Cedars, December 2017

December 2017 10 OFF CAMPUS by Alexandria Hentschel and Timothy Mattackal O ne of the worst humanitarian crises of the century is occurring in the Ra- khine province of Myanmar. During the last few months, over 600,000 members of Myanmar’s ethnic Rohingya population, a Sunni Muslimminority, have fled into neigh- boring Bangladesh to escape a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Almost overnight, hun- dreds of thousands of people were displaced as refugees, without a home and unsure of what the future may hold. The Rohingya have been described by Amnesty International as “one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.” The ethnic group has faced decades of persecu- tion and disenfranchisement due to their position as Muslims in a country that is ma- jority Buddhist. Myanmar has never grant- ed the Rohingya legitimate citizenship, making the people group — which numbers over 1 million — the largest group of state- less people in the world. Dr. Frank Jenista, a former foreign ser- vice officer and professor of international studies, sees no foreseeable end to the con- flict that has been festering for many years. He remarked that there has been a long his- tory of oppression, but the recent attacks by the Myanmar military — supplemented by radical Buddhist mobs — have seen an unprecedented level of brutality. Militant action by a small sect of the Rohingya who were advocating for an independent state in August began the ethnic cleansing. “They were a tiny, tiny group, but it was a beautiful excuse for Myanmar to just go after them,” he said. “Before that, there were low- er-level problems. There would be a Rohingya village attacked here or there — sometimes by the military, sometimes by mobs led by Bud- dhist priests. [The ethnic cleansing] began because the Rohingya got so fed up that they took up arms and killed a handful of Myan- mar soldiers. That then was the trigger.” The Rohingya people have fled en masse to neighboring Bangladesh, namely the Chit- tagong region, which is close to the border between the two nations. The Bangladeshi government has expressed a willingness to help the minority, but practically, they are unable to service the entire population. Jeni- sta remarked that asylum in Bangladesh is an impractical and temporary solution. “Bangladesh is one of the most-crowded places in the world, and all of the sudden they have 600,000 more mouths to feed,” he said. For Xavier Halder, a junior special edu- Who Are The Rohingya? What to Know About the Crisis in Myanmar Associated Press In September, Rohingya Muslims arrive on a boat from Myanmar to Bangladesh in Shah Porir Dwip, Bangladesh. Since violence erupted in late August, more than 620,000 Rohingya men, women, and children have crossed over into Bangladesh from Myanmar, carrying with them tales of persecution, rape, and murder by the Myanmar military and Buddhist vigilantes.