Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar

• Date: 01 August 2016
• Author: A. K. M. Ahsan Ullah
• Published date: 01 August 2016
• DOI: 10.1177/1043986216660811
• Subject Matter: Articles

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

2016, Vol. 32(3) 285 –301

© The Author(s) 2016

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DOI: 10.1177/1043986216660811

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Article

Rohingya Crisis in

Myanmar: Seeking Justice

for the “Stateless”

A. K. M. Ahsan Ullah1

Abstract

This article argues that Rohingyas in Myanmar have been deliberately excluded by its

government. The claims of the government and political leaders that Rohingyas are

illegal migrants could no way be justified due to the clear fact that they have been a

part of long history of Burma. Due to the exclusionary policies, this population group

has been systematically marginalized, persecuted, deprived of basic rights, and abused.

Available protection space for Rohingya refugees in the region has become extremely

volatile due to the reluctance to sign the 1951 Convention and a lack of national legal

frameworks in most southeast Asian countries. Despite political pressure from the

international community and local activists groups calling for the government to stop

the violence, there is no sign to end the violence.

Keywords

Rohingya, persecution, Myanmar, human rights

Historical Genesis of Rohingyas

The number of people being forced to leave their homeland is growing exponen-

tially, and by 2015, it has reached to 50 million worldwide (United Nations High

Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR], 2016). After Africa and the Middle East,

Asia is leading in producing refugees. Southeast Asia (SEA) is one of the highest

refugee-generating regions in Asia, and Myanmar is the largest contributor (Ragland,

1994; Ullah & Hossain, 2005, 2011). The Rohingyas are one of the most vulnerable

populations in the world by any reckoning (Equal Rights Trust, 2014; Institute of

1Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Gadong, Brunei

Corresponding Author:

A. K. M. Ahsan Ullah, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Jalan Tungku Link, Gadong BE1410, Brunei.

Email: ahsan.ullah@ubd.edu.bn

660811CCJXXX10.1177/1043986216660811Journal of Contemporary Criminal JusticeAhsan Ullah

research-article2016

286 Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 32(3)

Human Rights and Peace Studies, 2014; Pugh, 2013; Ullah, 2014; Ullah, Hossain, &

Islam, 2015). An estimated 1 to 1.5 million Rohingyas in Rakhine State in Myanmar

are concentrated in the three townships of North Rakhine State—Maungdaw,

Buthidaung, and Rathedaung (Equal Rights Trust, 2014). Discrimination and

unequal treatment are central to the human rights violations suffered by this popula-

tion group (Lowenstein, 2015).

The word “Rohingya” is a historical name for the Muslim Arakanese. There is still

a Muslim village in Akayab (Sittwe) city by the name of Rohingya para (Charney,

2005) (see figure 1). The old name for Rakhine State was Rohang from which the term

Rohingya was derived.1 Today, this terminology (Rohingya) has become politically

charged. Two strong blocs in Myanmar have emerged: pro- and anti-Rohingya. The

pro bloc takes the view that the Rohingyas settled in Burma in the ninth century,

which, through the ages, have mixed with Bengalis, Persians, Moghuls, Turks, and

Pathans, in line with the historically pluralistic population of Arakan State (Human

Rights Watch, 1996; Zarni & Cowley, 2014). The latter takes the view that the

Rohingyas are a modern construct, comprising, principally, of illegal Chittagonian

Bengalis who arrived as a by-product of British colonial rule (Human Rights Watch,

1996; Zarni & Cowley, 2014). The term Rohingya however lost its salience since the

late 1960s due to the fact that the government uses the term Bengali, which implies

immigrant status. The Rohingyas—Muslims and ethnically different from the rest of

the ethnic groups in Myanmar—are not recognized as “citizens” of Myanmar. They

are considered as “resident foreigners.” The 1982 Burma Citizenship Law divided citi-

zens by three different categories: citizens, associate citizens, and naturalized citizens.

Citizenship status comes with three color coded citizenship scrutiny card (pink, blue,

and green, respectively; Human Rights Watch, 2009; Ullah, 2011, 2014).

The previous parliamentary government (before 1962, the civilian government,

headed by Prime Minister U. Nu, a social democratic politician) listed 144 ethnic

groups in Burma. But General Ne Win put only 135 groups on a short list, and then

was approved by his Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) regime’s constitu-

tion of 1974 (Charney, 2005). In its census, Myanmar deliberately excluded

Rohingyas from the list of the country’s 135 official ethnic groups.2 One of the most

important arguments Ne Win’s government put forth in favor of the exclusion is that

the citizenship law recognizes as citizens those whose families had settled in the

country before independence in 1948 (Tran, 2015). In addition, some other events

rendered them stateless such as Operation Nagamin, which was launched in 1978

(Equal Rights Trust, 2014), when many Rohingyas had their official documentation

taken away by inter-agency teams of inspectors. Subsequently, the military regime

promulgated the 1982 Citizenship Law (Equal Rights Trust, 2014).

Under Section 6 of the 1982 Law, persons who were already citizens at the time the

law came into force would continue to be so. The law also provided for “Associate”

and “Naturalised” citizenship, the former being for those whose citizenship applica-

tions were being processed at the time and the latter being those who are not citizens

but can establish that they and their predecessors lived in the country prior to indepen-

dence (Equal Rights Trust, 2014). Thus, all Rohingyas for whom Myanmar was home