The Rohingya
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui
An often-practiced devious way to grab someones
land is to deny his right to that property. Nothing could be more horrific when
a government itself gets into such a criminal practice. The most glaring
example of such a crime can be seen in the practices of the regimes that have
ruled Burma (now Myanmar) since its independence from Britain in 1948 (esp.
since 1962 when Gen. Ne Win came to power). In our times, one can hardly find a
regime that has been so atrocious, so inhuman and so barbarous in its denial of
basic human rights to a people that trace their origin to the land for nearly a
millennium. [1[ The victims are the Rohingya
Muslims living in the Arakan (now Rakhine) state. They have become the
forgotten people of our time. The Burma Citizenship Law of 1982 has reduced
them to the status of ғStateless.
The ruling junta in Myanmar do not want to know
and let others know that the Rohingyas have a long history, a language, a heritage,
a culture and a tradition of their own that they had built up in the Arakan
through their long history
of existence there. Through their criminal propaganda - to garner support among
the Buddhist majority - they have been feeding so much misinformation against
the Rohingya that
even Joseph Goebbles must be amazed in his grave! The level of disinformation has
reached such an alarming level that if you were to talk with a Burmese
Buddhist, he/she would say that the Rohingyas are foreigners in Arakan; they
donԒt belong to Burma;
they belong to Bangladesh.[2] Such allegations are unfounded. Distinguished
scholar Abdul Karim writes, “In fact the forefathers of Rohingyas had entered
into Arakan from time immemorial. [3]
Brief geography and history about the region and its
people:
The word ԓRohingya comes from the word ‘Rohang,’ which was the original and
ancient name of Arakan. In the medieval works of poets of Arakan and
Chittagong, e.g., Alaol, Qazi Daulat, Mardan, Shamsher Ali, Ainuddin, Abdul
Ghani and others Ԗ
Arakan is frequently referred as Roshang, Roshango Des and Roshango Shar.
The Arakan
State of Myanmar,
bordering Bangladesh,
is mostly inhabited by two ethnic communities – the Rakhine Buddhist and the Rohingya Muslims. The Rakhine
Buddhists are close to the Burmese in religion and language. The Rohingya Muslims are ethnically
and religiously related to the people from the region of Chittagong
in south-eastern Bangladesh.
The Rohingya
Muslims number approximately 3.5 million.[4] Due to large-scale persecution
through ethnic cleansing and genocidal action against them, nearly a half of
them, about 1.5 million Rohingyas, are forced to live outside their ancestral
homes since Burmese independence in 1948. This uprooted people are now living
in exile as refugees and illegal immigrants particularly in Bangladesh, Pakistan,
Saudi Arabia, UAE, Thailand and Malaysia.
Origin of the Rohingya:
The original inhabitants of Rohang were Hindus,
Buddhists and animists. From the pre-Islamic days, the region was very familiar
to the Arab seafarers. Many settled in the Arakan, and mixing with the local
people, developed the present stock of the people known as ethnic Rohingya. Some historians
mention that the first Muslims to settle in the Arakan were Arabs under the
leadership of Muhammad ibn Hanafiya in the late 7th century (C.E.). He married
the queen Kaiyapuri, who had converted to Islam. Her people then embraced Islam
en masse. The peaks where they lived are still known as Hanifa Tonki and
Kaiyapui Tonki.[5]
The second major influx of early Muslims dates
back to the 8th century (C.E.). The British Burma Gazetteer (1957) says, About
788 AD Mahataing Sandya ascended the throne of Vesali, founded a new city
(Vesali) on the site of old Ramawadi and died after a reign of twenty two
years. In his reign several ships were wrecked on Rambree Island
and the crews, said to have been Mohammedans, were sent to Arakan Proper and
settled in villages. They were Moor Arab Muslims.Ӕ [6]
The third major influx came after 1404, when the
Arakan king, dethroned by the Burmese, took asylum in Gaur (the capital of Bengal) and pleaded for help from Jalaluddin Muhammad
Shah, the Sultan of Bengal, to regain the lost throne. The Sultan sent tens of
thousands of soldiers to conquer Arakan. Many of these Muslim soldiers
subsequently settled there. (See the section Muslim Influence in the Arakan –
for more details.)
Later, other ethnic groups, namely – the Mughals
(e.g., with the flight of Mughal prince Shah Shuja in 1660), Turks, Persians,
Central Asians, Pathans and Bengalis – also moved into the territory and mixed
with these Rohingya
people. The spread of Islam in the Arakan (and along the southern coastal areas
of Bangladesh)
mostly happened through the sea-borne Sufis and merchants. This fact is
testified by the darghas (shrines), which are dotted at the long coast of the
Arakan and Myanamar.[7] The Burmese historian U. Kyi writes, ֓The superior
morality of those devout Muslims attracted large number of people towards Islam
who embraced it en masse. [8]
Hence, the Rohingya Muslims, whose settlements in Arakan date
back to the 7th century C.E., are not an ethnic group, which developed from one
tribal group affiliation or single racial stock, but are an ethnic group that
developed from different stocks of people. The ethnic Rohingya is Muslim by religion
with distinct culture and civilization of its own.
Origin of the Rakhine:
The other dominant group that lives in the
Arakan is the Rakhine Buddhist. In the year 957 C.E., a Mongolian invasion
swept over Vesali (Vaisali) – the capital city – and killed Sula Chandra, the
last Hindu king of Chandra dynasty. They destroyed Vesali and placed on their
throne Mongolian kings. Mohammed Ashraf Alam writes, ԓWithin a few years the Hindus of Bengal were
able to establish their Pala Dynasty. But the Hindus of Vesali were unable to
restore their dynasty because of the invasion and migrations of Tibeto-Burman
who were so great that their population overshadowed the Vesali Hindus. They
cut Arakan away from Indians and mixing in sufficient number with the
inhabitants of the eastern-side of the present Indo-Burma divide, created that
Indo-Mongoloid stock now known as the Rakhine Arakanese. This emergence of a
new race was not the work of a single invasion. But the date 957 AD may be said
to mark the appearance of the Rakhine in Arakan, and the beginning of fresh
period.[9] They were a wild people much given to plunder, violence, cruelty,
kidnapping, enslavement and sea piracy, and came to be known as the Maghs of
the Arakan.[10] History
researcher Alamgir Serajuddin writes, ԓTheir cruelty, comparable only to that of bargi marauders of later
days, was a byword in Bengal. Shihabuddin Talish thus described it: “They
carried off the Hindus and Muslims, male and female, great and small, few and
many that they could seize, pierced the palms of their hands, passed thin canes
through the holes and threw them one above another under the deck of their
ships.Ԕ [11]
After the Portuguese established their
settlements in Chittagong, Sandwip and Arakan
during the Mughal rule of India,
the Rakhine Maghs entered into a scheme of plundering Mughal territory in
Bengal by making an alliance with the Portuguese pirates.[12] The
Magh-Portuguese piracy was such a menace to the peace and security of Bengal that the Mughals had to step in. In 1666, Shaista
Khan (1664-1688), the Mughal governor of Bengal, conquered Chittagong from the Arakanese control.[13]
That year (1666) marked the decline of the Arakanese Empire. [The Arakanese
(Rakhine) Maghs left Chittagong, never to
reoccupy it, which became a part of Bengal (and now Bangladesh). [14] However,
plundering by the Magh-Portuguese pirates continued throughout the 18th century.
Historian G.E. Harvey writes, RenellӒs map of Bengal,
published in 1794 AD marks the area south of Backergunge deserted on account of
the ravages of the Muggs (Arakanese)ђ. The Arakan pirates, both Magh and
feringhi, used to come by the water-route and plunder BengalŅ. Mohammedans
underwent such oppression, as they had not to suffer in Europe.
As they continually practiced raids for a long time, Bengal
daily became more and more desolate and less and less able to resist them. Not
a house was left inhabited on their side of the rivers lying on their track
from Chittagong to Dacca. The district of Bakla [Backergunge and
part of Dacca], which formerly abounded in houses and cultivated fields and
yield a large revenue as duty on betel-nuts, was swept so clean with their
broom of plunder and abduction that none was left to tenant any house or kindle
a light in that region. Ņ When Shayista Khan asked the feringhi deserters, what
salary the Magh king had assigned to them, they replied, Our salary was the Mughal
Empire. We considered the whole of Bengal as
our fief. We had not to bother revenue surveyors and ourselves about court
clerks but levied our rent all the year round without difficulty. We have kept
the papers of the division of the booty for the last forty years.ђ [15]
Because of their centuries of savagery, the
Maghs of Arakan earned such a bad name that they started calling themselves the
Rakhines. [16]
The Rakhines practice Buddhism and their spoken
language is pure Burmese with slight phonetic variation.
Muslim Influence in Arakan:
Arakan, sandwiched between Muslim-ruled India in the west and Buddhist-ruled Burma
in the east, at different periods of history,
had been an independent sovereign monarchy ruled by Hindus, Buddhists and
Muslims. As the threat from the Burmese court of Ava grew, it turned westward
for protection. After Bengal became Muslim in
1203 C.E., Islamic influence grew significantly in Arakan to the degree of
establishing a Muslim vassal state there in 1430 C.E. In 1404, the Arakan king,
dethroned by the Burmese, took asylum in Gaur (the capital of Bengal)
and pleaded for help to regain the lost throne. Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah, the
Sultan of Bengal, sent General Wali Khan at the head of 50,000 soldiers to
conquer Arakan. Wali Khan drove the Burmese and took control of power over
Arakan for himself, introduced Persian as the court language of Arakan and
appointed Muslim judges (Qazis).[17] Jalaluddin then sent a second army under
General Sandi Khan who overthrew Wali Khan and restored the exiled monarch
(Mong Saw Mwan who took the title of Sulayman Shah) to the throne of Arakan in
1430. [18]
Mong Saw MwanԒs Muslim soldiers settled in Arakan and established the Sandi Khan
mosque in Mrhaung. They eventually became the kingmakers during the Mrauk-U
dynasty. The practice of adopting a Muslim name or title by the Arakanese kings
continued until 1638. Bisveswar Bhattacharya sums up the position thus, As the
Mohammedan influence was predominant, the Arakanese kings, though Buddhist in
religion, became somewhat Mohammedanized in their ideasӅ
[19]
In 1660, the Mughal Prince Shah Shuja fled to
Arakan. This important event brought a new wave of Muslim immigrants to the kingdom of Arakan. [20]
Dr. Muhammad Enamul Haq and Abdul Karim Shahitya
Bisharad in their work ԓBengali
Literature in the Court of Arakan 1600-1700 state that ԓ[T]he Arakanese kings issued coins bearing the
inscription of Muslim Kalema (the profession of faith in Islam) in Arabic
script. The State emblem was also inscribed Arabic word Aqimuddin
(establishment of Gods rule over the earth).Ҕ The Arakanese courts adoption of many Muslim
customs and terms were other noteworthy signs to the influence of Islam.
Mosques began to dot the countryside and Islamic customs, manners and practices
came to be established since this time. [21]
From 1685 to 1710, the political power of Arakan
was completely in the hand of the Muslims. Muslim rule and/or influence in
Arakan lasted altogether for approx. 350 years until it was invaded and
occupied by Burmese king Boddaw Paya on 28 December 1784. Boddaw Paya may
rightly be called the harbinger for destroying everything Islamic in Arakan and
sowing the seed of distrust between the two communities Җ Rohingya and Rakhine.
Arakan in post-1784 era:
Arakan was neither a Burmese nor an Indian territory till 1784. It had managed to retain its
independent (or semi-independent) status for most of its existence. In 1784
thousands of Arakanese – Rohingya
and Buddhists alike – were killed, and their mosques, dargas and temples
destroyed by the Burmese soldiers. During the 40-year Burmese tyrannical rule
(1784-1824), nearly two-thirds or 200,000 Arakanese were forced to take refuge
in Chittagong (Bengal).
The First Anglo-Burmese War (1824-26) ended on
24 February 1826 when Burma
ratified the Treaty of Yandabo and ceded Arakan and Tenasserim to British India. At that time, nearly a third of the
population of Arakan was Muslim. Burma
was separated from British India on 1 April
1937 under the Government of India Act of 1935. Arakan was made a part of
British Burma against the wishes of its people and thus finally Arakan became a
province of independent Burma
in 1948. [22]
For centuries, the Rohingya Muslims coexisted
relatively peacefully with the Rakhine Buddhists. [23] However, this changed
around the Second World War, when communal riots erupted between the two ethnic
groups at the instigation of third parties, most notably the British Raj. The
bitterness was fuelled by the pogrom of March 28, 1942 in which approximately
100,000 Rohingyas were massacred and another 80,000 had to flee from their
ancestral homes.[24] Two hundred and ninety four Rohingya villages were totally
destroyed. [25] Since then the relationship between the two communities
deteriorated to the extent that for the Rohingya
there remained hardly any option open other than self-determination in an
autonomous territory that would protect their basic human rights.
After Burmas independence in 1948,
Muslims carried out an unsuccessful armed rebellion demanding an autonomous
state within the Union of Burma. This resulted in a backlash against the
Muslims that led to their removal from civil posts, restrictions on their
movement, and confiscation of their property. [26]
Under the military regime of General Ne Win,
beginning in 1962, the Muslim residents of Arakan were wrongfully labeled
illegal immigrants who had settled in Burma during the British rule.
Their history and
culture to their ancestral land was conveniently ignored. The Burmese central
government made all efforts to drive them out of Burma, starting with the denial of
their citizenship. The 1974 Emergency Immigration Act took away Burmese
nationality from the Rohingyas, making them foreigners in their own country.
Then came the ғBurma Citizenship Law of 1982 violating several fundamental
principles of the international law and effectively reduced them to the status
of ԓStateless.
As of 1999, there have been no less than 20
major operations of eviction campaigns directed against the Rohingyas that were
carried out by the successive Governments of Burma. In pursuance of the 20-year
Rohingya
Extermination Plan, the Arakan State Council under direct supervision of State
Council of Burma carried out a Rohingya
drive operation code named Naga Min or King Dragon Operation. It was the
largest, the most notorious and probably the best-documented operation of 1978.
The operation started on 6th February 1978 from the biggest Muslim village of Sakkipara in Akyab, which sent shock
waves over the whole region within a short time. News of mass arrest of
Muslims, male and female, young and old, torture, rape and killing in Akyab
frustrated Muslims in other towns of North Arakan.
In March 1978 the operation reached at Buthidaung and Maungdaw. Hundreds of
Muslim men and women were thrown into the jail and many of them were being
tortured and killed. Muslim women were raped freely in the detention centers.
Terrified by the ruthlessness of the operation and total uncertainty of their
life, property, honor and dignity, a large number Rohingya Muslims left their
homes to cross the Burma-Bangladesh border.[27] Within 3 months more than
300,000 Rohingyas took shelter in makeshift camps erected by Bangladesh
Government. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
recognized them as genuine refugees and started relief operations.
On 18 July 1991 a more dreadful Rohingya drive extermination
campaign code named ԓPyi
Thaya was launched. This involved killing and raping of Rohingyas, and
destroying their properties, plus places of worship. It forced Rohingyas again
to seek shelter in Bangladesh.
In recent years, while some Rohingyas have returned to Arakan as a result of
Bangladesh-Myanmar bilateral agreement, still there are many who are afraid to
return to their ancestral homes.
Due to the divide and rule policy of the Myanmar
government, the relationship between the Rakhine and the Rohingya have become increasingly
strained without any mutual trust. The Rakhines, as a matter of fact, have
become RohingyaԒs worst enemies. With
very few exceptions, the Rakhines want to cleanse the Arakan of the Rohingya. [28]
Current Status of the Rohingya:
In Myanmar,
the Rohingyas have been denied their citizenship, uprooted from their ancestral
homes and forced to live as refugees and illegal immigrants in Bangladesh, Pakistan,
Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., Malaysia and Thailand. Truly, their plight is
worse than those being suffered now by the Native Americans in the USA, the Mayans in Latin America, and the
Palestinians in the Occupied
Territories.
There is a systemic program by the ruling Myanmar regime to ethnically cleanse the Rohingya from their ancestral
homeland of North Arakan. They are altering
the demography of the region through extermination and displacement of the Rohingya population, demolition
and confiscation of Rohingya
properties (including Muslim endowed Waqf properties), and construction of
Pagodas and monasteries on the sites of demolished mosques and Muslim shrines.
As if these measures are not enough to obliterate Muslim identity, new non-Rohingya settlements with
Pagodas and Buddhist monasteries are being built at every nook and corner of
the North Arakan,
The Rohingya
Ulema (religious leaders), women and youngsters are often the targets of
harassment from the SPDC troops. Most of the Rohingya-community leaders are now serving long
prison times on false charges, related to citizenship. [For example, on 29
July, 2005 U Kyaw Min (alias Mohammad Shamsul Anwarul Hoque) the leader of the
National Democratic Party for Human Rights and Member of the Parliament,
Committee Representing the People֒s Parliament (CRPP) from Buthidaung Township
constituency Number 1 in the Arakan State - was sentenced to 47 years
imprisonment on charges related to his nationality. His wife and three children
were also sentenced to 17-years term on the same ground. Their arrest is in
violation of the Articles 1-3, 5, 9, 10, 15-21 of the Universal Declarations of
Human Rights.] Other leaders are forced to opt for a life of uncertainty as
refugees outside.
Riots between Buddhists-Muslims are often
engineered that invariably result in heavy losses to Muslim lives and
properties. Anti-Muslim propaganda is routinely fed in the
government-controlled media. As of February 2003, books and taped speeches,
insulting Islam and Muslims, have become rather common and are being openly
sold and distributed.
Of particular concern is the fact that as of
2004, Rohingya
villagers are forced to practice Buddhism and take part in various Buddhist
festivities. They are forced to pay for Buddhist festivals held every so often.
Even Muslim cemeteries are not immune from desecration and abuses of the
government. Buddhist dead bodies are now routinely buried at Muslim cemeteries,
while the Rohingyas are forced to pay funeral fees.
The North Arakan has been turned into a militarized zone with increased violations of human rights practiced by the military troops. The Rohingya people are exploited as forced laborers into building military establishment, roads, bridges, embankments, pagodas, schools dispensaries and ponds without earning any wage. Their women and girls often face rape and sexual harassment from these troops and their contractors. They are also forced to work for free in the new settlements. The forced labor situation has become so excruciating that the Rohingya have been rendered jobless and shelter-less.
The North Arakan has been turned into a militarized zone with increased violations of human rights practiced by the military troops. The Rohingya people are exploited as forced laborers into building military establishment, roads, bridges, embankments, pagodas, schools dispensaries and ponds without earning any wage. Their women and girls often face rape and sexual harassment from these troops and their contractors. They are also forced to work for free in the new settlements. The forced labor situation has become so excruciating that the Rohingya have been rendered jobless and shelter-less.
In order to extinct the Rohingya, the authorities have
imposed undue restrictions on marriage between Rohingya couples. For example, not a single
marriage contract was allowed in May 2005. Without payment of a huge sum of
money, something that is unaffordable for most poor Rohingyas, as bribe, the
corrupt officials dont allow any marriage to take place. Even after such
payments, thousands of applications for the permission to get married remain
pending in Maugdaw and Buthidaung
Townships.
Rohingyas are restricted from moving outside the Arakan. Even for movements within the same locality they require clearance from the authority. Because of such restrictions, they are not permitted to travel to Rangoon or Myanmar (Burma) proper for serious medical emergency.
Rohingyas are restricted from moving outside the Arakan. Even for movements within the same locality they require clearance from the authority. Because of such restrictions, they are not permitted to travel to Rangoon or Myanmar (Burma) proper for serious medical emergency.
Since promulgation of the new Burma Citizenship
Law in 1982, the Rohingya
students are denied their basic rights to education outside the Arakan. It is
important to point out that all professional institutes are situated outside
Arakan. Thus, the Rohingya
students are unable to study there because of such travel prohibition. In
recent years, the Rohingya
students are prohibited from even going to Akyab, the capital of Arakan, to
attend Sittwe University for their studies. These
draconian measures barring Rohingyas from attending universities and
professional institutes are marginalizing them as the most illiterate section
within the Myanmar
population. They are forced to embrace a very bleak future for them.
Traditionally, the Rohingya are a farming community
that depends on agricultural produce and breeding of cattle and fowls.
Unfortunately, they are forced to pay heavy taxes on everything they own:
cattle, food grains, agricultural produce, shrimp, tree, and even roof of their
homes. Even for a minor repair of their homes, they are forced to pay tax. They
are required to report birth and death of a livestock to the authority while
paying an arbitrary fee.
Extra-judicial killing and summery executions,
humiliating movement restriction, rape of women, arrest and torture, forced
labor, forced relocation, confiscation of moveable and immoveable properties,
religious sacrileges, etc., are regular occurrences in Arakan.
As a result, severe poverty, unemployment, lack of education and official discrimination are negatively affecting every Rohingya, especially its youths and workforces. The future of the community remains bleak and exodus into Bangladesh has become a recurrent theme. The new arrivals unfortunately often face arrests and/or ғpushback from the Bangladesh security forces. These refugees are also blocked from nominal opportunities of re-settlement in a third country or settlement within Bangladesh.
As a result, severe poverty, unemployment, lack of education and official discrimination are negatively affecting every Rohingya, especially its youths and workforces. The future of the community remains bleak and exodus into Bangladesh has become a recurrent theme. The new arrivals unfortunately often face arrests and/or ғpushback from the Bangladesh security forces. These refugees are also blocked from nominal opportunities of re-settlement in a third country or settlement within Bangladesh.
There is no international agency to look after
the interest of the stateless Rohingya.
Because of their lack of legal identity, they are not allowed to work or hold
work permit by any name. To survive, many work as illegal workers in Thailand and
other places where they and their children are deprived of basic human rights.
Solution to the problem:
The Rohingya
people need help to publicize their plight and their right to live as a free
nation. The Buddhist military regimes that have ruled Myanmar are
brutal, savage and tyrannical. They cannot be either a guarantor or a protector
of human rights of minorities. They will use and have been using their
barbarity against the minority Rohingyas to justify prolonging their
illegitimate ruling in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. So, the plight of the
Rohingyas, regrettably, is not a matter of concern for many otherwise
good-natured Buddhists. Under the circumstances, the Rohingyas have no way to
protect their basic human rights but to opt for freedom. Freedom is a God-given
right of all humanity and can neither be denied nor snatched away from
disadvantaged groups for either political expediency or diplomatic acrobatics.
The Rohingyas need world body to wake up to the
reality of their sufferings and pains. They need to mobilize world bodies, esp.
the UN, to grant them the same privilege that has been granted to the people in
south Sudan and East Timor. There is no other way to solve this problem
now. Citizens around the globe simply cannot afford to remain silent spectators
to this gruesome tragedy of our time. They must act and help to solve the
problem.
In the meantime, for easing the sufferings of
the Rohingya
Diaspora community my recommendations are that
ԕ The UN should immediately consider forming a
fact finding mission to investigate violations of human rights against the Rohingya people of Arakan in Myanmar
and take all measures to ease their pains and sufferings, including putting
pressure on the ruling junta to release political prisoners.
The UNHCR must maintain its support for the material well being of Rohingya refugees in camps in Bangladesh and elsewhere.
Օ The UNHCR must continue its direct involvement in refugee protection, ensuring the voluntary nature of refugee returns to Myanmar, and providing logistical support to repatriation as required.
The Government of Bangladesh must cease all pressure on Rohingya refugees to repatriate and consider the possibility of providing options for either local integration, with the financial support of international donors, or re-settlement in a third country.
2. See,
e.g., http://www.bangladesh-web.com/view.php?hidDate=2005-08-10&hidType=OPT&hidRecord=0000000000000000055839
3. The Rohingyas: A Short Account of their History and Culture, Arakan Historical Society (A.H.S), Bangladesh, June 2000. See also: Mohammed Ashraf Alam, Historical Background of Arakan, the SOUVENIR, Arakan Historical Society, Bangladesh, 1999; Moshe Yegar, The Muslims of Burma, A study of Minority groups, Wiesbaden, Otto Harrassowitz, 1972
5. Mohammed Ashraf Alam, A short historical background of the Arakan people: http://www.rohingyatimes.i-p.com/history/history_maa.html ; M.A. Taher Ba Tha, The Rohingyas and Kamans (in Burmese), Published by United Rohingya National League, Myitkyina (Burma), 1963, P.6 Ֆ 7; Maung Than Lwin, Rakhine Kala or Rohingya, The Mya Wadi Magazine, issue July 1960, PP.72-73; N.M Habibullah, Rohingya Jatir Itihas (History of the Rohingyas), Bangladesh Co-Operative Book Society Ltd., Dhaka, 1995, PP.32-33.
6. R.B. Smart, Burma Gazetteer Akyab District, Vol. A, Rangoon, 1957, P.19.
7. British-Burma Gazetteers of 1879, page 16
8. The essential History of Burma by U Kyi, P.160
9. Op. Cit.
10. Note the similarity of the word Magh with Mog, Gog and Magog ֖ the Mongolian tribes (also known in history as Scythians). Others contend that the name Magh originated from the Magadha dynasty that was Buddhist by faith.
11, Muslim Influence in Arakan and the Muslim Names of Arakanese kings: A Reassessment by Alamgir M. Serajuddin*(From Asiatic Soc. Bangladesh (Hum.), Vol. XXXI (I), June 1986.
12, G.E. Harvey, The History of Burma, London (1928), pp. 142-4. [Note also that there are still places in Chittagong that go by the names Arakan Bazar, Feringhi Bazar, etc. showing its Arakan and Portuguese heritage.]
13. During Sher Shahs rule, Chittagong was under his rule. At a later time, it became a zone of contention between Mughal and Arakanese rulers.
14. Bengal-Arakan Relations (1430-1666 A.D.) by Mohammed Ali Chowdhury, Kolkata, Firma KLM Pvt. Ltd., 2004.
15. Alam, op. cit.
16. Mohammad Ashraf Alam, op. cit.
17. Bangladesh District Gazetteers, P.63 (See: http://www.rohingya.org/not_settler.htm)
18. Journal of Burma Research Society (JBRS) No.2. P.493. Historians disagree on whether or not the Arakanese rulers themselves became Muslims. (See: Bengal-Arakan Relations (1430-1666 A.D.) by Mohammed Ali Chowdhury. Kolkata, Firma KLM Pvt. Ltd., 2004; and http://www.rohingyatimes.i-p.com/history/history_maa.html)
19. Serajuddin, op. cit.
20. The Arakanese Maghs treacherously killed Shuja and his family members in 1661. (G.E. Harvey, Outline of Burmese History, Longmans, London (1947), pp. 95-6)
21. Dr. Enamul Haq O Abdul Karim Shahitya Bisharad, Arakan Rajshabhay Bangla Shahitya, Calcutta, 1935, PP. 4-
22. D.G.E. Hall, A History of South-East Asia, Third Edition 1968, the Macmillan Press Ltd., London, U.K.; G.E Harvey, Outline Burmese History, Longman, Gree & Co., Ltd., London, 1947; Nurul Islam, The Rohingya Muslims of Arakan: Their Past and Present Political Problems, THE MUSLIM MINORITIES, Proceedings of the Six International Conference of World Assembly of Muslim Youths (WAMY), Vol. I, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 1986.
23. The SLORC Publication ‘ Thasana Yongwa HtoonkazepoҒ p.65.
24. http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs3/BNI2005-03-08.htm
25. Sultan Mahmud, Muslims in Arakan, The Nation, Rangoon, April 12, 1959.
26. ibid.
27. Genocide in Burma against the Muslims of Arakan, Rohingya Patriotic Front (RPF), Arakan (Burma), April 11, 1978, PP.2 4; Dr. Mohammed Yunus, A History of Arakan Past and Present, 1994, PP.158 ֖ 159.
28. Dr. Shwe Lu Maung, Dr. Aye Chan, U Mra Wa, Dr. Khin Maung (NUPA), and Major Tun Kyaw Oo (president of the Amyothar Party) are few of the exceptions that recognize birth rights as well as genuine citizenship of the Rohingya people.. Even Dr. Than Tun, rector of Mandalay University and former professor of history, Rangoon University makes strong recommendations on Rohingyas as ethnic group and bonafide citizen of Arakan. (Ref: http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs3/BNI2005-03-08.htm)
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