BY DR. HABIB SIDDIQUI

Burma is a country that has people of many races, ethnicities and religions. Because of lack of reliable census data the exact number of these various communities is not known. There is no question though that the Buddhist population makes up the vast majority in the country, followed by Muslims, Christians, Hindus and animists. According to non-official estimates by various agencies (including those of the US State Department), the Muslim population in Burma is somewhere between 10 to 20%, including the much-discriminated and suffering Rohingya population of Arakan (Rakhaing) state, whose nearly half the population is now living in Diaspora as refugees in many parts of our world as a result of Burma's inhuman, discriminatory Citizenship Law of 1982.

Dr. Habib Siddiqui
An often-practised devious way to grab someone's land is to deny his right to that property. Nothing could be more horrific when a government itself gets into such a criminal practice. The most glaring example of such a crime can be seen in the practices of the regimes that have ruled Burma (now Myanmar) since its independence from Britain in 1948 (especially, since 1962 when Gen. Ne Win came to power). In our times, one can hardly find a regime that has been so atrocious, so inhuman and so barbarous in its denial of basic human rights to a people that trace their origin to the land for nearly a millennium. The victims are the Rohingya Muslims living in the Arakan (now Rakhine) state. They have become the forgotten people of our time.

Dr. Habib Siddiqui

[Author’s note: This paper is based on author’s speech at the PENN HUMAN RIGHTS FORUM on “The Rohingyas of Burma and Bangladesh” on Friday, March 31, 2006 in the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. The material in this paper came from author’s personal contacts with the Rohingya Diaspora community and information that is available in the reports of various human rights groups, notably the Amnesty International, the Human Rights Watch and the Karen Human Rights Group.]  

Part 1: Nightmare, fiction or a living reality?

Imagine this. You are living in a country that does not recognize you as a citizen in spite of the fact that your forefathers lived there for centuries. If that were not enough of a traumatic experience, consider that other ethnic groups who are fighting the regime for self-determination and human rights consider you as outsiders. It must be your worst kind of nightmare when you realize that half of your people have been forced to take asylum or refuge outside, and you may be the next in line to seek a way out of this living hell.

I am somewhat disappointed reading some accusatory notes in which they seemed to accept the alleged rape story of Buddhist girls/women by Muslims for a fact.

Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Let me say that the SPDC military regime did not come in the vacuum of history. It has learned the art of “divide and rule,” a policy that was patented in the history rather well. The SPDC has succeeded in gaining and holding power over Burma through a combination of skills, not the least of which include that “divide and rule” policy.

For some people puzzled with the merchant history of Rohingers in the coastal Arakan “Wonder how many of these merchants landed in Arakan State of Burma to become a significant and distinct race of 1.2 millions speaking a Chittagonian language.”  

Dear Bo Aung Din,
There is no denying that many of us are at odds with Aye Chan's version of history of Arakan. As an ultra-nationalist Rakhaing, his views on the minorities mimic those of the current hated SPDC regime, which is victimization of the minority so that such criminal actions would curry favor from amongst the majority, thus further fragmenting the already divided nation into opposing camps, while they hold onto power approvingly – the typical 19th century colonization policy, History 101.