海角大神

Fatima is on an emotional rollercoaster. A Rohingya Muslim, an ethnic group that has been steadily marginalized for years, she lives in a bamboo hut in a camp for displaced persons. She moved here after being forced out of her nearby home in 2012 during a anti-Muslim pogrom by militant Buddhists.

Last year Fatima鈥檚 two brothers, Wali Ullah and Ruhollah, and her brother-in-law Rafiq, set off for Malaysia by boat. They were tired of persecution and of living without freedom to move, and without citizenship. Then human traffickers promised them jobs and safety in Malaysia.

So like some 88,000 refugees and migrants over the past year, the trio set off on an arduous ocean voyage. Not long after, one brother called Fatima from Thailand saying all three were imprisoned in a camp run by traffickers and that she needed to raise money for their release. "They wanted $1,635 for each," says Fatima, who goes by one name.聽

The three young men were beaten but managed to escape and recently made it to the Malaysian capital.聽

Fatima鈥檚 family, like almost all of the Rohingya in this camp, were driven out of nearby Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, which borders Bangladesh. The violence was tacitly backed by state security services.聽

Leaders of the Rohingya community describe an atmosphere of desperation that led to the recent surge of sailings that left thousands adrift on the ocean last month in crowded boats.聽State authorities are 鈥渆ncouraging human traffickers, to evacuate all the Rohingya from this land,鈥� says Kyaw Hla Aung, a Rohingya who served for 24 years as a judge in Rakhine's highest court, an unthinkable position for a Rohingya to attain today.

Denied citizenship

Indeed, the conditions of Rohingya in Myanmar are severe: since 1982, they have been denied citizenship,聽partly on the grounds that they fall outside of the 135 鈥渘ational races鈥� the government deems 鈥渋ndigenous.鈥� A recent census of Myanmar's 51.5 million people didn't permit the identification of Rohingya, whose population is estimated to exceed one million.聽

Rohingya are subject to severe restrictions on their freedom of movement. Even to use the term 鈥淩ohingya鈥� is taboo in Myanmar. The government refers to them as 鈥淏engalis,鈥� implying origins in neighboring Bangladesh, despite the fact that many can trace their ancestry in the country for generations.

Their persecution has drawn criticism from global moral leaders, including聽a set of Nobel laureates including the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

In Fatima鈥檚 camp, residents can鈥檛 leave without permission from authorities. With no running water or electricity, and with inadequate access to food aid and healthcare, life is far worse than before the pogroms in Sittwe, they say.

Rakhine is Myanmar鈥檚 second-poorest state, despite vast offshore natural gas reserves. And聽the聽separation between Muslims and Buddhists in the Sittwe area is almost absolute, with Buddhists asserting a distinct cultural identity and history.聽

鈥淢y features, my complexion, my religion, my style of living, are quite different from theirs,鈥� says Shwe Maung, a central committee member of the Arakan [Rakhine] National Party, which represents the Buddhist majority.聽

鈥淭here are groups within the ethnic Buddhist Rakhine community that clearly feel threatened by the presence of the Rohingya,鈥� says Phil Robertson, deputy director for Asia at Human Rights Watch. 鈥淭his sense of siege is also driven by the antipathy that the Rakhine feel鈥� towards Myanmar's ethnic Burman majority, which is also Buddhist.聽

Fear of colonization

Mr. Maung wants more of Rakhine's energy wealth to accrue to his constituency. He claims that聽the 鈥淏engalis鈥� intend to 鈥淚slamize鈥� and colonize Rakhine. He repeats a widespread belief that a steady flow of Bangladeshis are crossing into Myanmar and could one day bring 鈥渢he extinction of our (Buddhist) nationality.鈥�

Not so, argues Mr. Robertson.聽鈥淭his is one of the many myths that the ethnic Rakhine have about the Rohingya that they repeat enough [to] convince themselves鈥� [that it] is true when it is clearly not,鈥� he said.

Mr. Kyaw, the former judge, says Rohingya collectively feel their future is at risk because of the government's policy. 鈥淔or three years now, the children have not had access to education, and there is [widespread] illiteracy,鈥� he says. Because Rohingya children are not learning the Rakhine or Burmese languages, he said, the community鈥檚 isolation is only increasing.聽

Nor has the discovery last month of mass graves of Rohingya at abandoned camps along border between Thailand and Malaysia brought a sunnier prospect. While Thai and Malaysian authorities have cracked down, the factors that led to the exodus from Myanmar in the first place remain.

This desperation, combined with the traffickers鈥� empty promises, drove Noor Jahan鈥檚 10-year-old son, Hussein Ahmed, to disappear in the middle of the night four months ago. He hasn鈥檛 been heard from since.

Like many camp residents, she is convinced that the government and the Rohingya administrators it has appointed to lead the camps have intentionally allowed the traffickers to flourish.

鈥淐amp leaders are not doing anything 鈥� their sons aren鈥檛 leaving. That鈥檚 why they鈥檙e satisfied,鈥� she said. 鈥淥ur children can leave because the government isn鈥檛 stopping it from happening.鈥�