The recent
inter-ethnic riots between Rakhine and Rohingya communities in Myanmar
highlight some of the major human security issues the country must face as it
embarks on democratization and peace-building processes.
While there are no questions asked about the citizenship
of 135 officially recognized ethnic groups across Myanmar, the majority of
which straddle the country's borderlands with India, Bangladesh, China and
Thailand, the Rohingya are viewed by the state as outsiders.
The Rohingya have lived in the border region between
Bangladesh and Myanmar for generations, but as the aftermath of the riots
shows, Myanmar citizens - elites and commoners alike – hold little sympathy for
their stateless plight.
A typical post-colonial "indigene-settler"
dispute exists in Rakhine state. The Buddhist Rakhines consider themselves as
the original inhabitants of the land and perceive the Muslim Rohingya as
"Bengali settlers". The Rohingya make conflicting historical claims
to their rights as Myanmar citizens.
The recent tensions between the two communities escalated
after the horrific rape and killing of a Rakhine girl in Kyat Ni Maw on May 28.
Photos of her brutalized corpse were disseminated on the Internet, shortly
after which news stations reported that three Rohingya were detained as
suspects in her murder.
This prompted hundreds of Rakhines to rally against the
crime in front of a police station and the local administrative agency of
Rakhine state. Days later, on June 3, a group of Rakhines turned to vigilante
justice when they reportedly killed nine Rohingya in a revenge attack on bus
passengers in Taung Kote, Rakhine state.
Angered by the local media's slanted reporting of the
murder and its provocative references to the Rohingya as kala, Rohingya in
Yangon staged their own protests.
Although the word kala derives from the Pali word meaning
"noble", it also means "black" in the Hindi language.The
term is associated with racist connotations in the Burmese language, and is
often used to refer to outsiders from the subcontinent, including Bangladeshis,
Indians, Nepalis, Sri Lankans and Pakistanis.
To Rohingya, being called kala is to deny their
historical connection to Rakhine state. The word "Rohingya" derives
from the word "Rakhine", evidence of their connection to the land,
Rohingya claim.
The Rohingya's protest over kala references also reflects
their frustration over their official exclusion from Myanmar society. As the
country's democratic reforms move ahead, many disfranchised Rohingya hope to
gain citizenship rights, but so far there are no indications this is in the
cards.
Myanmar's 1982 Citizenship Law established that the
Rohingya, along with several other communities such as the Gurkhas (an ethnic
community with historical links to Nepal), were not among the 135 officially
recognized ethnic groups in Myanmar entitled to citizenship.
Myanmar's next census is scheduled for 2013, but no
changes in the Rohingya's status are likely given that even the country's most
respected leaders are approaching the issue with caution in the wake of the
recent riots. Pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi said recently that "the
problem should be tackled by fair application of the law", presumably the
already standing Citizenship Law.
Ko Ko Gyi, an icon from the 1988 pro-democracy protests
brutally suppressed by the military and until recently a prominent political
prisoner, has openly opposed the Rohingya gaining citizenship. He also implied
that sympathetic foreigners should stay out of the issue, in line with the
military's long-held view on the matter.
"Now it is time that we announce our view on the
Rohingya clearly. The Rohingya are not one of the ethnic groups of Myanmar at
all. We see that the riots happening currently in Buthedaung and Maungdaw of
[Rakhine] state are because of the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh called
Rohingya and the mischievous provocations of some international
communities," Ko Ko Gyi said.
"Therefore, such interfering efforts by some
powerful nations on this issue without fully understanding the ethnic groups
and other situations of Burma will be viewed as offending the sovereignty of
our nation."
Empowered by Myanmar's recent lifting of restrictions on
the Internet, citizens now freely communicate on social-media networks such as
Facebook. Many have used racially charged language about the Rohingya that
previously would have been banned or censored.
Their online postings have highlighted grassroots
perceptions among Burmans that the Rohingya should not be considered citizens
of Myanmar. Not only are the Rohingya referred to as kala on these posts, but
they are also being viewed as "terrorists".
One representative post, for example, read: "We have
a right of self-defense. I hope DASSK [Daw Aung San Suu Kyi] would understand
that this is not bullying the minority. They are not a minority anyway. This is
a sovereignty issue and this is just terrorism and they are evil enemies of
freedom."
By mid-June, the government had declared martial law and
imposed a curfew in several districts of Rakhine state. More than 80 have been
killed and thousands of homes torched since the clashes first erupted. Sporadic
violence has continued since the imposition of emergency rule over the area.
More than 800,000 Rohingya reside in Myanmar, but the
violence is pushing a new wave of refugees into Bangladesh. The United Nations
estimated there were already 300,000 Rohingya living in refugee camps in
Bangladesh, many of whom fled earlier rounds of state suppression against their
communities in Myanmar.
Myanmar and Bangladesh will hold talks about the Rohingya
situation in early July - Myanmar's President Thein Sein is due to start a
three-day visit to Bangladesh on July 15. Some hope the persecuted minority
will be granted some sort of quasi-citizenship after the talks. If this should
fail, then the Rohingya will remain in a legal and physical limbo hoping for
refugee status somewhere abroad.
Jacob Zenn
Jacob Zenn is an international-affairs analyst based in
Washington, DC, who formerly worked at the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees in Malaysia. He can be reached at zopensource123@gmail.com.
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