Abstract
The Myanmar army’s disproportionate use of military force in response to attacks in 2016 and 2017 by Harakah Al-Yaqin (Faith Movement) drove some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine across the border to Bangladesh. While not the first military-driven exodus of Rohingya from Rakhine, the current humanitarian crisis is linked to violence that broke out in 2012 between the Rohingya and another Myanmar minority, the Rakhine Buddhists, who first came into conflict during World War II. This chapter aims to present an understanding of the conflict in Rakhine, including the factors that have shaped it over time until the present, its incompatibilities, and their management. The first part of the chapter discusses competing Buddhist-Muslim perceptions of history and identity, which form a core incompatibility in the conflict, the long history of Buddhist-Muslim relations in the state, and the effects of British colonial policy. The chapter then turns to the post-independence period and examines the triangular nature of the conflict, the ‘Burmanization’ programme that followed Ne Win’s 1962 coup, discriminatory measures introduced by the government, the introduction of the 1982 Citizenship Law, the role of the ‘War on Terror’, and the tenuous links of Rohingya militant groups to international terrorist organizations. The final part focuses on the build-up to the 2012 violence and the current crisis, including the role of international media.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
I use both Arakan and Rakhine in this chapter to refer to the geographic area of the current conflict, generally using Arakan in historical contexts.
- 2.
Recent data from the Bangladesh government suggests the number of Rohingya in refugee camps could be as high as one million (The Straits Times 2018).
- 3.
The term Burman, or Bamar, refers to Myanmar’s dominant ethnic group who make up about two-thirds of the population and control the military and the government.
- 4.
- 5.
See Yunus (1994) and various short articles found on the Arakan Rohingya National Organization website, http://www.rohingya.org/~rohingya/portal/index.php/scholars.html
- 6.
Cited in Leider (2015: 19).
- 7.
- 8.
The earliest inhabitants of the Arakan region were probably various Chin groups, such as the Kam, Mro, and Sak (Daingnets) (Gutman 1976: 9), who are official Myanmar ethnic groups and continue to inhabit the region.
- 9.
In legendary accounts found in Arakan chronicles, the word kala is used in reference to rescued shipwrecked sailors who then settled in Arakan. While some (see Zaw Min Htut 2003: 11) writers have attempted to equate this with Arab settlers, the term kala appears problematic as it “denotes Indians in general and Muslims in particular, but more broadly foreigners from the West” (Leider 2015: 17).
- 10.
Van Galen (2008: 34) notes that the circumstances of Man Co Mwan’s return are particularly vague and the Arakan chronicle stories are not corroborated by Bengali sources. Further, there is little evidence of any tributary status, which is unlikely to have extended beyond Man Co Mwan’s short reign after his return.
- 11.
Some writers have attempted to estimate, or simply make up, the number of soldiers who settled in Arakan. As far as I am aware, there is no reliable data concerning numbers. It seems reasonable to suggest that a proportion of them would have been Man Co Mwan’s own men who had fled to Bengal with him.
- 12.
The 1931 British census distinguishes the Kaman from Arakan Muslims and people from Chittagong and Bengalis, recording some 2686 of their descendants living on Ranree Island, who “follow Arakanese language and customs, though they practice the Islamic religion” (Bennison 1931).
- 13.
Two subsequent British campaigns of 1852–1853 and 1885 led to the complete annexation of Myanmar.
- 14.
Various data and estimates regarding Arakan’s population and its ethnic and religious make-up at the onset of British rule are problematic and often contradictory. The first reliable data appears in later British censuses (see below).
- 15.
Under British rule, acreage in rice production increased from 359,000 acres in 1867 to 916,000 by 1920 (Cheng 1968: 27).
- 16.
By no means did all of Arakan’s Muslims support this rebellion, even if they did want the establishment of a separate Muslim zone (Yegar 2002: 39).
- 17.
Muslim leaders claim the authorities invented this in order to stop Muslims displaced by the rebellion returning. Yegar (2002: 45) notes that Myanmar authorities tended not to discriminate between displaced returnees and new immigrants, simply sending all Muslims back regardless.
- 18.
Union Citizenship Act, 1948 at Art. 3(1), http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs/UNION_CITIZENSHIP_ACT-1948.htm.
- 19.
Buchanan’s article was in 2003 reprinted by the SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research.
- 20.
- 21.
While this can be seen as an attempt to appease Arakan nationalists, in terms of any autonomy it was meaningless as the one-party system enshrined in the new constitution, and in existence since 1962, meant there would be no separate governments within the union.
- 22.
The Bangladesh media attention focused on what initially appeared to be an expansion in RSO activities along the border linked to training camps. It later became evident that such training camps were not only used by a small number of Rohingyas but by various other Islamist groups and that the RSO were not then engaged in fighting inside Myanmar (Lintner 2003: 11).
- 23.
See Selth (2004) for details of various international anti-terrorist commitments made by the SPDC.
- 24.
Selth (2004: 115) presents several examples of exaggerated and sometimes erroneous reporting, notably Zachary Abuza’s 2002 paper, “Tentacles of Terror: Al Qaeda’s Southeast Asian Network”, in which he stated, “the largest Al Qaeda cell in Southeast Asia is said to be in Myanmar”.
- 25.
For example, MaBaTha leader, U Wirathu, was jailed in 2003 for inciting anti-Muslim violence in his hometown that led to ten Muslims being killed (Marshall 2013).
- 26.
The ANP also won 12 out of 17 seats in the national lower house but fell just short of an outright majority at state level (Mathieson 2016).
- 27.
See Leider (2017) for an in-depth analysis.
- 28.
The ARU was formed with strong support from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in 2011 in Jeddah as an umbrella organization for various international Rohingya following a series of meeting that took place over the preceding years and is led by Wakar Uddin, an American-based academic originally from Arakan (the http://rohingyaunion.org). The BTF is a campaign of Justice for All, a Muslim NGO based in Illinois set up in 2010 (https://www.burmataskforce.org/). The ERC, launched in Denmark in 2012, brought together various Rohingya activists in Europe under a single organization to “strive for the Rohingya cause” (http://www.theerc.net/).
- 29.
See http://www.rohingya.org/portal/index.php/who-we-are.html for a list of the ARNO’s aims and objectives.
- 30.
See the ARU’s mission statement: http://rohingyaunion.org/about-us/.
- 31.
The Arakan Army is an ethnic Rakhine military organization established in 2009 and based in Laiza in Kachin State. Its stated intention is “to return the motherland to the Arakan people” (Lawi Weng 2017).
References
Advisory Commission on Rakhine State. (2017). Towards a peaceful, fair and prosperous future for the people of Rakhine. Final Report of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State. http://www.rakhinecommission.org/app/uploads/2017/08/FinalReport_Eng.pdf. Accessed 12 Dec 2017.
Amnesty International. (2004, May 18). Myanmar: The Rohingya minority: Fundamental rights denied. https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ASA16/005/2004/en/. Accessed 25 Jan 2017.
Amnesty International. (2018, March 12). Myanmar: Military land grab as security forces build bases on torched Rohingya villages. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/03/myanmar-military-land-grab-as-security-forces-build-bases-on-torched-rohingya-villages/. Accessed 25 Mar 2018.
AsiaNews.it. (2017, August 25). After Kofi Annan presents Rohingya Report, military rejects it as flawed and full of shortcomings. http://www.asianews.it/news-en/After-Kofi-Annan-presents-Rohingya-Report,-military-rejects-it-as-flawed-and-full-of-shortcomings-41611.html. Accessed 3 Jan 2018.
Aye Chan. (2005). The development of a Muslim enclave in Arakan (Rakhine) State of Burma (Myanmar). SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research, 3(2), 296–240.
Beech, H. (2018, May 31). Myanmar and U.N. agree to aim for repatriation of Rohingya. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/31/world/asia/myanmar-rohingya-refugees-return.html. Accessed 15 June 2018.
Bennison, J. J. (1931). Census of India, report Volume XI Part I. Rangoon: Office of Superintendent, Government Printing and Stationery.
Buchanan, F. (2003 [1799]). A comparative vocabulary of some of the languages spoken in the Burma empire. SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research, 1(1), 40–57.
Charney, M. W. (1999). Where Jambudipa and Islamdom converged: Religious change and the emergence of Buddhist communalism in early modern Arakan (fifteenth to nineteenth centuries). PhD thesis. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
Cheng, S. (1968). The rice industry of Burma: 1852–1940. Kuala Lumpur/Singapore: University of Malaya Press.
Christie, C. (1996). A modern history of Southeast Asia: Decolonization, nationalism and separatism. London: I.B. Tauris.
Clifford, E. (2013, December 21). When Buddhists go to war. Brown Political Review. http://www.brownpoliticalreview.org/2013/12/when-buddhists-go-to-war/. Accessed 8 Nov 2017.
Dapice, D. (2015). A fatal distraction from federalism: religious conflict in Rakhine. Harvard Kennedy School: Ash Center. https://ash.harvard.edu/files/a_fatal_distraction_from_federalism_religious_conflict_in_rakhine_10-20-2014_rev_6-26-15.pdf. Accessed 7 Nov 2017.
d’Hubert, T., & Leider, J. P. (2011). Traders and poets at the Mrauk-U court: Commerce and cultural links in seventeenth-century Arakan. In R. Mukherjee (Ed.), Pelagic passageways: The Northern Bay of Bengal before colonialism (pp. 77–111). Delhi: Primus Books.
Ei Ei Toe Lwin. (2015, October 2). Guardians of ‘race and religion’ target NLD. Myanmar Times. https://www.mmtimes.com/home-page/in-depth/16829-guardians-of-race-and-religion-target-nld-2.html. Accessed 15 Dec 2017.
Fink, C. (2001). Living silence: Burma under military rule. London: Zed.
Gutman, P. (1976). Ancient Arakan: With special reference to its cultural history between the 5th and 11th centuries. PhD thesis. The Australian National University.
Gutman, P. (2001). Burma’s lost kingdoms: Splendours of Arakan. Bangkok: Orchid Press.
Gutman, P., & Hudson, B. (2004). The archaeology of Burma (Myanmar) from Neolithic to Pagan. In I. Glover & P. Bellwood (Eds.), Southeast Asia: From prehistory to history (pp. 149–176). London: RoutledgeCurzon.
Human Rights Watch. (1995). The human rights watch global report on women’s human rights. New York: Human Rights Watch.
Human Rights Watch. (1996). The Rohingya Muslims: Ending a cycle of exodus? https://www.hrw.org/legacy/summaries/s.burma969.html#SUMMARY. Accessed 11 Dec 2017.
Human Rights Watch. (2000a). Burma/Bangladesh: Burmese refugees in Bangladesh: Still no durable solution. https://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/burma/index.htm. Accessed 11 Dec 2017.
Human Rights Watch. (2000b). Malaysia/Burma living in limbo: Burmese Rohingyas in Malaysia. https://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/malaysia/maybr008-01.htm. Accessed 11 Dec 2017.
Human Rights Watch. (2002). Crackdown on Burmese Muslims. http://pantheon.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/asia/burmese_muslims.pdf. Accessed 11 Dec 2017.
Human Rights Watch. (2013a). All you can do is pray: Crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Burma’s Arakan State. https://www.hrw.org/report/2013/04/22/all-you-can-do-pray/crimes-against-humanity-and-ethnic-cleansing-rohingya-muslims. Accessed 11 Dec 2017.
Human Rights Watch. (2013b). Burma: Revoke ‘two-child policy’ for Rohingya: Coerced birth control reflects broader persecution of Muslim minority. https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/28/burma-revoke-two-child-policy-rohingya. Accessed 11 Dec 2017.
Human Rights Watch. (2015). Thailand: Mass graves of Rohingya found in trafficking camp. https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/05/01/thailand-mass-graves-rohingya-found-trafficking-camp. Accessed 11 Dec 2017.
Human Rights Watch. (2017). Burma: Satellite data indicate burnings in Rakhine State. https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/08/29/burma-satellite-data-indicate-burnings-rakhine-state. Accessed 11 Dec 2017.
International Crisis Group. (2013). The dark side of transition: Violence against Muslims in Myanmar. Asia Report No. 251, 1 October 2013. Jakarta/Brussels.
International Crisis Group. (2014). Myanmar: The politics of Rakhine State. Asia Report No. 261, 22 October 2014. Jakarta/Brussels.
International Crisis Group. (2016). Myanmar: A new Muslim insurgency in Rakhine State. Asia Report No. 283, 15 December 2016. Jakarta/Brussels.
International Detention Coalition. (2015). South East Asian migrant crisis: IDC in conversation with the international state crime initiative. https://idcoalition.org/news/south-east-asian-migrant-crisis-idc-in-conversation-with-the-international-state-crime-initiative. Accessed 15 Dec 2017.
Khin Maung Saw. (2011). Islamization of Burma through Chittagonian Bengalis as “Rohingya refugees”. http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs21/Khin-Maung-Saw-NM-2011-09-Islamanisation_of_Burma_through_Chittagonian_Bengalis-en.pdf. Accessed 9 Nov 2017.
Kyaw Zwa Moe. (2017, September 9). The reality in Rakhine and Myanmar’s complex political conundrum. The Irrawaddy. https://www.irrawaddy.com/opinion/commentary/reality-rakhine-myanmars-complex-political-conundrum.html. Accessed 21 Nov 2017.
Lawi Weng. (2014, March 5). Arakanese MPs oppose census classification for Rohingya. The Irrawaddy. https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/arakanese-mps-oppose-census-classification-rohingya.html. Accessed 21 Nov 2017.
Lawi Weng. (2017, December 11). AA chief urges Arakanese not to fall into army trap in Rakhine. The Irrawaddy. https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/aa-chief-urges-arakanese-not-fall-army-trap-rakhine.html. Accessed 9 Jan 2017.
Leider, J. P. (2014). Politics of integration and cultures of resistance: A study of Burma’s conquest and administration of Arakan (1785–1825). In G. Wade (Ed.), Asian expansions: The historical experiences of polity expansion in Asia (pp. 184–213). London: Routledge.
Leider, J. P. (2015). Competing identities and the hybridized history of the Rohingyas. In R. Egreteau & F. Robinne (Eds.), Metamorphosis: Studies in social and political change in Myanmar (pp. 151–178). Singapore: NUS Press.
Leider, J. P. (2017). Transmutations of the Rohingya movement in the post-2012 Rakhine State crisis. In O. K. Gin & V. Grabowsky (Eds.), Religious identities and integration in Southeast Asia (pp. 191–239). Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.
Lewa, C. (2009). North Arakan: An open prison for the Rohingya in Burma. Forced Migration Review, 32, 11–14.
Lieberman, V. B. (2003). Strange parallels: Southeast Asia in global context, C. 800–1830. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lintner, B. (2003). Bangladesh: Extremist Islamist Consolidation. Faultlines: Writings on Conflict & Resolution, 14(July, 2003).
Loescher, G., & Milner, J. (2008). Burmese refugees in South and Southeast Asia: A comparative regional analysis. In G. Loescher, J. Milner, G. Newman, & G. G. Troeller (Eds.), Protracted refugee situations: Political, human rights and security implications (pp. 303–332). Tokyo: United Nations University Press.
Marshall, A. R. C. (2013). Special report: Myanmar gives official blessing to anti-Muslim monks. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-969-specialreport/special-report-myanmar-gives-official-blessing-to-anti-muslim-monks-idUSBRE95Q04720130627. Accessed 9 Nov 2017.
Mathieson, D. S. (2016, January 6). The electoral aftermath in Rakhine State. Myanmar Times. https://www.mmtimes.com/opinion/18353-the-electoral-aftermath-in-rakhine-state.html. Accessed 15 Dec 2017.
McDonald, M. (2012, October 31). As violence continues, Rohingya find few defenders in Myanmar. The New York Times. https://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/31/as-violence-continues-rohingya-find-few-defenders-in-myanmar/. Accessed 20 Nov 2017.
Owen, N. G. (2005). The emergence of modern Southeast Asia: A new history. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press.
Rahman, U. (2010). The Rohingya refugee: A security dilemma for Bangladesh. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 8(2), 233–239.
ReliefWeb. (2012). UN rejects Thein Sein’s potential Rohingya plan. https://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/un-rejects-thein-sein%E2%80%99s-potential-rohingya-plan. Accessed 11 Dec 2017.
Republic of the Union of Myanmar. (2013, July 8). Final report of inquiry commission on sectarian violence in Rakhine State. Naypyidaw: Rakhine Inquiry Commission, Republic of the Union of Myanmar. http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs15/Rakhine_Commission_Report-en-red.pdf. Accessed 9 Nov 2017.
SBS News. (2014, April 3). Myanmar says ‘Rohingya’ term banned. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/myanmar-says-rohingya-term-banned. Accessed 21 Nov 2017.
Schissler, M., Walton, M. J., & Phyu Phyu Thi. (2015). The roots of religious conflict in Myanmar: Understanding narratives is an important step to ending violence. The Diplomat. https://thediplomat.com/2015/08/the-roots-of-religious-conflict-in-myanmar/. Accessed 21 Nov 2017.
Scroll.in. (2017, December 10). Rohingya refugee crisis: It’s not Muslims versus Buddhists, says writer Bertil Lintner. https://scroll.in/article/860053/rohingya-refugee-crisis-its-not-muslims-versus-buddhists-says-writer-bertil-lintner. Accessed 22 Dec 2017.
Selth, A. (2004). Burma’s Muslims and the war on terror. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 27(2), 107–126.
Sithu Aung Myint. (2016, October 9). Party politics and the Rakhine State commission. Frontier Myanmar. https://frontiermyanmar.net/en/party-politics-and-the-rakhine-state-commission. Accessed 9 Nov 2017.
Smart, R. B. (1917). Burma Gazetteer, Akyab District (Vol. A). Rangoon: Superintendent, Government Printing and Stationery, Union of Burma.
Smith, M. (1994). Ethnic groups in Burma: Development, democracy and human rights. London: Anti-Slavery Society.
Szep, J. (2013). Special report: Buddhist monks incite Muslim killings in Myanmar. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-violence-specialreport/special-report-buddhist-monks-incite-muslim-killings-in-myanmar-idUSBRE9370AP20130408. Accessed 12 Dec 2017.
Thawnghmung, A. M. (2016). The politics of indigeneity in Myanmar: Competing narratives in Rakhine state. Asian Ethnicity, 17(4), 527–547.
The Straits Times. (2018, January 17). Bangladesh says it’s hosting over a million Rohingya, higher than previous estimates. https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/bangladesh-says-its-hosting-over-a-million-rohingya-higher-than-previous-estimates. Accessed 21 Mar 2018.
Tonkin, D. (2015). Rohingya: Breaking the deadlock: Might a UN “committee of wise men” point the way towards an eventual resolution? The Diplomat. https://thediplomat.com/2015/10/rohingya-breaking-the-deadlock/. Accessed 6 Nov 2017.
UNOHCHR. (2017). Report of OHCHR mission to Bangladesh, Interviews with Rohingyas fleeing from Myanmar since 9 October 2016. United Nations Human Rights, Office of the High Commissioner. http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/MM/FlashReport3Feb2017.pdf. Accessed 28 Dec 2018.
Van Galen, S. E. A. (2008). Arakan and Bengal: The rise and decline of the Mrauk U kingdom (Burma) from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century AD. PhD thesis, Leiden University.
Van Klinken, G., & Su Mon Thazin Aung. (2017). The contentious politics of anti-Muslim scapegoating in Myanmar. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 48(3), 353–375.
Wade, F. (2015). West bank of the East: Burma’s social engineering project. Los Angeles Review of Books. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/west-bank-of-the-east-burmas-social-engineering-project/#! Accessed 7 Nov 2017.
Yegar, M. (2002). Between integration and secession: The Muslim communities of the Southern Philippines, Southern Thailand, and Western Burma/Myanmar. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Yunus, M. (1994). A history of Arakan (Past & Present). http://www.netipr.org/policy/downloads/19940101-Dr-Yunus-History-Of-Arakan.pdf. Accessed 3 Oct 2017.
Zaw Min Htut. (2003). Human rights abuses and discrimination on Rohingyas. Tokyo: Burmese Rohingya Association in Japan (BRAJ).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Druce, S.C. (2020). Myanmar’s Unwanted Ethnic Minority: A History and Analysis of the Rohingya Crisis. In: Oishi, M. (eds) Managing Conflicts in a Globalizing ASEAN. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9570-4_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9570-4_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-32-9569-8
Online ISBN: 978-981-32-9570-4
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)