By Kanbawza Win Courtesy Asian Tribune

In a landmark verdict, the United Nation’s highest court has ruled that it has the authority to consider a genocide case against Burma and ordered the country to prevent irreparable harm from being committed again, signalling that the sensational news has vanquished the conflict resolutions.

But my research indicates otherwise, of how in the 18th century, the Colonial British in construing Burma to be part of the British Indian empire encouraged the Chittagonians labourers from India to work in the fertile fields of northern Arakan making Burma the rice bowl of Asia”.

The Origin of the Rohingyas In fact some of the Kalar (meaning dark complexion) were already there living in a large village, even before the British annexed the country in 1824. These people considered themselves to be genuine Muslims, strictly adhering to their traditional cultures and the new comers admired them and wanted to live with them. However, the old village people said Even if you speak the same language and of the same religion, you are not an authentic Muslims and we will not welcome in our village, but if you want to reside here you can stay in the outskirts of our village.” Hence those new comers reside there and were label as Ywathitthar, (in Burmese meaning people from the new village) while from the old village continue to call themselves as Ywahaughthar (people of the old village).

But as more and more Chttagonians came over, it overwhelmed the old village and everybody now called themselves as Ywahaoungtha. However, to a new Chittagonians who just arrived having little or no knowledge about Arakanese or Burmese languages heard the word of Ywahaungthar or rather the Arakanese word as Rwahaungtha, somewhat akin to the Bengali word Rohin. Hence, the name of Rohingya.

So, compelling Burma to recognize the word Rohingya tantamount to enforcing as the most sinister form of religion-cultural imperialism on a small independent nation which is bound to be resisted by every person residing in Burma, Why the tyranny of the majority?

Genocide of the Arakanese Buddhist

With the fall of Singapore in 1942, the British withdrew to India and organized all these Kales in Burma to fight the Japanese, (the Burmese were allied with the Japanese, just to gain independence from Britain).

However these Arakanese Kales taking advantage turned their guns on the locals, not only exterminating everyone, including women and children but also destroying their religious edifies, digging up Pagodas and religious shrines, only very few Arakanese managed to escape to India or to other parts of Abakan.

In Maungdaw townships alone they exterminated more than 30,000 known as Maungdaw Massacre, which were still remembered and clearly written in Burmese which can still be seen in the archives of Rangoon. Obviously, all the locals Arakanese deeply hated these Kales compelling the world to be perplexed or comprehend the raisons d’être of the hatred.

Chunk of the Motherland.

After World War II, at the prospect of Burma gaining independence (1947) these Kalar, now calling themselves as Mujtahids (meaning founder and defender of Islamic law) unable to reconcile residing under the infidels, led by its political party Jami-atoll Lemma-e Islam went over to Muhammad Ali Jinnah (founder of Pakistan) to take these three Arakanese townships of Buthidaung Maungdaw and Rathedaung which they renamed as Dar al-Islam (meaning the region under Muslim sovereignty where the Islamic law prevails), into the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh),

Similar to what, Congressman Bradley Sherman, chairman of the Sub-committee on Asia Pacific, proposed. Rebuffed, these Mujahids fought the newly Independent Union of Burma under the civilian government of U Nu, who had no choice but to send his able commander General Smith Dun (at that time there was no Ne Win nor the now existing racist Myanmar Tatmadaw). These Mujahids were beaten and its leaders ran away to East Pakistan promising that they or their ancestors will never speak Burmese. So, when the incumbent Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasinavisited the Rohingya refugees she can speak in Bangali but when Daw Aung San Suu Kyi visited them she has to call the interpreter.

Bangladesh Liberation War

In 1971 Muktijuddho war when the West Pakistani Pahtans army launched an all-out war on the Bengali dominated East Pakistan, more than 10 million of Bengali crossed into Burma as refugees. But when the war was over not all of them went back. Seeing, that the inhabitants speak the same language adhering to the Bengali customs and having a fertile soil about half a million opted to remain in these three townships, so much so that Bangladesh ambassador has to admit to the British ambassador as seen in the London archives.

Burmese Socialist Programme Party

The late General Ne Win abhorred the word Burmese Junta” refer by the international media and started creating his proxy the Burmese Socialist Programme Party asking all the people to write political proposal to him. All the people responded except the Rohingya who called a conference of its own in the Burma-Bangladesh border, with the aim of another Dar al-Islam. To this Ne Win replied with Operation Dragon King” driving out the first batch of Rohingya, but later as the UN intervened, they were accepted back, but it was discovered that more came in, then went out because e.g. A Rohingya youth ran away to Bangladesh, but when he was repatriated back he came in with 30 or more people because he already had four wives (Muslims can marry four wives) and each wife was a widow with five to six children of the previous marriage. This is galling to the locals.

The Most Persecuted People of the World.

In the Bangladesh Liberation War of the 70s, these Rohingya sided with the Pakistan army of Phatans acting as scouts and spies and so when the War of liberation was over they were hated by the local Bengali and naturally Bangladesh or India nor the Arab world. It is the brain child of Bengali Diaspora residing in West.

Are they one of Burma’s ethnic nationalities?

In the 72 years (1948-2020) existence of the Union of Burma, every non-Myanmar ethnic rebelled against the central government but none of them attempted to take the chunk of the motherland to join a foreign country. Furthermore in 1976 the opposition of all the non-Myanmar ethnic group was formed at Manerplaw known as the National Democratic Front, but Rohingya refused to take part. Even when the ethnic cleansing became more intensified after the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, many of the Burmese Muslims were persecuted and fled to the Thailand-Burma border area.

Human Rights Watch reported that a disproportionately high number of Muslims joined ethnic Karen because the Burmese army had destroyed their mosques and schools while ordering them to convert to Buddhism or leave the country.” Hence the All Burma Muslim Union was formed and fought side by side with the Karen known as K’Nyaw Thoo” and yet not a single Rohingya took part. If these are the facts and figures perhaps, I am insane to hear the call, that these Bengali Kalas insisting to be a bona fide citizens of Burma with equal rights.

Evil Genius

In this crisis the marauding Myanmar army (Tatmadaw) were caught red handed, because the Rohingyas ran away under the glare of the news media proving true to the Burmese omen of when Bama shout nobody hears but when Kalar shout everybody hears.” Lamentably, the international world was unable to comprehend that Burma’s 2008 Nargis Constitution that sets apart the army from, the civilian administration, and instead blamed the civilian government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The serpentine brood of Generals has clearly outwitted the international community driving the country into the arms of China, whose head just visited the country bringing in the year of the Rat infested with Wuhan virus (coronavirus) and raking away 33 projects for easy access to the Indian Ocean avoiding the Malacca strait.

Crux of the Problem

If the ICJ is not cockeye and view, that Burma is a fragile state, where power is control by the men in green, the UN solemn oath of never again” should be better served and improves the ICJ record of one out of eleven cases comply with its measures. Now it seems, that any large-scale repatriation of Rohingya is out of question. The simple logic of Demography seems to be missing when Bangladesh population is 165 million (8th largest in the world) residing in an area of only 147 thousand square miles can easily march into Burma, which has a population of only 55 million and an area of 676 sq. kilometres.

This is what every people in Burma is afraid of. As for the IOC we pray that it would be a real champion of the Muslims instead of the Organization of Interference in the internal affairs of other Countries to prevent the ever-rising Islamophobia.

Kanbawza Win, former Foreign Affairs Secretary to the Prime Minister of the then Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma is now a permanent Burmese exile.

– Asian Tribune –