Rohingya people
Encyclopedia
The Rohingya is a predominantly Muslim
ethnic group
of disputed origin who live in Arakan State
, western Burma. The Rohingya population is mostly concentrated to the cities of Maungdaw
, Buthidaung
, Akyab, Rathedaung
and Kyauktaw
.
Burmese historians like Khin Maung Saw asserted that the term Rohingya has never appeared in history before 1950s. According to another historian, Dr. Maung Maung, there is no such word as Rohingya in 1824 census survey conducted by the British. Historian Aye Chan from Kanda University of International Studies
noted that the term Rohingya was created by descendants of Bengalis in 1950s who migrated into Arakan during colonial area. He further argued that the term cannot be found in any historical source in any language
before 1950s. However, he stated that it does not mean Muslim communities have not existed in Arakan before 1824.
The Rohingya language is the modern written language of the Rohingya people of Arakan
(Rakhine) State of Burma (Myanmar). It is linguistically similar to the Chittagonian language
spoken in the southernmost part of Bangladesh
bordering Burma. Rohingya scholars have successfully written the Rohingya language in different scripts such as Arabic
, Hanafi, Urdu
, Roman and Burmese, where Hanifi is a newly developed alphabet derived from Arabic with the addition of four characters from Latin and Burmese.
More recently, a Roman script orthography has been developed, using all 26 English letters A to Z and two additional Latin letters Ç (for retroflex R) and Ñ (for nasal sound). To accurately represent Rohingya phonology, it also uses five accented vowels (áéíóú). It has been recognized by ISO with ISO 639-3 "rhg" code.
During World War II
, Japan
ese forces invaded Burma, then under British colonial rule
. The British forces retreated and in the power vacuum left behind, considerable violence erupted. This included communal violence between Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya villagers. The period also witnessed violence between groups loyal to the British and Burmese nationalists. The Rohingya supported the Allies during the war and oppose the Japanese forces, assisting the Allies in reconnaissance.
The Japanese committed atrocities toward thousands of Rohingya, the Japanese engaged in an orgy of rape, murder and torture. In this period, some 22,000 Rohingya are believed to have crossed the border into Bengal
, then part of British India, to escape the violence.
40,000 Rohingya eventually fled to Chittagong after repeated massacres by the Burmese and Japanese forces.
, and Panthay
(Chinese Muslims).
Successive Burmese governments have provoked riots against ethnic minorities like the Rohingya and Chinese. The Burmese state and Burmese Buddhist monks reportedly encouraged violence against the Rohingya.
s. Mosque
s and religious schools
occupy most villages. Traditionally, men pray in congregation and women pray at home.
, the Muslim Rohingya people have continued to suffer from human rights
violations under the Burmese junta
since 1978, and many have fled to neighboring Bangladesh
as a result:.
As of 2005, the UNHCR had been assisting with the repatriation of Rohingya from Bangladesh, but allegations of human rights abuses in the refugee camps have threatened this effort.
Despite earlier efforts by the UN, the vast majority of Rohingya refugees have remained in Bangladesh, unable to return because of the negative attitude of the ruling regime in Myanmar. Now they are facing problems in Bangladesh as well where they do not receive support from the government any longer. In February 2009, many Rohingya refugees were rescued by Acehnese
sailor
s in the Strait of Malacca
, after 21 days at sea.
Over the years thousands of Rohingya also have fled to Thailand. There are roughly 111,000 refugees housed in 9 camps along the Thai-Myanmar border. There have been charges that groups of them have been shipped and towed out to open sea from Thailand, and left there. In February 2009 there was evidence of the Thai army towing a boatload of 190 Rohingya refugees out to sea. A group of refugees rescued by Indonesian authorities also in February 2009 told harrowing stories of being captured and beaten by the Thai military, and then abandoned at open sea. By the end of February there were reports that of a group of 5 boats were towed out to open sea, of which 4 boats sank in a storm, and 1 boat washed up on the shore. February 12, 2009 Thailand's prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva
said there were "some instances" in which Rohingya people were pushed out to sea.
The prime minister said he regretted "any losses", and was working on rectifying the problem.
Bangladesh
has since announced it will repatriate around 9,000 Rohingya living in refugee camps in the country back to Burma, after a meeting with Burmese diplomats. Steps to repatriate Rohingya began in 2005.
In October 16, 2011, the new government of Burma agreed to take back registered Rohingya refugees.
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
ethnic group
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
of disputed origin who live in Arakan State
Rakhine State
Rakhine State is a Burmese state. Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State in the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady Region in the east, the Bay of Bengal to the west, and the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh to the northwest. It is located approximately between...
, western Burma. The Rohingya population is mostly concentrated to the cities of Maungdaw
Maungdaw
Maungdaw is a town in the Rakhine State of westernmost part of Myanmar. It it the administrative seat of Maungdaw Township and Maungdaw District.Since September 1995, border trade between Maungdaw of Myanmar and Teknaf of Bangladesh is formally established....
, Buthidaung
Buthidaung
Buthidaung is a town in the Rakhine State of westernmost part of Myanmar. It is the administrative seat of Buthidaung Township. It lies on the west bank of Mayu river. Flood hit in July 2011.-External links:*...
, Akyab, Rathedaung
Rathedaung
-External links:*...
and Kyauktaw
Kyauktaw
Kyauktaw is a town in the north Rakhine State of westernmost part of Myanmar. The famous Mahamuni Buddha Image was situated near Kyauk Taw, in the ruins of the old city of Dhanyawadi.Kyauktaw has many sugar mills and sugarcane plantations....
.
Etymology
The origin of the term "Rohingya" is disputed. Some Rohingya historians like Khalilur Rahman contended that the term Rohingya is derived from Arabic word 'Raham' meaning sympathy. They trace the term back to the ship wreck in 8th century AD. According to them, after the Arab ship wrecked near Ramree Island, Arab traders were ordered to be executed by Arakanese king. Then, they shouted in their language, 'Raham'. Hence, these people were called 'Raham'. Gradually it changed from Raham to Rhohang and finally to Rohingyas. However, the claim was refuted by Jahiruddin Ahmed and Nazir Ahmed, former president and Secretary of Arakan Muslim Conference respectively. They argued that ship wrecked Muslims are currently called 'Thambu Kya' Muslims and currently residing along the Arakan sea shore. Should the term Rohingya derive from these Muslims, "Thambu Kyas" would have been the first group to be known as Ruhaingyas. According to them, Rohingyas were descendants of inhabitants of Ruha in Afganistan. Another historian, MA Chowdhury argued that among the Muslim populations, the term 'Mrohaung' (Old Arakanese Kingdom) is corrupted to Rohang. And thus inhabitants of the region are called Rohingya. These claims are categorically rejected by Burmese historians.Burmese historians like Khin Maung Saw asserted that the term Rohingya has never appeared in history before 1950s. According to another historian, Dr. Maung Maung, there is no such word as Rohingya in 1824 census survey conducted by the British. Historian Aye Chan from Kanda University of International Studies
Kanda University of International Studies
or KUIS is a private university located in Makuhari, Mihama-ku, Chiba, Japan. The university was founded in 1987 as an extension of Kanda Institute of Foreign Languages in Tokyo. KUIS is a research university specializing in learner autonomy...
noted that the term Rohingya was created by descendants of Bengalis in 1950s who migrated into Arakan during colonial area. He further argued that the term cannot be found in any historical source in any language
before 1950s. However, he stated that it does not mean Muslim communities have not existed in Arakan before 1824.
Language
Rakhine State
Rakhine State is a Burmese state. Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State in the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady Region in the east, the Bay of Bengal to the west, and the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh to the northwest. It is located approximately between...
(Rakhine) State of Burma (Myanmar). It is linguistically similar to the Chittagonian language
Chittagonian language
Chittagonian is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the people of Chittagong in Bangladesh and in much of the southeast of the country. It is closely related to Bangla, but is normally considered by linguists to be a separate language rather than a dialect of Bangla. It is estimated to have 14...
spoken in the southernmost part of Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
bordering Burma. Rohingya scholars have successfully written the Rohingya language in different scripts such as Arabic
Arabic alphabet
The Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Because letters usually stand for consonants, it is classified as an abjad.-Consonants:The Arabic alphabet has...
, Hanafi, Urdu
Urdu alphabet
The Urdu alphabet is the right-to-left alphabet used for the Urdu language. It is a modification of the Persian alphabet, which is itself a derivative of the Arabic alphabet...
, Roman and Burmese, where Hanifi is a newly developed alphabet derived from Arabic with the addition of four characters from Latin and Burmese.
More recently, a Roman script orthography has been developed, using all 26 English letters A to Z and two additional Latin letters Ç (for retroflex R) and Ñ (for nasal sound). To accurately represent Rohingya phonology, it also uses five accented vowels (áéíóú). It has been recognized by ISO with ISO 639-3 "rhg" code.
World War 2 Japanese Occupation
On 28 March 1942, some thousands of Muslims (not more than 5,000) in Min Pya and Myoe Haung Townships were killed by Rakhine nationalists and Kareni. On the other side, the Muslims from Northern Rakhine state killed few thousands of Rakhine. British and Japanese forces never tortured the Muslims in Rakhine state. In fact, British and Japanese did not kill the Muslims.During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese forces invaded Burma, then under British colonial rule
British rule in Burma
British rule in Burma lasted from 1824 to 1948, from the Anglo-Burmese Wars through the creation of Burma as a province of British India to the establishment of an independently administered colony, and finally independence...
. The British forces retreated and in the power vacuum left behind, considerable violence erupted. This included communal violence between Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya villagers. The period also witnessed violence between groups loyal to the British and Burmese nationalists. The Rohingya supported the Allies during the war and oppose the Japanese forces, assisting the Allies in reconnaissance.
The Japanese committed atrocities toward thousands of Rohingya, the Japanese engaged in an orgy of rape, murder and torture. In this period, some 22,000 Rohingya are believed to have crossed the border into Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
, then part of British India, to escape the violence.
40,000 Rohingya eventually fled to Chittagong after repeated massacres by the Burmese and Japanese forces.
Burmese Junta
The current Junta ruling Burma relies heavily on Burmese nationalism and Theravada Buddhism to bolster its rule, it heavily discriminates against minorities like the Rohingya, Chinese people like the Kokang peopleKokang people
The Kokang people are an ethnic group of Burma . They are Mandarin-speaking Han Chinese living in Kokang Special Region. In 1997, it was estimated that the Kokang people, together with more recently-immigrated Yunnanese, constituted 30–40 percent of Burma's ethnic Chinese population.The...
, and Panthay
Panthay
Panthays form a group of Chinese Muslims in Burma. Some people refer to Panthays as the oldest group of Chinese Muslims in Burma. However, because of intermixing and cultural diffusion the Panthays are not as distinct a group as they once were.-Etymology:...
(Chinese Muslims).
Successive Burmese governments have provoked riots against ethnic minorities like the Rohingya and Chinese. The Burmese state and Burmese Buddhist monks reportedly encouraged violence against the Rohingya.
Religion
Religion is particularly important to the Rohingya people, who are predominantly MuslimMuslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s. Mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
s and religious schools
Madrasah
Madrasah is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, whether secular or religious...
occupy most villages. Traditionally, men pray in congregation and women pray at home.
Human rights violations & refugees
According to Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, the Muslim Rohingya people have continued to suffer from human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
violations under the Burmese junta
Military dictatorship
A military dictatorship is a form of government where in the political power resides with the military. It is similar but not identical to a stratocracy, a state ruled directly by the military....
since 1978, and many have fled to neighboring Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
as a result:.
As of 2005, the UNHCR had been assisting with the repatriation of Rohingya from Bangladesh, but allegations of human rights abuses in the refugee camps have threatened this effort.
Despite earlier efforts by the UN, the vast majority of Rohingya refugees have remained in Bangladesh, unable to return because of the negative attitude of the ruling regime in Myanmar. Now they are facing problems in Bangladesh as well where they do not receive support from the government any longer. In February 2009, many Rohingya refugees were rescued by Acehnese
Acehnese people
The Acehnese are a people in Aceh, Indonesia. Their homeland is located in the northern-most tip of the island of Sumatra and had a history of political struggle against the Dutch...
sailor
Sailor
A sailor, mariner, or seaman is a person who navigates water-borne vessels or assists in their operation, maintenance, or service. The term can apply to professional mariners, military personnel, and recreational sailors as well as a plethora of other uses...
s in the Strait of Malacca
Strait of Malacca
The Strait of Malacca is a narrow, stretch of water between the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It is named after the Malacca Sultanate that ruled over the archipelago between 1414 to 1511.-Extent:...
, after 21 days at sea.
Over the years thousands of Rohingya also have fled to Thailand. There are roughly 111,000 refugees housed in 9 camps along the Thai-Myanmar border. There have been charges that groups of them have been shipped and towed out to open sea from Thailand, and left there. In February 2009 there was evidence of the Thai army towing a boatload of 190 Rohingya refugees out to sea. A group of refugees rescued by Indonesian authorities also in February 2009 told harrowing stories of being captured and beaten by the Thai military, and then abandoned at open sea. By the end of February there were reports that of a group of 5 boats were towed out to open sea, of which 4 boats sank in a storm, and 1 boat washed up on the shore. February 12, 2009 Thailand's prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva
Abhisit Vejjajiva
Abhisit Vejjajiva , , ; born Mark Abhisit Vejjajiva; 3 August 1964 in Newcastle upon Tyne) is a Thai politician who was the 27th Prime Minister of Thailand from 2008 to 2011 and is the current leader of the Democrat Party...
said there were "some instances" in which Rohingya people were pushed out to sea.
"There are attempts, I think, to let these people drift to other shores. [...] when these practices do occur, it is done on the understanding that there is enough food and water supplied. [...] It's not clear whose work it is [...] but if I have the evidence who exactly did this I will bring them to account."
The prime minister said he regretted "any losses", and was working on rectifying the problem.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
has since announced it will repatriate around 9,000 Rohingya living in refugee camps in the country back to Burma, after a meeting with Burmese diplomats. Steps to repatriate Rohingya began in 2005.
In October 16, 2011, the new government of Burma agreed to take back registered Rohingya refugees.
See also
- Persecution of Muslims in BurmaPersecution of Muslims in Burma-Muslims in Burmese history :The first Muslim recorded in Burmese historyThe first Muslim documented in Burmese history was Byat Wi during the reign of Mon, a Thaton King, circa 1050 AD...
- Islam in BurmaIslam in BurmaIslam is a minority religion in Burma, practiced by 4% of the population, according to the Myanmar official statistics. However, according to a U.S...
- Human rights in Burma
- Burmese IndiansBurmese IndiansBurmese Indians are a group of people of Indian subcontinental ethnicity who live in Myanmar . While Indians have lived in Burma for many centuries, most of the ancestors of the current Burmese Indian community emigrated to Burma from the start of British rule in the mid 19th century to the...
- Muslims of ManipurMuslims of ManipurThe Manipuri Muslims locally known as Pangal are a cultural group and religious minority who have been living peacfully with the majority community- the Meitei who are co-valley dwellers and with hill inhabitants- Naga and Kuki who are Christians. Muslims have been living in Manipur, North East...
- Rohingya massacreRohingya MassacreDuring World War II, Japanese forces invaded Burma, then under British colonial rule. The British forces retreated and in the power vacuum left behind, considerable violence erupted. This included communal violence between Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya villagers. The period also witnessed...