Week 3: What awaits any Rohingya refugees who return to Myanmar?

Summary:

Here is a little background information on the Rohingya people: Link 

Map of Bangladesh and Myanmar with Rakhine State in red.

     

       The Rohingya people are descendants of Arabs and they reside in Myanmar, also known as Burma, and Bangladesh. The main article will focus on the Rohingya people in Burma. They are a group of Muslims living in a predominately Buddhist country. Most of them live in the state of Rakhine which is located on the eastern side of Burma and borders the country of Bangladesh on the north.

Main Article: Link

Aung San Suu Kyi

       Since late 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingyas moved from Burma to Bangladesh because of the persecution they face in their home country. Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader in Burma, is regarded as “Asia’s Mandela” because of how she speaks for human rights in Burma. Yet, she has almost kept quiet of the killing of Rohingyas and decimation their property. According to multiple human rights groups, the Rohingyas are enclosed in camps within cities with very poor conditions. The Burmese government cut off their education as well as not authorizing any form of citizenship. In addition, the majority of the Rohingya villages were burned down by Buddhist mobs. This has prompted most of the Rohingyas in Burma to emigrate from Burma and immigrate to Bangladesh.

       On the contrary, the Burmese claim that they only drive out Rohingyas who tried to attack the Burmese military. They also want the Rohingyas to come back by building shelters as well as giving them food, water, medical assistance, and money. The Burmese government is offering NVCs (National Verification Card) in attempts to document the Rohingyas. Furthermore, they began implementing workshops to help “understand ethnic differences and format good relationships”. Despite these actions, the Burmese military and government are still allowing all of these nefarious actions and a lot of anti-Rohingya propaganda which has been circulating through Facebook and has changed the Burmese civilians' perspectives on the Rohingyas.

Reaction:

       Personally, I think that the root of this cause is the religious divided between the Rohingyas and the Burmese. Since the Rohingyas are majority Muslim and the Burmese are majority Buddhist, there was inevitably going to be some sort of conflict. This is evident because the Burmese government is deep-rooted in Buddhism which means that most political decisions will be easily persuaded if it is justified by their beliefs. In addition, I think that the government has a hidden agenda behind bringing the Rohingyas back. They want to round them up into contained areas so that they can kill them, manipulate the number of people killed since they are the only ones that have access to them, and potentially control media outlets that are reporting on this issue.

Connection:

       This conflict draws parallels to the Holocaust because much like the Nazi Party, the Burmese government wants to remove their version of Jews, the Rohingyas. They detain them in designated areas with poor conditions and barely any resources. Social media and propaganda also promote hatred toward the Rohingyas. Both of these actions are closely tied to the Holocaust because the Jews were put into ghettos where supplies were rarely transferred in and not kept up. Also, Nazi propaganda depicts Jews as a bad and inferior race as well as blaming all of Germany’s problems on them.

Questions:

1. Do you think that the Burmese government has a hidden agenda when they try to bring back the Rohingyas?
2. Can Aung San Suu Kyi be trusted anymore?
3. Will the Rohingyas ever gain trust in the Burmese government in the future?
4. Any other thoughts.