Page 150 - A Helping Hand for Refugees

Restrictions on the movements of Muslims were imposed
following Burmese independence in 1948, the aim being to elim-
inate the Muslim population of Rakhine entirely. A military
regime that took power following a coup in 1962 entirely rejected
the identity of the Muslim people and began using propaganda
to depict them as foreigners. They were removed from their posts
in the police and the civil service and were prohibited from

moving freely in the province of Rakhine.

Muslims, to whom Rakhine actually belongs, have been
living under very harsh conditions again since 1990. There has
been systematic pressure intended to reduce the population.
They are unable to engage in agriculture or raise livestock
because of arbitrary local taxation. Their lands are being taken
into public ownership. Other examples of the persecution of
Muslims include arrests, torture, the destruction of mosques and
cemeteries, Muslim girls being taken away from their village
under the pretext of 'development of the status of women,' and

their being deprived of their rights to education. 20

The Rohingya Muslims have been forced from their own
lands, their true homeland to migrate to other countries in search
of safety. The people to whom these lands really belong are today
abandoning their roots, culture and history and struggling to
survive under harsh conditions as refugees in other countries.
More than 240,000 Muslims in Burma are living as refugees
inside the country, and citizenship rights are denied to more than
810,000 Muslims living in the country. There are 120,000 refugees
on the border with Thailand. There are also Rohingya Muslims
21
with refugee status in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Thai-
land, Bangladesh and some European countries. One and a half
million Rohingya Muslims are living at the hunger threshold in
Bangladesh alone, trying to survive in the jungles and valley
margins.

148 A Helping Hand for Refugees