Rohingya crisis: A concern for the region
Reacting to the insurgent attacks on some police outposts and an army
camp on August 25, the Myanmar security forces have unleashed a "war"
of sorts against the Rohingya—an ethnic minority group living for
centuries in the Rakhine state of Myanmar—burning down their villages,
killing their men and raping their women, committing what can be termed
as "crimes against humanity" that has resulted in nearly 500 dead and
nearly 200,000 taking shelter in Bangladesh, which has hosted Rohingya
refugees for more than three decades in varying numbers depending on the
level of
oppression across the border.
Myanmar, then called Burma, became independent in 1948 from the
British, a year after the latter's withdrawal from the Indian
subcontinent in 1947. Geographically Rakhine state, where the current
conflict is taking place, is separated from the rest of Myanmar by
barren mountain range. Ancient history gives the area its own separate
past with a distinct Rakhine Kingdom being established in 1430 with its
capital in Mrauk U located as a link between Buddhist and Muslim Asia
with close ties with the Sultanate of Bengal. After 350 years of
independent existence Rakhine State was conquered by the Burmese in
1784. This annexation was short lived as the territory was occupied by
the British in 1824 and made a part of the British Indian Empire. Today
the Rohingyas are about 1.1 million Muslim citizens of the Rakhine state
but are not recognised legally as one of the 135 ethnic groups
constituting a part of the citizenry of Myanmar.
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