Rohingya: Stateless and unwanted!

MYANMAR'S road to democracy faces the challenge to integrate Rohingya into the mainstream citizens against resistance of the majority Buddhists, the military and the influential religious clerics -- the monks. The question is whether the government wants to serve the interests of the Rohingya or bend to the illegitimate pressures of the majority? Meanwhile, the Rohingya Muslims are suffering from the indiscrimination -- a systematic ethnic cleansing that is similar to what the Muslim Bosniaks faced between 1992-1995 from the then Serbs and Croats.

Probably, the plight of the Rohingya is yet to draw the attention of the wider world media. Who then are these Rohingyas and what are their roots? The ethnic origin of the Rohingyas traces back to 7th Century when the first Muslim settlement was established in the Arakan state of Myanmar. The forefathers of Rohingya migrated from Arabia, Persia, Turkey and other Muslim countries to Arakan where Muslim migrants intermarried with locals causing a religious conversion to take place at a large number.

These Muslim migrants and local converts are the Rohingyas.

Rohingya Muslims remained loyal to the British instead of supporting the locals during the first Anglo-Burmese war during 1824-28 and the Japanese occupation of Burma in World War-II. Subsequently, Rohingya Muslims of North Arakan formed the 'North Arakanese Muslim League' during the independent movement of Burma and launched a movement to annex Northern Arakan with the then East Pakistan (Bangladesh).

The Rohingya, a group seen as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh by the Buddhist population, were subjected to military operation -- the initial being the 'Nagamin' ('Dragon King') operation in 1978 that resulted in the influx of about 300,000 fleeing to Bangladesh and then over a quarter of a million in 1991-1992.

The UN describes them as among the world's most persecuted people and despite having lived in Myanmar for generations, they are denied citizenship, need permission to marry or have more than two children and are required to notify authorities if they wish to travel outside their villages.

Surprisingly, democracy activist and Nobel Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi has remained silent on the persecution of Burma's Rohingya, knowing that speaking out would risk alienating many of her political allies who are vehemently opposed to them.

However, only recently she criticised the government ban on Rohingya having more than two children in strife-torn Rakhine State as counter to human rights.

While the Rohingya try to flee persecution and torture in their homeland, they find Bangladesh as the most convenient destination for many reasons: Bangladesh's proximity to Rakhine State, religious-linguistic affinity, relatively better living conditions, freedom of movement, porous borders facilitating illegal entry, assistance from their own community migrated earlier and opportunity for migration into a third country either through fraudulent means or as refugees.

While in Bangladesh, the Rohingya indulge into numerous illegal activities resulting to environmental degradation. The illegal Rohingya venture to settling down in a third country and different groups in Bangladesh facilitate them in preparing fake passports and documents. Once these Rohingyas reach a third country, they put the country's reputation at risk. Above all, the Rohingya issue put the country's internal security into serious challenges.

Since 2005 no single Rohingya refugee has been repatriated to Myanmar as a result of defiance of the Mynamar government. For similar reasons, the diplomatic efforts on the part of Bangladesh government could not make any headway on the issue.

On the contrary, Bangladesh government is under pressure from the diplomatic community to accept these refugees despite her own socio-economic and political problems. While Bangladesh needs to maintain a strong stand against accepting any further influx, at the same time, she needs to engage the international community to add pressure on the Myanmar government to stop the systematic ethnic cleansing of Rohingya.

Internally, the Bangladesh government needs to strengthen the border security, beef up the strength of Coast Guard and Border Guard, fence the unguarded portion of the borders with Myanmar, take into task the local influential people who shelter these people for their own political and economic gains.

Finally, all stakeholders should get on board to protect illegal entries. In the international arena, the government needs to continue a persuasive and comprehensive diplomatic effort to repatriate illegal Rohingyas form a regional and national committee with all relevant agencies for effective coordination of the issue, and monitor the activities of the NGOs working for them.

To this end, government efforts are on. During the 2nd Asia Pacific Water Summit in Chiang Mai May 19-20, 2013, honourable PM sought the assistance of her Thai counterpart YingluckShinawatra for her assistance to solve the Rohingya issue. The government also needs to engage countries like US, UK, Australia, EU countries and Asian giant China in this effort since many of these countries have started lifting embargos following Myanmar's road to democracy.

It is encouraging to note that during the recent TheinSein visit to US, Obama praised the former's "genuine efforts to resolve longstanding ethnic conflicts," but he made sure that his concerns about the continued violence directed at Rohingya Muslims are clear and evident.

The minority Rohingya never found themselves into the development of the country and was treated as aliens within their homeland -- stateless people within their own state! The Human Rights Watch Report, "All you can do is pray" aimed at highlighting the crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar's Arakan State, released in April 2013, is replete with reports of many atrocities and persecution carried out by the Myanmar state military against the community.

The report clearly states that violence which erupted between ethnic Arakanese Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in Burma's Arakan State began as sectarian clashes and turned into a coordinated campaign to forcibly relocate or remove the state's Muslims. Unless the international community steps forward to solve this state-sponsored violence and undertakes a stronger diplomatic effort, the problems of the Rohingya would remain a cry far too low to be heard.

The Rohingya issue if not solved, would turn into an explosive one. This vulnerable group of people is likely to be targeted by domestic and international terrorist groups for recruitment and exploitation. And who knows? Probably, some might have begun to rally support and collaboration with the Rohingya around the world turning this region around Rakhine state into a hotspot.

The writer is a Security and Defence Analyst.