THIS newspaper reported on Friday that the United States called for Myanmar to allow stateless Rohingya Muslims to become citizens. The US President Obama, who is in Myanmar’s capital to attend the East Asia Summit, plans to push Myanmar to ensure that the ‘fundamental universal rights’ of all be honoured. Reports added that 140,000 people are still confined in Rakhine state’s squalid displacement camps after violence erupted between Buddhists and Muslims in 2012.
The US move came after a draft of a controversial government-backed Rakhine Action Plan that Myanmar would force Rohingyas to identify themselves as Bengali – a term seen as disparaging – in order to apply for citizenship. Those who refuse will be forced to live in camps. Many in Myanmar’s government and local Buddhists view Rohingyas as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh, while many from the community say they can trace their ancestry in Myanmar back for generations.
Some 200 people were killed during two waves of violence in Rakhine in 2012. The killing was supported by the government elements. Unrest in Rakhine sparked again in March this year when mobs of Buddhist nationalists ransacked UN and aid group offices in state capital Sittwe, as tensions boiled over amid fears the Rohingyas could be denied of their state identity in a controversial census. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have now suffered for months with almost no access to healthcare in the state after medical aid group Doctors Without Borders was expelled by the government. Some 100,000 people have taken to boats, many barely sea-worthy, to escape the dire conditions in Rakhine, where both Buddhist and Muslim communities have long suffered Myanmar’s worst poverty levels.
The Rohingyas have faced unbelievable persecution over the years, not because of committing crimes, but because of belonging to a tribe that no one wants to acknowledge as their own. Pushed away from civilization and denied even the basic amenities necessary for survival, the Rohingyas are probably among the most neglected and deprived people in the world.
The US stance on granting them citizenship from Myanmar is a welcome move, but one that will face a lot of problems being implemented. The Burmese government are already making things difficult by forcing the Rohingyas to adapt or claim an identity that they do not associate with their own. The Myanmar government and its officials need to be more objective in their handling of the Rohingya situation in order to protect and enhance their international image, as well as prove that their humanity is still intact. We hope this torturous transition period for the Rohingyas would end here. They can no more remain stateless.
