Operation Dragon King
Operation King Dragon | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the Rohingya insurgency in Western Myanmar | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Burma | Rohingya Patriotic Front | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Ne Win |
Muhammad Jafar Habib Muhammad Yunus Nurul Islam | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
1,000+[1] | 70[2] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
200,000–250,000 fled to Bangladesh[3] |
Operation King Dragon, also known as Operation Nagamin (Template:Lang-my) was a large scale military operation conducted by the Tatmadaw in northern Arakan, Burma (present-day northern Rakhine State, Myanmar), during the rule of General Ne Win.[4]
Officially, the operation was focused on the expulsion of Rohingya insurgents in the area,[5] who have been fighting for an independent Islamic state in the region for nearly three decades. However, other sources claim that the operation was directed against Rohingya refugees from the Bangladesh Liberation War.[6][7] This claim however, has also come into dispute, as other sources claim that they were in fact illegal immigrants.
The operation began on 6 February 1978, beginning in the village of Sakkipara in the Sittwe district, where there were mass arrests and torture of alleged collaborators and sympathisers of local insurgents. In the span of over three months, approximately 200,000 to 250,000 Muslims, mostly Rohingyas, fled to neighbouring Bangladesh,[3] where the government Bangladesh offered them shelter in makeshift camps. The United Nations recognised them as refugees and began a relief operation.
References
- ^ Yegar, Moshe (2002). "Between integration and secession: The Muslim communities of the Southern Philippines, Southern Thailand, and Western Burma/Myanmar". Lanham. Lexington Books. p. 37,38,44. ISBN 0739103563. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
- ^ Pho Kan Kaung (May 1992). The Danger of Rohingya. Myet Khin Thit Magazine No. 25. pp. 87–103.
- ^ a b Skutsch, Carl. Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities. Routledge. p. 128. ISBN 9781135193881. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
- ^ "Bangladesh Extremist Islamist Consolidation". by Bertil Lintner. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
- ^ Jihad: 'The ultimate thermonuclear bomb' by Pepe Escobar, Oct 2001, Asia Times.
- ^ On Je suis Rohingya [#4], History and Operation King Dragon
- ^ Bangladesh: The Plight of the Rohingya
See also