Rohingya Muslims have been living in Myanmar (Burma) for centuries, but they have been declared foreigners by the enactment of a new Citizenship Law. This citizenship law is the root cause of the present religious persecution and ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

"The claim that the Rohingyas are foreigners is a despicable lie - the first written mention of Rohingyas in Rakhine dates back to 1799," wrote Gwynne Dyer. Still on the flimsy and unsubstantial ground of the citizenship law the Burmese government are throwing them out of the country. Only two-thirds of the country's 60 million people are actually ethnic Burmese, living mostly in the Irrawaddy river basin. All around the frontiers are large ethnic minorities - Shan, Karen, Mon, Kachin - most of which have fought against the centralizing policies of the military dictatorship in the past.

The Muslim (5 percent), Chinese (2.5 percent) and Indians (1.5 percent) minorities live right amongst the ethnic Burmese majority. So far only the Muslims have been targeted; first, sectarian violence erupted in western Rakhine state last year in which hundreds were killed and more than 100,000 Rohingya Muslims driven out from their homes, intensifying the long-running persecution of the stateless minority group. In an ominous development, Muslim-Buddhist violence spread in March last year to central Myanmar.

Last year at least 180 people were killed in the western state of Rakhine in clashes between local Buddhists and Rohingya. Scores of Muslims were killed and their homes and properties burnt, in addition to the burning of eight mosques and a number of schools. According to reports from the UN, Human Rights Watch and underground Rohingyas, the recent violence which erupted on the March 20 resulted in the burning of 37 mosques, 77 shops, 1474 houses.

More than 120,000 Rohingya Muslims have been forced to flee the ethnic cleansing and take shelter in the neighbouring countries. There are many Rohingya Muslim refugees in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia. Mr. Wakar Uddin, Director-General of Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU), the voice of Rohingya for political and human rights in Myanmar, said that Saudi Arabia given residency to over 500,000 Rohingya refugees. Malaysia is also trying to give the Rohingyas a better status as also Pakistan, which has more than 400,000 of them.

Speaking about the challenges they are facing, Mr. Wakar mentioned, "We have some challenges in Bangladesh and we are working with Indonesia. In Thailand some of them are in the camps but we are trying to work it through," he added. "The most important thing we are trying to reach is basically end of the violence."

Role of the OIC "Such violence cannot continue. It is unacceptable and provides a clear indication of the negative approach the Myanmar government is adopting in addressing the ethnic tensions," said Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of the Pan-Muslim organisation, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). He pressed the government of Myanmar "to put an end to the Buddhist extremists and hate campaigns, as well as ethnic cleansing that they have launched against Muslims in the country."

Professor Ihsanoglu blamed the Myanmar government for being uncooperative with the international community's request to end the violence and come up with solutions. "We have knocked on every door to raise awareness and let the international community know about it. Last week, I addressed that issue at the Arab League Summit," he said.

The OIC Secretary General said the Organization was "ready to take all necessary measures and actions" in dealing with the impending crisis. "The OIC intends to raise the issue in the Security Council and the Human Rights Council to find a solution that contributes to putting an end to religious persecution against Muslims in Myanmar. The OIC has previously tried to contact government officials in Myanmar to no avail. There has also been an Egyptian proposition to send a special delegation headed by the Secretary General of the OIC, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, and include a number of foreign ministers of member countries to Myanmar, but this visit has been postponed. The OIC attempted to open an office in Myanmar over the past year to supply aid to Muslims in Myanmar but extremist Buddhists demonstrated against this attempt," an OIC official told Arab News, an English daily of Saudi Arabia.

"There's no excuse for violence against innocent people, and the Rohingya hold within themselves the same dignity as you do, and I do," President Barack Obama said last year while addressing students at Yangon University. Obama's visit to Myanmar, the first by a serving US president, came after two major outbreaks of violence beginning in June 2012.

OIC Launches Global Rohingya Centre The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) officially launched on Sunday, the 14th of April, 2013 the Global Rohingya Center (GRC) to advocate for the rights of the Rohingya people and to improve their living conditions in their places of residence. The GRC was launched under the aegis of Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of the pan-Muslim organization, who expressed deep concern at the spreading violence against Muslims in Myanmar at the hands of extremist Buddhists. He said violence in Arakane, in the west of the country, continues uninterrupted since last June and has spread to other cities, particularly the city of Meikhtilar in Mandalay region.

The center will also be a media resource providing crucial knowledge and up-to-date information to facilitate an accurate and in-depth reporting on Rohingya issues. The center will also assist international organizations in developing plans to deliver assistance to alleviate the plight of the persecuted community.

In his speech at the emergency OIC Contact Group meeting on Rohingya Muslim minority, Ihsanoglu called on member states of the Contact Group to take action through communication with the international community to implement recommendations of the OIC Islamic Summit held in Makkah. "Despite our attempts to establish communication with the authorities in Myanmar by selecting a prominent figure from a neighboring country to visit Myanmar and open discussions with officials, the government was not responsive," he said. OIC chief Ihsanoglu also suggested requesting OIC member states which are members in the Contact Group and which have diplomatic missions in Myanmar to use their good offices to put this issue forward, expressing readiness of the OIC to continue coordination and render necessary support to improve the conditions of Muslims in Myanmar until they regain all their legitimate rights.

Professor Ihsanoglu told Jeddah-based English daily, Saudi Gazette, that the OIC will ask the United Nations Human Rights Council to send fact-finding mission to investigate all human rights violations in Myanmar.

Campaign of Ethnic cleansing against Rohingya
New York-based Human rights watchdog, Human Rights Watch, accused Myanmar of 'ethnic cleansing' of Rohingya Muslims. Human rights groups and a UN envoy have criticized the Myanmar government's failure to prevent attacks mostly on minority Muslims by majority Buddhists. New York-based Human rights watchdog, Human Rights Watch, said, "The Burmese government engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya that continues today through the denial of aid and restrictions on movement," said HRW deputy Asia director Phil Robertson. The Rohingya, who are denied citizenship by the country also known as Burma, have faced crimes against humanity including murder, persecution, deportation and forced transfer, The New York-based Human Rights Watch said.

The report was released on the same day that the European Union was expected to lift all remaining sanctions against Myanmar, except an arms embargo, in a move that Robertson said was "premature and unfortunate" and would diminish the EU's leverage with the regime. He called on all international donors, including the United States, to step up pressure on Myanmar to promote democratic change in the former pariah state, which ended decades of military rule in 2011.

According to government figures cited by Human Rights Watch, 211 people have died in two outbreaks of Buddhist-Muslim violence in Rakhine since June 2012, but the rights monitor said it believed the real figure was much higher. In a report based on more than 100 interviews, it said that it had uncovered evidence of four mass graves in Rakhine. In one episode in June, according to HRW, a government truck dumped 18 naked and half-clothed bodies near a camp for displaced Rohingya, describing it as an attempt to scare them into leaving.

In the deadliest incident, according to the rights watchdog, about 50-70 Rohingya, including 28 children, were reportedly killed in a village after police and soldiers disarmed them and failed to protect them from a mob. Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. Thousands have fled Myanmar since June on rickety boats, mostly believed to be heading for Malaysia after Bangladesh refused them entry.

Humanitarian catastrophe, UNHCR
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHACR) spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters in Geneva that a "humanitarian catastrophe" could be on the cards. "UNHCR is seriously concerned about the risks facing over 60,000 displaced people in flood-prone areas and in makeshift shelters," he told reporters. "From May to September, the monsoon season is expected to unleash heavy rains and possible cyclones in Rakhine state, where more than 115,000 people remain uprooted after last year's inter-communal violence," he warned. Tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled communal violence in Myanmar are in danger as the monsoon season looms, the UN's refugee agency's spokesman said.

Rohingya leaders are trying to put pressure on the Myanmar government through China. At the urgent emergency meeting of the OIC Contact group, Wakar Uddin of the Rohingya Arakan Union, called on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group to persuade China to put pressure on the Myanmar government to stop acts of violence and targeted killings of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar. "It is well-known that China has strong relations with the Myanmar government and has big economic and political interests there. So we asked Chinese officials to try to persuade Myanmar to stop violence against and acts of systematic killing of the peaceful Rohingya Muslim minority," he said.

Reform Citizenship Laws


"It's very sad because none of them had ever known any other country except for this one, except for Burma," she said. "They did not feel they belonged anywhere else and you are just sad for them that they are made to feel they did not belong to our country either. This is a very sad state of affairs."

It is also reported, she said: "With regard to whether or not Rohingya are citizens of the country, that depends very much on whether or not they meet the requirements of the citizenship law as they now exist. "Then we must go on and assess this citizenship law to find out whether it is in line with the international standard," she said, stressing the importance of rule of law. "We must learn to accommodate those with different views from ours," Aung San Suu Kyi said.

"Yes, the crux of the problem lies in denial of "dignity" or citizenship to Rohingyas. In fact, continued denial of citizenship for the Rohingya and discriminatory practices against them are two sides of the same coin, editorially commented by Saudi Gazette, Jeddah and added, "Far too long, the world community has behaved as though this is a Bangladesh problem because Rohingya are mostly of Bengali origin. Far too long, the UN has been indulgent toward the junta in Myanmar just as the government in Yangon has been turning a blind eye to the activities of Buddhist extremists." (Ethnic Violence in Myanmar, editorial, Saudi Gazette, 01 April, 2013.)

"This has to stop. The UN has to do some plain speaking to Myanmar backed by credible threats if it continues to fail in its primary duty: Giving protection to the person and property of its most vulnerable sections of the people," the editorial urged.

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