Last February, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights published a report in which refugees told stories of gang rape, mass killings, and brutal beatings. Most of what’s known about the Rohingya crisis is being collected from interviews and information gathered at the Bangladesh border from those fleeing across it.
What is happening to them?Īttacks on the Rohingya have been systematic and widespread, reportedly at the hands of the Myanmar police and military, leading to what the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, called a " textbook example of ethnic cleansing." (The term is often used to refer to the forced removal of an ethnic or religious group by intimidation or violence.)Ī controversial report by the Myanmar government found no evidence of systematic violence against the Rohingya, but the country has refused to allow the UN or outside organizations or journalists to conduct an independent investigation. Regardless of when the Rohingya arrived in Myanmar, the military junta that controlled Myanmar until recently denied them citizenship in 1982, leaving them stateless and vulnerable. “The answer to that question is highly contested, particularly by those who want to politicize the issue,” said John Knaus, the associate director of the Asia division at the National Endowment for Democracy. Ask the Rohingya and they’ll tell you they have been in the region for over a century, and some claim to have been in the region from as early as the eighth century. The government claims they were brought to Rakhine from Bangladesh during the time when Myanmar was a British colony, and the government says they are living in Myanmar illegally.
Officially, Myanmar's government does not recognize the Rohingya as lawful citizens. The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority group from Myanmar's Rakhine state, just south of Bangladesh, who have at times numbered 1.1 million. ( Read more from National Geographic's coverage of the unfolding Rohingya crisis.) Who are the Rohingya? National Geographic spoke with three experts on Myanmar to learn more about who the Rohingya are and what's been happening to them. Although the crisis has intensified in recent months, the targeted, sometimes violent, discrimination of this minority group is anything but new. The Rohingya, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar, have been called the "world's most persecuted minority," and recent events have added dramatically to their misery.Īt least 500,000 Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh since August of this year.
Read more about the roots of the violence below. Dozens of Rohingya refugees died when a boat heading from Myanmar to Bangladesh capsized late Thursday, underscoring the immediacy of the crisis.
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