Rohingyas, a Silenced Minority
Bruno Amsellem
Signatures
The Rohingya people in Burma is one of the most persecuted minorities in the world according to the United Nations.
Since 2012, more and more attacks have targeted the Muslim minority, stateless persons in their homeland. Locals have responded to calls to violence from Buddhist figures such as Monk Wirathu who acclaims himself as the Burmese Ben Laden. For NGOs, ethnic cleansing is being carried out by the Burmese authorities, imposing strict limits on presence of non-Burmese people and humanitarian workers in and around the city of Sittwe, the capital of Arakan (Rakhine) State in north-west Burma.
Mosques have been destroyed as well as nearly a thousand homes in and around the city, with these violent attacks forcing more than 800 000 people to flee the region. They are now displaced persons living in camps in Arakan State, including one camp near Sittwe with more than 140 000.
They are allowed no freedom of movement. Families are crowded into makeshift buildings stretching as far as the eye can see, and kept under military guard.
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For all the camps, there is only one dispensary, and even there the patients are not given any treatment. A room reserved for women has bunks on the floor, and many of the women, often suffering from hepatitis, die in pregnancy or childbirth. It is difficult to find food, hygiene is appalling, and the death rate has therefore soared.
No proper education is provided, and the camps have only around ten makeshift schools. By the dirt track in one camp, the school has over 2 600 children, with over 100 pupils per class. Buddhist teachers have deserted schools attended by Rohingya students, but volunteer teachers, usually students who have had to suspend their studies because of the riots, are determined to teach the children so that they are not left to their own devices, facing a life with no prospects.
Traces of the violence in March 2013 can still be seen in the town of Meiktila in the center of the country. In the neighborhood of Mingala Zayone, some forty people were trapped in attacks outside a school while the police stood by. A school bus was torched, and most of those who perished in the flames were children twelve to fifteen years old. As is the case in Arakan State, the Muslim community here too is now living in camps, such as Yin Daw, and carefully kept out of sight.
On February 28, 2014, the central authorities again ordered Médecins sans Frontières to stop their work in Arakan State, accusing them of concealing “Bengalis” as the Burmese call the Rohingyas. One month later, after further attacks, all the humanitarian organizations had to evacuate their staff from Sittwe.
Bruno Amsellem
