1st Edition 2020 | Page 13

ROHINGNYA The COVID-19 Refugees figures, including Desmond Tutu, a famous South African antiapartheid activist. Since then, the Rohingyas have been suffering for more than 50 years by this transnational criminal syndicate trafficking which is against all rights in humanity. According to Human Rights Experts, due to violence and involuntary prosecution, the Rohingnyas fled from Myanmar as well as Bagladesh nationals trying to reach others near countries such as Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. COVID-19 Refugees According to the United Nations of High Commissioner for Refugee (UNCHR), In 2012 until 2015, there were approximately 170,000 people who fled to Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand by sea during the three-year period. The following violence in Myanmar’ws Rakhine state left more than 100,000 Rohingyas internally displaced and confined into the concentration camps. The Rohingyan population were the earliest Muslim settlements in the Arakan region which began in the 7th-century. According to Syed Islam, This is due to the Arab traders back then who were started began converting the local Buddhist population to Islam by about 788 CE. The Arakan region is now known as the Rakhine state which is situated in the northern part of Myanmar. This is basically the place where the conflict had started between the Rohingnya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhist. How the Conflict Arise ? The conflict arises mainly from the religious and social differences between the Rakhine Buddhists and the Rohingya Muslims. During the World War 2, Rohingya Muslims, were allied with the British and promised a Muslim state in return, so they fought against local Rakhine Buddhists, who were allied with the Japanese. After independence in 1948, the newly formed union government of the predominantly Buddhist country denied citizenship to the Rohingyas, subjecting them to extensive discrimination in the country. This has been widely compared to apartheid by many international academics, analysts, and political SASARAN EDISI 82 13