Myanmar Blind Spot in Manipur, Indian Express, June 28, 2023

The current Rohingya refugee crisis in Southeast Asia, which has become a ubiquitous topic at the global level, requires reflection on the multifaceted history of ethnicity, identity and growing nationalism in Myanmar. This paper looks at the complex interplay of colonial history, ethnic conflicts, absence of democracy and the subsequent political erasure of the Rohingya community from Burmese history, which shaped and aggravated the current crisis. It argues that while the British colonial rule was instrumental in shaping the troubled ethnic history of Myanmar, the political developments in post-colonial Myanmar equally contributed to such debate. In independent Myanmar, the militarisation of the country, economic challenges, the rise of political Buddhism and eventually, the new global post 9/11 order where Muslims have become the fearsome other, all led to a situation where the Rohingya community is engaged in a daily struggle to survive and sustain itself in Myanmar.

Politics, Religion & Ideology, 2021

The Rohingya crisis of Myanmar is a longstanding geopolitical predicament that has remained unresolved for 42 years, since 1978. Many of the stateless, and now stranded, Rohingya have been driven out of Myanmar to take refuge in other countries or forced to live in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps within the state of Rakhine. ARSA (Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army) attacks became an automatic excuse for genocidal activities against Rohingyas at the hands of the Myanmar government. ARSA attacks and communal violence in Rakhine both served the Myanmar government’s objective, providing justification for acts of violent retaliation. This paper examines root causes of Rohingya exile and displacement. The researcher collected data from 20 expert participants in Bangladesh and 71 displaced Rohingya victims living in the Kutupalong Rohingya Refugee Camp within Bangladesh. These data indicate the interaction of various factors, including historical legacy of conflict, religious dissension, racism, lack of social integration of Rohingyas into the mainstream Burmese community, geo-economic factors, discriminatory state policy and conflict politics of ARSA, all of which contribute to what has become the Rohingya crisis. The paper discusses theoretical and practical implications of these interacting influences.

Managing Conflicts in a Globalizing ASEAN: Incompatibility Management Through Good Governance, 2020

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.

2018

The Rohingya crisis is nowadays rising attention in the worldwide civil societies and institutions; their vicissitudes originated in Myanmar, a Buddhist-dominant country in South-Eastern Asia where a minus Muslim group - the Rohingya - has been, since decades, victim of tortures and repression; UNHCR and the Amnesty International consider them the most persecuted ethnic group in the world. They have been allocated in Rakhine in the eastern side of the Country and they are living in adverse living condition. In addition, this population is not officially recognized by the government as citizens and the majority of population pursuing Buddhist religion treats them with prejudice, xenophobism and violence. In the following pages we are going to discuss the issue as a whole, starting from the socio-historical root causes of the matter and the subsequent migrations in other states moving on, then, to the relationships between the latter and the Rohingya refugees; we will eventually define the world’s attitudes towards the issue, considering the institutional participation in the resolution process of the matter and finally point out some conclusion pillars regarding the future potential prospects of the issue.

Pacific Geographies #50, 2018

Abstract: The Rohingya in Myanmar are often described as the most persecuted minority in the world. In the former Burma, the Rohingya are considered illegal immigrants and have been denied citizenship for decades. Since the end of August 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingya from Rakhine State have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh. After explaining the historical background, this paper aims to investigate the reasons behind the most recent violence and subsequent mass flights of Rohingya. The research is based on extensive literature and media analysis, interviews and discussions with researchers, academics in Dhaka and NGO representatives in Cox’s Bazar as well as a visit to a refugee camp in LEDA/Cox’s Bazar in February 2018. The public usually discusses mainly the ethnic-religious and humanitarian causes and effects of conflict. However, this paper shows that there are massive political, economic and geopolitical interests of directly and indirectly involved actors behind the conflict. As of today, no solution of the crisis is in sight. Therefore, further analysis is needed to find practical approaches for either repatriation or finding new living spaces for the Rohingya.

in: Yuk Wah Chan, Heidi Fung and Grazyna Szymanska-Matusiewicz (eds.), The Age of Asian Migration: Continuity, Diversity and Susceptibility (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015), 108-30.

This article examines the reception of Chin refugees from Myanmar in Mizoram State in northeast India through the framework of boundaries and belonging. Strong historical, cultural and ethnic connections between Chin and Mizo might suggest a strong claim to belonging. This has been true to some extent but the reception of Chin in Mizoram has also been shaped by perceived otherness. This article explores the co-existing discourses of Chin as other/brother in relation to processes of boundary-making, boundary policing and boundary manipulation. It argues that these contrasting narratives illustrate a dynamic relationship between national borders and boundaries of belonging that speak to deeper truths about the legitimacy of the nation state and the role of place, politics and identity in the construction of insiders and others. This case study generates several conclusions of wider relevance to refugee studies, namely the flexibility of perceptions of belonging, the possibility of deliberately reshaping perceptions of belonging and the existence of multiple, overlapping identities (i.e. citizenship , faith, ethnicity and culture) that are accorded different weight and value at different times.

Myanmar: Politics, Economy and Society, 2020

There are myriad societal issues facing Myanmar and its political leaders, particularly the National League for Democracy (NLD) and Aung San Suu Kyi, but few are as intractable as the status of the Rohingya ethnic Muslim minority from Rakhine State. The future of Myanmar society and its place in the international system is now tied to the resolution of the political and humanitarian crisis which has unfolded within Rakhine State and neighbouring Bangladesh since communal pogroms in 2012. The most acute phase of this violence which started in August 2017 – with brutal repression resulting in thousands of Rohingya slaughtered and 740,000 fleeing to Bangladesh in a matter of months – has brought sustained negative attention to Myanmar’s political and security leaders. In December 2019 Aung San Suu Kyi travelled to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to defend the actions of the Myanmar military and state against charges of genocide. Although there are numerous ongoing conflicts in Myanmar the difference in the Rakhine State is that the Rohingya have been excluded, in every sense, from the benefits of political representation and social acceptance available to other ethnic or religious minorities. For as long as the Rohingya are excluded from Myanmar society, future governments will struggle to achieve social cohesion, a sustainable and just development model, and normalised international relations.

Journal of Bangladesh and Global Affairs, 2022

The Rohingya people of Myanmar have been trapped in a protracted refugee situation for more than fifty years. Several complicated underlying factors have historically hindered a long-term resolution of the refugee issue. The refugee problem has political, religious, ethnic, and geo-strategic dimensions. This paper focuses on the regional geopolitical aspect of the Rohingya refugee crisis. Drawing upon secondary literature, the paper seeks to analyse the role of India and China in Myanmar. By exploring the nature of Sino-Indian geopolitical competition in Myanmar, the paper has tried to understand the contribution of such competition in the prolongation of the crisis.