Rohingyas people are a Muslim ethnic minority. They live in the Burmese state of Arakan (Rakhine) located in the west of the country and adjacent to Bangladesh. They give way to the Buddhist Arakans, with whom they have been in hostile relations for several decades. Under the Act on Nationalities from 1982, the Government of Burma officially does not recognize the Rohingyas as a separate group. This stance was supported by the controversial and methodologically questionable official list of 135 "nations" of Burma, which eventually ruled out Rohingyas from the society. As an unrecognized ethnic group, they are treated by the Burmese government as illegal immigrants, and consequently on the land they have been living for generations, they remain stateless.
The Rohingyas persecution is systemic, and the last exodus, in which 630,000 Rohingyas fled from Burma to Bangladesh, is a recurring chord in the drama that has been going on for four decades.
On Friday, August 25, 2017, a group of partisans attacked police and army posts in Burma. 59 guerrillas and 12 members of burmese security forces were killed in the operation. The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a newly formed organization, led the attack, headed by a descendant of Aqman, Atta Ullah, born in Pakistan. At one moment, the specter of the pogrom spread over Rohingyas.
The retaliation of the Burmese forces led along with the support of the Buddhist villagers was immediate and conducted on a scale unprecedented for years. The Rohingyas villages were surrounded and shelled with mortars. Women were raped, adults and children were killed, people were beaten, their arms and legs were broken. All the settlements were set on fire, and were later equated with the ground. The assets, from rice to gold, have been looted. The Rohingyas, escaping to nearby Bangladesh, saved their lives. The attack was directed mainly at civilians and was referred to by the United Nations as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".
Here the next drama started for many families. Crowded with people, boats sunk and the land road was mined by Burmese forces. Those who succeeded found shelter in the newly created camps. According to ISCG estimates, there are currently around 834,000 refugees living in them. In two months, the hills turned into abstract "cities" reaching to the horizon. Exodus Rohingya has become one of the largest humanitarian disasters of the last 20 years in the world.
"Newcomers" is another edition of the documentary project "Rohingyas", which the author began in 2013. The project is a record of the history of the heroes and fates of the persecuted Rohingya community, cruelly ruled out from the society.
Text: dr Michał Lubina / Marcin Zaborowski