On the Sixth Anniversary of the Genocide, What Is the Current Situation of the Rohingya Muslims?

On the sixth anniversary of the forced displacement of the Rohingya Muslims, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, on September 2, 2023, stated that the conditions faced by the Rohingya Muslims remain dire; they continue to endure widespread and systematic discrimination in all aspects of life, despite six years having passed since the atrocities inflicted on this minority by the Myanmar military.

On August 25, the sixth anniversary of the genocide against Rohingya, the U.S. Department of State said, “The United States stands with the victims and survivors and reaffirms our commitment to pursue justice and accountability for the atrocities committed by the Burma military. We are deeply grateful to the Government and the people of Bangladesh for giving shelter and refuge to nearly one million Rohingya, as well as other countries in the region hosting Rohingya refugees.”

It further stated that America “has provided over $2.1 billion to assist those affected by the crisis in Burma, Bangladesh, and elsewhere in the region since 2017, remaining the leading single largest donor of life-saving humanitarian assistance to those whose lives have been upended by the violence. The escalation of violence throughout the country has exacerbated the dire humanitarian situation, particularly for members of ethnic and religious minority communities, including Rohingya.”

According to UN data, the number of internally displaced persons in Myanmar had reached 1.9 million by August 2023.

630,000 Rohingya minorities in the Rakhine State (previously known as Arakan) still face systematic discrimination, marginalization, extortion, and widespread violations, with one million Rohingya refugees residing in Bangladesh, most of whom aspire to return to Myanmar.

On the sixth anniversary of the genocide, the Burma Human Rights Network stated that approximately 600,000 Rohingya remain trapped in detention camps in Arakan, established by the military government under the name “Rakhine,” based on a system of discriminatory laws and policies amounting to ongoing crimes against humanity and genocide.

The network called for holding the Rohingya government accountable for crimes against humanity and ongoing genocide. Kyaw Win, the executive director of the Burma Human Rights Network, questioned how much longer should the Rohingya wait for justice? Six years have passed since the military campaign of killings, rapes, and deliberate arson in the Rakhine State.

The Rohingya minority is described as “the largest stateless minority” in the world, according to the report “This is Our Home”: Stateless Minorities and Their Search for Citizenship, released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on November 3, 2017.

However, this displacement and persecution were not their first experiences of such suffering.

They have endured lengthy periods of oppression, violence, genocide, and ethnic cleansing at the hands of Buddhists, military rulers, and former British colonial rule.

In this report, we delve into the details of their plight, what has happened to them since their displacement, and why Islamic and Arab voices have been conspicuously absent from addressing their ongoing tragedy.

 

History of Genocide

According to the Arakan Rohingya Union website, Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has a population of 53.8 million, with Muslims accounting for 15 percent of the total population.

Half of them reside in the predominantly Muslim Arakan State, where Muslims make up more than 70 percent of the population, while the rest are Buddhists and other sects.

Myanmar includes 145 ethnicities, out of which the Burmese and Rohingya are the most significant, with the Rohingya previously being the second-largest religious group after the Burmese in terms of population.

If we examine the history of forced displacement in the Arakan State, we find that it is not a recent issue; the Burmese government, with its militias, has conducted repeated acts of expulsion and collective displacement.

Even if we only consider events from the last century, we find a long series of genocides, according to the Arakan Rohingya Union.

In 1948, after declaring independence from Britain, the Rohingya were not recognized in the constitution, claiming that their ancestors were not indigenous to the country. From then on, the authorities or the Buddhist majority did not treat the Rohingya as citizens; they were barred from government employment, pursuing higher education, and even performing the Hajj.

• In 1951, Muslims in the Arakan State lost their government jobs due to non-recognition.
• In 1961, Buddhism was declared the official state religion in Myanmar.
• In 1962, following a military coup, more than 300,000 Rohingya Muslims were expelled to the neighboring country of Bangladesh.
• In 1970, military rule was imposed on Rohingya Muslims.
• In 1974, Rohingya Muslims were deprived of their voting rights.
• In 1978, more than half a million Rohingya Muslims were brutally expelled, with nearly 40,000 Rohingya, including the elderly, women, and children, dying, as per the statistics of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
• In 1982, a new nationality law was issued, denying Rohingya their citizenship.
• In 1988, more than 150,000 Rohingya were expelled.
• In 1991, around 500,000 Rohingya were expelled following the annulment of the general election results, in which the opposition won a landslide victory.
• In 2006, the government returned Rohingya Muslims as refugees from Bangladesh.
• In May 2012, tensions escalated in the Arakan State after the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman, leading to the assassination of 10 Muslim clerics and sectarian clashes in Arakan, resulting in the death of 21 people.
• In 2012, the government declared a state of emergency in the country and labeled the Rohingya as a racially different and unwelcome ethnic group.
• From January to March 2015, thousands of Rohingya fled to Bangladesh aboard rickety boats.
• In 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingya fled following escalating attacks against them.

Different countries have been the destinations where Rohingya Muslims fled or sought refuge over time and across decades. According to statistics from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Rohingya are distributed across several countries as follows:

• Bangladesh: 1 million
• Pakistan: 350,000
• Saudi Arabia: 250,000
• Malaysia: 150,000
• India: 40,000
• Thailand: 5,000
• Indonesia: 1,000

As oppression escalated, some of them fled to various countries, including the Arabian Gulf and specifically Saudi Arabia.

Rohingya’s migration to Saudi Arabia began in the 1950s, and their estimated number is around 250,000, residing in Mecca and the Hijaz region. Some of them were granted residency, while others were granted nationality in an attempt to regularize their status.

However, this treatment has changed since King Salman bin Abdulaziz ascended to the throne, and his son, Mohammad bin Salman, became the Crown Prince. They began tightening restrictions on them and others who do not possess official documents or whose residencies have expired, despite the oppression they faced in their own country and the lack of recognition for decades, leaving them without official documents in their homeland.

Saudi authorities also arrested some of them, such as the Rohingya Sharia representative at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the head of the Rohingya World Center in Mecca, during a wave of arrests that targeted several Saudi scholars, preachers, and residents.

 

Historically and Geographically Erased

Historians have differed on the arrival of Islam in the Arakan region.

Some sources suggest that Islam entered Burma in the first Hijri century through the companion Waqqas bin Malik. However, the prevailing view is that Islam entered the region in the second Hijri century after it reached Arakan.

Nonetheless, some historians assert that Islam arrived during the Abbasid Caliphate, specifically in the year 172 AH (788–789 AD), through Arab traders. Ancient Muslim relics are said to confirm their presence at this early time.

Regarding the most prominent violations perpetrated by Myanmar’s governments against the Rohingya, Ataullah Noor, head of the Arakan News Agency, summarized them in a study titled A Brief History of Rohingya and Arakan as follows:

• Restricting movement and travel: Burmese authorities imposed strict restrictions on the movement of Rohingya Muslims within and outside the country. They are not allowed to travel without prior permits from the relevant government body, effectively turning Arakan State into a large prison for the Rohingya.
• Massacres, torture, and arrests: Burmese Buddhist forces repeatedly carried out repressive campaigns against Rohingya Muslims in Arakan, killing many of them without any evidence of guilt. Hundreds of thousands were arbitrarily arrested on false charges and subjected to severe torture and inhumane treatment, despite reports from international human rights organizations documenting severe human rights violations committed by the Burmese government in Arakan.
• Confiscation of endowments and agricultural land: The government imposed exorbitant taxes on agricultural products of Muslims, making it impossible for them to pay.
• Establishment of new Buddhist settlements: The Burmese government established new Buddhist settlements throughout the Rohingya’s confiscated lands, aiming to alter the demographic composition of Arakan State and convert Rohingya Muslims into a minority. Buddhist settlers, with the support and supervision of Buddhist authorities, incited sectarian strife and engaged in looting in Rohingya areas.
• Obstructing commercial activities: Buddhist authorities prohibited Rohingya Muslims from engaging in any form of commercial or economic activities, including small-scale trade. For instance, many shrimp and fish farms owned by Rohingya were seized by the Burmese Buddhist government.
• Forced labor, looting, and assassinations: Rohingya Muslims are often forced into labor without compensation for extended periods. Many have been killed by Burmese armed forces and border security during these forced labor operations.
• Violation of women’s sanctity and rape: Violating the sanctity of women, dishonoring them, and raping them have become routine practices for Burmese authorities. Army personnel, border security forces, and Buddhists often invade Muslim villages at night and invade homes, committing acts of terrorism, violating women’s sanctity, and dishonoring them with the force of arms. There is no punishment or accountability for those who commit these crimes. Instead, those who complain about Muslims are arrested and detained in unknown locations.
• Inciting unrest to kill Rohingya: Violent and bloody clashes erupt in various parts of Arakan from time to time. Extremist Buddhists coordinate with the Burmese government to provoke these conflicts, resulting in the killing of hundreds of Rohingya Muslims, the looting of their homes, and their forced displacement.
• Violation of the sanctity of Muslim sites and religious books: Many mosques and schools in Arakan have been attacked and set on fire, while many Rohingya cemeteries have been turned into pigsties. Burmese authorities often confiscate Muslim religious books.

 

Justice Absent

When we trace the path of justice for the crimes and genocide committed against the Rohingya Muslims, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague rejected Myanmar’s initial objections to the case brought by The Gambia under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide on July 22, 2022.

The case revolves around the genocide in Myanmar against the Rohingya ethnicity in the Rakhine State, focusing on military operations that began in October 2016 and August 2017.

The Gambia filed the case before the International Court of Justice in November 2019, alleging that the Myanmar military committed acts of genocide, including killing, causing serious bodily and mental harm, deliberate imposition of conditions designed to bring about the physical destruction of the Rohingya ethnic group, and imposing measures to prevent births and forcibly transferring children with the intent to destroy the Rohingya community in whole or in part.

State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi led Myanmar’s delegation at the hearings of the International Court of Justice in December 2019, where she denied all charges leveled against her and her country.

Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate, was sentenced to 11 years in prison following the military coup in Myanmar in 2021. She faces over 180 years on various charges within the country.

Reuters reported on September 5, 2023, that the former leader of the country, who is currently detained, is ill, and the military rulers of the country have refused requests for her to be examined by an external doctor.

As for the official Arab positions, they typically come in the form of delayed statements, and when they do arrive, they generally consist of condemnation, denunciation, protest, or rejection.

However, the responses of some countries have differed slightly, with more escalated stances observed among Muslim-majority countries surrounding Myanmar, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.

The most notable Islamic response came from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who, on November 10, 2017, emphasized that “the international community should not remain silent as the Rohingya Muslims are displaced and killed in Arakan State, Myanmar, without distinguishing between children, women, elderly, or youth.”

Former Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also visited Rohingya refugee camps and provided support and humanitarian aid. The wife of the Turkish President, Emine Erdogan, made visits to the camps to offer support and assistance.

In Istanbul, Turkiye, on July 18, 2023, a branch of the Global Rohingya Center was opened under the name Association for Rohingya Muslim People’s Support in Arakan state in Myanmar.

However, the situation remains unchanged for Rohingya Muslims, who continue to endure persecution, living in military-blockaded encampments within a country that does not recognize them. They are not allowed to leave, work, receive education, or access healthcare.