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Ambia Perveen was only five years old when she left Myanmar. She belongs to a family of Rohingyas, Myanmar native natives of Buddhist majority. The 38-year-old Telegraph confided by email: "I've been labeled" kalar " [a Myanmarese racial slur used for immigrants] even by my teachers. "
"Kalar" is a term equivalent to Negro, says Ro Nay San Lwin, who grew up in Buthidaung City, Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar. Lwin is also a Rohingya and lived in Myanmar until 2001. He is 40 years old. His experience is not very different from that of Perveen. "We have been subjected to humiliation. Even neighborhoods and streets were not safe for us, "he says.
Perveen is based in Schleswig, Germany. Similarly, Lwin, although he does not reveal his location for security reasons. Both were fortunate enough to regain their lives after escaping discrimination and atrocities in their home country. And now, as a reward, they are trying to help more than 10 displaced Rohingya Lakhs who have fled to Bangladesh.
Lwin, who is a full-time activist, is campaigning for the "Protected Return to a Protected Homeland" plan, an initiative launched by Rohingya activists around the world. Perveen, pediatrician and child psychiatrist, urged the European Council to "provide a clear and unequivocal response" to the atrocities committed against the Rohingya by officially recognizing them as genocide. She also wants the European Union (EU) to put in place a trade embargo and temporarily freeze all EU projects in Myanmar until the government of Aung San Suu Kyi. accepts the Rohingya as citizens.
"We knocked on the door of the United Nations (UN) and the Western world. Even the UN Security Council has an abundance of evidence [to prove] that the government of Myanmar is persecuting the Rohingyas, "said Perveen, president of the Rohingya European Council, an organization established in Denmark in 2012.
Tun Khin, based in London, born and raised in Rohingya-dominated Arakan state and witnessed atrocities, set up the Burmese Rohingya Organization in the United Kingdom with the death penalty. other, in 2005. Its purpose: to inform the world about human rights violations in Myanmar. He has since informed the US Congress, the Swedish Parliament, the European Commission and the United Nations Human Rights Council of the misery of his community. "Our goal is to find a permanent solution … instead of just talking about repatriation," says Khin, who was forced to leave Myanmar in 1997.
Human rights violations against the Rohingyas began in the mid-1970s. They were subjected to repression, rape, torture, arson and killings. the security forces of Myanmar. In 1982, lakhs became stateless when a nationality law excluded them from the list of communities considered "indigenous." This decision limited their access to education and health services. They lost their right to vote and to practice their religion freely. Subsequently, many refugees fled to Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Thailand and Saudi Arabia.
Perveen states that there is ample historical evidence that the Rohingyas are former inhabitants of Arakan. Their existence dates back to 700-800 AD. She tries to hold this story in front of the rest of the world.
The story says that many Arab ships were destroyed near Ramree Island, in Rakhine State – the first name of the province of Arakan, in the west. of Myanmar – during the reign of Mahataing Sanda (788-810 AD). The crew and traders were Muslim and they were sent to Arakan, where they finally settled. According to the British-Burmese repertoires of 1879, many dargahs were found along the coast of Arakan. There was other evidence showing that Arakan Muslims were mostly descendants of slaves captured by the Arakanese kings. Muslim prisoners and slaves from Bengal and northern India were also brought to Arakan to serve as mercenaries in the Arakan army.
The term "Rohingya" can be found in a research conducted in 1779 by Francis Buchanan, British doctor, researcher and traveler.
Until the early 1970s, some Rohingyas held important positions in the Myanmar legislature. Lwin's great-grandfather was a member of the Constituent Assembly and Khin's grandfather was a parliamentary secretary. According to Perveen, there were radio programs in the Rohingya language until the mid-1960s.
Perveen's family lived in Yangon, where his father worked in a government-owned factory. She recalls, "Once we went to visit my grandmother in the state of Arakan, the government never allowed us to return to Yangon. They did not allow my father to continue his work. We had to leave the country. We first went to Bangladesh, then Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and then Germany. Lwin's parents worked in the Department of Education. "There was no promotion for the Rohingyas in government jobs. Sometimes teachers boycotted children. We were strangers in our own country, "said Lwin. Rohingya activists claim that more than 3.5 Lakh Rohingyas still live in camps in the state of Arakan.
As life became difficult in Myanmar, Lwin's father moved to Saudi Arabia in 1993. In 2001, Lwin began working in Saudi Arabia. In 2007, his Burmese citizenship was abandoned. In 2011, he got political asylum in Germany. He is now coordinator of the international group Free Rohingya Coalition.
Lwin visited Rohingya camps in Bangladesh earlier this year. He says, "We try to facilitate formal education for children; they must not languish in the camps forever. Perveen and her two sisters, Anita and Yasmin, both doctors, will soon be visiting the Rohingya camps.
More than 10 lakh Rohingyas, chased from their home country by the Myanmar Army between 2012 and 2017, live in camps in Bangladesh. Faced with international pressure, Myanmar has signed a repatriation pact with Bangladesh, but the process that was to start in January has not started yet.
In April, the Myanmar army took over a Rohingya family, but charges were reported against her as spies of the armed forces in the Cox's Bazar refugee camps in Bangladesh. Now the Rohingyas are offered national verification cards – for foreigners.
When Myanmar's Minister of Social Affairs, Win Myat Aye, visited the Rohingyas at Kutupalong Camp in Cox's Bazar, their leaders presented him with a 13-point charter of demands. This included the abolition of the national verification card, citizenship and the closure of all IDP camps in Arakan and Sittwe.
Soe Thu Moe, a Saudi-based computer network engineer who manages aungaungsittwe.com, and Arakan-based blogger Aung Aung, have expanded their family in Kutupalong camp in Cox's Bazar. These days, he uses his website to publish Rohingya reports. "The idea is to make Myanmar a multicultural country. We do not want persecution of people based on race and religion, "said Moe, who left the city of Sittwe in 2002.
It seems that despite their distance from Myanmar to thousands of kilometers Rohingya continue to live in fear abroad. Lwin says that he does not like using his Muslim name for fear of being mistaken for a Bangladeshi Bengali. He was threatened by Burmese Buddhists.
But nothing can stop the diaspora from working for displaced people. "Our people have to stand up, that's the goal," says Lwin. Perveen is in agreement. "We want to empower our youth so that the next generation is not lost in the transition camps."
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