Inside the Immigration Detention Center in Jeddah (Photo: Supplied by a Rohingya detainee)

Rohingya Blogger and Activist, Nay San Lwin said on Al Jazeera that as many as 400 Rohingya civilians have been killed. At least 2000 houses were burnt down and 150 women were raped by Myanmar military and Border Guard Police.

RB News
November 18, 2016

Nay San Lwin, blogger and activist for Rohingya rights.

By Nay San Lwin

RB Opinion

April 24, 2014

Rohingya’s history has been altered by Myanmar government and Rakhine historians. The Rohingya, who are aboriginal people of Arakan became illegal intruders or immigrants in the view of Myanmar people. Even Rohingya activists and politicians are ready to debate the history of Arakan in the presence of international scholars, Myanmar government and Rakhine historians are not ready as the reality will be exposed.

Although Myanmar government originally made a commitment that the term “Rohingya” will be allowed to be registered in the census, they uncovered their real face just before a day of the census. When the donors for the census raised this issue Myanmar government has said it is internal issue. They ignored the international standards and human rights principles. 

Since 1990s ex-Nasaka (Border security guard) have done head counting every year. Many thousands of Rohingyas have been tortured just because they claimed their ethnicity is Rohingya. All Rohingyas in Arakan state were forced to be Bengalis in the records of immigration department. On the other hand, the National Registration Cards issued since the 1950s were confiscated by force and replaced with temporary identity cards (White Card). No Rohingya got the right to claim their ethnicity and all White Cards were issued by using the term Bengali. The vulnerable Rohingyas were helpless. Their movement, marriage, births and all basic rights were restricted and they became the most isolated society in Myanmar since the 1990s.

Although they were targeted by the Burmese regime since the 1970s their open prison life has started in the 1990s. The dream of the Rakhine community is to wipe out Rohingyas from Arakan and establish independent country. In the eyes of Rakhines, Rohingyas are barriers for their plans. Myanmar government’s plan is to drive out Rohingyas from the nation as they want less Muslims in the country and Rohingya is the biggest Muslim community among other Muslims in Myanmar. So the two groups began a coalition and as a result, Rohingyas are now the victims of the genocide or ethnic cleansing or whatever you wish to name it.

The census in Myanmar is first in three decades. The quasi-civilian government led by ex-general Thein Sein has been claiming transparency. They changed their tactics to get funds from international community. Once the funds get in they repeated same attitudes as before. Before the enumerating, the Rohingya delegations met with immigration minister Khin Yi, deputy minister Win Myint and director general Myint Kyine about ten times. The officials repeatedly promised that the term “Rohingya” will be allowed and about 1400 Rohingya enumerators were allowed to be appointed. But the government has hired the protestors in Sittwe and other towns and launched a campaign that Rakhines are opposing it and that they are going to boycott the census if the term Rohingya is allowed. With every activity of Rakhines, the government is behind them. Masterminding everything. Nothing can happen if the central government is unwilling. 

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) was removed from Arakan state just because they revealed the truth of Duchiradan mass killing. Malteser International and all INGOs were removed by using mob attacks because it was their plan to wipe out all INGOs before the census. The Rakhine activists claimed that the attack on INGOs in Sittwe on March 26th and 27th was organized by special branch police. The police circulated the list of the addresses of INGOs offices, residential houses and warehouses just a week before the attack was launched, according to Rakhine activists. 

Immigration director Khaing Khaing Soe said that Rohingyas are boycotting the census but it wasn’t true. The Rohingyas from Arakan state welcomed the census and they were ready to participate and participated. The enumerators however, denied registering the ethnicity name of “Rohingya”. The enumerators stopped collecting the data once the question no. 8 is answered as Rohingya. 

All Rohingyas in Arakan state claimed their ethnicity as Rohingya, therefore their data was not collected. However, Myanmar government negotiated with the Rohingyas many times to leave the ethnicity column blank. No one is ready to accept as the government will cheat them once they agree. In 1973 and 1983, all Rohingyas in Arakan filled up their ethnicity as Rohingya. Many Rohingya enumerators in those periods are still alive and are ready to be witnesses. Yet Myanmar government’s propaganda is that they claimed that they were Bengali in those time periods. The reality was the local authorities amended all the census forms at the immigration offices. They erased the Rohingya name from the forms and replaced it with Bengali. 

Myint Kyine, Director General of Immigration and Population Department has been repeatedly questioning over Burmese exile media about where these Rohingyas came from. He said all other Muslims are descendants of India and others. But Rohingyas do not belong to any country, so they won’t accept this term. Well, I’ve rebutted that through my Burmese article, however Immigration Minister Khin Yi also echoed that nonsense question. The best quote here is Amartya Sen, professor of Havard University said “Rohingya did not come to Burma. But Burma came to Rohingya”. It is true. Rohingyas are aboriginal people of Arakan. Arakan was an independent kingdom and intruded by Burma in 1784. There is also primary source evidence that was recorded in 1799 by Dr. Francis Buchanan that the Mohammedans [Muslims] are long settled in Arakan and they called themselves “Rooinga” [Rohingya]. 

News posted by Bangkok Post on April 23, 2014 reads "More than 6,000 families came and told officials to register them as Bengali, now they realise they will only suffer if they miss this opportunity," said Myint Kyine, head of the Immigration and Population Department. 

Myint Kyine has been propagating that over Burmese exile media since the time census started. In reality it wasn’t true at all. He is blackmailing the people to convince others that they are registering themselves as Bengali, why not you? This type of propaganda won’t work for the Rohingyas. Even people in Myebon, Pauktaw and some other towns were threatened by various means but they were not ready to fulfill the desire of the government.

Here I’d like to convey a clear message to Myanmar government that Rohingya identity won’t be compromised at any cost. The Rohingyas are ready to struggle for it. 

Myint Kyine and other officials must stop propagating and the dignity of the government must be protected by allowing the people to register the term Rohingya. As a result of ignoring international standards and human rights principles, Myanmar government will be called by the world as “World Class Liar”.

Nay San Lwin is an activist and blogger. He can be reached via Twitter @nslwin.

By Nay San Lwin
RB Opinion
March 22, 2014

In his article, “A friend’s appeal to Burma”, published on June 19, 2012, Benedict Rogers included that the first President of Burma, Sao Shwe Thaike, a Shan, said that “Muslims of Arakan certainly belong to the indigenous races of Burma. If they do not belong to the indigenous races, we also cannot be taken as indigenous races”. 

“The people living in Buthidaung and Maungdaw Townships are Rohingya, ethnic of Burma” said by Burma’s first prime minister U Nu in his pubic speech on September 25, 1954 at 8 pm. “The Rohingya has the equal status of nationality with Kachin, Kayah, Karen, Mon, Rakhine and Shan” said the prime minister and minister for defense U Ba Swe at public gatherings in Buthidaung and Maungdaw Townships in November 3, 1959 and November 4, 1959. 

“The people living in Mayu Frontier is ethnic Rohingya” included in the announcement of Frontiers Administration office under Prime Minister Office on November 20, 1961. Mayu Frontier is composed of Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Rathedaung Townships. 

Broadcasting from radio program in the Rohingya language was relayed three times a week from the indigenous language programme of the official Burma Broadcasting Service in Rangoon, from May 15, 1961 to October 30, 1965. Myanma Encyclopedia Vol.9, page 89-90, published in 1964, concludes that population of 500,000 living in Mayu Frontier of Northern Arakan State 75% is Rohingya. “The majority people live in Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Rathedaung Townships are ethnic Rohingya and the minorities are Rakhine, Daingnet, Mro and Khami” wrote in Tatmataw Khit Yay journal Vol.12, No.6 printed on July 18, 1961 and Vol. 12, No.9 printed on August 8, 1961. 

In his speech on July 8, 1961, the Army Deputy Commander-in-Chief Brigadier General Aung Gyi said, “The people living in Mayu Frontier are Rohingya. Pakistan (now Bangladesh) is located in west of Mayu Frontier and Muslims are living there. The people living in west are called Pakistani and the people living here are called Rohingya. This is not the only border that has same people on both sides, border with China, India and Thailand also have the same phenomenon. For example: Lisu, Ei-Kaw, La-Wa live in Kachin State and same people live in China. Also Shan people can be found in China as Tai. The ethnics Mon, Karen and Malay are also living in Thailand. In India-Burma border Chin, Li-Shaw and Naga are living. These people are living in Burma as ethnics and living in India as well”. 

The Rangoon University Rohingya Students Association was one of the many ethnic student associations that functioned from 1959 to 1961 under the registration numbers 113/99 December 1959 and 7/60 September 1960 respectively. In High School Geography textbook, printed in 1978, where scattered living regions of national races of Burma is shown on page 86, Northern Arakan is marked as ‘Rohingya region’. 

Rohingya Elites/MPs before and after independence of Burma: 

After the separation of Burma from India in 1935, the “Di-Archy” system was replaced by a ruling system called “91 Taa-na” (Departments administration). In that system there were 132 seats in the governing body and a total of 132 members were elected from various communal backgrounds. In this election, Mr. Ghani Markan, a Rohingya MP from Buthidaung and Maungdaw constituency, was elected. Point to be noted here that Mr. Ghani Markan was from the Community of “Burmese national” category and they (Rohingya) represented the Burmese national and not the Indian or any other group. 

The General Election for Constituent Assembly in 1947 was organized just before the independence, mainly by the participation of General Aung San. This time, Buthidaung and Maungdaw had two separate constituencies. U Abdul Ghaffar for Buthidaung and U Sultan Ahmed for Maungdaw were elected. 

U Abul Bashar for Buthidaung, U Sultan Ahmed and Daw Aye Nyunt for Maungdaw and U Abdul Ghaffar for Upper house were elected in 1951 election. U Ezhar Miah and U Abul Bashar for Buthidaung, U Sultan Ahmed and U Abul Khair for Maungdaw, U Sultan Mahmood for Buthidaung North and U Abdul Ghaffar for Upper house were elected in 1956. U Sultan Mahmood and U Abul Bashar for Buthidaung, U Rashid and U Abul Khair for Maungdaw and U Abdu Suban for Upper house were elected in 1961. By then the Rohingya community were involved more actively in politics. For the first time, one of the Rohingya elected member became a cabinet minister of Prime Minister U Nu’s government. He was U Sultan Mahmood, and in charge for the ministry of Education and Health. U Abdul Ghaffar and U Abul Bashar, elected members of Buthidaung became the Parliamentary Secretaries. 

Even in the era of U Ne Win, the Rohingya exercised the voting and representing rights in the Pyithu Hluttaw (National Assembly) Election and in the election of different level of Pyithu (National) Council. Likewise, many Rohingya dignitaries were endorsed in the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) and some of them held higher positions as well. U Abul Hussein and Dr. Abdur Rahim were elected in 1974 from Buthidaung and Maungdaw. 

Rohingya have been subjected to the discriminatory measure initiated in 1978 by the then BSPP and local authority of Rakhine community. They started to take the initiative to deprive the fundamental rights of Rohingya community and since then the Rohingya were marginalized from the Pyithu Hluttaw Election. U Tun Aung Kyaw aka Abdul Hai, was the only Rohingya representative elected in 1978 election from Maungdaw, but none from Buthidaung. The Rohingya were excluded from participating in the Pyithu Hluttaw elections in 1982 and 1986. However, some Rohingya were seen at lower levels of Pyithu Council of the BSPP. 

In 1990 multi party general election, Rohingya exercised the voting and representing rights again. U Kyaw Min, U Tin Maung, U Chit Lwin and U Fazal Ahmed from National Democratic Party for Human Rights (NDPH) were elected from Buthidaung and Maungdaw constituencies. Later U Kyaw Min became a member of Committee Representing People's Parliament (CRPP). 

Making Rohingya Stateless: 

Rohingya people used to have National Registration Card (NRC) like everyone else in the country. Upon introduction of discriminatory policies on Rohingya by Dictator Ne Win in 1970s, the NRCs were taken away by various measures. Numerous check-points were set up to block Rohingya’s travel and to confiscate their IDs. Nagamin (the Dragon) operation in 1977-78 was skillfully crafted to drive out all Rohingya from Burma. It produced about 250,000 refugees that fled to neighboring Bangladesh. However, most of the fleeing refugees were returned to their original dwelling places, so the plan was not quite successful for the Burmese regime. Although systematic discriminatory policies were in place and IDs and other government issued documents were seized by the government, Rohingya remained as citizens of Burma until 1982. The Citizenship Act promulgated in 1982 is the official document that striped off the citizenship of Rohingya. 

Numerous forms of discriminations followed by the enactment of 1982 Citizenship Law and lives of Rohingya had become incomprehensible. Again, another operation was carried out in 1991 by the successive military regime and it produced about 300,000 refugees, but this time about 200,000 remained in Bangladesh, of which, 28,000 are recognized refugees by the UNHCR and the rest are scattered around the country and are not recognized as refugees. 

In the meantime, the regime uses different methods to eliminate (forced out) the Rohingya population for the region: confiscation of farmland, establishing Buddhist settlement on Rohingya’s land, force labor, restriction on movement, restriction on marriage, harassment, desecration of religious places, arbitrary taxation, extrajudicial killings, rapes, and the list goes on. 

The new National Scrutiny Card was introduced in 1989 and Rohingya were not entitled to receive them as they have become non-citizen under the 1982 Citizenship Act. However, the authorities issued Temporary Scrutiny Card to all and promised twice in 2008 constitution referendum and 2010 election that National Scrutiny Card will soon be issued to all the Rohingyas. But the promises made to Rohingya were never honored. 

In recent parliament session, when some MPs raised the issue of Rohingya, the immigration minister U Khin Yee said that “there is no Rohingya in Burma”. The same was echoed by the director general of the population department at a later date. Although many Rohingya were members of National League for Democracy (NLD) in Buthidaung and Maungdaw Townships during 1990 election, now the vice chairman U Tin Oo and other high ranking officials of NLD are openly saying that there is no race called ‘Rohingya’ in Burma, which is an utter disregard for historical facts, human rights and democratic principle. NLD’s discriminatory policy on Rohingya is no less than that of the military regime. 

There is no justice for Rohingya in Burma as the racism is deeply rooted in Burmese society. Rohingyas are made escape goats to justify their evil doings by both ultra-nationalist racist and the regime to divert public attention. As history cannot be deleted or altered, the truth needs to be revealed and justice needs to be established. It is the human rights defenders that need to work hard to establish the justice and defend the rights of unjustly persecuted. 

Nay San Lwin is an activist and blogger. He can be reached via Twitter @nslwin

This article appeared here on October 29, 2012.

By Nay San Lwin
RB Analysis
November 3, 2012

Burmese government records of Rohingya In his article, “A friend’s appeal to Burma”, published on 19 June 2012, Benedict Rogers noted that the first President of Burma, Sao Shwe Thaike, a Shan, said that “Muslims of Arakan certainly belong to the indigenous races of Burma. If they do not belong to the indigenous races, we also cannot be taken as indigenous races”. “The people living in Buthidaung and Maungdaw Townships are Rohingya, ethnic of Burma” said Burma’s first prime minister U Nu in a pubic speech on 25 September 1954 at 8 pm. “The Rohingya has the equal status of nationality with Kachin, Kayah, Karen, Mon, Rakhine and Shan” said the prime minister and minister for defense U Ba Swe at public gatherings in Buthidaung and Maungdaw Townships on 3 and 4 November 1959. “The people living in Mayu Frontier is ethnic Rohingya” included in the announcement of Frontiers Administration office under Prime Minister Office on 20 November 1961. Mayu Frontier is composed of Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Rathedaung Townships.

Broadcasting from radio program in the Rohingya language was relayed three times a week from the indigenous language programme of the official Burma Broadcasting Service in Rangoon, from 15 May 1961 to 30 October 1965. Myanma Encyclopedia Vol.9, page 89-90, published in 1964, concludes that population of 500,000 living in Mayu Frontier of Northern Arakan State 75% is Rohingya. “The majority people live in Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Rathedaung Townships are ethnic Rohingya and the minorities are Rakhine, Daingnet, Mro and Khami” wrote in Tatmataw Khit Yay journal Vol.12, No.6 printed on 18 July 1961 and Vol. 12, No.9 printed on 8 August 1961.

In his speech on 8 July 1961, the Army Deputy Commander-in-Chief Brigadier General Aung Gyi said, “The people living in Mayu Frontier are Rohingya. Pakistan (now Bangladesh) is located in west of Mayu Frontier and Muslims are living there. The people living in west are called Pakistani and the people living here are called Rohingya. This is not the only border that has same people on both sides, border with China, India and Thailand also have the same phenomenon. For example: Lisu, Ei-Kaw, La-Wa live in Kachin State and same people live in China. Also Shan people can be found in China as Tai. The ethnics Mon, Karen and Malay are also living in Thailand. In India-Burma border Chin, Li-Shaw and Naga are living. These people are living in Burma as ethnics and living in India as well”.

The Rangoon University Rohingya Students Association was one of the many ethnic student associations that functioned from 1959 to 1961 under the registration numbers 113/99 December 1959 and 7/60 September 1960 respectively. In High School Geography textbook, printed in 1978, where scattered living regions of national races of Burma is shown on page 86, Northern Arakan is marked as ‘Rohingya region’.

Rohingya elites/MPs before and after independence of Burma

After the separation of Burma from India in 1935, the “Di-Archy” system was replaced by a ruling system called “91 Taa-na” (Departments administration). In that system there were 132 seats in the governing body and a total of 132 members were elected from various communal backgrounds. In this election, Mr. Ghani Markan, a Rohingya MP from Buthidaung and Maungdaw constituency, was elected. Point to be noted here that Mr. Ghani Markan was from the Community of “Burmese national” category and they (Rohingya) represented the Burmese national and not the Indian or any other group.

The General Election for Constituent Assembly in 1947 was organized just before the independence, mainly by the participation of General Aung San. This time, Buthidaung and Maungdaw had two separate constituencies. U Abdul Ghaffar for Buthidaung and U Sultan Ahmed for Maungdaw were elected.

U Abul Bashar for Buthidaung, U Sultan Ahmed and Daw Aye Nyunt for Maungdaw and U Abdul Ghaffar for Upper house were elected in 1951 election. U Ezhar Miah and U Abul Bashar for Buthidaung, U Sultan Ahmed and U Abul Khair for Maungdaw, U Sultan Mahmood for Buthidaung North and U Abdul Ghaffar for Upper house were elected in 1956. U Sultan Mahmood and U Abul Bashar for Buthidaung, U Rashid and U Abul Khair for Maungdaw and U Abdu Suban for Upper house were elected in 1961. By then the Rohingya community were involved more actively in politics. For the first time, one of the Rohingya elected member became a cabinet minister of Prime Minister U Nu’s government. He was U Sultan Mahmood, and in charge for the ministry of Education and Health. U Abdul Ghaffar and U Abul Bashar, elected members of Buthidaung became the Parliamentary Secretaries.

Even in the era of U Ne Win, the Rohingya exercised voting and representing rights in the Pyithu Hluttaw (National Assembly) Election and in the election of different levels of Pyithu (National) Council. Likewise, many Rohingya dignitaries were endorsed in the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) and some of them held higher positions as well. U Abul Hussein and Dr. Abdur Rahim were elected in 1974 from Buthidaung and Maungdaw.

Rohingya have been subjected to the discriminatory measure initiated in 1978 by the then BSPP and local authority of Rakhine community. They started to take the initiative to deprive the fundamental rights of Rohingya community and since then the Rohingya were marginalized from the Pyithu Hluttaw Election. U Tun Aung Kyaw aka Abdul Hai, was the only Rohingya representative elected in 1978 election from Maungdaw, but none from Buthidaung. The Rohingya were excluded from participating in the Pyithu Hluttaw elections in 1982 and 1986. However, some Rohingya were seen at lower levels of Pyithu Council of the BSPP.

In 1990 multi party general election, Rohingya exercised the voting and representing rights again. U Kyaw Min, U Tin Maung, U Chit Lwin and U Fazal Ahmed from National Democratic Party for Human Rights (NDPH) were elected from Buthidaung and Maungdaw constituencies. Later U Kyaw Min became a member of Committee Representing People’s Parliament (CRPP).

Making Rohingya stateless

Rohingya people used to have National Registration Cards (NRC) like everyone else in the country. Upon introduction of discriminatory policies on Rohingya by Ne Win in 1970s, the NRCs were taken away by various measures. Numerous check-points were set up to block Rohingya’s travel and to confiscate their IDs. Nagamin (the Dragon) operation in 1977-78 was skillfully crafted to drive out all Rohingya from Burma. It produced about 250,000 refugees that fled to neighboring Bangladesh. However, most of the fleeing refugees were returned to their original dwelling places, so the plan was not quite successful for the Burmese regime. Although systematic discriminatory policies were in place and IDs and other government issued documents were seized by the government, Rohingya remained as citizens of Burma until 1982. The Citizenship Act promulgated in 1982 is the official document that striped off the citizenship of Rohingya.

Numerous forms of discriminations followed by the enactment of 1982 Citizenship Law and lives of Rohingya had become incomprehensible. Again, another operation was carried out in 1991 by the successive military regime and it produced about 300,000 refugees, but this time about 200,000 remained in Bangladesh, of which, 28,000 are recognized refugees by the UNHCR and the rest are scattered around the country and are not recognized as refugees.

In the meantime, the regime uses different methods to eliminate (force out) the Rohingya population for the region: confiscation of farmland, establishing Buddhist settlement on Rohingya’s land, force labor, restriction on movement, restriction on marriage, harassment, desecration of religious places, arbitrary taxation, extrajudicial killings, rapes, and the list goes on.

The new National Scrutiny Card was introduced in 1989 and Rohingya were not entitled to receive them as they have become non-citizen under the 1982 Citizenship Act. However, the authorities issued Temporary Scrutiny Card to all and promised twice in 2008 constitution referendum and 2010 election that National Scrutiny Card will soon be issued to all the Rohingyas. But the promises made to Rohingya were never honored.

In a recent parliament session, when some MPs raised the issue of Rohingya, the immigration minister U Khin Yee said that “there is no Rohingya in Burma”. The same was echoed by the director general of the population department at a later date. Although many Rohingya were members of National League for Democracy (NLD) in Buthidaung and Maungdaw Townships during 1990 election, now the vice chairman U Tin Oo and other high ranking officials of NLD are openly saying that there is no race called ‘Rohingya’ in Burma, which is an utter disregard for historical facts, human rights and democratic principle. NLD’s discriminatory policy on Rohingya is no less than that of the military regime.

There is no justice for Rohingya in Burma as racism is deeply rooted in Burmese society. Rohingyas are made scapegoats to justify their evil doings by both ultra-nationalist racists and the regime to divert public attention. As history cannot be deleted or altered, the truth needs to be revealed and justice needs to be established. It is the human rights defenders that need to work hard to establish justice and defend the rights of the unjustly persecuted.

Nay San Lwin is an activist and blogger. He can be reached via Twitter @nslwin 

Nay San Lwin is an activist and blogger. He can be reached via Twitter @nslwin.

The eruption of violence in Burma’s Arakan state in June witnessed the killing of ten Muslims who were on their way back to the country’s former capital, Rangoon. They were killed by a Rakhine mob of 300 after the rape and murder of a Rakhine woman in Rambree Township by three local Muslim youths. The government arrested three Muslims on the spot and one committed suicide whilst in police custody; the remaining two have recently been sentenced to death. The government established an inquiry commission into the vigilante killing, led by the deputy interior minister. However, although suspects were arrested, a lack of people willing to testify as eyewitnesses has prevented justice being served.

Rakhine extremists and local security officials insulted local Rohingya in the lead up to the violence, with local media stations increasing the tension by falsely reporting that Rakhine members of the public were being terrorized by Rohingya groups. The scale of misinformation was not only confined to the local media but extended to Hmuu Zaw aka Major Zaw Htay, the director of the Presidential Office, who posted inflammatory reports on his Facebook page. The circulated reports informed the public that armed Rohingya groups were invading the country, despite there having been no armed movement in the region itself for about a decade, let alone across the entire country. While mass killings continued inside the country, cyber war was also utilised with many Rohingya and Muslim sites, commercial sites, and even governmental sites of Bangladesh hacked.

“They tried many times to attack my website but they couldn’t. They tried to dig out my location to harass me physically”, said by Mr Ba Sein who runs the Rohingya Blogger website. “They target all the people who are advocating for the Rohingya cause”, he added. The front door of Mr Tun Khin, President of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK), was smashed down in faraway London, while the violence continued in western Burma. Just a few days before the eruption of violence against the Rohingya, an anti-Rohingya demonstration was held in front of Downing Street by the London-based Burma Democratic Concern. In the lead up to the demonstration the word “Kalar”, a derogatory term for Muslims, was widely circulating across social media sites. As the massacre of Rohingya people began, Facebook users posted statements such as “Kill all Kalars”.

Questions surrounding the murder of Muslims were transformed into issues of citizenship and ethnicity. Ko Ko Gyi, a prominent 88 generation student leader remarked that, “Rohingya people are not an ethnic group of Burma and they are invading our country and sovereignty”. He added that the Rohingya would be driven out with the collaboration of army if required. When the reporter asked Burma’s democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s view on the Rohingya, she commented simply that, “I do not know”. She has previously considered the ‘rule of law’ and proper immigration procedures as the key to resolving citizenship issues surrounding the Rohingya; however, several of her party members have openly rejected the Rohingya as Burmese citizen.

Dr Aye Maung, Chairman of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP), said that an Arakan state must be established, like Israel. He issued the statement describing how Rohingya must live in separate areas and should be promptly resettled in other countries within a short period.

During the attacks on the Rohingya, more than 6,000 Rohingya houses were burnt down in Sittwe alone, the capital of Arakan state. At the present moment, large numbers of Rohingya are sheltering outside of the town, without assurances that they will be allowed to return to their land. What they would return to is another issue in itself: shops have been looted; mosques have been destroyed – 35 in Sittwe alone; religious books have been desecrated; and widespread reports of rape and sexual abuse by the Burmese military, a tactic they have used historically against the Rohingya, will leave untold scars across the oppressed population.

In just one of many examples, four military personnel were caught after having raped an 18-year-old Rohingya girl. In a telling example of the instrumental role the media has played, the case was not only not reported, but news agencies are still continuously repeating the initial story of a Rakhine woman raped by three Rohingya men.

In addition to the loss of communities and livelihoods, large numbers of Rohingya youths and academics have been arrested and taken to unknown locations. Some have been released following extortionate payouts to security forces.

The UN have described the Rohingya as the most persecuted minority group in the world; a Burmese Parliamentary team visited the affected region but met neither any local Rohingya MPs, nor offered to provide any humanitarian relief. Furthermore, in the midst of the recent outbreaks of violence, many displaced civilians were turned back from the Bangladesh border when trying to escape the violence. International and human rights organisations requested that the Bangladesh government keep open its border and provide humanitarian assistance – both request continued to be refused. The actual death toll from the last few weeks is very difficult to ascertain as there are restrictions on international media and non-governmental organisations.

The Rohingya are unwanted in Burma, and are unwelcome in Bangladesh. International pressure will need to force the change and reach a solution that resolves the troubling denial of citizenship and human rights.