Ethnic Cleansing of the Rohingyas: a Historical Analysis

Abstract

The ethnic Rohingyas have been living in the Rakhine State of Myanmar for centuries. Significant human rights problems persisted throughout the 2010s, including rape, sexual violence, politically motivated arrests, and an overall lack of the rule of law. Myanmar’s citizenship law of 1982 made the ethnic Rohingyas stateless. They were displaced from their homes by systematic violence. Government security forces were allegedly responsible for extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, torture, mistreatment in detention, and systematic denial of due process of fair trials. The paper argues that the Rohingya genocide has been created in the Rakhine state with the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas since 2012. Ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas has become a regional and international concern, not just an internal affair of Myanmar. This study attempts to explain the atrocity committed against the Rohingyas in terms of ethnic cleansing In the Rakhine State. The study is conducted based on multiple sources combining primary and closely related secondary materials, archival documents, newspapers, policy reports and pamphlets and leaflets published by different government and non-government agents and civil societies followed by the qualitative method. A balanced approach of data gathering and analysis will be used and maintained, including an analysis of both official and unofficial documents. Structured observations of the time to time will be very critically analyzed. The study finally suggests ways to improve Rohingya lives and secure regional peace.