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Press Release 
20, November 2018

Myanmar, not Bangladesh, is responsible for failed repatriation

On behalf of the Rohingya people, we would like to express regret and disgust at Myanmar's policy of continuously blaming Bangladesh for the failure of repatriation of Rohingya refugees. As we all know, the ground reality in Arakan (Rakhine) State makes repatriation of Rohingya refugees impossible as the brutal state machinery continues their genocide of the defenceless Muslim community, a policy in place for more than half a century. The sad truth is that Myanmar government has no intention of creating condition for sustainable repatriation and is responsible for failed repatriation and deserving of blame. We strongly condemn it. 

On the contrary, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to the government and people of Bangladesh who are hosting more than a million people in their country. Refugees are a burden for every country in the world, including developed nations, as has been seen in Europe over the past few years. Despite being the most overpopulated and a resource constrained nation Bangladesh has shown extraordinary generosity in letting the Rohingya refugees stay, with humanity the only motive. Myanmar's suggestion that Bangladesh does not want the Rohingya refugees is ridiculous. 

The genocide of Rohingyas is still ongoing, and the remaining Rohingyas in Arakan State continue to be persecuted, and preparations are underway to shift them away from their ancestral villages to IDP camps. State sponsored Buddhist nationalists are protesting against the repatriation of the Rohingyas. The situation of those who have been confined to ghettos and IDP camps following 2012 deadly violence shows no improvement. 

The issue of restoring citizenship to the Rohingya and recognition of their ethnic name “Rohingya” are not even being discussed. There is no change of attitude of the Myanmar authorities towards Rohingyas and other Muslim communities in the country. It is this reality that has terrified the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh every time the word repatriation is mentioned. In truth Rohingyas want sustainable return to their ancestral homeland in Arakan in safety, in dignity and with justice, not to killing field, where bloodshed and violence awaits them. 

It is disgusting to notice that the country responsible for the ongoing genocide continues to shift blame on its neighbour Bangladesh, a country which has tried to offer sustainable solutions for this ongoing crisis, including a serious effort to start repatriation on November 15. But because of Myanmar’s unchanged policy, such an effort was bound to be fruitless. 

On behalf of all Rohingya refugees, we maintain that we want to return to our homeland as long as it is protected from the forces that are complicit in the genocide of the Muslims in Arakan. That would require the demilitarization of the zone as it is absurd to suggest that Rohingyas can return to a zone where the Myanmar military retains the ultimate authority. It would also require the Government of Myanmar to legally recognise the Rohingyas as an ethnic minority as well as full citizens of Myanmar, consistent to other ethnic minorities of the country, as opposed to illegal immigrants, and rehabilitate and reintegrate IDPs in Akyab (Sittwe), Kyauktaw, Mrauk U and other townships affected by the 2012 deadly violence in their original habitats and make peace with all ethnic and religious minorities who are being persecuted since the 1960s. 

Instead of doing that, we notice that Myanmar's leaders including State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi has persistently laid the blame on the Government of Bangladesh. We would like to reiterate that such a policy is doomed to failure. On the other hand, we would once again like to thank the Government of Bangladesh led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and of course the generous people of Bangladesh who have been persistent in their help for our community especially at a time when we needed it the most. We request Bangladesh to ignore Myanmar's blame game policy and pursue a sustainable solution to the Rohingya crisis. 

Last but not the least, we are grateful for Bangladesh's decision not to force the Rohingya refugees out as it would have led them to the killing fields of Arakan. 

For more details, please contact:

Australia: Dr. Hla Myint +61-423381904
Bangladesh: Ko Ko Linn: +880-1726068413
Canada: Nur Hasim +1-5195725359
Japan: Zaw Min Htut +81-8030835327
U.K. Ronnie: +44-7783118354
U.S.A: Dr. Habibullah: +1-4438158609

(Photo: Bernat Armangue/AP)

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)


Press release 
5 October 2017

Repatriation proposal is trickery, Myanmar authorities are not trustworthy

During recent weeks more than half a million Rohingya refugees have taken refuge in Bangladesh due to genocide by Suu Kyi-army regime in Myanmar.

The governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed, on 2nd October, to work on a repatriation plan. State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said that verified refugees will be accepted. But the question is how the terrified and traumatized refugees would be repatriated to Arakan/Rakhine State where they experienced, witnessed and fled the genocidal brutality of Myanmar troops, Rakhine terrorists and other vigilantes. Despite assurance by the Myanmar government the violence and brutality continue. There were arson attacks on Quarter No.5 of Maungdaw town even today. 

As usual, the Myanmar government’s policy is obscure and its offer for repatriation is trickery. From time to time, Myanmar has had seized, destroyed any proof of documentation or issued no documentation at all to a large number of Rohingya. Now the Rohingyas lack documents for verification and resettlement as their houses were burned down. Myanmar government has already claimed state-ownership of Rohingyas’ land within the affected region of Northern Arakan/Rakhine state and has planned to confine the repatriated refugees in displacement camps like Sittwe, which were described by New York Times as 21st century concentration camps. In fact, the so-called verification process itself is an instrument of persecution since the Rohingyas are not only natural born citizens but also a recognized ethnic group of Burma/Myanmar.

Myanmar never kept their word in the past; it disregarded all previous repatriation agreements and stopped cooperating with Bangladesh. With the fresh exodus, the total number of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh now is estimated to be more than 850,000. Myanmar must change its attitude towards Rohingya and it must accept all refugees unconditionally.

When the Suu Kyi-army government itself is carrying genocide of Rohingya, now the responsibility to protect these helpless and defenceless people weighs on the international community. Those Rohingyas who are still at home remain trapped in Northern Rakhine’s vast open prison -- without access to food and medicine, in some places even drinking water -- facing starvation and diseases. The dire situation warrants humanitarian intervention to prevent further death and destruction and to ensure peace and security of the people. It is imperative to involve the international community with relevant UN agencies and refugee representatives in all stages of repatriation process.

It is noteworthy that the two previous bilateral identical repatriation agreements signed between the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar in 1978 and 1992 that described the refugees as “Burmese residents” were proved ineffective. Upon their return to Arakan the Rohingyas/refugees were and are treated as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and have continued to face mass atrocity crimes. The refugees should be able to go back to their ancestral homeland as “full citizens” of Myanmar.

The repatriation proposal is a tactical move by the regime, in the face of international condemnations and pressures, whose ultimate strategic scheme is to destroy the Rohingyas’ existence, history, identity and legality. Refugees are too terrified and feel extremely unsafe to return to Myanmar precisely because they experienced, witnessed and fled the genocidal brutality of Myanmar troops, Buddhist extremists and Rakhine vigilantes.

The repatriation proposal must not obscure the need for the international prosecution of those military, Rakhine and NLD leaders, who were directly involved in commanding the latest events resulting in the massive death, destruction and expulsion of more than half a million Rohingyas.

Repatriation is a question of life and death for the entire Rohingya population. With regard to safe and honourable repatriation the following measures, inter alia, are imperative.
  1. The refugees in Bangladesh camps are required to be recognized as refugees by UNHCR, which is a mandated UN protection agency.
  2. The Refugees should be allowed to put down their identity as “Rohingya”, the UN-recognized name to self-identify.
  3. Repatriation must be fully voluntary.
  4. The refuges must be rehabilitated in their original places and properties with full compensation under the supervision of the UN with peace-keeping force. 
  5. Demilitarized UN safe zones shall be created in Northern Rakhine State, as an interim measure, in order to guarantee security of life, property and dignity of the persecuted people, as well as to ensure confidence, faith and understanding in the minds of the heavily traumatized refugees. 
  6. The Myanmar government must restore their full Myanmar citizenship ensuring all rights and freedoms -- security of life, property, honour, dignity, freedom of religion, movement, education, marriage, employment etc. -- without any infringement, restriction, and discrimination in all affairs of their national activities. 
  7. The Myanmar government shall recognize the “Rohingya ethnicity” allowing them to peacefully co-exist in Arakan/Rakhine State as equals with their “collective rights” on par with other ethnic nationalities of the country.
  8. The Myanmar Citizenship Law of 1982 must be scrapped or amended aligning it with international standards and treaties to which Myanmar is State Party, including articles 7 and 8 of the Convention on the Rights of Child as recommended by the Commission of former UN Secretary General Dr. Kofi Annan.
  9. Land is asset and means of making living. All previous land and landed properties of the refugees must be given back to them immediately.
  10. Necessary arrangement shall be made to try and punish all perpetrators by an international independent tribunal.
  11. The Myanmar government shall stop and prohibit all forms of racism, incitement, propaganda, hate speech, Islamophobia, decrees and directives against the Rohingyas and other Muslims.
  12. The Myanmar government must allow unimpeded humanitarian aids to all needy and unfettered access to the media and rights groups to Northern Arakan/Rakhine state. 
  13. The welfare of the offspring of rapes and raped women must be ensured.

For more details, please contact:

Australia: Dr. Hla Myint + 61-423381904
Bangladesh: Ko Ko Linn: + 880-1726068413
Canada: Nur Hasim +1-519-5725359
Japan: Zaw Min Htut + 81-8030835327
U.K. Ronnie: +44-7783118354
U.S.A: Dr. Habibullah: +1-4438158609


(Photo: Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera)

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)

Press release 
21 September 2017

Aung San Suu Kyi’s disingenuous speech fails to address Rohingya genocide 

The Rohingya people are outraged by the highly contentious and ambiguous speech of the Myanmar State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi delivered before the diplomatic community on 19 September in Naypyidaw. She made numerous disingenuous excuses that fail to address the crisis, the untold sufferings of the Rohingya people, that the U.N stated a “textbook case of ethnic cleansing.” 

Without condemning the Myanmar military and collaborators, Suu Kyi tried to deflect the blame for the mass atrocity crimes and told the diplomats that she was unaware the facts why Muslims (Rohingyas) fled to Bangladesh and that “while many villages had been destroyed, more than half were still intact.” It is a hypocritical statement that suggests that she is a morally bankrupt to take a moral stand on “Rohingya genocide”. 

Invoking the UN Charter, she called for a “kinder and more compassionate for all mankind” – just apparently not for the helpless, weakest, poorest and most hated Rohingya minority. Unsurprisingly, throughout the speech, she declined to use the term Rohingya and thereby she rejects in practice the basic international norms and standards which respect physical integrity, self-identification, existence as a community, maintenance of identity and effective participation in governance. She is denying the ethnic Rohingya their “right to exist” in Myanmar.

It is an absurd excuse to talk of “equal rights to higher education” for the Rohingya people who have just been subjected to genocide, who are denied basic rights and freedoms -- freedom of movement, right to education, right to marry, right to vote, right to recognition before the law and as a community. For decades Rohingya students have been barred from studying in country’s colleges and universities, not to speak of equal opportunity. 

Her commitments to implement a “strategy and national verification process” for the Rohingya -- including those possibly returning refugees who fled for their lives and lost almost everything -- are simply ridiculous. Rohingya are natural born citizens of Arakan/Myanmar, they do not require cooperating with such unworthy “verification” scheme, a dirty trick of the perpetrators of genocide. 

It is a groundless excuse to talk those 18 months in power is a very short time for her new government to speak out for the Rohingya. Whereas Suu Kyi did not hesitate to voice for other communities, she did not even visit northern Rakhine State to see the Rohingya victims of deadly violence. In no time she could condemn the perpetrators, demand cessation of violations, insist upon the protection of the vulnerable and facilitate relief, allow the international media and accept the UN Fact-Finding Commission to investigate crimes against humanity. On top of that, in a relatively short time, she could have restored the citizenship of the Rohingya population that has been unjustly stripped of. Instead, by evading her government’s ‘responsibility to protect’ the Rohingya, she is trying to hoodwink the international community.

The plight of Rohingya is well-known as the most serious of all problems in Myanmar. Although their outcry reaches far and wide it does not get the ear of Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar leaders. There is no need to investigate “what the real problems are” or, strangely, to ask the half a million or so who did not flee what calculation they made in staying. 

It is not the time for double-dealing, but to act on the universal principle of justice and equality! 

For more details, please contact:
Australia: Dr. Hla Myint + 61-423381904
Bangladesh: Ko Ko Linn: + 880-1726068413
Canada: Nur Hasim +1-519-5725359
Japan: Zaw Min Htut + 81-8030835327
U.K. Ronnie: +44-7783118354
U.S.A: Dr. Habibullah: +1-4438158609




Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)

Press release: 7 August 2017

Maungdaw Investigation Commission’s report is not credible

Arakan Rohingya National Organsation (ARNO) strongly denounces and rejects the report, dated 6 August 2017, of the Maungdaw Investigation Commission headed by Myanmar Vice-President Myint Swe, a former military general. The report is “fundamentally flawed” and devoid of truth.

We are not surprised that the government’s commission denies “crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing” against the Rohingya people, where Myanmar military and security forces were the perpetrators.

We reiterate that the commission lacked independence and proper mandate; its members are not impartial or competent; it fails to provide adequate and effective protection for witnesses; and it has not given any consideration to the independent expert's recommendations. The report neither provides accountability nor reconciliation but impunity. It, in fact, is a blatant disregard of the human rights of the victims. 

Under international conventions and customary international law, the government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has primary responsibility to protect the Rohingya population; to make accountable those responsible for acts of genocide, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing against them, and to ensure their right to effective remedy. But the commission and its report is a ploy by the Myanmar government to prevent an independent international investigation to deliver justice, truth and full reparations for the victims.

The UN Fact-Finding mission is credible alternative to highly flawed and bias Maungdaw Investigation Commission’s report and is crucial for accountability efforts. The defenceless Rohingyas should not face discrimination or violence because of their ethnic background or religious belief.

We, therefore, urge upon the international community, including the powerful countries and Myanmar’s neighbours, to reject the Maungdaw Investigation Commission’s report and put concerted pressure on the stubborn Myanmar authorities to fully cooperate with the UN mandated Fact-Finding Mission into the human rights situation in Arakan/Rakhine State, and to provide it with free and unfettered access to all the areas to which they are seeking access.

For more details, please contact:
Australia: Dr. Hla Myint +61-423381904
Bangladesh: Ko Ko Linn: +880-1726068413
Canada: Nur Hasim +1 -519- 5725359
Japan: Zaw Min Htut +81-8030835327
U.K. Ronnie: +44-7783118354
USA: Dr. Habib Ullah +1-4438158609


By Nurul Islam
RB Article
June 23, 2017

The Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim community, a people developed from the interactions of various ethnicities over the period of many centuries, have inhabited Arakan with a long history. In terms of their origin and culture, as well as their present geographical location, they have more in common with people from India rather than the other Burmese races. This has encouraged vested quarters backed by the military to unleash a successful propaganda campaign against this Muslim race to a point their very existence is not tolerated by people from other races in the country, despite the unceasing imploration of the minority community for peaceful co-existence. 

The Rohingya problem is a longstanding issue of ethnic, religious and political persecution to rid Arakan of the Muslim population. “… with increasing frequency over time, … 1942, 1977, 1991, 2012 and 2014, waves of Muslim minority Rohingya fled Rakhine (Arakan) due to extreme forms of repression from the authorities dominated by the majority Buddhist and Burmese people.”[1] The horrific Muslim massacre of 1942 where about a hundred thousand were slaughtered by a Rakhine dominated militia is now a forgotten chapter in the pages of history lost amidst the gory backdrop of the Second World War. 

With the 1962 military takeover, the determination of the military regime to expel the Rohingya entered a new phase, quickly assuming the nature of ethnic cleansing and genocide that by now mankind has made regrettably conventional in many other corners of the world. Since then, for decades, the defenseless Rohingya have been stripped of their citizenship rendering them stateless in their own homeland of Arakan/Burma and refugees beyond its borders. Violently rejected in Burma and unwanted in neighbouring Bangladesh and elsewhere, the poor Rohingya are even in a realm hardened by terror and genocide, described by the UN as the world’s most persecuted people, a race without a country, adrift on the sea of sorrow. 

Sensing a bleak future amidst a hostile militant Buddhist environment, the 1942 pogrom motivated many Rohingya youths to embark on an armed revolution, on the eve of Burma’s independence in 1948, under the honorific nomenclature of Mujahid Party/Movement in order to safeguard the rights and freedom of their people. The Mujahids enjoyed widespread community support so long as they remained disciplined and steadfast. 

Unlike Buddhist Rakhine groups -- whether communist or nationalist movements -- the mainstream Mujahid and all succeeding Rohingya freedom movements never demanded separatism, although Burmese regime(s) and vested interests have engaged in a calculated and pernicious propaganda to tarnish the image of Rohingya emancipation movement as separatist, extremist, terrorist and having links with international terrorist organisations. However, Rohingya people did not show up in struggles outside their country and remained committed only as a community within Arakan. After the Mujahids ceased activities in 1961 in return for concessions promised by the regime, no significant Rohingya armed revolutionary groups have emerged only because the vast majority continued to believe in the path of peaceful political settlements, despite the continuous setbacks that followed. All armed remnants, including the much publicised Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) has become defunct for a long time. Nevertheless, there was no change of attitude by the government or representatives from the majority Buddhist communities towards the Rohingya people. They soon became invariably subjected to horrific crimes against humanity which amounts to ethnic cleansing and genocide. Giving little or no attention to the predicament and current terrible situation besetting the Rohingya people, those who practice unethical journalism have over the years shifted the Rohingya issue to that of illegal immigration and extremism rather than what it really is - - a case of the ethnic cleansing of a defenseless minority. 

Deviating from his previous position, a renowned Swedish Journalist Bertil Lintner recently wrote in his article titled “Militancy in Arakan State” dated 15 December 2016 that Muslims of Arakan who now call themselves “Rohingya” are unlikely to have anything to do with the Rooinga- as recorded by East India Company’s Scottish ethno-linguist Buchanan in 1789. He continued that it was not until the late 1950s that the name Rohingya came into use and the government recognised the designation. U Nu, who had resigned as prime minister in 1958 to give way to a military caretaker government headed by Gen Ne Win, wanted to get the Muslim vote when he sought re-election in 1960 – and the creation of the Mayu Frontier Administration as well as the recognition of the name of Rohingya was part of the campaign, according to Lintner. It is devoid of meaning as there was no such statement or record. The acceptance of ‘Rohingya’ as an ethnic name was also accepted by Prime Minister U Nu’s socialist rival U Ba Swe. On top of that no credible Rakhine political Party at that time did ever raise any citable objections to the recognition of Rohingya as one of the ethnic nationalities of the Union of Burma. In fact, “the plan to set up Mayu Frontier Administration (MFA) for the predominantly Rohingya was made by the Ministry of Defence Border Affairs Division as the Rohingya leaders from North Arakan townships were bitterly opposed to granting Rakhine an autonomous statehood as promised by U Nu –and even long before that.”[2] At that time Gen Ne Win was Chief of Staff and Brigadier Aung Gyi was Deputy Chief of Staff. It may be pointed that the concept of MFA was based on “Muslim Area of North Arakan” that the British Military Command declared vide its announcement No. 110-CC/42 dated 31 December 1942.

As atrocities continued and attitudes hardened, the community slid towards desolation leading to desperation, especially among the young generation. It was in the midst of this already volatile situation that in 2012, the anti-Muslim riots took place, virtually obliterating the social fabric of the Rohingya community. It was an event where almost everybody from Maungdaw to Kyauktaw lost someone dear to them. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had long been the last beacon of hope for the Rohingya Muslims, but instead she attempted to shield the military rulers and the perpetrators of this gruesome violence. Gradually her stance moved more towards the anti-Muslim bloc till a time came when she started to pin the blame on the victims. It was a great shock for the Rohingyas, a community whose members had almost unanimously prayed for the day she would rule Burma. The so-called democratic transition made the Rohingya even more disenfranchised subsequently excluding them from the 2014 census. By then, many from the Rohingya young generation whether in their homeland or in their places of refuge were ready to listen to anyone who offered them a message of violent retaliation. 

Even then, it was four years after the public declaration of the Tatmadaw and their nationalist allies to annihilate the Rohingyas that the attacks on the Border Guard Police headquarters and its two outposts in Maungdaw district took place, on 9 October 2016. The attackers belonged to a hitherto unknown Rohingya group, apparently in hundreds, under the name of Harakat al-Yakeen (the Faith Movement or the Movement of Hope). It is, however, worth mentioning that the Border Guard Police (BGP), formerly NaSaKa, has been established by the former infamous Gen Khin Nyunt to steadily annihilate the Rohingya community from their ancestral homeland. The members of the BGP and security forces are unofficially licensed to indulge in extra-judicial killing, arbitrary arrest, rape, arson, destruction, looting, extortion, and other inhuman acts against the Rohingya community. 

The military under the pretext of cleansing operation or counter insurgency retaliated with excessive force indulging in summary executions including that of infant children, mass rapes and destruction of the properties of innocent Rohingya civilians, while aid organisations, foreign journalists and international observers were denied access. The government announced that the group was well trained and well-funded and backed by Middle Eastern patrons, ringing alarm bells across foreign capitals. In reality, the evidence and videos released suggest that the attackers while belonging to the country’s long oppressed Rohingya Muslim minority are ill quipped, and a significant majority of them are children under 12, armed with few assorted obsolete arms, swords, spears, sticks and even farm tools, devoid of proper uniforms or shoes; the attacks were confined to the Rohingya area of Northern Maungdaw; and their tactics and behaviours did not seem sophisticated. As a researcher with the Burma Human Rights Network points out in an article analysing the new insurgent group, “The feeling quickly sinks in that these children are being marched to their deaths for something they are not even old enough to understand. Frankly, it is horrifying.”[3]

It is impossible to comprehend how a force like the Tatmadaw, fighting guerilla movements for more than six decades missed the textbook conditions that were brewing up leading to the present armed insurgency in Arakan. The Armed Forces, well versed in ‘counter insurgency’ knew very well what was going to hit them. Whatever the objectives of the ill equipped attackers, they had played right into the hands of the shrewd Tatmadaw officials who have long been waiting for an opportunity to execute another bout of ethnic cleansing similar to 2012, but one that could be continued over time with more brutal efficiency. Intentions of such a violent confrontation with ill equipped Rohingya villagers would be to (i) frustrate regional and international efforts for communal reconciliation and to address the human rights situation in Arakan, (ii) keep the Rohingya majority area of northern Arakan under military control raising false security alarm from the angle of so-called terrorism thereby to create an “exclusive military administration within the government” and slowly but surely weaken the NLD-led government (iii) diminish the existing sympathy and support of the international community for oppressed and persecuted Rohingya by portraying them as having connections with militant Islam (iv) produce IDPs in Maungdaw district as in Akyab/Sittwe with the intention to ultimately destroy the whole community; (vi) push the Rohingyas into Bangladesh (vii) permanently divide the two sister communities of Rohingya and Rakhine on ethnic and religious lines; and (viii) divert the attention of the people away from the ongoing wars in Kachin and Shan states.

A report by the Brussels based International Crisis Group (ICG) published under an unfavourable title, “A new Muslim insurgency in Rakhine State”, perhaps unwittingly gave the Myanmar regime invaluable support. It does not help that Rohingyas are Muslims. In all fairness, the ICG report calls for addressing the root causes of the Rohingya insurgency. It condemns atrocities against the Muslim population and identifies the failure of the government as the reasons this insurgency was born. One of the authors of the ICG report said, it is at heart motivated by local grievances rather than trans-national Jihad like IS or al-Qaeda. Yet the practical truth is the ICG report did not lead the international media to carry headlines such as “Crimes Against Humanity or Genocide or Ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas creating new Muslim insurgency”. Rather the headlines read more like ‘Myanmar’s Rohingya insurgency has links to Saudi, Pakistan’, giving impetus to the government claim it was fighting well funded terrorists at a time when Rohingya villagers, including women and children were being slaughtered indiscriminately in what was a colossal assault on defenseless civilians and not a counter-insurgency operation. Through no fault of their own, the Muslim community was placed on the wrong side of the war on terror, with the situation playing into the hands of one of the world’s most brutal security forces. As for the group’s funds, by now it is well known they were indeed being financed by another ragtag band of refugees based only in Saudi Arabia, and not by conventional governments or oil barons. At a time when their friends and relatives were being slaughtered, with children being thrown into the fire, the bewildered Rohingya had to bear with allegations of supporting militant outfits whose very names sounded strange to their ears. 

It is shocking that the writer Bertil Lintner was callous to writes, “it is also not known whether today’s militants, as suggested, want to establish an Islamic state in northwestern Arakan State, or are only looking for operations in the region, including perhaps even India”. He intentionally avoids highlighting the clear statement of the Harakat al-Yakeen that rejected the trans-national terrorist label, called for the restoration of rights and freedom, demanded to resolve the Rohingya problem and redress the grievances of the beleaguered community, and expressed a feeling of abandonment by the international community, while calling on the Myanmar government to end the decades-old civil war with the ethnic nationalities in the country. Despite the fact that Rakhine youths are ganging up with the security forces in unleashing violence against Rohingya villagers, no Rakhine miscreants have been targeted by the members of the Harakat al-Yakeen. Their demands are minimum and legitimate. When all other remedies are completely exhausted, self-defense will accrue from all standpoints. 

[1] “Sanction Myanmar And Give The Rohingya A State Of Their Own”, an article by Anders Corr Contributor, Forbes, 28 December 2016 

[2] Bertiil Linter makes facts up about Rohingya while playing to popular and policy-Islamophobia, an article by Dr. Maung Zar Ni, 17 December 2016. 

[3] Taking the Rohingya Insurgency at Face Value”, an article by Richard Potter in Diplomat dated October 30, 2016

Nurul Islam is Chairman of Arakan Rohingya National Organisation. 



Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)

Press release: 31 May 2017

ARNO Welcomes UNHRC Fact-finding Mission

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) welcomes the appointment of a three-person fact-finding mission on 30 May by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate alleged atrocities committed by Myanmar security forces against Rohingya Muslims.

It is an excellent team of experts headed by India’s Supreme Court Lawyer Ms. Indira Jaising; and its two other members are Sri Lankan lawyer Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy and Australian rights consultant Mr. Christopher Dominic Sidoti.

On 30 May the President of the 47-member Human Rights Commission, Ambassador Joaquin Alexander Maza Martelli has appropriately formed the team in accordance with Council resolution of March 24 to ‘dispatch urgently’ an international fact-finding mission to Myanmar to prove alleged abuses by military and security forces, particularly against the minority Rohingya Muslim community, including allegation of arbitrary detention, torture, inhuman treatment, rape and other forms of sexual violence, extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary killings, enforced displacement, and unlawful destruction of property.

It has been a serious concern that Myanmar government and military authorities continue denying any violations in spite of well-documented evidences and accounts of atrocity crimes committed against the defenseless Rohingya population, including mass killings, gang rapes and arson in state sponsored deadly violence since 2012 and in systematic military campaigns from 2016 causing influx of thousands of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh.

The Government of Myanmar has the responsibility to protect the victims and is duty-bound to cooperates with this fact-finding mission, including granting it full access as called for in the Human Rights Council resolution. 

However, it is a “welcome relief” and hope to be a great move towards creating a full commission of inquiry to investigate the crimes against Rohingya.

For more details, please contact: 

Australia: 
Dr. Hla Myint +61-423381904

Bangladesh: 
Ko Ko Linn: +880-1726068413

Canada: 
Nur Hasim +1 -519- 5725359

Japan: 
Zaw Min Htut +81-8030835327

U.K. 
Ronnie: +44-7783118354

USA: 
Dr. Habib Ullah +1-4438158609




Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)

Press release: 17 May 2017

SAVE THE ROHINGYA WOMEN AND GIRLS

On behalf of the Rohingya Muslim community, ARNO expresses shock, sorrow and condemns in the strongest possible terms the rape of at least 32 Rohingya women by the Myanmar military and Border Guard Police in Kyan Taung, Buthidaung Township, Rakhine/Arakan state. 

Once again we are forced to watch helplessly the gruesome acts of sexual violence perpetuated by the government forces against our women and girls, in the name of fighting terrorists. Our deepest sympathies are with these brave women, and their families, whose only crime is they were born a Muslim in this country.

The regime has made little secret of their intentions, as they announced the commencement of clearance operations in Kyan Taung with much fanfare on May 8 citing a dubious case that two Rohingyas were killed while making landmines. Since then, revenge for supposedly making landmines have translated into the rape of least 32 women and other forms of sexual violence against many more in Kyan Taung. 

In spite of the series of international condemnations, and the initiative taken by the United Nations Human Rights Council to probe killings and rapes of Rohingya in Northern Maungdaw, the security forces have indulged in what can only be described as a mass rape orgy in Kyan Taung. Furthermore, the military has flatly rejected the UN probe in Northern Maungdaw, with Senior General Min Aung Hlaing saying the ‘Tatmadaw spirit’ compelled them to prevent such an international investigation.

In light of such circumstances, we request the international community to come with more stringent measures to prevent the murder and rape of Rohingya women and children.

The use of rape as a weapon of war by the Myanmar armed forces is nothing new, it has been committed against many other ethnic communities to demoralise and dehumanise them before taking over their land. It is not the act of rogue soldiers, but a systematic policy adopted by top level commanders designed to break the fabric of society. It has been committed against the Kachins, Karens, the list goes on and on. But even by the standards of Tatmadaw terror, the brutality perpetuated against the Rohingyas has reached new heights. Responsible actors and genuine sympathisers from the international community must act now or give us realistic recommendations on how to strive against the genocide unfolding against our people. 

ARNO reaffirms as we did during the operations in northern Maungdaw, that acts of sexual violence against our mothers and sisters is one of the most horrendous kinds of oppression that government forces have meted out to us in the name of clearance operations. 

For more details, please contact: 

U.K. Ronnie: +44-7783118354
Japan: Zaw Min Htut +81-8030835327
Australia: Dr. Hla Myint +61-423381904
USA: Dr. Habib Ullah +1-4438158609
Canada: Nur Hasim +1 (519) 572-5359
Bangladesh: Ko Ko Linn: +880-1726068413




Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)

Press release
3 December 2016

ARNO Rejects Government’s Investigation Commission

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) is strongly opposed to the government’s pretension and lack of honesty, and rejects the 13-member investigation commission formed on 1 December, inter alia, for the following reasons:

1. The military and police crackdown on innocent Rohingya civilian population in Northern Arakan since 9 October is state sponsored. It has been carried out with manifest intention of destroying the Rohingya minority community. Not only Myanmar military top brass but also the State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi is morally, officially and wickedly responsible for it.

2. The investigation commission is headed by Vice-President 1 U Myint Swe, who was much feared former Chief of Military Security Affairs. No Rohingya or Muslim is taken in the commission and it fully represents the perpetrators and their interest. It cannot be taken as impartial and independent. 

3. The Myanmar security forces are still indulging in violent killings, rapes and arson attacks in Rohingya villages even when the former UN Secretary-General Mr. Kofi Annan, the head of the Advisory Commission on Arakan, is on his observation tour to Maungdaw District from 2 December.

4. So far, more than 500 innocent Rohingya civilians were killed, many hundreds of women raped, about 3500 houses were burned down, unknown number of people arrested and involuntarily disappeared, and at least 40,000 internally displaced, in addition to systematic destruction of rice, paddy and food products. About 10,000 people fled to Bangladesh. In fact, this level of indescribable criminal atrocities is aimed at forcing the entire community to flee their ancestral homeland of Arakan and make them to wander from place to place with ultimate aims of perishing them.

5. By all legal definition, the Myanmar government is committing genocide and crimes against humanity, including ethnic cleansing, against the Rohingya people. They are international crimes with international jurisdiction. Thus the Rohingya issue is an international issue and it cannot be pleaded as internal affairs of Myanmar.

6. Like all other previously formed inquiry commissions on Rohingya issue, the newly formed Investigation Commission is just for show and impression. It is not trustworthy and we REJECT it totally. 

7. We therefore demand an urgent UN sponsored international commission to investigate into genocide and crimes against humanity and bring the perpetrators to justice.


For more details, please contact: 

U.K.: Ronnie +44-7783118354 
Japan: Zaw Min Htut +81-8030835327
Australia: Dr. Hla Myint +61-423381904
USA: Dr. Mohammed Habib Ullah +1-4438158609
Canada: Nur Hasim +1 (519) 572-5359
Bangladesh: Ko Ko Linn: +880-1726068413




Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)

Press release
30 November 2016

Widespread rape of Rohingya women as a weapon of ethnic-cleansing

On Friday 25 November, at about 5 a.m. around 500 Myanmar cruel armed forces – most of them local Buddhist Rakhine goons dressed in uniform without badge -- had cordoned San They Pyin hamlet of Longdon village-tract in Maungdaw Township. About one hundred of them entered the village and seized and removed nearly 100 women and teenage girls to school field, stripped them naked under gun point and lined them up in lying position and raped. Then they made them walk along the village pathway in nude. Some of the women who defied the inhumaneness were slaughtered. The onslaught lasted until 5 p.m. But five beautiful women were not released and were sexually molested whole night by a group of savage soldiers in their camp whereupon three of them were slaughtered. 

So far more than 500 innocent villagers were killed, in addition to wholesale destruction of everything by arson attacks, from dwelling houses, mosques and religious buildings to rice, paddy and food products. Terrible stench has spread in places where people could not bury the dead bodies which become food for foxes and other animals. 

The local Buddhist Rakhine goons, under the instruction of their extremist leaders, are actively involved in killing, looting, raping and perpetrating other atrocity crimes side by side with the marauding soldiers. 

Rape is being used as a weapon of ‘Rohingya ethnic-cleansing’. Shutting up the area to international journalists and observers facilitate the government to destroy the Rohingya people without the knowledge of the outside world, while preventing humanitarian aids has caused serious starvation to the victims of mass atrocity crimes. People are dying of shortage of food and lack of medical treatment. 

We reiterate our request that the International community, UN and powerful countries, and Myanmar’s neighbours should intervene now to save the defenseless Rohingya community from total destruction. 

For more details, please contact: 

U.K.: Ronnie +44-7783118354 
Japan: Zaw Min Htut +81-8030835327
Australia: Dr. Hla Myint +61-423381904
USA: Dr. Mohammed Habib Ullah +1-4438158609
Canada: Nur Hasim +1 (519) 572-5359
Bangladesh: Ko Ko Linn: +880-1726068413




Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)


Press Release
28 November 2016

UN intervention is the only viable solution in Rohingya situation

For more than 6 weeks the innocent and peaceful-living Rohingyas have been made systematic targets of wholesale destruction, killing, raping and looting and arson attacks. The Myanmar military and security forces have killed more than 500 people, raped hundreds of women, burned down over 2500 houses, destroyed mosques and religious schools, and perpetrated other inhuman acts.

While the persecution against Rohingya has been callous, persistent and recurring again and again for many decades -- causing refugee problem and boat people crisis that pose regional instability and threat to international peace security -- the Myanmar Government has manifestly failed to protect them, and Nobel Peace Prize Winner State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi is personally complicit and officially guilty in making Rohingyas’ plight worse. 

As outlined in Articles 6 and 7 of the Rome Statute, well documented reports and videos confirm that genocide and crimes against humanity (including ethnic cleansing) have been committed against Rohingyas by the Myanmar Government. 

Due to ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity, the Rohingyas are fleeing to Bangladesh for a temporary shelter to save their lives. They strongly desire to return to their ancestral homeland of Arakan as soon as possible and live a life in peaceful-coexistence with other ethnic groups, as responsible citizens of Myanmar, rather than to live in humiliation as refugees in alien lands. 

But it is frustrating that United Nations, powerful countries and Myanmar neighbours, have taken no concrete step to response to the serious humanitarian needs of the helpless Rohingyas and to stop the ongoing genocide against them. 

The Rohingya are hated, rejected, persecuted, annihilated and killed, and are treated as non-nationals. They do not enjoy any legal rights under Myanmar law and so do not have any redress in Myanmar. Therefore, the international Community should intervene in the matter. Particularly the UN intervention, on the grounds of humanitarianism with the specific purpose of preventing or alleviating widespread suffering or death of ethnic Rohingya with full security, is the only viable option left over to protect and save over a million of innocent lives. It seems implausible that the Rohingya would have any other redress except via the UN intervention.

We, therefore, urge upon the UN and international community for urgent intervention in the case of well documented genocide against the Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority to protect and save the lives of more than one million of innocent people. We also urge for an impartial international investigation into the crimes against Rohingyas, and for urgent humanitarian aids to the needy. 

For more details, please contact: 

U.K.: Ronnie +44-7783118354 
Japan: Zaw Min Htut +81-8030835327
Australia: Dr. Hla Myint +61-423381904
USA: Dr. Habib Ullah +1-4438158609
Canada: Nur Hasim +1 (519) 572-5359
Bangladesh: Ko Ko Linn +880-1726068413

Email: info@rohingya.org 




Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)

Press release
15 November 2016

Rohingya are being destroyed, ‘full security and protection’ most urgent

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation strongly condemns the mass killing and torture murder, rape, plundering and wholesome destruction of Rohingya people and their properties, homes and villages in Northern Arakan since 9 October.

From 12 November the Myanmar armed forces have intensified combined military and police crackdown on the ordinary Rohingya villagers using helicopter gunships, tanks and artillery. There are instances that all members of some families were shot dead. Those who were fleeing, on being terrified, were blocked and killed by machine gun firing in paddy fields, dales and creeks particularly in and around the Rohingya villages of Myaw Taung, Dargyizar, Yekhechaung Kwasone, Pwinpyu Chaung, Thu Oo La, Longdun, Kyin Chaung (Bawli Bazar) and Wabaek in Northern Maungdaw.

The army reportedly started crackdown on the Rohingya villagers on 12 November immediately after an armed clash with an alleged Rohingya armed group in the jungles. On 12 and 13 November about 150 civilians were killed, 200 injured, many people arrested and tortured, and 1500 houses, including religious buildings, were burned down, in addition to crimes against humanity and war crimes perpetrated in the month of October.

The total causalities from 9 October to 13 November are estimated to be 350 killed, 300 injured, many dozens of women raped, hundreds of people arrested on concocted charges, and 3500 houses, including four villages, were burned down or destroyed. At least 30,000 people have been internally displaced. The injured people have no access to medical care. Many women, old men, children and infants were among those who were killed. The crackdown is still continuing while severely restricting humanitarian aids and barring international journalists and observers to the areas.

All these crimes against humanity and war crimes are committed with manifest intention to destroy the Rohingya minority community. But the Nobel Prize owner State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s government has persistently denied any violations against Rohingyas while lying that the Rohingya villagers themselves were torching their own houses. It is a rascally shameful conduct of the government and its armed forces.

Despite sky-piercing hues and cries of the Rohingya women, children and elderly, the NLD-led Government of Myanmar is manifestly failing to protect their life, property, honour and dignity, whereas the entire Rohingya population is living, round the clock, in extreme danger of killing, rape and destruction. In the event of no domestic protection, the responsibility to protect these helpless people weighs on the United Nations with the international community.

In view of the above facts, we:

1. Demand Myanmar Government to stop forthwith the ongoing military and police crackdown on Rohingya civilian population, to allow international journalists and observers to the affected areas as well as unhindered humanitarian aids to the needy, and to end all human rights violations and abuses against them.

2. Request the U.N. to conduct an independent and transparent international inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes committed against the Rohingya people and bring the perpetrators to justice.

3. Request the Government of neighbouring Bangladesh to speak out for the suffering Rohingya people on humanitarian grounds.

4. Request the United Nations and the international community to intervene in the current extremely dangerous situation being faced by the helpless Rohingya population in order to provide them with 'full security and protection' on the principle of humanitarian intervention and in the interest of international peace and security.

For more details, please contact:

Zaw Min Htut +81-8030835327
Dr. Hla Myint +61-423381904
Ronnie: +44-7783118354
Ko Ko Linn: +880-1726068413




Press Release 
August 29, 2016

ARNO cautiously welcomes the Annan Commission on Arakan

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation cautiously welcomes the formation of a nine-member Advisory Commission chaired by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Anan to find out lasting solutions to the issues in the Arakan/Rakhine State. 

“The situation of Rohingya people in Myanmar represents a global challenge for the entire international community”. It is encouraging that the Government of Myanmar, for the first time, appreciates the importance of efforts by international dignitaries like Nobel Laureate Kofi Annan and two other diplomats in resolving the long standing Rohingya problem of ethnic, religious and political persecution. 

The problem in Arakan is not an immigration issue, but systematic, deliberate and often brute forced removal of ethnic Rohingya from their ancestral homeland by organized use of intimidation, terror, rape, murder, destruction and other inhuman acts, under intolerant state policies, with a view to transforming the region into a close-knit homogenous Buddhist Rakhine territory. Decades of Rohingyas’ victimization in Myanmar, including the organized deadly violence occurred and reoccurred against them in Arakan from 2012, have not yet been properly and truthfully investigated. We hope the Annan Commission will leave no stone unturned in looking for an objective assessment. 

However, it remains a concern that no Rohingya of repute has been taken in the Commission whereas the two Buddhist Rakhines -- U Win Mra, Chair of the Myanmar Human Rights Commission who officially denied persecuting Rohingya, and Daw Saw Khin Tint who has publicly launched hate-mongering and Islamophobia campaigns and provocation against ethnic Rohingya -- are included in the 6 national members of the Commission. Nonetheless, the Commission:

1. Must ensure independent, impartial, full and effective investigation into all atrocity crimes, human rights violations and abuses against Rohingya and other minorities in Arakan and hold those responsible accountable under all relevant laws. 

2. Must ensure that all Rohingya victims of human rights violations and atrocity crimes, including the large numbers who have fled their homeland to escape persecution are given full and free access to effective mechanisms of justice and redress. 

3. Should recommend immediately lifting all the restrictions on the basic freedoms of Rohingya, including their freedom of movement and worship, and allowing them access to education, healthcare, political participation, right to marry, and the right to employment and property ownership, right to return to their original places and homes without obstruction. 

4. Must ensure reconciliation between the two sister communities of Rohingya and Rakhine in Arakan. 

Last but not least, The Rohingya are on the verge of total annihilation. It is too pressing to relieve their untold sufferings. It is imperative that the NLD-led Government has a political will to act upon the recommendations of Kofi Annan Commission.


For more details, please contact: 


Ronnie: Mob: +44-7783118354 
Ko Ko Linn: Mob: +880 1726068414
Email: info@rohingya.org 
www.rohingya.org




Date: 25th August 2016

Statement of ARNO on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s 21st Century Panglong Convention

1. The Panglong Agreement signed on February 12, 1947 between the independence hero late Gen. Aung San and leaders of the several ethnic groups in Panglong, Shan State, was an epoch-making event in the history of Burma to build the Union of Burma together. The history of Burma/Myanmar would have developed differently if there was no Panglong Treaty. 

2. But the true spirit of the Panglong -- ‘unity in diversity’-- has never been realized since Burma’s independence on January 4, 1948. The agreed upon principles of federal democracy, equal rights, autonomy and self-determination of the ethnic nationalities have been largely ignored which developed resentment giving rise to long civil war continuing till today. 

3. Gen. Ne Win seized the power in 1962 and ended the Union Treaty and destroyed all vestiges of democratic structures while perpetrating human rights violations in the whole country and exterminating the ethnic Rohingya under state programme. 

4. The long military dictatorship has promoted hate speech and Islamophobia, perpetrated discriminatory and repugnant policies of segregation, crimes against humanity and slow genocide against Rohingya, including restriction on their basic freedoms and freedom of movement. Despite democratic transitions, there is no fundamental change of attitude towards Rohingya. Their untold sufferings are callous and are facing existential threat in Myanmar.

5. It is of much interest that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is holding an all- inclusive Second Panglong Conference or 21st Century Panglong Convention on 31st August 2016 to revitalize and translate the true spirit of Panglong with a view to establishing a blissful and well-built Union of Myanmar.

6. However, the ethnic Rohingya, who rank among the world’s most persecuted and forgotten peoples, and Myanmar’s Muslim communities are prevented from being included, considered or accepted. Thus their voices continue to be unheard.

7. We, therefore, express our serious concern that this is not a holistic approach to resolve the long plagued ethnic problems to bring about peace in Myanmar; and without Rohingya representation the convention will not be all inclusive on democratic principle. 


For more information, please contact:

Nurul Islam: Mob: +44-7947854652 
Ko Ko Linn: Mob: +880 1726068413
Email: info@rohingya.org 
www.rohingya.org



ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANISATION
(Press Release, 30 October 2015)

“UN Commission of Inquiry Most Urgent”

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) reiterates its call on the United Nations to establish independent investigation into genocide against Rohingya people in Myanmar. 

ARNO welcomes and endorses the just released documentary film titled “Al Jazeera Investigates -Genocide Agenda”, legal analysis prepared for Fortify Rights by the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School titled “Persecution of the Rohingya Muslims: Is Genocide Occurring in Myanmar’s Rakhine State?”, and the report "Count Down to Annihilation: Genocide in Myanmar" of the International State Crime Initiative at the School of Law, Queen Mary University, all of which clearly established the facts that Thein Sein government has committed ‘atrocity crimes’ with intent to destroy the ethnic Rohingya from their ancestral homeland of Arakan/Rakhine State. 

ARNO has once again stressed with highest appreciation the previous report, “Slow-Burning Genocide of the Myanmar’s Rohingya” by Burmese academic Dr. Maung Zani and Alice Cowley, published in Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal, June 2014, of the University of Washington. 

Thein Sein government or the national authorities in Myanmar are the primary perpetrators of the crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing against the defenceless Rohingya population, who are facing ‘existential threat’ day in day out without recourse to domestic remedies. 

For decades the Rohingya have been subjected to institutionalized persecution and atrocity crimes resulting in systematic and massive destruction of their lives, properties and settlements. More than half of the Rohingya population fled their homeland for their lives and those who are still in Rakhine State are living in ghetto-like displacement camps and villages without basic freedom and access to basic necessities for lives. A number of them were victimized at the hands of the human traffickers and/or ended up in mass graves in jungles on Thai-Malaysia border as well as in the Bay of Bengal, Andaman Sea and Strait of Malacca. 

Based on the testimonies of the victims and eye witnesses, internal or secret government documents as well as UN data, report and information, all the above mentioned well researched expert reports, including Lowenstein Clinic, conclude that “strong evidence exists to establish the elements of the crime of genocide”. Again based on the circumstances of the crimes against humanity against Rohingya with the factual events and evidences and drawing on the UN Genocide Convention of 1948 it is a case of genocide that warrants urgent adequate international responses. 

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation welcomes and endorses the call of the Fortify Rights and Lowenstein Clinic, and request the UN Human Rights Council to urgently adopt a resolution mandating an international Commission of Inquiry in order to publicly announce the fact findings, arrest the current silence extermination or deteriorating human rights situation of the Rohingya, prevent further deaths and destructions and to identify and bring those responsible to justice. 


For more information, please contact:
Nurul Islam: : +44-7947854652 

Nurul Islam
RB Article
April 11, 2015

The word “Rohingya” is blacklisted in Burma. The hostile Buddhist Rakhines of Arakan pretend to feel it as a piercing knifelike pain. Their antipathy to this ‘ethnic identity’ of the Muslim Arakanese is for no other reason except that they don’t want to share power with the Rohingya. The analysts say that it is a necessary evil for the U Thein Sein government to make Rohingyas the scapegoats, under the influence of xenophobic Rakhine politicians, academics, and Buddhist extremists in order to appease them. They all have lied that the word “Rohngya” is non-existent, unheard and creation of Mujahids (Muslim rebels) and/or Rohingya leaders in 1951. 

But the historical evidence or observation by Scottish doctor Francis Buchanan in 1799 rebuts this politically motivated claim. He explained “... Mohammedans, who have long been settled in Arakan, and who called themselves Rooinga, or natives of Arakan”.[1] Historian Dr. Michael W Charney states, “it can be asserted, however, that one claim of the Buddhist school in Rakhine historiography, that Rohingya was an invention of the colonial period is contradicted by the evidence”.[2]

Even now the xenophobic Rakhine academics and imposters accept the existence of the word “Rohingya” although arguing that “Rohingya is the other name of Rakhine as derived from Rakhine, the other name of Arakan”. There are several historical and official records and statements on Rohingya. On top of that there is still an old Muslim village in the heart of the Sittwe/Akyab city by the name of Rohingya para. So the word “Rohingya” as an ethnic name for the Muslim Arakanese is substantiated and well established that developed naturally through historical process. Those who reject it are proved liars. 

The Rohingya have genealogical links with the ancient people of Chandra dynasty. They are among the first occupiers of the country as “Arakan was then an Indian land, its inhabitants being Indians similar to those resident in Bengal.”[3] It means that they were like present day Rohingya, not the Rakhine. As substantiated by 8th century Ananda kyukza (Ananda stone pillar inscription) the Rohingya still speak a language analogous to that of ancient Chandra dynasty. But Rakhine language of today, an archaic form of Burmese has no such connection. These bear witness that Rohingya are an inseparable part of the land and history of Arakan. 

In 1430, after nearly three decades in exile, the deposed king Naramithla was reinstated to his throne by Bengal Muslim king with a formidable force, largely made up of Afghan adventurers. “This was the start of a new golden age for this country – a period of power and prosperity – started and the creation of a remarkably hybrid Buddhist-Islamic court, fusing traditions from Persia and India as well as the Buddhist worlds to the east.”[4] The then Chairman of the Burma Historical Commission Col. Ba Shin stated “Arakan was virtually ruled by Muslims from 1430 to 1531. ‘Establishment of God’s rule over the earth’ was state emblem of Arakan. Coins and medallions were issued inscribing kalema (the profession of faith in Islam) in Arabic scripts. Even Buddhist women of those days practiced purda.”[5]

Arakan was turned to a sultanate. It was depicted as an Islamic State in the Times Complete History of the World showing cultural division of Southeast Asia (distribution of major religions) in 1500. (Edited by Richard Overy, Eighth edition 2010, page 148.) Its kings adopted Muslim names and titles while also appearing in Persian-inspired dress and conical hats of Isfahan and Mughal Delhi. Muslim etiquettes and manners were practiced in the court of Arakan. Muslims were in every branch of the administration. There were Muslim prime ministers, war ministers, other important ministers, administrators, Qazis (judges), court poets, elites, farmers and fishermen. The inhabitants of Mrauk-U included considerable number of Muslims consisting of mix Arakanese, Bengalis, other Indians, and Afghans, Abyssinians, Persians and natives. Persian and Bengali languages were used as official and court languages of the Arakan Kingdom. 

Muslims were an influential and well established community during Mrauk-U dynasty, before Burmese invasion and occupation of Arakan. The Rohingya population in north Arakan is united by ancient heritage and lived for ages in a contiguous area within well defined geographical boundaries. The group identity of Rohingya people has grown over the many centuries. The area between the rivers Naf and Kaladan – which was occupied by Nawab Shaista Khan, the Mughal viceroy of Bengal in 1666-- where Rohingya still predominate, amidst systematic Rohingya extermination and rapid demographic changes, has been known as “Traditional Homeland of Rohingya”. During colonial period, the British Military Command -- which recorded the Muslim Rohingyas as Arakanese and catalogued the Rakhine Buddhists as Maghs-- declared the northern part of Arakan as the “Muslim National Area”.(Vide its publication No. 11-OA-CC/42 dated December 31, 1942).[6] This area was later created as Special Mayu Frontier District for the development of the Rohingya people by former Parliamentary Government of Burma which had recognized Rohingya as an indigenous race of the Union of Burma. Let us have a look what the two leaders of the country said:

When Section II of the Constitution of the Union of Burma was being framed, in regard to the indigenous status of Rohingya, the first President of Burma Saw Shwe Theik emphatically said[7]: “Muslims of Arakan certainly belong to one of the indigenous races of Burma…In fact there are no pure indigenous races in Burma, if they do not belong to indigenous races of Burma, we also cannot be taken as indigenous races of Burma”. Recognizing the Rohingya as an indigenous ethnic group the former parliamentary government of Prime Minister U Nu officially announced on 25th September 1954 in a clear and unambiguous term: - “The people living in northern Arakan are our national brethren. They are called Rohingya. They are on the same par in the status of nationality with Kachin, Kayah, Karen, Mon, Rakhine, Shan. They are one of the ethnic races of Burma.”

As such, like other ethnic nationalities, Rohingya participated as State Guests in the Union Day Celebration held in Rangoon on 12 February every year. By cabinet decision Rohingya language was relayed thrice a week from the official Burma Broadcasting Service (BBS) Rangoon, in its “Indigenous Race Broadcasting Programme” from 15 May 1961 to 30 October 1965. Such facts were given in page 71 of the book, “30 years of Burma Radio” published by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The Rangoon University Rohingya Students Association was one of the ethnic student associations that functioned from 1959 to 1961 under the registration numbers 113/99 December 1959 and 7/60 September 1960 respectively. The Burma official encyclopedia “Myanmar Swezon Kyan”, Vol.9, pages 89-90, provides the record that 75% of the population in Mayu Frontier District is Rohingya. In addition, in the current Text Book for first year History and Myanmar Studies students (Module No. Geog-1004-Gegraphy of Myanmar), published by the Yangon University Distance Education, under Ministry of Education, it is recorded that Rohinggas (Rohingyas) are one of the minority ethnic groups that had settled in Northern Rakhine State close to the border with Bangladesh since early date. 

The paragraph 7 in Baxter report of 1940 recommended, “The Arakanese Muslim community settled so long in Akyab District had for all intents and purposes to be regarded as an indigenous race”. The independent hero late Gen. Aung San had accepted them as an indigenous race. During his visit to Sittwe/Akyab in 1946 he urged the Muslims of Arakan to join hand with them saying “it would be difficult to achieve independence if indigenous peoples were divided. He asked them to demand what they wanted and he would fulfill them as much as possible”. 

Under Article 3 of the Nu-Attlee Treaty of 17 October 1947, and under Section 11(i) (ii) (iii) the Constitution of the Union of Burma 1947 effected 4 January 1948, the Rohingyas are citizens of Burma. They are a people settled in Arakan as a compact community anterior to 1823 or before British colonization of it and so by definition of the Constitution as well as under all legal standards they are an indigenous ethnic nationality. With respect to its inherent nature, the Rohingya are natural citizens of Burma having frontier culture and civilization, and practicing Islamic faith. Their forefathers were once welcome elite in the kingdom of Arakan, but now they have become unwanted aliens and have been reduced to diabolical serfdom. Had not Arakan been under Burmese occupation the question of Rohingya citizenship and their indigenous status would never ever arise in Arakan! 

The Muslim Arakanese have every right to claim their ‘Rohingya ethnic identity’ because they know and recognize each other by this name which they cherish and other communicate with them as such. As an indigenous people they also have right to change their group name by collective decision. If Buddhist Arakanese who were historically known as Magh could be Rakhine, and again if these Rakhine or same people could obtain recognition as Mrama as an indigenous race in Chittagong Hill Tracts (Bangladesh), why the Muslims of Arakan who had developed from peoples of different ethnical backgrounds over the centuries couldn’t be “Rohingya”. Anthropologically similar peoples inhabit on both sides of the international borders around the globe and so is the case with Burma-China, Burma-Laos, Burma-India and Burma-Bangladesh frontiers where they are recognized as indigenous groups with different ethnic identities in their respective countries. The fact that the Rohingya look like Chittagonians (Bangladeshis) is the historical phenomenon, nevertheless they are indigenous to Arakan.

Are the historical and official evidences together with internationally accepted norms and practices and legal standards mentioned above are not enough to affirm that Rohingya existed and are still exiting in Arakan/Burma as natural citizens, as an ethnic group and indigenous people of Burma? We know the imposters are like ostrich and refuse to recognize the truth. The disease in their heart is systematic racism, Islamophobia and intolerance. For the Rakhines they are blindfolded with the false dream of exterminating the Rohingya to the last man for ‘exclusive ownership’ and ‘totalitarian domination’ of Arakan. But without taking Rohingya into account with reciprocal respect and understanding the Rakhine could do nothing for the good and development of the people of Arakan. Without delay or hesitation, the Burmese administration, hostile Rakhines and extremists should stop all hostilities, violence and crimes against humanity against Rohingya and start to ponder making Arakan a place of perpetual peace and prosperity, in the interest of all people of the Union of Burma, by granting Rohingya their “Due Share”. 

Last not least, making ‘Rohingya ethnocide’, measure preventing their birth, denying their identity, history and legitimacy of their rights to live where they live are international crimes that could amount to genocide. Rohingya are tired of giving evidences of their long establishment in Arakan. They no longer need to make this ineffectual effort. Whether or not one accepts them they are truly Rohingya and will continue to remain as such under all circumstances, although currently they are facing setback one after another. This is their historic right! 

References:

[1] Dr. Michael W Charney, "Buddhism in Arakan: Theory and Historiography of Religious Basis of the Ethnonym”, a paper submitted to the Forgotten kingdom of Arakan Workshop, 23-24 November 2005, Bangkok, p.132 

In Buchanan, “Comparative Vocabulary”, p55 

[2] Ibid, p.20 

[3] Maurice Collis, “The Land of Great Image” Reissued with additional illustration in 1985, New Directions Publishing Cooperation, New York , p.135 

[4] Thant Myint-U, “The River of Lost Footsteps, a personal history of Burma”, first published 2007, printed by Mackays of Chatham, plc p.73. 

[5] Ba Shin,“Coming of Islam to Burma 1700 AD”, a research paper presented at Azad Bhavan, New Delhi in 1961, p.4. 

[6] “Silver Jubilee Anniversary Publication 1975-2000” of Arakan Historical Society, Chittagong, p.44. 

[7] “Memorandum to the Government of the Union of Burma” dated 18 June 1948, by Mr. Sultan Ahmed (MP) in his capacity as the President of Jamiat-e-Ulema, North Arakan.

Nurul Islam is President of Arakan Rohingya National Organisation.


    • Rohingya Exodus