FCCT Panel Answers the Question “Who are Rohingyas?”

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. Bangkok. May 23, 2012. Nobody wants them. They are stateless. All three million of them. They are an ethnic, linguistic and Sunni Muslim minority group living in Burma (1,500,000 million) and the rest scattered in Bangladesh refugee camps, Malaysia and other Asian countries, including Thailand. Wherever they are, they are denied citizenship and are considered the lowest of the low. Although the Rohingyas have resided in Burma for generations, they have systematically been excluded from the life of the country. They flee Burma and Bangladesh because of human rights abuses, which are the source of their problems. In 2009, boatloads of Rohingyas escaping from Burma landed in Thailand on their way to Malaysia. They are towed out to sea by the Thai navy and cast adrift to die, which many did. The story of the Rohingyas as presented by the FCCT panel of experts, was one of unrelenting gloom, as was the documentary film screened before the panel discussion. Although the Rohingyas, sadly, don't make the news very often, when they do, I will be more informed about this abused and downtrodden ethnic minority, whose plight is largely in the hands of human rights organizations and private support groups, such as the Burmese Rohingya Association in Thailand, whose president was a panel member.