History of the Illegal Bangladeshi Immigrants
When the British occupied Arakan in the 18th century, the area was scarcely populated, while there was a plenty of place for high-yield paddy fields in the fertile Kaladan and Lemro River Valleys. So the British policy was to encourage the Bengali inhabitants from the adjacent areas to migrate into these fertile valleys of Arakan as agriculturalists. The British East India Company extended the administration of Bengal to Arakan as, there was no international boundary between the two countries and no restriction was imposed on the emigration.
At first, most of them came as seasonal agricultural laborers and went home after the harvest was done. R. B. Smart estimated the number at about twenty-five thousand during the crop-reaping season alone.2 This is also because the colonial administration of India regarded the Bengalis as amenable subjects, while finding the indigenous Arakanese too defiant, rising in rebellion twice in 1830s. The flow of Chittagonian labor provided the main impetus to the economic development in Arakan and within a few decades along with the opening of regular commercial shipping lines between Chittagong and Akyab became an economic success.
The arable land expanded to four and a half times between 1830 and 1852 and Akyab, became one of the major rice exporting cities in the world. Indeed, during a century of colonial rule, the Chittagonian immigrants became the numerically dominant ethnic group in the Mayu Frontier. That is the origin of the Mujahid or the Bengali Immigrants.
The crucial aspect of these Mujahid is that in the period of the independence movement in Burma in 1920s and 1930s the Muslims from the Mayu Frontier were more concerned with the progress of Muslim League in India. This clearly proved that their mentality is not with the Union of Burma but rather with the Muslims of India and from this thesis alone they did not qualify in the ethnic nationalities of the Union of Burma. But the most important point in their history with Burma is that before the beginning of the Second World War a political party, Jami-a-tul Ulema-e Islam was founded under the guidance of the Islamic scholars. Islam became the ideological basis of the party. 3
During the early post-war years both Arakanese and Bengali Muslims in the Mayu Frontier looked at each other with distrust. Relations between the Muslim Mujahid and the Arakanese have historically been tense. The ethnic violence between Arakanese Buddhists and those Muslim Chittagonians brought a great deal of bloodshed to Arakan during the World War II and after 1948, in the opening decade of independent Burma.
As the British Labor Government promised independence for Burma, some Muslims were haunted by the specter of their future living under the infidel rule in the place where the baneful Arakanese are also living. In 1946 a delegation was sent by the Jami-atul Ulema-e Islam to Ali Jina in Karachi (founder of Pakistan) to discuss with the leaders of the Muslim League, the possibility of incorporation of Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Ratheedaung townships into the then East Pakistan now Bangladesh.
This also clearly proved that the Mujahid/Rohingya have no inclination to be in the Union of Burma and is not one of the ethnic tribes of the Union. When Burma became independent in 1948, the Mujahid engaged in armed attacks in an unsuccessful effort to have the northern part of the state join East Pakistan. 4 But the British ignored their proposal to detach the frontier area to award it to Pakistan.
The failure of their attempts ended in an armed revolt, with some Muslims, declaring a holy war Jihard on the young new Republic of the Union of Burma. A guerrilla army of 2700 fighters was organized. 5 But in the long run they could not match the Arakanese and the Burmese army and in 1950s Prime Minister U Nu declares that if his party win he would grants them a concession and recognize them as an indigenous group so that the Immigrants voted for him but soon they lost their political and constitutional identity when the military coup came in 1962. The first Military government of General Ne Win promulgated the Citizenship Act of Burma in 1982. This effectively denied the Mujahid recognition of their status as an ethnic minority group. As a sign of peaceful disobedience these Mujahids deliberately refuse to speak any Burmese or Arakanese language. The conclusion is that both the ethno-democratic forces composed of other ethnic nationalities and the Junta forces refuse to recognize them.6 The word Rohingya came into use in the 1950s by the educated Bengali residents who were the second or third generations of the Bengali immigrants from the Chittagong District in modern Bangladesh; this is to differentiate them from the existing Muslim communities inside Arakan, who are living peacefully with their Arakanese Buddhist brethren even before the state was absorbed into British India. Most of the poor uneducated Mujahid farmers, who faced the brunt of the ethnic cleansing policy of the Junta scarcely even knows that he was called a Rohingya.
In the past three decades, there have been significant migrations, forced and voluntary, of Mujahid to neighboring Bangladesh. In 1977, in response to the military governments attempt to identify illegal immigrants, some 200,000 group members sought refuge in Bangladesh. While most of them subsequently returned, in 1981-82 there was another exodus as Rangoon implemented a new citizenship law that required residents to prove that they have lived in the country since 1824. In the mid to late 1990s, further migrations to Bangladesh occurred, many of which were reportedly due to forcible expulsions by the Junta. From a high of 250,000 Mujahids in Bangladeshi refugee camps in the early 1990s, there were some 20,000 left by the end of 2000 after the rest had returned to Burma. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has financially supported the camps.
The Mujahid faced many demographic stresses such as deteriorating public health conditions, declining caloric intake, dispossession from their land, and internal resettlement as a result of government policies. During the 1998-2000 periods, thousands of villagers were evicted in order to transform their rice fields into poppy plantations. Further, some of the land that belonged to Mujahidin Bangladeshi refugee camps was turned over to the local Arakanese.
At the time of this writing, about one million Mujahid live in the north western parts of Burma, near the Bangladesh border. Hundreds of thousands of Mujahid are currently living in neighbouring Bangladesh, where they are unwanted refugees. Mujahid women like any other ethnic race in Burma are frequently subject to sexual abuse and rape by Tatmadaw soldiers. Reportedly, Burmas military continues to commit atrocities against the civilian population. As such, desperate Mujahids pour across the borders into Bangladesh every year.
As far as Bangladesh is concerned is that after providing shelter to the Mujahid for nearly three decades, it is now concerned about the annual increase in their numbers. Apart from being an economic burden, the Mujahid involvement in insurgent activities along the Burma-Bangladesh border is feared by the government. Hence to reduce the influx, the government has declared that it will no more consider any asylum seeker as refugee. Anti- Mujahid communities in Bangladesh have also pressurized the government to repatriate the Mujahid. Bangladesh never signed any kind of international act, convention or law for allowing and giving shelter to refugees, Thats why we are not bound to provide shelter to the Rohingyas. was said by its Foreign Minister Dipu Moni.
Illegal Chinese in Burma
The immediate problem where both legal and illegal immigration is concerned is the Chinese in the east and not so much Bangladeshis in the West. A rough estimate put that there are more than 4 million Chinese immigrants in Burma so much so that Mandalay, the second capital of Burma is called 2nd Beijing as most of the business area and the city has been taken over by the Chinese while the locals have moved to the suburbs. This does not included the illegal Chinese coming across the border areas posing as ethnic nationalities. So why did the Tatmadaw did create this Mujahid problem when it tried its level best to placate the local outburst against the Chinese? The Burmese saying of (ukvm; r Edkif&cdkif rJ) not being able to conquer Kalar beat up the Rakhine was skillfully turned into (w&kwfrEdkifukvm;rJ ) being unable to tackle the Chinese turned on to Kalar.
Will the Thein Sein Administration ever challenge the illegal Chinese as many of them have become local quarters and township chairman? The Burmese army is too afraid to tackle on the Chinese, as it has to depend on them not only arms and ammunition but also the diplomatic support without which all of them would now be standing trial in Hague. The Generals security came first then the security of Burma. But at the same time they know the real situation and to tackle this Chinese problem it must get the Western support and this is the main reason of letting Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD to come back to the political field. Naturally, the resource hungry West falls into this trap.
So the only hope is that if the Lady wins the election in 2015 with a wide margin other than the army generals then she would be in a position to solve this problem once and for all with a Win Win situation
The country is heading for democracy, equality, free trade and probably federal type with the 2nd Panglong Conference and all its citizens can chose to reside anywhere else in the country provided they respect the local laws and authority. Full Stop. But not the aliens. Since there is much influx of Chinese, the government can confine them to Western Burma where now the majority of the Mujahid resides, this is feasible as China is constructing a fast railroad with the gas pipe line schedule to complete in 2013-14. Confined these China-men to that area of the Rohingya. Then send all these so call Mujahid/Rohingyas to the eastern part of Burma where there are lots of land with a favourable weather and they can eke out their lives there.(as a matter of fact Chinas top legislature passed a new exit and entry law on June 30 which stipulates harsher punishments for illegal entry, stay or employment of foreigners).
Of course these Chinese and Mujahids must be issued with a special ID card and compel them to respect the local Burmese laws and customs. If anyone refused to go along with this order then he must be persecuted according to law and finally deported to the country of its origin. In this way it will stop the illegal immigrants entering the country by fair or foul means. Just by looking at the features of the person one can pin point that he is an illegal immigrant from China if found in the Mujahid area or Bangali in Chinese dominated area. We will have to take drastic action once caught. This will solve the problem at least for half a century until their children got married to each other or the local population.
They will find it be very hard to implement their peaceful colonization of Burma, somewhat like Tibet when their long term goal is that Burma to be 6th autonomous regions of China.10 Indeed their old map indicates that China owns all the territories East of the Salween river.
Burma: Killing Two Birds With A Stone Or A Win, Win Situation - OpEd Eurasia Review
When the British occupied Arakan in the 18th century, the area was scarcely populated, while there was a plenty of place for high-yield paddy fields in the fertile Kaladan and Lemro River Valleys. So the British policy was to encourage the Bengali inhabitants from the adjacent areas to migrate into these fertile valleys of Arakan as agriculturalists. The British East India Company extended the administration of Bengal to Arakan as, there was no international boundary between the two countries and no restriction was imposed on the emigration.
At first, most of them came as seasonal agricultural laborers and went home after the harvest was done. R. B. Smart estimated the number at about twenty-five thousand during the crop-reaping season alone.2 This is also because the colonial administration of India regarded the Bengalis as amenable subjects, while finding the indigenous Arakanese too defiant, rising in rebellion twice in 1830s. The flow of Chittagonian labor provided the main impetus to the economic development in Arakan and within a few decades along with the opening of regular commercial shipping lines between Chittagong and Akyab became an economic success.
The arable land expanded to four and a half times between 1830 and 1852 and Akyab, became one of the major rice exporting cities in the world. Indeed, during a century of colonial rule, the Chittagonian immigrants became the numerically dominant ethnic group in the Mayu Frontier. That is the origin of the Mujahid or the Bengali Immigrants.
The crucial aspect of these Mujahid is that in the period of the independence movement in Burma in 1920s and 1930s the Muslims from the Mayu Frontier were more concerned with the progress of Muslim League in India. This clearly proved that their mentality is not with the Union of Burma but rather with the Muslims of India and from this thesis alone they did not qualify in the ethnic nationalities of the Union of Burma. But the most important point in their history with Burma is that before the beginning of the Second World War a political party, Jami-a-tul Ulema-e Islam was founded under the guidance of the Islamic scholars. Islam became the ideological basis of the party. 3
During the early post-war years both Arakanese and Bengali Muslims in the Mayu Frontier looked at each other with distrust. Relations between the Muslim Mujahid and the Arakanese have historically been tense. The ethnic violence between Arakanese Buddhists and those Muslim Chittagonians brought a great deal of bloodshed to Arakan during the World War II and after 1948, in the opening decade of independent Burma.
As the British Labor Government promised independence for Burma, some Muslims were haunted by the specter of their future living under the infidel rule in the place where the baneful Arakanese are also living. In 1946 a delegation was sent by the Jami-atul Ulema-e Islam to Ali Jina in Karachi (founder of Pakistan) to discuss with the leaders of the Muslim League, the possibility of incorporation of Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Ratheedaung townships into the then East Pakistan now Bangladesh.
This also clearly proved that the Mujahid/Rohingya have no inclination to be in the Union of Burma and is not one of the ethnic tribes of the Union. When Burma became independent in 1948, the Mujahid engaged in armed attacks in an unsuccessful effort to have the northern part of the state join East Pakistan. 4 But the British ignored their proposal to detach the frontier area to award it to Pakistan.
The failure of their attempts ended in an armed revolt, with some Muslims, declaring a holy war Jihard on the young new Republic of the Union of Burma. A guerrilla army of 2700 fighters was organized. 5 But in the long run they could not match the Arakanese and the Burmese army and in 1950s Prime Minister U Nu declares that if his party win he would grants them a concession and recognize them as an indigenous group so that the Immigrants voted for him but soon they lost their political and constitutional identity when the military coup came in 1962. The first Military government of General Ne Win promulgated the Citizenship Act of Burma in 1982. This effectively denied the Mujahid recognition of their status as an ethnic minority group. As a sign of peaceful disobedience these Mujahids deliberately refuse to speak any Burmese or Arakanese language. The conclusion is that both the ethno-democratic forces composed of other ethnic nationalities and the Junta forces refuse to recognize them.6 The word Rohingya came into use in the 1950s by the educated Bengali residents who were the second or third generations of the Bengali immigrants from the Chittagong District in modern Bangladesh; this is to differentiate them from the existing Muslim communities inside Arakan, who are living peacefully with their Arakanese Buddhist brethren even before the state was absorbed into British India. Most of the poor uneducated Mujahid farmers, who faced the brunt of the ethnic cleansing policy of the Junta scarcely even knows that he was called a Rohingya.
In the past three decades, there have been significant migrations, forced and voluntary, of Mujahid to neighboring Bangladesh. In 1977, in response to the military governments attempt to identify illegal immigrants, some 200,000 group members sought refuge in Bangladesh. While most of them subsequently returned, in 1981-82 there was another exodus as Rangoon implemented a new citizenship law that required residents to prove that they have lived in the country since 1824. In the mid to late 1990s, further migrations to Bangladesh occurred, many of which were reportedly due to forcible expulsions by the Junta. From a high of 250,000 Mujahids in Bangladeshi refugee camps in the early 1990s, there were some 20,000 left by the end of 2000 after the rest had returned to Burma. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has financially supported the camps.
The Mujahid faced many demographic stresses such as deteriorating public health conditions, declining caloric intake, dispossession from their land, and internal resettlement as a result of government policies. During the 1998-2000 periods, thousands of villagers were evicted in order to transform their rice fields into poppy plantations. Further, some of the land that belonged to Mujahidin Bangladeshi refugee camps was turned over to the local Arakanese.
At the time of this writing, about one million Mujahid live in the north western parts of Burma, near the Bangladesh border. Hundreds of thousands of Mujahid are currently living in neighbouring Bangladesh, where they are unwanted refugees. Mujahid women like any other ethnic race in Burma are frequently subject to sexual abuse and rape by Tatmadaw soldiers. Reportedly, Burmas military continues to commit atrocities against the civilian population. As such, desperate Mujahids pour across the borders into Bangladesh every year.
As far as Bangladesh is concerned is that after providing shelter to the Mujahid for nearly three decades, it is now concerned about the annual increase in their numbers. Apart from being an economic burden, the Mujahid involvement in insurgent activities along the Burma-Bangladesh border is feared by the government. Hence to reduce the influx, the government has declared that it will no more consider any asylum seeker as refugee. Anti- Mujahid communities in Bangladesh have also pressurized the government to repatriate the Mujahid. Bangladesh never signed any kind of international act, convention or law for allowing and giving shelter to refugees, Thats why we are not bound to provide shelter to the Rohingyas. was said by its Foreign Minister Dipu Moni.
Illegal Chinese in Burma
The immediate problem where both legal and illegal immigration is concerned is the Chinese in the east and not so much Bangladeshis in the West. A rough estimate put that there are more than 4 million Chinese immigrants in Burma so much so that Mandalay, the second capital of Burma is called 2nd Beijing as most of the business area and the city has been taken over by the Chinese while the locals have moved to the suburbs. This does not included the illegal Chinese coming across the border areas posing as ethnic nationalities. So why did the Tatmadaw did create this Mujahid problem when it tried its level best to placate the local outburst against the Chinese? The Burmese saying of (ukvm; r Edkif&cdkif rJ) not being able to conquer Kalar beat up the Rakhine was skillfully turned into (w&kwfrEdkifukvm;rJ ) being unable to tackle the Chinese turned on to Kalar.
Will the Thein Sein Administration ever challenge the illegal Chinese as many of them have become local quarters and township chairman? The Burmese army is too afraid to tackle on the Chinese, as it has to depend on them not only arms and ammunition but also the diplomatic support without which all of them would now be standing trial in Hague. The Generals security came first then the security of Burma. But at the same time they know the real situation and to tackle this Chinese problem it must get the Western support and this is the main reason of letting Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD to come back to the political field. Naturally, the resource hungry West falls into this trap.
So the only hope is that if the Lady wins the election in 2015 with a wide margin other than the army generals then she would be in a position to solve this problem once and for all with a Win Win situation
The country is heading for democracy, equality, free trade and probably federal type with the 2nd Panglong Conference and all its citizens can chose to reside anywhere else in the country provided they respect the local laws and authority. Full Stop. But not the aliens. Since there is much influx of Chinese, the government can confine them to Western Burma where now the majority of the Mujahid resides, this is feasible as China is constructing a fast railroad with the gas pipe line schedule to complete in 2013-14. Confined these China-men to that area of the Rohingya. Then send all these so call Mujahid/Rohingyas to the eastern part of Burma where there are lots of land with a favourable weather and they can eke out their lives there.(as a matter of fact Chinas top legislature passed a new exit and entry law on June 30 which stipulates harsher punishments for illegal entry, stay or employment of foreigners).
Of course these Chinese and Mujahids must be issued with a special ID card and compel them to respect the local Burmese laws and customs. If anyone refused to go along with this order then he must be persecuted according to law and finally deported to the country of its origin. In this way it will stop the illegal immigrants entering the country by fair or foul means. Just by looking at the features of the person one can pin point that he is an illegal immigrant from China if found in the Mujahid area or Bangali in Chinese dominated area. We will have to take drastic action once caught. This will solve the problem at least for half a century until their children got married to each other or the local population.
They will find it be very hard to implement their peaceful colonization of Burma, somewhat like Tibet when their long term goal is that Burma to be 6th autonomous regions of China.10 Indeed their old map indicates that China owns all the territories East of the Salween river.
Burma: Killing Two Birds With A Stone Or A Win, Win Situation - OpEd Eurasia Review
