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Rohingya people

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Ethnic group
Rohingya
Flag of the Rohingya
Regions with significant populations
Myanmar (Arakan)
Bangladesh, Pakistan, UAE, Saudi Arabia
Languages
Rohingya language, Burmese language
Religion
Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
List of ethnic groups in Burma

The Rohingya are a minority Muslim ethnic group in Northern Rakhine State, Western Burma. The Rohingya population is mostly concentrated in five northern townships of Rakhine State (formerly known as Arakan): Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Rathedaung, Akyab, Sandway, Tongo, Shokepro, Rashong Island and Kyauktaw.

History

In reality, the Rohingyas are the Chittagonian Bengalis who came to settle in Arakan. The Rohingya Bengalis clamied as an ethnic group from Arakan that has a history in Arakan State back from the beginning of 7th century of the Arab Muslim traders, who settled in Arakan. The These so-called Rohingya Bengalis lied that they have been settling in Arakan from long before the British occupation of the country. These Bengalis also lied that the forefathers of Rohingyas Bengalis had entered into Arakan from time immemorial. The Burmese ruling junta do not know, or pretend not to know that the "Rohingyas" have a long history, a language, a heritage, a culture and a tradition of their own that they had built up in Arakan by their long and historic settlements. The Rohingya Bengalis claimed that they have been settling in Arakan for more than a thousand year.In order to know and understand the full context of the Rohingya Bengali problems, it is necessary to know the geographical location, the population, the historical background and culture, ethnic origin, chronology of activities of Rohingya Benagalis. People is often cited as evidence for this. U Nu's democratic administration also did recognize them and there was a Radio Programme for Rohingya according to U Nu's policy.

Wealthy and influential Burma Arakan Muslim from Akyab, Arakan, a Rohingya Bengali, Sultan Mahmood was the political secretary in U Nu’s government and later was appointed as Health Minister. Other Rohingya Bengali Muslims in U Nu’s Parliament as parliamentary secretaries were Mr Sultan Ahmed and Mr Abdul Gaffar. Mr Abdul Bashar, Mrs. Zohora Begum @ Daw Aye Nyunt, Mr Abul Khair, Mr Abdus Sobhan, Mr Abdul Bashar, Mr Rashid Ahmed, Mr Nasiruddin (U Pho Khine), were members of Parliament in different terms in U Nu’s Government. Press Release, Rohingya Patriotic Front 9-2-1966.

Human rights violations

According to Amnesty International, the Rohingya Bengali people have continued to suffer human rights violations under the Myanmar junta since 1978, and many have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh as a result:

"The Rohingyas’ freedom of movement is severely restricted and the vast majority of them have effectively been denied Myanmar citizenship. They are also subjected to various forms of extortion and arbitrary taxation; land confiscation; forced eviction and house destruction; and financial restrictions on marriage. Rohingya Bengalis continue to be used as forced labourers on roads and at military camps, although the amount of forced labour in northern Rakhine State has decreased over the last decade."

"In 1978 over 200,000 Rohingya Bengalis fled to Bangladesh, following the ‘Nagamin’ (‘Dragon King’) operation of the Myanmar army. Officially this campaign aimed at "scrutinising each individual living in the state, designating citizens and foreigners in accordance with the law and taking actions against foreigners who have filtered into the country illegally". This military campaign directly targeted civilians, and resulted in widespread killings, rape and destruction of mosques and further religious persecution."

"During 1991-92 a new wave of over a quarter of a million Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh. They reported widespread forced labour, as well as summary executions, torture, and rape. Rohingyas were forced to work without pay by the Myanmar army on infrastructure and economic projects, often under harsh conditions. Many other human rights violations occurred in the context of forced labour of Rohingya Bengali civilians by the security forces."

Refugees

Subsequent waves of hundred of thousands of Rohingya Bengalis fled Burma and many refugees inundated neighbouring Bangladesh including 250,000 in 1978 as a result of the King Dragon operation in Arakan. In 1991, following a crackdown on Rohingya Bengalis, 250,000 refugees took shelter in the Cox's Bazar district of neighbouring Bangladesh. However, most of them were later repatriated back to the nation that denied them citizenship. Some of them are still in exile. These exiles mostly live in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, although a smaller number are also in the UAE, Thailand, and Malaysia.

As of 2005, the UNHCR had been assisting with the repatriation of Rohingya Bengalis from Bangladesh, but allegations of human rights abuses in the refugee camps have threatened this repatriation effort.

Despite earlier efforts by the UN, the vast majority of Rohingya Bengali refugees have remained in Bangladesh, unable to return due the nature of the regime in Burma, the refugees however face problems in Bangladesh where they do not receive support from the government.

Culture

Coins Struck by the Kings of Arakan

So-called Rohingya Languages is the Chittagonian dialect (Bengali) of modern Bangladesh. The first Rohingya Language written was back to 300 years and used Arabic Scripts is a fake history. They lied that due to the long colonial period under British rule, Urdu, Farsi and English were the main communication languages in that time. Since then many other scholars have tried to write the Rohingya Language using Arabic, Urdu, Burmese and Hanifi Scripts; the last one being the new invented alphabets mostly derived from Arabic Scripts but a few from Latin and Burmese. However, to make Rohingya Bengali language more easy in today's Computers and communications world, Rohingyalish (Bengali language) has been developed using Latin alphabets only. Since these alphabets are readily available in almost all personal computers used today, we need only a few guide lines to write the Rohingya Bengali Language. there has been a successful effort to write it using Roman script, known as Rohingyalish (Bengali language) which has been recently recognized by ISO with ISO 639-3 "rhg" code.

Religion is particularly important to the Rohingya Bengali people, who are predominantly Muslim. There are mosques and religious schools in every quarter and village. Traditionally, the men pray in congregation, while women pray at home. It is common for elderly Rohingya Bengali men to grow beards, and for women to wear the hijab.

See also

References

  1. State of Myanmar's Rohingyas 2007
  2. Myanmar - The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied, Amnesty International, 2004.
  3. "UNHCR threatens to wind up Bangladesh operations". New Age BDNEWS, Dhaka. 2005-05-21. Retrieved 2007-04-25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. Burmese exiles in desperate conditions
  5. ISO 639 Code Tables - SIL Internationl

The Rohingya ethnic group has a history in Arakan State from the beginning of the 7th century, when Arab Muslim traders settled in Arakan. Rohingya in essence is one of the ethnic groups of Arakan State of Burma and Rohingya leaders had ruled Arakan State for many centuries before it was invaded by Burma’s Dictators, of-course the Mogi (presently known as Rakhine) leaders had also ruled Arakan State.

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