Jacob Zenn
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
democratisation and peace-building processes.
While there are no
questions asked about the citizenship of 135 officially recognised
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 alleged rape and killing of a
Rakhine girl in Kyat Ni Maw on May 28. 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 recognised 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-defence. 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. –Asia Times Online
No comments:
Post a Comment