Sufferings of the Rohingya Muslims & The UN Policy of Palliation

Dr. Firoz Mahboob Kamal

 Bangladesh government’s deception

Bangladesh Foreign Minister Mr Mahmood Ali met with Mayanmar minister U Kaye Tin Swe on 2nd October in Dhaka. He was Aung San Suu Kyi’s envoy to the Bangladesh Government. After the meeting, Mr Mahmood Ali told the press that Rohingya issue can be solved bilaterally with the government of Myanmar. The ongoing ethnic cleansing in Arakan and the political motive of the Myanmar Government make it clear that such expectation from a bilateral negotiation is full of deception and foolishness. It is alarming that the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh has totally failed to understand the basics of the situation. The bi-lateral relation of Bangladesh with Myanmar is not that good that can persuade the perpetrators to take the Rohingya Muslims back. If the relation is so conducive for a bilaterally negotiated solution of the problem then why the Bangladesh government could not stop the influx of the refugees in the first place. The Myanmar Government is so non-cooperative and insensitive to extreme moral issue that even the UN Secretary General failed to convince the Myanmar government to allow some neutral observers to oversee what is going on in Rakhine state. Even the International Red Cross bosses couldn’t convince these rogues to allow some relief goods and medicines for the displaced and sick Rohingya people. They have proven to be stubborn liars and killers. Even Aung San Suu Kyi –the de-facto leader, didn’t prove to be better either. Even she is denying that any ethnic cleansing or killing of the Rohingya Muslims have taken place in Myanmar. As if, more than half a million Rohingya people descended from the Sky on the soil of Bangladesh. How one can negotiate with such killers, deniers and liars who are still busy with killing, raping and ethnic cleansing. From the statement of Bangladesh Foreign Minister, it appears that the government is toeing to the Myanmar policy of isolating the Rohingya issue from global stage. Ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims is going on for more than three decades. Only at the finishing stage, the issue has become a global issue because of its catastrophic proportion. Now the Myanmar government -as well as other complicit patrons of the crime, wants to quickly scale it down. The best way of doing that is to make it a bilateral issue only with Bangladesh. On Kashmir issue, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India could seduce Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto- the former Prime Minister of Pakistan to fall in the same trap. Hence on Kashmir issue, as per treaty, now Pakistan cries alone in the UN and on other global stages. Now it seems Bangladesh is being enticed to fall into the same trap.

Whereas, genocidal cleansing of a population is always a global issue. It is the gross violation of universal human rights.  Bangladesh government can’t solve the human rights issue inside other countries -like Myanmar. Bangladesh government has already signed many bilateral agreement with Myanmar, for example one in 1992. So far, none has worked. As a result, more than 400,000 Rohingya Muslims -who came in earlier years, never could return back. They are living in the refugee camps for decades. Hence, one can easily guess that any future bilateral agreement with Myanmar will fail to convince Myanmar to take back the recent arrivals, too. Moreover, the Myanmar government is in a state of total denial of the crime of ethnic cleansing and genocidal cleansing that has been committed to the Rohingyas. So they will surely put resistance to bear the burden of the alleged crime. Moreover, they have made their mind clear by embedding the Myanmar-Bangladesh border with thousands of mines. It is done only to obstruct the return of the refugees. More the eviction still continues.

The ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims must be put on the global stage. Since the genocidal regime of Myanmar is not the creation of Bangladesh, therefore Bangladesh government can’t take the burden of solving this problem on her own shoulder. It must be properly presented as a burden on all humans. Moreover, the Bangladesh government must deploy its wisdom and political acumen to turn Rohingya Muslims’s case into a pan-Islamic rallying cry as well as a pan-humanitarian issue. Only this way they could fight China, Russia and India – the main complicit patrons of Myanmar. No one can deny the political, economic and strategic importance of 1.6 billion Muslims of the world. In comparison to such a massive Ummah, Myanmar is a peanut. Bangladesh is not weaker than Afghanistan or Vietnam; and Myanmar is not stronger than Russia or the USA. China needs to run its so-called economic belt through Muslim countries like Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Iran, Turkey and other Muslim countries. India’ largest foreign market is Bangladesh and it trucks and trains need to run a long route amidst its Muslim villages and townships. Indian police or Army can’t protect her business in Bangladesh. And Russia has its own huge Muslim population. The largest anti-Myanmar protest rally was not held in Dhaka, Karachi or Jakarta, but in Grozny –the capital of Chechnya. Even the USA can’t run its empire taking side against the Muslims. So it will be suicidal for their own economic and political interest if these friends of genocidal regime of Myanmar want to continue their support.

Mere repatriation of the Rohingya people back to Myanmar is the best option. But the question arises, is it conceivable or viable with the current policy of Myanmar Government which is bent upon ethnic cleansing? Currently under the pressure of the international community, the Myanmar government has signed a memorandum to repatriate the refugees. But the Myanmar government has proven to be persistent back tracker from such previous promises. They want to continue only with the policy of ethnic cleansing. It is now clear that they may allow some pauses in the cleansing, but not ready to fully abandon it. Now, if they are pushed back to Myanmar, they will be kept only in concentration camps and their lands and homesteads will be seized only for building more army barracks or industrial zones –as have been done in cases of previous evictions. Hundreds of thousands of such victims of the past eviction episodes still live in such unhygienic shanty concentration camps. These are the perfect tools to keep the Rohingya Muslims captivated, and de-empowered without giving them the legal rights of citizenship and other civil liberties. This way, they force people to slowly die unattended by any doctor or silently disappear form Myanmar through its porous border. Such a coercive process of decimation is already in place for more than 40 years; and exacerbated in 1982 when their citizenship was taken away and were made stateless.

The UN policy of palliation and salvation of the Rohingya Muslims

The UN could display some sympathy only in building some shanty tents and collecting relief goods or medicines for these worst victims. These are giving some palliation only to die in tents. But the root causes of the problem still thrives. Hence, providing tents and relief goods are not going to solve the problems.  Even, the relief goods would stop flowing if the TV camera are taken off from the horrific scenes of cleansing. The Myanmar Government is waiting for such days. Those who imposed some soft embargo on the ruling military despots for human rights violation in the past, have already been lifted after the election in 2015. Now, the countries like China, Russia, and even Pakistan are selling weapons to these killers. Is it not the part of terrorism to support these perpetrators of state-terrorism by delivering arms? Now the question arises, if the UN and other international players fail to solve the problem peacefully, what option will remain open for these much Rohingya people? Just to die the slow death in tents. In such a desperate situation, arms struggle would be the only legitimate option. To get back the robbed basic survival rights, they will need to fight a long battle. How long Rohingya people should await in Bangladesh while no one has shown hope that their own birth place, lands and assets in Myanmar will be returned back to them.

If they are not given the legitimate right to enter peacefully, must be taken over by war.  Nothing can be more just than such a war for their own right. Otherwise, it will be total submission to pure evil. No one should support that. In fact, the enemies of freedom of the Rohingya Muslims want full submission to such evil forces of occupation -as has been the policy of the occupying forces in Palestine and Kashmir. Hence, fighting against the pure evil of state terrorism of Myanmar should be the rallying cry not only for Bangladesh, but also for all the freedom loving countries of the world. If not pursued by the peace loving states, some non-state forces will mate it a holy and legitimate cause against the evil.

Hence, it is the core responsibility of the UN and other international actors to fix the problem as soon as possible. Otherwise, they should help in all possible ways the Rohingya Muslims to fix the problems themselves. The ultra-nationalist racism can fill the land only with a war. Myanmar has taken that route. Surrender to the perpetrators of genocide is never a civilised option. The Rohingya Muslims must not be forced to live in concentration camps. In the name of settlement, the refugees must not be handed over to the killers who are determined only to kill, rape and blaze everything that belong to Muslims. Such a push back would tantamount only to put them back into a cage full with hungry wolves. Such a step was taken in 1978, but didn’t work. It only increased the number of deaths, rapes and torture cells for the Rohingyas. Any amount of appeasement of such killers would only mean complicity in the crime. The world leaders who fail to bring any peace for the Rohingyas don’t possess any right to lecture them on peaceful tolerance of such appalling brutality either. The legitimate battle of the victims for their own survival can’t be labelled as terrorism either. Terrorism –as per any standard lexicon, is the use of force or threat to frighten any people to get political, economic or other gains at the expense of others. It can be practised both by the state and non-state actors. And in Arakan, it is being exclusively deployed by the Myanmar Army, the security forces and other state outfits to ethnically cleanse the Rohingya Muslims from their birth place in Arakan.

The war of narratives

All forces of coercion, occupation and imperialism coin their own narratives to suit their political agenda. In their vocabulary, even occupying countries, bombing cities to rubbles and killing men, woman and children are called promotion of liberal values and democracy –as is the case of the US and its partners in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. India in Kashmir and Russia in Syria are doing the same. Whereas standing against such pure evil is called terrorism in their lexicon. The genocidal regime of Myanmar also makes use of such narrative to pursue their evil agenda. They could even invent justification to snatch citizenship from the Rohingya Muslims on the ground that they belong to different faith, ethnicity and language. Therefore, like Adolf Hitler, they could forge fabricated ground for total ethnic cleansing of these marginalised minority. But the question arises, whether the Muslims too, should accept such fabricated political narratives? Such narratives are indeed the expression of some specific political faith and ideologies. So the people of different faith differ not only in their beliefs and cultures, but also in their narrative. As per corruptive narratives of the nationalists, racists and ethnic cleansers, any attempt of standing against the ethnic cleansing is called terrorism. The criminal regime of Myanmar then point of the Muslims which is totally dissimilar to that of the kuffars. It is the part of muslims’ fundamental belief that Islam has its own narrative, vocabularies and criteria to judge the right and the wrong; and also  prescribes the path of action. It is the most most ugliest state of the Muslims that they badly devide on this issue. The ruling elites of the most Muslim countries incorporate the western route and their narratives. And they quickly join the occupying  forces in the Muslim countries; hence those who Afghanistan and Iraq are not alone.  They could gets millions of Muslims in their rank. The scenario is going to repeat also in Arakan. As long as the TV camera is focussed on the Rohingya refugees, the relief goods will continue to flow in. As soon as the camera is taken off, the international bodies will forget to persuade Myanmar government to take the refugees back -as happened in the case Palestine and Kashmir. The issue of plebiscite in Kashmir, and the return of Palestinian refugees to their houses now stays in cold storage. Harlem’s anyone bother about that. So, the return of the Arakan’ Rohingya Muslims is going to be another cold storage staff. The secularist elements in a Muslim country has a mastery of doing that -the PLO did it the Palestinian cause. The secularist forces in Bangladesh is ready to take that route. They look for international aids only to feed their greed. 

Another staff for the cold-storage? 

It is unfortunate and unethical that the imperialist world powers acceptable political path and narrative for the whole world. In their vocabulary, even occupying the countries, bombing the cities to rubble and killing men, woman and children are called promotion of liberal values and democracy. Whereas standing against such pure crime is called terrorism. The genocidal regime of Myanmar makes use of such a political milieu of the world, hence emboldened to pursue the path of total cleansing. 50 years ago the world was not so permissive for such a horrendous crime. But the question arises whether the Muslims should surrender to these kuffar narrativeives? If they accept these kuffar narrative then standing against ethnic cleansing will be called terrorism and the criminal regime of Myanmar will be given the formal licence to continue the crime and will receive the necessary weapons. India,  China and Russia, Japan have already taken the route. The US hasn’t any moral guts to oppose such a option either. Here lies the distinctive point of the Muslims which is totally dissimilar to that of the kuffars. It is the part of muslims’ fundamental belief that Islam has its own narrative, vocabularies and criteria to judge the right and the wrong; and also  prescribes the path of action. It is the most most ugliest state of the Muslims that they badly devide on this issue. The ruling elites of the most Muslim countries incorporate the western route and their narratives. And they quickly join the occupying  forces in the Muslim countries; hence those who Afghanistan and Iraq are not alone.  They could gets millions of Muslims in their rank. The scenario is going to repeat also in Arakan. As long as the TV camera is focussed on the Rohingya refugees, the relief goods will continue to flow in. As soon as the camera is taken off, the international bodies will forget to persuade Myanmar government to take the refugees back -as happened in the case Palestine and Kashmir. The issue of plebiscite in Kashmir, and the return of Palestinian refugees to their houses now stays in cold storage. Harlem’s anyone bother about that. So, the return of the Arakan’ Rohingya Muslims is going to be another cold storage staff. The secularists element in a Muslim country has a mastery of doing that -the PLO did it the Palestinian cause. The secularists forces in Bangladesh is ready to take that route. They look for international aids only to feed their greed.

Economic greed overrides morality

Now the world politics suffers from a serious moral collapse. The Rohingya Muslims are indeed the victims of such a collapse. While the economic greed works as the only guiding compass, humans turn to pure economic animals. Then, survival of the fittest and destruction of the weak become the norm. In such a beastly milieu, higher values like morality, humanity and honesty directly go to the bin. Exactly that happened in the case of Rohigya Muslims. This is why, the brutal ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims couldn’t draw any sympathy from Russia, China, India, and Japan. In 2004, huge deposit of oil and gas was discovered in Arakan’s coastal bed. Hence, the greedy eyes of the predator countries became glued to those new resources. The strategic location of Arakan is also very important. It can open door to land-locked southern part of China and the eastern provinces of India. China alone takes oil of 1.5 billion dollars per year from this oil field through Arakan-China pipe line. India is building a deep sea port to connect Mizoram and its other eastern provinces. Hence, they are not interested to see other human or moral issues. Such moral ills of the economic animals is not unknown to the Burmese ethnic cleansers; hence they could go any length to execute their crimes. Because of the same economic reason, even Saudi Arabia stays deaf and dumb. Saudi Arabia is competing with Russia to find its oil market in China. According to London’s the Independent newspaper (21.09/2017), Saudi Arabia runs a 479 mile long Burma-China pipe line across this Arakan state to Yunan provice of China. It is a joint venture of a Saudi company called Aramco and a Chinese company called Petro-China. It pumps 200, 000 barrels of oil daily from Bay of Bengal for China. It cuts the voyage time by 7 days, avoiding the Strait of Malacca. Therefore, Saudi Arabia does not want to annoy the Myanmar government by condemning its crime. It is worth mentioning that about 2 years ago, Saudi Arabia announced the formation of 37 Muslim countries’ coalition force under retired Pakistani general Raheel Sharil to protect its security against possible attack from IS or Iran. But doesn’t talk about such a force to protect the poor Rohingya Muslims.     

Hipocracy and trickery have always been the indispensable parts of the imperialist policy for the Muslims. The imperialist-led UNO promised plebiscite for deciding the fate of Kashmir-whether to go Pakistan or India or stay independent. But that didn’t happen. The the UNO and all the western and eastern powers promised the right of return to the evicted Palestinians to their ancestral homes. But that didn’t happen either. The Palestinians still still live concentration camp live ghettos in the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria. On their cleansed lands, the  Israeli government is building luxurious apartments for the Jewish immigrants from different parts of the world. Thus the Jews are being attracted to settle in Palestine. Those who decide  the  fate of world politics are paying blind eyes to such awful show of obvious crimes. The same calamitous crime is being perpetrated against the Rohingya Muslims. The  Bamar nationalist planned to consfiscate 1.2 million hectors of land of Rakhine state. The need this land to build Special Economic Zones (SPZ) for Japanese, Chinese, Indian and other multinational companies. The need land to build deep sea port for the China and another deep seaport for  India. The need huge area of empty land to build barracks for the army and the other security forces to ensure security to these economic establishments. Hence they needed to ethnically cleanse the originally settled Rohingya Muslims from the land. To show the justification of the crime, they needed to do another crime. In 1982, they deprived them of Myanmar’s nationality

Now they are telling the world that the Myanmar Army is not evicting the Foreigners who have no legality to stay in Myanmar. Thus they have manufactured the illegality for the Rohingya Muslims. Now they have been new identity as refugees. The same crime happened against the Palestinians. Birth in Palestine and thousands of years ancestral  history in Palestine couldn’t give the right of Palestinians to stay in Palestine. But those who are born in Europe or America or any other parts of the world and their tens of generations never lived in Palestine are given the right build a state on a forcefully occupied Palestine. And that state was given the legality by the UNO and many other countries . The thrives , the robbers, and the women traffickers have their own societies, too; and there they congratulate each other for  the committed crimes. They also enjoy a permissive and codified cultural milieu in their own world to celebrate the most heinous crimes. This is the sign of moral cancer. The whole world in now inflicted with a massively metastasising moral cancer. This is why the Americans could elect a thoroughly inhuman man like Donald Trump as the USA’s president and the Indians could elect an proven terrorist like  Norendra Modi as the Prime Minister. Due to the same disseminated moral cancer, the US and the Russian Bombers could turn cities and villages in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan into rubbles and could kill thousands of people there. The same moral cancer has turntable the Myanmar Army more beastly than any worst animals. The animals do not engage in killing and evicting people, but the Myanmar Army heavily enjoy doing that. And the government of China, India, Russia and Japan are fully supporting that heinous criminal acts.

Cost of cure of the disease

Now Bangladesh government is working on a singular plan on resolving the Rohingya problem. The government doesn’t have any other alternative plan. The government is using its all diplomatic channels to persuade the Myanmar government to take back the Rohingya refugees. The UNO, the USA, European Union and other world powers also support the plan.  But the question arises whether the plan is going to work. So far it didn’t work. This is why more than 400,000 Rohingya refugees from previous eviction still stay stagnant in horrific concentration camps in Bangladesh. In 1992, the Bangladesh government achieved some success with the collaboration of the UNO to persuade Myanmar government to take back them. But that didn’t help them to return back to their ancestral homestead and land, rather to open air jail called camps for displaced people. Their lands, homesteads still stayed occupied by the Army, police and other state institutions. The UNO didn’t go that far to pressurise Myanmar government to allow them to have the possession back on their own domestic premises and properties. 
Sent from my iPhone