A Rohingya Refugee Woman Gang Raped by Goons

Teknaf, December 27:

An unregistered Rohingya refugee widow was gangs raped by local goons while she was carrying firewood from nearby hill in southern Cox's Bazar district, Bangladesh, said Hussain, a refugee from the camp.

The victim was identified as Toyuba Khatun, 42, of Dum Dum Mia makeshift camp of Teknaf union, under the Cox's Bazar district. Her husband was dead two years ago after getting serious illness, he further said.
At about 10:00 am, on 18th December, the widow Toyouba Khatun went to nearby hill to collect firewood together with three refugee boys of under ten. She always goes to nearby hill to collect firewood and maintains herself by selling it, he more added.

On that day, in the evening, after collecting firewood, while on her way back accompanied by refugee boys, suddenly a group of local goons came with lethal weapons and forcibly chased all of them to nearby forest. Fastening all the boys to a tree with a rope, the local goons forcibly raped her in routine in front of the refugee boys, said one of the boys.

The victim and the refugee boys were released after for a while, but her earring was taken away by the goons. One of the boys ran to the makeshift camp to inform the incident to the camp.

On hearing the news, some refugees immediately went to the spot and saw the victim was lying on the ground in unconscious state. But the mob of the refugees didn't find the culprits as they had already run away from the spot, said another refugee named Abdul Malik.

At present, Toyouba Khatun is living at her shanty hut without having any aid of medical treatment from any quarter. Some concerned local authorities were apprised of this event by some refugee elders, but they take no action against the culprits till writing this report, he more added.

About 10,000 unregistered Rohingya refugees are living in the shabby and unhealthy shacks on the bank of Naf River in Teknaf without getting any help from outsides in subhuman condition. They crossed Burma-Bangladesh border following religious and political persecutions by present military ruler in Arakan State, Burma.

Source: Kaladanpress Network, December 27, 2005.

link:http://www.kaladanpress.org/kpn/2005/December/news_dec_17.htm

A Rohingya Female Prisoner Died in Jail of Burma

Kaladan News

Dated: Friday, December 23, 2005

A Rohingya Female Prisoner Died in Jail of Burma

Maungdaw, December 23: A Rohingya female prisoner died on 16th December 2005 in “Lawadak Jail,” which is situated about 2.5 miles in the west of Buthidaung Town, Arakan State, Burma, said a close relative of her from Maungdaw Town.

The dead prisoner was identified as Jubaida Khatoon, 70, wife of Eman Sharif and mother of Khobir, (a business man, who was also arrested in Sittwe ( Akyab), the capital of Arakan State and was sentenced to 7 years jail) of Shikdar Para (village) of Maungdaw Township, the relative further said.

She accompanied by her family members transferred to Rangoon from her native town Maungdaw 20 years ago. But, due to the persecution policy towards Rohingya community, after the Prime Minister Khin Nyunt’s sack, the whole members were arrested by police at Rangoon accusing them ---they are illegal immigrants as they don’t have a form called “Phong Zang Thasay( Form-10),” which is provided by immigration to the person who wants to transfer from native town to another town---,”said another relative from her village.

The arrested family members are: Jubaida Khatoon, her two sons Abdul Majid, 45, Hamid Hussain, 32, her daughter-in- law, 30, (wife of Abdul Majid) and two children of Abdul Majid. They all were sentenced to a 7-year jail term per each at Rangoon in last February 2005, said a trader who is close relation with her.

After 3 months in jail in Rangoon, all the convicts were brought to aforesaid Buthidaung jail from Rangoon. After seven months in Buthidaung Jail, Jubaida Khatoon passed away in jail on 16th December 2005, as inadequate food and medical treatment, the trader more added.

The dead body of Jubaida Khatoon was handed over to her relatives to immediate burial. It is very strange to the people that two officials from the jail came with dead body and stayed until the dead body’s funeral was completed. The officials also took pictures of the dead body of process of the funeral. However, she was buried at the cemetery of Shikdar Para on 17th December, a village elder said.

Jubaida Khatoon left behind her sons, daughters, daughters-in-law, many grand children and other relatives to mourn her death. ##

Situation Report on the Rohingya People in Arakan State of Burma

By Dr. Habib Siddqui


There are over three million Rohingya people, living both inside and outside Myanmar (Burma). Due to widespread persecution, prejudice and ethnic cleansing inside Myanmar, nearly a half of the population (over 1.5 million) have been compelled to live in exile, particularly in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., Malaysia, and Thailand.

Rejection of Citizenship:

The Burmese military regime has declared the Rohingya non-nationals or non-citizens. The Burma Citizenship Law of 1982, which violates several fundamental principles of the customary international law, has reduced them to the status of “Stateless.”

Colonization of the Rohingya Homeland:

There is a systemic program by the ruling Myanmar regime to alter the demography of Rohingya homeland of North Arakan. This includes extermination of the Rohingya population, confiscation and demolition of Rohingya properties, and construction of Pagodas, monasteries and Government buildings on the sites of demolished mosques and Muslim shrines, and confiscated Rohingya properties. As if these measures are not enough to obliterate Muslim identity, new non-Rohingya settlements with Pagodas and Buddhist monasteries are being built at every nook and corner of the North Arakan, Rohingyas are compelled by Government officials to ‘contribute’ money, food, material, or free labor to state-sponsored projects of colonization and de-Muslimization of Arakan.

In the name of setting up “model villages” Rohingya properties are being handed out to outsiders while the original Rohingya owners are forcibly displaced.

There is also a concerted effort to rename Muslim towns and places with Buddhist names so that Muslim or Islamic heritage of these places is lost forever to future generations.

De-Muslimization:

Of particular concern is the fact that as of 2004, Rohingya villagers are forced to practice Buddhism and take part in various Buddhist festivities. As has been confirmed lately by the US State Department Report on Religious Freedom Report, November 8, 2005, there is a Burmese Government campaign to convert or “Burmanize” ethnic minority regions through coercion or otherwise. The campaign has coincided with increased military presence in the region. The SPDC troops have intensified their attacks on the Rohingya and Islam. In particular, they target the Rohingya Ulema (religious leaders), women and youngsters. Last year, in Maungdaw Township, after a Rohingya girl was reaped by Buddhists, when Rohingya religious leaders condemned the matter, they were arrested. Subsequently, one of the religious teachers was tortured to death in detention. Most of the Rohingya-community leaders are now serving long prison times on false charges, related to citizenship. Others are forced to opt for a life of uncertainty as refugees outside.

Mosques and Muslim holy shrines have been demolished all over Arakan. All these crimes are done so as to efface Islamic heritage and Muslim identity of the Arakan.

To expedite this criminal objective, often times Buddhist-Muslim riots are engineered that invariably result in heavy losses to Muslim lives and properties. Anti-Muslim propagandas are routinely fed in the government controlled media. As of February 2003, books and taped speeches, insulting Islam and Muslims, have become quite common and are being openly sold and distributed.

Even Muslim cemeteries are not immune from desecration and abuses of the government. Buddhist dead bodies are now routinely buried at Muslim cemeteries, while the Rohingya are forced to pay the funeral fees.

Lack of Religious Freedom

The SPDC restricts most Islamic religious services and has frequently abused the right to religious freedom. Muslim students attending state-run elementary schools are required to recite Buddhist prayer daily. Authorities often refuse requests for gatherings to celebrate traditional Muslim holidays and restrict the number of Muslims that can gather in one place.

In 2002, local authorities scheduled demolition of nearly 40 mosques and religious community centers in Arakan. Thirteen mosques were destroyed before the authorities desisted at the request of the UNHCR. The Government subsequently gave permission to repair existing mosques in some area. However, to ensure that destroyed mosques were not rebuilt, they were replaced with government-owned buildings, monasteries, and Buddhist temples.

Rohingyas are not allowed to construct new places of worship. They experience tremendous difficulties in obtaining permission to repair existing mosques. They cannot import religious literature into the country. Muslim religious leaders are routinely arrested or harassed. All these are done meticulously so that within a few years the Rohingya will lose touch with their Islamic heritage.

Depopulation:

The SPDC authorities have been making efforts to ‘dilute’ Rohingya population by practicing what may more appropriately be called genocidal campaigns to ‘ethnically cleanse’ the Rohingyas from their ancestral lands. Frequently, they launch drive operation, create communal riots, and make forced relocation to sweep off the Muslim population. They force Buddhist-Burmans to relocate into Muslim territories. Certain townships, such as Thandwe, Gwa, and Taung-gut, have been declared ‘Muslim-free-zones’ by government decree in 1983. There are still original-resident Muslims living in Thandwe, but new Muslims are not allowed to buy property or reside in the township. Muslims are no longer permitted to reside in Taung-gut and Gwa.

In January of 2005, Government authorities led Buddhist monks to attack Rohingyas in Kyauk Pyu just before the Muslim Eid holidays. Two Muslims were killed and Muslim homes and properties were destroyed. In May 2004, local Buddhist villagers in Kyun Su Township attacked and destroyed properties of 14 Muslim families. Despite a complaint from Muslim leaders, the Government did not take any action to stop the violence.

Many immoral and deplorable measures (like denying rights to or delaying marriage) are also routinely applied by the Government agencies against the Rohingya population to reduce and control their birth rates.

But more appalling is the fact that rape of Rohingya women by Buddhists (civilians and military alike), committed in public or in detention camps or training centers, is encouraged and included as an official military strategy to depopulate Rohingyas from their ancestral homes. Because of the devastating effect rape has on the Rohingya community, rape is becoming an effective weapon to terrorize the Rohingya community and convince them to flee or leave Burma. It is the most horrendous and degrading way of “Ethnic Cleansing.” Unfortunately, without any international agency to monitor and take effective measures to stop this crime against humanity, this method of ‘ethnic cleansing’ is succeeding.

Confiscation of land:

Large tracts of Rohingya farmlands, including Waqf (Endowed) properties, have been confiscated. The Rohingya villagers are frequently uprooted and relocated from their ancestral land. Hundreds and thousands of confiscated lands belonging to the Rohingya have been distributed among the Buddhist settlers who are invited from both inside and outside the Arakan, including nearby Bangladesh. Some of the confiscated lands are used for military establishments. These atrocious measures have forced the Rohingya to become increasingly landless, internally displaced and to eventually starve - forcing them out to cross the border into nearby Bangladesh for life and shelter.

Militarization:

The North Arakan has turned into a militarized zone with increased violations of human rights. Forced labor still exists despite increasing pressure from ILO. The armed forces routinely confiscate property, cash and crop from the Rohingya.

The Rohingya people are exploited as forced laborers into building military establishment, roads, bridges, embankments, pagodas, schools dispensaries and ponds without earning any wage. They are not only forced to “Contribute” their farmlands, agricultural tools, cattle, house-building materials and funds to the new settlers but also forced to pay for Buddhist festivals held every so often. The forced labor situation has become so excruciating that the Rohingya have been rendered jobless and shelter-less.

Restriction of Movement:

There is restriction on movement of the Rohingya inside Myanmar. They cannot go outside the Arakan, nor are they allowed freedom of movement within Arakan from one place to another without permission from the local authority. This humiliating restriction has further been tightened by the regime. No Rohingya is permitted to travel to Rangoon or Myanmar (Burma) proper even on serious medical ground. This inhuman measure has forcibly divided many Rohingya families. It has seriously affected them in all their national activities—social, cultural, religious and educational.

Deprivation of Rights to Education:

Since promulgation of the new Burma Citizenship Law in 1982, the Rohingya students are denied their basic rights to education. The Government reserves secondary education for citizens only. The Rohingya do not have access to state-run schools beyond primary education. They cannot pursue higher studies while professional courses are also barred to them. It is important to point out that all professional institutes are situated outside Arakan. Thus, the Rohingya students are unable to study there because of such travel prohibition. Rohingya students, who passed the selection tests and got formal admission into various institutions of learning, located in Rangoon and Burma proper, are unable to pursue their studies as they are disallowed to travel.

The Rohingya are restricted from even religious learning. Many local Imams (religious leaders) have been arrested for conducting group classes or prayers.

In recent years, the Rohingya students are prohibited from even going to Akyab (Sittwe), the capital of Arakan, to attend Sittwe University for their studies. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya students face uncertainty with their future studies. These draconian measures, barring the Rohingyas from attending university and professional institutes, are marginalizing them as the most illiterate section within the Myanmar population. They cannot find jobs in civil service, military and most professional areas requiring higher education, and are, therefore, forced to embrace a very bleak future.

Restriction on Marriage of Rohingya:

Since 1988, the Government has permitted only 3 marriages per year per village in the primary Rohingya townships of Buthidaung and Maungdaw in northern Arakan State. Later the Government extended this edict to other townships of the Arakan. In today’s Myanmar, imposition of restriction on marriage between Rohingya couples has further intensified resulting in human rights violations. For example, not a single marriage contract was allowed in May 2005. Without huge sums of bribe money, unbearable for most Rohingyas to pay, even an ordinary permission to get married is impossible to obtain. Yet, after such payments, thousands of applications for the permission to get married remain pending in Maungdaw and Buthidaung Townships.

But, today, the condition of marriage is terrifying. The SPDC Government requires that every Rohingya be registered before they marry. The women applicants are then required to attend a government-sponsored training program in camps and centers that can last for 3 or more days, away from their family members. It is in these camps and centers, that Rohingya women are raped by people affiliated with the camps and centers. These camps have, in essence, become the slave camps with the only difference that women are then returned to their families. This practice is done in order to humiliate and terrorize these women and their family, and force them to leave Burma and migrate to Bangladesh.

Arbitrary Taxation:

Traditionally, Rohingyas are a farming community that depends on agricultural produce and breeding of cattle and fowls as domestic livestock. They are taxed heavily on food grains, including their main staple food – rice, and various agricultural produce. Recently the authorities have imposed a new taxation that included taxes levied on everything that a Rohingya may possess from shrimp, vegetable, tree, animal or bird (for cow, buffalos, goats, and fowl) to roof and house. Even for a minor repair of their homes, they are forced to pay tax. They are required to report birth and death of a livestock to the authority while paying a fee.

The Rohingya have to pay taxes on everything, from cutting bamboos or woods in the jungle to fishing in the rivers and breeding of animas at homesteads.

Other forms of Human Rights Abuses:

Widespread violations of human rights against the ethnic “Rohingya” continue unabated even in places not out of the sight of the UNHCR. In fact, there is no security of life, property, honor and dignity of the Rohingya. Extra-judicial killing and summery executions, humiliating movement restriction, rape of women, arrest and torture, forced labor, forced relocation, confiscation of moveable and immoveable properties, religious sacrileges, etc., are regular occurrences in Arakan.

As a result, severe poverty, unemployment, lack of education and official discrimination are negatively affecting every Rohingya, especially its youths and workforces. The future of the community remains bleak and exodus into Bangladesh has become a recurrent theme.

Forced Eviction and Refugee Exodus:

Forced eviction of the Rohingya villagers is launched occasionally throughout the year. Many centuries-old Rohingya settlements have already been uprooted throughout the North Arakan.

The exodus of the Rohingya into Bangladesh constitutes human rights violations. They are merely branded as “economic migrants” without realizing their unbearable plights. The new arrivals often face arrests and/or “pushback” from the Bangladesh security forces. Due to poor condition within the refugee camps, sometimes tense situation has surfaced between camp authorities and the refugees, resulting in the detention, arrest and punishment of many refugees.

Refugees in Bangladesh:

In Bangladesh today there are approximately 20,000 “documented” Rohingya refugees, out of a quarter million that had arrived in 1991-2, escaping military persecution in Burma. They live in two camps of Kutupalong and Nayapara. Most of the original refugees were forcibly repatriated into the lawless country of Burma, where they continue to face all sorts of human rights abuse in the hands of Myanmar authority. The remaining refugees have refused to return because they fear human rights abuses, including religious persecution.

Unfortunately, the condition within those two refugee camps is not great and lack adequate facilities for a healthy living. Children are deprived of their basic education and healthcare.

Besides, hundreds of thousands of “undocumented” Rohingya are living outside these two camps in sub-human condition with all their uncertainty. Many refugees are camped at a roadside facility at Teknaf, a border town in south-east end of Bangladesh under unpleasant conditions. Unfortunately, there is no help from any quarter for these refugees.

These refugees are also blocked from nominal opportunities of re-settlement in a third country or settlement within Bangladesh.

The NGOs, international human rights and humanitarian bodies are not allowed to visit the areas of undocumented refugees.

Situation in other countries:

There is no international agency to look after the interest of the stateless Rohingya. Because of their lack of legal identity, they are not allowed to work or hold work permit by any name. An estimated 15-20,000 Rohingyas work as illegal workers in Thailand. Their children are deprived of basic human rights. In other parts of the world the situation is not much better because of lack of their citizenship.

Final Words:
There is a very systemic, organized, concerted and criminal design by the SPDC authorities, which can appropriately be termed as ethnic cleansing, genocide and socio-cultural degradation of the Rohingya people in Arakan state of Myanmar. If the process of marginalization and gross violations of human rights against the Rohingya people are allowed to continue there won’t be a single Rohingya left in Arakan within the next fifty years. They will be an extinct community, much like the fate of the native population of Tasmania.

Since 1999, the USA has designated Burma as a “Country of Particular Concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act for particularly severe violations of religious freedom. It is high time that the world body take appropriate measures so that the basic human rights of the Rohingya people are protected and guaranteed under the UN supervision.

Date: December 20, 2005

___________________________________________________

Dr. Habib Siddiqui (saeva@aol.com) is an anti-war activist.
His essays appear in a number of websites and newspapers. He has written six books.
His book on “Islamic Wisdom” is now available in the United States and Canada.
________________________________________

Rohingya sentenced for not concluding lectre in time

19-12-2005
Maungdaw, Kaladan News: A Rohingya elite was arrested and sentenced to a 10-month jail term with rigorous works in Arakan State for not concluding a religious lecture within fixed time, said a relative.

The victim is identified as Oli Ahmed, 55, son of Sayedur Rhaman of Ukilpara (Auk Rwa) of Maungdaw Town in Arakan State. He is also a former immigration staff of Maungdaw Township, he further added. On 10th November 2005, the aforementioned Oli Ahmed held a religious lecture by inviting some religious teachers taking permission from the Township Peace and Development Council Chairman (TPDC) of Maungdaw Township, he more said. The Chairman allowed the applicant to hold the religious lecture nearby house till 10:00 pm.

However, the lecture was ended a few minutes lately on that day, said another man of the locality. However, some days later, on 26th November 2005, the police of Maungdaw Town went to the home of Oli Ahmed by the order of the TPDC Chairman of Maungdaw Township and arrested him for not concluding the lecture within the fixed time, the local man more added. Two days later, on 29th November 2005, the victim was produced before the trial court No.1 of Maungdaw Township, which sentenced to him a 10-month jail term with rigorous work for concluding a religious lecture delaying a few minutes as fixed by concerned authority implicating him under police Act No.49, Raki 932/05, said a lawyer from Maungdaw Town.

After the issue, the Azan (call to prayer) was banned with loud speakers from mosques in the Township of Maungdaw. Previously, the Azan was not forbidden by the authorities concerned, said an Imam (the leader of the prayers) from Maungdaw. A relative of Oli Ahmed said, "A man was sentenced to 10- month jailed with rigorous work for only 10 minutes lateness of ending of a religious lecture is a deliberate action against the Rohingya community."

According to a Sarapa, a new military intelligence group after the Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt sack said, "We come to Arakan State to cripple the whole economic bases of the Rohingya people and to drive them into slave labors without leaving any things for their possessions. We are also projecting that the Rohingya youths to be illiterate," said a university student who recently fled his motherland for his security reason.

Please check it out http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=10336

Rohingya sentenced for not concluding lectre in time

19-12-2005
Maungdaw, Kaladan News: A Rohingya elite was arrested and sentenced to a 10-month jail term with rigorous works in Arakan State for not concluding a religious lecture within fixed time, said a relative.

The victim is identified as Oli Ahmed, 55, son of Sayedur Rhaman of Ukilpara (Auk Rwa) of Maungdaw Town in Arakan State. He is also a former immigration staff of Maungdaw Township, he further added. On 10th November 2005, the aforementioned Oli Ahmed held a religious lecture by inviting some religious teachers taking permission from the Township Peace and Development Council Chairman (TPDC) of Maungdaw Township, he more said. The Chairman allowed the applicant to hold the religious lecture nearby house till 10:00 pm.

However, the lecture was ended a few minutes lately on that day, said another man of the locality. However, some days later, on 26th November 2005, the police of Maungdaw Town went to the home of Oli Ahmed by the order of the TPDC Chairman of Maungdaw Township and arrested him for not concluding the lecture within the fixed time, the local man more added. Two days later, on 29th November 2005, the victim was produced before the trial court No.1 of Maungdaw Township, which sentenced to him a 10-month jail term with rigorous work for concluding a religious lecture delaying a few minutes as fixed by concerned authority implicating him under police Act No.49, Raki 932/05, said a lawyer from Maungdaw Town.

After the issue, the Azan (call to prayer) was banned with loud speakers from mosques in the Township of Maungdaw. Previously, the Azan was not forbidden by the authorities concerned, said an Imam (the leader of the prayers) from Maungdaw. A relative of Oli Ahmed said, "A man was sentenced to 10- month jailed with rigorous work for only 10 minutes lateness of ending of a religious lecture is a deliberate action against the Rohingya community."

According to a Sarapa, a new military intelligence group after the Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt sack said, "We come to Arakan State to cripple the whole economic bases of the Rohingya people and to drive them into slave labors without leaving any things for their possessions. We are also projecting that the Rohingya youths to be illiterate," said a university student who recently fled his motherland for his security reason.

Please check it out http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=10336

Rohingya: The Forgotten People

By Dr. Habib Siddiqui, USA

An often-practiced devious way to grab someone’s land is to deny his right to that property. Nothing could be more horrific when a government itself gets into such a criminal practice***********************************Rohningya:

The Forgotten People**********************************An often-practiced devious way to grab someone’s land is to deny his right to that property. Nothing could be more horrific when a government itself gets into such a criminal practice.

The most glaring example of such a crime can be seen in the practices of the regimes that have ruled Burma (now Myanmar) since its independence from Britain in 1948 (esp. since 1962 when Gen. Ne Win came to power). In our times, one can hardly find a regime that has been so atrocious, so inhuman and so barbarous in its denial of basic human rights to a people that trace their origin to the land for nearly a millennium. The victims are the Rohingya Muslims living in the Arakan (now Rakhine) state. They have become the forgotten people of our time. The ruling junta in Myanmar do not want to know and let others know that the Rohingyas have a long history, a language, a heritage, a culture and a tradition of their own that they had built up in the Arakan through their long history of existence there. Through their criminal propaganda - to garner support among the Buddhist majority - they have been feeding so much misinformation against the Rohingya that even Joseph Goebbles must be amazed in his grave! The level of disinformation has reached such an alarming level that if you were to talk with a Burmese Buddhist, he/she would say that the Rohingyas are foreigners in Arakan; they don’t belong to Burma; they belong to Bangladesh. Such allegations are unfounded. Distinguished scholar Abdul Karim writes, "In fact the forefathers of Rohingyas had entered into Arakan from time immemorial.” Brief geography and history about the place and its people:The word “Rohingya” comes from 'Rohang,' which was the original and ancient name of Arakan. The Arakan State of Myanmar, bordering Bangladesh, is mostly inhabited by two ethnic communities - the Rakhine Buddhist and the Rohingya Muslims.

The Rakhine Buddhists are close to the Burmese in religion and language. The Rohingya Muslims are ethnically and religiously related to the people from the region of Chittagong in south-eastern Bangladesh. The Rohingya Muslims number approximately 3.5 million. Due to large-scale persecution through ethnic cleansing and genocidal action against them, about 1.5 million Rohingyas are forced to leave outside their ancestral homes since Burmese independence in 1948. This uprooted people now live in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Thailand and Malaysia.Origin of the Rohingya:The original inhabitants of Rohang were Hindus, Buddhists and animists. From the pre-Islamic days, the region was very familiar to the Arab seafarers. Many settled in the Arakan, and mixing with the local people, developed the present stock of people known as ethnic Rohingya. Some historians tell us that the first Muslims to settle the Arakan were Arabs under the leadership of Muhammad ibn Hanafiya in the late 7th century (C.E.). He married the queen Kaiyapuri, who had converted to Islam. Her people then embraced Islam en masse. The peaks where they lived are still known as Hanifa Tonki and Kaiyapui Tonki. The second major influx of early Muslims dates back to the 8th century (C.E.). The British Burma Gazetteer (1957) says, “About 788 AD Mahataing Sandya ascended the throne of Vesali, founded a new city (Vesali) on the site of old Ramawadi and died after a reign of twenty two years. In his reign several ships were wrecked on Rambree Island and the crews, said to have been Mohammedans, were sent to Arakan Proper and settled in villages. They were Moor Arab Muslims.” Later, other ethnic groups, namely - the Mughals, Turks, Persians, Central Asians, Pathans and Bengalis - also moved into the territory and mixed with these Rohingya people.

The spread of Islam in the Arakan (and along the southern coastal areas of Bangladesh) mostly happened through the sea-borne Sufis and merchants. This fact is testified by the darghas (shrines), which are dotted at the long coast of the Arakan and Myanamar. The Burmese historian U. Kyi writes, “The superior morality of those devout Muslims attracted large number of people towards Islam who embraced it en masse.” Hence, the Rohingya Muslims, whose settlements in Arakan date back to the 7th century C.E., are not an ethnic group, which developed from one tribal group affiliation or single racial stock, but are an ethnic group that developed from different stocks of people. The ethnic Rohingya is Muslim by religion with distinct culture and civilization of their own.Origin of the Rakhine:The other dominant group that lives in the Arakan is the Rakhine Buddhist. In the year 957 C.E., a Mongolian invasion swept over Vesali (Vaisali) - the capital city - and killed Sula Chandra, the last Hindu king of Chandra dynasty. They destroyed Vesali and placed on their throne Mongolian kings. Mohammed Ashraf Alam writes, “Within a few years the Hindus of Bengal were able to establish their Pala Dynasty. But the Hindus of Vesali were unable to restore their dynasty because of the invasion and migrations of Tibeto-Burman who were so great that their population overshadowed the Vesali Hindus.

They cut Arakan away from Indians and mixing in sufficient number with the inhabitants of the eastern-side of the present Indo-Burma divide, created that Indo-Mongoloid stock now known as the Rakhine Arakanese. This emergence of a new race was not the work of a single invasion. But the date 957 AD may be said to mark the appearance of the Rakhine in Arakan, and the beginning of fresh period.” They were a wild people much given to plunder, violence, cruelty, kidnapping, enslavement and sea piracy, and came to be known as the Maghs of the Arakan. History researcher Alamgir Serajuddin writes, “Their cruelty, comparable only to that of bargi marauders of later days, was a byword in Bengal. Shihabuddin Talish thus described it: "They carried off the Hindus and Muslims, male and female, great and small, few and many that they could seize, pierced the palms of their hands, passed thin canes through the holes and threw them one above another under the deck of their ships.”” After the Portuguese established their settlements in Chittagong, Sandwip and Arakan during the Mughal rule of India, the Rakhine Maghs entered into a scheme of plundering Mughal territory in Bengal by making an alliance with the Portuguese pirates. So the Magh-Portuguese piracy was a menace to the peace of Bengal until 1666, when the Mughals, under the governorship of Shaista Khan (1664-1688) conquered Chittagong from the Arakanese control. That year (1666) marked the decline of the Arakanese Empire. [The Arakanese (Rakhine) Maghs left Chittagong, never to reoccupy it, which became a part of Bengal (and now Bangladesh). ] However, plundering by the Magh-Portuguese pirates continued throughout the 18th century. Historian G.E. Harvey writes, “Renell’s map of Bengal, published in 1794 AD marks the area south of Backergunge ‘deserted on account of the ravages of the Muggs (Arakanese)’…. The Arakan pirates, both Magh and feringhi, used to come by the water-route and plunder Bengal…. Mohammedans underwent such oppression, as they had not to suffer in Europe. As they continually practiced raids for a long time, Bengal daily became more and more desolate and less and less able to resist them. Not a house was left inhabited on their side of the rivers lying on their track from Chittagong to Dacca. The district of Bakla [Backergunge and part of Dacca], which formerly abounded in houses and cultivated fields and yield a large revenue as duty on betel-nuts, was swept so clean with their broom of plunder and abduction that none was left to tenant any house or kindle a light in that region. …… When Shayista Khan asked the feringhi deserters, what salary the Magh king had assigned to them, they replied, ‘Our salary was the Mughal Empire. We considered the whole of Bengal as our fief. We had not to bother revenue surveyors and ourselves about court clerks but levied our rent all the year round without difficulty. We have kept the papers of the division of the booty for the last forty years.’” Because of their centuries of savagery, the Maghs of Arakan earned such a bad name that they started calling themselves the Rakhines. The Rakhines practice Buddhism and their spoken language is pure Burmese with slight phonetic variation.Muslim Influence in Arakan:Arakan, sandwiched between Muslim-ruled India in the west and Buddhist-ruled Burma in the east, at different periods of history, had been an independent sovereign monarchy ruled by Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims. As the threat from the Burmese court of Ava grew, it turned westward for protection. After Bengal became Muslim in 1203 C.E., Islamic influence grew significantly in Arakan to the degree of establishing a Muslim vassal state there in 1430 C.E. In 1404, the Arakan king, dethroned by the Burmese, took asylum in Gaur (the capital of Bengal) and pleaded for help to regain the lost throne. Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah, the Sultan of Bengal, sent General Wali Khan at the head of 50,000 soldiers to conquer Arakan. Wali Khan drove the Burmese and took control of power over Arakan for himself, introduced Persian as the court language of Arakan and appointed Muslim judges (Qazis). Jalaluddin then sent a second army under General Sandi Khan who overthrew Wali Khan and restored the exiled monarch (Mong Saw Mwan who took the title of Sulayman Shah) to the throne of Arakan in 1430. Mong Saw Mwan’s Muslim soldiers settled in Arakan and established the Sandi Khan mosque in Mrhaung.

They eventually became the kingmakers during the Mrauk-U dynasty. The practice of adopting a Muslim name or title by the Arakanese kings continued until 1638. Bisveswar Bhattacharya sums up the position thus, “As the Mohammedan influence was predominant, the Arakanese kings, though Buddhist in religion, became somewhat Mohammedanized in their ideas…” In 1660, the Mughal Prince Shah Shuja fled to Arakan. This important event brought a new wave of Muslim immigrants to the kingdom of Arakan. Dr. Muhammad Enamul Haq and Abdul Karim Shahitya Bisharad in their work “Bengali Literature in the Court of Arakan 1600-1700” state that “[T]he Arakanese kings issued coins bearing the inscription of Muslim Kalema (the profession of faith in Islam) in Arabic script. The State emblem was also inscribed Arabic word Aqimuddin (establishment of God’s rule over the earth).” The Arakanese court’s adoption of many Muslim customs and terms were other noteworthy signs to the influence of Islam. Mosques began to dot the countryside and Islamic customs, manners and practices came to be established since this time. From 1685 to 1710, the political power of Arakan was completely in the hand of the Muslims. Muslim rule and/or influence in Arakan lasted altogether for approx. 350 years until it was invaded and occupied by Burmese king Boddaw Paya on 28 December 1784. The latter is responsible for destroying everything Islamic in Arakan and sowing the seed of distrust between the two communities – Rohingya and Rakhine.Arakan in post-1784 era:Arakan was neither a Burmese nor an Indian territory till 1784. It had managed to retain its independent (or semi-independent) status for most of its existence. In 1784 thousands of Arakanese, Rohingya and Buddhists alike, were killed, and their mosques, dargas and temples destroyed by the Burmese soldiers. During the 40-year Burmese tyrannical rule (1784-1824), nearly two-thirds or 200,000 Arakanese were forced to take refuge in Chittagong (Bengal).The First Anglo-Burmese War (1824-26) ended on 24 February 1826 when Burma ratified the Treaty of Yandabo and ceded Arakan and Tenasserim to British India. At that time, nearly a third of the population of Arakan was Muslims. Burma was separated from British India on 1 April 1937 under the Government of India Act of 1935.

Arakan was made a part of British Burma against the wishes of its people and thus finally Arakan became a province of independent Burma in 1948. For centuries, the Rohingya Muslims coexisted relatively peacefully with the Rakhine Buddhists. However, this changed around the Second World War, when communal riots erupted between the two ethnic groups at the instigation of third parties, most notably the British Raj. The bitterness was fuelled by the pogrom of March 28, 1942 in which about 100,000 Rohingyas were massacred and about 80,000 had to flee their ancestral homes. 294 Rohingya villages were totally destroyed. Since then the relationship between the two communities deteriorated. After Burma’s independence in 1948, Muslims carried out an unsuccessful armed rebellion demanding an autonomous state within the Union of Burma. This resulted in a backlash against the Muslims that led to their removal from civil posts, restrictions on their movement, and confiscation of their property. Under the military regime of General Ne Win, beginning in 1962, the Muslim residents of Arakan were labeled illegal immigrants who settled in Burma during British rule.

The government at the center made efforts to drive them out of Burma, starting with the denial of citizenship. The 1974 Emergency Immigration Act took away Burmese nationality from the Rohingyas, making them foreigners in their own country. As of 1999, there have been no less than 20 major operations of eviction campaigns against the Rohingyas carried out by the successive Governments of Burma. In pursuance of the 20-year Rohingya Extermination Plan, the Arakan State Council under direct supervision of State Council of Burma carried out a Rohingya drive operation code named Naga Min or King Dragon Operation. It was the largest, the most notorious and probably the best-documented operation of 1978. The operation started on 6th February 1978 from the biggest Muslim village of Sakkipara in Akyab, which sent shock waves over the whole region within a short time. News of mass arrest of Muslims, male and female, young and old, torture, rape and killing in Akyab frustrated Muslims in other towns of North Arakan. In March 1978 the operation reached at Buthidaung and Maungdaw. Hundreds of Muslim men and women were thrown into the jail and many of them were being tortured and killed. Muslim women were raped freely in the detention centers. Terrified by the ruthlessness of the operation and total uncertainty of their life, property, honor and dignity, a large number Rohingya Muslims left their homes to cross the Burma-Bangladesh border. Within 3 months more than 3,00,000 Rohingyas took shelter in makeshift camps erected by Bangladesh Government.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recognized them as genuine refugees and started relief operations.On 18 July 1991 a more dreadful Rohingya drive extermination campaign code named “Pyi Thaya” was launched. This involved killing and raping of Rohingyas, and destroying their properties, plus places of worship. It forced Rohingyas again to seek shelter in Bangladesh. In recent years, while some Rohingyas have returned to Arakan as a result of Bangladesh-Myanmar bilateral agreement, still there are many who are afraid to return to their ancestral homes.Due to the divide and rule policy of the Myanmar government, the relationship between the Rakhine and the Rohingya have become increasingly strained without any trust. The Rakhines, as a matter of fact, have become Rohingya’s worst enemies. With very few exceptions, the Rakhines want to cleanse the Arakan of the Rohingya. In Myanmar, the Rohingyas 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. Solution to the problem:The Rohingya people need 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.

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By Dr. Habib Siddiqui

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Junta Restrictions Cause Food Shortages Among Rohingyas

By Clive ParkerSeptember 23, 2005
Claims by an ethnic Rohingya organization that restrictions from the Rangoon government are causing food shortages in Arakan State were confirmed by the head of the World Food Programme in Burma today.

Bhim Udas, the head of WFP’s operations in Burma, said his organization had had to wait more than three months for a permit to transport food aid to Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung, three predominantly Rohingya townships in Arakan State.


WFP has been operating in Arakan State for the past 11 years, providing food for an estimated 300,000 people. Despite this, the Burmese authorities have given no explanation for the recent delay in granting access, Udas said. Rangoon’s Department of Relief and Social Welfare was unavailable for comment.

The Arakan Rohingya National Organization said today the situation in these three townships is grave, claiming a 5-year-old girl died this month from starvation and that others are on the brink. “The Rohingya villagers are in [a] famine-like situation,” a statement said.

A late monsoon this year has delayed the rice harvest, Udas said, while food aid has been disappearing across the border into Bangladesh recently, exacerbating food shortages.

Udas explained the junta is practicing what it calls a “limited supply” of food aid to the Rohingya population as it is fearful supplies will continue to move across Arakan’s border with Bangladesh in the future.

However, Udas told The Irrawaddy that WFP had not witnessed any signs of starvation in northern Arakan State during the latest food shortages.

Having this month finally received the necessary permit to transport rice and food aid from Rangoon to Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, the WFP says that two weeks ago it was able to offer some supplies to vulnerable groups including young children.

“There is progress,” Udas said. “When our food starts moving from Sittwe to Northern Rakhine [Arakan] State [and then] to the three townships in which we are working— Maungdaw, Buthidaung and some parts of Rathedaung—and at least in those three areas… I can say that the food situation will improve and the prices will go down.”

More than 200,000 tonnes of food has already reached Sittwe, Udas added.

ARNO has accused the Burmese military of controlling the rice market in Rohingya areas and forcing the price up to nearly four times that in the capital of Sittwe. It also cites examples of Burmese military personnel arresting those trying to transport rice or offer it to hungry Rohingyas.

This latest example of restrictions on WFP efforts to offer food aid in Burma follows a call by the head of the organization, James Morris, during a trip last month to Rangoon, for the junta to change its ways.

Following the visit, Morris issued a statement in Bangkok saying: “Current agricultural and marketing policies, and restrictions on the movement of people, make it very difficult for many of those at risk to merely subsist.”
Muslim Rohingyas are unable to move freely and are denied Burmese citizenship by the junta, making it difficult for them to secure sources of food from outside their villages.

please check this out:http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=5023&z=153

Deprivation of Education in Arakan, Burma

Arakan, Burma is extremely deprived of high level of illiteracy among the children as well as adults, said Hamid, who is studying in Malaysia University.

Most of the village tracts have at least one primary school (class 1 to 4). But remote areas’ admission is weakened by distance and lack of communication during the rainy season. But, widespread poverty keeps many children have to leave school as they are compelled to support to their families. Most of the students have to give up their schools during the winter and summer seasons to provide helps to their parents in their croplands. Most of the parents send their children for religious education in Madrasa and Maqtab to learn Quarn in Arabic. Furthermore, teaching in primary schools is only conveyed in Burmese language, which most of the children cannot speak and understand, said an intellectual.

There are some middle schools (class 5 to and High Schools (Class 9 to 10), in Buthidaung and Maungdaw Townships. Besides, there are also some self-supported schools where students’ families and villagers have to pay the teachers in cash and in paddy. Some NGOs have also appointed some teachers to schools by providing them rice or paddy per month. A small number of Rohingya children reach class ten and complete basic education, he further added.
There is only one university in Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, which was established in 1973. Since a travel ban to Sittwe has been enforced on the Rohingya people in February 2001, Rohingya students have been facing more difficulties and problems to join the University. All the students including Rohingya across the 17 townships of Arakan State have to study in Sittwe University except those who got admission at Rangoon University and other institutions. But, Rohingya students were totally banned to go to Rangoon for higher education or other professional subjects. However, to avoid the difficulties, most of the Rohingya students can only study university level courses through distance education, said a university student.

Moreover, Rohingya students have been facing serious difficulties in obtaining permission to sit in their examination, which was held on 6th December 2004. About 205 Rohingya students (regular basis and distance education) from Maungdaw and Buthidaung Townships didn’t get travel passes timely from SPDC authorities to go to Sittwe to sit their annual examination, he more said.

Education levels are also worsened by the lack of teachers in rural areas and the poor quality of teaching. Besides, Rohingya teachers cannot be employed as civil servants and are not allowed to teach in government schools. However, in some rural areas, Rohingya teachers have been appointed temporally by NGOs or by the villagers themselves by supporting them with rice or paddy.
In northern Arakan, about 85% of the schoolteachers are Buddhists (Rakhine and Burman) and the remaining 15% are Arakanese Rohingyas who were appointed by the government before 1988. Government appointed teachers are always Buddhists and “paddy teachers” generally Arakanese Rohingys. There should be enough trained teachers, but Rakhing Buddhists are generally unwilling to teach Rohingya students and often neglect their profession. In addition, teachers receive a negligible salary and it compels them to increase their income through other means. Most of the Rakhing female teachers don’t wish to go to rural areas and concerned authorities don’t take any action against them, said a retired school headmaster on condition of anonymity.

“A good education system is necessary for the long-term development of a country and we all are responsible to work for the improvement of the education system.” (Source: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, speech given on National Day, November 2002).

Education in Burma has been severely impacted by more than four decades of military rule. The military regime views potentially politically active university and high school students as one of the biggest threats to their grip on power, so all-non military education is treated as expendable. All civilian schools and universities throughout Burma suffer from a lack of resources and qualified educators, a problem found in many developing countries, however, unique to Burma is the fact that the ruling government actively tries to thwart universal and advanced higher education. (Source: HRD 2002-2003 of NCGUB).

The 1982 law on Citizenship makes the Rohingyas foreigners in their own country. The consequences of this non-citizenship law caused lack of freedom of association, impossibility to appeal to justice, or to apply for the public service, limited access to higher education.
The 1983 census shows male to female literacy rates of 86%: 77% in the predominantly Burman divisions, compared to 65%: 50% in the predominantly ethnic states. (Sources: Images Asia Jan 2002).

Due to the deteriorating levels of education available at government schools, students and parents are increasingly turning to other educational options when these are available. In Arakan State, a large number of students are reportedly leaving government schools to enroll in schools run by Buddhist monasteries. Many people in this area believe that monastic education is better quality and less expensive than education at state-run schools. There were approximately 500 students enrolled in just one monastery in Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State. (Source: Narinjara)

Only a small percentage of people in Arakan are able to continue their higher education that passed high school. The majority of students are unable to pursue higher education for economic reasons. In order to support their families, many students have to quit schools to take jobs that don’t require a high education level, sometimes migrating to other countries where there are more employment opportunities. Other students cannot attend universities because they have fled their homes or been imprisoned for political activities.

The standard of education becomes high because of the developments in all sectors of the nation. The western media unjustly criticized Myanmar’s education, saying that its level was too low; and that it was far away from meeting the standard. It is one of the many slanders against Myanmar hurled by the persons who do not wish to see her enjoying progress in all quarters. During the ancient times, Myanmars learnt education, religion and morals at monasteries. The colonialists after annexing Myanmar destroyed the nation’s education system and substituted it with its education system to breed colonialist servants. The SlORC/SPDC enacted laws to remove all the remaining colonial influences and thoughts in the education system. Short-term and long-term plans have been implemented for education promotion. Education conferences have been held to seek better means. The Government is building. Myanmar is cooperating with the world nations including the ASEAN to develop her education. Education systems have been firmly established in the nation. Because of racial and status discrimination, it is still difficult for all the people to pursue education in some big countries. But, Myanmar has no discrimination in any part and sector at all. Today, Myanmar has totally discarded the colonial education, and successfully established a firm and advanced national education system. It is a correct system free from errors. (Sources-The New Light of Myanmar, July 5, 2004.)
Burma’s education system has been heavily impacted by the regime’s grip of power. The regime has a fear of student movements, given the history of student movement in the past people’s uprisings. As a result, the regime often shuts down the schools and limits the freedom of education.

Source: Kaladanpress Network, January 5, 2005.

Ban on Marriages, Another Yoke on Rohingya Muslims

Marwaan Macan-Markar BANGKOK, Dec 6 (IPS) - In Burma's remote west, young men and women are subject to a form of discrimination, considered harsh, even for the military regime in this country. They are banned from getting married. The victims are young adults from the ethnic Muslim-Rohingya community that is concentrated in the hilly Arakan state which shares a border with Bangladesh.

Those who dared violate this ban are subject to heavy penalties, according to human rights researchers and Rohingya political leaders and journalists IPS spoke with. ''We know of at least five couples who were arrested and jailed this year for getting married without permission from the local authorities,'' says Chris Lewa, lead researcher in 'The Arakan Project', an independent group monitoring human rights violations in the area. ''No marriage permission has been granted to a Rohingya since March 2005.'' One 25-year-old Rohingya man was ''beaten and tortured'' by the Burmese border police in the area, known by its local acronym NaSaKa, for marrying an 18-year-old Muslim woman. But, even before the enforcement of the ban on marriages, this year, military authorities had in place a veritable obstacle course that deterred any Rohingya from plans to get married. Prospective brides and grooms had to get permission from four different authorities, including the NaSaKa and immigration authorities. ''Getting this permission could take one or two years,'' says Fayas Ahamed, editor of the 'Kaladan Press Network', a web-based news outlet on Rohingya affairs, produced in the Bangladeshi port city of Chittagong. ''And one had to pay bribes at each point.'' Consequently, the backlog of marriages, delayed and denied in the Arakan state, runs into thousands, Ahamed estimates. ''Since the beginning of 2004, there are at least 10,000 marriage applications pending with authorities''. Such a policy is only one in a series of hardships imposed on the Rohingyas by Rangoon's junta, known officially as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). Other restrictions, such as severe limits to stop food items being moved into the Arakan region and a harsh travel ban on the Rohingyas, have prompted community leaders to accuse Rangoon of ''ethnic cleansing''.

''The Rohingyas are being forced to live as if in a concentration camp,'' Nurul Islam, president of the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation, an umbrella group for Rohingya political and separatist organisations, told IPS. ''The SPDC's philosophy is to make life so difficult for the Rohingyas that they will flee to Bangladesh.'' Not only are the current travel restrictions ''more oppressive'' than before, they are also ''far worse'' than what the SPDC has imposed across other parts of Burma, says Islam, who has been forced into exile for his political activities. ''Now you cannot move from one village to another, even a five-mile distance, without getting a pass.

Rohingyas need passes for even day trips to go to health clinics.'' According to Lewa, poverty-stricken villagers have been forced by local authorities to pay for travel passes to collect food aid distributed by the World Food Programme (WFP). ''One pregnant woman was raped in south Maundaw on her way to collect her food package.'' The Rohingyas, largely rice farmers and labourers, are presently facing a ''food crisis'' due to a poor rice harvest and restrictions on the movement of food, said Lewa. ''The NaSaKa and the military (have banned) rice trade within and beyond the area (the northern Arakan state) and even between villages.'' In August, following a visit to Burma, the head of the WFP revealed how restrictions on food distribution had led to ''serious'' malnourishment among children in the country's border regions. Only a fifth of the 5,500 metric tons of rice that the WFP had purchased for the hungry in the Arakan state had been distributed, James Morris, the head of the U.N. food relief agency, told reporters recently. Any trading of food commodities or movement of people in that area requires permits, Hakan Tongul, WFP's deputy country director in Burma, confirmed in an e-mail interview from Rangoon. ''Each lorry requires a permit and this takes time, sometimes weeks to obtain, since the system of permits is highly centralised à (and) if the commander is absent from the office then the permit will not be signed for a long time.'' Such continuing violations are happening three years after Human Rights Watch (HRW), the New York-based lobby, appealed to the United Nations to include the sufferings of the Muslims in the Arakan State to the list of torments endured by other ethnic communities in Burma, at the hands of Rangoon's junta. ''Violence against Rohingya Muslims in Arakan is a way of life,'' HRW declared in the July 2002 report. ''As opposed to other parts of Burma, in Arakan, the violence against Muslims is carried out systematically by the Burmese army.''

The SPDC's hostility towards this largest concentration of Muslims in Burma was amply clear in the early 1990s, when it stripped Rohingyas of citizenship by stating that they do not belong to the 135 national races that Rangoon recognises as Burmese. It was a policy that was in keeping with the denial of Rohingya rights that came into force shortly after the military coup of 1962. Official discrimination and occasional riots against the Muslims have forced tens of thousands of Rohingyas to flee their homes for the safety of neighbouring countries over the past decades. Bangladesh, Pakistan and India are home to some 300,000 Rohingyas displaced by the abuse and violence, while others have found refuge in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. ''The tragedy of the Rohingyas is the work of the SPDC, nothing more,'' says Ahamed. ''They are gradually trying to suffocate us.'' (END/2005)

Divide & Rule

By,Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Let me say that the SPDC military regime did not come in the vacuum of history. It has learned the art of "divide and rule," a policy that was patented in the history rather well. The SPDC has succeeded in gaining and holding power over Burma through a combination of skills, not the least of which include that "divide and rule" policy.

Their power is essentially rooted in racism that has permeated Burmese society for centuries. This racism is not limited to the racial supremacy complex, but also playing the card of ethnic racism of one against the other. Thus we see the racism of the Karen against the Burmans, the Burmans against the Shan, the Shan against the Wa, the Wa against the Shan, the Rakhine against the Rohingyas, the Mon against the Burmans, the Burmans against the Chinese, the Christians against the Buddhists, etc. This list is by no means a comprehensive one, but the bottom line is: the military has always exploited it to turn people against each other and thereby increase its hold on power.

The SPDC propaganda, therefore, encourages a blind racist nationalism that is full of references to ‘protecting the race’, meaning that if Burmans do not oppress other nationalities then they will themselves be oppressed, ‘national reconsolidation’, meaning assimilation, and preventing ‘disintegration of the Union’, meaning that if the Army falls then some kind of ethnic chaos would engulf the divided nation.

It is unfortunate to see that now some people who consider themselves to be foot soldiers for bringing in democracy and freedom in Burma themselves are, either knowingly or unknowingly, falling into the trap of the SPDC to deny the citizenship and other human rights of the Rohinger people of Arakan.

To these aberrant group, there is no history of the Rohingya; they are originally from Bangladesh , brought in by the British, etc. Where does such denial of history lead us to? Has humanity ever benefited from such revisionist trend to distort history? I dare say, never. How can one rationalize the fact that for nearly 350 years the rulers in the Arakan had adopted the title of Sultan, and that Rohingers played an important role in the Arakan society?
No, I am not here to teach history of Arakan, but only to appeal to common sense, away from prejudice and bigotry.

Those who are interested in learning history of the Rohingya people may like to study some books before making a fool of themselves with their ignorance and/or confuse others.
Some useful readings:

_ Mohammed Ashraf Alam, A short historical background of the Arakan people
_ N.M. Habibullah, Rohingya Jatir Itihas (History of the Rohingyas), Bangladesh Co-Operative Book Society Ltd., Dhaka , 1995;
_ U Kyi, The Essential History of Burma ;
_ Dr. Mohammad Yunus,A HISTORY OF ARAKAN (Past and Present);
_ British-Burma Gazetteers of 1879.