Persecution of Muslims in Myanmar
The first Muslim documented in Burmese history (recorded in Hmannan Yazawin or Glass Palace Chronicle) was Byat Wi during the reign of Mon, a Thaton king, circa 1050 AD.
[19] In 1559 AD, after conquering Pegu (present-day Bago), Bayinnaung banned Islamic ritual slaughter, thereby prohibiting Muslims from consuming halal meals of goats and chicken.
[64] In an open letter, U Wirathu claims he treated both journalist, Hannah Beech[clarification needed] and photographer with hospitality during the interview for TIME magazine, and that he "could see deceit and recognize his sweet words for all people's sake."
[65] Michael Jerryson,[66] author of several books heavily critical of Buddhism's traditional peaceful perceptions, stated that, "The Burmese Buddhist monks may not have initiated the violence but they rode the wave and began to incite more.
While the ideals of Buddhist canonical texts promote peace and pacifism, discrepancies between reality and precepts easily flourish in times of social, political and economic insecurity, such as Myanmar's current transition to democracy.
[69][70] In 2015, hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas in Myanmar and Bangladesh fled from religious persecution and continued denial of basic rights in their home countries by means of boat travel, often through previously existing smuggling routes among the Southeast Asian waters.
[73] In late 2016, the Myanmar military forces and extremist Buddhists started a major crackdown on the Rohingya Muslims in the country's western region of Rakhine State.
The crackdown, however, was in response to attacks on police officers by Rohingya Muslims,[75] and has resulted in wide-scale human rights violations at the hands of security forces, including extrajudicial killings, gang rapes, arsons, and other brutalities.
[76][77][78] The military crackdown on Rohingya people drew criticism from various quarters including the United Nations, human rights group Amnesty International, the US Department of State, and the government of Malaysia.
[79][80][81][82][83] The de facto head of government Aung San Suu Kyi has particularly been criticized for her inaction and silence over the issue and for not doing much to prevent military abuses.
[102] Subsequently, in November 2017, the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a deal to facilitate the return of Rohingya refugees to their native Rakhine state within two months, drawing a mixed response from international onlookers.
[104] According to Amnesty International, the Rohingya Muslim people have continued to suffer from human rights violations under the Burmese junta since 1978, and many have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh as a result.
Cases of rape, torture, arbitrary detention, and violence against Rohingya are commonplace, with many incidents going unreported as enforcement officers turn a blind eye.
[113] Article 2 of the UDHR states that "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
[119] Nonetheless, many States, such as Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, expressed concern about, amongst other things, human rights violations against the Rohingya people, as there were still much more room for improvement in this area.
Nonetheless, the aftermath of the 2012 Rakhine State violence led to the formation of a Commission of Inquiry, which recommended that a central committee be set up for the implementation of stability and development.
Despite this, the Rohingya severely lack basic access to these services and in addition, international humanitarian agencies are not allowed to train Muslim health workers.
Research done by scholars in Yale Law School found empirical evidence that the Rohingya have historically suffered serious and persistent human right abuses, and these actions have increased in frequency in recent years.
[124] Since 2012, living conditions and human rights abuses have worsened with reports of beheadings, stabbings, killings, beatings, mass arrests and villages and neighbourhoods being burned to the ground, however, there remains a lack of justice and accountability by the Government of Myanmar, thus representing failure of state protection.
The mass exodus in 2015 has led to an international humanitarian crisis because of the deliberate refusal and alleged inability of host States in South-east Asia to accommodate the vast number of asylum-seekers.
A group of refugees rescued by Indonesian authorities also in February 2009 told harrowing stories of being captured and beaten by the Thai military, and then abandoned at open sea.
[130]October 2015, Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit has uncovered what amounts to strong evidence of a genocide coordinated by the Myanmar government against the Rohingya people.
The UN's top human rights official said on 11 September that the military's response was "clearly disproportionate" to insurgent attacks and warned that Myanmar's treatment of its Rohingya minority appears to be a "textbook example" of ethnic cleansing.
Aid agencies have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis in overstretched border camps, where water, food rations and medical supplies are running out of stock.
[139] Critics have accused South-east Asian governments of playing "human ping-pong" by refusing permission for these refugee boats to land and instead, pushing them back out to sea in the direction of other countries.
There has been reports that authorities in Thailand and Malaysia have connections and ties with organised human-trafficking groups[145] and as a result, majority of the Rohingya are sold in bonded labour and do not receive protection as refugees.
[150] He later issued a public apology to Aung San Suu Kyi, saying his statement "was almost a satire", and defended her from criticism by western governments and international groups,[151] such as the UN.
"[154] Rasheduzzaman, professor of international relations at Dhaka University, said the reformist administration of Myanmar is said to be democratic; however, there were no signs that its strategy on the Rohingya would see an improvement soon.
[156] On 3 February 2017, the UN human rights office alleged that the Myanmar military had long been engaged in a brutal rape and ethnic cleansing campaign against the country's Rohingya Muslims.
[163] In August 2018, the United Nations recognized Rohingya persecution as genocide and ethnic cleansing, and called for arrest and prosecution of Myanmar's top generals responsible for crimes against humanity.
