Amnesty: Rohingya in Rakhine state live under apartheid
Anew ground-breaking report by Amnesty International described the situation of the Rohingya living in Rakhine state as one of “apartheid”.
The report, titled “Caged without a roof: Apartheid in Myanmar’s Rakhine state”, capped two years of extensive and investigative research into the legal status and conditions of the Rohingya minority, aljazeera.com reported.
“They live under a system of repression that is upheld through the intricate web of laws, policies and practices, imposed by state officials at all levels — township, district, state and nation-wide,” said Laura Heigh, Amnesty International’s Myanmar researcher.
Olof Blomqvist, a spokesperson for Amnesty International, said the report puts into context what has been happening to the Rohingya in the last few months.
“We’ve documented horrific violations and stories by the Myanmar military over the last couple of months,” he said, “but what is not widely known is that this did not happen in a vacuum.”
‘Systematic oppression’
The discriminatory policies, the report says, are institutionalized by a “regime of systematic oppression and domination of a racial group” which goes back to 1982, when authorities denied the Rohingya citizenship and the rights associated with it.
Myanmar government has excluded Rohingya from the list of 135 recognized ethnic groups.
One of the main apartheid practices is the severe restrictions on freedom of movement.
Across the Rakhine state, the Rohingya are under lockdown in their homes every night, and face the risk of arrest and require special travel permits to move from one township to another.
The report also details the systematic social and political exclusion of the Muslim communities. In the north of the state, gatherings of more than four people in one place are prohibited, which hinders the Rohingya’s right to worship and to politically advocate for their rights.
Healthcare access is also curtailed, and the main hospital in the capital Sittwe has segregated wards for the Rohingya.
The report urged the Myanmar authorities to “urgently adopt a comprehensive action plan on combating discrimination and segregation”. It also called for government initiatives to dismantle the system of apartheid and to ensure the respect of human rights.
Since August, Myanmar’s military has driven out about 600,000 Rohingya from Rakhine state into neighboring Bangladesh. The military says it launched a crackdown on Rohingya after an army base came under attack, which the Rohingya activists deny.
Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been criticized for her silence on the atrocities against the Rohingya.