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Rakhine State, formerly known as Arakan State, is a state in Myanmar (Burma). Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State to the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady Region to the east, the Bay of Bengal to the west and the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh to the northwest. It is located approximately between latitudes 17°30' north and 21°30' north and longitudes 92°10' east and 94°50' east. The Arakan Mountains or Rakhine Yoma separated Rakhine State from central Burma from North to South. Off the coast of Rakhine State there are some fairly large islands such as Ramree, Cheduba and Myingun. Rakhine State has an area of 36,762 square kilometres (14,194 sq mi) and its capital is Sittwe.
Human rights in Myanmar under its military regime have long been regarded as among the worst in the world. In 2022, Freedom House rated Myanmar’s human rights at 9 out 100.
The Rohingya people are a stateless ethnic group who predominantly follow Islam and reside in Rakhine State, Myanmar. Before the Rohingya genocide in 2017, when over 740,000 fled to Bangladesh, an estimated 1.4 million Rohingya lived in Myanmar. Described by journalists and news outlets as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, the Rohingya are denied citizenship under the 1982 Myanmar nationality law. There are also restrictions on their freedom of movement, access to state education and civil service jobs. The legal conditions faced by the Rohingya in Myanmar have been compared to apartheid by some academics, analysts and political figures, including Nobel laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu, a South African anti-apartheid activist. The most recent mass displacement of Rohingya in 2017 led the International Criminal Court to investigate crimes against humanity, and the International Court of Justice to investigate genocide.
Operation Dragon King, officially known as Operation Nagamin in English, was a military operation carried in 1978 out by the Tatmadaw and immigration officials in northern Arakan, Burma, during the socialist rule of Ne Win.
In Myanmar, terrorism is defined by the country's counter-terrorism law and its subsections, which is interpreted by the Anti-Terrorism Central Committee and enforced by the government of Myanmar. Two groups are currently listed as terrorist organisations in accordance with Myanmar's counter-terrorism law; the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which was added on 25 August 2017, and the Arakan Army, which was added on 18 January 2019. The SPDC military government called the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors (VBSW) "terrorists" after their role in the 1999 Myanmar Embassy siege, but the group was never legally declared as such.
There is a history of persecution of Muslims in Myanmar that continues to the present day. Myanmar is a Buddhist majority country, with significant Christian and Muslim minorities. While Muslims served in the government of Prime Minister U Nu (1948–63), the situation changed with the 1962 Burmese coup d'état. While a few continued to serve, most Christians and Muslims were excluded from positions in the government and army. In 1982, the government introduced regulations that denied citizenship to anyone who could not prove Burmese ancestry from before 1823. This disenfranchised many Muslims in Myanmar, even though they had lived in Myanmar for several generations.
The Rohingya conflict is an ongoing conflict in the northern part of Myanmar's Rakhine State, characterised by sectarian violence between the Rohingya Muslim and Rakhine Buddhist communities, a military crackdown on Rohingya civilians by Myanmar's security forces, and militant attacks by Rohingya insurgents in Buthidaung, Maungdaw, and Rathedaung Townships, which border Bangladesh.
In 2015, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people were forcibly displaced from their villages and IDP camps in Rakhine State, Myanmar, due to sectarian violence. Nearly one million fled to neighbouring Bangladesh and some travelled to Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand by rickety boats via the waters of the Strait of Malacca, Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), formerly known as Harakah al-Yaqin, is a Rohingya insurgent group active in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. According to a December 2016 report by the International Crisis Group, it is led by Ataullah abu Ammar Jununi, a Rohingya man who was born in Karachi, Pakistan, and grew up in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Other members of its leadership include a committee of Rohingya émigrés in Saudi Arabia.
The following lists events in the year 2017 in Myanmar.
The Rohingya genocide is a series of ongoing persecutions and killings of the Muslim Rohingya people by the military of Myanmar. The genocide has consisted of two phases to date: the first was a military crackdown that occurred from October 2016 to January 2017, and the second has been occurring since August 2017. The crisis forced over a million Rohingya to flee to other countries. Most fled to Bangladesh, resulting in the creation of the world's largest refugee camp, while others escaped to India, Thailand, Malaysia, and other parts of South and Southeast Asia, where they continue to face persecution. Many other countries consider these events ethnic cleansing.
Violent clashes have been ongoing in the northern part of Myanmar's Rakhine State since October 2016. Insurgent attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) have led to sectarian violence perpetrated by Myanmar's military and the local Buddhist population against predominantly Muslim Rohingya civilians. The conflict has sparked international outcry and was described as an ethnic cleansing by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In August 2017, the situation worsened and hundreds of thousands of refugees fled Myanmar into Bangladesh, with an estimated 500,000 refugees having arrived by 27 September 2017. In January 2019, Arakan Army insurgents raided border police posts in Buthidaung Township, joining the conflict and beginning their military campaign in northern Rakhine State against the Burmese military.
Ataullah abu Ammar Jununi is the leader of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a Rohingya insurgent group active in northern Rakhine State. Ataullah appears in several videos released online by ARSA, where he gives press statements and speeches.
The Rohingya genocide is a term applied to the persecution—including mass killings, mass rapes, village-burnings, deprivations, ethnic cleansing, and internments—of the Rohingya people of western Myanmar.
The Tula Toli massacre was a mass-killing of Rohingya people that occurred during a Myanmar Army clearance operation in the village of Tula Toli, Rakhine State, near the Bangladesh–Myanmar border. According to eyewitnesses, Burmese soldiers carried out the massacre with the support of local Rakhines who also resided in the village. Eyewitnesses state that at least 200 women and 300 children were killed.
On 25 August 2017, Hindu villages in a cluster known as Kha Maung Seik in the northern Maungdaw District of Rakhine State in Myanmar were attacked and 99 Bengali Hindu villagers were massacred by Muslim insurgents from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). A month later, the Myanmar Army discovered mass graves containing the corpses of 45 Hindus, most of whom were women and children.
Inn Din is a village in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. The village is in an area of mixed ethnicity, including Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine people. In December 2017, a mass grave with ten Rohingya men was discovered near the Inn Din cemetery. In January 2018, the Myanmar military admitted that its soldiers and Rakhine paramilitaries had killed the ten Rohingyas in September of the previous year.
The Gu Dar Pyin massacre was a mass-killing of Rohingya people by the Myanmar Army and armed Rakhine locals that reportedly happened in the village of Gu Dar Pyin, in Rakhine State, Myanmar on 27 August 2017. According to eyewitness testimony and video evidence first reported by the Associated Press, victims of the massacre were buried in five mass graves by the Myanmar Army and burnt with acid. An official count given by the Burmese government put the death toll at ten, whilst Rohingya village elders recorded a list of 75 people who may have died in the massacre and locals estimated that up to 400 people were killed in the massacre.
The Inn Din massacre was a mass execution of Rohingyas by the Myanmar Army and armed Rakhine locals in the village of Inn Din, in Rakhine State, Myanmar on 2 September 2017. The victims were accused of being members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) by authorities. An investigation by Myanmar's military concluded on 10 January 2018 that there was indeed a mass execution of Rohingyas in Inn Din, marking the first instance where the military admitted to extrajudicial killings during their "clearance operations" in the region.
The Chut Pyin massacre was a massacre of Rohingyas by the Myanmar Army and armed Rakhine locals that purportedly took place in the village of Chut Pyin, in Rakhine State, Myanmar on 25 August 2017, the same day Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) insurgents attacked security forces along the Bangladesh–Myanmar border. The event was first brought to attention after a report was published by Human Rights Watch, which detailed accounts of rape and killings from survivors.
References
- 1 2 3 4 "Rohingyas describe bloody massacre at hands of Myanmar troops".
- 1 2 3 "Burma's armed forces slaughtered Rohingya men and children, say survivors" . The Independent. 22 December 2017. Archived from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
- 1 2 3 Pitmann, Todd (21 December 2017). "Shattered skulls and blood: Rohingya report Myanmar massacre". CTVNews.
- 1 2 Naing, Shoon; Lewis, Simon (2017). "Myanmar says U.S. sanctions against general based on 'unreliable..." Reuters. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
- 1 2 "Burma: Military Massacres Dozens in Rohingya Village". Human Rights Watch. 4 October 2017.
- ↑ Stoakes, Emanuel (19 February 2018). "Myanmar government 'bulldozing Rohingya mass grave to hide evidence'". the Guardian. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
- 1 2 Kevin Ponniah (5 December 2016). "Who will help Myanmar's Rohingya?". BBC News.
- ↑ Matt Broomfield (10 December 2016). "UN calls on Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi to halt 'ethnic cleansing' of Rohingya Muslims" . The Independent . Archived from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
- ↑ "New wave of destruction sees 1,250 houses destroyed in Myanmar's Rohingya villages". International Business Times . 21 November 2016.
- ↑ "Rohingya Refugees Seek to Return Home to Myanmar". Voice of America. 30 November 2016. Retrieved 9 December 2016.
- ↑ Amnesty International (2004). "Myanmar – The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied". Archived from the original on 13 December 2014. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
- ↑ "UNHCR threatens to wind up Bangladesh operations". New Age BDNEWS, Dhaka. 21 May 2005. Archived from the original on 25 April 2009. Retrieved 25 April 2007.
- ↑ Head, Jonathan (1 July 2013). "The unending plight of Burma's unwanted Rohingyas" . Retrieved 11 February 2015.
- ↑ "Massacre at Tula Toli: Rohingya recall horror of Myanmar army attack". The Guardian . 7 September 2017. Retrieved 23 September 2017.