The Rohingya refugee crisis: a conflict amongst nations Sally Schuster De Hart.1 Abstract The Rohingya people are a Muslim religious minority that practices a Sufi-inflected variation of Islam in the Rakhine state of Myanmar. However, many of them have been displaced to refugee camps in Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh amidst ongoing ethnic violence. According to the UN, the Rohing- yas are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. In Myanmar, they live in miserable conditions where they are not allowed by law to possess land, are physically exploited through forced labor and their movement is restricted. Most Rohingyas do not have a state of their own and are subject to racial segrega- tion. This paper focuses on this Muslim minority, their identity, historical background, the refugee crisis and the international community’s effort to help them. Keywords: Rohingya, Myanmar, ethnic groups, perse- cution, religious segregation. 1 Professional in International Relations with a Minor in International Economics from Universidad del Norte. [Also Political Science and Government Student with a Minor in In- ternational Relations from Universidad del Norte]. Resides in Barranquilla (Colombia). [email protected] 77 A C I D Í R U J D A The Rohingyas were first known as Arakanese (or Introduction D Rakhine). They are an ethnic group centered in the I L The Burmese Rohingya minority is a Muslim reli- Arakan coastal region of southern Myanmar. As th A gious minority with about 1.3 million people. They early as 4 century AD, an independent Arakanese U practice a Sufi-inflected variation of Sunni Islam. kingdom, led both by Muslim and Buddhist rulers, T Most Rohingyas live in refugee camps in the outs- was established. Arakan was invaded by Mongols C kirts of Sittwe, the capital of the Burmese western A first and later by the Portuguese. In 1785 Burmese state of Rakhine, which shares borders with Ban- forces conquered the kingdom and in 1826 the re- gladesh. According to the United Nations, the Ro- gion was ceded to the British through the Treaty of hingyas are one of the most persecuted minorities Yandabo3. in the world. In their country of Myanmar (former Burma) Rohingyas live in miserable conditions whe- The Muslim Arakaneses are known as Rohingyas, re they are not allowed to possess land, they are a name based on the historical name of the region, physically exploited through forced labor and their Rohang. Both the Myanmar government and the movement is restricted. Most of the Rohingyas do Rakhine state’s ethnic Buddhist majority (known not have a state of their own and are subject to as the Rakhine) reject using the label Rohingya, a racial segregation. self-identifying term that surfaced in the 1950s. Experts say this label provides the group with a The government in Naypyidaw (the capital of collective, political identity. Even though the ety- Myanmar) denies them citizenship and considers mological root of the word is disputed, the mostly them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Since accepted origin is that the “Rohang” is a deriva- early 2012, as a result of violent outbursts against tion of the word “Arakan” in the Rohingya dialect the Buddhist majorities, attacks against the Rohin- and the “ga” or “gya” means “from”. By identifying gyas have increased and hundreds of thousands themselves as Rohingya, the ethnic Muslim group have been displaced. According to the Arakan Pro- asserts its ties to the land that was once under the ject2, more than 120,000 have left Myanmar for control of the Arakan kingdom (Albert, 2015). Malaysia. When Myanmar became independent from British This paper focuses on who the Rohingya people rule in 1948, the province’s name was Arakan, but are, what their backgrounds are in historical terms, in 1990 it was changed to Rakhine. Within Rakhi- when and how they arrived to Myanmar. It will ne many of their enemies refuse to acknowledge confer on the current refugee crisis that has span- that the Rohingya are an ethnically distinct group. ned across Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia and They claim instead that Rohingyas are Bengali and Myanmar. The paper will also discuss the inter- that their presence in Myanmar is a result of illegal national community’s latest effort in helping the immigration. Rohingyas, for their part, claim to be Rohingya minority, amidst ongoing ethnic violence pre-colonial residents of Myanmar’s Rakhine sta- lead mainly by the Buddhist majority in Myanmar. te, with the earliest known appearance of the term Finally, it will include conclusions as to what are the Rohingya in 1799 according to Tennery (2015). At best options to deal with violence and segregation the end of the 20th century, Arakanese numbered for this stateless community. around two million, of which 90 % lived in Myan- mar (most of the remaining 10 % live in Bangla- Who are they and where do they come from? 3 The Treaty of Yandabo (February 1826) formally 2 ended the First Anglo-Burmese War. British victory was The Arakan Project works to improve the situation achieved mainly because of India’s superior resources of Myanmar›s Rohingya population, who are subject to with enabled a sustained campaign. The British-led In- severe human rights violations. 78 dian troops suffered more than 15,000 fatalities. desh and a small number in India). Most Arakanese legalized their exclusion. Further discriminatory follow Buddhism, but 15 % of the population ad- policies and an increasingly brutal regime have heres to Islam. This is where the conflict has had precipitated a series of refugee crises. In 1991 the its roots: the Buddhist majority has segregated, National Army expelled more than 250,000 Rohin- exploited and violated the Rohingya minority’s hu- gyas, destroyed their homes and villages and for- man rights. ced them to flee elsewhere, mainly to Bangladesh. However, the Bangladeshi government has been However, the root of the conflict isn’t simply a reli- accused of “withholding food aid, frustrating non- gious one. As tends to be the case in modern con- governmental organization’s access to camps, and flicts, the current unrest can also be traced to the generally refusing to recognize their rights as re- country’s colonial past: in 1826 Britain annexed the fugees (Blitz, 2010). Unfortunately, other countries northwest part of what is now Myanmar, as well that have experienced a similar influx of Rohingya as the region that is home to most of Myanmar’s refugees have been mirroring this treatment. remaining Rohingya Muslims. The colonial govern- ment had lax immigration laws and Bengali Mus- In Myanmar the Rohingya face violence and lack lims flooded to the region. The British also installed of basic rights such as access to education, emplo- South Indian chettyars (money lenders) as adminis- yment and healthcare. They live in “apartheid-like trators of the colonial territory, displacing Burmese conditions” due to the country’s refusal to recogni- Buddhist peasants. ze them as citizens. This however, is not new: Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims were Over the decades [the Rohingya], without le- expelled in the 1960s by the military-socialist regi- gal or any other sort of protection, have been me of General Ne Win during the Burmese Way to the victims of wanton discrimination and vio- Socialism (a nationalization program). Subsequent lence by both the virulently anti-Muslim Rakhi- expulsions included an ethnic cleansing campaign nes, a Buddhist ethnic group, and agents of in 1978 (known as Operation Dragon King – Naga the central government. One of the few things Min), which drove more than 200,000 Rohingyas Rakhines and members of the ethnic Burmese into Bangladesh where it is estimated 10,000 died majority have in common is a shared hatred of from disease and starvation (Blitz, 2010). the ‘Bengalis,’ a label they both apply to Ro- hingya with contempt. (Tennery, 2015) Even though Myanmar’s 1948-citizenship law was exclusionary, the military junta introduced a Since the 1990s (specifically between May 1991 citizenship law in 1982 stripping the Rohingya of and March 1992) more than 260,000 Rohingya fled access to full citizenship. Until recently they’ve the country over “human rights abuses” commit- been able to register as temporary residents with ted by the Burmese military. These abuses included temporary identification cards (known as “white “confiscation of land, forced labor, rape, torture, cards”) issued initially to Muslims (both Rohingya and summary executions” (Tennery, 2015). and non-Rohingya) in the 1990s. The white cards conferred limited rights but were not recognized The situation has deteriorated further in recent as proof of citizenship. years: when Myanmar transitioned in 2010 from a military-led government to a more democratic sys- Why is there a refugee crisis? tem, violence against Muslims turned worse. The national government has permitted [albeit tacitly] The source for the latest tragedy lies in the dis- the rise of the 969 Movement, a group of Budd- enfranchisement of the Rohingya in Burma (now hist monks who employ “moral justification for a Myanmar) by the 1982 Citizenship Law, which wave of anti-Muslim bloodshed”. Since 2012, over 79 A C I D Í R U J D A 140,000 Rohingyas have left northwestern Myan- of relevance to the general international commu- D mar amidst deadly flights with Buddhist majorities nity: efforts toward solutions should be directed I L (Tennery, 2015). and prioritized (Zawacki, 2013). This part focuses A on the third aspect: the Responsibility to Protect. U Where could they go? T The UN General Assembly in the World Summit C In the past 3 years (2012-2015), more than 120,000 Outcome Document agreed the doctrine of the A have tried to leave by boat.