Events in Myanmar what happened. Massacre of Muslims in Myanmar: what was the cause? When and why did this happen? "Democracy with fists"

: over half a thousand Muslims gathered at the Myanmar embassy on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street, loudly demanding an end to the genocide of fellow believers in this distant country. Earlier, they were supported on his Instagram by the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov. But what is really happening: "mass killings of Rohingya Muslims" or "fight against terrorists", as the Myanmar authorities claim?

1. Who are the Rohingyas?

Rohingya, or, in another transcription, "rahinya" - a small people living in remote areas on the border of Myanmar and Bangladesh. Once all these lands were the possession of the British crown. Now local officials assure that the Rohingya are not natives at all, but migrants who arrived here during the years of overseas domination. And when in the late 1940s the country, together with Pakistan and India, gained independence, the British drew the border "competently", including the Rohingya areas in Burma (as Myanmar was then called), although in language and religion they are much closer to the neighboring Bangladesh.

So 50 million Burmese Buddhists found themselves under the same roof as 1.5 million Muslims. The neighborhood turned out to be unsuccessful: years passed, the name of the state changed, a democratic government appeared instead of a military junta, the capital moved from Yangon to Naypyidaw, but the Rohingya were still discriminated against and squeezed out of the country. True, these people have a bad reputation among Buddhists, they are considered separatists and bandits (the land of the Rohingya is the center of the so-called Golden Triangle, an international drug cartel that produces heroin). In addition, there is a strongly Islamist underground, close to the ISIS group banned in the Russian Federation and many other countries of the world (an organization banned in the Russian Federation).

2. How did the conflict start?

On October 9, 2016, several hundred Rohingyas attacked three Myanmar border guard checkpoints, killing a dozen people. In response, the authorities sent troops into the region, who began a large-scale cleansing of terrorists - both real and imaginary. The human rights organization Human Rights Watch said that, according to satellite images, the security forces burned over 1,200 houses in Rohingya villages. Tens of thousands of people were deported or fled to other countries - primarily to Bangladesh.

The incident was condemned by individual officials at the UN and the US State Department. At the same time, the liberal West again could not do without double standards: for example, Aung San Suu Kyi, a member of the government of Myanmar and the inspirer of the current anti-Islamic pogroms, received the Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament in 1990, and a year later, the Nobel Peace Prize for "defending democracy "...

Officials are now calling the genocide allegations a hoax and have even punished several of the officers previously seen in a video beating arrested Muslims. However, the latter also do not remain in debt - on September 4, rahinja militants looted and burned a Buddhist monastery.

3. How did Russia react?

Moscow has important interests in the region: both the joint development of uranium ores, and the export of weapons that Naypyidaw purchased from us for over $1 billion. “Without real information, I would not draw any conclusions,” the press commented on the situation. Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov.

Last Sunday, Muslims rallied against discrimination against the Islamic population of Myanmar in Moscow and other cities around the world. In August, members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacked dozens of military installations. In response, the Myanmar authorities launched an extensive anti-terrorist operation, during which dozens of Muslims were killed, and which the international community calls the genocide of the Islamic population of the country. What are the reasons and why this conflict cannot be called religious - in the material of "Futurist".

What's going on in Myanmar?

The Republic of the Union of Myanmar - this is how the country began to be called recently, having got rid of the military dictatorship that has been in power since 1962. It consists of seven Buddhist Burmese provinces and seven national states that have never recognized a central government. There are more than a hundred nationalities in Myanmar. Diverse ethnic, religious, criminal groups that inhabit these regions have been waging civil wars for decades - against the capital and against each other.

The conflict between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists has been going on for decades. The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar. They make up approximately 1 million of the more than 52 million people in Myanmar and live in the state of Arakan, which borders the state of Bangladesh. The Myanmar government denies them citizenship, calling them illegal Bengali immigrants, while the Rohingya claim to be the original inhabitants of Arakan.

One of the bloodiest clashes occurred in 2012. The reason was the death of a 26-year-old Buddhist woman. Dozens of people died then, and tens of thousands of Muslims were forced to leave the country. The international community did not try to resolve the conflict.

The next escalation of the conflict happened on October 9, 2016, when about 200 unidentified militants attacked three Myanmar border posts. And in August 2017, fighters from the local armed group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, attacked 30 army facilities and police stations and killed 15 people. They declared it an act of revenge for the persecution of their compatriots.

The international community calls the retaliatory anti-terrorist operation a genocide of the Muslims of the state of Arakan - not only the Rohingya, but also representatives of other ethnic groups. Hundreds of people have been arrested on suspicion of terrorism. According to the Myanmar authorities, as of September 1, 400 "rebels" and 17 civilians were killed. Fleeing residents of the refugee camp told Reuters that the army, along with Buddhist volunteers, is setting fire to Muslim villages, forcing them to flee to Bangladesh. On the morning of September 1, Bangladeshi border guards found the bodies of 15 drowned refugees on the river bank, 11 of them were children. More than 120,000 refugees have crossed into Bangladesh in the past two weeks, according to the UN, sparking a migration crisis.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov demanded that the UN intervene and stop the violence. In Moscow, near the Myanmar embassy, ​​Muslims staged a spontaneous rally against the genocide.

Why do Buddhists hate the Rohingya?

There are several theories about the origin of the Burmese Rohingya. Some scholars believe that the Rohingya migrated to Myanmar (then called Burma) from Bengal, primarily during the period of British rule. The British annexed the claim state of Arakan in 1826 and facilitated the resettlement of Bengalis there as laborers. Part of the Rohingya came to Burma after the country's independence in 1948, as well as after the liberation war in Bangladesh in 1971. Traditionally, this people has a high birth rate, so the Muslim population has grown rapidly. The second theory (it is adhered to by the Rohingya themselves) suggests that the Rohingya are the descendants of the Arabs who colonized the coast of the Indian Ocean in the Middle Ages, including those who lived in the state.

The first serious clash between the Rohingya and Arakanese Buddhists was the Rakhine massacre in 1942. During the Second World War, Burma, then still dependent on Britain, was invaded by Japan. Rohingya Muslims remained on the side of the British, while the Buddhists supported the Japanese, who promised the country independence. The Buddhist troops were led by General Aung San, the father of Aung San Suu Kyi, the current leader of the Myanmar Democratic Party. According to various estimates, tens of thousands of representatives of both sides were killed, but there is still no objective figure. After the Rakhan massacre, separatist sentiment in the region escalated.

The military dictatorship that ruled Burma for half a century relied heavily on a mixture of Burmese nationalism and Theravada Buddhism to consolidate its power. Ethnic and religious minorities such as the Rohingya and the Chinese were discriminated against. General Nain's government passed the Burmese Citizenship Act in 1982, which made the Rohingya illegal. It was expected that with the end of the military rule and the coming to power of associates of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi at the end of 2015, the Rohingya would receive Myanmar citizenship. However, authorities continue to deny Rohingya political and civil rights.

What is discrimination?

The Rohingya are considered "one of the most persecuted minorities in the world". They cannot move freely within Myanmar and receive higher education, have more than two children. Rohingyas are subjected to forced labor, their arable land is taken from them. A UN report from February 2017 says that Rohingyas were beaten, killed and raped by locals, the army and police.

To avoid violence, the Rohingya are smuggled into Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Thailand. In turn, these countries do not want to accept refugees - because of which they are subjected to international pressure and condemnation. In early 2015, according to the UN, about 24,000 Rohingyas tried to leave Myanmar on smugglers' boats. The remains of more than 160 refugees have been found in abandoned camps in southern Thailand as smugglers held the Rohingya hostage, beating them and demanding a ransom for their lives. When the Thai authorities tightened control over the border, smugglers began to leave people in "boat camps" where they died of hunger and thirst.

The problem of refugees has not yet been resolved. In particular, in February 2017, the government of Bangladesh announced a plan to resettle all Rohingya refugees on the island of Tengar Char, which was formed 10 years ago in the Bay of Bengal - it is prone to floods and there is no infrastructure there. This caused indignation of human rights organizations.

Aren't Buddhists against violence?

“In the world media, the theme of exclusively affected Muslims is heard and nothing is said about Buddhists,” says orientalist Piotr Kozma, who lives in Myanmar. “Such one-sided coverage of the conflict gave Myanmar Buddhists a sense of a besieged fortress, and this is a direct path to radicalism.”

Traditionally, Buddhism is considered to be one of the most peaceful religions. But despite the fact that Buddhists and Muslims are involved in this conflict, it is incorrect to consider it as interreligious. It is about the status of a particular ethnic group. Experts say that Buddhists have coexisted for centuries with the Muslims of Myanmar: Hindus, Chinese, Malabars, Burmese and Bengalis. The Rohingya, being refugees according to one of the versions about their origin, fall out of this "conglomerate of nationalities."

Over the past week, the world has learned that in Myanmar, a religious-ethnic conflict between Buddhists and Muslims, Arakanese and Rohingya has been dragging on for decades. More than 400 people have become victims of another aggravation of the situation over the past 10 days, 123 thousand people were forced to flee Myanmar. What are the reasons for the historical confrontation? What is really going on in Myanmar? Why are the clashes of ethnic groups so stirred up the entire Muslim world and not only?

Myanmar - where is it?

Myanmar is a state located in Southeast Asia, in the western part of the Indochina peninsula. The population of Myanmar is about 60 million people from 135 ethnic groups, 90% of them are Buddhists.

The country is divided into 7 administrative regions and 7 states (national regions). One of these states is Rakhine, located on the west coast of the country next to Bangladesh. Its population is about 3 million people, most of them are representatives of the Arakanese people who practice Buddhism (the state also has an alternative name - Arakan). The minority of the state's population (about 1 million people) are the Rohingyas who profess Islam.

How did it all start?

The Rohingya consider themselves one of the indigenous peoples of Myanmar. However, in Naypyidaw (the capital of Myanmar), they are considered either separatists or refugees from Bangladesh. In part, this is true - all thanks to the colonial past of Myanmar.

It all started back in the 19th century, during the British colonization of the region: London actively attracted Muslims from Bengal (now Bangladesh) to Burma (the name of Myanmar until 1989) as a labor force. When World War II began, Burma was occupied by Japan. Local residents, in exchange for recognition of the country's independence, sided with Japan, Muslim Bengalis supported Great Britain. The number of victims of this confrontation in 1942 is estimated at tens of thousands of people.

In 1948, Burma gained independence from Great Britain, but not peace. The Rohingya began a guerrilla war to join neighboring East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Burma has declared martial law in the region. In the following decades, the war between the separatists and the Burmese troops flared up and died down, while the Rohingya, meanwhile, became "the most oppressed people on earth."

Why "the most oppressed people"?

So the Rohingya was nicknamed by human rights activists and the press. Due to the fact that they are not considered citizens of Myanmar, they are deprived of all civil rights.

Rohingya cannot hold administrative positions, they are often denied medical care, they do not have the right to higher education, and not everyone gets primary. The country also introduced a ban on Rohingyas having more than two children.

Representatives of this people cannot legally leave the country, even in Myanmar their movement is limited, and tens of thousands of Rohingyas are kept in camps for displaced persons - that is, on reservations.

What happened now?

Another round of conflict. The situation escalated sharply on August 25 this year. Hundreds of separatists from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ASRA) attacked 30 police strongholds and killed 15 police and military personnel. After that, the troops launched an anti-terrorist operation: in just one week, 370 Rohingya separatists were killed by the military, and 17 accidentally killed local residents were also reported.

A Myanmar police officer inspects a burned-out house in Maundo, Myanmar. August 30, 2017. Photo: Reuters

However, Rohingya refugees talk about thousands of killed fellow villagers, the destruction and arson of their villages, atrocities, torture and gang rape, massively committed by soldiers and policemen or local volunteers.

At the same time, testimonies of Buddhists living in Rakhine began to appear on the Internet and in the world media, telling about exactly the same massive crimes against humanity, committed both by Rohingya militants and simply by their Muslim neighbors.

How about really?

No one knows exactly what is happening in the west of Myanmar now - martial law has been declared in the state. Journalists and employees of human rights organizations are not allowed in Rakhine.

In addition, in Naypyidaw, the UN was denied the supply of emergency supplies, water and medical supplies to the victims of the Rohingya clashes. The authorities of Myanmar do not accept help from other humanitarian organizations either.

And yes, international inspectors are also not allowed into the conflict zone.

What is the global reaction?

Last week, Britain demanded that the situation of the Rohingya people in Myanmar be considered at a special meeting of the UN Security Council, but this proposal was rejected by China. UN Secretary-General António Guterres is calling on Naypyidaw to resolve the conflict on a permanent basis.

Many world leaders also condemned the violence in Myanmar and called on the country's authorities to bring the situation under control.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sharply criticized the actions of the Myanmar authorities. On September 1, he accused the country's authorities of the genocide of the Rohingyas.

“If it were my will, if there was an opportunity, I would strike a nuclear strike there. I would simply destroy those people who kill children, women, the elderly,” said the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, on September 2. And on September 3, a rally was held in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, which, according to local police, gathered about a million people.

Also, various protests were held in Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh and other countries.

So, what is happening with the Rohingya now?

They are leaving Rakhine en masse, as was already the case in 1989, 2012, 2015, after each escalation of the religious-ethnic conflict.

The Rohingya have little choice of where to run. The state borders on Bangladesh, so the main streams of refugees rush to this country by land - but no one is waiting for them there. Bangladesh is already one of the most densely populated countries in the world, moreover, according to various estimates, from 300 to 400 thousand representatives of this people have already accumulated on the territory of the country in refugee camps in recent years, of which 123 thousand Rohingyas have been in the last 10 years alone. days.

A boat carrying Rohingya refugees from Myanmar capsized in the Naf River. The bodies of the dead were discovered by Bangladeshi border guards. August 31, 2017. Photo: Reuters

Rohingya also flee to India - by sea: but they are not welcome there either. The Indian authorities have announced their intention to expel 40,000 Rohingyas, despite the fact that the UN has recognized some of them as refugees, and international law prohibits the expulsion of refugees to a country where they may be in danger. But in New Delhi they counter that the country has not signed the convention on the status of refugees and all illegal immigrants will be deported.

Part of the Rohingya is accepted by Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. But even in Muslim Malaysia, the authorities refused to issue refugee certificates to all Rohingya without exception, explaining their decision by saying that this would lead to a massive influx of Muslims from Myanmar, which is “unacceptable” for the Malaysian leadership. At the same time, at least 120,000 Rohingya refugees are already in Malaysia.

The only country that has officially offered asylum to all Rohingya without exception is Ghana. But the Rohingya hope that they can live in the country they consider their homeland, and not in West Africa.

Can they?

Unfortunately, there is no answer to this question.

For a long time, Myanmar was ruled by a military junta, which resolved all issues with the Rohingya by the only method - by force.

In 2016, liberal democratic forces came to power in Myanmar for the first time in half a century, although 25% of deputies in both houses of parliament are still appointed by the army leadership. National League for Democracy representative Thin Kyaw took over as president, while Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the party, was given the post of Foreign Minister and State Counselor (a position roughly equivalent to a prime minister). Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. She was under house arrest for almost 15 years, where she was imprisoned by the military junta.

The Western press called her a recognized fighter for democratic values ​​and a friend of many well-known Western leaders. However, Western media now indicate that little has changed in the country since her party came to power.

In fact, Aung San Suu Kyi, according to the Constitution, has no influence on the country's military forces, which have a special status in Myanmar.

A year ago, she created a special commission on Rohingya issues, headed by Kofi Annan. During the year, the commission constantly visited the state of Rakhine, discussed the situation with local residents - Arakanese and Rohingya - and documented everything that happened in detail. As a result of the collected material, on August 24, 2017, the commission published a 70-page report with recommendations on how the Myanmar government can get out of the current situation. And on August 25, separatists from the ASRA attacked government checkpoints and another escalation of the conflict began.

According to the International Anti-Crisis Group, Ata Ulla is the leader of the ASRA. He is a Rohingya born in Pakistan but raised in Saudi Arabia. There he received a religious education, still maintains close ties with this country and receives financial assistance from it. ASRA separatists are expected to be trained in training camps in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

The confrontation between the military and Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar has escalated since August 25, when radical Islamists attacked the police. Then, several hundred militants of the Arakanian Rohingya Salvation Army, which the republic's authorities consider a terrorist organization, attacked 30 police strongholds. They used firearms, machetes and improvised explosive devices. As a result, 109 people died. The Rohingya Liberation Army, an extremist paramilitary Islamist organization operating in Myanmar, claimed responsibility for the attack. Earlier, in July 2017, authorities accused Islamic extremists of killing seven local residents.

As a result of the wave of reprisals that followed the attacks, a significant number of representatives of the Muslim Rohingya people living in Rakhine State and, according to the Myanmar authorities, are the social base of terrorists, suffered. To date, according to official figures, 402 people have died in clashes. Of these, 370 are militants, 15 are police officers and 17 are civilians. According to the media of Muslim countries, we can talk about several thousand people who died at the hands of the Burmese military and Buddhist rioters.

• Myanmar police provide protection for UN and international non-governmental organizations after visiting a conflict zone

In the world press, the topic of persecution, massacres and even genocide of Rohingya Muslims has been raised almost every year in the past few years, since the pogroms of 2012. A lot of videos are circulating on social networks in which unknown people mock Rohingya, torture and kill women and children. As a rule, it is reported that the repression is religiously motivated, and the Rohingya are destroyed for adhering to the Muslim faith.

Islamic mobilization

The events in Myanmar caused a great resonance among the world Muslim community. So, in Moscow on September 3, an unsanctioned rally was held in front of the Myanmar embassy, ​​which brought together several hundred people. According to the capital's Ministry of Internal Affairs, the rally was held peacefully.

In the Indonesian capital Jakarta, however, the protesters were aggressive - Molotov cocktails flew into the windows of the Myanmar embassy. Protests against the "genocide of Muslims" in Myanmar were also held in the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. On Monday, September 4, a protest action is expected in Russian Grozny.

“Unfortunately, we are forced to admit that actions like those that are taking place in Myanmar are always very vividly perceived within the framework of the large Muslim world, and this is far from the first and not the only example,” the director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts commented on RT protests of Muslims RUDN Dmitry Egorchenkov.

In turn, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called what is happening in Myanmar a genocide and called on the international community to take decisive action against the country's government.

“There is a genocide going on,” Erdogan said. “Those who turn a blind eye to this genocide unfolding under the cloak of democracy are its accomplices.”

According to the Turkish leader, he will publicly raise this issue at the session of the UN General Assembly in September 2017.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also reacted to the current situation and called on the parties to reconcile.

“We are closely monitoring the situation in the Rakhine National Region (RNO) of Myanmar. We are concerned about reports of ongoing clashes that have resulted in casualties among both the civilian population and government security agencies, and about a sharp deterioration in the humanitarian situation in this region of the country. We call on all parties involved to establish a constructive dialogue as soon as possible in order to normalize the situation in line with the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on RNO, headed by K. Annan, ”the statement of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry says.

The truth of Muslims

The conflict in the western state of Rakhine (Arakan) in Myanmar between Buddhists, who make up the majority of the country's inhabitants, and numerous Rohingya Muslims has been going on for more than one year. During this time, thousands of people became victims of clashes between security forces and Muslims.

The authorities of the republic refuse to recognize Rohingya Muslims as their citizens, considering them illegal migrants from Bangladesh (more precisely, from the region of Bengal, which includes Bangladesh and part of India), despite the fact that many representatives of the Rohingya have been living in the country for several generations.

Under the Burmese Citizenship Law (the former name of Myanmar) of 1983, the Rohingya are not recognized as citizens of the country, and therefore are deprived of all civil rights, including the opportunity to receive medical care and education. A significant part of them are forcibly kept in special reservations - centers for displaced persons. The exact number of Rohingya is unknown - presumably, there are about 1 million people. In total, Myanmar has about 60 million inhabitants.

• Reuters

In Rakhine, religious conflicts constantly flare up, which lead to clashes between Muslims and Buddhists. According to eyewitnesses, the military and local residents, incited by Buddhist monks, break into the houses and farms of Muslims, take away their property and livestock, and kill unarmed people, exterminating entire families.

According to the latest data from international monitoring organizations, approximately 2,600 houses belonging to the Rohingyas were burned down, and more than fifty thousand people were forced to flee the country. Many refugees leave their homes with nothing, trying only to save their children. Part of the Muslims, fleeing the bloodshed in Myanmar, moved to neighboring Bangladesh.

Previous crises related to the persecution of the Rohingya have led to a massive exodus of refugees. In 2015, almost 25,000 Rohingyas were forced to leave the country. Called in the world press "people of the boats", they rushed to Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. The 2012 pogroms resulted in the official deaths of 200 people (half of them were Muslims and half were Buddhists). About 120 thousand people (both Buddhists and Muslims) turned out to be refugees.

After Myanmar's military junta handed power over to a civilian government in 2011, it tried to return voting rights to the Rohingya, but was forced to abandon this idea due to massive protests by Buddhist radicals. As a result, the Rohingya did not participate in the 2015 elections, the first in the country in many decades.

“From a human rights standpoint, Myanmar’s performance is terrible,” Bangladeshi political analyst Ahmed Rajiv told RT. “The Myanmar army has been committing international crimes against the Rohingya for decades, killing a total of 10,000 Rohingya and making 1 million refugees.”

True Buddhists

However, the Buddhist population of Myanmar has its own point of view on this ethno-confessional conflict. The Rohingya are accused of the fact that although Muslims have lived in Myanmar for a long time, they began to settle in Rakhine en masse only in the 19th century, when the British began to encourage migration from Bengal, who ruled both Burma and Bengal. In fact, this was the policy of the British colonial administration, which used the Rohingya as a cheap labor force.

According to Burmese historians, the name of the people "Rohingya", derived from the name of the state of Rakhine, appeared only in the 1950s. So people from Bengal began to call themselves, claiming that they are the indigenous population of the state. Conflicts between the local population and newly arrived migrants began in the 19th century and continue to this day.

• Reuters

“This is a conflict that, unfortunately, is very difficult, almost impossible to resolve,” said Dmitry Mosyakov, head of the Center for the Study of Southeast Asia, Australia and Oceania at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in an interview with RT.

According to him, on the one hand, this clash is the natural migration of Bengalis who leave overpopulated Bangladesh in search of free land, and on the other hand, the Burmese perception of Rakhine as their historical territory, not an inch of the land of which they do not intend to give to outsiders-Muslims.

“How it all happens: Bengalis sail on boats, establish a settlement, they are found by local Burmese and killed. Everything happens at the soil level, outside of any international law, which is very difficult to influence. We are talking about some kind of medieval processes of the movement of peoples, the expert says. “The Burmese state, which is so accused, cannot assign a policeman to every Arakanese who would teach him tolerance.”

In the 1940s, a separatist movement of the Rohingya arose, seeking to join the state of Pakistan, which the British were going to form in the territories of colonial India inhabited by Muslims. Part of Bengal, from where the Rohingyas themselves were from, was also to be part of Pakistan. Later, in 1971, this territory of East Pakistan separated from Islamabad and became an independent state - the People's Republic of Bangladesh.

The Muslim-inhabited territories in northern Rakhine State became strongholds for religious extremists who advocated secession from Burma and annexation to East Pakistan from 1947. In 1948, after the independence of Burma, martial law was introduced in the region. By 1961, the Burmese army had suppressed most of the Mujahideen in Rakhine, but in the 1970s, after the creation of the extremist Rohingya Liberation Party and the Rohingya Patriotic Front, guerrilla war broke out with renewed vigor.

• Rohingya refugees who crossed the Bangladesh border illegally
• Reuters

The Mujahideen received support from Bangladesh and, if necessary, went to the territory of a neighboring state, hiding from the raids of the Burmese military. In 1978, the Burmese army launched Operation Dragon King against Islamic extremists. Conditionally peaceful Rohingyas also fell under the distribution. Approximately 200-250 thousand people fled from Rakhine to Bangladesh.

In the 1990s and 2000s, the Rohingya extremists continued the process of rapprochement with the global Islamist international, which began in the 1970s, including Al-Qaeda *, on whose Afghan bases the Mujahideen from Myanmar conducted training. In the early 2010s, a new separatist structure, the Rohingya Salvation Army, announced itself, whose representatives in several interviews said that the group was supported by some private individuals from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. As the international NGO International Crisis Group stated in 2016, the Rohingya Mujahideen were trained by Afghan and Pakistani militants.

Looking for oil

According to the Turkish edition of Sabah, the escalation of the conflict in Rakhine in the early 2000s suspiciously coincided with the discovery of oil and gas reserves in this area. In 2013, the construction of an oil and gas pipeline from Rakhine to China was completed.

“There is a huge gas field “Than Shwe”, named after the general who ruled Burma for a long time. And of course, almost certainly the coastal zone of Arakan contains oil and gas,” Dmitry Mosyakov believes.

“The United States, seeing this, after 2012 turned the Arakan problem into a global crisis and launched a project to encircle China,” Sabah notes. Active support for the oppressed Rohingya is provided by the Burma Task Force, which includes organizations funded mainly by funds from George Soros. The activities of these NGOs cause mistrust among the indigenous Burmese.

In mid-August 2017, mass demonstrations by local Buddhists took place in the capital of Rakhine state, accusing the UN and non-governmental organizations operating in the country of supporting Rohingya terrorists. “We don’t need organizations that support terrorists,” the protesters said. The reason for the demonstrations was the discovery by the authorities of the country of several secret bases of extremists, where they found the remains of cookies supplied by the UN as part of the World Food Program.

“There are also internal factors in the conflict in Myanmar, but world practice shows that it is precisely such internal sentiments that are always used as soon as external players appear,” said Dmitry Egorchenkov.

“The same Soros always, when he comes to this or that country, to this or that problem field, looks for religious, ethnic, social contradictions, chooses a model of action according to one of these options and their combination, and tries to warm it up,” the expert says. “It cannot be completely ruled out that such actions are being pushed not from within Burmese society, but by some external forces.”

“Since the British have already established a base for Buddhist terrorism in Myanmar, the globalists are now creating fertile ground for Islamic terrorism, provoking and fueling hatred among ethno-religious groups in South Asia,” Ahmed Rajeev explains what is happening in Arakan.

According to Dmitry Mosyakov, a very serious attempt is being made to split Southeast Asia and ASEAN. In a world where the politics of global governance implies the ability to manage through conflicts, conflicts become something commonplace. They are introduced into more or less stable regional formations, and these conflicts expand, develop, opening up opportunities for pressure and control.

“We are talking about three directions. Firstly, this is a game against China, since China has a very large investment in Arakan. Secondly, the intensification of Muslim extremism in Southeast Asia and the opposition of Muslims and Buddhists, which has never happened there. Thirdly, a movement towards creating a split in ASEAN (between Myanmar and Muslim Indonesia and Malaysia. — RT) because ASEAN sets an example of how very poor countries can set aside contradictions and provide a completely decent life. This is a very dangerous and effective measure aimed at destroying stability in Southeast Asia,” the political scientist concluded.

* Al-Qaeda is a terrorist group banned in Russia.

Rohingya Muslims are an ethnic minority living in Myanmar (Burma). They have no rights to citizenship, education, or free movement. Since 1970, there have been hundreds of thousands of instances of the use of violence and terror against this people by the Myanmar military. International communities have repeatedly accused the Myanmar authorities of discrimination and genocide of the Rohingyas. The latest news in this country literally blew up the Internet space and drew everyone's attention to this problem. Who are the Rohingyas and why are they being killed?

Who are Rohingya Muslims?

The Rohingya is often described as the most oppressed and persecuted ethnic and religious minority in the world. They are ethnic Muslims living in Myanmar, where the majority of the population is Buddhist. Rohingyas mainly live on the west coast of the Myanmar state of Rakhine. Their number is about one million. About 135 different ethnic groups live in Myanmar. All of them are officially recognized by the Myanmar authorities, and only the Rohingya are called illegally displaced and denied citizenship and education. Rohingya live in the poorest area, in special camps in ghetto conditions, often deprived of basic amenities and opportunities. Due to constant outbreaks of violence and persecution, hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas migrated to the nearest neighboring countries.

Where do the Rohingyas come from?

Although the authorities of Myanmar refer to the Rohingya as illegal migrants resettled in the 19th century, during the British colony, from neighboring Bangladesh to be used as cheap labor, historical evidence indicates that Rohingya Muslims have lived in the territory of modern Myanmar since the 7th century. th century. This is stated in the report of the National Organization of the Rohingyas of Arakan. According to a Southeast Asian researcher, British historian Daniel George Edward Hall, the kingdom of Arakan, ruled by Indian rulers, was established as early as 2666 BC, long before the Burmese settled on it. This once again indicates that the Rohingya have been living in this area for centuries.

How and why are the Rohingyas persecuted? Why are they not recognized?

Immediately after Myanmar's independence from Britain in 1948, a law on citizenship was adopted, which determines which nationalities are entitled to citizenship. At the same time, the Rohingyas were not included in their number. However, the law allowed individuals whose ancestors lived in Burma for at least two generations to qualify for Burmese identity cards.

At first, this provision actually served as a basis for issuing Burmese passports to Rohingyas and even granting citizenship. During this period, many Rohingyas even sat in parliament

But after the military coup 1962 The position of the Rohingyas deteriorated sharply. All citizens had to obtain national registration cards, but the Rohingya people were issued only documents of foreigners, which limited their opportunities for education and further employment.

Action against granting Myanmar citizenship to Rohingya Muslims

And in 1982, a new citizenship law was passed, which, in fact, left the Rohingya without a state. Under this law, the Rohingya were not recognized as one of the 135 nationalities of the country. In addition, citizens were divided into three categories. To qualify as a naturalized citizen with basic rights, the applicant must prove that his family lived in Myanmar before 1948, in addition, he must be fluent in one of the national languages. Most Rohingyas cannot provide such evidence because they have never received or could not obtain the relevant documents. Thus, the law has created many obstacles to employment, education, marriage, religion and health care for Rohingyas. They don't have the right to vote. And even if they manage to slip through all the bureaucratic traps and get citizenship, they fall into the category of naturalized citizens, which implies a restriction on the ability to practice medicine, law or be elected to elected office.

Since the 1970s, the Myanmar authorities have taken harsh measures against the Rohingyas in Rakhine State, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia. Refugees reported that such conflicts were often accompanied by rape, torture, arson and murder by Burmese security forces.

“It is impossible to even imagine such monstrous cruelty towards the children of the Rohingya ethnic group: what kind of hatred can make a person kill a child who reaches for milk from a mother’s breast. At the same time, the mother was a witness to this murder. Meanwhile, she was being raped by members of the security forces who were supposed to protect her,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, who has dealt with the conflict. - What is this operation? What goals in the field of ensuring national security could be achieved during this operation?”

One of the very first large-scale operations against Rohingya Muslims dates back to 1978 year. The operation was called "Dragon King". During it, dozens of houses and mosques were burned, more than 250 thousand people fled.

In 1991, the second military operation took place. Then about 200,000 Rohingyas fled their homes from persecution and violence. They mostly fled to neighboring Bangladesh.

In 2012 the conflict flared up again, during which more than 110 thousand Rohingya Muslims became refugees, about 5 thousand houses were burned and more than 180 people were killed.

In 2013 riots between Muslims and Buddhists engulfed the city of Meithila in the Mandalay district. During the week, 43 people were killed, 12 thousand people were forced to flee the city. The government declared a state of emergency in the city.

October 2016 Myanmar authorities reported attacks on nine border guards. The authorities blamed the so-called Rohingya militants for this. Referring to this, they began to bring their troops into the villages of the Raikhan state. During these operations, they burned entire villages, killed civilians, and raped women. However, the Myanmar government denied all these facts.

Recently, this August, The Myanmar authorities again accused the Rohingyas of attacks on police posts and again began their massive punitive measures.

According to local residents and activists, there were cases when the military opened fire indiscriminately on unarmed Rohingyas: men, women, children. The government, however, reports that 100 "terrorists" who were involved in organizing attacks on police posts were killed.

Since the beginning of the August conflict, human rights activists have recorded fires in 10 districts of Rakhine state. Due to the riots, more than 50,000 people while thousands of them were trapped in the neutral zone between the two countries.

Hundreds of civilians attempting to cross the Bangladesh border were driven back by border guards, many were detained and deported to Myanmar, according to the UN.

Geopolitical factor

According to the candidate of political sciences Alexander Mishin, one of the significant factors in the persecution of the Rohingyas is the geopolitical factor. Rohingya live in a strategically important region in the west of Myanmar, on a stretch of the sea coast overlooking the Bay of Bengal. According to Mishin, this is the most important corridor for China in terms of conducting trade operations with the countries of the Middle East and Africa, which makes it possible to reduce dependence on supplies through the Strait of Malacca. Oil and gas pipeline projects have already been implemented from the city of Kuakpuyu (Sittwe), in the state of Rakhine to the Chinese province of Yunnan. The oil pipeline to China comes from Saudi Arabia, while the gas is supplied by Qatar.

Burmese Hitler - Ashin Virathu

Ashin Virathu is the leader of the radical terrorist group 969, which began as a movement to boycott Muslim goods and services in the 1990s and later escalated into the cleansing of Burma from Muslims. Ashin Virathu uses Buddhist teachings to incite hatred towards Muslims. In his sermons, he blames Muslims for all the troubles, and purposefully sows hatred, anger and fear in the hearts of his followers.

“Muslims behave well only when they are weak. When they become strong, they look like wolves or jackals, and in groups they begin to hunt other animals .... If you buy something in a Muslim store, then your money does not stay there. They are used to destroy your race and your religion... Muslims are responsible for all crimes in Myanmar: opium, theft, rape,” he said more than once in an interview with journalists.

He and his followers took part in violent riots against Muslims more than once. Nine years in prison, which he spent on charges of organizing bloody riots, did not change his position. The prison seemed to strengthen his conviction in his ideas. In September 2012, he demanded that the government deport the Rohingya back to Bangladesh and India. A few weeks later, new unrest broke out in Rakhine between the Burmese and the Rohingyas.

The Times magazine even called Ashina Virata the "Face of Buddhist Terror" and the Dalai Lama himself disowned him.

How many Rohingyas left Myanmar and where did they go?

Since 1970, about one million Rohingya Muslims have left Myanmar due to constant harsh persecution. According to UN data published in May 2017, Since 2012, more than 168,000 Rohingyas have crossed the Myanmar border.

Only for the period from October 2016 to July 2017, according to the International Organization for Migration, 87,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh.

Many risked their lives to get to Malaysia. They crossed the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. Between 2012 and 2015, more than 112,000 people made these dangerous journeys.

For example, on November 4, 2012, a ship carrying 130 Rohingya refugees sank near the border between Myanmar and Bangladesh. And in 2015, more than 80,000 Rohingyas became hostages of the sea. None of the countries wanted to accept them. Some of the ships then sank, many died of thirst and hunger, and only a few managed to moor to the shores.

According to the UN, about 420,000 Rohingya refugees have taken refuge in various countries of Southeast Asia. More than 120,000 are scattered throughout the country in Myanmar.

This August alone, about 58,000 Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh due to renewed violence and persecution. Another 10,000 were trapped in the neutral zone between the two countries.

How does the Myanmar government comment on the issue?

State Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi, who is the country's de facto leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, declined to discuss the plight of the Rohingyas. She and her government do not recognize the Rohingya as an ethnic group and accuse them of attacking police officers.

The government consistently dismisses all charges against them. In February 2017, the UN released a report stating that there was a "strong possibility" that crimes against humanity by the army had occurred following another security tightening in Rakhine State in October 2016. At the time, the authorities did not directly respond to the report's findings and said they had "the right to legally protect the country" from "increasing terrorist activity" and added that an internal investigation was sufficient.

However, in April, Aung San Suu Kyi, in one of her few interviews with the BBC, observed that the expression "ethnic cleansing" was "too strong" to describe the situation in Rakhine.

The UN has repeatedly tried to investigate the facts of the use of violence against the Rohingya, but their access to sources was severely limited. For example, in January, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, YangheeLee, reported that she was not allowed into some regions of Rakhine state, but was only allowed to speak with Rohingyas, whose candidacies were agreed with the authorities in advance. Authorities also denied visas to members of a UN commission investigating violence and alleged human rights violations in Rakhine.

As a result of the research, the UN has repeatedly advised the government of Myanmar to stop using harsh military measures against the civilian population. But all these statements remained unheeded.

The government often restricts journalists' access to Raikhan State as well. It also accuses charities of helping "terrorists".

What does the international community say about the Rohingya?

The international community calls the Rohingya "the most persecuted national minority in the world." The UN and a number of human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have consistently condemned Myanmar and neighboring countries for their mistreatment of the Rohingya.

For example, in April 2013, human rights activists from Human Rights Watch accused the authorities of carrying out a "campaign of ethnic cleansing" of Myanmar from the Rohingya.

In November 2016, the UN also accused the Myanmar government of ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims.

Many countries, leaders and famous personalities express their concern about the situation in Myanmar.

The Pope urged everyone to pray for innocent people.

“They have been suffering for years, they have been tortured, they are killed just because they want to live according to their culture and their Muslim faith. Let's pray for them – for our Rohingya brothers and sisters,” he said.

The Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, has repeatedly called on Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi to take action to end discrimination against Muslims.

Thousands of rallies were held in Jakarta, Moscow and Grozny in support of the oppressed people. In some countries, fundraising is organized to help refugees. Turkey demanded an end to the genocide against Muslims and called on neighboring Bangladesh to open its borders to refugees, assuring them that it would pay all necessary taxes.

The US and UK are expressing their concern about the situation in Myanmar, but they still remain hopeful that the leader of Myanmar, on which they have staked heavily, will be able to rectify the situation and stop the violence.

"Aung San Suu Kyi is rightfully considered one of the most inspiring figures of our time, but the treatment of the Rohingya, alas, does not improve the reputation of Myanmar. She is experiencing great difficulties in modernizing her country. I hope now she can use all her wonderful qualities to unite their country, stop the violence and put an end to the prejudice that affects both Muslims and other communities in Rakhine," British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on 3 September.

How did Kyrgyzstan react to these events?

News of the killings in Myanmar stirred up the social networks of Kyrgyzstan. Many Kyrgyzstanis have only just learned about the long-term persecution of the Rohingya. There has never been so much information about this people in the local media. The country's Foreign Ministry expressed its concern about the situation in Myanmar.

"The Kyrgyz Republic, guided by the charters of the UN and the OIC, expresses serious concern about the current situation in Myanmar with regard to the Muslim community and calls on all parties to the conflict to a peaceful settlement of the conflict," the ministry said in a statement.

The football match between the national team of Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar, scheduled for September 5, was canceled due to concerns about the safety of players and fans.

Famous personalities of Kyrgyzstan condemned the situation around Myanmar.

“It is impossible to watch without tears ... there is no limit to indignation! In western Myanmar, government forces have killed at least 3,000 members of the Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority since late August. I mourn and protest! This shouldn't happen!!!" - said Assol Moldokmatova.

What is fake and what is true?

After the Internet space literally exploded with photos from Myanmar, many began to doubt the authenticity of these photos. Some even said that all this was just the intrigues of provocateurs and informational throws that did not correspond to reality. Of course, we did not have the opportunity to personally visit Myanmar to see the truth with our own eyes, but referring to those human rights activists who were directly at the scene, we can confidently state that although some of the photographs are not true, most of them reflect the deplorable reality.

“I hereby declare with all responsibility that Muslims in Arakan: men and women, children and the elderly - they cut, and shoot, and burn. Most (with the emphasis on "o") part of the photographs that we see are genuine. Moreover, there are thousands of other terrifying images from Arakan that you have not yet seen (and it is better for you not to see them),” the lawyer from Russia assures