罗兴亚人 欧洲黑暗时刻在亚洲重现

On May 13 1939 the SS St Louis, a German ocean liner, set sail from Hamburg. On board were 915 Jewish refugees hoping to escape gathering oppression in Europe. There were dances and concerts aboard the luxury vessel and the indulgent captain permitted passengers to throw a tablecloth over an offending bust of Adolf Hitler. Two weeks later, the ship dropped anchor in Havana, pending what passengers, who had purchased Cuban visas, fully expected to be a warm reception. It was not to be. The Cuban authorities turned them away as, subsequently, did those of the US and Canada. The St Louis was obliged to return to Europe. An estimated quarter of its passengers ended up perishing in Nazi concentration camps.

1939年5月13日，德国远洋班轮“圣路易斯号”(SS St Louis)从汉堡起航。船上有915名犹太难民，他们希望逃离欧洲日益逼近的迫害。这艘豪华客轮上频频举办舞会和音乐会，宽宏大量的船长还允许乘客在令人不悦的阿道夫•希特勒(Adolf Hitler)半身像上盖上桌布。两周后，该船抵达古巴哈瓦那，已经购买了古巴签证的乘客们满心期待着热情的接待。结果并非如此。古巴当局拒绝他们入境，后来美国和加拿大有关部门也作出同样的决定。圣路易斯号被迫返回欧洲。据估计，其1/4的乘客最后死于纳粹集中营。

The St Louis story is served up as a shameful indictment of our forefathers. Yet 75 years later, something just as grotesque is playing out on the azure waters of the Andaman Sea (not to mention the Mediterranean). In the past few weeks, at least 6,000 refugees have been cut adrift in the ocean, refused entry by Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Some 300 have died this year, according to the UN. Dehydrated, emaciated and desperate, unless the situation changes rapidly, many more lives will be lost.

圣路易斯号的故事是对我们的祖先的指控，令人愧疚。然而76年后的今天，同样令人匪夷所思的事发生在湛蓝的安达曼海(Andaman Sea)，且不提地中海了。过去几周，至少6000名难民在海上随波逐流，被泰国、马来西亚和印尼拒绝入境。据联合国(UN)称，今年已有约300个难民死亡。尚存的难民们脱水、虚弱、绝望，除非形势迅速出现转变，否则将有更多人死亡。

For the Rohingya, the bulk of the refugees, there are echoes of the treatment of Jews in Europe. Many are fleeing refugee centres that have been compared to concentration camps. They are a Muslim minority in Myanmar and Bangladesh. In March the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide sent a mission to Myanmar, where up to 1m Rohingya live in Rakhine state. It found they had been “subject to dehumanisation through rampant hate speech, the denial of citizenship, and restrictions on freedom of movement”. Its report concluded that the Rohingya, at least 170 of whom died in mob violence in 2012, were at “grave risk of additional mass atrocities and even genocide”.

大多数难民都是罗兴亚人(Rohingya)，他们的遭遇令人联想起当年欧洲的犹太人。很多难民是从被比作集中营的难民中心逃出来的。他们是生活在缅甸和孟加拉国的一个穆斯林少数民族。今年3月，Simon-Skjodt防止种族灭绝中心(Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide)向缅甸派出一个代表团，缅甸的若开邦(Rakhine)居住着多达100万的罗兴亚人。该中心发现，他们“遭受着非人化待遇，包括猖獗的仇恨言论、得不到公民身份、迁徙自由受到限制”。该组织的报告得出结论认为，2012年至少有170人死于群体性暴力事件的罗兴亚人，面临着“更多大规模暴行甚至种族屠杀的严重风险”。

This conclusion may be premature. As Richard Horsey, a political analyst, points out, an organisation whose raison d’être is the prevention of genocide will tend to see things through that lens. Still, the conditions of the Rohingya — most of whom are denied citizenship by both Myanmar and Bangladesh — are deplorable and getting worse.

这个结论可能下得太早。正如政治分析人士理查德•霍西(Richard Horsey)所指出的，以防止种族灭绝为存在理由的组织，总会倾向于透过那样的棱镜看问题。话虽如此，罗兴亚人的处境——他们中的多数人得不到缅甸和孟加拉国公民身份——是悲惨的，而且正变得更糟。

Who are the Rohingya? Like any ethnically charged question, that is fiercely disputed. To the Buddhists who are the majority in Rakhine state, the dark-skinned Rohingya are interlopers from Bangladesh, referred to pejoratively as “Bengalis”. The Rakhine, who have a proud history of independence, are themselves a persecuted minority. Rohingya trace their origins in Rakhine back to the 15th century. Many others arrived in the British colonial period from 1825 when both Rakhine and Bengal were part of British India. In the second world war, the Rohingya fought with the British, while the Rakhine supported the Japanese who were fleetingly regarded as liberators. Bitterness from that period has lasted until this day.

谁是罗兴亚人？就像所有涉及种族的问题那样，这个问题也存在极大争议。对于在若开州占人口多数的佛教徒来说，皮肤黝黑的罗兴亚人是来自孟加拉国的外来者，他们轻蔑地称罗兴亚人为“孟加拉人”(Bengalis)。若开人对自己的独立史引以为豪，他们本身也是受迫害的少数民族。罗兴亚人在若开的起源可追溯到15世纪。还有很多罗兴亚人在始于1825年的英国殖民时期来到若开，那时若开和孟加拉都是英属印度的一部分。二战时期，罗兴亚人与英国人并肩战斗，而若开人则支持曾被短暂视为解放者的日本人。那个时期的仇恨延续至今。

Anti-Rohingya and anti-Muslim sentiment more generally has hardened since 2010, when the generals who had run Myanmar for decades slowly lifted their oppressive boot. More free speech has meant more hate speech, much of it directed at Muslims. In April, the government withdrew temporary identity cards after a backlash from Buddhists who did not want the Rohingya to vote. Now, without an official identity, most Rohingya are even more exposed to arbitrary arrest and curbs on movement that imperil their ability to make a living. The sense of hopelessness has pushed increasing numbers to flee.

自2010年统治缅甸数十年的将军们开始逐渐放松铁腕统治以来，反罗兴亚和反穆斯林情绪普遍抬头。更多的自由言论意味着更多的仇恨言论，其中很多都针对穆斯林。今年4月，政府收回了罗兴亚人的临时身份证，原因是不希望罗兴亚人拥有投票权的佛教徒发起抗议。如今，在没有官方身份的情况下，多数罗兴亚人更容易受到任意逮捕和限制行动，危及他们的谋生能力。绝望的感觉推动越来越多的罗兴亚人逃离缅甸。

The boats on which the Rohingya have escaped offer no dances or on-board entertainment. Now, cut adrift at sea, like the Jews on board the St Louis, the Rohingya have been refused entry to potential safe havens — although Malaysia and Indonesia have announced an offer of temporary shelter. With smuggling routes cut off — at least for the time being — it ought to be a relatively simple matter to rescue the 6,000 or so refugees still at sea and to find them a home.

罗兴亚人的船上显然没有舞会和船上娱乐活动。如今，在海上随波逐流的罗兴亚人就像当年圣路易斯号上的犹太人一样，被拒绝进入潜在的安全港——尽管马来西亚和印尼已宣布提供临时庇护。在偷渡路径被切断的情况下——至少现在是这样——解救6000来名仍在海上漂流的难民并安置他们，应该是相对简单的事。

That, of course, leaves the more intractable problem of whether Myanmar can reverse its blatantly discriminatory policies. When even Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s democratic icon, hesitates to use the term Rohingya for fear of offending her Buddhist constituents, there seems little prospect of that. Yet if nothing is done to alleviate the suffering of this blighted minority, comparisons with the Jews of 1930s Europe will look evermore apt.

当然，还有一个更加棘手的难题：缅甸能否扭转其公然歧视性的政策？就连该国的民主偶像昂山素季(Aung San Suu Kyi)也犹豫着不敢使用罗兴亚一词，担心这会冒犯她的佛教徒支持者，有鉴于此，这一点看起来希望渺茫。但是，如果不能有所作为、为这个遭受摧残的少数民族减轻苦难的话，与1930年代欧洲犹太人的遭遇进行对比将越来越贴切。