Early history The Rohingya population is concentrated in the historical region of
Arakan, an old coastal state in borders of South and Southeast Asia. By the 4th century, Arakan became one of the earliest
Indianized kingdoms in Southeast Asia. The first Arakanese state flourished in
Dhanyawadi. Power then shifted to the city of
Waithali.
Sanskrit inscriptions in the region indicate that the founders of the first Arakanese states were Indian. Arakan was ruled by the
Chandra dynasty. The British historian
Daniel George Edward Hall stated that "The Burmese do not seem to have settled in Arakan until possibly as late as the tenth century CE. Hence earlier dynasties are thought to have been Indian, ruling over a population similar to that of Bengal. All the capitals known to history have been in the north near modern
Akyab". A southern branch of the
Silk Road connected India, Burma, and China since the
Neolithic period. Arab traders are recorded in the coastal areas of southeast Bengal, bordering Arakan, since the 9th century. The Rohingya population trace their history to this period. According to Syed Islam, the earliest Muslim settlements in the Arakan region began in the 7th century. The Arab traders were also missionaries and they began converting the local Buddhist population to Islam by about 788 CE, states Syed Islam. Besides these locals converting to Islam, Arab merchants married local women and later settled in Arakan. As a result of intermarriage and conversion, the Muslim population in Arakan grew. Muslim community's expansion and the growth of Islam into the region came much later with Bengali Muslims from the region that is now a part of Bangladesh. Further, the term "Rohingya" does not appear in any regional text of this period and much later. That term was adopted by "a few Bengali Muslim intellectuals who were direct descendants of immigrants from Chittagong district [Bengal]" in the 20th-century, states historian Aye Chan. features a court which "measures from north to south and from east to west; the shrine is a rectangular structure measuring ." Even after independence from the Sultans of Bengal, the Arakanese kings continued the custom of maintaining Muslim titles. The Buddhist kings compared themselves to
Sultans and fashioned themselves after
Mughal rulers. They also continued to employ Muslims in prestigious positions within the royal administration. Some of them worked as
Bengali,
Persian and
Arabic scribes in the Arakanese courts, which, despite remaining Buddhist, adopted Islamic fashions from the neighbouring Bengal Sultanate. The population increased in the 17th century, as slaves were brought in by Arakanese raiders and
Portuguese settlers following raids into Bengal. In 1660,
Prince Shah Shuja, the governor of
Mughal Bengal and a claimant of the
Peacock Throne, fled to Arakan with his family after being defeated by his brother
Emperor Aurangzeb during the
Battle of Khajwa. Shuja and his entourage arrived in Arakan on 26 August 1660. The Arakanese continued their raids of Mughal Bengal.
Dhaka was raided in 1625. Emperor Aurangzeb gave orders to his governor in Mughal Bengal,
Shaista Khan, to end what the Mughals saw as Arakanese-Portuguese
piracy. In 1666, Shaista Khan led a army and 288 warships to seize
Chittagong from the Kingdom of Mrauk U. The Mughal expedition continued up till the
Kaladan River. The Mughals placed the northern part of Arakan under its administration and vassalage.
Burmese conquest Following the
Konbaung Dynasty's conquest of Arakan in 1785, as many as 35,000 people of the Rakhine State fled to the neighbouring
Chittagong region of British Bengal in 1799 to escape persecution by the
Bamar and to seek protection under the
British Raj. The Bamar executed thousands of men and deported a considerable portion of the population to central Burma, leaving Arakan a scarcely populated area by the time the British occupied it.
British colonial rule during British rule British policy encouraged Bengali inhabitants from adjacent regions to migrate into the then lightly populated and fertile valleys of Arakan as farm labourers. The
East India Company extended the
Bengal Presidency to Arakan. There was no international boundary between Bengal and Arakan and no restrictions on migration between the regions. In the early 19th century, thousands of Bengalis from the Chittagong region settled in Arakan seeking work. It is hard to know whether these new Bengal migrants were the same population that was deported by force to Bengal's Chittagong during the Burmese conquest in the 18th century and later returned to Arakan as a result of British policy or if they were a new migrant population with no ancestral roots to Arakan. The British census of 1872 reported 58,255 Muslims in Akyab District. By 1911, the Muslim population had increased to 178,647. The waves of migration were primarily due to the requirement of cheap labour from British India to work in the paddy fields. Immigrants from Bengal, mainly from the Chittagong region, "moved en masse into western townships of Arakan". Albeit Indian immigration to Burma was a nationwide phenomenon, not just restricted to Arakan. For these reasons historians believed that most Rohingyas arrived with the British colonialists in the 19th and 20th centuries with some tracing their ancestry much further. According to
Thant Myint-U, historian and adviser to President
Thein Sein, "At the beginning of the 20th century, Indians were arriving in Burma at the rate of no less than a quarter million per year. The numbers rose steadily until the peak year of 1927, immigration reached 480,000 people, with Rangoon exceeding New York City as the greatest immigration port in the world. This was out of a total population of only 13 million; it was equivalent to the United Kingdom today taking 2 million people a year." By then, in most of the largest cities in Burma,
Rangoon,
Akyab,
Bassein and
Moulmein, the Indian immigrants formed a majority of the population. All of Burma was officially a
Province within the
British Indian Empire ('the Raj') from November 1885 until 1937, when Burma became a separate
Crown colony within the
British Empire. The Burmese under British rule felt helpless, and reacted with a "racism that combined feelings of superiority and fear". Most have argued that Rohingya existed from the four waves of Muslim migrations from the ancient times to medieval, to the British colony. Gutman (1976) and Ibrahim (2016) claiming that the Muslim population dates before the arrival of ethnic Rakhine in the 9th to 10th century. Suggesting the Rohingya are descendants of a pre-Arakan population who existed for 3 thousand years and waves of Muslim who intermingled forming modern Rohingya. The impact of this immigration was particularly acute in Arakan. Although it boosted the colonial economy, local Arakanese bitterly resented it. According to historian Clive J. Christie, "The issue became a focus for grass-roots Burmese nationalism, and in the years 1930–31 there were serious anti-Indian disturbances in Lower Burma, while 1938 saw riots specifically directed against the Indian Muslim community. As Burmese nationalism increasingly asserted itself before the Second World War, the 'alien' Indian presence inevitably came under attack, along with the religion that the Indian Muslims imported. The Muslims of northern Arakan were to be caught in the crossfire of this conflict." In the 1931 census, the Muslim population of Burma was 584,839, 4% of the total population of 14,647,470 at the time. 396,504 were Indian Muslims and 1,474 Chinese Muslims, while 186,861 were Burmese Muslims. The census found a growth in the number of Indian Muslims born in Burma, primarily due to their permanent settlement in Akyab. 41% of Muslims of Burma lived in Arakan at that time.
Shipping ship in Akyab Harbour Due to the difficult terrain of the
Arakan Mountains, the Arakan region was historically most accessible by sea. In British Arakan Division, the port of
Akyab had ferry services and a thriving trade with the ports of
Chittagong,
Narayanganj, Dacca and Calcutta in
British India; as well as with
Rangoon. Akyab was one of the leading rice ports in the world, hosting ship fleets from Europe and China. Many Indians settled in Akyab and dominated its seaport and hinterland. The 1931 census found 500,000 Indians living in Akyab.
Legislators Several Rohingyas were elected to Burmese native seats in the
Legislative Council of Burma and
Legislature of Burma. During the
1936 Burmese general election, Advocate U Pho Khaine was elected from
Akyab West and
Gani Markan was elected from
Maungdaw-
Buthidaung. In 1939, U Tanvy Markan was elected from Maungdaw-Buthidaung. Their elections in the Burmese native category set them apart from immigrant Indian legislators.
World War II s During World War II, the
Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) invaded
British-controlled Burma. The British forces retreated and in the power vacuum left behind, considerable inter-communal violence erupted between Arakanese and Muslim villagers. The British armed Muslims in northern Arakan in order to create a buffer zone that would protect the region from a Japanese invasion when they retreated and to counteract the largely pro-Japanese
ethnic Rakhines. Moshe Yegar, a
research fellow at Truman Institute,
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, noted that hostility had developed between the Muslims and the Buddhists who had brought about a similar hostility in other parts of Burma. This tension was let loose with the retreat of the British. With the approach of the Japanese into Arakan, the Buddhists instigated cruel measures against the Muslims. Thousands, though the exact number is unknown, fled from Buddhist-majority regions to eastern Bengal and northern Arakan with many being killed or dying of starvation. The Muslims in response conducted retaliatory raids from British-controlled areas, causing Buddhists to flee to southern Arakan. Aye Chan, a historian at
Kanda University in Japan, has written that as a consequence of acquiring arms from the British during World War II, Rohingyas tried to destroy the Arakanese villages instead of resisting the Japanese. Chan agrees that hundreds of Muslims fled to northern Arakan, though states that the accounts of atrocities on them were exaggerated. In March 1942, Rohingyas from northern Arakan killed around 20,000 Arakanese. In return, around 5,000 Muslims in the
Minbya and
Mrauk-U Townships were killed by Rakhines and
Red Karens. As in the rest of Burma, the IJA committed acts of rape, murder and torture against Muslims in Arakan. During this period, some 22,000 Muslims in Arakan were believed to have crossed the border into
Bengal, then part of British India, to escape the violence. The exodus was not restricted to Muslims in Arakan. Thousands of Burmese Indians, Anglo-Burmese and British who settled during the colonial period emigrated
en masse to India. To facilitate their reentry into Burma, the British formed Volunteer Forces with Rohingya. Over the three years during which the Allies and Japanese fought over the Mayu peninsula, the Rohingya recruits of the V-Force, engaged in a campaign against Arakanese communities, using weapons provided by V-Force. According to the secretary of the
British governor, the
V Force, instead of fighting the Japanese, destroyed Buddhist monasteries, pagodas, and houses, and committed atrocities in northern Arakan. The
British Army's
liaison officer, Anthony Irwin, on the other hand, praised the role of the V Force.
Pakistan Movement During the
Pakistan Movement in the 1940s, Rohingya Muslims in western Burma organised a separatist movement to merge the region into
East Pakistan. The commitments of the British regarding the status of Muslims after the
war are not clear. V Force officers like Andrew Irwin felt that Muslims along with other minorities must be rewarded for their loyalty. Muslim leaders believed that the British had promised them a "Muslim National Area" in Maungdaw region. They were also apprehensive of a future Buddhist-dominated government. In 1946, calls were made for annexation of the territory by Pakistan as well as of an independent state. The authors further argue that the term
Rohingya, in the form of
Rwangya, first appeared to distinguish settled population from newcomers: "The newcomers were called Mujahids (crusaders), in contrast to the Rwangya or settled Chittagonian population." In 1962 military dictator General Ne Win, took over the government and started implementing a Nationalist agenda, which had its roots in racial discrimination. In 1978 military government launched operation Nagamin to separate nationals from non-nationals. This was the first concerted large scale violent attack on Rohingya. National Registration Cards (NRC) were taken away by state actors never to be replaced. Violence that followed forced 200,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh. Bangladesh denied Rohingya admission into her territory and blocked food rations leading to death of 12,000 of them. After bilateral negotiations Rohingya were repatriated. As of 2017, Burma does not have a single Rohingya MP and the Rohingya population have no
voting rights.
Mayu Frontier District A separate administrative zone for the Rohingya-majority northern areas of Arakan existed between 1961 and 1964. Known as the
Mayu Frontier District, the zone was set up by Prime Minister U Nu after the 1960 Burmese general election, on the advice of his health minister Sultan Mahmud. The zone was administered directly from
Rangoon by the national government. After the Burmese military coup in 1962, the zone was administered by the Burmese army. It was transferred to the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1964 by the
Union Revolutionary Council. The socialist military government inducted the zone into Arakan State in 1974.
Expulsion of Burmese Indians Racism towards people with links to the Indian subcontinent increased after the 1962 Burmese coup. The
socialist military government nationalised all property, including many enterprises of the white collar Burmese Indian community. Between 1962 and 1964, 320,000 Burmese Indians were forced to leave the country.
Refugee crisis of 1978 As a result of
Operation King Dragon by the Burmese junta, the first wave of Rohingya refugees entered Bangladesh in 1978. An estimated 200,000 Rohingyas took shelter in Cox's Bazar. Diplomatic initiatives over 16 months resulted in a repatriation agreement, which allowed the return of most refugees under a process facilitated by
UNHCR. The return of refugees to Burma has been the second largest repatriation process in Asia after the return of Cambodian refugees from Thailand. General Ne Win drafted the Citizenship Act in 1982, which denied citizenship rights to any community/group that was not listed in a survey conducted by British in 1823. All other ethnic groups were considered aliens to the land or invaders. Eight major ethnicities Arakan, Chin, Kachin, Karen, Kayah, Mon, Shan, and Burmese were broken into 135 small ethnic groups. Groups like Rohingya who do not belong to any of these 135 ethnicities were denied citizenship rights. Scholars like Maung Zarni have argued that Burmese military 'encoded its anti-Indian and anti-Muslim racism in its laws and policies'. He further argues; "The 1982 Citizenship Act serves as the state's legal and ideological foundation on which all forms of violence, execution, restrictions, and human rights crimes are justified and committed with state impunity if carried out horizontally by the local ultra-nationalist Rakhine Buddhists. In light of the on-the-ground link between the legalised removal of citizenship from the Rohingya and the implementation of a permanent set of draconian laws and policies—as opposed to periodic "anti-immigration" operations—amount to the infliction on the Rohingya of conditions of life designed to bring about serious bodily and mental harm and to destroy the group in whole or in part. As such, the illegalisation of the Rohingya in Myanmar is an indication of the intent of the State to both remove the Rohingya permanently from their homeland and to destroy the Rohingya as a group." After diplomatic negotiations, a repatriation agreement was put in place to allow the return of refugees to Burma under a
UNHCR-supervised process.
Name change from Arakan to Rakhine State In 1989, the military junta officially changed the name of Burma to
Myanmar and in the 1990s changed the name of the province of Arakan to
Rakhine State, which has been claimed by scholars to show a bias towards the
Rakhine community (despite the Rohingya forming a large part of the population) as the name of the region was historically known as
Arakan for centuries.
Denial of the "Rohingya" term The colloquial term
Rohingya can be traced back to the pre-colonial period. The Rohingya community have also been known as Arakanese Indians and Arakanese Muslims. Since the 1982
citizenship law, Burmese juntas and governments have strongly objected to the usage of the term of Rohingya, preferring to label the community as "bengali illegal immigrants". The derogatory slur
kalar is widely used in Myanmar against the Rohingya. Myanmar's government has often pressured diplomats and foreign delegates against uttering the term
Rohingya. The aim of the Mujahid party was to create an autonomous
Islamic state in Arakan. By the 1950s, they began to use the term "Rohingya" which may be a continuation of the term Rooinga to establish a distinct identity and identify themselves as indigenous. They were much more active before the
1962 Burmese coup d'état by
General Ne Win, a Burmese general who began his military career fighting for the Japanese in World War II. Ne Win carried out military operations against them over a period of two decades. The prominent one was
Operation King Dragon, which took place in 1978; as a result, many Muslims in the region fled to neighbouring Bangladesh as refugees. In addition to Bangladesh, a large number of Rohingyas also migrated to
Karachi, Pakistan. Rohingya
mujahideen are still active within the remote areas of Arakan. From 1971 to 1978, a number of Rakhine monks and Buddhists staged hunger strikes in Sittwe to force the government to tackle immigration issues which they believed to be causing a demographic shift in the region. Ne Win's government requested UN to repatriate the war refugees and launched military operations which drove off around 200,000 people to Bangladesh. In 1978, the Bangladesh government protested against the Burmese government concerning "the expulsion by force of thousands of Burmese Muslim citizens to Bangladesh". The Burmese government responded that those expelled were Bangladesh citizens who had resided illegally in Burma. In July 1978, after intensive negotiations mediated by UN, Ne Win's government agreed to take back 200,000 refugees who settled in Arakan. In the same year as well as in 1992, a joint statement by governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh "acknowledged that the Rohingya were lawful Burmese residents". In 1982, the Burmese government enacted the citizenship law and declared the "Bengalis" are foreigners. There are widespread beliefs among Rakhine people that significant number of immigrants arrived even after the 1980s when the border was relatively unguarded. However, there is no documentation proof for these claims as the last census was conducted in 1983. Successive Burmese governments have fortified the border and built up border guard forces.
After 1988 Burmese pro-democracy uprising Since the 1990s, a new 'Rohingya' movement which is distinct from the 1950s armed rebellion has emerged. The new movement is characterised by lobbying internationally by overseas diaspora, establishing indigenous claims by Rohingya scholars, publicising the term "Rohingya" and denying Bengali origins by Rohingya politicians. The movement has garnered sharp criticisms from ethnic Rakhines and Kamans, the latter of whom are a recognised Muslim ethnic group in Rakhine. Kaman leaders support citizenship for Muslims in northern Rakhine but believe that the new movement is aimed at achieving a self-administered area or Rohang State as a separate
Islamic state carved out of Rakhine, and condemn the movement. Rakhines' views are more critical. Citing Bangladesh's overpopulation and density, Rakhines perceive the Rohingyas as "the vanguard of an unstoppable wave of people that will inevitably engulf Rakhine". However, for moderate Rohingyas, the aim may have been no more than to gain citizenship status. Moderate Rohingya politicians agree to compromise on the term Rohingya if citizenship is provided under an alternative identity that is neither "Bengali" nor "Rohingya". Various alternatives including "Rakhine Muslims", "Myanmar Muslims" or simply "Myanmar" have been proposed. Successive Burmese governments have been accused of provoking riots led by Buddhist monks against ethnic minorities like the Rohingyas In the 1990s, more than 250,000 Rohingya fled to refugee camps in Bangladesh. In the early 2000s, all but 20,000 of them were repatriated to Myanmar, some against their will. In 2009, a senior Burmese envoy to Hong Kong branded the Rohingyas "ugly as ogres" and a people that are alien to Myanmar. Under the
2008 constitution, the
Myanmar military still control much of the country's government, including the ministries of home, defence and border affairs, 25% of seats in parliament and one vice-president.
Rakhine State conflicts and refugees (2012–present) 2012 Rakhine State riots The
2012 Rakhine State riots were a series of conflicts between Rohingya Muslims who form the majority in the northern Rakhine and ethnic Rakhines who form the majority in the south. Before the riots, there were widespread fears among the Buddhist Rakhines that they would soon become a minority in their ancestral state. The riots occurred after weeks of sectarian disputes, including a gang rape and murder of a Rakhine woman by Rohingyas and killing of ten Burmese Muslims by Rakhines. There is evidence that the pogroms in 2012 were incited by the government asking the Rakhine men to defend their "race and religion". According to the Burmese authorities, the violence between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims left 78 people dead, 87 injured, and up to 140,000 people displaced. The government has responded by imposing curfews and deploying troops in the region. On 10 June 2012, a
state of emergency was declared in Rakhine, allowing the military to participate in the administration of the region. Rohingya NGOs abroad have accused the Burmese army and police of targeting Rohingya Muslims through arrests and participating in violence. A field observation conducted by the International Crisis Group concluded that both communities were grateful for the protection provided by the military. A number of monks' organisations have taken measures to boycott NGOs which they believe helped only Rohingyas in the past decades even though Rakhines were equally poor. About 140,000 Rohingya in Myanmar remain confined in IDP camps. The
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates about 25,000 people have been taken to boats from January to March in 2015. There are claims that around 100 people died in Indonesia, 200 in Malaysia, and 10 in Thailand during the journey. An estimated 3,000 refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh have been rescued or swum to shore and several thousand more are believed to remain trapped on boats at sea with little food or water. A Malaysian newspaper claimed crisis has been sparked by smugglers. However, the
Economist in an article in June 2015 wrote the only reason why the Rohingyas were willing to pay to be taken out of Burma in squalid, overcrowded, fetid boats as "it is the terrible conditions at home in Rakhine that force the Rohingyas out to sea in the first place." According to government officials in the mainly Rohingya border town of
Maungdaw, the attackers brandished knives, machetes and homemade slingshots that fired metal bolts. Several dozen firearms and boxes of ammunition were looted by the attackers from the border posts. The attack resulted in the deaths of nine border officers. On 11 October 2016, four soldiers were killed on the third day of fighting. Following the attacks, reports emerged of several human rights violations allegedly perpetrated by Burmese security forces in their crackdown on suspected Rohingya insurgents. Shortly after, the
Myanmar military forces and extremist Buddhists started a major crackdown on the Rohingya Muslims in the country's western region of
Rakhine State in response to attacks on border police camps by unidentified insurgents. The crackdown resulted in wide-scale human rights violations at the hands of security forces, including
extrajudicial killings,
gang rapes, arsons, and other brutalities. The military crackdown on Rohingyas drew criticism from various quarters including the United Nations, human rights group
Amnesty International, the
US Department of State, and the government of Malaysia. The de facto head of government
Aung San Suu Kyi has particularly been criticised for her inaction and silence over the issue and for doing little to prevent military abuses. Government officials in Rakhine State originally blamed the
Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO), an Islamist insurgent group mainly active in the 1980s and 1990s, for the attacks; however, on 17 October 2016, a group calling itself the
Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) claimed responsibility. In the following days, six other groups released statements, all citing the same leader. The Myanmar Army announced on 15 November 2016 that 69 Rohingya insurgents and 17 security forces (10 policemen, 7 soldiers) had been killed in recent clashes in northern Rakhine State, bringing the death toll to 134 (102 insurgents and 32 security forces). It was also announced that 234 people suspected of being connected to the attack were arrested. A police document obtained by
Reuters in March 2017 listed 423 Rohingyas detained by the police since 9 October 2016, 13 of whom were children, the youngest being ten years old. Two police captains in Maungdaw verified the document and justified the arrests, with one of them saying, "We, the police, have to arrest those who collaborated with the attackers, children or not, but the court will decide if they are guilty; we are not the ones who decide." Myanmar police also claimed that the children had confessed to their alleged crimes during interrogations, and that they were not beaten or pressured during questioning. The average age of those detained is 34, the youngest is 10, and the oldest is 75. The
Myanmar Armed Forces (Tatmadaw) stated on 1 September 2017 that the death toll had risen to 370 insurgents, 13 security personnel, 2 government officials and 14 civilians. The United Nations believes over 1,000 people have been killed since October 2016, which contradicts the death toll provided by the Myanmar government.
Autumn 2017 crisis Starting in early August 2017, the Myanmar security forces began "clearance operations" against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine state. Following an attack by Rohingya militants of
Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) against several security forces' outposts, 25 August, the operations escalated radically—killing thousands of Rohingya, brutalising thousands more, and driving hundreds of thousands out of the country into neighbouring Bangladesh while their villages burned—with the Myanmar military claiming that their actions were solely attacks on rebels in response to the ARSA attack. However, subsequent reports from various international organisations have indicated that the military operations were widespread indiscriminate attacks on the Rohingya population, already underway before the ARSA attacks, to purge northern Rakhine state of Rohingya, through "
ethnic cleansing" and/or "
genocide". In August 2018, study estimated that more than 24,000+ Rohingya people were killed by the Myanmar military and the local Buddhists since the "clearance operations" started on 25 August 2017. The study
Precipitating events According to
BBC reporters, during the summer of 2017, the Myanmar military began arming and training Rakhine Buddhist natives in northern Rakhine state, and in late summer advised that any ethnic Rakhines "wishing to protect their state" would be given the opportunity to join "the local armed police". Matthew Smith, chief executive of human rights organisation
Fortify Rights, said that arming the Rakhines "was a decision made to effectively perpetrate atrocity crimes against the civilian population". At the same time, northern Rakhine state faced food shortages, and, starting in mid-August, the government cut off all food supply to the area. On 10 August, the military flew in a battalion of reinforcements to the area, triggering a public warning from the resident United Nations human rights representative to Myanmar, who urged Myanmar authorities to restrain themselves. The following morning, according to Myanmar military officials, a Rohingya rebel group (ARSA, or Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army) led multiple coordinated attacks on 30 police outposts and border guards, killing a dozen government forces, at the cost of over 50 dead among the rebels.
Conflict escalation in Bangladesh, October 2017 Almost immediately the Myanmar military—apparently teaming with local authorities with mobs of Rakhine Buddhist civilians—launched massive reprisals that it described as its anti-terrorist "clearance operations" (which, UN investigators and BBC reporters later determined, had actually begun earlier Refugees reported numerous civilians—including women and children—being indiscriminately beaten, raped, tortured, shot, hacked to death or burned alive. and whole villages being burnt down by authorities and Buddhist mobs. Human Rights Watch released satellite photos showing the villages burning, but the Myanmar government insisted the fires were lit by Rohingya, themselves, or specifically Rohingya militants—though the authorities offered no proof of the allegation, and refused or tightly controlled all media and foreign access to the area. The violence and humanitarian 'catastrophe,' inflamed international tensions, especially in the region, and throughout the Muslim world. The
UNHCR, on 4 September, estimated 123,000 refugees have escaped western Myanmar since 25 August 2017. (By 15 September, that number had surpassed 400,000 criticised the media's reporting on the crisis, saying that her government is protecting everyone in Rakhine state, and argued that the reporting was
misinformation that benefitted the aims of terrorists. Some reports suggest that the Myanmar military has ceded some border outposts to rebels armed with wooden clubs as part of encouraging Rohingyas to leave the country. The
U.N. Secretary General issued a statement, 13 September 2017, implying that the situation facing the Rohingya in Rakhine state was "
ethnic cleansing". He urged Myanmar authorities to suspend military action and stop the violence—insisting that Myanmar's government uphold the rule of law, and (noting that "380,000" Rohingya had recently fled to Bangladesh) recognise the refugees' right to return to their homes. By the end of September, conflicts between Rohingya Muslims and outnumbered Hindus, became apparent—including the
killing of around 100 Hindu villagers in Rakhine state, around late August—according to the Myanmar military who claimed to have found the bodies of 20 women and eight boys in mass graves, 24 September, after a search near Ye Baw Kya village, in northern Rakhine state. The search was reportedly in response to a refugee in Bangladesh who contacted a local Hindu leader in Myanmar. Authorities quoted the refugee as saying about 300 ARSA militants, on 25 August, marched about 100 people out of the Hindu village and killed them. ARSA denied involvement, saying it was committed to not killing civilians. International news media were not immediately allowed free access to the area to verify the reports. In other cases, in Myanmar and in Bangladeshi refugee camps Hindu (particularly women) are reported to have faced kidnapping, religious abuse and "forced conversions" by Muslim Rohingyas. By the end of September 2017, UN, Bangladesh and other entities were reporting that—in addition to 200,000–300,000 Rohingya refugees already in Bangladesh after fleeing prior attacks in Myanmar—the current conflict, since late August 2017, had driven 500,000 more Rohingya from Myanmar into Bangladesh, creating what UN Secretary General
António Guterres described as "the world's fastest-developing refugee emergency ... a humanitarian nightmare". In November 2017 Myanmar and Bangladesh signed a memorandum of understanding for the return home of Rohingya refugees. In April 2018 the first group of Rohingya refugees returned to Myanmar from Bangladesh.
Relocation to Bhasan Char island In January 2016, the government of Bangladesh initiated a plan to relocate tens of thousands of forcibly displaced Rohingyas, who had fled to the country following persecution in Myanmar. The refugees are to be relocated to the island of
Bhasan Char. The move has received substantial opposition. Human rights groups have seen the plan as a forced relocation. On 9 July 2020,
HRW urged Bangladeshi authorities to immediately move over 300 Rohingya refugees, including children, from the silt island of Bhasan Char to the Cox's Bazar refugee camps to let them reside with their families. Families in Cox's Bazar told
HRW that relatives on Bhasan Char are being held without freedom of movement or adequate access to food or medical care, and face severe shortages of safe drinking water.
Since the 2021 coup d'état , a Deputy Minister of Human Rights for the
National Unity Government of Myanmar speaks with
VOA about Rohingya conscription on 8 March 2024. Following the
2021 Myanmar coup d'état, a growing number of Burmese have voiced support for the Rohingya people. The underground
National Unity Government, formed as an opposition to the authoritarian
State Administration Council, issued recognition of the war crimes committed by the Tatmadaw against the Rohingya people for the first time, which was hailed as a major step toward ethnic reconciliation. In 2022, the Tatmadaw partially lifted a 2012 ban on Rohingya studying in tertiary educational institutions by allowing them to study at Sittwe University. However, they are not allowed to live in dormitories, apply for master's degrees, travel freely, or attend institutions such as computer colleges. Government officials and educational faculties continually discriminate against them. Travel restrictions first imposed in January 2024 in response to
Arakan Army attacks largely prevent Rohingya students from commuting to such institutions. These factors led numerous students to either seek opportunities abroad or drop out entirely. Since 10 February 2024, the Tatmadaw reportedly conscripted young Rohingya men between the ages of 18 and 35, despite the law only applying to citizens. Including 100 men from four villages in
Buthidaung Township, they undergo 14 days of basic training while the junta promises them ID cards, a bag of rice, and a monthly salary of US$41. Those who refuse service are fined half a million kyats. For Rohingya who dodge the draft, many of them endeavour to fight for the Arakan Army rather than ARSA or the RSO. Due to overcrowding and security concerns in the refugee camps,
Border Guard Bangladesh and the
BCG actively block Rohingya attempting to flee across the border via the
Naf River since early 2024. The Prime Minister of Bangladesh,
Sheikh Hasina, declared that 35,000 Rohingya were transferred to Bhasan Char to "keep Rohingya youth away from criminal activities". She also emphasised the difficulty of repatriating Rohingya back to Myanmar due to the
civil war, and preventing foreign armed groups from using Bangladesh as a guerrilla sanctuary. Since February 2024, the Arakan Army began offering a safe haven for Rohingya living in Rakhine State to avoid conscription by the Tatmadaw. While they denied regime claims that they were targeting them for recruitment, the AA encouraged anyone to volunteer if they wished, regardless of ethnicity or religion. According to Free Rohingya Coalition co-founder,
Nay San Lwin, the Tatmadaw compelled Rohingya in Buthidaung Township to demonstrate against AA to stir up communal tension. On 26 March 2024, Arakan Army leader,
Twan Mrat Naing, posted two
tweets where he posited that calling Rohingya people living in Myanmar "Bengali" is not malicious in itself. He further points out that
Rakhine people live in Bangladesh as citizens. He concludes his sentiments by calling on the international community to move past the naming issue and encourage reconciliation. According to Rohingya who escaped conscription, Tatmadaw commanders quote the Qur'an to instill religious conflict against the Arakan Army. Since 2024, the United League of Arakan and the Arakan Army is continually attempting reconciliation with the Rohingya in its administered areas. This includes allowing freedom of movement in central Rakhine and
Paletwa. However, considering the past actions of AA towards the Rohingya, and accusations of atrocities, the community remains split in regards to the ULA's efforts.
Genocide In 2015, an assessment by the
Yale Law School concluded that the government of Myanmar was waging a concerted campaign against the Rohingya, a campaign which could be classified as
genocide under
international law. An investigation by the media channel
Al Jazeera English, along with the group Fortify Rights, found that the Myanmar military was systematically targeting the Rohingya population because of its
ethnicity and religion. The
United Nations High Commission for Refugees has used the term
ethnic cleansing to describe the exodus of Rohingya from Myanmar. In December 2017, the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, dismissed the Myanmar government's claims that its operations were merely a response to rebel attacks, and it also indicated that "for us, it was clear... that these operations were organised and planned", and could amount to "genocide". On 24 August 2018, the day before the anniversary of the eruption of extreme violence that came to be known as the "Rohingya Crisis", the office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report (which was not made public until 27 August) which summarised its findings after an investigation was completed into the events of August–September 2017. It declared that the events constituted cause for the Myanmar government—particularly the Myanmar military (the "Tatmadaw") and its commanding officers—to be brought before the
International Criminal Court and charged with crimes against humanity, including ethnic cleansing and genocide. In July 2022, a report from
Reuters revealed an extensive plan by the Tatmadaw to eradicate the Rohingyas. ==Demographics==