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 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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