[MAP: Bangladesh bordering Arakan (Rakhine) state's capital Akiyab (Sittwe) of Myanmar (Burma)]
The Rohingya people are a Muslim people who live in the Arakan region in western Myanmar (Burma). As of 2012, 800,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar. According to the UN, they are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Many Rohingya have fled to ghettos and refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh, and to areas along the Thai-Myanmar border.
The 2012 Rakhine State riots are a series of ongoing conflicts between Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. The riots came after weeks of sectarian disputes and have been condemned by most people on both sides of the conflict. The immediate cause of the riots is unclear, with many commentators citing the killing of ten Burmese Muslims by ethnic Rakhine after the rape and murder of a Rakhine woman as the main cause. Whole villages have been "decimated". Over three hundred houses and a number of public buildings have been razed. According to Tun Khin, the President of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK, as of 28 June, 650 Rohingyas have been killed, 1,200 are missing, and more than 80,000 have been displaced. According to the Myanmar authorities, the violence, between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, left 78 people dead, 87 injured, and thousands of homes destroyed. It also displaced more than 52,000 people.
The 2012 Rakhine State riots are a series of ongoing conflicts between Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. The riots came after weeks of sectarian disputes and have been condemned by most people on both sides of the conflict. The immediate cause of the riots is unclear, with many commentators citing the killing of ten Burmese Muslims by ethnic Rakhine after the rape and murder of a Rakhine woman as the main cause. Whole villages have been "decimated". Over three hundred houses and a number of public buildings have been razed. According to Tun Khin, the President of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK, as of 28 June, 650 Rohingyas have been killed, 1,200 are missing, and more than 80,000 have been displaced. According to the Myanmar authorities, the violence, between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, left 78 people dead, 87 injured, and thousands of homes destroyed. It also displaced more than 52,000 people.
The government has responded by imposing curfews and by deploying troops in the regions. On June 10, state of emergency was declared in Rakhine, allowing military to participate in administration of the region. The Burmese army and police have been accused of targeting Rohingya Muslims through mass arrests and arbitrary violence. A number of monks' organizations that played vital role in Burma's struggle for democracy have taken measures to block any humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya community. In July 2012, the Myanmar Government did not include the Rohingya minority group–-classified as stateless Bengali Muslims from Bangladesh since 1982--on the government's list of more than 130 ethnic races and therefore the government says that they have no claim to Myanmar citizenship.
The Rohingya people have been described as “among the world’s least wanted” and “one of the world’s most persecuted minorities.” They have been stripped of their citizenship since a 1982 citizenship law. They are not allowed to travel without official permission, are banned from owning land and are required to sign a commitment to have not more than two children.
According to Amnesty International, the Muslim Rohingya people have continued to suffer from human rights violations under the Burmese junta since 1978, and many have fled to neighboring Bangladesh as a result.
Steps to repatriate Rohingya began in 2005. In 2009 Bangladesh announced it will repatriate around 9,000 Rohingya living in refugee camps in the country back to Burma, after a meeting with Burmese diplomats.
In October 16, 2011, the new government of Burma agreed to take back registered Rohingya refugees. [source: wikipedia]
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France24 news
written by AFP staff
Saturday October 27, 2012
Thousands of displaced people have surged towards already overcrowded camps in western Myanmar, according to the UN, after vicious new communal violence that has left dozens dead.
Seething resentment between Buddhist and Muslims erupted this week in a wave of fresh unrest in Rakhine state, prompting international warnings the unrest imperils the nation's nascent reform process.
The official death toll stood at 67. Roughly half the dead were women, according to a state spokesman, who was unable to provide a casualty breakdown by community.
Tens of thousands of mainly Muslim Rohingya are already crammed into squalid camps around the state capital Sittwe after deadly violence sparked in June and the United Nations on Saturday said the latest fighting had caused a further 3,200 to make their way towards the shelters.
"An additional 2,500 are reportedly on their way," said Vivian Tan, spokeswoman for the UN's refugee agency.
Rakhine government spokesman Win Myaing on Friday conceded authorities were struggling to provide relief to an estimated 3,000 Rohingya who had escaped in boats as violence engulfed their townships and had docked on an island near Sittwe.
"The displaced are still on the island," he told AFP on Saturday.
He said troops were "taking control" of potential hotspots, adding the situation was now "calm" after security forces were deployed to the affected areas where violence erupted on October 21.
More than 150 people have been killed in the state since June, according to the authorities, who have imposed emergency rule in the face of continued tension in the region.
President Thein Sein has been widely-praised for overseeing sweeping reforms in the former junta-ruled nation, including the release of hundreds of political prisoners and the election of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to parliament.
But the fighting has posed a threat to the reforms.
"The vigilante attacks, targeted threats and extremist rhetoric must be stopped," a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement released in Yangon Friday.
"If this is not done... the reform and opening-up process being currently pursued by the government is likely to be jeopardised."
A spokesman for the European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she was "deeply troubled" by the unrest in a statement on Friday and urged "all parties to bring this senseless violence to an immediate end".
Myanmar's 800,000 Rohingya are seen as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh by the government and many Burmese -- who call them "Bengalis".
The stateless Rohingya, speaking a Bengali dialect similar to one in neighbouring Bangladesh, have long been considered by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities on the planet.
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