The Plight of the Rohingya People of Arakan state of Myanmar

----- Original Message -----
From: Habib Dr Siddiqui
To: info@freerohingyacampaign.com ; nfbnews@gononet.com
Sent: Friday, August 05, 2005 5:42 PM
Subject: The Plight of the Rohingya People of Arakan state of Myanmar

Dear Editor,

I have been involved with human rights issues for more than two decades, . Yet I must take the blame for not voicing my concern as loudly as I ought to have done to show the utter criminality of the regimes that had ruled Myanmar since 1948 (esp. since 1962 when Gen. Ne Win came to power) in their wilful failure to protecting human rights of the Rohingya Muslims of the Arakan state. In the entire history of mankind, one can hardly find a regime that has been so atrocious, so inhuman, so barbarous in its denial of basic human rights to a people that trace their origin to the land for nearly a millennium. Yes, the Rohingya Muslims have been living in the Arakan since the 12th century. In Myanmar, they have been denied their citizenship, uprooted from their ancestral homes and forced to live as refugees and illegal immigrants in Bangladesh. Truly, their plight is worse than those suffered by the Native Americans in the USA and the Mayans in Latin America, and the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.

Nothing can excuse us from the criminal silence that we practice in not voicing our concern about the plight of this uprooted people. As I said in the beginning, I am one such guilty person of not being vocal enough to draw the attention of our world people. This I say, because I am originally from Chittagong, Bangladesh - not too far from Arakan, and surely not from Cox's Bazar where tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees have been living for more than a decade.

The Rohingya people need our help to publicize their plight and their right to live as a free nation. The Buddhist military regimes that have ruled Myanmar are brutal, savage and tyrannical. They cannot be either a guarantor or a protector of human rights of minorities. They will use and have been using their barbarity against the minority Rohingyas to justify prolonging their illegitimate ruling in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. So, the plight of the Rohingyas, regrettably, is not a matter of concern for many otherwise good-natured Buddhists. Under the circumstances, the Rohingyas have no way to protect their basic human rights but to opt for freedom. Freedom is a God-given right of all humanity and can neither be denied nor snatched away from disadvantaged groups for either political expediency or diplomatic acrobatics.

The Rohingyas need world body to wake up to the reality of their sufferings and pains. They need to mobilize world bodies, esp. the UN, to grant them the same privilege that has been granted to the people in south Sudan and East Timor. There is no other way to solve this problem now. Citizens around the globe simply cannot afford to remain silent spectators to this gruesome tragedy of our time. They must act and help to solve the problem.

In the meantime, for easing the sufferings of the Rohingya Diaspora community my suggestions are that

• The UNHCR must maintain its support for the material well being of Rohingya refugees in camps in Bangladesh.
• The UNHCR must continue its direct involvement in refugee protection, ensuring the voluntary nature of refugee returns to Myanmar, and providing logistical support to repatriation as required.
• The Government of Bangladesh must cease all pressure on Rohingya refugees to repatriate and consider the possibility of providing options for local integration, with the financial support of international donors.

Best regards,

Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Philadelphia, USA

email: saeva@aol.com