ETHNIC CLEANSING: The Rohingya Muslim Tribe

What happened in Myanmar?

In Myanmar, the Rohingya are a minority ethnic group. They are primarily Muslims and are
regarded as illegal immigrants by the government of Myanmar. The bulk of Myanmar's population is
Buddhist, and they assert that they will overthrow the country if the Rohingya are not eliminated first.
Muslim Rohingyas are presently experiencing a cultural and ethnic genocide. Muslims from Rohingya, a
minority community, are currently the most oppressed ethnic group, according to the UN. The basis for
the separation is that ethnic minorities were recruited as soldiers by Britain during colonialism as a
means of securing control of the nation by reducing the population of the majority. The rise of
nationalism among Buddhists was influenced by the British concept of split-and-conquer politics. As a
result of systematic rape, killing, and widespread violence against Rohingya Muslims, the crisis has been
labeled a genocide by international organizations. The UN judgement forcing Myanmar to take steps to
protect the minority community is a result of structural violence and violations of a number of human
rights against Rohingya Muslims (Globalis, 2021).

British Colonialism

British colonization changed the power dynamics and intensified tensions between Muslims and
Buddhists in Burma. Early in the 20th century, there were twice as many immigrants living there as there
were Muslims. As more immigrants entered the Muslim Rohingya community, their religious networks
grew, and the Rohingya started to act, look, and dress differently from their Buddhist neighbors. Some
Buddhist settlements were driven south by the expanding population. Conflict over resources with
Buddhists resulted from these changes. Even worse, the majority Burman ethnicity was prohibited from
serving in the military while the Rohingya cooperated with the British against the Japanese during World
War II. Armed conflict between Rohingya and Burmese Buddhists who sided with the Japanese against
the British led to revengeful cycles of bloodshed at the village level. In the post-war government, the
British placed Rohingya to powerful posts, and some of them used these positions to exact revenge on
Buddhists who had wronged them during the conflict. Furthermore, some Muslims hoped to separate
from Myanmar and join with India or Pakistan because they thought the British would allow them to
remain independent after the war.

The Rohingya Muslims: Bloodshed

The mid-century Burmese National Movement, which coincided with a Buddhist religious
rebirth, made opposition to Muslim immigration one of its key issues. The experience of the Rohingya
and other ethnic minorities in Burma would be significantly impacted by this. The Burmese military
murdered, raped, and set fire to Rohingya homes in 1978, causing 200,000 people to flee. Four years
later, the Rohingya were formally denied citizenship when the government passed the Myanmar
Citizenship Law. Even though the Rohingya have lived in Myanmar for many generations, the
government used their allegation that they are Bengali to justify their actions. The Rohingya were left
without a state, had their freedom of movement and property ownership restricted, were denied access
to education, and were prohibited from running for public office.

Over 250,000 Rohingya fled into Bangladesh in 1991 and 1992 to avoid being subjected to
forced labor, rape, and religious persecution at the hands of the Tatmadaw, the Myanmar army. In
defiance of UN conventions prohibiting refoulement, the Bangladesh government declared that the
Rohingya would have to return to Myanmar and started the practice of forced expulsion in 1992.

Violence between Buddhists and Muslims in the Rakhine state escalated in 2012, leading to a
deliberate effort to expel or relocate the Muslims living there. Officials from political parties, top
Buddhist monks, and state security personnel massacred men, women, and children in large numbers
while destroying their communities. Over 5,000 houses and other structures were destroyed. More than
100,000 Rohingya fled to Malaysia by boat as a result of the violence, which left 150,000 of them
homeless.

The biggest wave of refugees since the Rwandan genocide in 1994 occurred in August 2017 after
a small group of Rohingya insurgents attacked in Myanmar. As a result of military backlash, the whole
Rohingya population was targeted. In just three months, more than 675,000 Rohingya abandoned the
country in search of safety in Bangladesh. Following prior waves of racial violence that had displaced
300,000 people, they joined the thousands of refugees who were still crossing the border every day.
More than a million Rohingya refugees were officially registered in Bangladesh as of January 2018.

Without attracting the attention of the world community, the Myanmar army targets crops and
resources to starve and kill minority communities. Once the Tatmadaw, the state army, seizes control of
a region, the military uses forced labor to construct bases from which they can assault and burn
neighboring communities. They also mine the areas that were destroyed to prevent re-invasion. People
of the Rohingya and Karen ethnic groups frequently engage in forced labor, human trafficking, and child
labor. The military employs kid recruitment as a strategy to deprive minorities of their identity.

Rape is often used as a tool of war. As part of a strategy to eliminate minorities in Myanmar
through forced pregnancy, government troops are known to rape women who are members of ethnic
minorities. Against Rohingya women and girls, rape has been frequently used. Rapes in groups and in
large numbers have occurred both before and during significant attacks. Rape victims recounted
witnessing their children, parents, and husbands being mercilessly slain by the Myanmar military in
addition to being subjected to horrifying sexual brutality. The government prohibited the transfer of
help to several of the most severely affected minority regions after Cyclone Nargis devastated the nation
in 2008. In the end, thousands perished. One of the places that received no assistance at all was the
Karen state.

Despite criticism from the outside community, the majority of the people in Myanmar are in
favor of the government's lack of action in the Rohingya problem. The majority of Buddhists view the
Rohingya as undocumented immigrants and refuse to even call them Rohingya, referring to them
instead as Bengali Muslims, implying that they are from Bangladesh. Aung San Suu Kyi is backed by the
majority of the populace, and many people think that the international community is being misled about
the violence in Rakhine state and that any action is necessary to stop Muslim-led terrorism against the
Buddhist majority.

Response: Relapses

Large oil and natural gas reserves can be found in Myanmar's Rohingya-populated regions,
which has turned Myanmar into a strategic ally for the main international powers. In addition, China and
India's encirclement strategies seek to limit each other's influence by forging strategic alliances with
Myanmar and other neighbors of the other side. However, India is most reliant on Myanmar of all these
powerful nations since Myanmar aids India in maintaining the security and stability of its Northeast
region. India combats separatist movements and insurgencies in the Northeast by utilizing the army and
intelligence of Myanmar. Russia, China, and India are currently Myanmar's leading arms exporters,
according to a UN fact-finding team. In order to sustain this profitable arms trade, it is likely that these
nations maintain friendly relations with the dictatorial Burmese government, despite its awful record on
human rights.

It is obvious that these strong governments have limited appetite for a humanitarian
intervention in Myanmar due to their strategic objectives. None of the US, China, Russia, or India has the
diplomatic will to put pressure on the Burmese government to find a lasting solution to the conflict.
Until the leading powers change their current postures and work together to find a proper and lasting
solution to the situation, the fate of the Rohingyas is going to get worse.

Aftermath

In reality, Myanmar's civil war has been going on since 1948. Since the nation's independence,
which occurred decades before the 2021 coup, fighting has continued between the ethnic armed
organizations (EAOs) in seven ethnic states and the central government, which is ruled by the Bamar
majority. Military coups are not unfamiliar to the nation either.

According to findings in a new research released today by Fortify Rights, Rohingya refugees in
Bangladesh who escaped the genocide in Myanmar are going through a terrible mental health crisis.
Rohingya experiences symptoms of mental harm; functioning difficulties, post-traumatic stress disorder,
depression, and anxiety, as well as sentiments of the Rohingya population regarding resettling in
Myanmar.

Given the instability, extreme poverty, and lack of efficient administration and rule of law
brought on by the military coup on February 1, 2021, Myanmar is currently extremely vulnerable to
strong internal and external forces wanting to overrun its territory. China, Russia, and global criminal
organizations are among the most critical dangers, in addition to the Myanmar military and its allies.

The United States continues to be committed to promoting human rights, seeking accountability
and justice for the wrongdoing of the military, and helping those who have experienced human rights
breaches. After the military's atrocities in 2016 and 2017, the United States donated more than $1.3
billion to help Rohingya refugees who were forced to flee across the area. The coup has weakened these
efforts, making it unlikely that Rohingya and other refugees will be able to return safely any time soon.
The United States cannot afford to dismiss the serious defeat in Myanmar as a distant distraction with
no bearing on its greater Asian interests.

Conclusion

The status quo has been maintained for far too long. The focus of the Rohingya's human rights
and collective rights must be acknowledged, defended, and fought for in order to put an end to this
tragedy and stop history from repeating itself. Furthermore, in light of the lifting of Western sanctions
and companies' potential to worsen the situation in the state, these rights must be strongly activated. It
is an ongoing deprivation of human worth in favor of values held by larger institutions and organizations,
such the state or businesses. One frequently loses sight of the fact that each individual human life is the
fabric that this endeavor is made of when pursuing it. Society cannot operate if such lives are not
acknowledged. Thus, we as a global civilization cannot function without the active acknowledgement of
the rights of the Rohingya Muslims.

References
Aljazeera, Exclusive: ‘Strong
evidence’ of genocide in
Myanmar, 2015.
https://www.aljazeera.com/
news/2015/10/28/exclusive-
strong-evidence-of-genocide-in-
myan
mar [Last retrived 2021-10-11]
Forsythe,P. David, Human
rights in international relations,
4th ed. (Cambridge university
press, 2018)
Globalis, Konflikter:Myanmar-
Rohingya, 2018.
https://www.globalis.se/
Konflikter/Asien/myanmar-
rohingya [Last retrived 2021-
10-12
References
Aljazeera, Exclusive: ‘Strong
evidence’ of genocide in
Myanmar, 2015.
https://www.aljazeera.com/
news/2015/10/28/exclusive-
strong-evidence-of-genocide-in-
myan
mar [Last retrived 2021-10-11]
Forsythe,P. David, Human
rights in international relations,
4th ed. (Cambridge university
press, 2018)
Globalis, Konflikter:Myanmar-
Rohingya, 2018.
https://www.globalis.se/
Konflikter/Asien/myanmar-
rohingya [Last retrived 2021-
10-12
References
Aljazeera, Exclusive: ‘Strong
evidence’ of genocide in
Myanmar, 2015.
https://www.aljazeera.com/
news/2015/10/28/exclusive-
strong-evidence-of-genocide-in-
myan
mar [Last retrived 2021-10-11]
Forsythe,P. David, Human
rights in international relations,
4th ed. (Cambridge university
press, 2018)
Globalis, Konflikter:Myanmar-
Rohingya, 2018.
https://www.globalis.se/
Konflikter/Asien/myanmar-
rohingya [Last retrived 2021-
10-12
REFERENCES
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Review of International Studies. http://yris.yira.org/comments/2882

Albert, E. (2020, January 23). The Rohingya Crisis. Council on Foreign Relations.

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/rohingya-crisis

Das, S. (2020, March 27). The Ineffective International Response to the Rohingya Crisis ─ A

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Fortifyrights. (2021, September 28). Myanmar/Bangladesh: Rohingya Mental Health Crisis

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Rohingya, The. (n.d.). Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School.

https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/faq/rohingya