Name- Mishkatul Ferdous

ID- 1711364
GSG-101 Assignment
Section- 3
Faculty- Hossain Ahmed Taufiq
The
Rohingya
crisis
What is Rohingya crisis:
The Rohingya crisis is the mass deportation of Rohingya ethnicity
from Myanmar to Bangladesh. The Rohingya people were forced by
the Myanmar government to leave their homes and villages and
ultimately the mainland of Burma. In 2012 Myanmar government
started a systematic cleansing of Rohingya ethnicity by committing
genocide, rape, torture and extortion. (BBC news, 14 June, 2012).
thus resulted a huge enormous crisis in neighbouring Bangladesh.
More than 600,000 Rohingyas take refuge in just one month of 2017,
(rohingya crisis, HRW) making a total of 1100000 Rohingya refugees
in Bangladesh.

Who are the Rohingyas:

The Rohingyas are considered as the most persecuted ethnicity in
the world. They are one of the ethnic minority of Myanmar. They are
around 1.5 million, mostly muslims, live in rakhaine, a state of
Myanmar, formerly known as arakan. They have been living there for
more than 400 years. (simpson,Andrew, 2007).

The plotting :
In 1948 at the end of the British rule, Burma got independence and
renamed as Myanmar. In 1982 Myanmar government had denied the
ethnic identity of the rohingya people. They considered the
Rohingyas as illegal migrants. In the same year the government
passed a law called “citizenship act”, where they issued citizenship to
the listed 135 ethnicity of Burma but not to the Rohingyas. They
refused to issue any citizenship who aren’t enlisted in the 135
ethnicity of Burma. They declared them as Bangladeshi who illegally
migrated in Arakan or Rakhaine. Thus the Rohingyas became
stateless people. Then the government started a military operation
against Rohingyas to expel them from the Burmese mainland. And
through the early 1980to 2002 the government conducted a series of
operations against the ethnicity. What resulted a devastating
humanitarian crisis in rakhaine.(Al Jazeera, 28th September 2017).

A new phase of persecution :

In 2012 a ethnic Rakhaine woman got killed in rakhaine state,
resulted a brutal ethnic riot that has been taken place between the
Buddhist Rakhaines and the Rohingyas. Then the government started
to charge the rohingyas by enacting emergency law and deploying
the military. The military committed mass killings, rape, torture and
extortion. A total of 90,000 people have fled and take refuge in the
neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi
Arabia etc. After a month of violence rakhaine slowly got stability.
(Toronto star,19th June 2012).

In 2016 a terrorist group called ARSA claimed responsibility for a

terrorist attack at the Bangladesh-myanmar border caused 9 police
officers and 4 soldiers dead. In retaliation Myanmar military started a
major crackdown on Rohingya peoples. They started a systematic
cleansing of Rohingya ethnicity by mass killings, gang rape, torturing
and extortion. They burnt down their homes and villages and created
a horrifying terror all over Rakhaine. By December the death toll rises
more than 10000.(the independent 8th february). Thus the mass
violation of human rights caused a flow of Rohingya refugee to the
neighbouring countries mostly Bangladesh. At first Bangladesh
government don’t want to open up its border the refugees but due
to international pressure, government started to take refugees.
According to Human Rights Watch which released the satellite
images showed that five villages 1250 houses being burnt down by
the milltary forces.

In 2017, ARSA once again claiming responsibility for murdering 44

civilians and take hostage 22 others. In 25th august they conducted a
coordinated attack on police stations and army bases. In retaliation,
Burma responded brutally. Burma started a clearance operation that
caused at least 24000 dead, 18000 Rohingya women were sexually
assaulted, 116,000 were beaten. UN says that by september2018 ,
more than 700,000 Rohingyas have fled and take refuge in the
neighbouring countries, mostly in Bangladesh, making atotal of
around 1100,000 refugees just only in Bangladesh.

International response :
The Myanmar government was heavily criticised for it’s crime against
humanity by the international community. USA government visas of
the higher officials of Burma government, issued sanctions including
arms sanction. European Union also issued similar sanctions. But
china and Russia openly support the Myanmar government. In
November 2017, UN security council proposed a resolution
condemning the brutality carried out by Myanmar government but
failed to be passed because of china’s opposition of the resolution.
China repeatedly backing Myanmar in the UN by using its veto
power. India is also supporting Burma in some of its policy. Thus the
international community became divided in the Rohingya issue.(the
guardian ,24th December 2017).
Aftermath :
The violence in Rakhaine is over but the refugees made a severe
crisis. In Bangladesh, refugee camps are flooded with thousands of
Rohingyas, making the camps densely populated, creating a
devastating impact on the surroundings and the local people. Nature
also hampered heavily. The refugees making widespread violence of
law and security. They often get involved in human trafficking, drug
dealing, kidnapping etc. moreover country like Bangladesh can’t bear
the refugee’s costs. They are hampering the country’s economy.
Bangladesh is repeatedly asking Myanmar to take back their people
but Burma seems not so willing to take back the refugees. But when
the international community started pressurize Myanmar, they
agreed to start the process to take back their people. After some
days they started to delaying the process purposefully. After months
finally they got ready to take back the refugees but now Rohingyas
don’t want to go. They urge citizenship and other human rights to
Myanmar. But Myanmar refused it and once again the deportation
process got stalled.

The recommendations :
Now according to all the perspective Bangladesh should start a new
and strong diplomatic mission. To me Bangladesh just failed badly in
diplomatic warfare with Myanmar. Myanmar just dominated the
diplomatic war by keeping two super power and a regional power by
their side with doing so much atrocities and crimes against humanity.
On the other hand Bangladesh being a heavy victim of Burma’s
conspiracies can’t convinced the international community to stand
for Bangladesh’s favour or at least make a justice to Burma’s evil
deeds. So Bangladesh should immediately initiate strategic plans to
counter Burma they should replace the failed diplomats and appoint
highly skilled diplomats to manage and turn the international
community to their side. They should maintain a strong and capable
military cause in the end a strong military is the ultimate pressure. It
can make the seat strong in the diplomatic table. They should
increase relationships with the like minded countries such as
Indonesia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Turkey and Arab regional powers.
Even it can take initiative to make a NATO style alliance to increase
pressure upon Burma. Overall Bangladesh have to give a message to
its enemy that they are no more in the loser’s side.
 Bibliography

1) “Burma unrest: Rakhine violence, displaces 30,000”, BBC

news, 14 June, 2012.
2) “Rohingya crisis”, Human Rights Watch, retrieved from,
“https://www.hrw.org/tag/rohingya-crisis”.
3) Simpson and Andrew, 2007, retrieved from,
“https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya_people”.
4) “Myanmar : who are the Rohngya”, Al Jazeera, 28th
September, 2017.
5) “Burma’s ethnic clash leave 90,000 in need of food, says
UN.”, Toronto star, 19th June 2012.
6) “ UN official cites horrific crimes against Rohingya”,
transcend media service, retrieved from,
“https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya_genocide”.
7) “China and Russia opposed UN resolution on Rohingya.”, the
Gurdian, 24th December, 2017, retrieved from,
“https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/24/china-
russia-oppose-un-resolution-myanmar-rohingya-muslims”.