History and Causes OverviewMyanmar is a poverty-stricken nation with a 53 million person population and the nation is predominantly Buddhist. The nation relies on farming and fishing due to its warm and rainy climate. The Rohingya live in the Rakhine (Arkan) state on the southwestern coast of myanmar. The Rohingya are a group of Muslims in Myanmar. They live near the borders of the nation, and they have a generally low economic status. The region which they live in is called Arkan. There are between one and three million people who identify as Rohingya. Many Rohingya are poor farming peasants, lacking human rights. They have been persecuted in many vulgar ways by other groups in Myanmar and it has been that way for years. (Adawy, Persecution of the Rohingya...) (Berlatsky, Genocide and persecution...) (Saha, Learning from the Rohingya)
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Religious Superiority
Religious superiority of the Theravada buddhists allowed them to openly and freely oppress the Rohingyas without receiving backlash from the people or the government. Using the influence that they had over the Burmese government, the head buddhists pushed their own agenda of “Ethnic Cleansing” by pressing the government to pass certain laws that would strip the Rohingyas of any claim to protection. With these laws precedented, the buddhists then encouraged questioning about the origin of the Rohingya. The 1982 citizenship law(that stripped all Rohingyas of their citizenship) stated that all non native Burmese could not be citizens, and with the claim that the Rohingyas were bengali, the stripping of nearly a million people of their citizenship was justified to the people of Myanmar.
Theravada Buddhist leaders hate the muslim minority group called Rohingyas. The reason for this hate is not known, but what is known is that there is a great amount of hate that has spanned back centuries. These buddhists have been attempting to wipe out the muslim population in Myanmar for hundreds of years. It was just until now that this had become known to the world (source)
The head Buddhas have major influence over the Burmese government. They used their influence to pass laws and promote violence against the muslims. (source)
Theravada Buddhist leaders hate the muslim minority group called Rohingyas. The reason for this hate is not known, but what is known is that there is a great amount of hate that has spanned back centuries. These buddhists have been attempting to wipe out the muslim population in Myanmar for hundreds of years. It was just until now that this had become known to the world (source)
The head Buddhas have major influence over the Burmese government. They used their influence to pass laws and promote violence against the muslims. (source)
The muslim Rohingya in Myanmar are referred to as "enemies" and as "Bengali". These constant attempts to de-humanize the Rohingya has proved to work in Myanmar, as the Burmese people see nothing wrong with the constant discrimination against the Rohingya.
Economic Benefits
The economy of Myanmar is seen as a budding industry. With low wages, and over a million people whose civil rights and liberties have been taken, the Burmese government is benefitting from using the Rohingya for highly needed manual labor. Between 2006 and 2010, Myanmar exported hundreds of millions of dollars of manufactured goods. These goods were produced in factories by thousands of abused and underpaid workers. The pay rate of the average manufacturing factory worker is one sixth that of China's. Many manufacturing plants lie in areas relative to the areas in which the Rohingya take up residence, making it easier for them to become employed.
Governmental Influence
The creation of unfair laws, made with Buddhist influence, began the official oppression towards the Rohingyas by the Burmese state. The creation of the 1982 citizenship law, that excluded the rohingyas from the state, marked the beginning of the creation of laws against muslims in Myanmar. This law itself, made the millions of Rohingyas at the time stateless. It removed their civil rights and liberties, and removed them from access to public services. Without access to education, the Rohingya children grew up to an environment based off of subsistence agriculture and manual induced labor. They were forced into the cycle of poverty that they live in today.
Statelessness
“In June 2012, a Rakhine Buddhist woman was raped and murdered by three Rohingya Muslim men.” As a result, violence broke out around the Rakhine state “ASEAN countries (Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia) are disallowing Rohingya refugees to seek asylum.” (US campaign for Burma)
“Burmese President Thein Sein denies the existence of the Rohingya as an ethnic group of Burma, calling them "Bengali" instead. Labeling the Rohingya "Bengali" is a discriminatory, xenophobic way of erroneously implying that Rohingya are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. On January 13, 2014, Rakhine mobs and security forces entered Du Chee Yar Tan, Maungdaw Township, and slaughtered over 40 Rohingya.” (U.S campaign for Burma)
There are approximately 1.33 million Rohingya in Burma, but the country's 1982 Citizenship Law denies them citizenship, despite the fact that the Rohingya have lived in Burma for hundreds of years. Also, the Burmese military was called in to stop the violence and only escalated it by firing tear gas and shooting at the mobs. (US campaign for Burma)
Today, Rohingya are not eligible for full citizenship unless they can meet the near impossible requirements of the country's 1982 Citizenship Law. This includes tracing their family history in Myanmar back to the days before British colonization in 1823. Few Rohingya have the necessary documents to do so, meaning few have citizenship. As a result, many of Rohingya are “stateless”. Stateless people have no nationality, as no country recognizes their citizenship, not even their place of birth. They are stateless because Myanmar refuses to let the group secede from Myanmar. The effect is the Rohingya cannot even identify as Bengali, a race many Burmese recognise the Rohingya a part of. Even Myanmar considers the Rohingya to be immigrants from Bangladesh and West Bengal, despite most Rohingya have not recently arrived in Myanmar. Since the Rohingya cannot leave or secede, most of Rohingyas are internally displaced people. (L.A. times)Without being citizens of the Burmese state, the Rohingya Muslims have become a stateless people. What this means, is that they have no civil rights, no access to civil services, they have no access to protection(militarily or legally) and their needs are completely ignored by the Burmese government.
No access to education :
A specific example of services not provided to the Rohingyas, as a result of their statelessness, is education. Education is provided by the Burmese state, and therefore the Rohingyas have no access to education. Without access to education, the new generations have not been able to receive any form of education. This has forced the Rohingya to resort to agriculture as a means of income.
Cycle of poverty:
Because the Rohingyas have no access to public education, and since they have moved to mainly agricultural resources, farming and fishing are the best Rohingya parents can teach their children. Being that farming and fishing is a low source of income, the rohingyas have become a poor people, and this cycle keeps repeating itself until the current generation. It is because of their statelessness, that these people live in a poor environment that keeps their future generations from escaping and rising out of the poverty.
“Burmese President Thein Sein denies the existence of the Rohingya as an ethnic group of Burma, calling them "Bengali" instead. Labeling the Rohingya "Bengali" is a discriminatory, xenophobic way of erroneously implying that Rohingya are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. On January 13, 2014, Rakhine mobs and security forces entered Du Chee Yar Tan, Maungdaw Township, and slaughtered over 40 Rohingya.” (U.S campaign for Burma)
There are approximately 1.33 million Rohingya in Burma, but the country's 1982 Citizenship Law denies them citizenship, despite the fact that the Rohingya have lived in Burma for hundreds of years. Also, the Burmese military was called in to stop the violence and only escalated it by firing tear gas and shooting at the mobs. (US campaign for Burma)
Today, Rohingya are not eligible for full citizenship unless they can meet the near impossible requirements of the country's 1982 Citizenship Law. This includes tracing their family history in Myanmar back to the days before British colonization in 1823. Few Rohingya have the necessary documents to do so, meaning few have citizenship. As a result, many of Rohingya are “stateless”. Stateless people have no nationality, as no country recognizes their citizenship, not even their place of birth. They are stateless because Myanmar refuses to let the group secede from Myanmar. The effect is the Rohingya cannot even identify as Bengali, a race many Burmese recognise the Rohingya a part of. Even Myanmar considers the Rohingya to be immigrants from Bangladesh and West Bengal, despite most Rohingya have not recently arrived in Myanmar. Since the Rohingya cannot leave or secede, most of Rohingyas are internally displaced people. (L.A. times)Without being citizens of the Burmese state, the Rohingya Muslims have become a stateless people. What this means, is that they have no civil rights, no access to civil services, they have no access to protection(militarily or legally) and their needs are completely ignored by the Burmese government.
No access to education :
A specific example of services not provided to the Rohingyas, as a result of their statelessness, is education. Education is provided by the Burmese state, and therefore the Rohingyas have no access to education. Without access to education, the new generations have not been able to receive any form of education. This has forced the Rohingya to resort to agriculture as a means of income.
Cycle of poverty:
Because the Rohingyas have no access to public education, and since they have moved to mainly agricultural resources, farming and fishing are the best Rohingya parents can teach their children. Being that farming and fishing is a low source of income, the rohingyas have become a poor people, and this cycle keeps repeating itself until the current generation. It is because of their statelessness, that these people live in a poor environment that keeps their future generations from escaping and rising out of the poverty.
1982 Citizenship LawThe 1982 citizenship law states that “The Council of State may decide whether any ethnic group is national or not.” The power of deciding whether a people has the right of a claim to citizenship or not rests solely with the Burmese government. The power given to the Council Of State allowed the citizenship of Rohingyas to be stripped from them as a result of this, and therefore they are not “ entitled to enjoy the rights prescribed by the laws of the State.” Like the citizens are.
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