Muslims are dying at the hands of their governments all over the Muslim world, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan, governed by the puppet pro-American regimes set up after the USA invaded, the slaughter continues. But the focal point is probably Syria, where the Al-Assad regime is apparently trying to kill off the people’s revolt literally, with 17,000 killed and still counting. However, here the people are being killed without any American intervention, by regime troops.
Indeed, the USA is posturing as an anti-regime force. That is an important commonality the Rohingya people of Myanmar have with the people of Syria. That they are not being slaughtered by the Americans, but their fellow citizens, who may have killed as many as 20,000 of their total population of 800,000. However, while the USA has threatened the events in Syria, which it might have invaded, but for a number of factors involving Iran and Israel, in the case of Myanmar, the USA has strong bilateral reasons to avoid taking as strict a view as it does of the events in Syria, even though more may have died in the Arakan, and in less time too.
Perhaps, the main reason it has to ignore these events is the oil interest. US oil companies have only now got the go-ahead from the Burmese government to explore in the Arakan, which is the area where the Rohingyas mainly are. The Rohingyas are akin to the people of Chittagong, which is the area of Bangladesh bordering Myanmar.
As in previous crises, the Rohingyas have tried to cross into Bangladesh, but they have been fired upon, and generally prevented. Thus, as they are not Bangladeshis, they turned back to Myanmar. However, there they are regarded as Bangladeshi non-Burmese.
Prior to 1971, this would have been regarded as a Pakistani problem, but as Bangladesh has obtained independence, this is a Bangladeshi problem. Interestingly, just as the Rohingyas are regarded as foreigners in the land of their birth, and as ‘belonging’ to Bangladesh, similarly, Muslims in Assam are regarded as belonging to Bangladesh, and as having sneaked across and now claiming migrant status.
Nevertheless, the Rohingyas once had their own kingdom in Arakan, and are not that easily dismissed. That kingdom was conquered by Burma in 1785, when the first outflow of refugees took place. That the Arakanese kingdom held Chittagong has meant that the Rohingyas live on both sides of the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. However, when the area was conquered by the British, along with some areas now in both Burma and India, in 1826, the Rohingyas came to the end of a Burmese occupation that had begun their series of persecutions. The Burmese conquest in 1799 had led to a general massacre, and thousands of refugees going over to the British-occupied Bengal. The British administered the Arakan as part of Bengal, which meant that the Rohingyas were free to settle. This is the time that Chittagongese are supposed to have settled.
The British first made Burma a colony independent of India, and made it independent in 1948, but not until the Japanese had conquered it in 1942. The Rohingyas were persecuted both by the Japanese, and by the Burmese. Then Burma went under military rule, from which it has not emerged. Because of this, the Rohingyas found themselves persecuted even further. The Burmese military was patriotic, and subscribed to Burma’s dominant religion, Theravada Buddhism, which made the Rohingyas a natural target. It is noteworthy that another minority that is persecuted, the Karen people, are Christian.
Because the Burmese military needs the patriotic card, the Rohingyas are caught up, and the anger that should be directed against the military is used against such minorities as the Rohingya. One of the main symbols of persecution has been the government’s denial of citizenship to Rohingya.
However, the current riots do not have anything to do with this.
On June 3, a bus carrying the Rohingyas was attacked, and the Rohingyas pulled off and killed. Since then, the attacks have continued, with the foreign press, already restricted in its coverage of Myanmar, further restricted. But the atmosphere of massacring foreigners was already in place. The genesis of the episode also shows up the dangers of pushing to an extreme the concept of citizenship. Myanmar is stuck with considering 800,000 people born and bred in Myanmar as foreigners. Bangladesh also considers them foreign, and the solution proposed by Myanmar’s President, Thein Sein, a former general, probably reflects military opinion, if not all Burmese opinion, when he calls for the Rohingya to go into UN refugee camps. However, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese ‘democracy icon’, perhaps reflects civilian opinion by her silence. None of the majority community has supported the Rohingyas, with little of the country’s supposedly non-violent Buddhist faith going to inform the attitude of the average Buddhist. The military, itself, is, reportedly, involved in the atrocities, showing that the state is far from being an honest broker.
One of the most striking features of the whole affair is the silence of Muslim governments and of the OIC countries in particular. During the Afghan jihad, the Rohingyas were restive, as were the Pattani Muslims of Thailand. The latter were converted by the Arab traders, who were in the area centuries ago, and who converted Malaysia and Indonesia as well. There is an element among the Rohingyas of those Arab traders, and thus the Burmese Muslims are like the Indian Muslims, which provided many of those who are now integral parts of the Burmese people, and whose ancestors had migrated there when the British conquered both. However, if the Muslim states were to join forces and try to take the Myanmarese government to task over the travails of the Rohingyas, they would find that this would trigger criticism of the OIC member, Bangladesh, which seems to be an accomplice by not providing refuge to the Rohingyas fleeing the massacres.
Perhaps, more crucially, it would hold up the oil companies which had been held back from exploiting the resources of the Arakan. No one will turn profits, even if it means that accusing the oil companies of having anything to do with the massacres. (Though it is true that they would find it easier to exploit a land empty of people, than one with a population.) However, if there were a proper investigation into the killings, the oil companies might find their work delayed, which is impermissible.
Again, it seems that the Muslims are sitting on top of oil. And it seems that, just as in the Middle East, the oil companies that need this territory to continue to generate corporate profits will get the government on their side.
The situation of the Rohingyas cannot thus be solved by the intervention of the Muslim countries, at least not so long as their governments were controlled by outside powers. It is not just the USA, but all outside powers. For example, if the Hasina Wajid government is keeping the Rohingyas out of Bangladesh, it would be doing so with Indian permission. India is, in turn, trying to win the position of the USA’s regional bully. Only Muslim unity will bring enough pressure to save the Rohingyas. The slaughter has been going on for centuries, and under the present arrangements, will go on!

The writer is a veteran journalist and founding member as well as Executive Editor of TheNation.
    Email: maniazi@nation.com.pk