By KMM , 4th November 2009
The Rohingyas are a Muslim minority group who live in the North Arakan State of Burma, adjacent to Bangladesh. They are an ethnic minority of Burma; Due to their racial differences with the Burmans, they were being officially declared by the Illegal Military Regime as non-citizens of Burma, making them stateless people. Burmese military’s officials claim that Rohingyas are “foreigners” in Burma and they have been/are being treated not only as alien but also modern salves.
The 1982 citizenship law of Burma does not give any protection and effective nationality to Rohingya Community. Therefore, it’s assumed that the Rohingyas are Stateless Community in their Ancestral homeland. Universal Declaration of Human Rights States that:“Everyone has the right to have a nationality. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.”
With those succinct statements, Article 15 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights confers upon every individual, everywhere in the world, the right to have a legal connection with a State. Citizenship or nationality, not only provides people with a sense of identity, but also it entitles individuals to the protection of a State and to any civil and political rights. Indeed, citizenship has been described as “the right to have rights.” Without citizenship any individual or none can demonstrate a genuine and effective link and legal connection to the Country.
There are presently over 3 million Rohingyas living inside and outside Burma and most of them work as casual laborers, farmers and fishermen. The Burmese illegal Military Junta has always view the Rohingya people as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though they had settled in Burma for centuries. The Rohingyas’ vulnerable and marginalized status worsened when the 1982 Burma Citizenship Law was enacted rendering them stateless. The Rohingya people are not included in the 135 racial groups listed by the Illegal Military Regime.
Rohingyas are not only denied their citizenship rights but also stateless where their fore-father were born and brought up and died, where they were born and brought up. Burma’s Citizenship law of 1982 rendered them not only Stateless but also an alien in their own country, They were given not only a single right of a citizen nor as a human being to demonstrate in their daily life in the country, to sum up all, Rohingyas in Arakan State are treated as non Human Being.
Rohingyas enjoyed all the rights of ethnicity and citizenship before and after independence up to 1962 as other nationals of Burma. But only after the 1962 when illegal military Regime lead by General Ne Win came in to power, Rohingyas were denied their citizenship rights and rendered to aliens in their ancestral land and marginalized their movement and activities.
Of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they were given only article no.30 of 30 and the articles no.1 to no. 29 is snatched away from them; as they were labeled to non-human being, such situations have been forcing them out of Burma.
Rohingya were viewed as economic migrants, their actual situation is seemingly being ignored by the governments and international communities, making them one of the worst communities in the world who are “stateless and forgotten people”. Their actual root causes for taking such a desperate bid to get out of Burma by all available means are political and religious persecution. As a Muslim minority group in Buddhist State like Arakan, they were subjected to human rights abuses and discriminatory practices introduced by Burmese military such as forced labor, torture, restrictions on freedom of movement, marriage and the marginalization of their activities and economic status.
Mr. Veerawit Tianchainan, country director of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI – Thailand), pointed out (at the TACDB Round-table Seminar for Rohingya Boat-People held on Feb. 2009) that the Rohingyas’ situation reminded him of Jewish people who faced systematic religious persecution by the Nazi.
Rohingyas were first revoked their citizenship and then they were subjected to all kinds of human rights abuses because of their lack of legal status, because they are refugees; who are fleeing for fear of death and they could never be able to entry a country legally for the lack of any legal documents which are denied to them in Burma, they need to go through appropriate legal channels like everyone else.
Rohingya Muslims are not second-class human being, as they are being treated like alien in their ancestral Homeland and often in exile as they do not possess any legal papers. Being stateless all the parties taking advantage on them, because of their lack of legal status, basic knowledge and illiteracy. The Rohingya refugees are not free from exploitation in every moment of their step in countries of their first, second or third asylum before reaching to a meaningful solution and always welcome with harsh and inhumane treatments.
Western Arakan State’s isolation and under-development historically meant that few Rohingya were registered at birth, or had documentation proving any citizenship, and this problem persists their lack of citizenship continues today. The Rohingyas (after 1962 onward when the illegal military regime came on power) are officially an alien and illegal community, not listed as one of the 135 recognized “ethnic nationalities” in Burma, and thus the majority of them not entitled to national identity cards.
Despite this, those who flee and are deported back to Burma are often imprisoned for leaving the country illegally. In their absence, their names are removed from Burma’s draconian household registration system that keeps track of people’s movements, and they are often handed stiff fines and jailed. This lack of legal status has provided cover to security forces (NASAKAs) to perpetrate routine abuses against them with impunity, particularly in western Burma, where the security forces are involved in pacification campaigns against the Rohingya population.
The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) or illegal Military Regime did not publicly comment during the recent arrival of Rohingya on the coastlines of Thailand, India and Indonesia. The perilous Plight of Rohingya makes international communities and the whole world awaken. Eventually, the military government announced that the Rohingya were not Burmese citizens and so the event had nothing to do with Burma, creating the false impression that the tragedy involved only Bangladeshis.
At the time of the ASEAN summit in February, the SPDC announced that any “Bengali” who could prove that they were born in Burma could return; such announcement was disingenuous because it is Burmese authorities themselves who have routinely denied Rohingya the necessary documentation to demonstrate their citizenship.
Discrimination against the Rohingya, though far from universally endorsed, runs deep in Burma. The SPDC’s denial of legal status to Rohingya has considerable public support among ethnic Arakanese and other Burmese, and among some opposition and exile groups. Many Rohingya groups are routinely excluded from multilateral exile movements and meetings. Some Arakanese Buddhists, who have been neighbors of Rohingya for centuries, routinely deny that the Rohingya even exist, claiming instead that they are Bengalis residing in Burma.
The legal limbo in which the Rohingya have long lived in Burma and the view that they should not be treated as full members of society are at times married to outright racism. South Asians are derogatorily referred to as kala (foreigner) in Burma, but the Rohingya often are viewed as beneath even this level of disdain.
This was starkly in evidence recently in a February 2009 letter from the Burmese Consul-General in Hong Kong, Ye Myint Aung, to his fellow heads of mission:
In reality, Rohingya are neither ‘Myanmar People’ nor Myanmar’s ethnic group. You will see in the photos that their complexion is ‘dark brown’. The complexion of
Myanmar people is fair and soft, good looking as well… They are as ugly as ogres.
Denial of Fundamental Rights to Rohingyas, continue to suffer from several forms of restrictions and human rights violations. Their freedom of movement is severely restricted and the vast majority of them have effectively been denied Burma citizenship. They are also subjected to various forms of extortion and arbitrary taxation; land confiscation; forced eviction and house destruction; and financial restrictions on marriage. Rohingyas continue to be used as forced laborers on roads and at military camps.
These practices, in addition to violating other basic human rights of the Rohingyas, are discriminatory towards the Rohingya population as they do not appear to be imposed in the same manner and at the same level on other ethnic nationalities in Arakan State, or in the country as a whole. These restrictions and abuses, and the general discrimination against them, also amount to violations of the right to an adequate standard of living for many Rohingyas. As a consequence tens of thousands have fled to neighboring Bangladesh and other countries like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and about 200 in Japan.
After Myanmar gained independence from Britain, from 1948 – 1962 during the Democratically elected Government headed by U Nu, Rohingya had enjoyed their full Citizenship Rights and took part in the administration of Democratically Elected Government and they have had full ethnic rights as others like Bamar, Mon, Kacin, Kaya, Karen, Chin and Rkhines, and the Rohingya had their territorial right, Mayu frontier Administration, where Rohingyas are concentrated in the three northern townships: Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung.
The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) reject the existence of a separate ethnic group called “Rohingya”. Moreover they are not recognized as one of the 135 ‘national races’ by the illegal Military Regime.
In April 2004 in a response to questions by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, (7) the SPDC stated as below:
“In actual fact, although there are (135) national races living in Myanmar today, the so-called Rohingya people are not one of them. Historically, there has never been a ‘Rohingya’ race in Myanmar. The very name Rohingya is a creation of a group of insurgents in the Rakhine State. Since the First Anglo-Myanmar War in 1824, people of Muslim Faith from the adjacent country illegally entered Myanmar Ngain-Ngan, particularly Rakhine State. Being illegal immigrants they do not hold immigration papers like other nationals of the country.
“The Rohingyas should be treated full and equal, as with other races, in matters relating to birth and death registration, education, health and social affairs. However in practice the rights of the Rohingya population of Arakan State are greatly restricted and they are treated as alien (foreigner, event they do not have the rights of foreigners) in their home Land where their fore-father were lived for centuries.
Therefore, as stated above, all facts and realities are against humanity, against Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Norms and obligations of all the member States of the Refugee Convention, to ratify its principles. Rohingyas, as stateless people, those who are out of the country of their origin are automatically should entitle or eligible for the Refugee Status or Citizenship in their present countries of asylum, according to Refugee Convention as JAPAN is one of its member States regardless of Rohingyas’ inability to demonstrate on their claims of refugee Status, as they are Stateless, lack of basic knowledge and lack of Education or as illiterate Community; Only because they are being denied their Citizenship, which is only Road to “the right to have rights.” from a State of one’s Origin.
Most of the Member States of Refugee Convention of 1951, the United Nation and the UNHCR recognized the Rohingyas not only as Stateless Community but also as Refugees, but some Member States are event reluctant to view them on humanitarian ground.
“Rohingya want to live as Human Being, as Citizen of a State where they were born and brought up, no more as stateless people. They want to go back as a Human Being and as an effective citizen of Burma not as Human Pin-Ball”.
No one can make them assured that the Security of their life on their return to Burma, except an effective Citizenship, only with it, they can demonstrate a genuine and effective link and legal connection to the State.
Therefore, Ministry of Justice (MOJ) or Government of Japan should not be influenced by any other factors or Close its Heart and Eye when determining the Status of Refugee, rather than the Principles of 1951 Status of Refugee Convention, 1967 Protocols and 1954 Convention of Status of Stateless People, as a member State of the Refugee Convention.
KMM, (a Stateless Rohingya,Japan)
Email : info@rohingyainfo.com
