Fifth column: The Rohingya tragedy

The Indian government recently declared that it will deport all “illegal foreign nationals, including [the] Rohingya [people]” and claimed 40,000 Rohingya refugees were living illegally in the country. Although the declaration called for action against all “illegal immigrants”, it soon became evident that the targets were the Rohingya.

The decision seems to be aimed at appeasing the Hindu right that is increasingly encouraged to use violence, including murder, against Muslims on a plethora of flimsy pretexts. Following the official announcement, several ruling party politicians publicly targeted the Rohingya people regardless of their status.

This indicated that even the registered Rohingya will face deportation, provoking concern from the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres who underlined that the “refugees should not be returned to countries where they fear persecution once they are registered”. The new policy, which is reflective of the growing confidence of the extremist mindset of the government, is a total departure from India’s traditional policy of welcoming refugees from Tibet, Sri Lanka and even Afghanistan.

Although their numbers are insignificant to pose any material threat to the billion-plus people, the Indian government has sought to securitise the Rohingya people. This has not only created an atmosphere of fear against them but has also endangered their lives as such a label conflates them with the ‘Islamist’ terrorists, provoking the armed Hindu groups to resort to violence. During the past three years, Hindu groups have increasingly taken to vigilante justice, mainly against Muslims. This often leads to public lynching and murder, with almost no legal redressal or justice for the victims.

Earlier this year, attacks by Hindu groups were reported on a handful of Rohingya refugees who lived in the Jammu region of the Jammu and Kashmir state. Several Hindu-dominated political parties and even the Chamber of Commerce threatened to take severe action if the Rohingya did not leave the country. This was followed by abusive and threatening hoardings against the Rohingya without any concern from the official circles.

The Rohingya are one of the most unfortunate people in the region. The regime in Myanmar – duly baptised by the Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi – continues to murder and maim them with shameless zeal and impunity. Although the UN has described the human rights violations against the Rohingya as possible “crimes against humanity”, this has failed to deter their continued persecution.

Had the victims not been Muslim, poor and voiceless, perhaps we would have seen the conscience of the so-called ‘international community’ calling for action against the regime – just as it uses its army and the Buddhist paramilitaries to target helpless men, women and children and subject them to most inhuman brutalities to promote their ethnic cleansing.

During the past five years, scores of Rohingya villages have been targeted through government-induced riots and military crackdowns, raising them to ground with the inhabitants brutally culled or forced to flee. More than 100,000 Rohingya live in the internally displaced camps within Myanmar where they face Nazi-style persecution and are not allowed to leave.

The international media and human rights organisations have described the Rohingya as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Probes by the UN into the humanitarian tragedy has found that the military forces of Myanmar are involved in conducting “summary executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and ill treatment and forced labour”. It has also found that Buddhist groups are involved in inciting hatred and violence against the Rohingya with possible support from the government.

The other reports by human rights organisations have accused Buddhist groups, military and paramilitary forces of being involved in gang rapes and arson attacks that target the whole communities. According to a report by the Amnesty International in 2004: “The Rohingya’s freedom of movement is severely restricted and the vast majority of them have effectively been denied Burmese citizenship. They are also subjected to various forms of extortion and arbitrary taxation; land confiscation; forced eviction and house destruction; and financial restrictions on marriage”. The scant world attention to their existential afflictions makes the situation even more tragic and gruesome for the persecuted Rohingya.

Sadly for them, they don’t have much support locally, let alone any supporting countries that can speak on their behalf or solicit international support for their predicament. Officially, the Myanmar government designates them as illegal immigrants and, therefore, denies them any citizenship rights or even basic privileges as supposed aliens.

Locally, they are considered to be Bangladeshis or a variant of Bengalis – a characterisation that Bangladesh refuses to accept. As a result, when they flee to Bangladesh to seek refuge, they are turned down or actively discouraged by the authorities.

In order to discourage and prevent them from seeking refuge in the country, the Bangladeshi government has reduced the financial assistance that it offered to the Rohingya refugees already in the country. One of the reasons for the Bangladeshi refusal to entertain the Rohingya might be on a technical basis. In the past, Myanmar and Bangladesh had, through joint declarations in late 1980s and early 1990s, acknowledged the status of the Rohingya people as the lawful citizens of Burma – the official name of Myanmar at the time. However, Myanmar’s government –  which is supported by the military junta and the so-called pro-democracy icon, Suu Kyi – continue to persecute them and deny them their rights as citizens. This is a continuation of the official policy of the country since its independence in 1948.

Postscript: One of my Malaysia-based Rohingya friends, Ziaur Rehman, who has been a refugee for almost all his life – 25 years – and lived in three countries, recounts the painful experience of his existence and the kindred in the following poem:

It is not easy being Rohingya./Our very name means being on the run,/all over the world,/running in pain.

Can our existence not be acknowledged?/Is there no country to call home?/

Must we forever suffer?/ Torture, discrimination, harassment?/ Be pushed to the sea in leaking boats?

Traded for money?/Being Rohingya…why must it mean/ being on the run,/the world over,/in pain.

Twitter: @murtaza_shibli