It’s hard to be concerned about a group of people you’ve maybe never heard of and in a place most people can’t point to on a map.
In the Rakhine State of a country named Myanmar that is just south of Bangladesh and in the country of Burma, there is a massive exodus, where people are being put out of their homes and forced to migrate elsewhere for safety.
This is also seen as an “ethnic cleanse” of people that are of the Muslim faith who are living in a primarily Buddhist country.
As an American, I have seen people afraid for their lives because of their religion, gender or race. In Myanmar the same type of fear is also present. These incidents between the Rohingya people and their government have been going back and forth for the past decade due to battles between radical Rohingya militant insurgents and the government of Myanmar but this recent episode that has been caused by a Rohingya militant attack on 24 guards posts simultaneously on Friday, Aug. 25 and the response to these attacks have certainly crossed a humanitarian line and needs to be addressed.
A staggering 2,000 people have been killed in this crisis and another 400,000 have been forced out of their villages by the fighting with nowhere to go. Since late August, according to Mint Press news, this number is only likely to grow as there is no end in sight for the persecution faced by the Rohingya Muslims.
It’s essential that we all care about this because the Rohingya people are being forced from their homes in the Rakhine State but are being turned away at the Bangladesh border. In addition to not being able to leave the country, the Myanmar military has placed landmines along the border to ensure they can’t leave the country, according to BDNEWS24, a media outlet located in Bangladesh
Across history instances like these have happened in countries with great political, social or racial divide such as the Rwandan genocide in 1994. During this time, a group named the Hutus wanted more political power in Rwanda and believed that a group named the Tutsis were in their way of obtaining it and to take political control, the Hutus killed between 500,000 and one million people in just under a year.
Alongside the Rwandan genocide, the Cambodian genocide took place between 1975 and 1979, when a group named the Khmer Rouge sought to establish a communist state in Cambodia which killed between one and three million people who opposed this new government, according to Research Omics Group. Instances like this are solely based on discrimination of one’s race, religion, political ideal or gender and all it takes is education of tolerance and understanding to avoid these tragedies.
Even though this is happening on the other side of the world it’s important for you to care because it poses a threat to human rights. The recent violence in Myanmar is simply a conflict between radical Muslim Rohingya insurgents and the Myanmar government, but the Myanmar government seeks to drive out and kill all Rohingya people rather than just pick out the few extremists, according to Your Story, a media outlet located in India.
This slaughtering of innocent people is truly vile and unacceptable. If it continues it will only support the idea that dehumanization is applicable on any place on earth and could make people believe that this is an acceptable way to act.
Human rights violations are issues that go back as far as slavery in ancient civilizations. If we continue to stand idly by because it’s on the other side of the world, we will be no better than those who partake in it. Consider donating to Islamic Relief USA to help Rohingya refugees be assisted in America or even just spread the word about this human rights issue so our public can become aware and have an idea of what these people are going through.
