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Part III: Muslims in Arakan
The Rohingyas of Burma and Bangladesh
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui
Before I delve into the subject of Rohingya Muslims, let me provide a brief account of Arakan. ARAKAN, formerly called Rohang, Roshang, Rakhine Pray, Rakhapura, lies on the north-western part of Burma with 360 miles coastal belt from the Bay of Bengal. Through its geopolitical position, Arakan finds itself at the crossroads of two continental entities, South Asia and South-East Asia -- between Buddhist Asia and Muslim-Hindu Asia and between the Mongoloid and the Indo-Aryan races. It borders 176 miles with Bangladesh, 48 miles of which is covered by river Naf, which demarcates Arakan (Burma) from Chittagong (Bangladesh). It is separated geographically from the rest of Burma by the long range of Arakan Yoma mountain range running north to south. The area of Arakan is about 20,000 square miles. But Arakan Hill-tracts district (5235 square miles) and southern most part of Arakan were partitioned from Arakan. So, it has now been reduced to 14,200 square miles.
As hinted earlier, the Muslim community in Arakan, who are next to the Rakhine Buddhists in number, consists of four groups: Tambukias, Turko-Pathans, Kamanchis and Rohingyas. The Tambukias trace their history back to the eighth century when their ancestors from Arabia were allowed to settle in southern Arakan by the contemporary king Maha Taing Chandra (788-810). The next group consisting of the Turks and Pathans are mostly found in the outskirts of Mrohaung, the last capital of Arakan. The Arakanese king Mong-Saw-Mwan alias Narameikhla (1403-33) recaptured his throne with the help of their forebears who were in the army of Bengal. Like the Tambukias, they were allowed to settle in Arakan by the grateful king. The ancestors of the Kamanchis came in the train of shah shuja, the Governor of Bengal (1639-59), who took shelter in Arakan with his family and retinues after being overthrown by his brother aurangzeb. Their descendants are to be found mostly in Ramree Island. The Rohingyas are descendants of Muslims who trace their ancestry to all those who settled in Arakan – the Arabs, Turks, Persians, Pathans, Mughals, Bengalis and some Indo-Mongoloid people. Hence, the Rohingya Muslims 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 its own.
Arakan came in close cultural contact with the Muslim Sultanate of Bengal since early 14th century so much so that many of the Buddhist rulers of that country adopted Muslim names for themselves. They appointed Muslim officials in their courts and, apparently under the latter’s influence, even inscribed the Kalima on their coins. Thus, Buddhist kings ruled, but Muslims played an influential role in the court, defence and administration of the kingdom. The Arakanese court’s adoption of many Muslim customs and terms were other significant tribute to the influence of Islam. Mosques including the famous Sandi Khan Mosque began to dot the countryside and Islamic customs, manners and practices came to be established since this time.
Because of her geographical proximity with the south-eastern parts of Bengal, Arakan developed both political and cultural relations with Bengalis. Its courts and royalties patronized Bengali literature. Some of the best known classical Bengali poets (Alaol, Dawlat Qazi) came from Arakan.
Arakan was an independent kingdom until its annexation in 1784 by the Burman King Bodawpaya (1782-1819). It encompassed at times the southern part of today’s Bangladesh, and was famous as a land of economic opportunities, on the maritime shipping routes between south-west Asia and south-east Asia. During the conquest, Bodawpaya’s soldiers returned with 20,000 Arakanese prisoners. Thousand of Arakanese Muslims and Buddhists were put to death. The Burmese soldiers destroyed mosques, temples, shrines, seminaries and libraries, including the Mrauk-U Royal Library. The fall of Mrauk-U Empire was a mortal blow to the Muslims for every thing that was materially and culturally Islamic was razed to the ground. During the 40-year (1784-1824 CE) Burmese rule, two third, i.e., 200,000, of the inhabitants (Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists) of Arakan fled to Bengal (in British India). Many of the indigenous Muslims found today in and around Mandalay and Central Burma are descendants of those Rohingyas of Arakan. During the British rule, some of the Arakanese who had fled to Bengal, especially Chittagong, returned to Arakan.
The state of Arakan was granted autonomy within the Union of Burma in 1948, which was later abolished in 1962 by a military decree. The Revolutionary Council (military junta) that grabbed power nationalized all financial institutions and businesses. In Arakan, most of the major business establishments were in the hands of Muslims. So, the Rohingya Muslims of Arakan were hardest hit in the economic crackdown by the new military regime. All Rohingya welfare and socio-cultural organizations were banned in 1964. The military regime cancelled the Rohingya Language Program broadcasted from Burma Broadcasting Service (BBS), Rangoon in October 1965.
It is worth mentioning here that prior to 1962 the Rohingya community was recognized as an indigenous ethnic nationality of Burma. They had their representatives in Burmese parliament and some of them were appointed as ministers, parliamentary secretaries and in high government positions. After the military takeover in 1962 the Rohingyas have been systematically deprived of their political rights. With the promulgation of the most controversial and discriminatory citizenship law of 1982 they are declared as “non-nationals” or “foreign residents”. [Interestingly, in an apparent but short-lived departure from their policy, the military not only allowed Rohingyas to vote in the general election of May 1990, but also allowed them to stand as candidates. The National Democratic Party for Human Rights (NDPHR), a Rohingya supported group, won four seats, capturing all the constituencies in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships. The Rohingya candidate in Akyab was arrested and put in jail though. Subsequently, the party, along with many other political parties, was deregistered in March 1992. Now the leader of the NDPHR is serving a long prison term with his family members.]
Currently Arakan has four administrative units such as Sandoway, Sittwe, Mayu and Kyaukpyu. Akyab (Sittwe) is the capital city and the principal port of Arakan. It is situated at the mouth of the Koladan. Before the British occupation of Arakan in 1826, it was a small fishing village. Other major towns and ports are Kyaktaw, Maungdow, Buthidaung and Sandoway. The Rohingya constitute 70 to 80 percent of population in North Arakan and 97% of the population in Mayu region.
Since 1948, the Rohingyas are victims of the worst kind of systemic, state- sponsored and patronized oppression, repression, discrimination, eviction, relocation, extortion, arbitrary arrests and taxation, and targeted communal riots that invariably result in death, massive destruction of their settlements, holy places of worship, economic bases and expulsion from their hearths and homes. The entire policy of the Burmese military junta is aimed at ethnically cleansing Arakan of any trace of the Rohingya Muslims. That is why, of the 30 statutes of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, when it comes to the Rohingya people, not a single one is respected by the junta.
Freedom of movement is a fundamental human right, upon which other human rights are contingent. But such rights do not apply to Rohingya Muslims whose citizenship is not recognized by the ruling junta. As a result, they cannot move from one village to another nearby village without permission and payment of fees.
As an implication of this criminal policy, imagine that you have a sister who requires some medical treatment failing which she may die. Your sister’s chances of survival are too little. She may die in any of the many check posts before she arrives in any hospital. Even if she were to arrive in the hospital or the clinic, she may be denied access to the facility because of her ethnicity and religion. Permission to travel outside for medical reasons is not easily granted, in spite of the hefty fees one has to pay to apply.
Households who receive visitors from another township or village must reportedly register their guests if they are spending the night. Failure to do so can result in fines or other reprisals like arrests and hefty extortion payments.
A Rohingya Muslim must report and pay fees for every birth and death in his family, including cattle. A Rohingya widow must also wait a minimum of three years before she can marry.
The Rohingyas are invariably discriminated in all matters from jobs to even getting relief aid. As such, when a cyclone hit the Arakan coast on May 19, 2004 and left over 520 people dead and more than 20,000 people homeless, the local officials didn’t distribute relief aid to the Rohingya people simply saying that they were not citizens of Burma.
The right to marry and found a family is another basic human right. Unfortunately, such rights do not apply to Rohingya Muslims. They are banned from getting married. First, they must be of certain age to apply, e.g., at least 25 years of age for man and 18 for woman. Next, they must vow not to have more than three children. To get married they must get permission from at least four different government agencies. Such permissions, in spite of paying high fees and bribes, can take years, and most are often denied. As a result, the backlog of marriages, delayed and denied, runs into thousands in many towns. There are towns where not a single marriage has taken place for years. Those who dared to marry without permission are arrested and fined heavily. What makes the system discriminatory is that it is only applied against Muslims and not against other religious groups (including the Rakhine Buddhists who also live in Arakan). Now those who eventually get the permission to get married must report to the government-run family planning and counseling centers before their wedding, where they are required to stay few days. Obviously, with exorbitant fees paid in advance! It is there that one of the most heinous crimes is often perpetrated by the agents affiliated with the government. The bride-to-be is raped. Obviously, the SPDC regime has become creative to open up its new weapon of ethnic cleansing, bound to terrorize the Rohingya community and forcing them to opt for exodus out of the country.
Here below is a short list of various war crimes and abuses of human rights by the Burmese military regime against the Rohingya Muslims:
1. Denial of Citizenship
2. Restriction of Movement or Travel
3. Restriction on peaceful assembly
4. Restriction on Education
5. Restriction on Ability to work or find job
6. Forced Labor
7. Land Confiscation
8. Forced Eviction
9. Destruction of homes, offices, schools, mosques, etc.
10. Desecration of Muslim cemeteries
11. Systematic destruction of Islamic sites
12. Forced conversion to Buddhism
13. Religious persecution
14. Ethnic and religious discrimination
15. Restrictions on Marriage of Rohingyas
16. Arbitrary Taxation and Extortion
17. Registration of Births and Deaths in Families
18. Arbitrary arrest, torture and extra-judicial killing
19. Abuse of Rohingya Women and Elders including using rape as a weapon of war
20. Depopulation of Rohingya community
21. Undocumented refugees & statelessness
You may wonder how such abuses of human rights can take place in a state that claims to follow the teachings of Gautam Buddha! The sad truth is that millions of people of all ethnicities in Burma harbor racist anti-Muslim feelings, considering them vaguely and baselessly as foreigners (Ka La or blacks, a racist and derogatory term to point to their Indian heritage), immigrants, job- or land-stealers, and so on. They are looked upon as collaborators of the British Raj, especially since the Burmans allied themselves with the Japanese occupation forces during World War II. [More than a hundred thousand Rohingya Muslims were killed during the pogroms of 1942. Another 80,000 fled to Bengal. They are commonly called “Rohi”s in southern Chittagong.] The SPDC and its predecessor regimes have often exploited this in order to 'divide and rule' the civilian population. There is no doubt that they have succeeded in their criminal scheme. For instance, the Rakhine Buddhist in Arakan is now the worst adversary of the Rohingya; he/she refuses to consider anyone to be Arakanese who is not Buddhist. That is the level of racism and intolerance!
In the late 1970s (Naga-Min Operation) and again in 1991-92 (Pyi Thaya Operation), the Burmese military dictatorship launched pogroms against the Rohingya Muslims of Arakan State in the hope that Buddhist Rakhines, many of whom are rabidly anti-Muslim, would swing over to the 'government' side - forgetting their growing anger at Burmese Army repression and redirecting it against the Muslim community. In each of those pogroms more than a quarter million of Rohingyas were forcibly evicted from their ancestral homes to seek refuge in Bangladesh. Most of their possessions now belong to Buddhist settlers.
Almost all of the evicted Rohingyas have now been forcibly repatriated to Burma by the Bangladeshi government in cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), but those who return still face continued persecution both from the SPDC and the Rakhine Buddhists; so a small but steady exodus is continuing. The UNHCR and the Bangladeshi authorities refuse to recognize any of these new or repeat refugees, so tens of thousands of them have disappeared into the illegal labor markets of Bangladesh and elsewhere in the past eight years.
Some of the major armed operations against the Rohingya people, orchestrated by the Burmese government since 1948, are mentioned below:
01. Military Operation (5th Burma Regiment) - November 1948
02. Burma Territorial Force (BTF) - Operation 1949-50
03. Military Operation (2nd Emergency Chin regiment) - March 1951-52
04. Mayu Operation - October 1952-53
05. Mone-thone Operation - October 1954
06. Combined Immigration and Army Operation - January 1955
07. Union Military Police (UMP) Operation - 1955-58
08. Captain Htin Kyaw Operation - 1959
09. Shwe Kyi Operation - October 1966
10. Kyi Gan Operation - October-December 1966
11. Ngazinka Operation - 1967-69
12. Myat Mon Operation - February 1969-71
13. Major Aung Than Operation - 1973
14. Sabe Operation February - 1974-78
15. Naga-Min (King Dragon) Operation - February 1978-79 (resulting in exodus of some 300,000 Rohingyas to Bangladesh)
16. Shwe Hintha Operation - August 1978-80
17. Galone Operation - 1979
18. Pyi Thaya Operation – July 1991-92 (resulting in exodus of some 268,000 Rohingyas to Bangladesh)
19. Na-Sa-Ka Operation – since 1992.
It is not difficult to understand why half the Rohingya population, numbering some million and a half, has opted for a life of exile and uncertainty. They live as unwanted refugees and illegal immigrants in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Malaysia and the U.A.E.
[About the author: Dr. Habib Siddiqui is a long-time human rights activist. He has written extensively in Op/Ed columns in newspapers, magazines, journals and the Internet. His writing combines meticulous research with personal experience of displaced Rohingyas from Arakan in Myanmar (Burma). He has also worked on human rights issues in Chechnya, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Palestine, and among American Muslims in the post-9/11 era. He can be reached at saeva@aol.com.]
Part I: Nightmare, fiction or a living reality?
Part II: Muslims in Burma
Part III: Muslims in Arakan
Part IV: Plight of Rohingya refugees
March 31, 2006
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