The population of Rohingya is approximately 3 million both inside and outside the country. Due to continued persecution and ethnic cleansing about 1.5 million of them have either been expelled or have had to leave their historical homeland to save their lives since 1948. Most of these unfortunates are living in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Malaysia, Thailand etc. They are vulnerable in those countries without any status and are still willing to return to their ancestral homeland of Arakan.

The Rohingyas are one of the most oppressed and persecuted peoples on earth. They have been invariably subjected to criminal atrocities, torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment, extra-judicial killing and summery execution, arrest and detention, rape, looting, destruction of homes, settlements, religious schools and immovable properties, relentless taxation, humiliating restriction on their freedom of movement and residence within the state, prohibition of their right to marry and to found a family, restriction and/or denial of their right to education, right to work and to get access to food and other essentials, medical care and necessary social services.

The ruling military State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has declared the Rohingyas as non-nationals. It has stated that Rohingyas do not belong to the so-called 135 national races that SPDC recognizes as Burmese. The Burma Citizenship Law of 1982, which violates several fundamental principles of customary international law standards, has reduced them to a position of defacto statelessness.

The Rohingyas are banned from traveling from one place to another, even within the same locality, without a pass. They cannot visit their friends and relatives, buy food from markets, visit hospitals and doctors and they cannot send their children to schools, and even they cannot work on their farmland outside their villages. The restriction of movement has divided many Rohingya families.

The Rohingyas are banned from getting married and founding a family without permission. Without paying a bribe marriage application for permission is not considered. Getting this permission could take one or two or more years. From 2004, there are more than 10,000 marriage applications for permission remain pending with the authorities in northern Arakan. 

Since promulgation of Burma Citizenship Law in 1982, higher studies are seriously restricted and professional courses are prohibited to the Rohingya students.  From 2001 they are restricted even to study at Arakan’s Akyab University. This inhuman policy has further marginalized them as the most illiterate section within Burma population, and they are thus forced to embrace a very bleak future.

Rape of Rohingya women becomes an official military strategy to depopulate Rohingya from their ancestral home. It is the most horrendous and degrading way of ‘ethnic cleansing’. 

Many mosques and madrasas (religious schools), Waqf lands (endowments) and graveyards have been demolished or taken over while renovation and construction are prohibited. Some of the pagodas are built on mosques’ land. It is an attempt to efface the Muslim entity in Arakan. During the recent months 40 mosques and madrassas were closed down in Buthidaung and Rathedaung townships of Arakan.

The military launches frequent drive operations and creates communal riots resulting in heavy loss of the Rohingyas, and makes forced relocation to sweep off the Rohingya population. Some townships in Southern Arakan were declared as ‘Muslim free zone’.

Vast tracks of their lands were confiscated for military establishment and for distribution among Buddhist settlers imported from inside and outside Arakan, including Bangladesh. These have forced the Rohingyas to become increasingly landless, internally displaced and to eventually starve them out to cross the border into Bangladesh.

Northern Arakan has turned into a militarized zone with increased violations of human rights. Forced labour still exists despite increasing pressure from ILO. The armed forces routinely confiscate property, cash and food. The forced labour situation has become so excruciating that the Rohingyas have been rendered jobless and shelter less.

The authorities impose very high rate of taxation on the food grains and on every agricultural produce of the Rohingya. New method of taxation, such as, shrimp tax, vegetables tax, tree tax, cattle tax, bird tax (for cow, buffalos, goats, fowl), roof tax, house building or repair tax etc. are collected. They have to pay for newborns and dead ones let alone their cattle. The poor Rohingya villagers have to pay taxes for cutting firewood in the jungles, fishing in the rivers and breeding animals at homesteads.

In 1991-92, more than 250,000 Rohingyas fled across the border to Bangladesh to escape persecution. Dhaka had repatriated all except 21,000, who are living in two camps in squalid conditions with inadequate supply of food and other essentials. Their children are deprived of basic education and healthcare. In addition, over 200,000 ‘undocumented’ Rohingya refugees are living in sub-human condition, in Cox’s Bazar and Banderban districts. Bangladesh has refused to grant them refugee status, saying they are illegal immigrants and must return to Burma, without realizing their unbearable plights. They are extremely in vulnerable situation while facing the constant harassment of the law enforcement agencies and local gangsters.

Given the continued persecution of Rohingya, the future of the community seems bleak and the exodus into Bangladesh is in cyclic order. On the other hand, the SPDC has created an impossible situation for the Rohingyas, so that they slowly leave their hearths and homes for Bangladesh and other countries without international attention.

Medicine San Frontiers (MSF) had stated, on 26 November 1992, that the Rohingyas are one of the ten world populations in danger of extinction. All these crimes against humanity committed against the Rohingya and other peoples -- such as Karen, Shan, Kachin, Chin, etc. --   represent a threat to regional and international peace and security and they warrant ‘international responsibility to protect’ with ‘individual responsibility’ of the perpetrators. To this fact we invite and solicit attention and support of the international community.