Haikal Mansor: The House of Rohingya

Haikal Mansor's Blog

The House of - ROHINGYA

A house under its Existential Threat

The Timeline

“Rohingya are one ethnic people living within the Union of Burma.” National Radio Address, September 25, 1954
U NUBurma's First Prime Minister

``In the stone inscription from AD 1442, the kings were found to bear Muslim names. There is a very high probability that the people who lived in the Mayu region (to the east of Naaf River and to the west of Kaladan) were the Rohinjas.``
Dr Than TunProfessor of History, Mandalay University and World's Authority on Ancient Burma

“I shall now add three dialects, spoken in the Burma empire, but evidently derived from the language of the Hindu nation. The first is that spoken by the Mohammedans, who have been long settled in Arakan, and who call themselves Rooinga `{`Rohingya`}`, or natives of Arakan.” A Comparative Vocabulary of Some of the Languages Spoken in the Burma Empire, p. 237, December 26, 1799
Dr. Francis BuchananScottish Geographer

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Desmond Tutu, Mairead Maguire, Jody Williams, Tawakkol Karman, Shirin Ibadi, Leymah Ghowee

“What Rohingyas are facing is a textbook case of genocide in which an entire indigenous community is being systematically wiped out by the Burmese government.”
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Desmond Tutu, Mairead Maguire, Jody Williams, Tawakkol Karman, Shirin Ibadi, Leymah Ghowee7 Nobel Peace Laureates

The House of Rohingya

10 Stages of the Myanmar Genocide

``Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group``

1. CLASSIFICATION

Removed Rohingya from the official ethnic groups
Classified Rohingya as “others”

2. SYMBOLISATION

Refer the Rohingya people as “Kala”, “Bengali”, “Illegal immigrants”, etc..
Consider “us and them”

3. DISCRIMINATION

Stripped of civil rights and citizenship under 1982 Citizenship Law
Restricted basic human rights and freedoms

4. DEHUMANISATION

Referred as “snakes”, “mad dogs”, “ugly as ogres”
Dehumanised based on religion

5. ORGANISATION

The military and Rakhine exert total control
Organised mass rapes, sexual abuses, arrests, torture and murder

6. POLARISATION

Hateful propaganda to polarise and divide the society
Enacted “Race and Religion Protection” laws

7. PREPARATION

Laid the groundwork for violence and discrimination
Labelled previous military operations “unfinished business”

8. PERSECUTION

Segregated Rohingya into IDP camps
Acts of genocide intentionally set to destroy

9. EXTERMINATION

Organised two military campaigns in 2016 and 2017
Expelled nearly 900,000, killed around 36,000 and destroyed 392 villages

10 DENIAL

Blamed Rohingya, concealed evidence and denied genocide
Denied by both the military and civilian leaders

A systematic depopulation of Rohingya from Arakan State of Myanmar over half a century

The Rohingya Population Expulsion

1978

290,000
1991-2

260,000
2012-15

225,000
2016-17

100,000
2017

745,000

HATRED SPREADS LIKE WEEDS

In attempting to destroy the Rohingya population as a whole, Burma destroys itself in every walk of life.

Rohingya have seen and warned about the seed of hate and lie that the Burmese Military and Buddhist neighbours sowed on their native land. It took roots while remaining dormant for many years before it finally bloomed - denying their rights and justice, spreading venomous hatred and vicious cycle of violence, and uprooting their families from their once peaceful and thriving land.