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NGOT FOR PUBLiCATIoNWITHOUT WRITER’S CONSENT

INSTITUTE OF CURRENTWORLD AFFAIRSCox’s BazaarBangladeshApril 28, 1992

TROUBLED PARAD I SE

by Carol Rose

A hundred miles of white sand beach stretches before the Bayof Bengal, coconut palms sway in the warm sea breeze, and greenrice paddies shimmer in the sunlight.

Burmese refugees arrive by boat in Bangladesh.

But beneath the surface of this tropical paradise, somethingis wrong. A blue and white United Nations flag flies in front ofthe "honeymoon cottages" near the beach, signaling an emergencyrelief operation. White land rovers and trucks rumble down themain road, carrying tents and medical supplies. Nearly twothousand refugees arrive by boat each day from neighboring Burma(Myanmar). By mid-April, nearly a quarter of a million people livein the make-shift refugee camps south of town.

I am struck initially by the visual incongruities" the beautyof the land and the squalid conditions in the refugee camps. Butover time, I glimpse the shadowy political forces behind thisrefugee exodus secret military training camps, Pan-Islamic

Carol Rose is an ICWA fellow writing about Northwest and South Asia.

Since 1925 the Institute of Current World Affairs (the Crane-Rogers Foundation) has provided long-term fellowships to

enable outstanding young adults to live outside the United States and write about international areas and issues. Endowedby the late Charles R. Crane, the Institute is also supported by conlzibutions from like-minded individuals and foundations.

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organizations, corrupt bureaucracies, divisions within the Burmesedemocracy movement and the deft political maneuvering of theBurmese military junta.

"They tortured us so we fled"

The old woman looks into my eyes as she explains why shebecame a refugee. Her name is Amina Khatune. She arrived in therefugee camps with her daughter two months earlier. "The soldierstook me to work as a slave building their roads," she says. "Theytook my house, my land. I have nothing to go back for."

Khatune is one ofBurma’s mainly-Buddhistfrom two districts along

the 225,000 Muslim Burmese who have fledArakan state since late 1991. Most comethe Bangladesh-Burma border where Muslims

make up the majority of thepopulation. The refugees calledthemselves "Rohingyas" a namederived from the ocal dialect,best translated as "those fromthe state of Arakan." They saythey are fleeing soldiers ofBurma’ s mi I itary junta, theState Law and Order RestorationCouncil (SLORC), who have beenforcing Rohingya men and womeninto slave labor, raping womenand girls, and transferringMuslim land, homes and livestockto Burma’s Buddhist citizens.

Near the Naaf river, whichthe refugees must cross to reachBangladesh, an old man trudgesdown the road with his family."We just arrived, " he says,glancing at a large wooden rowboat docked at the river. "Wefled because the soldiers tookmy son and beat him across hiseyes with a whip." The manpoints to a boy about 12 yearsold with a bandage over hisface. Then he begins to weep.

Burmese refugees arriving in Bangladesh.

I have chosen to use the name "Burma" rather than"Myanmar" the official name given the country by the militaryjunta because "Burma" is the name used by the Rohingya refugeesand the democratic opposition.

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A recent survey of the BURMESE-BANGLADESH BORDER AREArefugees by the United [Source" Bangladesh Lonely Planet Gu{de]Nations High Commissioner for iii i iiii i

CHINARefugees (UNHCR) found that ..86 percent of the Rohingyamen said they had beenconscripted into forcedlabor; 46 percent of femalefamily members reported tohave been raped; 52 percentcould name persons killed bythe Burmese military; and 80percent said that theirproperty had beenconfiscated.

Rohingyas are not theonly ethnic group targeted bythe SLORC regime. The juntaseized power in 1988following a nationwide pro-democracy movement. Soon

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thereafter, the regime imposed house arrest on Aung San Suu Kyi,head of the opposition National League for Democracy whosubsequently was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. In 1990, thejunta refused to recognize a landslide election victory by theNational League for Democracy, imprisoning hundreds of oppositionleaders. The regime also launched military offensives againstanti-SLORC rebels stationed near Burma’s borders with Thailand andChina.

Last year the regime turned its attention to the border withBangladesh, constructing a new road to connect its militarycantonments in Arakan. Although most of Burma’s Muslims are deniedthe right to vote, they are forced to pay for the road. They mustgive half of their rice harvest to the military, as well as part oftheir cattle, poultry and vegetables to the troops. The BangladeshSociety for the Enforcement of Human Rights reports that BurmeseMuslims also are taken as forced labor for construction of theroad uring which time they are rarely fed and often beaten orrape.

"My sister was taken away by the [Burmese] military, and whenI went to look for her the soldiers slashed my arm with a machete,"says Abdul Razad, age 22, revealing a five-inch scar on hisshoulder. "My wife also was taken away, but I found her afterthree days. I still haven’t found my sister."

One Buddhist Burmese spokesman said that Buddhists inArakan also are being forced to work on the road, but I was unableto confirm this.

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"On the Knife Edge of Disaster"

Two thousand additional refugees arrive in Bangladesh everyday. Near the border town of Teknaf, hundreds of families crossthe river each morning. They carry their possessions waterjugs, blankets, bamboo bird cages balanced on yokes over theirshoulders. They have no place to sleep, little food, and no water.

Hundreds of people wander on the road that connects the 12refugee camps that stretches for 30 miles between Teknaf with Cox’sBazaar. The older camps consist of rows of tents or bamboo huts.But 96,000 refugees have no formal shelter. They live in lean-tosmade from leaves, sticks, bits of clothing and plastic. Many hutsare perched precariously on hillsides that will wash away in theJune monsoon rains. In the meantime, swarms of naked children playon the side of the road and adults huddle beneath the occasionaltree in an attempt to escape the scorching sun.

The sheer number of incoming refugees has put tremendouspressure on the already scarce natural resources of Bangladesh.The only land available is government forest reserves. Refugeescut down the trees to use as fuel wood, hauling the timber to theirhuts in bundles carried on their backs. The heavily-forestedmountains of Burma are visible across the Naaf river, as iftaunting those who have fled their resource-rich homeland.

A more life-threatening problem is the lack of water. Morethan 70,000 refugees live in an area where the ground water is toosalty to drink. United Nations tanker-trucks haul in fresh water

As temperatures soar over 90-degrees, refugees arrange their waterjugs n front of an empty United Nations water tank.

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each day, but the operation isexpensive and cannot keep pacewith demand. Hundreds of womenstand with water jugs in frontof the metal water tanks,waiting for the water trucks toarrive. Temperatures soar wellover 90 degrees fahrenheit, butpeople say the dry weather is abl essing. When the monsoonrains start, roads and houseswill be washed away and diseaseswill flourish.

"I keep telling people thatthe emergency hasn’t happenedyet," says Mitch Carlson, seniorofficer for UNHCR. "We areliving on the knife-edge of adisaster.

"At the first rain, it willbe a mess" Iatrines wi I 1overflow, houses will fall downthe hi I I s ," he adds. "Theminute the rains begin, we willface a cholera epidemic. AndGod forbid there should beanother cyclone."

During a similar refugeeexodus from Burma in 1978,officials estimate that at leasti0,000 people died from Cholera.A cyclone that hit this coastIast Apri I kil Ied 139,000people.

A young Burmese girl and her brother ata feeding center in the l)umdumia refugeecamp.

Despite the lack of land and infrastructure, the internationalrelief effort for the Rohingyas is well-managed. A coordinatingeffort led by UNHCR and the government of Bangladesh limits thenumber of private charities operating in the camps and streamlinesassistance programs to prevent waste and duplication. Theseefforts have paid off" in just six weeks, international assistancehas provided emergency feeding centers for dozens of malnourishedchildren, housing for more than i00,000 people, food for 95 percentof the refugees, and widespread vaccinations against measles.

At a feeding center run by Save the Children (UK) healthworkers target dozens of children who show classic signs of severemalnutrition" distended bellies, bone-thin limbs, glassy eyes.

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At ].east 96,000 Burm.ese refugees have inadequate shelter. Many live{n huts made of leaves and st{cks. In the dstance, the Naaf r.{verand hil]s of Burma.

Parents or older sisters sit with the children on the floor of thebamboo shelter, trying to spoon-feed the babies a thin.rice gruel.

In theory, each arriving refugee is given a medical screeningand vaccination by Bangladeshi health workers. But thousands ofrefugees suffer from malnutrition, diarrhoea, and respiratoryinfections, and there is one doctor for every 12,000 refugees. Theonly hospital in the area has just 150 beds and already 250patients. Nonetheless, only 358 refugee deaths have been reportedby late April, compared with 559 births in the camps.

Once they have registered with the Bangladeshi government,refugees are assigned to a camp. Then they are given a ration cardthat entitles each person to 500 grams of rice, 60 grams of pulsesand 20 grams of oil about 2200 calories a day from theWorld Food Program (WFP).

"Our feeding programs are about 5 percent short of totalcoverage," said Gemmo Lodesani, WFP program officer. "But thesituation could get worse when the rains come. We are operating atfull capacity already. How do you respond to an emergency withinan emergency?"

A partial answer to that question is evident on my last day inCox’s Bazaar. Relief workers are scouting for additional land uponwhich to put isolation tents for expected victims of cholera. Saysone" "We also will need space to bury the dead."

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Kickbacks and Closed Camps

While I was there, the government of Bangladesh decided topost guards to stop the free movement of refugees in and out ofcamps. A UN official told me that the government now plans to putbarbed wire around the camps. The reason, say local officials, isto prevent conflicts between the Rohingya refugees and the 450,000Bangladeshis living in the area around the camps.

"Up until today we have hired locals to build the housing, butwith this influx of people we have had to let some refugees buildtheir own structures," says K.H. Shahidul Islam, the Refugee Reliefand Repatriation Commissioner. "The local people organized againstme in one valley, but when I explained that the refugees will dieunless we give them shelter before the monsoon, they agreed to notdraft a petition against me."

Forestry officials say refugees searching for fuel wood haveused more than $800,000 worth of forest resources about 4percent of the total timber in just three months.

"If more refugees come theywill destroy our forest. Localsalready are worried that the[Rohingyas] will claim the landas their own," says Isl am."They can’t stay here. Even inHong Kong refugees are shippedback. We are helping them fornow, but we will have to put ourfoot down soon or else therewi I 1 be a civi i war betweenthese people and our own people.If they stay for six months thatis no problem. But more thanthat, I am afraid..."

A Bangladesh relief workerhas a different interpretationof the reported conflictsbetween local villagers andrefugees: "The villagers arenot really affected by therefugees," he says. "But somelocal politicians are stirringup problems to ensure that allthe construction jobs are givento Bangladeshis rather than tothe Rohingyas. That way, thepoliticians can demand kick-backs on the contracts."

Refugee homes built on hills meant forforest reserves may wash away in thef.rst rains.

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"Despised Foreigners"

The conflict between Muslims and Buddhists in Burma is rootedin the history of the region, as well as the rise of pan-Islamicmovements throughout the Indian subcontinent. From 2666 BC until1784, Arakan was an independent kingdom tat included the present-day region of Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh. When the king of Burmadefeated the Arakan king in 1784, the British seized control ofland west of the Naaf river now present-day Bangladesh. Aroundthe same time, the town of Cox’s Bazaar was named after CaptainHiram Cox, who led a British refugee relief mission thereoffering protection to 40,000 Buddhist "Rakhaine" refugees fleeingthe King of Burma".

The British did more than resettle refugees. In 1826, theyannexed the entire Burmese kingdom and incorporated all of Arakaninto British India. Arakan like the rest of Burma remainedunder British rule until 1947. When the British quit India, theydivided the territory into Burma and East Pakistan. The Naaf riverwas mad the border, effectively splitting the former kingdom ofArakan.

As in India, however, Burma’s independence movement was infull swing by the 1930s. It was dominated by the Buddhist "Bahman"ethnic group which carried out a "Burmanization" campaign in whichmore than i00,000 Muslim Rohingyas were massacred. In response,there was a movement among the Muslims in Arakan to become a partof the emerging nation of [East] Pakistan. In the early 1950s,Burma’s leaders announced that the Rohingyas were not citizens.They were "kala" "despised foreigners" and were denied the rightto vote, attend school or obtain government jobs.

A military junta led by General Ne Win seized power in Burmain 1962. Since that time, the government has used various militarymeans to clamp down on resistance movements throughout the country,including the Karen rebels on the border with Thailand, the Kichin

Some accounts suggest that the kings, of Arakan adoptedIslam in the 15th century, but others insist that the Kingdom wasalways ruled by Buddhist kings of Tibeto-Burman ethnic stock.

It was from an Anglicized mispronunciation of "Rakhaine"that the name "Arakan" was given to the state. The ancient nameRakhaine was pronounced locally as Rohang, hence Rohingya theinhabitants of Rohang. Likewise, the name "Burma" came from theEnglish mispronunciation of the country’s dominate "Bahman" ethnicgroup.

East Pakistan became the independent nation of Bangladeshin 1971.

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guerrillas on the Chinese border, and theresistance in Arakan state.

Rakhaine Buddhist

Throughout this time, relations remained tense between theRohingyas and the Buddhist anti-government democracy movements inArakan, enabling the junta to use "divide and rule" tactics againstthe opposition. The junta launched "Operation Dragon Minh" in1978, driving 300,000 Rohingya Muslims into Bangladesh as illegalaliens. International pressure forced the Rangoon government totake back 200,000 Rohingyas but did nothing to guarantee theirhuman rights. The remaining i00,000 Rohingyas dispersed across thesubcontinent and elsewhere. This year, many refugees whorepatriated to Burma in 1978 say they will not return again.

"The Path of Allah"

"Our attitude in coming toBangladesh is to liberateArakan," said Mohammed Kashim,age 17. "I would rather diehere with my Muslim friendstrying to liberate my countrythan to die in Burma undermilitary repression. I am readyto hold a gun."

Kashim’s attitude is sharedby virtually every Rohingyarefugee with whom I speak. Manyhave fled Burma under similarcircumstances in 1978, returningas part of a Burmese governmentprogram that promised themprotection. Unfortunately, thatpromise was broken.

"From the time we went backin 1978 we were harassed by thegovernment and told that we werenot citizens of Burma, even ifwe had [citizenship] papers,"says Mohammed Sediq, age 35."This time we won’t go backuntil we have our own country inArakan and a Muslim governmentof our own."

Most of the refugees withwhom I speak say they will notreturn unl ess there areinternational guarantees for

Burmese women and children findbeneath a tree by the Naaf rver.

shade

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their safety. Some say they won’t go back until there is a newgovernment in Burma and still others insist they will settle onlyfor an independent Islamic Arakan state.

Leading the military fight for the Rohingyas are Nural Islam,leader of the Arakan Rohingya Islamic Front (ARIF), and MohammedYunis, leader of the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO). ARIFcalls for autonomy for the Rohingyas within a federated Burma,while the RSO has announced a jihad or holy war against Rangoonleading to an independent Islamic state.

One evening a local Reuters correspondent invites me to watcha video he has filmed of an RSO training camp in Burma. It showsaround 200 men and boys doing kung foo stunts and marching drills.Their discipline is impressive. But I notice they are practicing

with wooden dummy guns.Moreover, estimates of thestrength of ARIF and the RSOrange from around i00 trainedguerrillas apiece to just 5,000.They would be no match forRangoon’swell-equipped 300,000-man militia.

Yet, I hear repeatedstories among local and foreignaid workers that the Bangladesharmy is involved in training andarming the Rohingyas. Peoplesay that mujahideen fromAfghanistan and soldiers fromLibya are training the RSOguerri I I as. Others say thatSaudi Arabia is paying the boatfares for refugees crossing theNaaf river.

Few people want to talkopenly about these militarydevelopments. But one managrees to do so adding thathe doesn’t expect to live longanyway. His name is Shwe LuMaung, a Burmese national andscientist residing in Dhaka. Hehas been involved in the Burmesedemocratic resistance since1962.

Waiting for food"The politics of SLORC are

very calculating and the

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Seeking help from Al].ah" Friday prayers n a make-sh.ft mosque.

creation of this Rohingya problem is very calculated, says Maung."They want to provoke them to fight to scare the local Buddhists ofArakan and rally the people behind them. In the 1960s, they didthe same thing with democratic forces on the Chinese bordersaying the Communists were coming. Only now that Burma is friendswith China, in place of Communism as the villain, the government isputting up Muslims as the villain."

Kaiser Morshed, chairman of the Bangladesh Institute ofInternational and Strategic Studies, agrees that the move againstthe Rohingyas is driven by domestic political considerations withinBurma. "It only makes political sense if it is popular with theBuddhist Burmese people. Otherwise, there is no rationale for it,"he says.

According to Maung, the RSO is playing into the hands of theSLORC government by aligning with an international Muslimorganization called Jamaat-e-Islami. "The aims and objectives ofthe RSO are declared to be ’To establish a sovereign Islamic Statein Arakan through jihad hol war, that path of Allah’ " saysMaung. "They have been collecting a lot of money and arms fromPakistan and other Islamic states using the name of thisorganization since June 1991."

Maung says that in February 1991, some retired Pakistanicolonels and officers of the fundamentalist Afghan mujahideengroup, Hezb-i-Islami (led by Gulbadin Hekmatyar, see CVR-23), gavetraining to RSO fighters.

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In addition to rallying Buddhist Burmese against the "Muslimthreat," the SLORC government may be using the refugee crisis todivert international attention from its actions elsewhere.

"At this moment, the military junta is eliminating insurgentson its borders with Thailand and China," says Maung. "SLORC isbombing [opposition bases in] Manerplaw and crushing the Karenrebels [Christian guerrillas on the Thai border]. But theiractions are ignored under the cloud of the refugee crisis."

"No Time for Silence"

As with most refugee situations, the challenge for the UnitedNations and the international community is not merely humanitarian.It also is political.

"The international community sees this as a humanitarian andfinancial problem, but it is more than that, says Morshed. If

the basic political premisesare not changed, then we willface the same refugee exodusin five years. This pan-Isl amic el ement is verystrong in the make-up of theRohingyas. "

A diplomatic effort lastMarch by United Nationsspecial envoy, Jan Eliasson,resulted in an agreement "inprinciple" by Burma to takeback the Rohingya refugees.On Aprii 29, the juntaannounced an agreement withBangladesh for the return ofthe refugees beginning May15. But only those who have"evidence of theirnationality" can go back, arestriction that excludesmany whose citizenship paperswere seized by SLORCsol diers. Worse yet, thejunta says that anyone whoreturns may be put in a

Fortunatel y, Burma relentedon its initial statement thatthe United Nations beexcluded from therepatriation process. UNHCRis now planning to send human

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rights monitors to assist in the return.

While it can monitor the repatriation, there is little theUnited Nations can do to prevent Burma from harassing returningrefugees. Nor can it stop Bangladesh from forcibly pushing therefugees back over the border. Other nations, however, may havesome clout.

"Bangladesh doesn’t have many strategic options," saysMorshed. "But India could do more. So far, its attitude [regardingBurma] has been ambiguous. India is so obsessed with Kashmir, thePunjab and Afghanistan that it is ignoring all the crises on itseastern border Assam, Bhutan and the Rohingyas.

"China could exercise a moderating influence over Burma, butChina has much greater strategic interest in Burma than it does inBangladesh," he adds. "Bangladesh is poor, Burma is rich."

Other countries also have financial leverage over Burma. Twohundred foreign firms and 14 international agencies are workingwith the Rangoon junta including eight United States and 23European firms doing business in oi I, gas and soft drinks.Moreover, Japanese ventures make up a quarter of new investment inBurma and virtually all of the new government projects.

"Japan could mold Burma if it wanted to, says Maung. ButJapan is keeping Burma as an ally in Southeast Asia. Don’t forgetthat Burma supported Japan in [World War I I. ] They will never letBurma go.

Recent news reports suggest that Japan and China have putpressure on the SLORC government to improve its human rightsrecord. It may have helped. In late April, Burma announced thatthe junta’s chairman, prime minister and armed forces’ commander,General Saw Maung, would step down. The regime also released 40political prisoners and allowed the family of Aung Sang Suu Kyi tovisit her.

But many observers say these moves are meaningless. Maung wasill and due to retire last year. His replacement, Than Shwe, issaid to be even more hard-line, as is the real power behind thejunta, Khin Nyunt. Hundreds of political prisoners remain behindbars, since the regime released only those "not deemed a threat tonational security." And the visit by Aung Sang Suu Kyi’s family isseen by many as a ploy to convince her to leave Burma.

Clearly, international pressure alone won’t bring down theSLORC regime. Burma’s democracy movement also must resolve thedeep religious and ethnic divisions among its factions ChristianKaren, Buddhist Rakhaine, Muslim Rohingya, etc. Only a unifiedopposition can take on the powerful Burmese military machine.

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"This should be a civil rights movement for all the people ofBurma, not a jihad for the Muslims, says Maung. "And we must tellthe Muslims of Arakan that they, too, are Burmese citizens.

"Let us go toward democracy and dilute this concept of ethnicidentity. Now is the time to begin an open discussion of theseethnic issues," he adds. "We have no time for silence."

Photographs by Tom Harrington

Received in Hanover, May 29, 1992