TopCat
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We should be quite conscious that the current Rohingya issue has a long history and had its root cause from the British colonial period. While we are sympathetic to the misery of common people (including Rohingya Muslim, Rohingya Hindu and Arakanese), it is more than just a humanitarian issue.
International historians generally agree that while there has been continuous people movement in the past (maybe going both ways depending on how far you look back), mostly modern Rohingya people migrated into Arakan during British colonial period of 19th and 20th centuries. This migration was encouraged by British India authority, facilitied by the merger of Arakan into Bengal presidency by the East India Company. It could be much discontent among locals, but the violence was rare under the British rule.
The WWII has been a key period when when the violence erupted between the Rohingya group, which was armed by British and was supposed to fight Japanese, and Rakhines, which was armed by Japanese. The tension and conflict were spread to wider Myanmar with the retreat of the British. The violence at much lower level probably has been ongoing since the independence of Myanmar.
The recent eruption of the crisis is a humanitarian crisis and tragedy for sure but it could become a lot worse when external players get involved. Just have a look at the countries seen “international intervention”. China together with India, who also is quite conscious it is not in its best interest in seeing someone’s aircraft carriers and bombers in the neighborhood, had tried to keep the issue locally and not spin out of control.
Given how much Bangladesh economy is dependent on garment trade, one can be assured that when there is an armed conflict (to these who like to talk about a limited war), all international investment will be pulled out when the investors have any doubt about the security of their investment. 7% annual growth and upcoming LDC graduation will be a dream.
Why there were similar refugee crisis in 1784 when burmese kicked out 30% of native Mrak-U citizen to Bengal? Did british rule Arakan that time? How british could be a root cause of the problem in 1784?
It is the burmese rule which is the root cause. There were no problem when Arakan was independent or under British.