The Rohingya refugees want to go back home

The Rohingya denied repatriation until all of their demands are fulfilled

The Rohingyas are an indigenous ethnic minority of Burma, who were sons of the soil and kingmakers of Arakan. Their existence was before the birth of the country Burma. Since the Burmese independence, under the democratic government, they were fully recognized as an ethnic minority and were counted as citizens of Burma.

After the seizure of power by General Ne Win led military, the Rohingyas were systematically discriminated against and finally stripped of their citizenship, along with the Rohingyas’ authentic identification documents.

For decades, the Rohingyas have been facing genocidal operations and also have been denied their existence, and violated their human rights. In 1982, the Rohingyas were denied the Nativity Status of citizenship and labeled as Bengali.

Labeling the Rohingya as Bengali made them go through several illogical verification processes to prove their proven ancestry once again. In that period the Rohingyas were given different statuses such as temporary cards (white cards) under different names such as Bengali, Muslims, Burmese Muslims, Myanmar Muslims, etc. The final step of the Burmese military regime’s ill-motivated plan to make the Rohingya stateless was forcing for the National Verification Card (NVC), which the Rohingya called the genocide card.

The NVC is a card for newcomers to Myanmar who haven't any documents or are undocumented. The Rohingyas are documented people of Myanmar and were an indigenous ethnic minority of Arakan, Burma. According to the 1982 citizenship law, the NVC is not for the documented people.      

When enforcement of NVC was not succussed, the Myanmar government planned a systematic massacre, named it a “Clearance Operation” in 2016/17, and forced more than 1.1 million Rohingya out of their ancestral homeland, which was almost completed their project, the Rohingya genocide.

Earlier, Rohingyas were deceived many times by the Burmese government and repatriated from Bangladesh without granting any of their deserved human rights. So, this time Rohingya vowed not to fall into the trap of the Burmese government and they have decided not to go back until their demands are fulfilled.

Now the Rohingya refugees, from small babies to elderly men and women, recite their demands, in several languages and in their songs as well, everywhere. If the government of Myanmar is sincere about the repatriation of the Rohingyas, the demands are very acceptable and they deserved all those too. They argued to fulfill their demands before repatriation.  

 

The demands of the Rohingya refugees are seen as follows:

1/ Must restore citizenship rights:

It is very easy for the government of Myanmar, sincereness is a must. The issuance of an official order by the president, stating to restore full flash citizenship rights of the Rohingya Muslims of Arakan (Rakhine) state.

The Official order must be stated for both those who are living inside Arakan and who are escaped outside for their lives.

 

2/ Repatriation:

A- Must rebuild their houses, must return their properties, and must allow them to go to their own homes:

Instead of building new camps for the returnees, the government of Myanmar has to rebuild or repair their houses which were destroyed or burned by the military and its associates. The seized properties must return to the owners (Rohingyas) and allow them to come to their own homes which have been rebuilt by the government.

B- Must allow the Rohingya IDPs (who are confined in the camps since 2012) to go back to their own homes. Note: the same for IDPs.

 

3/ Security:

Must allow world security forces (UN Peacekeepers) for the safety of returnees and must not those who have committed genocide against them.

The author Mir Ahmed Siddiquee is a researcher on the Rohingya issues and can be reached at @mir_sidiquee.