WILL Amnesty International's latest report, released on Friday, open the eyes of the world community to the sad plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar before it is too late? A Muslim minority in the predominantly Buddhist country, the Rohingya are variously described as one of the world's most persecuted or one of the most beleaguered groups of people. Though they have lived in Myanmar for centuries, successive governments in Yangon have refused to grant them citizen status and have enacted strict rules that govern their lives. They are even required to pay if they wish to move to another village. Mostly concentrated in Myanmar's western Rakhine state, they have always suffered persecution and discrimination at the hands of local authorities or the majority Buddhists, sometimes both acting in unison. Many have fled the country to escape persecution, mostly to Bangladesh. Nearly 600,000 Rohingya Muslims live in Saudi Arabia, according to one estimate. Outside world would have remained largely ignorant of the Rohingya's condition but for some disturbing developments in May this year. It started with a series of isolated killings. This led to bloody skirmishes between the Rohingya and Buddhists across much of the coastal state of Rakhine. The government declared a state of emergency on June 10, deploying troops to quell the unrest and protect places of worship. Authorities said at least 78 people were killed and thousands of homes were burned down or destroyed with damages roughly split evenly between Buddhists and Muslims. The worst of the violence subsided late last month, but the inter-communal strife continues. Now, Amnesty says, the violence is mostly being directed at the Rohingya population. Amnesty's latest report tells harrowing tales of security forces going on a rampage during six weeks of emergency rule, and hundreds of people, mostly men and boys, being detained in sweeps of areas heavily populated by the Rohingya, with almost all held incommunicado and some ill-treated. According to Amnesty, there are “credible reports" of abuses including rape, destruction of property and unlawful killings — by both Rakhine Buddhists and the security forces. Amnesty has called on Myanmar to accept the Rohingya as citizens. “Under international human rights law and standards, no one may be left or rendered stateless," Amnesty researcher Benjamin Zawacki said. “For too long Myanmar's human rights record has been marred by the continued denial of citizenship for the Rohingya and a host of discriminatory practices against them." In fact, continued denial of citizenship for the Rohingya and discriminatory practices against them are two sides of the same coin. In the absence of citizenship, repression will continue with no legal redress for the affected people. So the UN, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and human rights bodies the world over should add their voice to Amnesty's call to the government in Myanmar to determine the legal status of the Rohingya. Far too long the world community has behaved as though this is a problem concerning only neighboring Bangladesh because of ethnic affinity between Bengalis and the Rohingya. This has only made Myanmar more intransigent and the Rohingya more vulnerable to abuses of every conceivable kind. Amnesty's latest findings, we hope, will enable the world community to see the problem in right perspective and come out with appropriate solutions.
