Plight of perishing Rohingya Muslims continue

The Supreme Court of India is hearing a petition challenging the Indian Government’s decision to deport the Rohingya Muslims back to Myanmar. The court will decide on whether over 40,000 Rohingyas can continue to live in India or whether they will have to return to their country of origin Myanmar from where they fled about 4-5 years back due to rise in violence targeting them and where they allegedly face death, harassment and persecution.

Activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who is representing the beleaguered community in the Supreme Court, has said that the government decision to deport Rohingyas at a time when violence is sweeping Myanmar and thousands are fleeing to escape persecution is unfortunate and discriminatory. Bhushan said that Rohingyas have been living peacefully with no criminal records, but certain death and savagery await them in Myanmar.

The Central Government has told the top court that illegal Rohingya immigrants pose a grave threat to the nation’s security. The government told the court that the Rohingyas have connections with Pakistan-based terrorist organizations and that they cannot be allowed to live in India under any circumstance. In an affidavit filed before the top court, the government said the number of illegal Rohingya immigrants has crossed 40,000 and their continued stay in the country would have serious security ramifications.

The Rohingyas have been living in India since 2012-13. In a predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, around 800,000 Rohingyas live in western Rakhine State but these people are denied many fundamental rights such as the right to buy property or study as well as access to basic public services and healthcare. Rohingyas are an ethnic Muslim community in Myanmar, but they have been stripped of citizenship rights because the Myanmar government considers them to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh who came to Rakhine under British rule. In 2012 over 140,000 Rohingyas fled Myanmar in the wake of regional conflicts and around 40,000 came to India. These Rohingya Muslims are residing in India in different locations including Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, and their condition is pitiable. But the Indian government’s move to deport them to their country has left them afraid. The army in Myanmar is currently conducting operations against the Rohingyas in the Rakhine province. In an attempt to escape the violence, thousands of people are now believed to be stranded in the mountains of northern Rakhine State. Many are injured and require urgent aid but the military has even blocked them from receiving humanitarian aid, leaving them isolated and afraid.

But the Indian government is firm on sending these people back to Myanmar despite the threats they face there. The government told the Supreme Court that these people entered India by crossing the porous India-Myanmar border with the help of agents (traffickers) and that they don’t have any documents. The affidavit pointed out that the government has received information from security agencies and other authentic sources that Rohingyas have connection with extremist groups in Pakistan and other countries. In its affidavit filed before the Supreme Court the government further said they had information that Rohingyas were involved in a plot of Daesh and other terrorist outfits to incite communal violence in India. The illegal immigration of Rohingyas into India and their continued stay in the country would have serious security implications and therefore can’t be allowed, the affidavit said. The government has told the Supreme Court that the right to live in any part of the country and move freely throughout the country is granted only to the citizens, and illegal immigrants cannot claim these rights. India’s Minister of Home Affairs Rajnath Singh has said the government has made its stance clear on the issue of Rohingyas but it would wait for the decision of the apex court on this issue.

Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi has broken her silence on the Rohingya crisis. She said she knows the eyes of the world are on the violence continuing in the Rakhine province and that the Rohingya Muslims are fleeing from the area. Suu Kyi clarified she was not affected by the pressure of the global community and said that international investigators could come to Myanmar if they wished. She said she was committed to finding a permanent solution to the problem so that the conditions could return to normal. She regretted that many innocent people were forced to leave their homes in the wake of violence in Rakhine.

The current spate of violence is the outcome of attack on a police post on August 25. The government was forced to declare the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) a terrorist organization, she said. The Burmese government suspects ARSA is linked to and is subsidized by foreign Islamists, although there is no concrete evidence to prove this. Suu Kyi said we don’t want Myanmar to be divided on the lines of religion and we are ready to initiate refugee verification process for those who wish to return. We have to see why people are fleeing. She said the army has been told to cause minimum harm to the common people during its operation in the Rakhine province.

Meanwhile while China and India have supported the action being taken by the Myanmar Government against Rohingyas, the United States has appealed to the Myanmar to stop the military action. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has said Myanmar must promise to provide humanitarian aid to the Rohingyas and ensure their safety on their return to Myanmar. Rohingyas still face threats of attack or getting killed, and humanitarian aid is not reaching the needy, while innocent people are still fleeing to Bangladesh, Haley said. The World Bank (WB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) have also expressed concern at the ongoing military action and violence against Rohingyas. The World Bank has said that humanitarian aid should be provided to the effected people immediately. The Amnesty International has said that the army is setting fire to villages and shooting people trying to escape.

They said new satellite evidence shows that now more than 80 villages in the Rakhine State of Myanmar have been set ablaze. This is a targeted attempt to harm already vulnerable Rohingya families. Family homes, neighborhoods and entire villages have been burnt to the ground. And as terrified families flee for their lives, many have been killed because the Myanmar military are shooting people as they try to escape. The Amnesty claims their crisis team used active fire-detection data, satellite imagery, photographs and videos from the ground in order to expose the level of devastation. Every day thousands of families have been forced to cross the border in search of safety in Bangladesh. But people are still trapped in Myanmar, unable to escape the violence.

They’re traumatized and exhausted with nowhere to go. Many people, including children, are injured. But the military continues to restrict access to humanitarian organizations, including medical aid and food, in northern Rakhine State, the Amnesty said.