Who will wipe the tears and beat the chest for about the plight of more than Five Lakh Pakistani Rohingya Muslims suffering in a Muslim country, since more than four decades?
Dr. A. K. Srivastava, 13 Sep 2017
It is very sad and old story. It is bad to note that a large number of Rohangya (also written as Rohangia or Rohangyas) Muslims are suffering since many decades, in Mayanmar --their own country, without a valid identity, citizenship, human rights and any support-system, like schools, hospitals, subsidized food etc., from their own governments. Mayanmar does not identify them their citizen and treat them as illegal migrants originally from Bangldesh. Hence, they are the people without a legitimate identity. The last census in Mayanmar ,in 2014 after a gap of 30 long years, did not enumerated Rohangya and left them in lurch and despair altogether, while counting 135 other indigenous tribes. Apart from being a political problem, it remains, now, a big humanitarian issue.
The United Nations says 370,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar in last one months, since the army launched a huge security operation in response to terrorist attacks by Rohangya Muslim militants late last month. Some seventy eight terrorists and more than 360 security personnel died in the gruesome attack. UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein described the operation as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".
The whole world reacted and criticized this large-scale human blood-shed, in their own way. Some countries simply criticized, whereas many, including India sent relief materials to relieve the pain. Mayanmar was skeptical in accepting the relief material and saw it from different angles. India sent the relief through Bangladesh, where millions of Rohangya's have illegally taken refuse, mostly crossing into the country on-foot , through rain filled rice farm lands, as there are no roads and clear border boundaries.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei today said in a speech in Tehran ' Myanmar's crackdown on Rohingya Muslims marks the "death of the Nobel Peace Prize", today. "A cruel government, at the top of which sits a cruel woman who was awarded a Nobel prize, kills innocent people, sets fire to them, destroys their houses and displaces them and no tangible reaction is seen," ' it his sharp attack on Burmese leader and Nobel Laureate Miss Aung San Suu Kyi.
Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi once lauded by the international community for standing up against the powerful ruling Myanmar military, has been sharply criticized this time around the world for her failure to condemn brutal attacks on her country's Muslim minority ,as now she is the effective leader. Mr. Khamenei further wants Muslim world to act...." They should condemn it, issue statements, but what good does it do? They should take action." "The solution is for Muslim governments to act. We are not saying they should send troops there, but impose political and economic pressure. This marks the death of the Nobel Peace Prize," He ruefully said.
In India a wave of agitation by the minority organizations, civil society and some left wing political parties was seen in the capital New Delhi and some metro-cities.
Pakistan was among the earliest and most strident in condemning the Myanmar government for its offensive. But even as politicians and civil society in Pakistan are up in arms over how members of the Buddhist majority in Myanmar are abusing the Muslim Rohingyas there, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya migrants here continue to live in great peril and desperation.
Many may surprise that outside Myanmar, and perhaps now Bangladesh, Pakistan is home to the highest concentration of Rohingya Muslims in the world, from a previous exodus of Rohingya in the 1970s and ’80s. These migrants are settled in the out skirt of different big cities and are not in good shape, even after more than four decades living in a Muslim majority country. A vast majority live in Karachi neighborhoods that are distressingly impoverished even by Karachi’s standards. The prestigious international media , including the New York times reports the miserable conditions of these Rohangia Muslims in across the Arkanabad slum — named after the old designation for Myanmar’s present-day Rakhine State — living in decrepit shanties with temporary walls, often with no doors and windows and unsteady corrugated roofs, serve as homes to more than 100,000 Rohingya. Now they are angry that Pakistan is not doing more to stop the killing in Myanmar, let alone improve the condition of the estimated 500,000 Rohingya living in this country.
These men mostly work as fishermen, while a small number weave carpets or are employed in garment factories. Malnutrition and diarrhea are common among children who have little access to safe drinking water, schools , hospitals, safety and security and spend their days playing in mountains of garbage. Locals report about of a “Burma Cell,” a special police division responsible for cracking down on Rohingya migrants, where routine harassment by the police. Exploitation by bribe is the key word for any even smallest favor or facility, like renewal of ID cards, permission for going out to school or for fishing or routine job, getting death or birth certificates etc.
Many Rohingya have carried Pakistani national ID cards for years but since the authorities started cracking down on fake versions in 2014, many have found it hard to renew their cards, if once expired. And the second generation is being denied cards altogether, they said.
“Without cards, they are out of jobs, they are stopped going out for fishing--their prime occupation, their children can’t apply for admission in high schools and can’t access government hospitals" reports a senior executive member of local Rohingya Solidarity Organization.
For his part, one of a 70 years old Rohangia Muslim, who migrated in to Pakistan from Myanmar four decades ago, described persistent mistreatment. “They won’t let me be a citizen, because then they have to give me rights and they won’t call me a refugee because then they have to give me aid,” said he, showing the high school diploma he had received from a school in Karachi. “I am not a citizen or a refugee. I am an illegal alien. I am nothing".
Now, Big question arises whom to blame for this plight of Rohangyas in Pakistan?. Pakistan's youngest Peace Nobel laureate : Malala Yousafzai criticized her Mayanmar's counterpart Nobel Laureate Miss Aung San Suu Kyi, for what had happened there. Whether and if at all she would speak about Pakistani Rohangias?
These stories are not different than the story of Indian Muslims migrated into Pakistan some seventy years back , after the partition of the India and settled in Pakistani states of Sindh and Punjab. They and their next generations are still called : The Muhajir people (also spelled Mahajir and Mohajir) and treated like aliens. Similarly the Muslims settled and residing in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Baluchsitan and other border-states of Pakistan cannot claim the status same as of rich Muslim Zamindars, ruling party politicians and well connected local lords from Punjab province of Pakistan, who are dominating Pakistan's military and everywhere.
Note : The above blog is the personal opinion of the author.