In the midst of global cultural change about human rights, not many groups seem to face more hardships than refugees from conflicted areas. One such group is the Rohingya from Myanmar (Burma). Know more about Myanmar first to understand the Rohingya people.
During Konbaung Dynasty, Myanmar was colonized by the British and was made a province of India. British colonization of Burma ended during WW II, but Japanese occupation began. Japanese Occupation ended with their surrender in 1945, and in 1948, Burma gained independence. However, their government was very unstable in the beginning. Aung San, a major figure during British and Japanese colonial rule, was assassinated, and there were multiple insurgencies throughout Burma. Burma initially accepted foreign aid, but American support for the increasing presence of Chinese military in Burma caused the government to reject foreign aid.
In 1962, a military coup changed the leadership. The new leader, Ne Win, took steps to take Burma into an isolated socialist state. He oppressed opposition to his coup with his military, often causing heavy casualties. For example, during a strike in Rangoon, the military open fired at the workers. Under this government in 1978, Operation Nagamin took place, that displaced 250,000 Rohingya refugees from the Arakan region.
In the late 1980s, Burma entered an economic depression, which caused another series of demonstrations against the regime and another series of violent repressions, and yet another coup was staged by a military general.
After the coup in 1991, Myanmar had an election, in which the democratic party won, but the results of the election was not followed and the military leadership still had the power. In 1992, the military again replaced its leadership, and the new leader let Aung San Suu Kyi, a prominent figure of democracy on and off of house arrest for a number of years. In 2007, Myanmar again had a demonstration and another violent oppression.
Things seemed to shift for the better in 2011 and 2012, when the military leadership took on reform and formed the National Human Rights Commission, and an election in 2015 got a Myanmar a non-military president for the first time since 1960s, and reform is on the way currently.
However, there are still great political unrest in the Myanmar government, and a large number of internal ethnic and religious conflicts, not to mention that their economy has also been crumbling.
Myanmar's recent history has had a theme: military leadership and rule by fear, and demonstrations that lead to violent oppressions that eventually lead to another coup. Because of this unstable but physically very powerful government has been the founding ground of the removal of Rohingya people from Arakan (Rakhine) region.
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