म्यांमार में रोहिंग्या मुसलमान

2016 में नोबेल शांति पुरस्कार विजेता आंग सान सू की की नेशनल लीग फॉर डेमोक्रेसी की अगुवाई में म्यांमार (बर्मा) में एक नई लोकतांत्रिक रूप से चुनी गई सरकार के गठन के बावजूद, देश रोहिंग्या के रूप में जाना जाने वाले मुस्लिम अल्पसंख्यक के लिए स्थिति गंभीर बनी रही। मुद्दों का समाधान खोजने के लिए अपनी प्रतिबद्धता के संकेत के रूप में, सरकार ने अगस्त 2016 में पूर्व संयुक्त राष्ट्र महासचिव कोफी अन्नान को आकलन करने और सिफारिशें प्रदान करने के लिए एक सलाहकार आयोग का प्रमुख नियुक्त किया।

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रोहिंग्या कौन हैं?

रोहिंग्या शब्द का इस्तेमाल आमतौर पर अंतर्राष्ट्रीय मीडिया में किया जाता था, मुसलमानों के एक समुदाय को संदर्भित करने के लिए, जो आमतौर पर म्यांमार के राखीन (अराकान) राज्य के दो उत्तरी कस्बों में केंद्रित थे, हालांकि वे राज्य के अन्य हिस्सों में भी पाए जा सकते थे और देश के साथ ही बांग्लादेश में शरणार्थी शिविरों में। यह अनुमान लगाया गया था कि रोहिंग्या राखाइन राज्य में लगभग एक-तिहाई आबादी के साथ हैं, जिसमें राखीन बौद्ध बाकी दो-तिहाई का महत्वपूर्ण अनुपात रखते हैं।

रोहिंग्या शब्द का उपयोग म्यांमार में अत्यधिक लड़ा गया था। रोहिंग्या राजनीतिक नेताओं ने कहा है कि उनका एक अलग जातीय, सांस्कृतिक, और भाषाई समुदाय है जो 7 वीं शताब्दी के अंत में अपने वंश का पता लगाता है। हालांकि, व्यापक बौद्ध आबादी ने सामान्य रूप से रोहिंग्या शब्दावली को खारिज कर दिया, क्योंकि उन्हें बंगाली के रूप में संदर्भित किया गया था, और समुदाय को वर्तमान बांग्लादेश से बड़े पैमाने पर अवैध प्रवासियों से बना माना जाता था। 2014 की जनगणना के दौरान- 30 वर्षों में पहली बार किए गए-म्यांमार सरकार ने रोहिंग्या के रूप में आत्म-पहचान करने की इच्छा रखने वालों को नहीं भर्ती करने का 11 वें घंटे का निर्णय लिया और केवल उन लोगों को गिना जाएगा जिन्होंने बंगाली वर्गीकरण को स्वीकार किया था। यह कदम राखीन बौद्धों द्वारा जनगणना के एक धमकी भरे बहिष्कार के जवाब में था।इस प्रक्रिया में सरकार ने अंतरराष्ट्रीय जनगणना मानकों का पालन करने की अपनी पूर्व प्रतिबद्धता पर भरोसा किया।

As with the rest of Myanmar’s postindependence borderlands that were historically multiethnic and politically fluid, Rakhine state had also suffered from decades of centre-periphery imbalances. On the one hand, Buddhist Rakhines had long felt oppressed by the Burmans, the country’s largest ethnic group, and on the other hand, they perceived the Muslim population to be a palpable threat to their cultural identity. Within the Myanmar context, race and ethnicity were rigid constructs that determined legal, political, and social relations. The debate surrounding the Rohingya terminology had, as such, paralyzed meaningful government recognition of the predicament of the Rohingya community.

Statelessness.

Almost all Rohingya in Myanmar were stateless. They were unable to obtain “citizenship by birth” in Myanmar because the 1982 Citizenship Law did not include the Rohingya on the list of 135 recognized national ethnic groups. The law had historically been arbitrarily applied in relation to those, such as the Rohingya, who did not fall strictly within the list of recognized ethnic nationalities. The legal status of a large majority of Rohingya was rendered even more precarious when Pres. Thein Sein unexpectedly announced in February 2015 the expiry of “white cards,” a form of temporary identity documentation held by many within the Rohingya community.

Intercommunal Violence and Displacement.

Two waves of intercommunal violence between Buddhist and Muslim communities in Rakhine state in June and October 2012 led to the displacement of approximately 140,000 people—the large majority of whom were Rohingya—to camps around the state capital (Sittwe) and surrounding townships. According to government figures, the conflicts resulted in 192 deaths, 265 injuries, and the destruction of 8,614 homes, with the impact disproportionately borne by Muslim communities. Human Rights Watch, as well as other nongovernmental organizations, claimed that the October 2012 violence was a coordinated campaign targeting the Rohingya.

Legislative Restrictions.

Following the 2012 violence, other developments, including a series of proposed legislative measures (some of which were passed by Myanmar’s parliament), resulted in further restrictions on the limited rights of the Rohingya. Although those developments had a nationwide application, they were understood to affect mostly the Rohingya community.

In September 2014 an amendment to the 2010 Political Parties Registration Law came into force; the legislation effectively disallowed the Rohingya to form and be members of political parties. Less than six months later, the Constitutional Tribunal delivered an opinion that prevented noncitizens from voting in any national referendum. The legal implication of the decision, formalized in June 2015 with amendments to the election laws, was that Rohingya, who were considered noncitizens, would not be allowed to vote in the 2015 general elections, even if they had cast their ballots during the 1960, 1990, and 2010 elections. The development also represented a final and absolute curtailment of the political rights of the Rohingya.

In November 2014 a package of draft laws popularly termed “laws on safeguarding race and religion” was submitted in the parliament for debate. The bills, which were initially proposed in 2013, were to an extent premised on anxieties over Myanmar’s being surrounded by highly populated countries, a factor that was believed to potentially affect the country’s demographics; on fears that Buddhist women were being coerced or tricked into marriages by and with non-Buddhist men; and on stereotypical views that Muslim families were polygamous and that consequently many children were being born. The bills were conceived as a necessary measure to protect Buddhist women and to address the perceived high population growth rate in Rakhine state.

Between May and July 2015, two of the four bills that permitted the state to regulate birth spacing and family planning, as well as to police the practice of religion within multireligious families, were passed by the parliament. The Population Control Healthcare Bill, which was aimed at Muslim women, could potentially be used to force women to space their births at least three years apart.