BURMESE REFUGEES IN BANGLADESH
Beginning in late 1991, wide-scale atrocities committed by the Burmese military, including rape, forced labor, and religious persecution, triggered an exodus of ethnic Rohingya Muslims from the northwesternBurmese state of Arakan into Bangladesh.17 The Burmese military had embarked on a policy of ridding the country of ethnic Rohingyas by any possible means, including sexual and physical violence against Rohingya women. Investigations by Human Rights Watch revealed the constancy of such dangers to Rohingya women at home, during flight and as refugees. Since the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) regime remains in power, Rohingyas who were later repatriated, often involuntarily, by the Bangladeshi government may have been re-exposed to this cycle of abuse.18
In many ways, the mistreatment of these Muslims, called Rohingyas, seemed to be integral to the stepped-up military offensive against ethnic minorities and opposition activists by the SLORC, the military junta that has become one of the most abusive governments in Asia. Intensive fighting took place from February to April 1992 along Burma's eastern border against the Karen and Mon people as well; refugees who fled to Thai border camps brought with them accounts of rape and forced labor, similar to those given by Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
But several particularities about the Rohingya situation distinguish it from the pattern of human rights violations in the east. The Burmese government claims the Rohingyas are illegal immigrants from across the border in Bangladesh and never belonged in Burma in the first place,19whereas it clearly acknowledges the minorities in the east as Burmese nationals (whether or not they regard themselves as such). The armed insurgency among the Rohingyas is small and not a significant fighting force comparable to the Karen guerrillas or other insurgent armies in the east; SLORC does not even attempt to justify the campaign against the Rohingyas in terms of counterinsurgency. The religious persecution of the Muslims appears to be much stronger than persecution of other religious minorities. And the sheer scale of the human disaster, with hundreds of thousands fleeing to one of the poorest, most flood-ravaged countries in the world, has no parallels on Burma's borders with China or Thailand.
Rohingyas interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that the routine of SLORC oppression became one of concerted brutality following the National Assembly elections of May 27, 1990, in which the military junta was soundly defeated. Like the rest of Burma, the Arakan province voted heavily against the ruling National Union Party and in favor of the opposition. The votes were divided among Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy; the Arakan League for Democracy; and the National Democratic Party for Human Rights. In fact, the military's increased efforts to tighten control over the country in the wake of the 1988 mass pro-democracy movement had only reached Arakan by late 1989 and the Buthidaung and Mawdaung townships in northwest Arakan, bordering Bangladesh, by late 1990.20 At that point, food supplies were suddenly confiscated by the military, and physicians then in Bangladesh said they could measure the onslaught of malnutrition in children by the desperately reduced diet since 1990. Forced labor, population resettlement and land confiscation increased, and so did the flight of Rohingyas to Bangladesh.
In April 1991, Edith Mirante of the nongovernmental organization Project Maje interviewed a number of Rohingya refugees who had leftButhidaung between one and three months earlier.21 They said thousands were fleeing then, long before the international community began to take notice, and reported Rohingya men being seized for forced labor, women being routinely raped, houses, land and farm animals being taken by the soldiers.
17 At its height in late 1993, the refugee population in Bangladesh numbered nearly 240,000. The following material was adapted from Asia Watch, "Burma: Rape, Forced Labor and Religious Persecution in Northern Arakan," A Human Rights Watch Short Report, vol. 4, no. 13 (May 1992); and Asia Watch, "Bangladesh: Abuse of Burmese Refugees from Arakan," A Human Rights Watch Short Report, vol. 5, no. 17 (October 1993).
18 For further background on the Rohingyas and the political situation in Burma, see Asia Watch, "Burma: Rape, Forced Labor . . ."
19 The Burmese government's claim that Rohingyas are illegal immigrants is specious, but the efforts to deny them full citizenship go back to Burma's first citizenship law in 1947. By the terms of that law, anyone who could demonstrate that family members had been living in Burma at the time of the Anglo-Burma War of 1824 qualified for full citizenship. The law clearly favored ethnic Burmese rather than residents of ethnic minority areas where borders had been more clearly defined and where cross-border movement had been frequent. Even the 1947 law, however, was preferable to a new citizenship law passed in 1982. That law gave full citizenship only to Burmese who could trace the families of both parents back to pre-1824 Burma. Some 10 percent of the population who could not meet this criterion were considerednon-nationals and were classified as Associates or Naturalized. The aim of the law was to isolate Indian, Chinese and Muslim ethnic groups; any "non-national" was barred from serving in state or party positions, serving in the armed forces or the police, attending higher education or national institutions and owning property or business. No steps have been taken to modify the citizenship law, despite repeated recommendations from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Burma.
20 Far Eastern Economic Review, Hong Kong, 1991, p. 6.
21 Edith Mirante, "Our Journey: Voices from Arakan, Western Burma," May 1990 (unpublished report).
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