Rohingya Essay

The Genocide of the Rohingya : An Overview It was made abundantly clear to me after my previous post that the genocide of the Rohingya, even the existence of the Rohingya in general, is not common knowledge to most people. For this reason, I am beginning this post with a little bit of background on the situation. Myanmar, a country in southern Asia, was first colonized by Britain in 1886, after a series of violent wars between the native people and the colonizers. It stayed in British hands until 1948, when it became its own free country. The country was originally named Burma, but the name was changed to Myanmar in 1989. The Rohingya people are a Muslim minority located in the poor province of Rakhing on the western border of the country.

Despite the fact that the Rohingya have been settled in Myanmar since 15th century, According to the council on Foreign Relations, the government takes the position that they are not native to Myanmar. They see the Rohingya as foreigners who traveled to the region during British occupation for work, and while many did come during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a vast majority had already been settled for centuries. Recently, it has come to the attention of the global community that the government of Myanmar has enacted violence against these people and their communities, leaving many to flee into neighboring Bangladesh. There has been much debate over whether or not the actions of the government of Myanmar towards these people could be classified as a genocide. With the help of increasing media coverage, more countries are acknowledging the issues that the Rohingya face, although the term genocide has not yet been placed officially on the events. This is all despite the fact that the goals of these actions is very clearly to rid Myanmar of these people, either by killing them or

However, Aung San Suu Kyi is, just as her father was, a national hero and a symbol of democracy and peace. Her many impressive achievements have lead to her people holding her in a high-esteem. She represents the breaking away from oppression. The people of Myanmar were oppressed under British rule and under the horrible government that formed after the British left. In the eyes of the people, she can do no wrong. For this reason, if she states that the attacks on the Rohingya people are a way of stopping terrorist attacks and Muslim militants, which according to the BBC, she has, the people will believe it. Also, even if Western countries were to speak out against the killings, to the people of Myanmar, it could very much seem as though they were trying to bully Aung San Suu Kyi out of her position. The mistrust between the West and Myanmar that was created during British occupation has created a gap in communication, leaving the people in Myanmar with distorted visions of the world around them and preventing them from being able to look critically at the actions of their government. This made me wonder whether or not any people native to Myanmar were speaking out against Aung San Suu Kyi and her defense of the genocide and whether or not any of the racist views of the people in Myanmar today came from their British