As Myanmar stands poised to mark the fifth anniversary of the 2017 Rakhine crisis that saw a brutal onslaught against the Muslim Rohingya by the military forcing over 700,000 to flee to Bangladesh, Myo Swe, a political observer looks back at the long and troubled history of the country’s most oppressed minority.
Myo Swe tells Mizzima that the origin of the problem for Rohingya living in northern Arakan or Rakhine State revolves around statelessness, the early years of Burmese independence, and the actions of military coup-maker General Ne Win.
“There has been a debate where the Rohingya originated. As far as I have heard, the debate started during the time when two major political parties were competing during the tenure of Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League,” said Myo Swe.
“Under Prime Minister U Nu (from 1948 to 1958 and from 1960 to 1962), there were more than 140 ethnic groups including Rohingya in Burma. However, in 1962, then-General Ne Win staged a coup, and under Ne Win’s tenure, Pashu (Malay inhabitants), Rohingya and some ethnic groups were eliminated (from the ethnic group list), which reduced the number of ethnic groups to 135,” he said.
STATELESSNESS
This issue of government-imposed statelessness appears to lie at the core of the Rohingya issue, exacerbated by the 1982 Citizenship Law that did not recognize the minority, and a blinkered view of British Colonial history and texts that sought to ignore the mentions that indicate that generations of Rohingya had lived in the territory of Arakan or Rakhine.
What all this means, notes Myo Swe, is “we were brainwashed” and “religious riots and ethnic riots became a political tool,” aided and abetted by the Myanmar military.
“The Rohingya have been suffering human rights violations under the Burmese military government since 1978. The Rohingya were constantly fleeing to neighbouring country Bangladesh. In 1978, the Rohingya fled due to (the military) Operation Dragon King carried out by the (then Ne Win-led) government,” he said.
After the Burmese military regime began persecuting the political opposition following Aung San Suu Kyi's victory in the 1990 elections and the earlier 1988 Uprising, military operations targeting Muslims, who strongly favoured the pro-democracy movement, began in Rakhine State. The Rohingya-led National Democratic Party for Human Rights (NDPHR) political party was banned and its leaders were jailed.
As Myo Swe notes, in 1991-92, under the Saw Maung-led junta, about 250,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh. They had been subjected to forced labour in the junta’s transport and business sectors without getting paid.
TIPPING POINT
For a while there was a lull before the storm.
“I hope everyone will remember an incident in 2012, under Thein Sein’s government, which was a small spark that started ignition. Following the news of Ma Thida Htwe, allegedly raped and beheaded by three Rohingya in Yanbye Township, Rakhine State, a few days after that incident, 10 Muslim travelers on a bus were killed by a mob in Taunggok, Rakhine State. This was when the Rakhine-Rohingya ethnic riots started,” he said.
This proved to be a significant watershed moment for the communities in Rakhine State.
“Due to the riots between the two ethnic groups in Rakhine State, from June 8 to June 13, 2012, about 1,192 Arakanese houses and 1,336 Muslims houses were burnt down including a school, nine Buddhist temples and seven mosques. Thirteen people from the Rakhine side and 16 people from the Muslim side were killed as well. It could be considered that the situation was exacerbated by the military’s incitement rather than taking responsibility for the damage of the lives and properties of the residents,” said Myo Swe.
Although at that time communications were poor, the world was shocked by citizen-shot videos released showing mobs hunting down people and seemingly beating them to death. Anecdotal evidence suggests the military stood by and did not intervene.
A state of emergency was declared in Rakhine State, allowing the military to participate in the administration of the region. The UN’s World Food Programme said in June 2012 that 90,000 (mostly Rohingya) who fled ethnic violence in Myanmar were in need of aid.
MASTERMINDS?
Burma or Myanmar – a multi-ethnic and multi-religious state - has long suffered due to groups stirring up hatred under the banner of nationalism. One does not have to look too far for the main culprit – the Myanmar military – yet civilian groups have stirred the pot, particularly one group.
“By looking at the situation, the main organization of incitement was led by the Patriotic Association of Myanmar [widely known as Ma Ba Tha, viewed as led by Ashin Wirathu, a Burmese Buddhist monk, and the leader of the ultranationalist 969 Movement in Myanmar], said Myo Swe.
He points to alleged connections between Ma Ba Tha and powerful military officers, noting that the group had the intention to spread religious propaganda among the citizens.
All this pressure and propaganda set the stage for the Myanmar military to take further action against the Rohingya minority.
TENSION AND CRACKDOWN
The excuse for the Myanmar military was provided in October 2016 by a poorly armed Rohingya militant group that attacked three Myanmar border posts on Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh.
According to government officials in the mainly Rohingya border town of Maungdaw, the attackers brandished knives, machetes and homemade slingshots that fired metal bolts, killing nine border officers, and a further four soldiers on the fourth day of fighting. A group calling itself the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) claimed responsibility.
Shortly after, the Myanmar military forces and extremist Buddhists started a major crackdown on the Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State in response. The crackdown resulted in wide-scale human rights violations at the hands of security forces, including extrajudicial killings, gang rapes, arson and other brutalities.
The military crackdown on the Rohingya drew criticism from the United Nations, human rights group Amnesty International, the US Department of State, and the Malaysian government.
ALLEGED ‘GENOCIDE’
Then in August 2017, the Myanmar security forces began what were termed "clearance operations" against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine State. Again, the actions of the militant group ARSA against government security posts provided a useful excuse for the military.
The operations escalated radically, killing thousands of Rohingya, brutalizing thousands more, and driving hundreds of thousands out of the country into neighbouring Bangladesh while their villages burned, with the Myanmar military claiming that their actions were solely attacks on rebels in response to the ARSA attack, according to media reports.
However, subsequent reports from various international organisations have indicated that the military operations were widespread indiscriminate attacks on the Rohingya population, already underway before the ARSA attacks, to purge northern Rakhine state of Rohingya, through "ethnic cleansing" and or through alleged "genocide”.
An August 2018 study estimates that more than 24,000 or more Rohingya people were killed by the Myanmar military and the local Buddhists since the "clearance operations" started in August 2017. Over 700,000 refugees – the vast majority Rohingya and some Hindus – fled to Bangladesh.
The case of alleged “genocide” against the Rohingya by the Myanmar military is currently being heard at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, after preliminary objections made by the Myanmar junta were recently dismissed, allowing the case to proceed.
NOBODY SAFE
Myanmar military brutality against this minority is clear. But, as Myo Swe notes, nobody is now safe.
“I believe we were so trapped in this ethnic and religious propaganda that we closed our eyes and ears over the oppression against an ethnic group, which should not have been done. Now, we have come to accept the fact that the military committed human rights violations against Rohingya just as they violated people by killing and raping in the mainland after the 1 February 2021 military coup.”
It was a mistake to have turned a blind eye to the oppression of a minority, he said.
“The Burmese military’s oppression against this ethnic group (Rohingya) has been ignored throughout successive Burmese governments. The problem was the democracy we had achieved (between 2010 and 2020) was just a sham,” said Myo Swe.
Now it is the Myanmar people as a whole who are under attack by the Myanmar military.
Given the experiences of the Myanmar people in the wake of the coup, the Myanmar people can more easily understand the oppression and discrimination targeting the Rohingya, he said.
“I hope injustice under the pretext of nationalism can be eradicated in the future,” Myo Swe adds.
