In Mayanmar now, history is repeating itself but with a
genocidal twist. Rohingya Muslims, considered the world’s most persecuted
minority, have lived for 150 years in Myanmar’s far western Rakhine state.
Denied citizenship by the military junta since 1982, they have been stateless
and without the most basic human rights, thus prey to indiscriminate rape,
torture and killing by Buddhist militants and civilians alike.
In recent days, however, eyewitness accounts of mass rape, killing and ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims has horrified the world. Families, including newborns, have been slaughtered and burned alive. United Nations officials report that tens of thousands of Rohingya women, children and men are streaming into neighboring Bangladesh after trudging through treacherous ravines and jungles, many falling along the way. Babies are dying in the cradles of their mothers.
In recent days, however, eyewitness accounts of mass rape, killing and ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims has horrified the world. Families, including newborns, have been slaughtered and burned alive. United Nations officials report that tens of thousands of Rohingya women, children and men are streaming into neighboring Bangladesh after trudging through treacherous ravines and jungles, many falling along the way. Babies are dying in the cradles of their mothers.
Bangladesh,
a poor country, is reeling under the burden of providing relief to the 100,000 who have fled Mayanmar in the last 2 weeks alone. This is
in addition to the already half-a-million Rohingyas in the Cox’s Bazar district
and adjoining villages living in squalid, unhygienic camps. (Growing up in Bangladesh, I visited Cox's Bazar and its adjoining villages in my youth for picnics and idyllic strolls along its unbroken shoreline but now it resonates only with the suffering of Rohingya Muslims.)
For
perspective, I called a journalist friend reporting from border posts along the
200-mile Bangladesh-Mayanmar border.
200-mile Bangladesh-Mayanmar border.
Mamun
Abdullah manages a 24-hour News Channel called Independent TV. “Rohingya
insurgents were forced to take up arms against the violence on their people,” said
Mamun. “On August 25 they attacked some Mayanmar police posts. The government
responded with disproportionate military force. That’s when the mass exodus
began.”
The critical
need of the refugees, said Mamun, is food, pure drinking water,
sanitation and shelter. “That’s not available. About 50 Rohingyas with multiple
bullet and burn injuries are being treated in Chittagong medical college
hospital a hundred miles away. It’s like a drop in the ocean. Several have
already died.”
Mamun is
skeptical about the possibility of Rohingya Muslims returning to Myanmar. “Repatriation
is a pipedream. Sheikh Hasina (Bangladesh’s prime minister), has praised Bangladeshis along the border for giving shelter to fleeing Rohingyas but has
also said Bangladesh cannot meet the demands of the swelling refugees.
It’s true, we just don’t have the facilities or the land.”
“So what’s
the way out?”
“There must
be international pressure to force Myanmar to stop the genocide. We have not
heard anything from United States government. Only the Turkish and Indonesian
governments have pledged some help so far.”
It is in the American character to serve the suffering.
While it is beyond our power to control the fury of nature, as we saw with
Hurricane Harvey and now with Irma, we can unite as decent human beings to do
something about the deadly violence being waged against the Rohingya Muslims, and,
for that matter, violence anywhere against a minority by a majority,
irrespective of race and religion.
Despite the bigotry and divisiveness promoted by
president Trump and his cohorts, Americans of all persuasions should contact their elected
officials and lawmakers to demand that Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace-prize
winner and the de facto leader of Myanmar, stop the torture and the killing of
Rohingya Muslims. She has not said a word so far, a stance that has been
denounced by many governments but unfortunately, not ours. Her silence has only
emboldened Myanmar’s militants and security forces in the state-sanctioned
genocide of Rohingya Muslims.
We should also call upon our government to demand that
the Myanmar government give Rohingya Muslims citizenship in a country where
they have lived for centuries, and to accord them the same dignity, safety and
security that the Buddhist majority enjoy. A concerted effort must also be made
to provide humanitarian aid to the refugees streaming into Bangladesh and to
sponsor a resolution in the UN Security Council to immediately stop the
genocide of Rohingya Muslims.
Some media links:
Some media links:
