Caught in the Crosshairs of Hate: The Rohingya

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Caught in the Crosshairs of Hate: The Rohingya
A timeline of events that sealed the Rohingya’s fate

Timeline points centered, each year described in full. From top to bottom:

[Line 1] 1826- 1948: Internally displaced by droughts in the 1870s, 1880s, 1890s, 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, and a catastrophic cyclone in 1897, the Rohingya find themselves in Rakhine, Burma. A British census from 1911 puts the population of Muslims in Rakhine at 179,000

[Line 2] 1937: World War II breaks out. The Buddhist majority in Burma side with the Japanese, the Rohingya Muslim minority side with the British. Massacres in Rakhine leaves innumerable dead & displaced

[Line 3] 1943: The Bengal famine rips through the subcontinent killing 1 to 3 million, and displacing hundreds of thousands. The war enters its last years as both India & Burma vie for independence from the British

[Line 4] 1945: World War II ends

[Line 5] 1947: Partition splits the Indian subcontinent along religious lines. India and Pakistan are formed. Burma declares independence from the British in 1948 and becomes Myanmar

[Line 6] 1962: Military seizes power. The Constitution is abolished

[Line 7] 1982: The military government passes legislation that makes it impossible for the Rohingya to become citizens

[Line 8] 1990- 1991: Democratic elections put Aung San Suu Kyi in ‘power’. In 1991, Suu Kyi is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The same year, 250,000 Rohingya flee Myanmar to escape forced labor, rape, and religious persecution at the hands of the army

[Line 9] 2000- 2012: Anti- Rohingya animus in Myanmar reaches boiling point. Riots leave Rohingya dead in 2000, 2002, 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2015. Islamophobia emerges as an exclusionary tool along with the rise of right wing Buddhist nationalism in Myanmar

[Line 10] 2016: ARSA attacks Myanmar military outpost in Rakhine, killing 12. The army retaliates, killing over 6,400 Rohingya in under one month, razing villages to the ground, and displacing 700,000 men, women and children

[Line 11] 2018: 700,000 Rohingya find themselves in Bangladesh in the largest refugee camp in the world, unwanted by both Myanmar & Bangladesh. To date, no military personnel or politician in Myanmar has been held accountable for genocide