Number of Rohingya Muslims believed driven across the border amid a military crackdown dubbed “ethnic cleansing” with “genocidal intent” by the UN: 730,000.
Number of Rohingya Muslims believed to have falsely filled out applications to obtain National Registration Cards: 21
Guess which number has the government’s attention.
Immigration Minister Thein Shwe yesterday told reporters that the Ministry of Labor, Immigration and Population is launching an investigation to verify the applications of 21 individuals issued National Registration Cards (NRC) with the ‘wrong ethnicity’ in Northern Rakhine and figure out who wrongfully issued these NRCs.
The minister’s attention had been drawn to the apparent discrepancy by Buthidaung township MP Aung Thaung Shwe, who demanded the probe in a parliamentary session where he claimed the group in question are “Bengalis,” a pejorative name for the Rohingya, who are pretending to be Kaman Muslims in order to obtain NRCs.
Kamans are the only Muslim group recognized among Myanmar’s 135 legally recognized “national races,” a status not enjoyed by the Rohingya.
“[Rakhine Muslims] pretend to be Kaman people to get national ID cards, and Kaman people are in danger of becoming extinct,” Aung Thaung told parliament, according to the Myanmar Times, without presenting any further evidence of this danger to the Kamans.
That diatribe was enough, however, to see the probe launched.
“We investigated the documents at the township office and the district office to ensure the documents matched and to figure out why the NRCs were issued in the first place. Other than 21 individuals from 9 households, everyone else had strong evidence that they were Kaman Muslims,” Thein Shwe was quoted as saying by RFA Burmese.
The Kaman Muslims’ status is enshrined by the 1982 citizenship law, the same law that stripped Rohingya Muslims of their citizenship after their return to Myanmar after a mass exodus in 1978 following operation Naga Min, a military campaign drove 200,000 to 250,000 Rohingya Muslims into neighboring Bangladesh.
The recent issuance of NRCs to Kaman Muslims has drawn heavy criticism from local ethnic Rakhine communities, with legislators calling for action to be taken to verify the claims of applications to verify that they are actually Kaman.
In September, the Kaman National Progressive Party (KNPP) filed a complaint with the President’s Office and State Counselor’s Office, alleging that more than 3,000 NRCs designating the holders as ethnic Kaman were wrongly issued to Rohingya Muslims in Ramree Township’s Kyauk Ni Maw village in Northern Rakhine.
Aung Thaung Shwe, the MP who pushed for the probe, told RFA Burmese that this issue went beyond the issue of citizenship and that every recognized national race should come together to solve this issue.
“This goes beyond just citizenship; it is a national races issue. This [investigation] isn’t just being asked by the Rakhine, the Kaman are part of it too. The Kaman and the national races in the area are working together to ensure that those who shouldn’t be national races don’t become part of us,” he said, repeating fears of “fake Kamans” obtaining citizenship.
“If they are Kaman, they will become part of the national races. I am very worried, that’s why we are asking for this,” he added.
His worries come just a day after a new Reuters report detailed the numerous steps taken by the civilian government to make conditions on the ground such that a voluntary return by Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to their former homes in Rakhine state would be “impossible.”
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Watch today called on Myanmar to disband its latest Rakhine commission — tasked with investigating allegations of abuses in Rakhine State — because they are “unwilling to seriously investigate alleged grave crimes against ethnic Rohingya.”
The four-member commission has been routinely criticized for disregarding evidence, showing bias and rushing the evidence collection process without preparing a secure way for victims to come forward, HRW’s statement alleges.
On Dec. 12, Rosario Manalo, chair of the Rakhine Commission, said at a news conference that the commission had found no “evidence” to support allegations of human rights abuses in the first four months of their investigation.
