Background of the Rohingya issue
The Rohingya is a religious and ethnic minority living in the Rakhine state of Myanmar for centuries. The Rohingyas trace back their origins to the arrival of Islam in India and Southeast Asia in the start of 8th century AD.
According to the statistics, there were more than one million Rohingya Muslims living in the coastal area of Rakhine before the uptick in violence towards the end of 2016, with large chunks of the population also living in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand and other countries.
Rohingya issue arose when British decided to divide India-subcontinent into two separate states of India and Pakistan. The Rohingya leaders wrote to Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah about their intentions to join Pakistan. Jinnah turned down their offer due to the harsh difficulties faced by the Indian Muslims in their own territory. In 1948, Burma also got independence from the British colonialism and with that Rohingyas became part of the Burmese mainland. Many of the Rohingyas got citizenship and some were elected to the Parliament of Burma under the newly passed Union act.
The situation, however, soon took an ugly turn with the newly passed 1962 act. The 1962 act deprived Rohingyas of their right to get jobs and health facilities on par with the rest of the countrymen. In 1982, a newly applied citizenship act sealed the fate of Rohingya aspirations to become Burmese citizens by excluding them from the 135 state-recognized ethnicities.
Why is there a new wave of violence?
After the killing of nine Burmese soldiers in an attack which the government blamed on the Rohingya militants, the army entered into villages inhabited by the Rohingyas. Security forces launched a massive military operation against the attackers and according to Human rights organizations in wake of the attacks they also killed innocent men and raped their women. The Rohingya issue became even grimmer when members of the “Arkhine Rohingya Salvation Army” group attacked border posts of the Burmese army. Till now more than half a million people have fled to Bangladesh and other neighboring countries and they are going through the worst kind of food shortage and lack of basic health facilities.
Why China and Russia supportive of the Myanmar’s stance over the Rohingya issue?
 |
| Chinese President with Burmese leader |
The United States of America, West, and the Muslim world have spoken against the Myanmar Government and Army and have criticized their role in the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya people. On the other hand, People’s Republic of China and Russian Federation are supportive of the Myanmar’s official line and these countries with Veto power have blocked any move to scrutinize Myanmar’s government involvement in the Rohingya issue. Reasons for this support are more geostrategic and geopolitical than any other thing. Here I am going to list some of the reasons due to which China and Russia are toeing Burmese establishment’s policy line on the Rohingya issue.
China is a key regional player and maintains close military and economic ties with the Burmese government. The bilateral trade between the two countries exceeds 1.4 billion dollars and both countries are looking forward to further boost their mutual trade. China is looking striving to explore and use Burmese oil and gas resources for its industrial boom and for this purpose it has invested billions of dollars in the construction of roads from Arakan province to Chinese Yunnan province. China is also planning to build an oil pipeline from the western coast of Burma, which will help China to bypass Malacca strait for its oil needs.
China has also built the strategically important deep-sea port in Kyaukpyu and is assisting in the construction of a port in the Sittwe city of Rakhine State. These ports not only provide China access to the Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean, and Southeast Asia but also help China encircle India both militarily and economically. Burma is also a key transit route for China under its proposed “SILK ROAD” project.
Putin Regime’s diplomatic support to the Myanmar government mainly stems from the military cooperation between the two countries. Russia has been exporting military hardware to the Burmese military and thus Burma is a good destination for Russian exports. Moreover, Burma also provides Russia a route to reach the Asean countries. These are the major reasons due to which these two world powers are supporting the Myanmar government over the Rohingya issue but one must keep in mind that no material interest is above human life and humanity.
About Muhammad Asim
0 comments:
Post a Comment