Fresh flare up of anti- Rohingya violence in Myanmar is adding to its tensions with Bangladesh. Like every time there is a flare-up in Western Myanmar‘s Buddhist majority Rakhine state, this time also hundreds of Rohingya Muslims have tried to enter Bangladesh. But this time around authorities in Cox’s Bazar are mostly turning them away though they are lending some humanitarian assistance.
Under Myanmar laws, the Rohingyas, officially referred to as Muslims, are stateless, where as Bangladesh avers that Rohingyas should be recognized as citizens by Myanmar since they have been living in that country for centuries.
An estimated 2000 Rohingyas are said to be have sent back by Bangladesh since a wave of ethnic violence broke out in May. Human rights groups have urged Dhaka to accept the refugees. But Hasina government points out that it has already stretched its resources.
‘We are not interested in more people coming to Bangladesh,’ Foreign Minister Dipu Moni told an impromptu press briefing at her office, noting that Bangladesh is already a densely populated country and cannot a afford a fresh influx.
Today there are more than 200,000 Rohingya in Bangladesh, with over 30,000 documented refugees living in two government-run camps at Kutupalong and Nayapara about 2km of Bangladesh border with Myanmar
Dipu Moni’s remarks came in response to a call on 12 June by the UN Refugee Agency that B’desh should keep its doors open for the victims of escalated ethnic violence in Rakhine state. The appeal was made as Bangladeshi border authorities had turned away a number of boats carrying people from Myanmar.
‘We are concerned about the reports we are seeing and are in contact with the Bangladesh government at various levels," Andrej Mahecic’, a UNHCR spokesman told IRIN from Geneva. Many of these people may need medical assistance.
UNHCR has deployed five teams to the area to better assess the situation. It is also trying to monitor developments inside northern Rakhine through people who have contacts with friends and families there, but IRIN says the high level of insecurity makes this task extremely difficult.
The rape and murder of a Buddhist woman, Thida Htwe (26), allegedly by three Rohingya Muslims was the first trigger on May 28. The second flare up came on June 3 when a mob of 300 Buddhists stopped a bus, dragged out 10 Muslim pilgrims and beat them to death. The victims were not Rohingya and they were returning to their homes in Yangon.
The third round of vengeance attacks took place on June 8 when more than 1,000 angry Muslim Rohingya in Maungdaw township, by the Bangladeshi border, swept through 22 predominantly Buddhist villages after their Friday prayers. They attacked residents and set homes on fire around 500 houses and shops leaving seven killed and 17 injured.
In all more than 2,200 houses burnt down and around 31,000 people displaced in the three waves of violence.
From various accounts it is clear that local media played a role in fanning emotions. A weekly journal, Snapshot, based in Yangon, even published a picture of the rape victim showing her throat slit. The authorities have suspended the publication and have charged it with inflammatory coverage.
As the situation was snowballing, President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency in Rakhine State on 10 June. Trouble spots were placed under a dusk-to-dawn curfew. Officially the situation is said to have improved now.
The province of Rakhine has a long history of ethnic strife between the Buddhists and Rohingyas. Myanmar doesn’t accept Rohingyas as its own.
While Rohingyas trace their roots to the eighth century when the first Arabian Muslims arrived in the Rakhine state as traders, local historians like Maung Maung deny there is any connection between early Arabs and the Rohingya. In fact, it is argued that the term Rohingya did not exist until the 1950s.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, Rakhine was an independent principality and home to both Buddhists and Muslims. After the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824-26) tens of thousands of immigrants from British India were brought to Rakhine and other parts of Lower Myanmar to work in the paddy fields. The new arrivals failed to get integrated locally and the area regularly witnessed violence during the British rule. One of the biggest riots in 1942 left several thousand Muslims and 20,000 Buddhists dead.
Even 70-long years later, the situation has not changed as the May-June unrest testifies. Such recurring communal strife, as Myanmar’s democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi, says can end only if there is a rule of law. Otherwise there will be no end to the cycle.
Myanmar must handle the situation with sensitivity and by enlisting the cooperation of its people. It will also need the cooperation and understanding of Bangladesh, since it is the first to face pressure of refugees escaping violence at home.
-M RAMA RAO
