Demonstration last week attracted protesters carrying posters saying “stop violence” and chanting “God is great”. The protesters urged the Myanmar government to end the bloodshed and sectarian violence against the country’s Rohingya population. The violence between Rohingya and Rakhine Buddhists in Myanmar’s western province has been ongoing since June 2011 and resulted in the deaths of 78 people and made tens of thousands homeless. The protesters theatrically rolled around in fake blood and wrote graffiti on the Myanmar embassy walls. “The Myanmar government have committed an act of inhumanity”, said protester Arya Sandi Yudh. “The UN also have already stated that Rohingya to be among the most persecuted people in the world”, he added. Many in mainly Buddhist Myanmar consider the Rohingya to be illegal settlers from neighbouring Bangladesh.

Report highlights abuses

A recent Human rights group reports said Myanmar security forces killed, raped or carried out mass arrests of Rohingya Muslims after deadly sectarian riots in the northeast in June. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said aid workers were blocked and in some cases arrested in a government crackdown on the largest group of stateless people in Southeast Asia.

The report came after a week of arson and machete attack by both ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingyas in Rakhine state. Based on 57 interviews with Rakhines and Rohingyas, the report sought to shed light on a conflict that exposed deep-rooted communal animosity and put the spotlight on promises by the civilian government in office since 2011 to protect human rights after decades of brutal army rule. “Burmese security forces failed to protect the Arakan [Rakhine] and Rohingya from each other and then unleashed a campaign of violence and mass round-ups against the Rohingya”, said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government claims it is committed to ending ethnic strife and abuse, but recent events in Arakan State demonstrate that state-sponsored persecution and discrimination persist”.

Bangladesh government refuses to help refugees 

Bangladesh has told three international aid agencies not to help thousands of Muslim Rohingya refugees who have been fleeing into its territory to escape violence in neighbouring strife-torn Myanmar. Joynul Bari, a district deputy commissioner, told Bangladeshi media, their helping hand is encouraging Rohingya refugees to cross from Myanmar into the country. Some 100,000 people, both Bangladeshis and Rohingya refugees, depend on the services of France’s Médecins Sans Frontières, British-based Muslim Aid and Action Against Hunger. Aid agencies fear that conditions in refugee camps in Bangladesh are about to deteriorate even further as a result of the ban. 

Background: History of Rohingya

The history of Rohingya minority dates back to the early seventh century when Arab Muslim traders settled in the area. According to the UN estimations there are about 800,000 Rohingya in Myanmar, including people of Bengali heritage who settled centuries ago as well as those who entered the country in recent decades. But the law in Myanmar considers as citizens only those who settled in the country before independence in 1948. Post-independence immigrants are officially considered illegal. Adding to the confusion over who is an illegal immigrant is the large exodus of Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh in the 1980s and 1990s because of persecution.

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