew up in Myanmar witnessing all of these conflicts on a daily basis. Thus, these conflicts might be normal to her, which is one explanation for her lack of action. She is also a Buddhist who has to ensure that the government and Buddhist citizens (which represent the majority of the population) do not turn against her. She cannot risk facing a military coup d’état. If the military takes over the country again, any hope for the Rohingyas to secure citizenship and/or cease this ethnic cleansing would vanish. Every government and country should take responsibility and help the Rohingya regain a status of citizenship. Taking action will also help the Rohingya to overcome this ethnic cleansing.

Moreover, the other countries, such as Australia, the and European countries are not offering an enormous amount of assistance or propositions in order to support the Rohingyas. Australia for instance offers money to refugees to send them back to their country instead of taking care of them. Also, Bangladesh is closing its borders and the United

States is sending money and aid but is not sending military forces. The idea that Aung San Suu

Kyi received a Nobel Peace Prize seems to be deterring the countries from taking action. Aung

San Suu Kyi should be held accountable by every country for these actions and this situation. For example, governments are stripping away her name from the awards she has received. However, the international community should also be held accountable for this strategic displacement.

First, the military is controlling the borders which means that military forces from other countries cannot enter the country freely. Second, Aung San Suu Kyi appears to be close minded about the idea of receiving any outside help, and she denies the ethnic cleansing in her country.

Very little has been done or offered to change this situation.

Thus, to conclude, the past of the Rohingya within the country of Myanmar and its current and reoccurring conflicts do not help integrate the Muslims into the country. INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 27

Furthermore, the attitude of the Myanmar Military and government is also impacting these conflicts. People seem to hope that the situation will go away on its own. If more people start to engage with the Rohingya crisis, government leaders will have to take actions and condemn

Aung San Suu Kyi for her lack of democratic initiatives. Moreover, most western countries are ignoring this crisis because the main goal of their governments is to promote democracy. Thus, if they reprimand Aung San Suu Kyi, the democratic regime in Myanmar may crumble and be replaced by a dictatorship regime again. One solution would be for Aung San Suu Kyi to officially address this issue on her own accord, penalize the military, and take the risk of losing popularity with her voters. Perhaps, one extreme solution would be to deny any military rights to

Myanmar due to the lack of initiatives by the Burmese government. In order to help the people already displaced the international community should offer asylum to as many refugees as they can, but mostly other countries should communicate with the Rohingyas and ask them what they would like. Do they want to go back to Myanmar if they are promised citizenship, do they want to be given their own piece of land in order to form their own country or do they want asylum in the neighboring countries? In order to prevent future displacements, the international communities need to understand exactly what the reasons were for displacements in the first place, so they can avoid future strategic displacements. The international community needs to become the referee of these conflicts and offer to both, Rohingyas and Buddhists, what they are looking for.

INSIDE THE ROHINGYAS ETHNIC CLEANSING 28

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