Historical and Modern Persecution of the Rohingya

People in Myanmar
2017-05-08
The Rohingya are an ethno-religious group living in western Malaysia. They are Muslim
and are of South Asian origin, and have resided in the same area since the 8th century.
Formerly an independent land known as the kingdom of Arakan, the area is now the
Rakhine state of Myanmar. The Rohingya have long faced persecution and discrimination
as a result of their religious differences from the primarily-Buddhist Burmese people.
However, events came to a head in October 2016, when the Burmese army conducted a
series of brutal attacks on several Rohingya populations. These attacks garnered
international attention, but the state of relations between the Rohingya people and the
government of Myanmar has still not improved.

The Rohingya people, as an ethnic group, have been living in their current location for
well over a millennium. The region that they reside in, although now called Rakhine
state, was once a kingdom in a region called Arakan. Around 788 CE, they first
encountered Islam, brought to them by traders from Arab nations. They then became an
ethno-religious group (rather than a purely ethnic one) over the next couple centuries. It
is difficult to go in to detail on the centuries that follows, as they are filled with many
complex events. Ibrahim (2016) articulated this by saying The history of the region of
Burma has seen a sequence of ethnic shifts, conquest, expansion and collapse that is quite
typical of most regions of the world. (p. 17) Given that the region has been inhabited for
over a millennium and a half, it makes sense that it would have a complicated past. But
all this simply sets the stage for a series of much more recent events.

On October 9th, 2016, a series of attacks were carried out by a small number of Rohingya
people against government-employed border police on the border between Myanmar and
Bangladesh. Nine police officers were killed, as were seven attackers. In retaliation, the
government of Myanmar launched a massive military operation against the Rohingya
people. The effects of this retaliation were so severe that the United Nations sent a team
of humanitarian workers to interview the Rohingya refugees who were fleeing to
Bangladesh. The information that they found was astonishing. The military was
committing atrocities on a huge scale. 65% of those interviewed reported witnessing
murders. 56% reported disappearances, often where someone was taken away and not
heard from since. 64% reported seeing beatings. 24% of the women interviewed
personally reported having been raped. The conditions that many people went through
were absolutely terrible, and a report from the UNHCR (2017) specified: Many of the
interviewees were severely traumatized by the events they had experienced or witnessed,
and many broke down and cried during the interviews, including men. Some others were
visibly hungry, thirsty or sick. (p. 7)

Even after the military action in Rakhine state has ended, and despite the international
attention that it garnered, the condition of the Rohingya has not improved. They still face
racism and religious discrimination from the government and people of Myanmar. Under
the laws of Myanmar, the Rohingya people are not even citizens, as the government of
Myanmar refuses to accept the claims by the Rohingya that they inhabited the land prior
to 1823 (even though their ancestors have lived there for centuries beyond that.)
Currently, the Rohingya make up one-seventh of the planets population of stateless
people. They are among the poorest people of Myanmar, which leads to many complex
problems that have significant negative impacts on their lives. Jennifer Leaning et
al.(2016) found that The Rohingya people face a cycle of poor infant and child health,
malnutrition, waterborne illness, and lack of obstetric care. (para. 1)

The Rohingya are a people of a very troubled past. They settled in one location long ago
and have remained there ever since, yet the current government refuses to acknowledge
their claim. This is but one injustice that the Rohingya have suffered, and the suffering
came to a peak in the military operations that began in October of 2016. Over 70,000
Rohingyas have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh as a result of the attacks, and conditions
are not getting any better. The Rohingya are still one of the most persecuted peoples in
the world. It is only through international pressure and collaboration that the situation can
hope to improve.

References
Ibrahim, A. (2016). Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar's Hidden Genocide. Oxford University
Press.

Interviews with Rohingyas fleeing from Myanmar since 9 October 2016 (pp. 1-43, Rep.).
(2017).

Mahmood, S. S., Wroe, E., Fuller, A., & Leaning, J. (2016). The Rohingya people of
Myanmar: health, human rights, and identity [Abstract]. The Lancet, 389(10081), 1841-
1850.