Review flays book on Rohingya history

Review flays book on Rohingya history

Politics

A 289-page scathing report against a book on Rohingyas, the ethnicity of whom is still a subject of hot debate among Arakanese, whose homeland lies between Burma Proper and Bangladesh, has raised concern among the exiled dissidents in Thailand. 

According to Zaw Min Htut, who wrote The Union of Burma and ethnic Rohingyas (2001) and who had recently been granted asylum in Japan, Rohingyas are descendents of Arab castaways from shipwrecks on the Arakan coast in the ninth century. However, according to the review, Critique on expansionist phoney history of Chittagonian Bengalis, so called Rohingyas, under human rights cloak, there has never been such an ethnic group throughout the history of Burma. In fact, they are "direct descendents of immigrants from the Chittagong District of East Bengali (present day Bangladesh) that migrated into Arakan after the province was ceded to British India in 1826. 

It further accuses the author and his "precursors" of scheming for the "changing (of) northwestern part of Arakan," also known as Rakhine, "into the Rohingya State."

The origins of the hostile attitude borne by the Arakanese, according to the article written by Dr Aye Chan of Kanda University of International Studies, Chiba City, Japan, are traced to two relatively contemporary periods in history: 

• During World War II, when volunteer armed forces of "Chittagonians", assigned by the British colonial administration to deter the Japanese incursions, turned on the local people by "destroying the Buddhist monasteries and pagodas, massacred thousands of innocent Arakanese civilians." 

• "Killing, kidnapping, arson, plunder and rape for a decade after independence" during the "Mujahid" rebellion. 

The review, while acknowledging that the "so-called Rohingyas" "deserve equal rights that the other ethnic groups of Burma should enjoy", does not after solutions as to how the two major communities in Arakan state can reconcile with each other. 

Shans, on the other hand, have relatively been able to maintain peace among the many ethnic groups and communities, despite "Chinese expansion", real or perceived, current or potential, through Kokang and Wa, according to one of their foremost scholars, Chao Tzang Yawnghwe. "(Even) enemies must talk with each other," he said, "and my view is that one is lucky if one's enemy wishes to talk with one." 

Repatriation of Rohingya refugees who fled to Bangladesh between October 1991 and June 1992 resumed in May. About 21,658 remaining refugees were repatriated twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays. 233,727 had already returned home earlier, reported Kaladan. 

Rohingyas are generally denied citizenship in both Burma and Bangladesh, reported a workshop on refugee issues organized by Friends without Borders in June 2000, and are essentially stateless persons. 

On the Shan side, Kokang, according to Frontier Areas Administration memo, came into being when Chinese levies who took part in Shan wars did not return to China but sought permission to take up their residence in the Shan hills. On 25 August 1947, it became the 34th state of Federated Shan States, former name of Shan State today. 

"Maybe the Shans are too tolerant for their own good and the Arakanese are too intolerant for their own good," said a Shan in exile. "But I am not claiming to know Arakan."

The review is published by Arakan National Association (Japan)
Fax: (81) 468 671-824
email: <arakan@khaki.plala.or.jp>