Trigger warning: mentions of Genocide, murder, abuse, and many other crimes against humanity.
Edited by: Carol Eugene Park
The world seems to be in a terrible state right now. There are so many natural disasters that are destroying homes, ripping families apart, and taking people’s lives. One would think that in such a world, humans would come together and work towards the good of all humanity. Despite this reality, we see a violation of human rights constantly across the globe. Minorities are attacked and persecuted. Western media often struggles to cover all of this suffering, and the story that this article is about was not well known until fairly recently. This is the plight of the Rohingya in the State of Myanmar (formerly called Burma, which is important to know for this piece).
The Rohingya are a minority group who reside in the State of Myanmar and who are members of the Islamic faith. They number approximately 1.1 Million and is made up one of the biggest minorities in Myanmar. Although they are spread out throughout most of Myanmar, most of the Rohingya congregate in the Rakhine State in isolated western Myanmar. They are often referred to by the media as “The world’s most persecuted minorities” as they are not recognized as citizens of Myanmar. The reason that the Myanmar government gives for this is that they claim the Rohingya are immigrants who came to the area known as Myanmar during the British Colonization of the Indian subcontinent. This was because, during British Colonization, modern-day Myanmar was part of the state of India, and there was a movement of Muslims from India and modern-day Bangladesh to the area where the Rohingya live. Therefore the government claims them to be part of the Indian ethnic group from Bengal, called the Bengali. However, there is archaeological evidence that the Rohingya have had a society in Myanmar since the 12th century.
She has held a general silence on this entire matter, never vilifying the people who are doing the Rohingya harm. It shows that even great people, people that can win a peace prize, are still able to hold prejudice.
This article simplifies this entire situation; one could write a book and still not understand all the intricacies of this conflict. But one thing is for sure: people are dying and being displaced and the most “morally upstanding” member of that country is doing nothing. There are many problems in the world, but I think this is one that needs to be talked about more.