Rohingya people: Difference between revisions

What links here Related changes Page information Get shortened URL
Created by Hembram Bakhul
Last edited October 22, 2022
VisualWikitext
Created page with "{{short description|Ethnic minority in Myanmar}} {{Use British English|date=December 2012}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2019}} {{Infobox ethnic group | group = Roh..."
 
WikiDwarfBOT (talk | contribs)
Bots, trusted
8,493 edits
robot: Trimming article to decrease server load
 
Line 1: Line 1:
{{short description|Ethnic minority in Myanmar}}
[[File:Displaced Rohingya people in Rakhine State (8280610831) (cropped).jpg|thumb|The Rohingya people]]
{{Use British English|date=December 2012}}
The '''Rohingya''' are an Aryan [[ethnic group]] of Southeast Asia, considered as Gypsy of Burma.<ref>https://worldcrunch.com/world-affairs/the-most-persecuted-minority-in-the-world-the-gypsies-of-burma</ref> They are [[Muslims]]. They live in the [[Arakan State]] in western [[Myanmar]] (or Burma), and in the [[Chittagong Hill Tracts]] in south-eastern [[Bangladesh]]. They are not [[citizen]]s of either Burma or Bangladesh.
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2019}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = Rohingya people
| native_name      = {{Script|Rohg|𐴌𐴗𐴥𐴝𐴙𐴚𐴒𐴙𐴝}}
| image            = Displaced Rohingya people in Rakhine State (8280610831) (cropped).jpg
| population      = 1,547,778<ref name="Mahmood, Wroe, Fuller, Leaning 2016">{{cite journal |author1=Mahmood |author2=Wroe |author3=Fuller |author4=Leaning|title=The Rohingya people of Myanmar: health, human rights, and identity |journal=Lancet |year=2016 |volume= 389|pages=1–10|url=http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)00646-2/abstract |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(16)00646-2 |pmid=27916235 |issue=10081|s2cid=205981024 }}</ref>–2,000,000+<ref>{{cite book |first=David |last=Mathieson |title=Perilous Plight: Burma's Rohingya take to the seas |date=2009 |publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]] |isbn=978-1-56432-485-6 |page=3}}</ref>
| regions          =
| region1          = {{flagdeco|Bangladesh}} [[Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh|Bangladesh]]
| pop1            = 1,300,000+ (March 2018)
| ref1            = <ref name="ReliefWeb">{{cite news|url=https://reliefweb.int/report/bangladesh/who-appeals-international-community-support-warns-grave-health-risks-rohingya|title=WHO appeals for international community support; warns of grave health risks to Rohingya refugees in rainy season|work= ReliefWeb|date=29 March 2018
}}</ref>
| region3          = {{flag|Myanmar}} ([[Rakhine State]])
| pop3            = 600,000 (November 2019)
| ref3            = <ref>{{cite web |title=600,000 Rohingya still in Myanmar |url=https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/600000-rohingya-still-in-myanmar-at-serious-risk-of-genocide-un |website=SPH Digital News |access-date=16 September 2019}}</ref>
| region4          = {{flag|Pakistan}}
| pop4            = 500,000 (September 2017)
| ref4            = <ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/12/world/asia/rohingya-pakistan-myanmar-violence.html|title=Far From Myanmar Violence, Rohingya in Pakistan Are Seething |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=12 September 2017}}</ref>
| region5          = {{flag|Saudi Arabia}}
| pop5            = 190,000 (January 2017)
| ref5            = <ref name="myanmar_nationals"/>
| region6          = {{flag|Malaysia}}
| pop6            = 150,000 (October 2017)
| ref6            = <ref name="autogenerated1" />
| region7          = {{flag|UAE}}
| pop7            = 50,000 (December 2017)
| ref7            = <ref name="autogenerated1" />
| region8          = {{flag|India}}
| pop8            = 40,000 (September 2017)
| ref8            = <ref>{{cite news|title=India in talks with Myanmar, Bangladesh to deport 40,000 Rohingya|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-india-idUSKBN1AR0MH|access-date=17 August 2017|work=Reuters|year=2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=India plans to deport thousands of Rohingya refugees|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/india-plans-deport-thousands-rohingya-refugees-170814110027809.html |date=14 August 2017 |access-date=17 August 2017|publisher=Al Jazeera}}</ref>
| region9          = {{flag|United States}}
| pop9            = 12,000+ (September 2017)
| ref9            = <ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-myanmar-refugees/myanmar-refugees-including-muslim-rohingya-outpace-syrian-arrivals-in-u-s-idUSKCN11Q2LK |title=Myanmar refugees, including Muslim Rohingya, outpace Syrian arrivals in U.S.|first=Timothy |last=Mclaughlin|work=Reuters|date=20 September 2016|access-date=3 September 2017}}</ref>
| region10        = {{flag|Thailand}}
| pop10            = 5,000 (October 2017)
| ref10            = <ref name="BBC News">{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41566561|title=Myanmar Rohingya: What you need to know about the crisis|work=BBC News|date=19 October 2017
}}</ref>
| region11        = {{flag|Australia}}
| pop11            = 3,000 (October 2018)
| ref11            = <ref name="ABC News">{{cite news|url=https://www.abc.net.au/religion/australias-obligation-to-rohingya/10334312|title=Australia has an obligation to the Rohingya people: So why is the federal government prevaricating?|work=ABC News|date=3 October 2018
}}</ref>
| region12        = {{flag|China}}
| pop12            = 3,000 (October 2014)
| ref12            = <ref>{{cite journal |last=Chen |first=Chun-yan |title=旅居瑞丽的缅甸罗兴伽人生存策略探析 |trans-title=Research on Survival Strategy of Myanmar's Rohingya in Ruili |language=zh |journal=Journal of Guangxi University for Nationalities (Philosophy and Social Science Edition) |issn=1673-8179 |date=2016 |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=98–104 }}</ref>
| region13        = {{flag|Indonesia}}
| pop13            = 1,000 (October 2017)
| ref13            = <ref name="BBC News"/>
| region14        = {{flag|Japan}}
| pop14            = 300 (May 2018)
| ref14            = <ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/2017/eap/280826.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180529213032/https://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/2017/eap/280826.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 May 2018 |title=Report on International religious freedom|publisher=United States Department of State |date=20 November 2018 |access-date=1 May 2018}}</ref>
| region15        = {{flag|Nepal}}
| pop15            = 200 (September 2017)
| ref15            = <ref>{{cite news |url=http://myrepublica.com/feature-article/story/43651/over-200-rohingya-settle-illegally-in-capital.html |title=200 Rohingya Refugees are not being accepted as Refugees and the Nepali Government considers them illegal migrants |work=Republica |quote=An estimated 36,000 Rohingya Refugess living in India |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604182045/http://myrepublica.com/feature-article/story/43651/over-200-rohingya-settle-illegally-in-capital.html |archive-date=4 June 2016 }}</ref>
| region16        = {{flag|Canada}}
| pop16            = 200 (September 2017)
| ref16            = <ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-september-8-2017-1.4279354/we-have-the-right-to-exist-rohingya-refugees-call-for-intervention-in-myanmar-1.4279390 |title=200 'We have the right to exist': Rohingya refugees call for intervention in Myanmar|publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation}}</ref>
| region17        = {{flag|Ireland}}
| pop17            = 107 (December 2017)
| ref17            = <ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thestateless.com/2017/02/im-really-excited-to-see-my-girls-growing-up-in-ireland.html |first=Sorcha |last=Pollak |title=I'm really excited to see my girls growing up in Ireland |website=The Stateless Rohinga |date=15 February 2015 |access-date=16 January 2018}}</ref>
| region18        = {{flag|Sri Lanka}}
| pop18            = 36 (June 2017)
| ref18            = <ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thestateless.com/2017/05/sri-lanka-navy-detains-rohingya-majority-children.html |title=Sri Lanka Navy detains Rohingya – majority children|website=The Stateless Rohinga |date=12 June 2017 |access-date=29 January 2018}}</ref>
| region19        = {{flag|Finland}}
| pop19            = 11 (October 2019)
| ref19            = <ref>{{cite web |title=Finland helps Myanmar's Rohingya refugees through the Red Cross |url=https://valtioneuvosto.fi/en/article/-/asset_publisher/suomi-auttaa-myanmarista-paenneita-rohingyoja-punaisen-ristin-kautta |website=Valtioneuvosto}}</ref>
| languages        = [[Rohingya language|Rohingya]]
| religions        = [[Islam]] (majority)<ref>{{cite web |title=Who are Rohingya |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/people/reference/rohingya-people/|website=nationalgeographic}}</ref>
| related-c        =
| native_name_lang =
| related_groups  =
}}
{{Rohingya people}}
The '''Rohingya people''' ({{IPAc-en|r|oʊ|ˈ|h|ɪ|n|dʒ|ə|,_|-|ɪ|n|-|,_|-|ɪ|ŋ|j|ə}}) are a [[stateless nation|stateless]] [[Indo-Aryan peoples|Indo-Aryan]] [[ethnic group]] who predominantly follow Islam<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/people/reference/rohingya-people/|title=Who are the Rohingya people?|date=8 February 2019|website=Culture|access-date=15 December 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/rohingya-crisis|title=What Forces Are Fueling Myanmar's Rohingya Crisis?|website=Council on Foreign Relations|access-date=15 December 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/aung-san-suu-kyi-rohingya-muslim-genocide-un-human-rights-chief-zeid-raad-al-hussein-a8513946.html|title=Aung San Suu Kyi 'should have resigned' over Rohingya Muslim genocide, says UN human rights chief|date=30 August 2018|work=The Independent|access-date=15 December 2019}}</ref> and reside in [[Rakhine State]], [[Myanmar]] (previously known as Burma). Before the [[Rohingya genocide|displacement crisis]] in 2017, when over 740,000 fled to Bangladesh, an estimated 1.4 million Rohingya lived in Myanmar.<ref name="auto2">UNHCR news briefing, 20 October 2020, https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing/2020/10/5f8d7c004/unhcr-calls-solidarity-support-solutions-rohingya-refugees-ahead-urgent.html,accessed December 20, 2020</ref><ref name="Mahmood, Wroe, Fuller, Leaning 2016" /><ref name="washingtonpost.com">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/18000-rohingya-flee-violence-in-myanmar-into-bangladesh/2017/08/30/11a1bea6-8d58-11e7-9c53-6a169beb0953_story.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170830082317/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/18000-rohingya-flee-violence-in-myanmar-into-bangladesh/2017/08/30/11a1bea6-8d58-11e7-9c53-6a169beb0953_story.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2017-08-30 |title=Myanmar Buddhists seek tougher action against Rohingya |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref><ref name=lan>{{cite book |title=Language and National Identity in Asia |publisher=Oxford University Press |first=Andrew |last=Simpson |year=2007 |location=United Kingdom |page=267 |isbn=978-0-19-922648-1}}</ref> Described by journalists and news outlets as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/burma-rohingya-myanmar-muslims-united-nations-calls-on-suu-kyi-a7465036.html |title=Nobel Peace Prize winner accused of overlooking 'ethnic cleansing' in her own country |date=9 December 2016 |newspaper=The Independent}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://thecorrespondent.com/4087/meet-the-most-persecuted-people-in-the-world/293299468-71e6cf33 |title=Meet the most persecuted people in the world |first=Lennart|last=Hofman|date=25 February 2016 |website=The Correspondent}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/recognizing-the-rohingya-and-their-horrifying-pers/ |title=Rohingya Muslims Are the Most Persecuted Minority in the World: Who Are They? |website=Global Citizen}}</ref> the Rohingya population is denied [[citizenship]] under the [[Myanmar nationality law|1982 Myanmar nationality law]].<ref>{{cite news |date=25 August 2017 |first=Yuichi |last=Nitta |title=Myanmar urged to grant Rohingya citizenship |newspaper=Nikkei Asian Review |url=https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Policy-Politics/Myanmar-urged-to-grant-Rohingya-citizenship}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thestateless.com/2017/08/annan-report-calls-for-review-of-1982-citizenship-law.html |title=Annan report calls for review of 1982 Citizenship Law |date=24 August 2017|website=The Stateless}}</ref><ref name="HRW1">{{cite report |chapter-url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/burma/burm005-02.htm#P132_34464 |chapter=Discrimination in Arakan |title=Burma/Bangladesh - Burmese Refugees in Bangladesh: Still No Durable Solution |publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]] |volume=12 |issue=3 |date=May 2000}}</ref> They are also restricted from [[freedom of movement]], state education and civil service jobs.<ref name="HRW1" /><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/08/24/kofi-annan-led-commission-calls-myanmar-end-rohingya-restrictions |title=Kofi Annan–led commission calls on Myanmar to end Rohingya restrictions |work=SBS}}</ref> The legal conditions faced by the Rohingya in Myanmar have been compared to [[apartheid]]<ref name="war_of_words_2016_06_16_yale_edu">Ibrahim, Azeem (fellow at [[Mansfield College]], [[Oxford University]], and 2009 [[Yale World Fellow]]),[http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/war-words-whats-name-rohingya "War of Words: What's in the Name 'Rohingya'?"], 16 June 2016 ''Yale Online'', [[Yale University]], 21 September 2017</ref><ref name="ultimate_test_2017_01_19_harvard_edu">[http://hir.harvard.edu/article/?a=14495a "Aung San Suu Kyi’s Ultimate Test"], Sullivan, Dan, 19 January 2017, ''[[Harvard International Review]]'', [[Harvard University]]. Retrieved 21 September 2017</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://thediplomat.com/2014/10/myanmars-rohingya-apartheid/ |title=Myanmar's Rohingya Apartheid |first=Emanuel |last=Stoakes |magazine=The Diplomat}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/opinion/kristof-myanmars-appalling-apartheid.html |title=Myanmar's Appalling Apartheid |first=Nicholas |last=Kristof |date=28 May 2014 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> by some academics, analysts and political figures, including [[Nobel laureate]] Bishop [[Desmond Tutu]], a South African [[Anti-Apartheid Movement|anti-apartheid activist]].<ref name="tutu_slow_genocide_2017_05_29_harvard_edu">Tutu, Desmond, former Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, Nobel Peace Prize (anti-apartheid and national-reconciliation leader), [http://www.newsweek.com/tutu-slow-genocide-against-rohingya-337104 "Tutu: The Slow=Genocide Against the Rohingya"], 19 January 2017, ''[[Newsweek]]'', citing "Burmese apartheid" reference in 1978 ''[[Far Eastern Economic Review]]'' at [[Oslo Conference on Rohingyas]]; also online at: [http://www.tutufoundationusa.org/2015/05/29/desmond-tutu-the-slow-genocide-against-the-rohingya/ Desmond Tutu Foundation USA]. Retrieved 21 September 2017</ref> The most recent mass displacement of Rohingya in 2017 led the [[International Criminal Court]] investigating crimes against humanity, and led to the [[International Court of Justice]] investigating [[genocide]].<ref>ICC "Bangladesh/Myanmar Investigation", https://www.icc-cpi.int/bangladesh-myanmar; ICJ Order January 23, 2020 https://www.icj-cij.org/public/files/case-related/178/178-20200123-ORD-01-00-EN.pdf, both accessed December 20, 2020</ref>


The Rohingya maintain they are [[Indigenous peoples|indigenous]] to western Myanmar with a heritage of over a millennium and influence from the [[Arabs]], [[Mughals]] and [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]]. The community claims it is descended from people in [[Arakan|precolonial Arakan]] and [[Arakan Division|colonial Arakan]]; historically, the region was an independent kingdom between [[Southeast Asia]] and the [[Indian subcontinent]].<ref name="Ghosh2016">{{cite book |first=Partha S. |last=Ghosh |title=Migrants, Refugees and the Stateless in South Asia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X242DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA161 |date=23 May 2016 |publisher=SAGE Publications |isbn=978-93-5150-855-7 |page=161}}</ref> The [[Government of Myanmar|Myanmar government]] considers the Rohingya as  colonial and postcolonial migrants from neighbouring [[Chittagong|Chittagong/East Bengal]] respectively Bangladesh. It argues that a distinct precolonial Muslim population is recognized as [[Kamein|Kaman]], and that the Rohingya conflate their history with the history of Arakan Muslims in general to advance a separatist agenda.{{Sfn|Leider|2013|pp=163–177}}{{sfn|Leider|2018}}<ref>Final Report of the Advisory Commisssion on Rakhine State, 2017 https://storage.googleapis.com/kofiannanfoundation.org/2017/08/FinalReport_Eng.pdf</ref><ref name="kzt" /><ref name="Leider-2012-presentation-slide23" /> In addition, Myanmar's government does not recognise the term "Rohingya" and prefers to refer to the community as "[[Bengali people|Bangali]]".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2013/0602/Why-Myanmar-s-Rohingya-are-forced-to-say-they-are-Bengali |title=Why Myanmar's Rohingya are forced to say they are Bengali |date=2 June 2013 |work=The Christian Science Monitor |access-date=16 January 2018}}</ref><ref>[https://www.pri.org/stories/2012-06-11/twitter-rage-myanmar Twitter rage from Myanmar] 11 June 2012 ''www.pri.org'', accessed 10 June 2020</ref> Rohingya campaign groups and human rights organizations demand the right to "[[self-determination]] within Myanmar".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rohingya.org/portal/index.php/who-we-are.html |title=Who we are? |website=Arakan Rohingya National Org.}}</ref>
Starting from 2017, many Rohingya [[refugee]]s began to arrive in Bangladesh in order to escape the [[genocide]] against them in Myanmar.


Various [[Rohingya conflict|armed insurrections]] by the Rohingya have taken place since the 1940s and the population as a whole has faced military crackdowns in [[Operation King Dragon|1978]], [[Operation Clean and Beautiful Nation|1991–1992]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/160000/asa130071997en.pdf|title=Myanmar/Bangladesh: Rohingyas – the Search for Safety|date=September 1997|website=Amnesty International}}</ref> [[2012 Rakhine State riots|2012]], [[2015 Rohingya refugee crisis|2015]], and particularly in [[Rohingya genocide|2016-2018]], when most of the Rohingya population of Myanmar was driven out of the country, into neighbouring Bangladesh.<ref name="un_report_A_HRC_39_64_ohchcr_2018_08_27">[https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/FFM-Myanmar/A_HRC_39_64.pdf Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention: ''Report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar,''] (Advance Unedited Version: English) 24 August 2018, [[United Nations]], [[Human Rights Council]], 39th session, 10–28 September 2018, Agenda item 4. Retrieved 28 August 2018</ref><ref name="un_calls_2018_08_27_reuters">[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-un/myanmar-generals-had-genocidal-intent-against-rohingya-must-face-justice-u-n-idUSKCN1LC0KN "U.N. calls for Myanmar generals to be tried for genocide, blames Facebook for incitement,"] 27 August 2018, [[Reuters News Service]]. Retrieved 28 August 2018</ref><ref name="military_leaders_must_face_2018_08_27_bbc">[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-45318982 "Myanmar Rohingya: UN says military leaders must face genocide charges,"] 27 August 2018, ''[[BBC News]]''. Retrieved 28 August 2018</ref><ref name="investigators_call_2018_08_27_cbs_news">[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rohingya-crisis-myanmar-genocide-military-commanders-un-human-rights-mission/ "Investigators call for genocide prosecutions over slaughter of Rohingyas,"] 27 August 2018, ''[[CBS News]]''. Retrieved 28 August 2018</ref><ref name="myanmar_generals_2018_08_27_reuters_us_news">[https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2018-08-27/myanmar-generals-had-genocidal-intent-against-rohingya-must-face-justice-un "Myanmar Generals Had 'Genocidal Intent' Against Rohingya, Must Face Justice: U.N.,"] 27 August 2018, ''[[U.S. News]]''. Retrieved 28 August 2018</ref><ref  name="year_after_rohingya_massacres_2018_08_27_ny_times">[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/25/world/asia/rohingya-myanmar-ethnic-cleansing-anniversary.html "Year After Rohingya Massacres, Top Generals Unrepentant and Unpunished,"] 27 August 2018, ''[[The New York Times]]''. Retrieved 28 August 2018</ref> By December 2017, an estimated 625,000 refugees from Rakhine, Myanmar, had crossed the border into [[Bangladesh]] since August 2017.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-widows/rohingya-widows-find-safe-haven-in-bangladesh-camp-idUSKBN1E136I|title=Rohingya widows find safe haven in Bangladesh camp|date=7 December 2017|work=Reuters|access-date=16 January 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41260767|title=Rohingyas facing 'catastrophic' situation|date=14 September 2017|work=BBC News}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/02/rohingya-fleeing-myanmar-tales-ethnic-cleansing|title=Thousands of Rohingya flee Myanmar amid tales of ethnic cleansing|last=Judah|first=Jacob|date=2 September 2017|newspaper=The Observer}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thedailystar.net/world/southeast-asia/rohingya-crisis-hindu-people-too-fleeing-persecution-myanmar-violence-1456756|title=Hindus too fleeing persecution in Myanmar|date=31 August 2017|newspaper=Daily Star}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://thewire.in/173972/hindus-myanmar-muslim-rohingyas-refuge-bangladesh/|title=Hindus From Myanmar Join Muslim Rohingyas in Seeking Refuge in Bangladesh|website=[[The Wire (Indian web publication)|The Wire]]|date=5 September 2017|access-date=8 January 2020}}</ref> UN officials and Human Rights Watch have described Myanmar's persecution of the Rohingya as [[ethnic cleansing]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38091816|title=Myanmar wants ethnic cleansing of Rohingya – UN official|date=24 November 2016|work=BBC News}}</ref><ref name="HRW2">{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/node/114882|title=Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic Cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Burma's Arakan State|date=22 April 2013|publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]]}}</ref> The UN human rights envoy to Myanmar reported "the long history of discrimination and persecution against the Rohingya community... could amount to [[crimes against humanity]]",<ref name="un_expert_alarmed_2017_04_07_un">[http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=47517#.Wb-Z8pUo5kA "UN expert alarmed at worsening human rights situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine state"], 7 April 2014, [[United Nations]] News Centre. Retrieved 18 September 2017</ref> and there have been warnings of an unfolding [[genocide]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/azeem-ibrahim/the-rohingya-are-at-the-b_b_12445526.html|title=The Rohingya Are At The Brink Of Mass Genocide|last=Ibrahim|first=Azeem|date=11 October 2016|website=HuffPost}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/burma-rohingya-muslims-government-trying-to-expel-un-warning-a7629716.html|title=Burmese government accused of trying to 'expel' all Rohingya Muslims|date=14 March 2017|newspaper=The Independent}}</ref> Probes by the UN have found evidence of increasing incitement of hatred and religious intolerance by "ultra-nationalist Buddhists" against Rohingyas while the Myanmar security forces have been conducting "[[summary execution]]s, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture and ill-treatment, and [[unfree labor|forced labour]]" against the community.<ref name="forced_labour_1998_07_19_intl_labour_ofc">{{cite book |url= https://www.un.org/ruleoflaw/files/09604(1998-81-serie-B-special-suppl).pdf |contribution= Conclusions on the substance of the case |at=item 528, p.&nbsp;140 |title=Forced labour in Myanmar (Burma): Report of the Commission of Inquiry... |date= 19 July 1998 |series= Official Bulletin |volume=LXXXI |issue= Series B |publisher=[[International Labour Office]] |access-date= 21 September 2017}}</ref><ref name="al jazeera">{{cite news |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/06/rohingya-victims-crimes-humanity-160620131906370.html|title=UN: Rohingya may be victims of crimes against humanity |date=20 June 2016 |access-date=10 June 2020 |publisher=Al Jazeera}}</ref><ref>{{cite news  |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-39218105 |title=Myanmar Muslim minority subject to horrific torture, UN says |last=Fisher |first=Jonah |date=10 March 2017 |work=BBC News |access-date=10 March 2017 }}</ref>
== History ==
The Rohingya say that they are native to the region now known as Arakan. They are the product of the mixing of different cultures.


Before the [[2015 Rohingya refugee crisis]] and the [[2016–17 Rohingya persecution in Myanmar|military crackdown in 2016 and 2017]], the Rohingya population in Myanmar was close to 1.4 million,<ref name="auto2"/><ref name="washingtonpost.com" /><ref name=":5">{{cite web |url=https://ash.harvard.edu/files/a_fatal_distraction_from_federalism_religious_conflict_in_rakhine_10-20-2014_rev_6-26-15.pdf |title=Fatal Distraction from Federalism: Religious Conflict in Rakhine|date=June 2015 |publisher=Harvard Ash Center |last=Dapice|first=David}}</ref><ref name="AsianHistory">{{cite web|url=http://asianhistory.about.com/od/Asian_History_Terms_N_Q/g/Who-Are-The-Rohingya.htm|title=Who Are the Rohingya?|website=About Education|year=2014|access-date=8 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121118161625/http://asianhistory.about.com/od/Asian_History_Terms_N_Q/g/Who-Are-The-Rohingya.htm|archive-date=18 November 2012}}</ref><ref name="Mahmood, Wroe, Fuller, Leaning 2016" /><ref name="bbc.com">{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33007536|title=Will anyone help the Rohingya people?|work=BBC News |date=10 June 2015 |access-date=8 January 2020}}</ref> chiefly in the northern Rakhine townships, which were 80–98% Rohingya.<ref name=":7">{{cite web|url = http://www.networkmyanmar.org/images/stories/PDF15/Leider-Note.pdf|title="Rohingya": Rakhaing and Recent Outbreak of Violence: A Note|publisher = Network Myanmar|last=Leider|first=Jacques P.|access-date=11 February 2015}}</ref> Since 2015, over [[Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh|900,000 Rohingya refugees]] have fled to south-eastern Bangladesh alone,<ref name="refugee_crisis_2017_08_daily_star">{{cite news|url=http://www.thedailystar.net/world/myanmar-rohingya-refugee-crisis-1%2C000-killed-Myanmar-%20violence-%20un-rapporteur-1459426|title=Myanmar violence may have killed more than 1,000: UN rapporteur|work=The Daily Star|date=8 September 2017}}</ref> and more to other surrounding countries, and major Muslim nations.<ref name="india_plans_to_deport">{{cite news |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/india-plans-deport-thousands-rohingya-refugees-170814110027809.html|title=India plans to deport thousands of Rohingya refugees |date=14 August 2017 |access-date=10 June 2020 |publisher=Al Jazeera}}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{cite web|url=http://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2017/5/590990ff4/168000-rohingya-likely-fled-myanmar-since-2012-unhcr-report.html|title=Over 168,000 Rohingya likely fled Myanmar since 2012 – UNHCR report|publisher=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees}}</ref><ref name="emergency_response">{{cite web|url=https://kopernik.info/project/rohingya-refugees-emergency-response-indonesia|title=Rohingya Refugees Emergency Response, Indonesia |website=Kopernik}}</ref><ref name="myanmar_nationals">{{cite news |date=25 January 2017 |title=190,000 Myanmar nationals' get residency relief in Saudi Arabia |website=Al Arabiya English |url=http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2017/01/25/Over-190-000-Myanmar-nationals-granted-Saudi-residency.html}}</ref><ref name="identity_issue">{{Cite news|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/1165299|title=Identity issue haunts Karachi's Rohingya population|last=Rehman|first=Zia Ur|date=23 February 2015|work=Dawn|quote=Their large-scale migration had made Karachi one of the largest Rohingya population centres outside Myanmar but afterwards the situation started turning against them.|access-date=26 December 2016}}</ref> More than 100,000 Rohingyas in Myanmar are confined in camps for [[internally displaced person]]s.<ref name="trappped_inside_camps">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/dec/20/burma-rohingya-muslim-refugee-camps |title=Trapped inside Burma's refugee camps, the Rohingya people call for recognition |newspaper=The Guardian |date=20 December 2012 |access-date=10 February 2015}}</ref><ref name="us_holocaust_museum_highlights">{{cite news|title=US Holocaust Museum highlights plight of Myanmar's downtrodden Rohingya Muslims|url=http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/11/06/us-holocaust-museum-highlights-plight-myanmar-downtrodden-rohingya-muslims/ |date=6 November 2013|agency=[[Associated Press]]|publisher=[[Fox News Channel]]}}</ref> Shortly before a Rohingya rebel attack that killed 12 security forces on 25 August 2017, the Myanmar military launched "clearance operations" against the Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state<ref name="ohchr_mission_report_2017_10_11_un">{{cite web |url=http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/MM/CXBMissionSummaryFindingsOctober2017.pdf |title=Mission report of OHCHR rapid response mission to Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, 13-24 September 2017 |date=11 October 2017 |publisher=U.N. Office of the [[U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights|High Commissioner for Human Rights]], [[United Nations]] |access-date=12 October 2017 |quote=The 'clearance operations' started before 25&nbsp;August 2017, and as early as the beginning of August. The apparently well-organised, coordinated and systematic nature of the attacks carried out by the Myanmar security forces against the entire Rohingya population across northern Rakhine State has led to a mass exodus of more than 500,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh. The testimonies gathered by OHCHR indicate that the attacks against Rohingya villages constitute serious human rights violations. As recalled by many victims, the security forces and the Rakhine Buddhist individuals incited hatred, violence and killings against the Rohingya population within northern Rakhine State through extremely derogatory abuse based on their religion, language and culture and ethnic identity. There are indications that violence is still ongoing at the time of writing this report.}}</ref><ref name="un_report_details_2017_10_11_reuters_guardian">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/11/rohingya-refugees-myanmar-aung-san-suu-kyi-un-report |title=UN report details brutal Myanmar effort to drive out half a million Rohingya |date=11 October 2017 |agency=[[Reuters]] |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=12 October 2017}}</ref> that, according to NGOs, the Bangladeshi government and international news media, left many dead, and many more injured, tortured or raped, with villages burned. The government of Myanmar has denied the allegations.
The Rohingya are quite different than other people in Burma. While most people in Burma are [[Buddhist]] and speak [[Burmese language|Burmese]], the Rohingya are [[Muslim]] and speak the [[Rohingya language]], which is quite similar to the [[Bengali language]] spoken in the neighboring country of Bangladesh. Because of these differences, a lot of people look down on the Rohingya and treat them wrong. They are worried that the Rohingya are not loyal to Burma and will try to take over the country, even though Rohingya are outnumbered by other groups.


==Nomenclature==
The Burmese government does not like the Rohingya people. They say that the Rohingya are Bengalis and do not belong in the country. Because of this, Rohingyas cannot do things that other people in Burma can, such as go to school and [[vote]].
The modern term Rohingya emerged from colonial and pre-colonial terms ''Rooinga'' and ''Rwangya''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs21/FCO-1952-12-31-The_Mujahid_Revolt_in_Arakan-en-red.pdf |title=The Mujahid revolt in Arakan|website=www.burmalibrary.org |access-date=8 January 2020|date=31 December 1952}}</ref> The Rohingya refer to themselves as ''Ruáingga'' {{IPA|/ɾuájŋɡa/}}. In Burmese they are known as ''rui hang gya'' (following the [[MLC Transcription System]]) ({{lang-my|ရိုဟင်ဂျာ}} {{IPA|/ɹòhɪ̀ɴd͡ʑà/}}) while in Bengali they are called ''Rohingga'' ({{lang-bn|রোহিঙ্গা}} {{IPA|/ɹohiŋɡa/}}). The term "Rohingya" may come from ''Rakhanga'' or ''Roshanga'', the words for the state of [[Rakhine State|Arakan]]. The word ''Rohingya'' would then mean "inhabitant of Rohang", which was the early Muslim name for Arakan.<ref name="auto" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/275016;jsessionid=7C5F9903ED0D23A031507806D08686D8?redirectedFrom=Rohingya#eid |title=Rohingya etymology at Oxford Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=11 February 2015}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{cite web |url=http://www.networkmyanmar.org/images/stories/PDF13/jacques-leider.pdf|title=Rohingya: A historical and linguistic note |date=26 August 2012 |access-date=9 February 2015 |website=Network Myanmar |last=Leider |first=Jacques P. }}</ref>


The usage of the term ''Rohingya'' has been historically documented prior to the [[British Raj]]. In 1799, [[Francis Buchanan]] wrote an article called "A Comparative Vocabulary of Some of the Languages Spoken in the Burma Empire", which was found and republished by Michael Charney in the ''[[SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research]]'' in 2003.<ref name="buchanan_burma">{{cite journal |last=Buchanan|first=Francis |author-link=Francis Buchanan |year=1799|title=A Comparative Vocabulary of Some of the Languages Spoken in the Burma Empire |url=http://www.soas.ac.uk/sbbr/editions/file64276.pdf |journal=Asiatic Researches |publisher=[[The Asiatic Society]] |volume=5 |pages=219–240 |access-date=9 July 2012}}</ref><ref name="Charney Arakan">{{cite news|last=Charney |first=Michael W.|title=A Comnparative vocabulary of some of the Languages Spoken in the Burma Empire |url=https://archive.org/details/AComparativeVocabularyOfSomeOfTheLanguagesSpokenInTheBurmaEmpire |work=[[SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research]] |date=8 April 2018 |access-date=8 April 2018}}</ref><ref name="leider_arakan">{{cite news|last=Leider |first=Jacques P.|title=Interview: History Behind Arakan State Conflict |url=http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/8642 |work=[[The Irrawaddy]] |date=9 July 2012 |access-date=9 July 2012}}</ref> Among the native groups of Arakan, he wrote are the: "''[[Mohammedan]]s'', who have long settled in ''Arakan'', and who call themselves ''Rooinga'', or natives of ''Arakan''."<ref name="Salim">{{Cite web|url=http://heritagetimes.in/rohingya-crisis-a-historical-perspective/|title=ROHINGYA CRISIS: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE|last=Salim|first=Saquib|website=HeritageTimes|access-date=23 September 2019}}</ref><ref name="buchanan_burma" /> The ''Classical Journal'' of 1811 identified "Rooinga" as one of the languages spoken in the "Burmah Empire". In 1815, [[Johann Severin Vater]] listed "Ruinga" as an ethnic group with a distinct language in a compendium of languages published in [[German language|German]].<ref name=Inside24>{{cite book|title=The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar's Hidden Genocide|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|first=Azeem |last=Ibrahim|pages=24–25}}</ref>
In the 2010s, the Burmese government started to put the Rohingya in [[concentration camps]] and not allow them to leave. They also took away their ID cards so that they can't say that they were seen as Burmese citizens in the past.


In 1936, when Burma was still under [[British Burma|British rule]], the "''Rohingya Jam’iyyat al Ulama''" was founded in Arakan.<ref name="Leider-2012-note">{{cite web |url=http://www.networkmyanmar.org/images/stories/PDF13/jacques-leider.pdf |title=" Rohingya " A historical and linguistic note |last=Leider |first=Jacques P. |date=26 August 2012 |website=Network Myanmar |page=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160429193644/http://www.networkmyanmar.org/images/stories/PDF13/jacques-leider.pdf |archive-date=29 April 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Leider-2012-presentation-slide23">{{cite web |url=http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs21/Jacques-P-Leider-2012-The_Muslims_in_Rakhine_and_the_political_project_of_the_Rohingyas-en.pdf#page=23 |title="The Muslims in Rakhine and the political project of the Rohingyas": Historical background of an unresolved communal conflict in contemporary Myanmar |last=Leider |first= Jacques P. |date=18 October 2012 |website=Online Burma/Myanmar Library |location=Yangon |at=slide 23 |type= presentation slides |format=PDF |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171015125701/http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs21/Jacques-P-Leider-2012-The_Muslims_in_Rakhine_and_the_political_project_of_the_Rohingyas-en.pdf |archive-date=15 October 2017 |url-status=live |access-date=15 October 2017}}</ref>{{refn |group=note |In a subsequent article, the same author notes the creation of an association of Muslim teachers in 1936 called "''JamiyatRohingyaUlema''"{{Sfn|Leider|2013|p=234}} or "''Jamiyat Rohingya Ulema''".<ref name="Leider-2014-p16">{{cite book |last=Leider |first=Jacques P. |date=28 January 2014 |chapter=Rohingya: The name. The movement. The quest for identity. |chapter-url=http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs21/Jacques-P-Leider-2014-01-28-Rohingya-The_Name-The_movement-The_quest_for_identity-en.pdf#page=17 |chapter-format=PDF |title=Nation Building in Myanmar |publisher=Myanmar Egress and the Myanmar Peace Center; Network Myanmar |page=16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171015130220/http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs21/Jacques-P-Leider-2014-01-28-Rohingya-The_Name-The_movement-The_quest_for_identity-en.pdf |archive-date=15 October 2017 |url-status=live |access-date=15 October 2017}}</ref> This may be a different translation for the name of the same organisation.}}
In 2017, the Burmese army started burning down Rohingya villages. They also killed a lot of Rohingya men and said that they were part of [[terrorist]] groups. However, most Rohingya are not involved in terrorism and just want to live peaceful lives.


According to [[Jacques Leider]], the Rohingya were referred to as "[[Chittagonian people|Chittagonians]]" during the British colonial period, and it was not controversial to refer to them as "Bengalis" until the 1990s.{{Sfn|Leider|2013|pp=210–211}} Leider also states that "there is no international consensus" on the use of the term Rohingya, as they are often called "Rohingya Muslims", "Muslim Arakanese" and "Burmese Muslims".<ref name=jpl-218>Leider 2013: 218</ref><ref group=note>See (Leider 2013) for a comprehensive survey of the academic opinion on the historical usage of the term. <br /> (Leider 2013: 216) citing Christina Fink: "small armed group of Muslims generally known as Rohingya". <br /> (Leider 2013: 215–216): Lewa in 2002 wrote that "the Rohingya Muslims are ethnically and religiously related to the Chittagonians of southern Bangladesh." <br /> Selth in 2003: "These are Bengali Muslims who live in Arakan State ... Most Rohingyas arrived with the British colonialists in the 19th and 20th centuries."</ref> Others, such as anthropologist Christina Fink, use Rohingya not as an ethnic identifier but as a political one.<ref>{{cite web |title=About Rohingya Ethnic |url=http://flotilla2arakan.com/2016/12/16/aboutrohingyaethnic/ |website=Flotilla 2 Arakan |access-date=27 October 2017}}</ref> Leider believes the Rohingya is a political movement that started in the 1950s to create "an autonomous Muslim zone" in Rakhine.<ref name=rl-208>Leider 2013: 208</ref>
In Bangladesh, a mass-[[Circumcision]], [[Sünnet]] like was done for Rohingya Muslim boys<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://news.act.id/en/berita/mass-circumcision-for-rohingya-refugee-children-in-bangladesh |title=Archived copy |access-date=2022-09-08 |archive-date=2022-09-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220908180645/https://news.act.id/en/berita/mass-circumcision-for-rohingya-refugee-children-in-bangladesh |url-status=dead }}</ref>


The government of Prime Minister [[U Nu]], when Burma was a democracy from 1948 to 1962, used the term "Rohingya" in radio addresses as a part of peace-building effort in Mayu Frontier Region.<ref name=WaPo>{{cite news |first=Adam |last=Taylor |title=The battle over the word 'Rohingya' |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/04/29/the-battle-over-the-word-rohingya/ |work=The Washington Post}}</ref> The term was broadcast on Burmese radio and was used in the speeches of Burmese rulers.<ref name="Ghosh2016" /> A [[UNHCR]] report on refugees caused by [[Operation King Dragon]] referred to the victims as "Bengali Muslims (called Rohingyas)".<ref name=jl-212-213>Leider 2013: 212–213</ref> Nevertheless, the term ''Rohingya'' wasn't widely used until the 1990s.<ref name=WaPo /><ref name=jl-212-213 /><ref name=jl-216>Leider 2013: 216</ref>
== References ==
{{reflist}}


Today the use of the name "Rohingya" is polarised. The government of Myanmar refuses to use the name.<ref name=WaPo /> In the 2014 census, the Myanmar government forced the Rohingya to identify themselves as "Bengali".<ref name=TimeRohingya>{{cite magazine |title=Why Burma is trying to stop people from using the name of its persecuted Muslim minority |url=http://time.com/4322396/burma-myanmar-rohingya-us-embassy-suu-kyi/ |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |first=Feliz |last= Solomon |date=9 May 2016 |access-date=8 January 2020}}</ref> Many Rohingya see the denial of their name similar to denying their basic rights,<ref name=jl-211>Leider 2013: 211</ref> and the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar has agreed.<ref name="un_expert_alarmed_2017_04_07_un" /> Jacques Leider writes that many Muslims in Rakhine simply prefer to call themselves "Muslim Arakanese" or "Muslims coming from Rakhine" instead of "Rohingya".<ref name=jpl-218 /><ref name="leider_arakan" /><ref name="Derek">{{cite news |url=http://blog.irrawaddy.org/2014/04/blog-post_52.html |title=The 'Rohingya' Identity – British experience in Arakan 1826–1948 |first=Derek |last=Tonkin |newspaper=The Irrawaddy |access-date=19 January 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150119082025/http://blog.irrawaddy.org/2014/04/blog-post_52.html |archive-date=19 January 2015 }}</ref> The [[United States]] embassy in [[Yangon]] continues to use the name "Rohingya".<ref name=TimeRohingya />
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Bangladesh]]
 
[[Category:Burmese people]]
==History==
{{Further|Arakan}}
{{Islam by country}}
 
===Early history===
The Rohingya population is concentrated in the historical region of [[Arakan]], an old coastal country in [[Southeast Asia]].
It is not clear who the original settlers of Arakan were. Burmese traditional history claims that the [[Rakhine people|Rakhine]] have inhabited Arakan since 3000 BCE but there is no archaeological evidence to support the claim.<ref name=TopichLeitich>{{cite book|author1=William J. Topich|author2=Keith A. Leitich|title=The History of Myanmar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DIuaa5yKv-sC&pg=PA17|date=9 January 2013|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-35725-1}}</ref> By the 4th century, Arakan became one of the earliest [[Indianized kingdom]]s in Southeast Asia. The first Arakanese state flourished in [[Dhanyawadi]]. Power then shifted to the city of [[Waithali]]. [[Sanskrit]] inscriptions in the region indicate that the founders of the first Arakanese states were Indian. Arakan was ruled by the [[Chandra dynasty]].<ref name="TopichLeitich2013">{{cite book|author1=William J. Topich|author2=Keith A. Leitich|title=The History of Myanmar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DIuaa5yKv-sC&pg=PA17|date=9 January 2013|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-35725-1|pages=17–22}}</ref> The British historian [[D. G. E. Hall|Daniel George Edward Hall]] stated that "The Burmese do not seem to have settled in Arakan until possibly as late as the tenth century CE. Hence earlier dynasties are thought to have been Indian, ruling over a population similar to that of Bengal.  All the capitals known to history have been in the north near modern [[Sittwe|Akyab]]".<ref>D. G. E Hall, ''A History of South East Asia'', New York, 1968, P. 389.</ref>
 
===Arrival of Islam===
Due to its coastline on the [[Bay of Bengal]], Arakan was a key centre of maritime trade and cultural exchange between Burma and the outside world, since the time of the Indian [[Mauryan Empire]].<ref name="Academy2003">{{cite book |author=British Academy |title=Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 121, 2002 Lectures |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Q0nkz1w8z0C&pg=PA76 |date=4 December 2003 |publisher=OUP/British Academy |isbn=978-0-19-726303-7 |page=76}}</ref> According to Syed Islam, a political science scholar, [[Arab people|Arab]] merchants had been in contact with Arakan since the third century, using the Bay of Bengal to reach Arakan.<ref name=ArakanArabs>{{cite book |title=A Handbook of Terrorism and Insurgency in Southeast Asia | author = Syed Islam|editor=Andrew T. H. Tan |page=327 |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing |year=2009}}</ref> A southern branch of the [[Silk Road]] connected India, Burma, and China since the [[neolithic]] period.<ref name="Stockwell2002">{{cite book |first=Foster |last=Stockwell |title=Westerners in China: A History of Exploration and Trade, Ancient Times through the Present |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sTlVP0u7JmsC&pg=PA15 |date=30 December 2002 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-8189-7 |page=15 }}</ref><ref name="Gan2009">{{cite book |first=Fuxi |last=Gan |title=Ancient Glass Research Along the Silk Road |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TVVkDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA70 |year=2009 |publisher=World Scientific |isbn=978-981-283-357-0 |page=70}}</ref> Arab traders are recorded in the coastal areas of southeast Bengal, bordering Arakan, since the 9th&nbsp;century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Arabs,_The |title=Arabs, The |access-date=8 January 2020 |website=Banglapedia}}</ref> The Rohingya population trace their history to this period.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/malaysia/maybr008-01.htm |title=Malaysia/Burma: Living In Limbo – Background |publisher=Human Rights Watch |access-date=8 January 2020}}</ref>
 
According to Syed Islam, the earliest Muslim settlements in the Arakan region began in the 7th-century. The Arab traders were also missionaries and they began converting the local Buddhist population to Islam by about 788 CE, states Syed Islam. Besides these locals converting to Islam, Arab merchants married local women and later settled in Arakan. As a result of intermarriage and conversion, the Muslim population in Arakan grew.<ref name=ArakanArabs /> This claim by Sayed Islam saying that, by 788 CE, locals in Arakan were being converted into Muslims clearly contradicts historian Yegar's findings which say, even in 1203, Bengal is the easternmost point of Islamic expansion, not to say further into Arakan.{{Sfn|Yegar|2002|p=23}}
 
The alternate view contests that Islam arrived in the Arakan region in the 1st-millennium. According to this view, this Rohingya history is not based on any evidence, rather is based on "fictitious stories, myths and legends".{{Sfn|Aye Chan|2005|pp=396–398}} According to Southeast Asian Buddhism history scholar and an ordained Buddhist monk Ashon Nyanuttara, there is scant historical data and archaeological evidence about the early political and religious history of the Arakan people and the Rakhaing region. The limited evidence available suggests that Buddhism, possibly the [[Mahayana]] tradition, was well established by the 4th-century in the region under the Candra Buddhist dynasty.<ref name="Nyanuttara2014">{{cite book|author=Ashon Nyanuttara|title=A Study of Buddhism in Arakan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JBzJrQEACAAJ|year=2014|publisher=Oo Thein Maung|isbn=978-0-615-94044-1|pages=–17, 19–20, 77–78 with footnote 119, 239–240}}</ref> Muslim community's expansion and the growth of Islam into the region came much later with Bengali Muslims from the region that is now a part of Bangladesh. Further, the term "Rohingya" does not appear in any regional text of this period and much later. That term was adopted by "a few Bengali Muslim intellectuals who were direct descendants of immigrants from Chittagong district [Bengal]" in the 20th-century, states historian Aye Chan.{{Sfn|Aye Chan|2005|pp=396–398}}<ref name="Nyanuttara2014"/>
 
===Kingdom of Mrauk U===
[[File:Muhghazi.jpg|thumb|A coin from Arakan used in the [[Bengal Sultanate]], minted {{circa}} 1554–1555]]
[[File:Vista de Mrauk-U, ou Arrakan (cidade de Arracão) no primeiro plano o bairro português.jpg|thumb|Set against the backdrop of the [[Arakan Mountains]], [[Mrauk U]] was home to a multiethnic population, including the poet [[Alaol]] ]]
[[File:Elephant in Battle.jpg|thumb|[[Shah Shuja (Mughal)|Prince Shah Shuja]] received [[Right of asylum|asylum]] in Arakan in 1660]]
The Rakhines were one of the tribes of the Burmese [[Pyu city-states]]. The Rakhines began migrating to Arakan through the [[Arakan Mountains]] in the 9th century. The Rakhines established numerous cities in the valley of the [[Lemro River]]. These included Sambawak I, Pyinsa, Parein, Hkrit, Sambawak II, Myohaung, Toungoo and Launggret. Burmese forces invaded the Rakhine cities in 1406.<ref name="TopichLeitich2013" /> The Burmese invasion forced Rakhine rulers to seek help and refuge from neighbouring Bengal in the north.<ref name="TopichLeitich2013" />
 
Early evidence of Bengali Muslim settlements in Arakan date back to the time of [[Min Saw Mon]] (1430–34) of the [[Kingdom of Mrauk U]]. After 24 years of exile in Bengal, he regained control of the Arakanese throne in 1430 with military assistance from the [[Bengal Sultanate]]. The [[Bengalis]] who came with him formed their own settlements in the region.{{Sfn|Aye Chan|2005|p=398}}{{Sfn|Yegar|2002|p=23}} The Santikan Mosque built in the 1430s,{{Sfn|Aye Chan|2005|p=398}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/150625-myanmar-burma-rohingya-refugees-archaeology-world/ |title=Lost Myanmar Empire Is Stage for Modern Violence |website=[[National Geographic (magazine)|National Geographic]] |date=26 June 2015}}</ref> features a court which "measures {{nowrap|65 ft}} from north to south and {{nowrap|82 ft}} from east to west; the shrine is a rectangular structure measuring {{nowrap|33 ft by 47 ft}}."<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Guide to Mrauk-U, an Ancient City of Rakhine, Myanmar |author= Tun Shwe Khine |date=1993 |publisher=U Tun Shwe, Pagan Book House |edition=1st |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/41893876/Guide-to-Mrauk-U-An-Ancient-City-of-Rakhaing-Myanmar}}</ref>
 
King Min Saw Mon ceded some territory to the Sultan of Bengal and recognised his sovereignty over the areas. In recognition of his kingdom's [[vassal state|vassal]] status, the Buddhist kings of Arakan received Islamic titles and used the Bengali [[gold dinar]] within the kingdom. Min Saw Mon minted his own coins with the [[Burmese alphabet]] on one side and the [[Persian alphabet]] on the other.{{Sfn|Yegar|2002|p=23}}
 
Arakan's vassalage to Bengal was brief. After Sultan [[Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah]]'s death in 1433, Narameikhla's successors invaded Bengal and occupied [[Ramu Upazila|Ramu]] in 1437 and Chittagong in 1459. Arakan would hold Chittagong until 1666.<ref name="app-78">Phayre 1883: 78</ref><ref name="geh-140-141">Harvey 1925: 140–141</ref>
 
Even after independence from the Sultans of Bengal, the Arakanese kings continued the custom of maintaining Muslim titles.{{Sfn|Yegar|2002|pp=23–24}} The Buddhist kings compared themselves to [[Sultan]]s and fashioned themselves after [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] rulers. They also continued to employ Muslims in prestigious positions within the royal administration.{{Sfn|Yegar|2002|p=24}} Some of them worked as [[Bengali language|Bengali]], [[Persian language|Persian]] and [[Arabic language|Arabic]] [[scribe]]s in the Arakanese courts, which, despite remaining Buddhist, adopted Islamic fashions from the neighbouring Bengal Sultanate.{{Sfn|Yegar|2002|p=24}}{{Sfn|Aye Chan|2005|p=398}}
 
The population increased in the 17th century, as slaves were brought in by Arakanese raiders and [[Portuguese settlement in Chittagong|Portuguese settlers]] following raids into Bengal.{{Sfn|Yegar|2002|p=24}}<ref name="auto" />{{Sfn|Aye Chan|2005|p=398}} Slaves included members of the Mughal nobility. A notable royal slave was [[Alaol]], a renowned poet in the Arakanese court. The slave population were employed in a variety of workforces, including in the king's army, commerce and agriculture.<ref name="auto" /><ref name="OrsiniSchofield2015">{{cite book|author1=Francesca Orsini|author2=Katherine Butler Schofield|title=Tellings and Texts: Music, Literature and Performance in North India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P0SlCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA424|date=5 October 2015|publisher=Open Book Publishers|isbn=978-1-78374-102-1|page=424|author1-link=Francesca Orsini}}</ref><ref>Rizvi, S.N.H. (1965). "East Pakistan District Gazetteers" (PDF). Government of East Pakistan Services and General Administration Department (1): 84. Retrieved 22 November 2016.</ref>
 
In 1660, [[Shah Shuja (Mughal)|Prince Shah Shuja]], the governor of [[Mughal Bengal]] and a claimant of the [[Peacock Throne]], fled to Arakan with his family after being defeated by his brother [[Emperor Aurangzeb]] during the [[Battle of Khajwa]]. Shuja and his entourage arrived in Arakan on 26 August 1660.<ref name="Manucci1907">{{cite book|first=Niccolò |last=Manucci |title=Storia Do Mogor: Or, Mogul India, 1653–1708|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1VEtAAAAMAAJ|year=1907|publisher=J. Murray}}</ref> He was granted [[Right of asylum|asylum]] by King [[Sanda Thudhamma]]. In December 1660, the Arakanese king confiscated Shuja's gold and jewellery, leading to an [[insurrection]] by the royal Mughal refugees. According to varying accounts, Shuja's family was killed by the Arakanese, while Shuja himself may have fled to a kingdom in [[Manipur]]. However, members of Shuja's entourage remained in Arakan and were recruited by the royal army, including as archers and court guards. They were king makers in Arakan until the Burmese conquest.<ref name="Osman2017">{{cite book|first=Mohamed Nawab Mohamed |last=Osman|title=Islam and Peacebuilding in the Asia-Pacific|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WwYrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA24|date=19 June 2017|publisher=World Scientific|isbn=978-981-4749-83-1|page=24}}</ref> The Arakanese continued their raids of Mughal Bengal. [[Dhaka]] was raided in 1625.<ref name="Smith2011">{{cite book|first=Stefan Halikowski |last=Smith|title=Creolization and Diaspora in the Portuguese Indies: The Social World of Ayutthaya, 1640–1720|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7lrHeQ0zB7sC&pg=PA225|date=23 September 2011|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-19048-1|page=225}}</ref>
 
Emperor Aurangzeb gave orders to his governor in Mughal Bengal, [[Shaista Khan]], to end what the Mughals saw as Arakanese-Portuguese [[piracy]].<ref name="Wheeler1874">{{cite book|first=James Talboys |last=Wheeler|title=The History of India from the Earliest Ages: pt. I. Mussulman rule. pt.II. Mogul empire. Aurangzeb|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VrRLA24a2h4C&pg=PA456|year=1874|publisher=N. Trübner|pages=456–457}}</ref><ref name="Farooqui2011">{{cite book|first=Salma Ahmed |last=Farooqui|title=A Comprehensive History of Medieval India: Twelfth to the Mid-Eighteenth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sxhAtCflwOMC&pg=PA261|year=2011|publisher=Pearson Education India|isbn=978-81-317-3202-1|pages=261–264}}</ref> In 1666, Shaista Khan led a {{nowrap|6000 man}} army and 288 warships to seize [[Chittagong]] from the Kingdom of Mrauk U.<ref>Trudy, Ring; M. Salkin, Robert; La Boda, Sharon; Edited by Trudy Ring (1996). International dictionary of historic places. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. {{ISBN|1-884964-04-4}}. Retrieved 21 June 2015.</ref> The Mughal expedition continued up till the [[Kaladan River]]. The Mughals placed the northern part of Arakan under its administration and vassalage.<ref>Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra; Pusalker, A. D.; Majumdar, A. K., eds. (2007) [First published 1974]. ''The History and Culture of the Indian People''. Volume VII: "The Mughal Empire." Mumbai: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.</ref>
 
===Burmese conquest===
Following the [[Konbaung Dynasty]]'s conquest of Arakan in 1785, as many as 35,000 people of the Rakhine State fled to the neighbouring [[Chittagong Division|Chittagong region]] of British Bengal in 1799 to escape persecution by the [[Bamar people|Bamar]] and to seek protection under the [[British Raj]].{{Sfn|Aye Chan|2005|pp=398–9}} The Bamar executed thousands of men and deported a considerable portion of the population to central Burma, leaving Arakan a scarcely populated area by the time the British occupied it.{{Sfn|Aye Chan|2005|p=399}}
 
According to an article on the "''Burma'' Empire" published by the British [[Francis Buchanan-Hamilton]] in 1799, "the ''[[Mohammedan]]s'', who have long settled in ''Arakan''", "call themselves ''Rooinga'', or natives of ''Arakan''".<ref name="buchanan_burma" /> However, according to Derek Tokin, Hamilton no longer used the term to refer to the Muslims in Arakan in his later publications.<ref name=Derek /> [[Sir Henry Yule]] saw many Muslims serving as [[eunuch]]s in [[Konbaung]] while on a diplomatic mission to the Burmese capital, Ava.<ref>Thant Myint-U (2007), p. 126 {{Google books|tsTOKi8l1ywC|The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma|page=126}}</ref>{{Sfn|Yegar|1972|p=10}}
 
===British colonial rule===
{{Further|Arakan Division}}
[[File:Possibly a Burmese Mosque (BOND 0531).jpg|thumb|left|An old mosque in [[Sittwe|Akyab]] during British rule]]
[[File:Akyab mosque 2.jpg|thumb|A mosque in Akyab]]
British policy encouraged Bengali inhabitants from adjacent regions to migrate into the then lightly populated and fertile valleys of Arakan as farm labourers. The [[East India Company]] extended the [[Bengal Presidency]] to Arakan. There was no international boundary between Bengal and Arakan and no restrictions on migration between the regions. In the early 19th century, thousands of Bengalis from the Chittagong region settled in Arakan seeking work.{{Sfn|Aye Chan|2005|p=403}}  It is hard to know whether these new Bengal migrants were the same population that was deported by force to Bengal's Chittagong during the Burmese conquest in the 18th century and later returned to Arakan as a result of British policy or they were a new migrant population with no ancestral roots to Arakan.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newmandala.org/the-rohingya-and-national-identities-in-burma/ |title=Rohingya and national identities in Burma |website=New Mandala |date=22 September 2014 |access-date=22 December 2017}}</ref>
 
The British census of 1872 reported 58,255 Muslims in Akyab District. By 1911, the Muslim population had increased to 178,647.{{Sfn|Aye Chan|2005|p=401}} The waves of migration were primarily due to the requirement of cheap labour from British India to work in the paddy fields. Immigrants from Bengal, mainly from the Chittagong region, "moved en masse into western townships of Arakan". Albeit Indian immigration to Burma was a nationwide phenomenon, not just restricted to Arakan.<ref name=tmu-2006-185-187>Myint-U 2006: 185–187</ref> For these reasons historians believed that most Rohingyas arrived with the British colonialists in the 19th and 20th centuries with some tracing their ancestry much further.{{Sfn|Leider|2013|pp=210-211}}


According to [[Thant Myint-U]], historian and adviser to President [[Thein Sein]], "At the beginning of the 20th century, Indians were arriving in Burma at the rate of no less than a quarter million per year. The numbers rose steadily until the peak year of 1927, immigration reached 480,000 people, with Rangoon exceeding New York City as the greatest immigration port in the world. This was out of a total population of only 13 million; it was equivalent to the United Kingdom today taking 2 million people a year." By then, in most of the largest cities in Burma, [[Rangoon]], [[Akyab]], [[Pathein|Bassein]] and [[Moulmein]], the Indian immigrants formed a majority of the population. All of Burma was officially a [[Presidencies and provinces of British India|Province]] within the [[British Raj|British Indian Empire]] ('the Raj') from November 1885 until 1937, when Burma became a separate [[Crown colony]] within the [[British Empire]]. The Burmese under British rule felt helpless, and reacted with a "racism that combined feelings of superiority and fear".<ref name="tmu-2006-185-187" /> Professor Andrew Selth of [[Griffith University]] writes that although a few Rohingya trace their ancestry to Muslims who lived in Arakan in the 15th and 16h centuries, most Rohingyas arrived with the British colonialists in the 19th and 20th centuries.{{Sfn|Leider|2013|p=7}}<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=Burma's Muslims: Terrorists or Terrorised?|last=Selth|first=Andrew |publisher=Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University|year=2003|isbn=978-0-7315-5437-9|location=Australia|page=7}}</ref> Most have argued that Rohingya existed from the four waves of Muslim migrations from the ancient times to medieval, to the British colony. Gutman (1976) and Ibrahim (2016) claiming that the Muslim population dates before the arrival of ethnic Rakhine in the 9th to 10th century. Suggesting the Rohingya are descendants of the of a pre-Arakan population who existed for 3 thousand years and waves of Muslim who intermingled forming modern Rohingya.<ref>Myanmar's 'Rohingya' Conflict By Anthony Ware, Costas Laoutides page 78 and 79 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3_hyDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA79</ref>


The impact of this immigration was particularly acute in Arakan. Although it boosted the colonial economy, local Arakanese bitterly resented it.<ref name="Economist1">{{cite news |title=The most persecuted people on Earth? |work=The Economist |date=13 June 2015|url=https://www.economist.com/news/asia/21654124-myanmars-muslim-minority-have-been-attacked-impunity-stripped-vote-and-driven |access-date=30 January 2017}}</ref> According to historian Clive J. Christie, "The issue became a focus for grass-roots Burmese nationalism, and in the years 1930–31 there were serious anti-Indian disturbances in Lower Burma, while 1938 saw riots specifically directed against the Indian Muslim community. As Burmese nationalism increasingly asserted itself before the Second World War, the 'alien' Indian presence inevitably came under attack, along with the religion that the Indian Muslims imported. The Muslims of northern Arakan were to be caught in the crossfire of this conflict."<ref>{{cite book|first=Clive J. |last=Christie|title=A Modern History of Southeast Asia: Decolonization, Nationalism and Separatism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ehCWYZ13SPsC&pg=PA164|date=15 February 1998|publisher=I.B. Tauris|isbn=978-1-86064-354-5|page=164}}</ref>
{{Asia-stub}}
 
In the 1931 census, the Muslim population of Burma was 584,839, 4% of the total population of 14,647,470 at the time. 396,504 were Indian Muslims and 1,474 Chinese Muslims, while 186,861 were Burmese Muslims. The census found a growth in the number of Indian Muslims born in Burma, primarily due to their permanent settlement in Akyab. 41% of Muslims of Burma lived in Arakan at that time.{{Sfn|Yegar|2002|p=385}}
 
====Shipping====
[[File:HMIS indus IWM ADNO 9148.jpg|thumb|A [[Royal Indian Navy]] ship in Akyab Harbour]]
Due to the terrain of the [[Arakan Mountains]], the Arakan region was mostly accessible by sea.<ref name="Minahan2002">{{cite book|first=James |last=Minahan|title=Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: Ethnic and National Groups Around the World A-Z &#91;4 Volumes&#93;|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZfnWCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA168|date=30 May 2002|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-07696-1|page=168}}</ref> In British Arakan Division, the port of [[Sittwe|Akyab]] had [[ferry]] services and a thriving trade with the ports of [[Port of Chittagong|Chittagong]], [[Port of Narayanganj|Narayanganj]], Dacca and Calcutta in [[British India]];<ref name="Munro2003">{{cite book|first=J. Forbes |last=Munro|title=Maritime Enterprise and Empire: Sir William Mackinnon and His Business Network, 1823–93|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dm6tSiRizBcC&pg=PA55|year=2003|publisher=Boydell Press|isbn=978-0-85115-935-5|page=55}}</ref> as well as with [[Rangoon]]. Akyab was one of the leading [[rice]] ports in the world, hosting ship fleets from Europe and China.<ref name="Hartwig1863">{{cite book|first=Georg |last=Hartwig|title=The Tropical World: a Popular Scientific Account of the Natural History of the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms in the Equatorial Regions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-uA8AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA159|year=1863 |publisher=Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green|page=159}}</ref> Many Indians settled in Akyab and dominated its seaport and hinterland. The 1931 census found 500,000 Indians living in Akyab.<ref name="BaylyHarper2005">{{cite book|author1=Christopher Alan Bayly|author2=Timothy Norman Harper|title=Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941–1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qXH9xGCWjYUC&pg=PA91|year=2005|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-01748-1|page=91}}</ref>
 
====Legislators====
Several Rohingyas were elected to Burmese native seats in the [[Legislative Council of Burma]] and [[Legislature of Burma]]. During the [[1936 Burmese general election]], [[Advocate]] U Pho Khaine was elected from [[Sittwe|Akyab]] West and [[Gani Markan]] was elected from [[Maungdaw]]-[[Buthidaung]]. In 1939, U Tanvy Markan was elected from Maungdaw-Buthidaung.
 
Their elections in the Burmese native category set them apart from immigrant Indian legislators.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs08/mag_arakan01-09.pdf |title=Arakan monthly |year=2009 |website=burmalibrary.org |access-date=14 June 2019}}</ref>
 
====World War II====
{{Main|Arakan massacres in 1942}}
[[File:Australian officers in Akyab, Burma.jpg|thumb|Australian officers with Rohingya men wearing typical [[lungi]]s]]
During World War II, the [[Imperial Japanese Army]] (IJA) invaded [[British rule in Burma|British-controlled Burma]]. The British forces retreated and in the power vacuum left behind, considerable inter-communal violence erupted between Arakanese and Muslim villagers. The British armed Muslims in northern Arakan in order to create a buffer zone that would protect the region from a Japanese invasion when they retreated<ref name="Field-Marshal Viscount William Slim 2009">{{cite book|title=Defeat Into Victory: Battling Japan in Burma and India, 1942–1945|first=Field-Marshal Viscount William |last=Slim|year=2009|publisher=Pan|location=London|isbn=978-0-330-50997-8}}</ref> and to counteract the largely pro-Japanese [[Rakhine people|ethnic Rakhines]].<ref name="auto" /> The period also witnessed violence between groups loyal to the British and the Burmese nationalists.<ref name="Field-Marshal Viscount William Slim 2009" /> The [[Arakan massacres in 1942]] involved [[communal violence]] between British-armed [[V Force]] Rohingya recruits and {{no-wrap|pro-Japanese Rakhines}}, polarising the region along ethnic lines.<ref name=":2" />
 
Tensions boiling in Arakan before the war erupted during the [[South-East Asian theatre of World War II|Japanese invasion of Southeast Asia]] and Arakan became the frontline in the conflict. The war resulted in a complete breakdown of civil administration and consequent development of habits of lawlessness exacerbated by the availability of modern [[firearms]]. The Japanese advance triggered an inter-communal conflict between Muslims and Buddhists. The Muslims fled towards British-controlled Muslim-dominated northern Arakan from Japanese-controlled Buddhist-majority areas. This stimulated a "reverse ethnic cleansing" in British-controlled areas, particularly around Maungdaw. Failure of a British counter-offensive, attempted from December 1942 to April 1943, resulted in the abandonment of even more of the Muslim population as well as an increase in inter-communal violence.<ref name=CliveJ>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ehCWYZ13SPsC&pg=PA165|title=A Modern History of Southeast Asia: Decolonization, Nationalism and Separatism|publisher=I.B. Tauris|pages=164, 165–167|year=1998|first=Clive J.|last=Christie|isbn=9781860643545}}</ref>
 
Moshe Yegar, a [[research fellow]] at Truman Institute, [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]], noted that hostility had developed between the Muslims and the Buddhists who had brought about a similar hostility in other parts of Burma. This tension was let loose with the retreat of the British. With the approach of the Japanese into Arakan, the Buddhists instigated cruel measures against the Muslims. Thousands, though the exact number is unknown, fled from Buddhist-majority regions to eastern Bengal and northern Arakan with many being killed or dying of starvation. The Muslims in response conducted retaliatory raids from British-controlled areas, causing Buddhists to flee to southern Arakan.{{Sfn|Yegar|2002|pp=33–35}}
 
Aye Chan, a historian at [[Kanda University of International Studies|Kanda University]] in Japan, has written that as a consequence of acquiring arms from the British during World War II, Rohingyas{{refn|The term was not used during this period.|group = note|name = term}} tried to destroy the Arakanese villages instead of resisting the Japanese. Chan agrees that hundreds of Muslims fled to northern Arakan, though states that the accounts of atrocities on them were exaggerated. In March 1942, Rohingyas from northern Arakan killed around 20,000 Arakanese. In return, around 5,000 Muslims in the [[Minbya Township|Minbya]] and [[Mrauk-U Township]]s were killed by Rakhines and [[Red Karen]]s.<ref name=kzt>{{cite web |title=Background of Rohingya Problem |author=Kyaw Zan Tha, MA |date=July 2008 |page=1 |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/12964670/Background-of-Rohingya-Problem |via=Scribd}}</ref><ref name="aye-chan">{{cite journal|last=Chan ([[Kanda University of International Studies]])|first=Aye|date=Autumn 2005|title=The Development of a Muslim Enclave in Arakan (Rakhine) State of Burma (Myanmar)|journal=[[SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research]]|volume=3|issue=2|pages=396–420|issn=1479-8484 |url=http://www.soas.ac.uk/sbbr/editions/file64388.pdf|access-date=3 July 2013}}</ref>
 
As in the rest of Burma, the IJA committed acts of rape, murder and torture against Muslims in Arakan.<ref>{{cite book|title=Genocide and gross human rights violations: in comparative perspective|first=Kurt |last=Jonassohn|year=1999|publisher=Transaction Publishers|page=263|isbn=978-0-7658-0417-4}}</ref> During this period, some 22,000 Muslims in Arakan were believed to have crossed the border into [[Bengal]], then part of British India, to escape the violence.<ref>{{cite book|title=Protracted displacement in Asia: no place to call home|first=Howard |last=Adelman|year=2008|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|page=86|isbn=978-0-7546-7238-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Burma/Bangladesh: Burmese refugees in Bangladesh: still no durable solution|author=Human Rights Watch (Organization)|year=2000|publisher=Human Rights Watch|page=6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Asian profile, Volume 21|year=1993|publisher=Asian Research Service|page=312}}</ref> The exodus was not restricted to Muslims in Arakan. Thousands of Burmese Indians, Anglo-Burmese and British who settled during the colonial period emigrated ''en masse'' to India.
 
To facilitate their reentry into Burma, the British formed Volunteer Forces with Rohingya. Over the three years during which the Allies and Japanese fought over the Mayu peninsula, the Rohingya recruits of the V-Force, engaged in a campaign against Arakanese communities, using weapons provided by V-Force.<ref name=":2">{{cite book |title=Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941–1945 |url=https://archive.org/details/forgottenarmiesf00bayl |url-access=registration |publisher=Harvard University Press |first1=Christopher |last1=Bayly |first2=Tim |last2=Harper |year=2005 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/forgottenarmiesf00bayl/page/383 383–384] |isbn=978-0-14-029331-9}}</ref> According to the secretary of the [[Governor of Burma|British governor]], the [[V Force]], instead of fighting the Japanese, destroyed Buddhist monasteries, pagodas, and houses, and committed atrocities in northern Arakan. The [[British Army]]'s [[liaison officer]], Anthony Irwin, on the other hand, praised the role of the V Force.<ref>{{cite book |title=Burmese Outpost (Memoirs of a British Officer who fought in Arakan with the Arakanese V Forces during the Second World War) |publisher=Collins |first=Anthony |last=Irwin |year=1945 |location=London |page=21}}</ref>{{Sfn|Aye Chan|2005|pp=406–407}}
 
====Pakistan Movement====
During the [[Pakistan Movement]] in the 1940s, Rohingya Muslims in western Burma organised a separatist movement to merge the region into [[East Pakistan]].{{Sfn|Yegar|1972|p=10}} The commitments of the British regarding the status of Muslims after the [[World War II|war]] are not clear. V Force officers like Andrew Irwin felt that Muslims along with other minorities must be rewarded for their loyalty. Muslim leaders believed that the British had promised them a "Muslim National Area" in Maungdaw region. They were also apprehensive of a future Buddhist-dominated government. In 1946, calls were made for annexation of the territory by Pakistan as well as of an independent state.<ref name=CliveJ />{{Sfn|Yegar|2002|pp=33–35}} Before the [[Burma Campaign|independence]] of Burma in January 1948, Muslim leaders from Arakan addressed themselves to [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]], the founder of Pakistan, and asked his assistance in incorporating the Mayu region to [[Pakistan]] considering their religious affinity and geographical proximity with East Pakistan.{{Sfn|Yegar|1972|p=10}} The North Arakan Muslim League was founded in Akyab (modern Sittwe) two months later.{{Sfn|Yegar|1972|p=10}} The proposal never materialised since it was reportedly turned down by Jinnah, saying that he was not in a position to interfere in Burmese matters.{{Sfn|Yegar|1972|p=10}}
 
====Post-WWII migration====
The numbers and the extent of post-independence immigration from [[Bangladesh]] are subject to controversy and debate. In a 1955 study published by [[Stanford University]], the authors Virginia Thompson and Richard Adloff write, "The post-war (World War II) illegal immigration of Chittagonians into that area was on a vast scale, and in the Maungdaw and Buthidaung areas they replaced the Arakanese."<ref name=":6">{{Cite book|title=Minority Problems in Southeast Asia|last1=Adloff|first1=Richard|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=1955|location=United States|page=154|last2=Thompson|first2=Virginia}}</ref> The authors further argue that the term ''Rohingya, ''in the form of ''Rwangya, ''first appeared to distinguish settled population from newcomers: "The newcomers were called Mujahids (crusaders), in contrast to the Rwangya or settled Chittagonian population."<ref name=":6" /> According to the [[International Crisis Group]] (ICG), these immigrants were actually the Rohingyas who were displaced by World War II and began to return to Arakan after the independence of Burma but were rendered as illegal immigrants, while many were not allowed to return.{{Sfn|Crisis Group|2014|p=i}} ICG adds that there were "some 17,000" refugees from the Bangladesh liberation war who "subsequently returned home".{{Sfn|Crisis Group|2014|p=i}}
 
===Burmese independence===
[[File:M. A. Gaffar Rohingya.jpg|thumb|200px|[[M. A. Gaffar]], a member of Burma's constituent assembly, called for recognising Rohingyas in 1948]]
On 25 September 1954, the then Prime Minister U Nu in his radio address to the nation talked about Rohingya Muslims’ political loyalty to predominantly Buddhist Burma. This usage of the term ‘Rohingya’ is important in the sense that today Myanmar denies to accept this category altogether and calls them ’Bengali’. During the same time a separate administrative zone May Yu was established comprising most of the present North Rakhine State, which had Rohingya as its majority ethnic group. One of the objectives of this Muslim majority zone was to ‘strive for peace with Pakistan’. Brigadier Aung Gyi,  one of the deputies of General Ne Win, in 1961 explained Rohingya as; “On the west, May Yu district borders with Pakistan. As is the case with all borderlands communities, there are Muslims on both sides of the borders. Those who are on Pakistan’s side are known as Pakistani while the Muslims on our Burmese side of the borders are referred to as ‘Rohingya’.<ref name="Salim"/> But since [[1962 Burmese coup d'état|Burma's military junta]] took control of the country in 1962, the Rohingya have been systematically deprived of their political rights.<ref name="rfa.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.rfa.org/english/multimedia/rohingyaPage-04122010151733.html/RohingyaFactSheet-04132010102750.html|title=Who are the Rohingya?|publisher=Radio Free Asia}}</ref> In 1962 military dictator General Ne Win, took over the government and started implementing a Nationalist agenda, which had its roots in racial discrimination. In 1978 military government launched operation Nagamin to separate nationals from non-nationals. This was the first concerted large scale violent attack on Rohingya. National Registration Cards (NRC) were taken away by state actors never to be replaced. Violence that followed forced 200,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh. Bangladesh denied Rohingya admission into her territory and blocked food rations leading to death of 12,000 of them. After bilateral negotiations Rohingya were repatriated.<ref name="Salim"/>
 
====Rohingya political participation in Burma====
In the prelude to independence, two Rohingyas were elected to the [[Legislature of Burma|Constituent Assembly of Burma]] in 1947, [[M. A. Gaffar]] and [[Sultan Ahmed (Parliamentary Secretary)|Sultan Ahmed]]. After Burma became independent in 1948, M. A. Gaffar presented a [[memorandum]] of appeal to the Government of the [[Union of Burma]] calling for the recognition of the term "Rohingya", based on local Indian names of Arakan (Rohan and Rohang), as the official name of the ethnicity. Sultan Ahmed, who served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Minorities, was a member of the Justice [[Ba U|Sir Ba U]] Commission charged with exploring whether Arakan Division should be granted statehood. During the [[1951 Burmese general election]], five Rohingyas were elected to the [[Parliament of Burma]], including one of the country's first two female MPs, [[Zura Begum]]. Six MPs were elected during the [[1956 Burmese general election]] and subsequent [[by-election]]s. [[Sultan Mahmud (minister)|Sultan Mahmud]], a former politician in British India, became Minister of Health in the cabinet of [[Prime Minister of Burma]] [[U Nu]]. In 1960, Mahmud suggested that either Rohingya-majority northern Arakan remain under the central government or be made a separate province. However, during the [[1960 Burmese general election]], Prime Minister U Nu's pledges included making all of Arakan into one province. The [[1962 Burmese coup d'état]]  ended the country's [[Westminster]]-style political system. The 1982 Burmese citizenship law stripped most of the Rohingyas of their stake in citizenship.
 
Rohingya community leaders were supportive of the [[8888 uprising]] for democracy. During the [[1990 Burmese general election]], the Rohingya-led [[Democracy and Human Rights Party|National Democratic Party for Human Rights]] won four seats in the Burmese parliament. The four Rohingya MPs included [[Shamsul Anwarul Huq]], [[Chit Lwin Ebrahim]], [[Fazal Ahmed]] and [[Nur Ahmed]]. The election was won by the [[National League for Democracy]] led by [[Aung San Suu Kyi]], who was placed under house arrest and not permitted to become prime minister. The [[State Law and Order Restoration Council|Burmese military junta]] banned the National Democratic Party for Human Rights in 1992. Its leaders were arrested, jailed and tortured.
 
Rohingya politicians have been jailed to disbar them from contesting elections. In 2005, Shamsul Anwarul Huq was charged under Section 18 of the controversial 1982 Burmese citizenship law and sentenced to 47 years in prison. In 2015, a ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party MP [[Shwe Maung (politician)|Shwe Maung]] was disbarred from the [[2015 Burmese general election]], on grounds that his parents were not Burmese citizens under the 1982 citizenship law.<ref>{{cite news |date=24 August 2015 |title=Sitting Rohingya MP in Myanmar plans to appeal election ban |first=Timothy |last=Mclaughlin |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-politics/sitting-rohingya-mp-in-myanmar-plans-to-appeal-election-ban-idUSKCN0QT1A920150824}}</ref>
 
As of 2017, Burma does not have a single Rohingya MP and the Rohingya population have no [[voting right]]s.<ref>{{cite news |first=Poppy |last=McPherson |date=2 November 2015 |title=No vote, no candidates: Myanmar's Muslims barred from their own election |newspaper=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/03/no-vote-no-candidates-myanmars-muslims-barred-from-their-own-election}}</ref>
 
===Mayu Frontier District===
{{Main|Mayu Frontier District}}
A separate administrative zone for the Rohingya-majority northern areas of Arakan existed between 1961 and 1964. Known as the [[Mayu Frontier District]], the zone was set up by Prime Minister U Nu after the 1960 Burmese general election, on the advice of his health minister Sultan Mahmud. The zone was administered directly from [[Rangoon]] by the national government. After the Burmese military coup in 1962, the zone was administered by the Burmese army. It was transferred to the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1964 by the [[Union Revolutionary Council]]. The socialist military government inducted the zone into Arakan State in 1974.
 
===Expulsion of Burmese Indians===
[[Racism]] towards people with links to the Indian subcontinent increased after the 1962 Burmese coup. The [[Burmese Way to Socialism|socialist military government]] nationalised all property, including many enterprises of the white collar Burmese Indian community. Between 1962 and 1964, 320,000 Burmese Indians were forced to leave the country.<ref name="EmberEmber2004">{{cite book|author1=Melvin Ember|author2=Carol R. Ember|author3=Ian Skoggard|title=Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World. Volume I: Overviews and Topics; Volume II: Diaspora Communities|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7QEjPVyd9YMC&pg=PA291|date=30 November 2004|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-0-306-48321-9|page=291}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first=Shoaib |last=Daniyal |url=https://scroll.in/article/850199/forgotten-history-like-the-rohingya-indians-too-were-once-driven-out-of-myanmar |title=Why India should intervene in Myanmar crisis: Like Rohingyas, Indians were once driven out of Burma |date=12 September 2017 |access-date=22 December 2017}}</ref>
 
===Refugee crisis of 1978===
As a result of [[Operation King Dragon]] by the Burmese junta, the first wave of Rohingya refugees entered Bangladesh in 1978. An estimated 200,000 Rohingyas took shelter in Cox's Bazaar. Diplomatic initiatives over 16 months resulted in a repatriation agreement, which allowed the return of most refugees under a process facilitated by [[UNHCR]].<ref name="burmalibrary.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs/Abrar-repatriation.htm|title=Repatriation of Rohingya Refugees|website=burmalibrary.org |access-date=8 January 2020}}</ref> The return of refugees to Burma has been the second largest repatriation process in Asia after the return of Cambodian refugees from Thailand.<ref name="burmalibrary.org" />
 
===1982 Citizenship Law===
In 1982, the [[Myanmar nationality law|citizenship law]] enacted by the [[Military of Burma|Burmese military junta]] did not list the Rohingya as one of the 135 "[[Ethnic groups in Myanmar|national races]]"  of Burma. This made much of the Rohingya population in Burma [[Statelessness|stateless]] in their historical homeland of [[Arakan]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/bangladesh-plight-rohingya |title=Bangladesh: The Plight of the Rohingya |date=18 September 2012}}</ref> General Ne Win drafted Citizenship Act in 1982, which denied citizenship rights to any community/group that was not listed in a survey conducted by British in 1824. All other ethnic groups were considered aliens to the land or invaders. Eight major ethnicities Arakan, Chin, Kachin, Karen, Kayah, Mon, Shan, and Burmese were broken into 135 small ethnic groups. Groups like Rohingya who do not belong to any of these 135 ethnicities were denied citizenship rights. Taking into account just one survey for defining the history of a group of people is highly problematic. It overlooks the fact that Rohingya were mentioned in records earlier to this survey.
 
Scholars like Maung Zarni have argued that Burmese military ‘encoded its anti-Indian and anti-Muslim racism in its laws and policies’. He further argues;
 
“The 1982 Citizenship Act serves as the state’s legal and ideological foundation on which all forms of violence, execution, restrictions, and human rights crimes are justified and committed with state impunity if carried out horizontally by the local ultra-nationalist Rakhine Buddhists.
 
In light of the on-the-ground link between the legalised removal of citizenship from the Rohingya and the implementation of a permanent set of draconian laws and policies—as opposed to periodic “anti-immigration” operations—amount to the infliction on the Rohingya of conditions of life designed to bring about serious bodily and mental harm and to destroy the group in whole or in part. As such, the illegalisation of the Rohingya in Myanmar is an indication of the intent of the State to both remove the Rohingya permanently from their homeland and to destroy the Rohingya as a group.”<ref name="Salim"/>
 
===Refugee crisis of 1991–1992===
After Burmese military junta began persecuting the political opposition following [[Aung San Suu Kyi]]'s victory in the [[1990 Myanmar general election|1990 election]] and the earlier [[1988 Uprising]], military operations targeting Muslims (who strongly favoured the pro-democracy movement) began in Arakan State. The Rohingya-led [[Democracy and Human Rights Party|NDPHR]] political party was banned and its leaders were jailed. Suu Kyi herself was placed under house arrest by the junta led by General [[Than Shwe]].
 
As the Burmese military increased its operations across the country, the Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung townships in northern Arakan became centers of persecution. The 23rd and 24th&nbsp;regiments of the [[Tatmadaw]] (Myanmar Army) were responsible for promoting [[forced labour]], [[rape]], the confiscation of houses, land and farm animals, the destruction of mosques, a ban on religious activities and the harassment of the religious priests.<ref name="burmalibrary.org" /> An estimated 250,000&nbsp;refugees crossed over into Bangladesh.<ref name="burmalibrary.org" /> In Bangladesh, the refugee influx was a challenge for the newly elected government of the country's first female prime minister [[Khaleda Zia]] (who headed the first parliamentary government since 1975). Both Bangladesh and Burma mobilised thousands of troops along the border during the crisis. The government of Bangladesh emphasised a peaceful resolution of the crisis.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/12/26/Bangladesh-plays-down-border-tension-with-Burma/2847693723600/ |title=Bangladesh plays down border tension with Burma |publisher=[[United Press International]]|access-date=8 January 2020 |date=26 December 1991}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/12/24/Bangladesh-builds-up-troops-on-Burmese-border/1382693550800/ |title=Bangladesh builds up troops on Burmese border |publisher=United Press International |access-date=8 January 2020 |date=24 December 1991}}</ref>
 
After diplomatic negotiations, a repatriation agreement was put in place to allow the return of refugees to Burma under a [[UNHCR]]-supervised process.<ref name="burmalibrary.org" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.washdiplomat.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16423&Itemid=436 |title=Poverty-stricken Bangladesh struggles to absorb Rohingya refugees from  |date=29 November 2017 |website=washdiplomat.com |access-date=8 January 2020}}</ref>
 
===Name change from Arakan to Rakhine State===
In 1989, the junta officially changed the name of Burma to [[Myanmar]]. In the 1990s, the junta changed the name of the province of Arakan to [[Rakhine State]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Arakanese |series=Arakanese |title=Definition, Location, & Ancient Kingdom |access-date=8 January 2020}}</ref> which showed a bias towards the [[Rakhine people|Rakhine]] community, even though the Rohingya formed a substantial part of the population. The name of the region was historically known as [[Arakan]] for centuries.
 
====Denial of the "Rohingya" term====
The colloquial term ''Rohingya'' can be traced back to the pre-colonial period. The Rohingya community have also been known as Arakanese Indians and Arakanese Muslims.<ref>{{cite book |first=Clive J. |last=Christie |title=A Modern History of Southeast Asia: Decolonization, Nationalism and Separatism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ehCWYZ13SPsC&pg=PA165|date=15 February 1998 |publisher=I.B.Tauris |isbn=978-1-86064-354-5 |page=165}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Colin Clarke |author2=Ceri Peach |author3=Steven Vertovec |date=26 October 1990 |title=South Asians Overseas: Migration and Ethnicity |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=46 |isbn=978-0-521-37543-6}}</ref> Since the 1982 [[Myanmar nationality law|citizenship law]], Burmese juntas and governments have strongly objected to the usage of the term of Rohingya, preferring to label the community as "bengali illegal immigrants". The derogatory slur ''kalar'' is widely used in Myanmar against the Rohingya.<ref name="time.com">{{cite magazine |url=http://time.com/4322396/burma-myanmar-rohingya-us-embassy-suu-kyi/ |title=Burma's war on the term 'Rohingya' |magazine=Time Magazine}}</ref> Myanmar's government has often pressured diplomats and foreign delegates against uttering the term ''Rohingya''.<ref name="time.com" />
 
===Conflict in Arakan===
The Rakhine for their part felt discriminated against by the governments in Rangoon dominated by the ethnic Burmese with one Rakhine politician saying, "we are therefore the victims of Muslimisation and Burmese chauvinism."<ref name="Economist1" /> ''[[The Economist]]'' wrote in 2015 that from the 1940s on and right to this day, the Burmens have seen and see themselves as victims of the [[British Empire]] while the Rakhine see themselves as victims of the British and the Burmens; both groups were and are so intent upon seeing themselves as victims that neither has much sympathy for the Rohingyas.<ref name="Economist1" />
 
After Jinnah's refusal to accept northern Arakan into the [[Dominion of Pakistan]], some Rohingya elders who supported a ''[[jihad]]'' movement, founded the ''Mujahid'' party in northern Arakan in 1947.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Talibanization of Southeast Asia: Losing the War on Terror to Islamist Extremists |first=Bilveer |last=Singh |year=2007 |page=42 |isbn=978-0-275-99995-7}}</ref> The aim of the Mujahid party was to create an autonomous [[Islamic state]] in Arakan. By the 1950s, they began to use the term "Rohingya" which may be a continuation of the term Rooinga to establish a distinct identity and identify themselves as indigenous. They were much more active before the [[1962 Burmese coup d'état]] by [[Ne Win|General Ne Win]], a Burmese general who began his military career fighting for the Japanese in World War II. Ne Win carried out military operations against them over a period of two decades. The prominent one was [[King Dragon operation in Arakan|Operation King Dragon]], which took place in 1978; as a result, many Muslims in the region fled to neighbouring Bangladesh as refugees.<ref>"Burma/Bangladesh: Burmese Refugees In Bangladesh - Historical Background". Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 22 March 2018.</ref> In addition to Bangladesh, a large number of Rohingyas also migrated to [[Karachi]], Pakistan.<ref name="huffington">{{cite news |first=Derek Henry |last=Flood |title=From South to South: Refugees as Migrants: The Rohingya in Pakistan |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/derek-henry-flood/from-south-to-south-refug_b_100387.html |newspaper=HuffPost |date=12 May 2008 |access-date=11 February 2015}}</ref> Rohingya [[mujahideen]] are still active within the remote areas of Arakan.<ref>[http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/NEWS-14.htm Global Muslim News (Issue 14)] July–Sept 1996, ''Nida'ul Islam magazine''.</ref>
 
From 1971 to 1978, a number of Rakhine monks and Buddhists staged hunger strikes in Sittwe to force the government to tackle immigration issues which they believed to be causing a demographic shift in the region.<ref>{{cite book |title=Civil Insurgency in Burma|last=Aung |first=Thit |publisher=Ministry of Information |year=1988 |location=Yangon |page=30}}</ref> Ne Win's government requested UN to repatriate the war refugees and launched military operations which drove off around 200,000&nbsp;people to Bangladesh. In 1978, the Bangladesh government protested against the Burmese government concerning "the expulsion by force of thousands of Burmese Muslim citizens to Bangladesh". The Burmese government responded that those expelled were Bangladesh citizens who had resided illegally in Burma. In July 1978, after intensive negotiations mediated by UN, Ne Win's government agreed to take back 200,000 refugees who settled in Arakan.{{Sfn|Yegar|2002|p=56}} In the same year as well as in 1992, a joint statement by governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh "acknowledged that the Rohingya were lawful Burmese residents".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://intpolicydigest.org/2017/02/06/burma-hypocrisy-clashes-morality/ |title=Burma: Where Hypocrisy Clashes with Morality |first=Cynthia |last=Lardner |date=6 February 2017 |website=International Policy Digest}}</ref> In 1982, the Burmese government enacted the citizenship law and declared the "Bengalis" are foreigners.{{Sfn|Yegar|2002|p=59}}
 
There are widespread beliefs among Rakhine people that significant number of immigrants arrived even after the 1980s when the border was relatively unguarded. However, there is no documentation proof for these claims as the last census was conducted in 1983.<ref name=":5" /> Successive Burmese governments have fortified the border and built up border guard forces.
 
===After 1988 Burmese pro-democracy uprising===
Since the 1990s, a new 'Rohingya' movement which is distinct from the 1950s armed rebellion has emerged. The new movement is characterised by lobbying internationally by overseas diaspora, establishing indigenous claims by Rohingya scholars, publicising the term "Rohingya" and denying Bengali origins by Rohingya politicians.<ref name=":7" />
 
Rohingya scholars{{who|date=March 2018}} have claimed that Rakhine was previously an Islamic state for a millennium, or that Muslims were king-makers of Rakhine kings for 350 years. They often traced the origin of Rohingyas to Arab seafarers. These claims have been rejected as "newly invented myths" in academic circles.<ref name=":4" /> Some Rohingya politicians have labelled Burmese and international historians as "Rakhine sympathizers" for rejecting the purported historical origins.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.mizzima.com/mizzima-news/myanmar/item/17724-un-under-fire-over-resident-coordinator-s-advisor-on-rakhine/17724-un-under-fire-over-resident-coordinator-s-advisor-on-rakhine |title=UN under fire over resident coordinator's advisor on Rakhine |last=McLaughlin |first=Tim |date=13 February 2015 |work=Mizzima.com |access-date=20 February 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150219214055/http://www.mizzima.com/mizzima-news/myanmar/item/17724-un-under-fire-over-resident-coordinator-s-advisor-on-rakhine/17724-un-under-fire-over-resident-coordinator-s-advisor-on-rakhine |archive-date=19 February 2015 }}</ref>
 
The movement has garnered sharp criticisms from ethnic Rakhines and Kamans, the latter of whom are a recognised Muslim ethnic group in Rakhine. Kaman leaders support citizenship for Muslims in northern Rakhine but believe that the new movement is aimed at achieving a self-administered area or Rohang State as a separate [[Islamic state]] carved out of Rakhine, and condemn the movement.{{Sfn|Crisis Group|2014|p=23}}
 
Rakhines' views are more critical. Citing Bangladesh's overpopulation and density, Rakhines perceive the Rohingyas as "the vanguard of an unstoppable wave of people that will inevitably engulf Rakhine".{{Sfn|Crisis Group|2014|p=14}} However, for moderate Rohingyas, the aim may have been no more than to gain citizenship status. Moderate Rohingya politicians agree to compromise on the term Rohingya if citizenship is provided under an alternative identity that is neither "Bengali" nor "Rohingya". Various alternatives including "Rakhine Muslims", "Myanmar Muslims" or simply "Myanmar" have been proposed.<ref name="Derek" />{{Sfn|Crisis Group|2014|p=32}}
 
===Burmese juntas (1990–2011)===
The military junta that ruled Myanmar for half a century relied heavily on mixing Burmese nationalism and [[Theravada]] Buddhism to bolster its rule, and, in the view of the US government, heavily discriminated against minorities like the Rohingyas. Some pro-democracy dissidents from Myanmar's ethnic Bamar majority do not consider the Rohingyas compatriots.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rfa.org/english/east-asia-beat/rohingya-06122012225150.html |title=Violence Throws Spotlight on Rohingya |publisher=Radio Free Asia |access-date=18 October 2013}}</ref><ref name=nyt-20120712>{{cite news |first=Moshahida Sultana |last=Ritu |date=12 July 2012 |title=Ethnic Cleansing in Myanmar |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/13/opinion/ethnic-cleansing-of-myanmars-rohingyas.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=13 July 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Hanna |last=Hindström |date=25 July 2012 |title=Burma's monks call for Muslim community to be shunned |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/burmas-monks-call-for-muslim-community-to-be-shunned-7973317.html |newspaper=The Independent }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |first=Hanna |last=Hindström |date=14 June 2012 |title=The Freedom to Hate |magazine=Foreign Policy |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/06/14/the_freedom_to_hate}}</ref>
 
Successive Burmese governments have been accused of provoking riots led by Buddhist monks against ethnic minorities like the Rohingyas<ref>{{cite book |last1=DeRouen |first1=Karl R. |last2=Heo |first2=Uk |date=2007 |title=Civil Wars of the World: Major Conflicts Since World War II |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nrN077AEgzMC&pg=PA530 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=530 |isbn=978-1-85109-919-1 |access-date=12 April 2011}}</ref> In the 1990s, more than 250,000 Rohingya fled to refugee camps in Bangladesh.  In the early 2000s, all but 20,000 of them were repatriated to Myanmar, some against their will.<ref>{{cite web|last=Thompson|first=Larry |year=2005|title= Bangladesh: Burmese Rohingya refugees virtual hostages |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/bangladesh-burmese-rohingya-refugees-virtual-hostages|website=reliefweb.int| access-date= 6 October 2017}}</ref> In 2009, a senior Burmese envoy to Hong Kong branded the Rohingyas "ugly as ogres" and a people that are alien to Myanmar.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j_x2afxfntqJUV3PuaTz6Jy12_Yg |title=Myanmar envoy brands boatpeople 'ugly as ogres': report |work=Agence France-Presse |date=10 February 2009 |access-date=18 October 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140219173010/https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j_x2afxfntqJUV3PuaTz6Jy12_Yg |archive-date=19 February 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Fuller |first=Thomas |date=15 June 2012 |title=New Freedom Lets Burmese Air Venom Toward Rohingya Muslims |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/16/world/asia/new-freedom-in-myanmar-lets-burmese-air-venom-toward-rohingya-muslim-group.html |newspaper=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |access-date=28 May 2016}}</ref>
 
Under the [[2008 Constitution of Myanmar|2008 constitution]], the [[Tatmadaw|Myanmar military]] still control much of the country's government, including the ministries of home, defence and border affairs, 25% of seats in parliament and one vice-president.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-35457290/why-does-military-still-keep-25-of-the-seats-myanmar-parliament |title=Why does military still keep 25% of the seats Myanmar parliament? |work=BBC News |date=1 February 2016 |access-date=22 December 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.mmtimes.com/national-news/19670-managing-the-defence-and-security-council.html |title=Managing the defence and security council |date=28 March 2016 |website=Myanmar Times |access-date=16 January 2018}}</ref>
 
===Rakhine State conflicts and refugees (2012–present)===
{{Main|2012 Rakhine State riots|2015 Rohingya refugee crisis|2016–17 Rohingya persecution in Myanmar|Rohingya conflict}}
 
====2012 Rakhine State riots====
[[File:Emergency food, drinking water and shelter to help people displaced in Rakhine State, western Burma. (8288488088).jpg|thumb|Emergency food, drinking water and shelter to help people displaced in Rakhine State, western Burma, 2012.]]
[[File:View of Ruins of Narzi - Rohingya Village Burned and Bulldozed in 2012 - Sittwe - Rakhaing (Arakan) State - Myanmar (Burma) - 01 (12232067274).jpg|thumb|2014 view of ruins of Narzi, former Rohingya neighbourhood in Sittwe town destroyed and razed in the 2012 anti-Rohingya pogroms.]]
The [[2012 Rakhine State riots]] were a series of conflicts between Rohingya Muslims who form the majority in the northern Rakhine and ethnic Rakhines who form the majority in the south. Before the riots, there were widespread fears among the Buddhist Rakhines that they would soon become a minority in their ancestral state.{{Sfn|Crisis Group|2014|p=14}} The riots occurred after weeks of sectarian disputes, including a gang rape and murder of a Rakhine woman by Rohingyas and killing of ten Burmese Muslims by Rakhines.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-violence-idUSBRE85714E20120608 |title=Four killed as Rohingya Muslims riot in Myanmar: government |work=Reuters |date=8 June 2012 |access-date=9 June 2012}}</ref><ref name="PhilInquirer">{{cite news|last=Lauras|first=Didier|title=Myanmar stung by global censure over unrest |url=http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/271174/myanmar-stung-by-global-censure-over-unrest|newspaper=Philippine Daily Inquirer |agency=Agence France-Presse |date=15 September 2012 |access-date=15 September 2012}}</ref> There is evidence that the pogroms in 2012 were incited by the government asking the Rakhine men to defend their "race and religion".<ref>{{cite news|first=Moshahida Sultana |last=Ritu |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/13/opinion/ethnic-cleansing-of-myanmars-rohingyas.html?mcubz=1 |title=Ethnic Cleansing of Myanmar's Rohingyas |work=The New York Times |date=12 July 2012 |access-date=22 December 2017}}</ref> The Rakhine men were said to have been given knives and free food, and bused in from [[Sittwe]].<ref name="Economist1" /> The Burmese government denied having organised the pogroms, but has never prosecuted anyone for the attacks against the Rohingyas.<ref name="Economist1" /> ''The Economist'' argued that since the transition to democracy in Burma in 2011, the military has been seeking to retain its privileged position, forming the motivation for it to encourage the riots in 2012 and allowing it to pose as the defender of Buddhism against Muslim Rohingya.<ref name="Economist1" />
 
On both sides, entire villages were "decimated".<ref name="PhilInquirer" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unhcr.org/51b1af0b6.html|title=UNHCR – One year on: Displacement in Rakhine state, Myanmar|author=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees|work=UNHCR}}</ref> According to the Burmese authorities, the violence between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims left 78 people dead, 87 injured, and up to 140,000 people displaced.<ref name="dvb_hindstorm" /><ref name="UN News">{{cite news|title=UN refugee agency redeploys staff to address humanitarian needs in Myanmar|work=UN News|date=29 June 2012|url=https://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=42356|access-date=29 June 2012}}</ref> The government has responded by imposing curfews and deploying troops in the region. On 10 June 2012, a [[state of emergency]] was declared in Rakhine, allowing the military to participate in the administration of the region.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://burma.irrawaddy.org/archives/11901 |title=အေရးေပၚအေျခအေန ေၾကညာခ်က္ ႏုိင္ငံေရးသမားမ်ား ေထာက္ခံ |first=Linn |last=Htet |date=11 June 2012 |work=The Irrawaddy |access-date=11 June 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Fergal |last=Keane |author-link=Fergal Keane |title=Old tensions bubble in Burma |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18402678 |work=BBC News |date=11 June 2012 |access-date=11 June 2012 }}</ref> Rohingya NGOs abroad have accused the Burmese army and police of targeting Rohingya Muslims through arrests and participating in violence.<ref name="dvb_hindstorm">{{cite news|last=Hindstorm|first=Hanna|title=Burmese authorities targeting Rohingyas, UK parliament told|url=http://www.dvb.no/news/burmese-authorities-targeting-rohingyas-uk-parliament-told/22676|date=28 June 2012|agency=[[Democratic Voice of Burma]] |access-date=9 July 2012}}</ref>
 
A field observation conducted by the International Crisis Group concluded that both communities were grateful for the protection provided by the military.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/asia/south-east-asia/burma-myanmar/b143-myanmar-s-military-back-to-the-barracks.pdf |title=Myanmar's Military: Back to the Barracks? |date=22 April 2014 |publisher=The International Crisis Group |access-date=17 February 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150217063304/http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/asia/south-east-asia/burma-myanmar/b143-myanmar-s-military-back-to-the-barracks.pdf |archive-date=17 February 2015 }}</ref> A number of monks' organisations have taken measures to boycott NGOs which they believe helped only Rohingyas in the past decades even though Rakhines were equally poor.<ref name="ti_hindstorm">{{cite news |last=Hindstorm |first=Hanna |date=25 July 2012 |title=Burma's monks call for Muslim community to be shunned |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/burmas-monks-call-for-muslim-community-to-be-shunned-7973317.html |work=[[The Independent]] |location=London |access-date=25 July 2012}}</ref> In July 2012, the Burmese Government did not include the Rohingya minority group in the census—classified as [[Statelessness|stateless]] [[Bengali Muslims]] from Bangladesh since 1982.<ref>{{cite news |title= Rohingyas are not citizens: Myanmar minister |url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article3703383.ece |work=The Hindu |location=Chennai, India |date=1 August 2012}}</ref> About 140,000 Rohingya in Myanmar remain confined in IDP camps.<ref name="us_holocaust_museum_highlights" />
 
====2015 refugee crisis====
In 2015, the Simon-Skjodt Centre of the [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] stated in a press statement the Rohingyas are "at grave risk of additional mass atrocities and even genocide".<ref name="Economist1" /> In 2015, to escape violence and persecution, thousands of Rohingyas migrated from Myanmar and Bangladesh, collectively dubbed as 'boat people' by international media,<ref name=":0" /> to Southeast Asian countries including [[Malaysia]], [[Indonesia]] and Thailand by rickety boats via the waters of the [[Strait of Malacca]] and the [[Andaman Sea]].<ref name=":0">{{cite news |title=The Rohingya boat crisis: why refugees are fleeing Burma|url=http://www.theweek.co.uk/63745/the-rohingya-boat-crisis-why-refugees-are-fleeing-burma|access-date=22 May 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Hookway|first1=James |title=Rohingya Refugee Crisis Likely to Ease During Monsoon, but Only Temporarily |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/rohingya-refugee-crisis-likely-to-ease-during-monsoon-but-only-temporarily-1432283124 |work=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |date=22 May 2015 |access-date=22 May 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=South-east Asia migrant crisis: Gambia offers to resettle all Rohingya refugees|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/21/south-east-asia-migrant-crisis-gambia-offers-to-resettle-all-rohingya-refugees |date=21 May 2015 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=22 May 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Al-Zaquan Amer Hamzah|last2=Aubrey Belford|title=Pressure mounts on Myanmar over Asia 'boat people' crisis|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-asia-migrants-idUSKBN0O20JB20150517|work=[[Reuters]]|date=17 May 2015 |access-date=22 May 2015}}</ref> The [[United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees]] estimates about 25,000 people have been taken to boats from January to March in 2015.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/13/malaysia-tells-thousands-of-rohingya-refugees-to-go-back-to-your-country|title=Malaysia tells thousands of Rohingya refugees to 'go back to your country'|last=Yi|first=Beh Li|date=13 May 2015|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=23 May 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Bay of Bengal people-smuggling doubles in 2015: UNHCR|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thailand-rohingya-unhcr-idUSKBN0NT11D20150508|work=[[Reuters]]|date=8 May 2015}}</ref> There are claims that around 100 people died in Indonesia,<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2015/05/17/foreign/rohingya-migrants-died-in-fight-for-food-on-boat/|title=Rohingya migrants 'died in fight for food' on boat |date=17 May 2017 |work=[[The Pakistan Today]]|access-date=22 May 2015}}</ref> 200 in Malaysia,<ref>{{cite news |last=Lamb |first=Kate |date=17 May 2015 |title='They hit us, with hammers, by knife': Rohingya migrants tell of horror at sea |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/17/they-hit-us-with-hammers-by-knife-rohingya-migrants-tell-of-horror-at-sea |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=22 May 2015}}</ref> and 10 in Thailand<ref>{{cite news |title=SE Asia migrants 'killed in fight for food' on boat |work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32772333|access-date=22 May 2015}}</ref> during the journey. An estimated 3,000 refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh have been rescued or swum to shore and several thousand more are believed to remain trapped on boats at sea with little food or water. A Malaysian newspaper claimed crisis has been sparked by smugglers.<ref>{{cite news |title=Migrant crisis — the boats and the numbers|url=http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/migrant-crisis-the-boats-and-the-numbers|access-date=22 May 2015}}</ref> However, the ''Economist'' in an article in June 2015 wrote the only reason why the Rohingyas were willing to pay to be taken out of Burma in squalid, overcrowded, fetid boats as "... it is the terrible conditions at home in Rakhine that force the Rohingyas out to sea in the first place."<ref name="Economist1" />
 
====Autumn 2016 – Summer 2017====
On 9 October 2016, insurgents attacked three Burmese border posts along Myanmar's border with Bangladesh.<ref name="Reuters2">{{cite news |title=Eight dead in clashes between Myanmar army and militants in Rakhine |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-idUSKBN13804H |access-date=14 November 2016 |work=[[Reuters]]|date=13 November 2016}}</ref> According to government officials in the mainly Rohingya border town of [[Maungdaw]], the attackers brandished knives, machetes and homemade slingshots that fired metal bolts. Several dozen firearms and boxes of ammunition were looted by the attackers from the border posts. The attack resulted in the deaths of nine border officers.<ref name="BBC2">{{cite news |title=Myanmar policemen killed in Rakhine border attack |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37601928 |work=BBC News |date=9 October 2016 |access-date=12 October 2016}}</ref> On 11 October 2016, four soldiers were killed on the third day of fighting.<ref name="BBC3">{{cite news |title=Rakhine unrest leaves four Myanmar soldiers dead |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37627498 |work=BBC News |date=12 October 2016 |access-date=13 October 2016}}</ref> Following the attacks, reports emerged of several human rights violations allegedly perpetrated by Burmese security forces in their crackdown on suspected Rohingya insurgents.<ref name="CNN2">{{cite web |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/17/asia/myanmar-rohingya-aung-san-suu-kyi/ |title=Is The Lady listening? Aung San Suu Kyi accused of ignoring Myanmar's Muslims |first=James |last=Griffiths |date=25 November 2016 |publisher=CNN}}</ref>
 
Shortly after, the [[Tatmadaw|Myanmar military forces]] and extremist Buddhists started a major crackdown on the Rohingya Muslims in the country's western region of [[Rakhine State]]  in response to attacks on border police camps by unidentified insurgents.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/10/myanmar-nine-police-killed-insurgents-bangladesh-border |title=Myanmar says nine police killed by insurgents on Bangladesh border |date=10 October 2016 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> The crackdown resulted in wide-scale [[human rights]] violations at the hands of security forces, including [[extrajudicial killings]], [[gang rape]]s, [[arson]]s, and other brutalities.<ref name="Lady-CNN">{{cite news|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/17/asia/myanmar-rohingya-aung-san-suu-kyi/|title=Is The Lady listening? Aung San Suu Kyi accused of ignoring Myanmar's Muslims|first=James |last=Griffiths |date=25 November 2016|publisher=CNN}}</ref><ref name="ethnic-cleansing">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/24/rohingya-flee-to-bangladesh-to-escape-myanmar-military-strikes|title=Myanmar seeking ethnic cleansing, says UN official as Rohingya flee persecution|date=24 November 2016|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/new-wave-destruction-sees-1250-houses-destroyed-myanmars-rohingya-villages-1592582 |title=New wave of destruction sees 1,250&nbsp;houses destroyed in Myanmar's Rohingya villages |date=21 November 2016 |newspaper=[[International Business Times]] |access-date=9 December 2016}}</ref> The military crackdown on Rohingyas drew criticism from various quarters including the [[United Nations]], human rights group [[Amnesty International]], the [[United States Department of State|US Department of State]], and the government of Malaysia.<ref name="Aljazeera-humanity">{{cite news |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/12/rohingya-crimes-humanity-amnesty-161219045655733.html |title=Rohingya abuse may be crimes against humanity: Amnesty|date=19 December 2016 |access-date=10 June 2020 |publisher=Al Jazeera}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/19/myanmars-rohingya-campaign-may-be-against-humanity |title=Myanmar's Rohingya campaign 'may be crime against humanity' |first=Oliver |last=Holmes |date=19 December 2016 |newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref><ref name="NYT-Callous">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/16/world/asia/myanmar-rohingya-violence-united-nations.html|title=Myanmar 'callous' toward anti-Rohingya violence, U.N. says |first=Nick |last=Cumming-Bruce |date=16 December 2016|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38345006 |title=UN condemns Myanmar over plight of Rohingya |date=16 December 2016 |work=BBC News}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.firstpost.com/world/enough-is-enough-malaysian-pm-najib-razak-asks-aung-san-suu-kyi-to-prevent-rohingya-violence-3138748.html |title='Enough is enough': Malaysian PM Najib Razak asks Aung San Suu Kyi to prevent Rohingya violence |agency=Associated Press |date=4 December 2016 |newspaper=[[Firstpost]]|access-date=12 December 2016}}</ref>
 
The de facto head of government [[Aung San Suu Kyi]] has particularly been criticised for her inaction and silence over the issue and for doing little to prevent military abuses.<ref name="Lady-CNN" /><ref name="ethnic-cleansing" /><ref name="Ponniah">{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38168917 |title=Who will help Myanmar's Rohingya? |first=Kevin |last=Ponniah |date=5 December 2016 |work=BBC News}}</ref>
 
Government officials in Rakhine State originally blamed the [[Rohingya Solidarity Organisation]] (RSO), an Islamist insurgent group mainly active in the 1980s and 1990s, for the attacks;<ref name="AJ2">{{cite news |title=Myanmar: Fears of violence after deadly border attack |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/10/myanmar-fears-violence-deadly-border-attack-161011133128765.html |work=Al Jazeera |date=12 October 2016 |access-date=13 October 2016}}</ref> however, on 17 October 2016, a group calling itself the [[Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army]] (ARSA) claimed responsibility.<ref name="BKP1">{{cite news|title=Islamist fears rise in Rohingya-linked violence |url=http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/1111481/islamist-fears-rise-in-rohingya-linked-violence |access-date=5 November 2016 |newspaper=Bangkok Post |publisher=Post Publishing PCL}}</ref> In the following days, six other groups released statements, all citing the same leader.<ref name="Guardian3">{{cite news |last1=McPherson |first1=Poppy |title='It will blow up': fears Myanmar's deadly crackdown on Muslims will spiral out of control |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/18/myanmar-deadly-crackdown-muslims-rohingya |access-date=11 December 2016 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=17 November 2016}}</ref> The Myanmar Army announced on 15 November 2016 that 69&nbsp;Rohingya insurgents and 17 security forces (10&nbsp;policemen, 7&nbsp;soldiers) had been killed in recent clashes in northern Rakhine State, bringing the death toll to 134 (102&nbsp;insurgents and 32&nbsp;security forces). It was also announced that 234&nbsp;people suspected of being connected to the attack were arrested.<ref name="Reuters1">{{cite news |last=Slodkowski |first=Antoni |date=15 November 2016|title=Myanmar army says 86&nbsp;killed in fighting in northwest |url=http://in.reuters.com/article/myanmar-rohingya-idINKBN13A11N |agency=[[Reuters]] India |access-date=17 November 2016}}</ref><ref name="AJ1">{{cite news |title=Myanmar: 28&nbsp;killed in new violence in Rakhine state |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/11/myanmar-28-killed-violence-rakhine-state-161113154124605.html |date=13 November 2016 |access-date=14 November 2016 |publisher=Al Jazeera}}</ref>
 
A police document obtained by [[Reuters]] in March 2017 listed 423&nbsp;Rohingyas detained by the police since 9 October 2016, 13 of whom were children, the youngest being ten years old. Two police captains in Maungdaw verified the document and justified the arrests, with one of them saying, "We, the police, have to arrest those who collaborated with the attackers, children or not, but the court will decide if they are guilty; we are not the ones who decide." Myanmar police also claimed that the children had confessed to their alleged crimes during interrogations, and that they were not beaten or pressured during questioning. The average age of those detained is 34, the youngest is 10, and the oldest is 75.<ref name="Reuters3">{{cite news |last1=Lone |first1=Wa |last2=Lewis |first2=Simon |last3=Das |first3=Krishna N. |date=17 March 2017 |title=Exclusive: Children among hundreds of Rohingya detained in Myanmar crackdown |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-detainees-exclusive-idUSKBN16N342 |work=[[Reuters]] |access-date=18 March 2017}}</ref><ref name="Star1">{{cite news |title=Hundreds of Rohingya held for consorting with insurgents in Bangladesh |url=http://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional/2017/03/18/children-among-detainees-hundreds-of-rohingya-held-for-consorting-with-insurgents-in-bangladesh/ |work=The Star |date=18 March 2017 |access-date=18 March 2017}}</ref>
 
The [[Tatmadaw|Myanmar Armed Forces]] (Tatmadaw) stated on 1 September 2017 that the death toll had risen to 370&nbsp;insurgents, 13&nbsp;security personnel, 2&nbsp;government officials and 14&nbsp;civilians.<ref name="Reuters7">{{cite news |title=Nearly 400 die as Myanmar army steps up crackdown on Rohingya militants |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya/nearly-400-die-as-myanmar-army-steps-up-crackdown-on-rohingya-militants-idUSKCN1BC3T8 |access-date=1 September 2017 |work=Reuters }}</ref> The United Nations believes over 1,000&nbsp;people have been killed since October 2016, which contradicts the death toll provided by the Myanmar government.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya/exclusive-more-than-1000-feared-killed-in-myanmar-army-crackdown-on-rohingya-u-n-officials-idUSKBN15N1TJ |title=Exclusive: More than 1,000 feared killed in Myanmar army crackdown on |date=8 February 2017 |work=Reuters |access-date=16 January 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |agency=Reuters |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/09/more-than-1000-rohingya-feared-killed-in-myanmar-crackdown-say-un-officials |title=More than 1,000&nbsp;Rohingya feared killed in Myanmar crackdown, say UN officials |newspaper=The Guardian |date=9 February 2017 |access-date=22 December 2017}}</ref>
 
====Autumn 2017 crisis====
{{main|Northern Rakhine State clashes}}
 
Starting in early August 2017, the Myanmar security forces began "clearance operations" against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine state.<ref name="ohchr_mission_report_2017_10_11_un" /><ref name="un_report_details_2017_10_11_reuters_guardian" /> Following an attack by Rohingya militants of [[Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army]] (ARSA) against several security forces' outposts, 25 August, the operations escalated radically—killing thousands of Rohingya, brutalising thousands more, and driving hundreds of thousands out of the country into neighbouring Bangladesh while their villages burned—with the Myanmar military claiming that their actions were solely attacks on rebels in response to the ARSA attack. However, subsequent reports from various international organisations have indicated that the military operations were widespread indiscriminate attacks on the Rohingya population, already underway before the ARSA attacks, to purge northern Rakhine state of Rohingya, through "[[ethnic cleansing]]" and/or "[[genocide]]."<ref name="could_suu_kyi_face_charges_2017_12_18_bbc">Rowlatt, Justin [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42335018 "Could Aung San Suu Kyi face Rohingya genocide charges?"], 18 December 2017, ''[[BBC Panorama]]'', [[BBC]]. Retrieved 22 December 2017</ref> In August 2018, study <ref name="auto">{{Cite book|url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/7857480|title=Forced migration of Rohingya: the untold experience|first1=Mohshin|last1=Habib|first2=Christine|last2=Jubb|first3=Salahuddin|last3=Ahmad|first4=Masudur|last4=Rahman|first5=Henri|last5=Pallard|date=18 July 2018|publisher=Ontario International Development Agency, Canada|via=National Library of Australia (new catalog)|isbn=9780986681516}}</ref> estimated that more than 24,000+ Rohingya people were killed by the Myanmar military and the local Buddhists since the "clearance operations" started on 25 August 2017. The study <ref name="auto"/> also estimated that 18,000+ the Rohingya Muslim women and girls were raped, 116,000 Rohingya were beaten, 36,000 Rohingya were thrown into fire <ref name="auto"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/07/chief-bangladesh-continue-hosting-rohingya-190710191318011.html|title=Former UN chief says Bangladesh cannot continue hosting Rohingya |date=10 July 2019 |access-date=10 June 2020 |work=Al Jazeera}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thedailystar.net/rohingya-crisis/news/dutch-house-representatives-adopts-motion-probe-rohingya-genocide-1767124|title=Dutch House of Representatives adopts motion for probe on Rohingya genocide|date=5 July 2019|website=The Daily Star}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thefrontierpost.com/bangladeshi-pm-calls-for-safe-repatriation-of-rohingya/|title=Bangladeshi PM calls for safe repatriation of Rohingya|date=4 April 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.transcend.org/tms/2019/02/un-official-cites-horrific-crimes-against-rohingya/|title=UN Official Cites Horrific Crimes against Rohingya|website=TRANSCEND Media Service}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Khan |first1=Ahmed Abidur Razzaque |last2=Habib |first2=Mohshin |last3=Ahmad |first3=Salahuddin |title=Prevalence of violence against children: Evidence from 2017 Rohingya Refugee crises {{!}} Request PDF |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333118905 |website=ResearchGate }}</ref>
 
=====Precipitating events=====
According to [[BBC]] reporters, during the summer of 2017, the Myanmar military began arming and training Rakhine Buddhist natives in northern Rakhine state, and in late summer advised that any ethnic Rakhines "wishing to protect their state" would be given the opportunity to join "the local armed police." Matthew Smith, chief executive of human rights organisation [[Fortify Rights]] says that arming the Rakhines "was a decision made to effectively perpetrate atrocity crimes against the civilian population."  At the same time, northern Rakhine state faced food shortages, and, starting in mid-August, the government cut off all food supply to the area. On 10 August, the military flew in a battalion of reinforcements to the area, triggering a public warning from the resident United Nations human rights representative to Myanmar, who urged Myanmar authorities to restrain themselves.<ref name="could_suu_kyi_face_charges_2017_12_18_bbc" />
 
A few weeks later, on 24 August 2017, the Rakhine Commission (chaired by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan)—established by the new civilian Myanmar government to recommend solutions to the ethnic conflict and related issues in Rakhine state—released its recommendations for alleviating the suffering of minorities (especially the Rohingya), calling for measures that would improve security in Myanmar for the Rohingya, but not calling for all measures sought by various Rohingya factions.<ref name="un_sc_condemns_2017_09_13_abc">[https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/latest-myanmar-forms-committee-rohingya-49812947  "The Latest: UN Security Council condemns Rohingya violence,"] 13 September 2017, [[ABC News]]. Retrieved 17 September 2017</ref><ref name="bleak_future_2017_09_17_us_news">[[Associated Press]] report, [https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2017-09-08/peaceful-solution-to-myanmars-refugees-appears-more-elusive-than-ever "Bleak Future for Myanmar’s Rohingya,"] 8 September 2017, ''[[U.S. News & World Report]]''. Retrieved 17 September 2017</ref>
 
The following morning, according to Myanmar military officials, a Rohingya rebel group (ARSA, or Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army) led multiple coordinated attacks on 30 police outposts and border guards, killing a dozen government forces, at the cost of over 50 dead among the rebels.<ref name="un_sc_condemns_2017_09_13_abc" /><ref name="rohingya_in_myanmar_2017_09_13_ny_times">[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/world/asia/myanmar-rohingya-muslim.html?mcubz=1 "The Rohingya in Myanmar: How Years of Strife Grew Into a Crisis,"] 13 September 2017, ''[[The New York Times]]''. Retrieved 17 September 2017 (also at ''[[Bangkok Post]]'' under [http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/special-reports/1324175/the-rohingya-in-myanmar-how-years-of-strife-grew-into-a-crisis same title]')</ref><ref name="un_chief_sc_call_2017_09_17_reuters">[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya/u-n-chief-security-council-call-on-myanmar-to-end-violence-idUSKCN1BO0B1 "U.N. chief, Security Council call on Myanmar to end violence,"] 12 September 2017, [[Reuters]]. Retrieved 17 September 2017</ref><ref name="indian_pm_blames_terrorists_2017_09_17_cnn">[http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/06/asia/modi-india-myanmar-rohingya/index.html "Indian Prime Minister blames Rohingya violence on extremists,"] 7 September 2017, [[Cable News Network]] (CNN). Retrieved 17 September 2017</ref><ref name="perilous_path_2017_09_05_ap_fox_news">[[Associated Press]] report, [http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/09/05/myanmars-rohingya-beat-perilous-path-in-search-safety.html "Myanmar's Rohingya beat a perilous path in search of safety,"] 5 September 2017, [[Fox News Channel]]. Retrieved 17 September 2017</ref><ref name="bleak_future_2017_09_17_us_news" /><ref name="food_aid_suspended_2017_09_05_yahoo">{{Cite news|url=https://www.yahoo.com/news/food-aid-suspended-myanmar-state-sinks-deeper-violence-103323991.html|title=Food aid suspended as Myanmar state sinks deeper into violence|access-date=5 September 2017}}</ref>
 
=====Conflict escalation=====
[[File:Rohingya displaced Muslims 010.jpg|thumb|Rohingyas at the [[Kutupalong refugee camp]] in Bangladesh, October 2017]]
Almost immediately the Myanmar military—apparently teaming with local authorities with mobs of Rakhine Buddhist civilians—launched massive reprisals that it described as its anti-terrorist "clearance operations" (which, UN investigators and BBC reporters later determined, had actually begun earlier<ref name="ohchr_mission_report_2017_10_11_un" /><ref name="un_report_details_2017_10_11_reuters_guardian" /><ref name="could_suu_kyi_face_charges_2017_12_18_bbc" />)—attacking Rohingya villages throughout northern Rakhine state.<ref name="un_sc_condemns_2017_09_13_abc" /><ref name="indian_pm_blames_terrorists_2017_09_17_cnn" /><ref name="un_chief_sc_call_2017_09_17_reuters" /><ref name="perilous_path_2017_09_05_ap_fox_news" />
 
Within the first three weeks, the military reported over 400 dead (whom it described as mostly "militants" and "terrorists")—the U.N. estimated over 1,000 dead (mostly civilians), and other sources initially suggested as many as 3,000—in the first four weeks of the reprisals.<ref name="un_sc_condemns_2017_09_13_abc" /><ref name="indian_pm_blames_terrorists_2017_09_17_cnn" /><ref name="un_chief_sc_call_2017_09_17_reuters" /><ref name="perilous_path_2017_09_05_ap_fox_news" />
 
However, in December 2017, following a detailed survey of Rohingya refugees, a humanitarian organisation serving refugees, [[Médecins Sans Frontières]] calculated that at least 6,700 Rohingya men, women and children were killed in the first month of the major attacks, including at least 750 children (that number later revised to "over 1,000"). MSF estimated that 69% were killed by gunshots, 9% were burnt to death (including 15% of children killed), and 5% beaten to death. However, MSF cautioned "The numbers of deaths are likely to be an underestimation, as we have not surveyed all refugee settlements in Bangladesh and because the surveys don't account for the families who never made it out of Myanmar."<ref name="msf_estimates_6700_killed_2017_12_14_bbc">[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42348214 "MSF estimates more than 6,700 Rohingya killed in Myanmar,"] 14 December 2017, ''[[BBC News]]''. Retrieved 20 December 2017</ref><ref name="at_least_6700_killed_2017_12_14_npr">[https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/14/570725399/at-least-6-700-myanmar-rohingya-killed-in-single-month-aid-group-says "At Least 6,700 Myanmar Rohingya Killed In Single Month, Aid Group Says,"] 14 December 2017, ''The Two-Way'', [[NPR]]</ref><ref name="_2017_12_14_msf_org">[http://www.msf.org/en/article/myanmarbangladesh-msf-surveys-estimate-least-6700-rohingya-were-killed-during-attacks "Myanmar/Bangladesh: MSF surveys estimate that at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed during the attacks in Myanmar,"] 12 December 2017, [[Médecins Sans Frontières]] (MSF) International. Retrieved 22 December 2017</ref>
 
Refugees reported numerous civilians—including women and children—being indiscriminately beaten, raped, tortured, shot, hacked to death or burned alive. and whole villages being burnt down by authorities and Buddhist mobs. Human Rights Watch released satellite photos showing the villages burning, but the Myanmar government insisted the fires were lit by Rohingya, themselves, or specifically Rohingya militants—though the authorities offered no proof of the allegation, and refused or tightly controlled all media and foreign access to the area.<ref name="un_sc_condemns_2017_09_13_abc" /><ref name="rohingya_in_myanmar_2017_09_13_ny_times" /><ref name="un_chief_sc_call_2017_09_17_reuters" /><ref name="perilous_path_2017_09_05_ap_fox_news" /><ref name="bleak_future_2017_09_17_us_news" />
 
Myanmar's presidential spokesman reported that 176 ethnic Rohingya villages—out of the original a total of 471 Rohingya villages in three townships—had become empty.  In addition to the 176 "abandoned" villages, some residents reportedly fled from at least 34 other villages.<ref name="un_sc_condemns_2017_09_13_abc" />
 
In the first four weeks of the conflict, over 400,000 Rohingya refugees (approximately 40% of the remaining Rohingya in Myanmar) fled the country on foot or by boat (chiefly to Bangladesh—the only other country bordering the Rakhine state area under attack) creating a major [[humanitarian crisis]]. In addition, 12,000 Rakhine Buddhists, and other non-Muslim Rakhine state residents were displaced within the country.<ref name="rohingya_in_myanmar_2017_09_13_ny_times" /><ref name="un_chief_sc_call_2017_09_17_reuters" />
 
On 10 September 2017, ARSA declared a temporary unilateral [[ceasefire]] to allow aid groups to work in the region. Its statement read that "ARSA strongly encourages all concerned humanitarian actors resume their humanitarian assistance to all victims of the humanitarian crisis, irrespective of ethnic or religious background during the ceasefire period." However, the Myanmar government dismissed the gesture, saying "we don't negotiate with terrorists."<ref name="militant_group_cease_fire_2017_09_17_wsj">[ "Militant Rohingya Group Declares Month-Long Cease-Fire in Myanmar,"] 10 September 2017, ''[[Wall Street Journal]],'' retrieved 17 September 2017</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/myanmar-rohingya-refugee-crisis-rohingya-insurgents-declare-temporary-ceasefire-myanmar-1460020 |title=Myanmar Rohingya refugee crisis: Rohingya insurgents declare temporary ceasefire in Myanmar |newspaper=The Daily Star |date=10 September 2017 |access-date=22 December 2017}}</ref><ref name="theguardian.com">{{cite news |first=Jacob |last=Judah |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/09/arakan-rohingya-militants-watch-refugees-myanmar |title=Myanmar: Rohingya insurgents declare month-long ceasefire  |newspaper=The Guardian |date=9 September 2017 |access-date=22 December 2017}}</ref>
 
The violence and humanitarian 'catastrophe,' inflamed international tensions, especially in the region, and throughout the Muslim world.<ref name="un_sc_condemns_2017_09_13_abc" /><ref name="rohingya_in_myanmar_2017_09_13_ny_times" /><ref name="un_chief_sc_call_2017_09_17_reuters" /><ref name="indian_pm_blames_terrorists_2017_09_17_cnn" />
 
13 September, Myanmar's presidential spokesman announced Myanmar would establish a new commission to implement some recommendations of Annan's Rakhine Commission, in their August 2017 report.<ref name="un_sc_condemns_2017_09_13_abc" />
 
The United Nations initially reported in early September 2017 that more than 120,000 Rohingya people had fled Myanmar for Bangladesh due to a recent rise in violence against them.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/05/more-than-120000-rohingya-flee-myanmar-violence-un-says|title=More than 120,000 Rohingya flee Myanmar violence, UN says |last=Safi |first=Michael |date=5 September 2017|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=5 September 2017|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> The [[United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees|UNHCR]], on 4 September, estimated 123,000 refugees have escaped western Myanmar since 25 August 2017.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/wounded-and-afraid-rohingya-seek-bangladesh-hospital-aid/2017/09/04/d6fc0640-91d4-11e7-8482-8dc9a7af29f9_story.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170905011830/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/wounded-and-afraid-rohingya-seek-bangladesh-hospital-aid/2017/09/04/d6fc0640-91d4-11e7-8482-8dc9a7af29f9_story.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 September 2017|title=UNHCR: 123,000 Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar|website=The Washington Post|access-date=5 September 2017}}</ref> (By 15 September, that number had surpassed 400,000<ref name="un_chief_sc_call_2017_09_17_reuters" />) The situation was expected to exacerbate the current refugee crisis as more than 400,000 Rohingya without citizenship were trapped in overcrowded camps and in conflict regions in Western Myanmar.<ref name=":1" />
 
Myanmar's de facto civilian leader and [[Nobel Laureate]], [[Aung San Suu Kyi]],<ref name="assk_breaks_silence_2017_09_18_cnn">[http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/18/asia/aung-san-suu-kyi-speech-rohingya/index.html "Aung San Suu Kyi breaks silence on Rohingya, sparks storm of criticism,"] 19 September 2017, [[CNN]]. Retrieved 20 September 2017</ref><ref name="why_wont_assk_act_2017_09_08_bbc">[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41187517 "The Rohingya crisis: Why won't Aung San Suu Kyi act?"], 8 September 2017, ''[[BBC News]]'', 14 September 2017</ref> criticised the media's reporting on the crisis, saying that her government is protecting everyone in Rakhine state, and argued that the reporting was [[misinformation]] that benefitted the aims of terrorists.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41170570|title=Rohingya crisis: Suu Kyi says 'all in Rakhine defended'|date=6 September 2017|work=BBC News|access-date=6 September 2017}}</ref>
 
Some reports suggest that the Myanmar military has ceded some border outposts to rebels armed with wooden clubs as part of encouraging Rohingyas to leave the country.<ref name="theguardian.com" />
 
A [[Holy See]] diplomat stated that at least 3000 people were killed by Myanmar security forces in August and September 2017.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/foreign-affairs/2017/09/10/dhaka-claims-rohingyas-killed-myanmar/ |title=Dhaka claims 3,000 Rohingyas have been killed by Myanmar security forces |work=Dhaka Tribune |date=10 September 2017 |access-date=22 December 2017}}</ref>
 
The [[U.N. Secretary General]] issued a statement, 13 September 2017, implying that the situation facing the Rohingya in Rakhine state was "[[ethnic cleansing]]." He urged Myanmar authorities to suspend military action and stop the violence—insisting that Myanmar's government uphold the rule of law, and (noting that "380,000" Rohingya had recently fled to Bangladesh) recognise the refugees' right to return to their homes.<ref name="un_chief_sc_call_2017_09_17_reuters" /><ref name="un_condemns_20170913_abc_news" />
 
The same day, the U.N. [[Security Council]] issued a separate, unanimous statement, on the crisis following a closed-door meeting about Myanmar. In a semi-official press statement (its first statement on the situation in Myanmar in nine years)—the Council expressed "concern" about reported excessive violence in Myanmar's security operations, called for de-escalating the situation, reestablishing law and order, protecting civilians, and resolution of the refugee problem.<ref name="un_chief_sc_call_2017_09_17_reuters" /><ref name="un_condemns_20170913_abc_news">[[Associated Press]], [https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/latest-myanmar-forms-committee-rohingya-49812947 "The Latest: UN Security Council condemns Rohingya violence,"] 13 September 2017, [[ABC News]]. Retrieved 19 September 2017</ref>
 
On 19 September 2017, Myanmar's civilian leader, [[State Counsellor of Myanmar|State Councillor]] Aung San Suu Kyi, made a major televised speech on the crisis—in English—stating "We condemn all human rights violations and unlawful violence," and indicated a desire to know why the Rohingya were fleeing. But Suu Kyi largely defended her prior position supporting the Myanmar military and its actions, and deflected international criticism by saying most Rohingya villages remained intact, and conflict had not broken out everywhere. Expressing no criticism of the Myanmar military, and denying that it had engaged in any "armed clashes or clearance operations" since 5 September, she added, "We are committed to the restoration of peace and stability and rule of law throughout the state," and that the country was "committed to a sustainable solution… for all communities in this state", but was vague as to how that would be achieved.<ref name="assk_breaks_silence_2017_09_18_cnn" /><ref name="suu_kyi_does_not_fear_2017_09_19_bbc">[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41315924 "Rohingya crisis: Suu Kyi does not fear global 'scrutiny',"] 19 September 2017, ''[[BBC News]]''. Retrieved 19 September 2017</ref><ref name="aung_san_suu_kyi_changed_2017_09_19_ny_times">[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/18/world/asia/aung-san-suu-kyi-speech-rohingya.html?mcubz=0 "Aung San Suu Kyi, a Much-Changed Icon, Evades Rohingya Accusations,"] 18 September 2017, ''[[The New York Times]]''. Retrieved 19 September 2017</ref><ref name="five_dubious_claims_2017_09_19_cnn">[http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/19/asia/myanmar-aung-san-suu-kyi-speech-facts/ "5 dubious claims Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi made in her speech,"] 19 September 2017, [[CNN]]. Retrieved 19 September 2017</ref>
 
By the end of September, conflicts between Rohingya Muslims and outnumbered Hindus, became apparent—including the [[Kha Maung Seik massacre|killing of around 100 Hindu villagers in Rakhine state]], around late August—according to the Myanmar military who claimed to have found the bodies of 20 women and eight boys in mass graves, 24 September, after a search near Ye Baw Kya village, in northern Rakhine state. The search was reportedly in response to a refugee in Bangladesh who contacted a local Hindu leader in Myanmar. Authorities quoted the refugee as saying about 300 ARSA militants, on 25 August, marched about 100 people out of the Hindu village and killed them. ARSA denied involvement, saying it was committed to not killing civilians. International news media were not immediately allowed free access to the area to verify the reports.<ref name="bodies_hindu_2017_09_24_reuters_guardian">[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/25/myanmar-bodies-of-28-hindu-villagers-found-in-rakhine-army-claims "Myanmar: bodies of 28 Hindu villagers found in Rakhine, army claims,"] 24 September 2017, [[Reuters]] in ''[[The Guardian]]'' retrieved 25 September 2017</ref><ref name="mass_grave_28_hindus_2017_09_25_afp_ndtv">[https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/mass-grave-of-28-hindus-found-in-myanmar-army-1754535 "Grave of 28 Hindus Killed by Rohingya Militants Found, Says Myanmar Army,"] 25 September 2017, [[Agence France-Presse]] (unedited) in [[NDTV]] (India). Retrieved 25 September 2017</ref><ref name="myanmar_searches_2017_09_25_afp_ndtv">[https://www.afp.com/en/news/23/myanmar-searches-more-hindu-corpses-mass-grave-unearthed "Myanmar searches for more Hindu corpses as mass grave unearthed,"] 25 September 2017, [[Agence France-Presse]]. Retrieved 26 September 2017</ref>
 
In other cases, in Myanmar and in Bangladeshi refugee camps Hindu (particularly women) are reported to have faced kidnapping, religious abuse and "forced conversions" by Muslim Rohingyas.<ref name="mass_grave_28_hindus_2017_09_25_afp_ndtv" /><ref name="hindu_rohingya_women_2017_09_26_india_today">Loiwal, Manogya, (Posted by Ashna Kumar), [http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/hindu-rohingya-women-remove-sindoor-read-namaz-bangladesh-camps/1/1055983.html "Exclusive: Forced to remove sindoor, read namaz: Horror engulfs Hindu Rohingya women in camps,"] in "Mail Today," 26 September 2017, ''[[India Today]]'' retrieved 26 September 2017</ref>
 
By the end of September 2017, UN, Bangladesh and other entities were reporting that—in addition to 200,000-300,000 Rohingya refugees already in Bangladesh after fleeing prior attacks in Myanmar<ref name="refugees_have_nothing_2017_09_28_bbc">[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41420973 "Rohingya refugees have 'absolutely nothing';  A perilous journey for Rohingya refugees,"] 28 September 2017 [[BBC News]]. Retrieved 29 September 2017</ref><ref name="un_chief_warns_2017_09_28_bbc">[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41420973 "Rohingya crisis: UN chief warns of 'humanitarian nightmare',"] 28 September 2017 [[BBC News]]. Retrieved 29 September 2017</ref>—the current conflict, since late August 2017, had driven 500,000 more Rohingya from Myanmar into Bangladesh,<ref name="refugees_have_nothing_2017_09_28_bbc" /><ref name="un_chief_warns_2017_09_28_bbc" /><ref name="myanmar_refugee_exodus_2017_09_29_ap_fox">Pitman, Todd, [[Associated Press]], [http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/09/29/myanmar-refugee-exodus-tops-500000-as-more-rohingya-flee.html "Myanmar refugee exodus tops 500,000 as more Rohingya flee,"] 29 September 2017 [[Fox News]]. Retrieved 30 September 2017</ref> creating what UN [[Secretary General]] [[António Guterres]] described as "the world's fastest-developing refugee emergency ... a humanitarian nightmare."<ref name="un_chief_warns_2017_09_28_bbc" /><ref name="asias_largest_refugee_crisis_2017_09_30_econ_times">[http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/asias-largest-refugee-crisis-myanmar-tops-as-500000-rohingya-flee/articleshow/60890134.cms "Asia's largest refugee crisis: Myanmar tops as 500,000 Rohingya flee,"], 30 September 2017, ''The Economic Times'' (India) retrieved 30 September 2017 (Same topic at: [http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/09/29/myanmar-refugee-exodus-tops-500000-as-more-rohingya-flee.html Fox News / Associated Press])</ref>
 
In November 2017 Myanmar and Bangladesh signed a memorandum of understanding for the return home of Rohingya refugees.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.news.com.au/world/breaking-news/myanmar-bangladesh-sign-rohingya-deal/news-story/b0989c37a2348826393b42c7521522c5|title=Myanmar, Bangladesh 'sign Rohingya deal'|work=News.com.au|access-date=24 November 2017}}</ref> In April 2018 the first group of Rohingya refugees returned to Myanmar from Bangladesh.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/15/first-groups-rohingya-refugees-return-myanmar/|title=First group of Rohingya refugees returns to Myanmar|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|access-date=20 April 2018}}</ref>
 
====Relocation to Bhasan Char island====
In January 2016, the government of Bangladesh initiated a plan to relocate tens of thousands of forcibly displaced Rohingyas, who had fled to the country following persecution in Myanmar.<ref name="Al Jazeera">{{cite news|title=Bangladesh pushes on with Rohingya island plan|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/01/bangladesh-pushes-rohingya-island-plan-170131050223171.html |access-date=31 January 2017|publisher=Al Jazeera|date=30 January 2017}}</ref><ref name="BBC 2017">{{cite news|title=Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh face relocation to island|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38799586|access-date=31 January 2017|work=BBC News |date=30 January 2017}}</ref> The refugees are to be relocated to the island of [[Bhasan Char]].<ref name="Al Jazeera" /><ref name="BBC 2017" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/rohingya-crisis/2019/03/03/rohingya-relocation-to-bhasan-char-to-start-by-mid-april|title=Rohingya relocation to Bhasan Char to start by mid-April|date=3 March 2019|website=Dhaka Tribune|access-date=2 November 2019}}</ref> The move has received substantial opposition. Human rights groups have seen the plan as a forced relocation.<ref name="Al Jazeera" /><ref name="BBC 2017" /> Additionally, concerns have been raised about living conditions on the island, which is low-lying and prone to flooding.<ref name="Al Jazeera" /><ref name="BBC 2017" /> The island has been described as "only accessible during winter and a haven for pirates".<ref name="Al Jazeera" /><ref name="BBC 2017" /> It is nine hours away from the camps in which the Rohingya currently live.<ref name="Al Jazeera" /><ref name="BBC 2017" /> In October 2019, Bangladeshi authorities again announced plans to relocate refugees to the island.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKBN1WZ0DT|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191102102816/https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKBN1WZ0DT|url-status=dead|archive-date=2 November 2019|title=Bangladesh to move Rohingya to flood-prone island next month|date=20 October 2019|work=Reuters|access-date=2 November 2019}}</ref>
 
On 9 July 2020, [[HRW]] urged Bangladeshi authorities to immediately move over 300 Rohingya refugees, including children, from the silt island of Bhasan Char to the Cox's Bazar refugee camps to let them reside with their families. Families in Cox's Bazar told [[HRW]] that relatives on Bhasan Char are being held without freedom of movement or adequate access to food or medical care, and face severe shortages of safe drinking water.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/07/09/bangladesh-move-rohingya-dangerous-silt-island|title= Bangladesh: Move Rohingya from Dangerous Silt Island |access-date=9 July 2020|website=Human Rights Watch}}</ref>
 
===Genocide===
{{Main|Rohingya genocide}}
In 2015, an assessment by the [[Yale Law School]] concluded that the government of Myanmar was waging a concerted campaign against the Rohingya, a campaign which could be classified as [[genocide]] under [[international law]].<ref name="aljazeera.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/10/exclusive-strong-evidence-genocide-myanmar-151024190547465.html |title=Exclusive: 'Strong evidence' of genocide in Myanmar |publisher=Al Jazeera |date=28 October 2015 |access-date=22 December 2017}}</ref> An investigation by the media channel [[Al Jazeera English]], along with the group Fortify Rights, found that the Myanmar military was systematically targeting the Rohingya population because of its [[Ethnic group|ethnicity]] and [[religion]].<ref name="aljazeera.com" /> The [[International State Crime Initiative]] of the [[University of London]] issued a report stating that a genocide is taking place against the Rohingya.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://statecrime.org/data/2015/10/ISCI-Rohingya-Report-PUBLISHED-VERSION.pdf |title=Rohingya Report |year=2015 |website=statecrime.org |access-date=14 June 2019}}</ref>
 
The [[United Nations High Commission for Refugees]] has used the term [[ethnic cleansing]] to describe the exodus of Rohingya from Myanmar.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://time.com/4582157/burma-myanmar-rohingya-bangladesh-arakan-ethnic-cleansing-suu-kyi/ |title=Burma Is Pursuing 'Ethnic Cleansing' of Rohingya, U.N. Says |website=Time |access-date=16 January 2018}}</ref> In December 2017, the [[United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights]], dismissed the Myanmar government's claims that its operations were merely a response to rebel attacks, and it also indicated that "for us, it was clear... that these operations were organised and planned," and could amount to "genocide."<ref name="myanmar_planned_2017_12_19_afp_channel_newsasia">{{cite news |url=https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/myanmar-planned-rohingya-attacks-possibly-genocide-un-rights-9508588 |title=Myanmar 'planned' Rohingya attacks, possibly 'genocide': UN rights chief |work=Channel NewsAsia |date=19 December 2017 |agency=[[Agence France-Presse]] |access-date=20 December 2017}}</ref>
 
On 24 August 2018, the day before the anniversary of the eruption of extreme violence that came to be known as the "Rohingya Crisis," the office of the [[United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights]] issued a report (which was not made public until 27 August) which summarised its findings after an investigation was completed into the events of August–September 2017. It declared that the events constituted cause for the Myanmar government—particularly the Myanmar military (the "Tatmadaw") and its commanding officers—to be brought before the [[International Criminal Court]] and charged with "crimes against humanity", including "ethnic cleansing" and "genocide."  Myanmar officials immediately rejected the charges.<ref name="un_report_A_HRC_39_64_ohchcr_2018_08_27"/><ref name="un_calls_2018_08_27_reuters"/><ref name="military_leaders_must_face_2018_08_27_bbc"/><ref name="investigators_call_2018_08_27_cbs_news"/><ref name="myanmar_generals_2018_08_27_reuters_us_news"/><ref name="year_after_rohingya_massacres_2018_08_27_ny_times"/>
 
==Demographics==
[[File:Rohingya in Myanmar Map.JPG|thumb|upright=0.5|The '''yellow-green striped section''' show the approximate location of the Rohingya in Myanmar]]
[[File:Map of Rohingya people in Rakhine State.png|thumb|upright=0.5|Rohingya people in Rakhine State]]
Those who identify as Rohingyas typically reside in the northernmost townships of Arakan bordering Bangladesh where they form 80–98% of the population. A typical Rohingya family has four or five surviving children but numbers up to twenty eight have been recorded in rare cases.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/08/201288114724103607.html |title='Mass graves' for Myanmar's Rohingya |department=Features |publisher=Al Jazeera |date=9 August 2012 |access-date=18 October 2013}}</ref> Rohingyas have 46% more children than Myanmar's national average.<ref name=":5" /> In 2018, 48,000 Rohingya babies were born in Bangladesh, out of a total population of 120,000 fertile women.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2126991/48000-babies-will-be-born-rohingya-refugee-camps-year-aid|title=48,000 babies to be born in Rohingya refugee camps this year|date=5 January 2018|website=South China Morning Post|access-date=12 November 2019}}</ref> As of 2014, about 1.3 million Rohingyas lived in Myanmar and an estimated 1&nbsp;million lived overseas. They constitute 40% of Rakhine State's total population or 60% of it if the overseas Rohingya population is included. As of December 2016, 1 7th&nbsp;[[Statelessness|stateless]] of the entire world's stateless population is Rohingya according to United Nations figures.<ref name="Mahmood, Wroe, Fuller, Leaning 2016" /><ref>{{cite news|title=An army crackdown sends thousands fleeing in Myanmar |url=https://www.economist.com/news/asia/21727947-once-again-violence-wracks-rakhine-state-army-crackdown-sends-thousands-fleeing-myanmar |access-date=6 September 2017 |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |date=31 August 2017}}</ref>
 
Prior to the [[2015 Rohingya refugee crisis]] and the [[2016–17 Rohingya persecution in Myanmar|military crackdown in 2016 and 2017]], the Rohingya population in Myanmar was around 1.1 to 1.3 million<ref name="bbc.com" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name="AsianHistory" /><ref name="Mahmood, Wroe, Fuller, Leaning 2016" /> They reside mainly in the northern Rakhine townships, where they form 80–98% of the population.<ref name=":7" /> Many Rohingyas have fled to southeastern Bangladesh, where there are over [[Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh|900,000&nbsp;refugees]],<ref name="refugee_crisis_2017_08_daily_star" /> as well as to [[India]],<ref name="india_plans_to_deport" /> [[Thailand]],<ref name="auto1" /> [[Malaysia]],<ref name="auto1" /> [[Indonesia]],<ref name="emergency_response" /> [[Saudi Arabia]]<ref name="myanmar_nationals" /> and [[Rohingya people in Pakistan|Pakistan]].<ref name="identity_issue" /> More than 100,000&nbsp;Rohingyas in Myanmar live in camps for [[internally displaced person]]s, and the authorities do not allow them to leave.<ref name="trappped_inside_camps" /><ref name="us_holocaust_museum_highlights" />
 
The following table shows the statistics of Muslim population in Arakan. The data is for all Muslims in Arakan (Rakhine), regardless of ethnicity. The data for Burmese 1802 census is taken from a book by [[John Sydenham Furnivall|J. S. Furnivall]]. The British censuses classified immigrants from Chittagong as Bengalis. There were a small number of immigrants from other parts of India. The 1941 census was lost during the war. The 1983 census conducted under the Ne Win's government omitted people in volatile regions. It is unclear how many were missed. British era censuses can be found at [[Digital Library of India]].
 
{| class="wikitable" style=" font-size: 85%; "
|-
!Year
!Muslims
in Arakan
!Muslims in
Akyab
District
!Indians in Akyab district
!Akyab's
population
!Percentage
of Muslims
in Akyub
!Indians in Arakan
!Indians born
outside of Burma
!Arakan's total
population
!Percentage of Muslims
in Arakan
|-
|1802 census
(Burmese)
|Lost?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|248,604
 
|
|-
|1869
|24,637
|
|
|
|10%
|
|
|447,957
|5%
|-
|1872 census
|64,315
|58,255
|
|276,671
|21%
|
|
|484,963
|13%
|-
|1881 census
|
|
|
|359,706
|
|113,557
|71,104
|588,690
|
|-
|1891 census
|
|
|
|416,305
|
|137,922
|62,844
|673,274
|
|-
|1901 census
|162,754
|154,887
|
|481,666
|32%
|173,884
|76,445
|762,102
|21%
|-
|1911 census
|
|178,647
|
|529,943
|30%
|197,990
|46,591
|839,896
|
|-
|1921 census
|
|
|
|576,430
|
|206,990
|51,825
|909,246
|
|-
|1931 census
|255,469
|242,381
|210,990<ref>{{cite book|title=Census of India, 1931: Vol. XI, Burma – Part I|page=194}}</ref>
|637,580
|38%
|217,801
|50,565
|1,008,535
|25.3%
|-
|1983 census
|584,518
|
|
|
|
|
|
|2,045,559
|29%
|}
 
==Culture==
Rohingya culture shares many similarities to that of other ethnic groups in the region. The clothing worn by most Rohingyas is indistinguishable from those worn by other groups in Myanmar.<ref name="RohingyaCulture">{{cite web |title=Rohingyas: Their Culture |url=https://www.rohingya.ca/rohingyas-have-distinct-culture/ |publisher=Canadian Rohingya Development Initiative |access-date=29 August 2019}}</ref> Men wear ''bazu'' (long sleeved shirts) and ''longgi'' or ''doothi'' (loincloths) covering down to the ankles. Religious scholars prefer wearing ''kurutha'', ''jubba'' or ''panjabi'' (long tops). In special occasions, Rohingya men sometimes wear ''taikpon'' (collarless jackets) on top of their shirts.<ref name="RohingyaCulture"/>
 
''Lucifica'' is a type of flat bread regularly eaten by Rohingyas,<ref name="RohingyaCulture"/> while ''bola fica'' is a popular traditional snack made of [[rice noodles]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Bolá Fiçá (Rohingya rice noodle snack) |url=https://www.rohingyalanguage.com/2016/03/bola-fica-rohingya-rice-noodle-snack.html |publisher=Rohingya Language Foundation |access-date=29 August 2019}}</ref> [[Betel]] leaves, colloquially known as ''faan'', are also popular amongst Rohingyas.<ref name="RohingyaCulture"/>
 
==Language==
{{Main|Rohingya language}}
 
The [[Rohingya language]] is part of the [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan]] sub-branch of the greater [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European language family]] and is related to the [[Chittagonian language]] spoken in the southernmost part of Bangladesh bordering Myanmar.<ref name="lan" /> While both Rohingya and Chittagonian are related to Bengali, they are not [[Mutual intelligibility|mutually intelligible]] with the latter. Rohingyas do not speak Burmese, the ''lingua franca'' of Myanmar, and face problems in integration. Rohingya scholars have written the Rohingya language in various scripts including the [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]], [[Hanifi alphabet|Hanifi]], [[Urdu alphabet|Urdu]], Roman, and [[Burmese alphabet]]s, where Hanifi is a newly developed alphabet derived from Arabic with the addition of four characters from Latin and Burmese.<ref>{{cite web|title=Who are the Rohingya?|url=http://www.rfa.org/english/multimedia/rohingyaPage-04122010151733.html/RohingyaFactSheet-04132010102750.html |publisher=Radio Free Asia|access-date=27 October 2017}}</ref>
 
More recently, a Latin alphabet has been developed using all 26 English letters A to Z and two additional Latin letters Ç (for retroflex R) and Ñ (for nasal sound). To accurately represent Rohingya phonology, this alphabet also uses five accented vowels (áéíóú). It has been recognised by ISO with ISO 639-3 "rhg" code.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/codes.asp?order=639_3&letter=r |title=ISO 639 code tables |publisher=Sil.org |access-date=18 October 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110618154156/http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/codes.asp?order=639_3&letter=r |archive-date=18 June 2011 }}</ref>
 
==Religion==
[[File:ROHINGYA (8093615213).jpg|thumb|left|Hashimiah orphans in a madrasa in [[Selayang]], [[Malaysia]]]]
{{Main|Religion in Myanmar|Freedom of religion in Myanmar}}
{{Further|Islam in Myanmar|Persecution of Muslims in Myanmar}}
Due to the fact that members of Burma's Rohingya Muslim population are not considered citizens of the country, they are not protected against discrimination by the Burmese government. Therefore, concerns exist with regard to the community's lack of religious freedom, especially in the legal and political sphere.<ref name=":8">{{cite journal|title=The Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar: Past, Present, and Future|last=Abdelkader|first=Engy|date=1 July 2014|journal=Oregon Review of International Law (2014 Forthcoming) |ssrn = 2277949}}</ref>
 
The overwhelming majority of Rohingya people practice [[Islam]], including a blend of [[Sunni Islam]] and [[Sufism]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/05/15/407048785/why-no-one-wants-the-rohingyas |title=Why No One Wants The Rohingyas |publisher=NPR |access-date=16 January 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/02/rohingya-fleeing-myanmar-tales-ethnic-cleansing |title=Thousands of Rohingya flee Myanmar amid tales of ethnic cleansing |first=Jacob |last=Judah |date=2 September 2017 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=16 January 2018}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41291650|title=Bangladesh to restrict Rohingya movement|date=16 September 2017 |access-date=16 January 2018 |work=BBC News}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/rohingya-muslims-crisis-myanmar-burma-bangladesh-persecution-international-aid-a7944761.html |title=Bangladeshis should remember their own history when it comes to the fleeing Rohingya Muslims |date=13 September 2017 |newspaper=The Independent |access-date=16 January 2018}}</ref> and about 2.5% of Rohingya are [[Hinduism|Hindu]].<ref name="ReferenceA" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/09/19/rohingya-hindu-horror-myanmar-military/|title=Rohingya Hindu women share horror tales |website=Dhaka Tribune |access-date=16 January 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/09/rohingya-hindus-face-uncertainty-myanmar-170921093116573.html|title=Rohingya Hindus now face uncertainty in Myanmar |date=21 September 2017 |publisher=Al Jazeera|access-date=16 January 2018}}</ref> The government restricts their educational opportunities; so many of them pursue fundamental Islamic studies as their only option. [[Mosque]]s and [[madrasa]]s are present in most villages. Traditionally, men pray in congregations and women pray at home.<ref>{{cite web|title=Rohingya Muslims – India Needs to Show Compassion|url=http://www.thetinyman.in/2017/09/rohingya-muslims-india-need-to-show.html |website=Tiny Man|access-date=27 October 2017}}</ref>
 
Muslims have often faced obstacles and struggled to practice their religion in the same way as other individuals in Burma. These struggles have manifested themselves in the form of difficulty in receiving approval for the construction of places of worship, whether they be informal or formal. In the past, they have also been arrested for teaching and practising their religious beliefs.<ref name=":8" />
 
==Health==
[[File:4-year-old Anowar pictured with his mum and brother after being treated for diphtheria by the UK's Emergency Medical Team in Kutupalong, Bangladesh (28040394749).jpg|thumb|Rohingya children with their mother after being treated for [[diphtheria]] by the UK's emergency medical team in Kutupalong refugee camp.]]
The Rohingya face discrimination and barriers to health care.<ref name="Mahmood, Wroe, Fuller, Leaning 2016" /><ref name="Ives 2016">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/world/asia/rohingya-myanmar-health-care.html|title=Rohingya Face Health Care Bias in Parts of Asia, Study Finds|date=5 December 2016|work=The New York Times}}</ref> According to a 2016 study published in the medical journal ''[[The Lancet]]'', Rohingya children in Myanmar face low birth weight, malnutrition, diarrhoea, and barriers to reproduction on reaching adulthood.<ref name="Mahmood, Wroe, Fuller, Leaning 2016" /> Rohingya have a [[child mortality]] rate of up to 224 deaths per 1,000 live births, more than 4 times the rate for the rest of Myanmar (52 per 1,000 live births), and 3 times rate of rest non-Rohingya areas of Rakhine state (77 per 1,000 live births).<ref name="Mahmood">{{cite journal |author1=Mahmood |author2=Wroe |author3=Fuller |author4=Leaning|title= The Rohingya people of Myanmar: health, human rights, and identity |journal=Lancet |year=2016 |volume= 389|pages=1–10|url=http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)00646-2/abstract |format=fee required |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(16)00646-2 |pmid= 27916235 |issue=10081|s2cid=205981024 }}</ref><ref name="Mahmood, Wroe, Fuller, Leaning 2016" /> The paper also found that 40% of Rohingya children suffer from [[diarrhoea]] in internally displaced persons camp within Myanmar at a rate five times that of diarrhoeal illness among children in the rest of Rakhine.<ref name="Mahmood" />
 
==Human rights and refugee status==
{{See also|Human rights in Myanmar|Internal conflict in Myanmar#Refugee crisis|Persecution of Muslims in Myanmar}}
[[File:Cox's Bazaar Refugee Camp (8539828824) (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Kutupalong refugee camp]] in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. The camp is one of three, which house up to 300,000 Rohingya people fleeing inter-communal violence in Myanmar.]]
 
The Rohingya people have been described as "one of the world's least wanted minorities" and "some of the world's most persecuted people".<ref>{{cite news |first=Mark |last=Dummett |date=18 February 2010 |title=Bangladesh accused of 'crackdown' on Rohingya refugees |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8521280.stm |work=BBC News |access-date=29 July 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refdaily?pass=52fc6fbd5&id=4fe952205|title=Myanmar, Bangladesh leaders 'to discuss Rohingya' |agency=Agence France-Presse |date=25 June 2012 |access-date=29 July 2012}}</ref> [[Médecins Sans Frontières]] claimed that the discrimination and human rights challenges which the Rohingya people have faced at the hands of the country's government and military are "among the world's top ten most under-reported stories of 2007."<ref name=":9" /> In February 1992, Myanmar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a press release, "In actual fact, although there are (135) national races living in Myanmar today, the so-called Rohingya people is not one of them. Historically, there has never been a 'Rohingya' race in Myanmar."<ref name=":9">{{cite web|url=https://dr.ntu.edu.sg/bitstream/handle/10220/5978/rsisc012-08.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y|title=Rohingya Muslims: Myanmar's Forgotten People|last=Kyaw|first=Nyi Nyi|date=6 February 2008|website=Nanyang Technological University Library|access-date=5 October 2017}}</ref>
 
The Rohingya are denied [[freedom of movement]] as well as the right to receive a [[Higher education in Myanmar|higher education]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dandc.eu/en/article/myanmar-does-not-recognise-rohingya-citizens-ngo-expert-elaborates-our-interview|title="The world's most persecuted people" Katja Dombrowski interviews Johannes Kaltenbach (Malteser International) |publisher = In: D+C, Vol.42.2015:5 }}</ref> They have been denied Burmese citizenship since the 1982 nationality law was enacted.<ref name="rohingya">{{cite news |first=Jonathan |last=Head |date=5 February 2009 |title=What drive the Rohingya to sea? |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7872635.stm |work=BBC News |access-date=29 July 2012}}</ref> Post the 1982 law, Burma has had [[Myanmar nationality law|different types of citizenship]]. Citizens possessed red identity cards; Rohingyas were given white identity cards which essentially classified them as foreigners who were living in Burma. Limitations and restrictions imposed on Rohingya are facilitated by this difference in citizenship. For example, Rohingyas cannot enlist in the army or participate in the government, and they are potentially faced with the issue of [[illegal immigration]]. The citizenship law also significantly underlies the human rights violations against the Rohingya by the military.&nbsp;<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal|last=Grundy-Warr, Wong|first=Carl, Elaine|date=Autumn 1997|title=Sanctuary Under a Plastic Sheet–The Unresolved Problem of Rohingya Refugees|url=http://www.mcrg.ac.in/WC_2015/Reading/D_Unresolved_Problem_Rohingya_Refugees.pdf |journal=IBRU Boundary and Security Bulletin|pages=79–91|via=MCRG}}</ref>
 
They are not allowed to travel without official permission and they were previously required to sign a commitment not to have more than two children, though the law was not strictly enforced. They are subjected to routine [[Unfree labour|forced labour]]. (Typically, a Rohingya man has to work on military or government projects one day a week, and perform sentry duty one night a week.)<ref name="forced_labour_1998_07_19_intl_labour_ofc" /> The Rohingya have also lost a lot of arable land, which has been confiscated by the military and given to Buddhist settlers who have moved there from elsewhere in Myanmar.{{Sfn|Crisis Group|2014|p=19}}<ref name="rohingya" />
 
The military is partially responsible for the human rights violations which have been committed against the Rohingya. These violations include destruction of property and forced relocation to another country. One such violation was committed when the military forced Rohingyas in Rakhine to move to Bangladesh.&nbsp;Other human rights violations against Rohingya Muslims include physical violence and sexual violence. The country's military officials rationalised these violations by stating that they were required as part of a census that was going to be conducted in Burma and the military needed to perform these acts in order to find out what the Rohingya Muslims's nationality was.<ref name=":10" /> According to [[Amnesty International]], the Rohingya have been subjected to [[human rights]] violations by Burma's [[military dictatorship]] since [[Operation Dragon King|1978]], and many of them have fled to neighbouring [[Bangladesh]] as a result.<ref name="Amn">{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA16/005/2004/|title=Myanmar – The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied|publisher=Amnesty International|year=2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141213205322/http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA16/005/2004|archive-date=13 December 2014|url-status=dead|access-date=11 February 2015}}</ref> The dislocation of the Rohingya Muslims from their homes to other areas can be attributed to factors such as how isolated and undeveloped Rakhine is, the conflict between the Rohingya Muslims and the Buddhists, and the discrimination which they have been subjected to by the government.<ref name=":11">{{cite web|url=http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs21/Abrar-NM-Repatriation_of_Rohingya_refugees-en.pdf|title=Repatriation of Rohingya Refugees|last=Abrar|first=C.R.|website=Burma Library|access-date=6 October 2017}}</ref>&nbsp;
 
Members of the Rohingya community were displaced to Bangladesh where the government of the country, non-governmental organisations and the [[United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees|UNHCR]] gave aid to the refugees by providing them with homes and food. These external organisations (other than those which were controlled by the government) were important because the immigration of the Rohingyas was massive due to the number of people who needed help.<ref name=":11" />&nbsp; In 2005, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees helped the Bangladeshi government repatriate Rohingyas from Bangladesh, but allegations of human rights abuses inside the refugee camps threatened this effort.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.newagebd.com/2005/may/21/front.html#9 |title=UNHCR threatens to wind up Bangladesh operations |work=New Age |date=21 May 2005 |access-date=25 April 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090425140346/http://www.newagebd.com/2005/may/21/front.html |archive-date=25 April 2009 }}</ref> In 2015, 140,000 Rohingyas were still living in IDP camps, three years after fleeing communal riots in 2012.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-23077537|title=The unending plight of Burma's unwanted Rohingyas|last=Head|first=Jonathan|date=1 July 2013|access-date=11 February 2015}}</ref> Despite earlier repatriation efforts by the [[United Nations|UN]], the vast majority of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are unable to return to Myanmar due to the communal violence which occurred there in 2012 and their fear of [[persecution]]. The Bangladeshi government has reduced the amount of support it allocates to the Rohingyas in order to prevent an outflow of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh.<ref>{{cite news|last=Dummett |first=Mark |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7019882.stm |title=Asia-Pacific &#124; Burmese exiles in desperate conditions |work=BBC News |date=29 September 2007 |access-date=18 October 2013}}</ref> In February 2009, many Rohingya refugees were rescued by [[Acehnese people|Acehnese]] sailors in the [[Strait of Malacca]], after 21 days at sea.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://epaper.kompas.com/ |title=Kompas – VirtualNEWSPAPER |publisher=Epaper.kompas.com |access-date=18 October 2013}}</ref>
 
{{Quote box
|quote  = The Rakhine community as a whole has tended to be cast internationally as violent extremists – ignoring the diversity of opinions that exist, the fact that the Rakhine themselves are a long-oppressed minority, and rarely attempting to understand their perspective and concerns.  This is counterproductive: it promotes a siege mentality on the part of the Rakhine, and obscures complex realities that must be understood if a sustainable way forward is to be found.
|source = —The International Crisis Group, ''The Politics of Rakhine State'', 22 October 2014{{Sfn|Crisis Group|2014|p=i}}
|width  = 25%
|align  = right}}
 
Thousands of Rohingyas have also fled to [[Thailand]]. There have been charges that Rohingyas were shipped and towed out to the open sea from Thailand. In February 2009, evidence showing the Thai army towing a boatload of 190 Rohingya refugees out to sea surfaced. A group of refugees who were rescued by [[Indonesia]]n authorities stated that they were captured and beaten by the Thai military, and then abandoned at sea.<ref>Rivers, Dan (12 February 2009). [http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/02/12/thailand.refugees.admission/index.html Thai PM admits boat people pushed out to sea]. [[CNN]].</ref>
 
Steps to repatriate Rohingya refugees began in 2005. In 2009, the government of Bangladesh announced that it would repatriate around 9,000 Rohingyas who were living in refugee camps inside the country back to Myanmar, after a meeting with Burmese diplomats.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.zeenews.com/news591146.html|title=Myanmar to repatriate 9,000 Muslim refugees from B'desh |last=[[Press Trust of India]]|date=29 December 2009|publisher=[[Zee News]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=119694|title=Myanmar to take back 9,000 Rohingyas soon|last=Staff Correspondent|date=30 December 2009|newspaper=[[The Daily Star (Bangladesh)|The Daily Star]]}}</ref> On 16 October 2011, the new government of Myanmar agreed to take back registered Rohingya refugees. However, these repatriation efforts were hampered by the Rakhine riots in 2012.<ref>{{cite news|title=Myanmar to 'take back' Rohingya refugees|url=http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=206713|newspaper=The Daily Star|date=16 October 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Ahmed |first1=Akbar |last2=Akins |first2=Harrison |date= 1 December 2011 |title=Little help for the persecuted Rohingya of Burma |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/dec/01/rohingya-burma?INTCMP=SRCH |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=18 October 2013}}</ref>
 
On 29 March 2014, the Burmese government banned the word "Rohingya" and asked that members of the minority group be registered as "Bengalis" in the [[2014 Myanmar Census]], the first census to be held in three decades.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-international/no-registration-for-rohingya-in-myanmar-census/article5849870.ece |location=Chennai, India |work=The Hindu |title=No registration for 'Rohingya' in Myanmar census |date=30 March 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26807239 |title=Burma census bans people registering as Rohingya |work=BBC News |date=30 March 2014 |access-date=10 February 2015}}</ref> On 7 May 2014, the [[United States House of Representatives]] passed the [[United States House resolution on persecution of the Rohingya people in Burma]] that called on the government of Myanmar to end the discrimination and persecution.<ref name="BurmaResoluHill">{{cite news|last=Marcos|first=Cristina|title=House passes resolution pressuring Burmese government to end genocide|url=http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/205545-house-passes-resolution-pressuring-burmese-government-to-end|newspaper=The Hill|date=7 May 2014|access-date=8 May 2014}}</ref><ref name="418sum">{{cite web|title=H.Res. 418 – Summary|url=http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-resolution/418|publisher=United States Congress|access-date=5 May 2014}}</ref> Researchers from the [[International State Crime Initiative]] at [[Queen Mary University of London]] suggest that the Myanmar government is in the final stages of an organised process of [[genocide]] against the Rohingya.<ref>{{cite news|title=Campaigns of violence towards Rohingya are highly organised and genocidal in intent|url=http://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/items/hss/165941.html|publisher=Queen Mary University of London|date=29 October 2015|access-date=2 November 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Mandel|first1=Seth|title=The Cautionary Tale of Samantha Power|url=https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-cautionary-tale-of-samantha-power/|access-date=19 January 2017|work=Commentary Magazine|quote=Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority currently being subjected to an unmistakable genocide}}</ref> In November 2016, a senior UN official in Bangladesh accused Myanmar of ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas.<ref name= ethnic-cleansing /> However, Charles Petrie, a former top UN official in Myanmar, said that "Today using the term, aside from being divisive and potentially incorrect, will only ensure that opportunities and options to try to resolve the issue to be addressed will not be available. {{Citation needed|date=June 2020}}
 
In September 2020, [[U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights]], [[Michelle Bachelet]], has warned that the killing and abductions of Rohingyas have not stopped, despite the International Court of Justice ordering Myanmar's leadership to prevent genocide and stop the killings in December 2019.<ref>{{cite news |title=Justice and the Rohingya people are the losers in Asia's new cold war |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/20/justice-and-the-rohingya-people-are-the-losers-in-asias-new-cold-war |work=the Guardian |date=20 September 2020 |language=en}}</ref>
 
Some countries like Malaysia have rejected the resettlement of Rohingya refugees and sent them back to sea because of economic difficulties and the [[COVID-19 pandemic|Coronavirus pandemic]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Malaysia Could Send Rohingya Detainees Back Out to Sea: Sources |url=https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/06/18/world/asia/18reuters-myanmar-rohingya-malaysia.html |access-date=27 June 2020 |work=[[New York Times]] |agency=[[Reuters]] |date=18 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200627084505/https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/06/18/world/asia/18reuters-myanmar-rohingya-malaysia.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 June 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Latiff |first1=Rozanna |title=Malaysia can't take any more Rohingya refugees, PM says |url=https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN23X19Y |access-date=27 June 2020 |work=[[Reuters]] |date=26 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200627084813/https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN23X19Y|archive-date=27 June 2020}}</ref> Malaysian authorities have also expressed concern that militant Rohingya groups have been raising funds by extorting money from Rohingya refugees in the country.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Chew |first1=Amy |title=Militant Rohingya group raises funds in Malaysia by extorting money from Muslim refugees |url=https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3019396/militant-rohingya-group-raises-funds-malaysia-extorting-money |access-date=27 June 2020 |work=[[South China Morning Post]] |date=22 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610232245/https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3019396/militant-rohingya-group-raises-funds-malaysia-extorting-money |archive-date=10 June 2020}}</ref>
 
==See also==
* [[International reactions to the Rohingya genocide]]
* [[Kamein]]
* [[List of ethnic groups in Myanmar]]
* [[Min Aung Hlaing]]
* [[Persecution of Muslims]]
 
==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=note}}
 
==References==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}
 
=== General sources ===
''(in alphabetical order)''
* {{cite journal |url=https://www.soas.ac.uk/sbbr/editions/file64388.pdf |title=The Development of a Muslim Enclave in Arakan (Rakhine) State of Burma (Myanmar) |journal=[[SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research]] |date=Autumn 2005 |volume=3 |number=2 |access-date=11 September 2017 |author=Aye Chan|ref={{Sfnref|Aye Chan|2005}}}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150518085846/http://www.networkmyanmar.org/images/stories/PDF13/aye%20chan%20bwb.pdf "Burma's Western Border as Reported by the Diplomatic Correspondence (1947–1975)"] by Aye Chan
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150518085846/http://www.networkmyanmar.org/images/stories/PDF13/aye%20chan%20bwb.pdf "Burma's Western Border as Reported by the Diplomatic Correspondence (1947–1975)"] by Aye Chan
* {{cite news|last=Charney |first=Michael W.|title=A Comparative Vocabulary of Some of the Languages Spoken in the Burma Empire written by Francis Buchanan |url=https://archive.org/details/AComparativeVocabularyOfSomeOfTheLanguagesSpokenInTheBurmaEmpire |work=[[SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research]] |date=8 April 2018 |access-date=8 April 2018 |ref={{Sfnref|Charney|2003}}}}
* {{cite book |last=Harvey |first= G. E.|title=History of Burma: From the Earliest Times to 10 March 1824 |publisher=Frank Cass & Co. Ltd |year=1925 |location=London}}
* [https://www.ictj.org/our-work/regions-and-countries/burmamyanmar International Center for Transitional Justice, Myanmar]
* {{cite conference |url=http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/khin-mg-saw-on-rohingya.pdf  |title=The 'Rohingyas', Who Are They? The Origin of the Name 'Rohingya' |author=Khin Maung Saw |year=1994 |editor1=Uta Gärtner |editor2=Jens Lorenz |book-title=Tradition and Modernity in Myanmar: Proceedings of an International Conference held in Berlin from 7 to 9 May 1993 |publisher=LIT |location=Münster |pages=89–101 |isbn=978-3-89473-992-8 |ref={{Sfnref|Khin Maung Saw|1993}}}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Leider |first=Jacques |editor-last=Ludden |editor-first=David |encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History  |title=Rohingya: The History of a Muslim Identity in Myanmar |year=2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press  |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.013.115 |isbn=9780190277727 |ref={{Sfnref|Leider|2018}}}}
* {{Cite web |last=Leider |first=Jacques |year=2013 |url=http://www.networkmyanmar.org/ESW/Files/Leider-Rohingya.pdf |title=Rohingya: The name, the movement and the quest for identity |website=Network Myanmar |ref={{Sfnref|Leider|2013}}}}
* {{cite web |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa16/005/2004/en/|title=Myanmar, The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied|publisher=Amnesty International|access-date=13 August 2005}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/asia/south-east-asia/burma-myanmar/261-myanmar-the-politics-of-rakhine-state.pdf|title=Myanmar:The Politics of Rakhine State |publisher=International Crisis Group |date=22 October 2014 |access-date=8 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141106132722/http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/asia/south-east-asia/burma-myanmar/261-myanmar-the-politics-of-rakhine-state.pdf |archive-date=6 November 2014 |ref={{Sfnref|Crisis Group|2014}}}}
* {{cite book |last=Myint-U |first=Thant |title=The River of Lost Footsteps—Histories of Burma |year=2006 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=978-0-374-16342-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Phayre |first=Lt. Gen. Sir Arthur P. |title=History of Burma |year=1883 |edition=1967 |publisher=Susil Gupta |location=London}}
* {{cite book |last=Yegar |first=Moshe |author-link=Moshe Yegar |title=Between integration and secession: The Muslim communities of the Southern Philippines, Southern Thailand, and Western Burma / Myanmar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S5q7qxi5LBgC&pg=PA23 |year=2002 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield|Lexington Books]] |location=Lanham, MD |isbn=978-0-7391-0356-2 |ref={{Sfnref|Yegar|2002}}}}
* {{cite book|last=Yegar|first=Moshe|title=Muslims of Burma|url=http://www.netipr.org/policy/downloads/19720101-Muslims-Of-Burma-by-Moshe-Yegar.pdf|year=1972|publisher=Verlag Otto Harrassowitz|location=Wiesbaden|ref={{Sfnref|Yegar|1972}}}}
 
==External links==
* {{commons category-inline}}
 
{{Ethnic groups in Myanmar}}
{{Authority control}}
 
[[Category:Rohingya people| ]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Bangladesh]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Myanmar]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Pakistan]]
[[Category:Indo-Aryan peoples]]
[[Category:Islam in Myanmar]]
[[Category:Muslim ethnoreligious groups]]
[[Category:Refugees in Indonesia]]
[[Category:Refugees in Malaysia]]
[[Category:Stateless nationalism in Asia]]
[[Category:Stateless people]]

Latest revision as of 14:24, 22 October 2022

Error creating thumbnail: File missing
The Rohingya people

The Rohingya are an Aryan ethnic group of Southeast Asia, considered as Gypsy of Burma.[1] They are Muslims. They live in the Arakan State in western Myanmar (or Burma), and in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in south-eastern Bangladesh. They are not citizens of either Burma or Bangladesh.

Starting from 2017, many Rohingya refugees began to arrive in Bangladesh in order to escape the genocide against them in Myanmar.

History[edit | edit source]

The Rohingya say that they are native to the region now known as Arakan. They are the product of the mixing of different cultures.

The Rohingya are quite different than other people in Burma. While most people in Burma are Buddhist and speak Burmese, the Rohingya are Muslim and speak the Rohingya language, which is quite similar to the Bengali language spoken in the neighboring country of Bangladesh. Because of these differences, a lot of people look down on the Rohingya and treat them wrong. They are worried that the Rohingya are not loyal to Burma and will try to take over the country, even though Rohingya are outnumbered by other groups.

The Burmese government does not like the Rohingya people. They say that the Rohingya are Bengalis and do not belong in the country. Because of this, Rohingyas cannot do things that other people in Burma can, such as go to school and vote.

In the 2010s, the Burmese government started to put the Rohingya in concentration camps and not allow them to leave. They also took away their ID cards so that they can't say that they were seen as Burmese citizens in the past.

In 2017, the Burmese army started burning down Rohingya villages. They also killed a lot of Rohingya men and said that they were part of terrorist groups. However, most Rohingya are not involved in terrorism and just want to live peaceful lives.

In Bangladesh, a mass-Circumcision, Sünnet like was done for Rohingya Muslim boys[2]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ https://worldcrunch.com/world-affairs/the-most-persecuted-minority-in-the-world-the-gypsies-of-burma
  2. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2022-09-08. Retrieved 2022-09-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)


Retrieved from "https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rohingya_people&oldid=357136"
Discover more