Arakan: a big massacre witnessed by the insensitive world

The attacks, rapes and massacres targeting Arakan’s Muslims have become a hot topic, particularly in social media, perhaps due to increased sensitivity in the holy month of Ramadan. Last Ramadan, the drought and famine in Somalia aroused similar interest, and Turkey was the country that came to the rescue of famine victims in the strongest manner. I hope this heightened sensitivity will produce beneficial results for the Muslims of Arakan, with the bliss and favors of Ramadan.

Who are these Arakanese people who have roused Ankara into action? What tyranny and massacres are they subjected to? It is not only Turks and Muslims who are ignorant about the tragedy in Arakan, but also the world, and I think we have to learn the facts and report the dimensions of the human tragedy that has been getting serious since June. Although it has recently increased in scale, the inhuman discrimination and violent incidents in Arakan are not new. While more than 1,000 Muslims of Arakan have died and over 90,000 been left homeless due to recent incidents, the problem goes back many years.

Let me begin by first noting that Arakanese people are an indigenous people in these lands. Located along the common border between Bangladesh and Myanmar, the Arakan province has a surface area of 50,000 square kilometers, and it is a place of deep-rooted historical heritage. Indeed, the known history of Arakan dates back to 3 B.C. The advent of Islam in Arakan occurred thanks to Arab traders in the 8th century. When King Narameikhla, also known as Min Saw Mun, adopted Islam in the early 15th century, the Arakan Islamic Kingdom was established, following which the spread of Islam in the region accelerated. Rohingya Muslims lived in peace until the 19th century, but with the British invasion, beginning in 1826, the Buddhist Rakhine people were incited against them. After the Takin party came to power in Burma, which separated from India in 1937, and started to spread the paranoid notion that Muslims are a great threat to Buddhism.

Soon after the pull-out of the British from the region, pressure on Muslims increased, and defenseless Muslims had to seek shelter in India and Bangladesh. Leaders of the Buddhist Rakhine people in Arakan staged collective massacres of Rohingya Muslims. In the attacks that started in Minbya town on March 28, 1942 and spread over the whole Arakan region, lasting for 40 days, at least 150,000 Muslims were killed. Before the attacks, Muslims were the majority in their respective settlements, but after the attacks, they became minorities. Following these massacres, numerous Muslims sought refuge in neighboring countries. The events of 1942 made it virtually impossible for the two sister peoples of Arakan -- namely, the Rohingya and the Rakhine -- to live together.

Later, the attacks against Rohingya Muslims and practices of serious discrimination continued, and Muslims were even prevented from fleeing to other regions. While the memories of the 1942 massacre were still fresh, Muslims became the target of a new wave of attacks in 1947. In this period, some Muslim groups staged an armed revolt against the Burmese state, which failed. In 1954, the Burmese army massacred or sent into exile thousands of Muslim civilians in a bloody attack known as Operation Monsoon.

Following the coup pf 1962, the discriminatory practices, pressures and tyrannies against Muslims further increased. In this period, state-controlled media outlets started to spread propaganda that Rohingya Muslims were not indigenous to the region. Furthermore, Buddhist Rakhine people were incited against Rohingya Muslims, and tensions in the region climbed further. In this process, the policies of Buddhization of Arakan were aggressively pursued, and Rohingya Muslims were removed from all sorts of public positions, while illegal acts against Muslims were encouraged. Local people were forced to migrate to Bangladesh due to restrictions on their economic activities and other pressures and tyrannies. Those who did not migrate were banned from performing prayers in congregations and sacrificing animals for worship.

The repressive policies increased all the more in March 1978, when Operation King Dragon aimed to purge Muslims from Arakan completely. To this end, hundreds of Muslim women and men were arrested. Many were tortured to death, and women were raped. Many Rohingya Muslims were killed in attacks against them as they attempted to migrate to Bangladesh. More than 300,000 Muslims who escaped the massacre had to live as refugees in the temporary camps set up in Bangladesh. The policies of Buddhization of Arakan were then accelerated further. After 1990, hundreds of thousands of Muslims had to seek refuge in Bangladesh. Muslim villages were evacuated and Buddhist Rakhine people were settled there. As part of this Buddhization plan, the name of the Arakan state was changed to Rakhine, and the name of its capital was changed from Akyab to Sittwe.

Today, the problem in Burma is not solely about Arakan’s Muslims. The military rule in Burma is systematically pursuing repressive and discriminatory policies against ethnic minorities in the country, where 64 indigenous races live and 200 different languages and dialects are spoken. In school and public institutions, the state authorities employ discrimination against ethnic minorities, introducing restrictions on their cultures, languages, histories and identities, or destroying them altogether. With a new citizenship law passed in 1982, Rohingya Muslims were excluded from the category of “nationals,” and they still don’t have citizenship in their own lands. In addition to all these pressures and massacres, Arakan’s Muslims are prohibited from traveling, and face complex procedures and high taxes in their efforts to marry. Deprived of all their rights, Arakan’s Muslims are also seeing the destruction of their cultural and historical heritage, and their mosques and schools are being destroyed. Similar persecutions also target Christian minorities, and even some Buddhist groups who raise objections to the junta’s practices.

Muslims still suffer from discriminatory practices, pressures, persecution and massacres, and many of them have sought refuge in camps in Bangladesh after a formidable journey. But it is now impossible for them to have access to these camps, which are rife with unfavorable conditions beyond imagining. Bangladesh has not accepted refugees since June and is gradually sending back the refugees.

Hundreds of Muslims from Arakan have refugee status in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia because of the pressures they are subjected to, under the insensitive gaze of the world. About 300,000 Muslims from Arakan have migrated to Bangladesh, a country where many people are already suffering from poverty and privation. Bangladesh has recently urged these refugees to return to their homeland.

The ordeal faced by Arakan’s Muslims was exacerbated when 10 Muslims traveling from Akyab to Maungdav were slaughtered by Buddhist fanatics on June 3, 2012. More than 300 Muslim villages as well as mosques and madrasas were burned down. According to independent human rights organizations, since June about 1,000 people have been killed in the region, and thousands of Muslims are in exile from their homes and villages, some forced to live in forests. Some Muslims headed for Bangladesh in boats over the Naf River and the Indian Ocean, but after being refused by the Bangladeshi government they drowned in the river and the ocean.

In other words, a nation is facing genocide, witnessed by the entire world. Unfortunately, the international community cannot react appropriately to these massacres. The most galling of all is Aung San Suu Kyi, who received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, for her struggle against the junta rule, and has exhibited a hypocritical attitude toward this tyranny. She first tried to brush aside the matter, saying, “This is a very complicated and fuzzy matter.” But upon persistent questioning, she said, “Muslims may be given ‘permanent settler’ status, but they should not be accepted as citizens of Myanmar,” and the disgrace of her words are etched in history.

Note: This article makes use of the information provided by the Arakan report of the Humanitarian Aid Foundation (İHH).