Everybody good to see you again. Hope you've been well I'm back and I'm here to talk about a refugee crisis
This is the life I chose. So I'm just gonna cut to the chase in the Myanmar episode
We talked about a lot of things but one thing that has to be discussed because it's made so many international headlines is the Rohingya
Crisis that has happened recently. I'm sure many of you have heard about it something about Muslims versus Buddhists
You see those pictures of like angry Buddhist monks protesting or Rohingya people leaving and mass crossing rivers and houses on fire
What is going on?
well
This video is going to serve as kind of like a reference you can use for the Myanmar
Episode kind of like what we did with the Kurdish people with the Middle Eastern countries like Iraq
First of all, lets discern what it is not contrary to what many media outlets will tell you
It is not an expulsion of all Muslims from Myanmar Rohingyas are not the only Muslim group in Myanmar
There are many Muslim groups
There are even ethnic Burmese people the largest group in Myanmar that are Muslim
This whole conflict is mostly just centered around the Rohingya people and they just so happen to be predominantly Muslim
so first of all
who are the Rohingya people?
The Rohingya are an indo-aryan people group that reside in the Western rakhine state of Myanmar close to the
Border of Bangladesh, they have their own language customs traditions and out of all the people groups in Myanmar
They are probably the least assimilating
Most of Rohingya do not read write or speak the Burmese language and overall since day one
There's just always kind of been like this clash.
But how did it start?
Well, first of all, this conflict isn't even really something new
It's kind of been going on for over half a century
But to really understand that you have to go back even further in time
Historically speaking the Rakhine State which is where all of this is happening was subject to many kingdoms in the past mostly Hindu kingdoms
Eventually, in the late 18th century the Burmese King conquered it and kind of took over
In the 1800's Myanmar which was called Burma back then
was subject to the British Empire
and during British Empire times
A lot of people just kind of moved back and forth between all of what are now the modern-day states of the Indian subcontinent
But then in World War two things got kind of messy
Basically, the Rohingya were allied with the British
and they kind of wanted to secede their areas to East Pakistan aka Bangladesh
But Burma was allied with the Japanese
eventually Burma kind of took over war war war and then they gained independence
after independence, they kind of figured with victory
The Rohingya would probably just leave and go to Bangladesh
But they kind of didn't
and this is kind of what made Burma mad
because essentially they kind of saw them as like illegal
Bangladeshi immigrants
to this day,
they are 135
ethnic groups recognized in Myanmar
and the largest minority groups were given their own states
according to the panglong agreement
the Rohingya
Even at over a million in population prior to the conflict
are not recognized by the Burmese government and have since independence been denied citizenship
For Myanmar, they basically say that under Section three of the citizenship law of 1982
It states that
Basically Myanmar kinda sees Rohingya as remnants of the British colonial past and hence ineligible for citizenship or full rights
however
on the Rohingya side
They claim to be descended from Arab traders
that have settled into the area over a thousand years ago
granted though
It is kind of hard for them to give concrete solid proof of this claim
and many of the Rohingya don't even have proper
documents which adds further suspicions on Myanmar side
to believe that many of them may have just illegally crossed over from
Bangladesh
whether or not it may be true
but then again it's kind of difficult because they weren't really
Given paperwork to begin with so it's kind of like this weird circular argument
But anyway fighting has been going on post-world War two for about twenty four years right after World War Two the Rohingya
Mujahideen fought against the Burmese government. They tried to secede to Bangladesh
It didn't work out insurgent separatists fought again against the Burmese government in the 70s, which prompted Operation Dragon King
It was an act that attempted to register all the people in the area and expel those that were illegal
It didn't go so well then in the 80s the Rohingya
Solidarity organization was formed and it was kind of like the biggest paramilitary group for Rohingya separatists
And this is kind of the part that a lot of people miss out
There is an insurgent separatist group on the Rohingya side
And this is kind of what adds fuel to the fire in the early 80s and 90s
They merged with another group and eventually created the current Rohingya National Army
which allegedly is supported by the Taliban and al Qaeda training videos have released and
The tipping point if you don't know anything about Myanmar's government
They are really not pushovers
and they really don't like it when things get out of order
when it came to the Rohingya
Paramilitary groups they kind of got really fed up
with all of the national policies against them as non citizens
in their own hometowns
which kind of caused them to eventually
Snap and go on the offensive and when that happened it was kind of like poking a big
sleeping Buddhist giant
recently in 2017
The Burmese government conducted a security briefing which kind of ended in a lot of Rohingya lives being lost
Which then prompted an attack by the outer Congo? Henkka Salvation Army another paramilitary group.
They attacked over 30 burmese police posts
And this was like right before the presentation from the international community on the Rohingya crisis
and after that happened that was basically the beginning of the refugee crisis over half a million people had to flee the country as
Paramilitary forces and the Burmese government just went at an all-out brawl
Houses burned down people malnourished not knowing what to do crowded inhuman camps seeking help
There are many reports on both sides explaining their sides of the story many get jumbled up in facts vs
testimonies that may not be
Substantial but what we do know is that many have died Rohingya have been found killed in jungles
Or they were drowned at sea trying to escape the violence
it's very messy what it basically boils down to though is the Myanmar government and military fighting against the
Insurgent Rohingya paramilitary groups and the Burmese military is kind of like lashing out
Very very harshly which causes hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people that didn't want anything to do with anything to suffer the most you'll hear
A lot of other sides to the story though
Some people say that this is all about oil in the Indian Ocean off of Myanmar's coast and they want to sell it to China
Some people will say it's about radicalized Buddhism
What it basically comes down to is you kind of have to look deep into everything that has happened
And consider both sides of the entire spectrum of the story and it's hard and it's complicated
but one thing we know is that it is never good to have war and have people suffer at the expense of it if you
Would like to help out Rohingya refugees. There are currently many organizations working on the issue right now
I think Doctors Without Borders is a good one
They help out with medical demands and I haven't looked too much into it
But I was told brac is also a good one the Bangladesh rehabilitation assistance committee
If you personally know of any good reliable vouch programs or organizations, feel free to write them in the comments below
But until then yeah
I tried my best to explain the situation as plain and objectively as I could I may have missed a few notes here and there
But I hope this suffice is thank you for watching this reference video. Hope it helped stay cool. Stay tuned