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Shedding light on the global refugee crisis

WUSC Ryerson launches lunch-and-learn series with discussion of the Rohingya people
By: Will Sloan
October 03, 2017
From left: Khin Yadanar Phyu and Adela Zyfi

Photo: Ryerson student Khin Yadanar Phyu (left, with WUSC Ryerson Local Committee Chair, Adela Zyfi) discussed the plight of the persecuted Rohingya people in Myanmar at the October 2 event.

We have all heard of the global crisis that has uprooted 66.5 million people around the world. We have all heard of the 12 million who have fled their homes in Syria and the seven million who have fled their homes in Colombia. But how many of us know about the Rohingya—a Muslim-majority ethnic group who are persecuted in the majority-Buddhist country of Myanmar (Burma)?

On October 2, Khin Yadanar Phyu, a Rohingya student in biomedical science at Ryerson, delivered a presentation on campus about the plight of her people—over 436,000 of whom have fled to Bangladesh since August 2017. It was the first of a series of lunch-and-learn events about the global refugee crisis held by World University Services Canada (WUSC) Ryerson (external link) , which is a program offered by International Student Support (ISS), Student Life. WUSC is a Canadian non-profit organization that provides education, employment and empowerment opportunities for youth around the world. Ryerson is a participant in WUSC’s Student Refugee Program.  Since 2009, WUSC Ryerson has hosted 10 WUSC scholars who arrived under this program and supported their transition and resettlement to Canada and Ryerson.

“The international community has been condemning and condemning and condemning since 2012,” said Phyu to the audience at POD 250. “They say that Myanmar is forming into a democracy, and they say that Rohingyas are a kind of obstacle that Burma has to overcome. But we are people—we are human beings with flesh and blood. … Just for Burma to gain democracy, we cannot give our lives.”

Phyu traced the history of oppression back to the military dictatorship of Ne Win, who scapegoated Rohingyas for the country’s ills. The Rohingyas were systematically stripped of their rights: disenfranchisement, loss of free speech, inability to own property or business, and no access to higher education. The propaganda campaign has also led to daily suffering inflicted upon Rohingyas from all strata of Myanmar society: citing one example, Phyu recounted that doctors and hospital staff will also deliberately infect Rohingyas by using the same needles used to treat HIV and hepatitis sufferers. “I told [my relatives], ‘If you have a fever, if you feel unhealthy, don’t go to the hospitals, don’t go to the clinics. You will be better off by yourself.’”

The genocide began in 2012 after the Rakhine State riots—sectarian disputes between Muslims and Buddhists in the western coastal state, which has Myanmar’s highest Muslim population. Phyu noted that violent incidents were triggered and stoked by the military and government, with riots and military actions that have led to the destruction of villages and historic mosques, and the torture, rape, and murder of thousands of Rohingyas (including children). On August 25, in response to a Rohingya rebel attack, the military’s “clearance operations” have left over 1,000 people dead and hundreds of thousands more displaced.

“The Myanmar government is not allowing even journalists to enter Myanmar,” said Phyu. “I hope some miracle will happen and we’ll be able to help the people who remain in Myanmar, but right now the only thing that we can do to pressure Myanmar is to create safe zones and safe areas—and on an individual level, to just pray.”

On an individual level, she called on Ryersonians to volunteer for organizations related to Rohingyan issues, and to do whatever they could to raise awareness. “The reason that I’m alive here today is because someone created awareness. Someone told the story of my family to some Canadians here. That’s the reason I’m alive. It is at least better than staying silent.

“We have seen genocide in history before—genocide in Rwanda, in Bosnia, in the Holocaust. There is another genocide happening, and if we keep on waiting and we keep on saying nothing, we will be remembered in history as people who stand by and watch genocide,” said Phyu.

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