There's something wrong with humanity's way of thinking. Ultimately we lack concern for others' lives, others' well-being.
(1st published Oct 2014- info based on 2014 period. slightly modified.)
The last couple of months it is a big issue why people of Myanmar Rohingya are taking the risk to flew to the neighbour countries. The answer is so simple. Their lives are in danger and threats. Rakan state is hell now to them. I am very upset seeing the continuous brutal killing of so many innocent Rohingya Muslim people in the Arkan Rakain state of Myanmar. The situations there are very pathetic and crucial. Issues are very complex. They have been tortured by the government and their agent’s very planned wisely since long with an intention to evict them from their land. This brutality shocked me so much because they are our neighbour and we are also suffering as a neighbour country since long. Already, we have around 26000 registered Rohiyanga refugees and more than 400000 unregistered refugees at present in Bangladesh. It will be a big burden for us as we can’t afford to maintain and help them alone from our limited resources. So this is a big concern and threat to us.
It's not sufficient to say: 'How to help these people? This is not sufficient. There's something wrong with humanity's way of thinking. Ultimately we are lacking concern for others' lives, others' well-being
Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, currently living in the western Burmese state of Rakhine, have been subject to systematic repression by extremist Buddhists since the country’s independence in 1948. This is the fact where the government of Myanmar has fallen short of protecting the rights of the marginalised group. The United Nations recognised Rohingya Muslims as one of the world’s most persecuted communities
What is happening to Rohingya is not different from what is happening in Palestine, no different from what is happening in Syria and Iraq by ISIL/ISIS/Daesh extremist or no difference from Yemeni by the Saudis. We need to unite against all these atrocities and those behind it. We need to unite and vocal, so thus they (dictators worldwide) cannot continue this brutality, again and again, all over the world.
The question is If the Rohingya and Bangladeshis(Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh) travelling from the Bay of Bengal to Malaysia, Thailand or Indonesia were fleeing in search of work, why did they bring small children with them? The fact is not about work it is about to save their life from tortured by Myanmar some dictator government and their some extremist agents.Their main objective is to clean the ethnic minority(Muslim) from Rakain state. Unfortunately, a lot of them claiming they are from Bangladesh because if they deport to back home, then they can go to Bangladesh better safe then Myanmar. Last 50 years Bangladesh have been suffering this problem as we are the closest neighbour.
What did the Rohingya do? Are you in favour of letting them drown and die because of their faith and because of criminal aggression has done by pirates somewhere else in the name of Islam? Would you condemn all of the Buddhists and let them perish if few of them are mass killing and persecuting others in Myanmar? Where can they go? Who will help them or who will give them shelter? Who will raise voice for them to protect from dictator Myanmar government? International organisations or super power countries none taking strong action against Myanmar government. Where as we have been suffering for a significant volume of refugees- the reason is we can not afford too many refugees to give shelters.
Comments about Rohingya by international organisations-
The Rohingyas’ freedom of movement is severely restricted, and the vast majority of them have effectively been denied Burmese citizenship. They are also subjected to various forms of extortion and arbitrary taxation; land confiscation; forced eviction and house destruction; and financial restrictions on marriage.
—Amnesty International in 2004
The Rakhine community as a whole has tended to be cast internationally as violent extremists – ignoring the diversity of opinions that exist, the fact that the Rakhine themselves are a long-oppressed minority, and rarely attempting to understand their perspective and concerns. This is counterproductive: it promotes a siege mentality on the part of the Rakhine, and obscures complex realities that must be understood if a sustainable way forward is to be found.
—The International Crisis Group, The Politics of Rakhine State, 22 October 2014
Basic and short history of Rohingya - where from they originated and how?
The Rohingya are a Muslim minority population living mainly in the state of Arakan( Rakhain state) in Myanmar (Burma). Although approximately 800,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar, and apparently their ancestors were in the country for centuries, the Burmese government does not recognise Rohingya people as citizens. People without a state, the Rohingya face harsh persecution in Myanmar, and in refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh and Thailand as well.
The first Muslims to settle in Arakan were in the area by the 1400s CE. Many served in the court of the Buddhist King Narameikhla (Min Saw Mun), who ruled Arakan in the 1430s, and who welcomed Muslim advisers and courtiers into his capital. Arakan is on the western border of Burma, near what is now Bangladesh, and the later Arakanese kings modelled themselves after the Mughal emperors, even using Muslim titles for their military and court officials.
In 1785, Buddhist Burmese from the south of the country conquered Arakan. They drove out or executed all of the Muslim Rohingya men they could find; some 35,000 of Arakan's people likely fled into Bengal, then part of the British Raj in India.
As of 1826, the British took control of Arakan after the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824-26). They encouraged farmers from Bengal to move to the depopulated area of Arakan, both Rohingyas originally from the area and native Bengalis. The sudden influx of immigrants from British India sparked a strong reaction from the mostly-Buddhist Rakhine people living in Arakan at the time, sowing the seeds of ethnic tension that remain to this day.
When World War II broke out, Britain abandoned Arakan in the face of Japanese expansion into Southeast Asia. In the chaos of Britain's withdrawal, both Muslim and Buddhist forces took the opportunity to inflict massacres on one another. Many Rohingya, moreover, still looked to Britain for protection, and served as spies behind Japanese lines for the Allied Powers. When the Japanese discovered this connection, they embarked on a hideous programme of torture, rape and murder against the Rohingyas in Arakan. Tens of thousands of Arakanese Rohingyas once again fled into Bengal.
Between the end of World War II and General Ne Win's coup d'etat in 1962, the Rohingyas advocated for a separate Rohingya nation in Arakan. When the military junta took power in Yangon, however, it cracked down hard on Rohingyas, separatists and non-political people alike. It also denied Burmese citizenship to the Rohingya people, defining them instead as stateless Bengalis.
Some questions and answers about Rohingya and Rakhine state about recent thousand of Rohingya attempting to flee by boat towards Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Thousands of Rohingya have been abandoned by human traffickers and pushed back out to sea by Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia in a humanitarian disaster that outraged the world. Hundreds more died as they attempted a perilous journey across the Bay of Bengal in the hands of ruthless people smugglers. Why? Lindsay Murdoch explains.
Who are Rohingya?
They are ethnic minority Muslim people living in Myanmar's western Arakan state.
According to historians, Rohingya have been living in Myanmar, the country also known as Burma, for seven centuries. They are descendants of Muslim migrants from India and China as well as earlier Arab settlers. Their religion is a Sufi-infused Sunni Islam.
Because the Myanmar government restricts their educational opportunities, many pursue fundamental Islamic studies in mosques and religious schools that are present in most villages. They speak a dialect of Bengali, which is spoken in Bangladesh and parts of India.
How are they treated by the Myanmar government?
The United Nations has described Rohingya in Myanmar as among the world's most persecuted people.
In 1982, a special law was passed that rendered them stateless without basic citizenship rights. They are not allowed to travel without official permission and were previously required to sign a commitment not to have more than two children, though the law was not strictly enforced.
In 2012, they were the target of violent Buddhist mobs that forced more than 140,000 from their homes into squalid camps.
In March last year, the Myanmar government banned the word Rohingya and asked for registration of the minority as Bengalis in the country's first census in three decades. It meant that 1.3 million Rohingya in Arakan, which is also called Rakhine state, were not included in the census.
On April 1, the government formally rescinded the temporary ID or "white cards" that were the last form of official government identification for Rohingya, stripping them of voting rights which had been linked to the cards.
Why are Rohingya persecuted?
Despite Rohingya having lived in Arakan for centuries, Myanmar's Buddhist military rulers claim they are not a genuine ethnic group, but illegal Bengali immigrants from Bangladesh.
Why have 25,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar in the first three months of this year and more than 50,000 last year?
Over centuries, millions of destitute people have made the journey from South Asia across the Bay of Bengal to south-east Asia in search of trade, employment and better lives. But an exodus of Rohingya living on both sides of the Myanmar-Bangladesh border accelerated because of ongoing persecution and their hopes they could reach Malaysia, where many have relatives or other destinations.
What prompted the current crisis?
For years, near-destitute Rohingya were sucked into human trafficking networks operating boats from Myanmar and Bangladesh to Thailand, where they were often held captive in jungle camps or boats at sea while money was extorted from their relatives.
Many disappeared without a trace. Many others reached Malaysia where they were quietly allowed to stay because they provided cheap and indispensable labour.The trade of human cargo was protected by corrupt and powerful Thai figures, including politicians and police.But when mass graves were discovered in smuggler camps near the Thai-Malaysian border in April, Thailand's military government was stung into cracking down on the networks as it faced being left in the lowest tier of the US State Department's influential annual Trafficking in Persons Report, as well as a potential European Union ban on Thai seafood – a response to slavery in the fishing industry.
The crackdown prompted traffickers to abandon thousands of Rohingya in camps and boats at sea, and Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia declared them unwelcome on their shores.
How many have been rescued?
More than 2500 Rohingya and Bangladeshis have washed ashore in boats in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand in recent days. Hundreds of them were rescued when their boats broke down off Indonesia's Aceh province while hundreds more swam ashore after their boat sank.
How have regional countries responded?
Thailand has called a summit of 16 regional nations and international agencies for May 29.
Malaysia and Indonesia on Wednesday agreed to allow an estimated 7000 people still adrift at sea to come ashore provided that other countries and international agencies pay for them to stay in temporary accommodation. Indonesia has reportedly told Australia that 60 to 70 percent of the 7000 people are illegal labourers from Bangladesh, with the remaining 30 to 40 percent Rohingya, asylum seekers. Malaysia and Indonesia stipulated the migrants and asylum seekers must be moved to other countries within a year.
Myanmar at first played down its responsibility for the mass exodus from Arakan, but in the face of international condemnation issued a conciliatory statement saying it would do what it can to help without providing any detail.
What is the likely fate of the Rohingya and Bangladeshis still at sea, and those who have come ashore in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia in recent weeks? South-east Asian nations are likely to agree at the May 29 summit to establish temporary camps, probably in Thailand, with assistance from the US and other countries. But Indonesia and Malaysia insist they must be repatriated to other countries or be sent back to Myanmar or Bangladesh within a year.
Analysts say unless Myanmar ends its persecution the Rohingya will continue to flee the country in what has become the largest movement of people across south-east Asia since the fall of southern Vietnam 40 years ago.
Rohingya populations present status around geographic regions
Regions with significant populations
|
|
|
735,000–800,000
|
|
400,000
|
|
300,000–500,000
|
|
200,000
|
|
100,000
|
|
40,070
|
|
Languages
|
|
Religion
|
|
Related ethnic groups
|
|
