The Role of Religion in Conflict and Peace Building-The Context of Rakhine State in Myanmar
Farhana Morshed
Abstract
The role of religion in conflict and peace building has mostly been depicted in binary terms: either as a source of violence or of reconciliation. The Government of Myanmar facing serious challenges to resolve between the conflicting demands and aspirations of the Rakhine Buddhist and the Muslim communities. The Government of Myanmar trying to show Rohingya community as a whole as violent extremists – ignoring the historical fact that the Rohingya themselves are one of the most-oppressed minority group in the world. The problems faced by Rohingya are implanted in decades of authoritarian rule, violence and mistrust among different religious groups. Pre-empting deep-seated violence could be eliminated by showing a credible process that can demonstrate to the Buddhist and Muslim communities that political avenues exist and multi-religion dialogue could facilitate peaceful co-existence. This study will employ critical discourse analysis and doctrinal analysis on the existing literature, news reports and reports of the local bodies and international organizations followed by a case study to analyze how religion played a role for unrest and violence in Rakhine State in Myanmar and how multi-faith dialogue and cooperation could contribute towards reconciliation process for peaceful co-existence of Rohingya and other religious and ethnic groups. The case study is to be conducted using semi-structured interviews among persons fleeing from violence and took shelter in Bangladesh and also participants residing in conflict zone including individuals from majority and minority religious and ethnic groups and other relevant stakeholders. While identifying potential solutions or way outs for the Rakhine State, this study will also show how religion played either positive or negative roles and lessons need to be learnt for long-term peace-building.
1. Background and Context:
Religion has been part and parcel of human experience either for good or for worse. Religion emerged in different forms in different times to eradicate hatred and to promote love, peace and to enlightened people to live a fruitful life. From the dawn of human civilization religion played a very strong role in shaping up the society. Over the time the world has witnessed how the focus of religion shifted from peace building to destruction of peace. The role of religion in conflict and peace building has mostly been depicted in binary terms: either as a source of violence or of reconciliation.
Politically motivated religious violence has very ancient root and has got far reaching consequence. The idea of secular state that is keeping religion out of state and political activity is not practiced in many parts of the world. Although religiously motivated conflicts has deep roots even before the nationalist approach, religion based blind nationalism has become cause of both violent conflicts among different groups and oppression by the state authorities or state sponsored groups in many parts of the world. The Rohingya in Myanmar considered world's most persecuted ethnic minority in the world due to having distinct cultural and religious identity and their flight is termed as "The Rohingya: Unwanted at Home, Unwelcome Abroad". The historical genesis of Rohingya in Rakhine State are as scrambled and multifarious as the history of Myanmar itself. While Rohingyas are arguably relate themselves to be the descendants of the pre-colonial Muslim community of Rakhine State, the word "Rohingya" could be traced back in 1799 in an article on the comparative vocabulary in the then British Burma Empire to indicate the unique dialects of the indigenous people of Rakhine State.
The problems faced by Rohingya has also been implanted in decades of authoritarian rule since independence from colonial government in Myanmar followed by violence and mistrust among different religious groups in the absence of potential justice mechanism to resolve conflicts and maintain rule of law.
Rift between Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhist community is nothing new and related the country’s colonial past. Myanmar has experienced chain of complicated historical proceedings which makes the history of that country distinctive from other countries of the world. Rakhine state formely known as Arakan was fairly independent state from rest of the Burmese empire until for brief period prior to the conquest of Myanmar by British. Rakhine state had less interaction with rest of the Myanmar in pre-colonial and post colonial era due to the unfavorable geographical setting rather it shared close ties with the costal territories from bay of Bengal to India. Followed by the British take-over of Burma in 1826 and their open immigration policy in region cemented way for settlers to Rakhine state including Muslims from India for the purpose of business and workers for agricultural fields and other local small industries.
One of the reported racial conflict that triggered violent conflicts between the majority Buddhist group and minority groups particularly immigrants having Indian roots including Muslims in Burma (now Myanmar) was during the 1930s, which was the upshot of the nationalist Doh Bama (We Burma) pressure group that later triggered anti-Muslim movement . The understanding among the majority Burmese Buddhist group was foreigners increasingly taking control of much of Burma’s trade that was considered as a serious concern for them. Anti-immigrant sentiments targeting Indian and Muslim further deteriorated as Muslims in British Burma decided not to support the Burmese Independence Movement and protested against the Japanese occupation of Burma (1942–1945) and supported the colonial British regime. The situation further aggravated after the failed secessionist drive of the some Rohingya to join Pakistan during partition of British India in 1947. The misery of the Rohingya went to the peak, after the enactment of the Burmese Citizenship Law in 1982, which excluded the Rohingya as an ethnic group of Myanmar. The law declared that any ethnic group that settled in Myanmar after 1823 could not assert citizenship, which eventually clogged the door of citizenship for the Rohingya Muslims and thereby legitimized discrimination against the Rohingya as it has become impossible for them to trace their settlement and relevant documents prior to 1823.
There are two main narratives that instigate violent conflicts between Rohingya Muslisms and Buddhists. The first narrative is based on a fear of Islamic intrusion into Myanmar and demographic besiegement by Muslims—an idea that runs deep in Burmese Buddhist society. As one study stated-“A segment of Burman Buddhist monks represented by Ashin Wirathu is re-igniting sentiments of intolerance and flaming lingering resentment toward Rohingya, preaching hateful rhetoric and sowing fear in the local Buddhist population in an attempt to change the ethnic demographics of Rakhine State”. Ashin Wirathu, initiated “969” economic-centric nationalist crusade, which encourage Buddhists to stay away from businesses run by Muslims. The 969 movement has engrossed followers by demonstrating themselves as a “protector” of Buddhism from foreigners particularly Rohingya. As monks have the highest level of moral authority in Myanmar and thus could pursue an ethno-nationalist discriminatory schema without any impediment. Even though there is no tangible evidence Myanmar is facing any threat by Islamist or religious group, the narrative has gained foothold amongst many Buddhists fearing that Islam could dismay Myanmar’s Buddhist uniqueness and potentially could exterminate Buddhism in Myanmar altogether.
That is why, State authorities unofficially prohibited or restricted inter-faith marriages in an attempt to prevent Buddhist women from marrying followers of other religion particularly targeting Rohingya. Rohingya are debarred from many areas of employment, including government jobs and could not marry or cross border of township without official authorization. The Inquiry Commission into sectarian violence in Rakhine State released in 2013 without any indication as to barriers and hindrances for education and employment rather blamed Rohingya living in rural areas “could not speak any indigenous languages of Myanmar well . . . [nor] could [they] write or read the official Burmese language used in government communications.” There is also accusation by the Buddhist that increasingly Rohingya youths are leaning towards violence and Islamic radical groups.
The second narrative is of the Muslim Rohingyas as -they (Rohingya) receive the treatment of an open prison by the state authorities having only two options either to bear the torture by the Buddhist majority community and state authorities on regular basis or migrate from there. Due to prolong isolation and distrust between local Buddhist and Muslim communities, any kind of crime or unusual incident is targeted as racial issue rather than proper identification of accused or victim and follow up thorough legal procedure and hence Rohingya Muslim civilians have to undergo continuous torture and even leading their life under several restrictions. Due to decades of profound bowdlerization, Myanmar continues to have a flustered account of incident by fellow community members—be it online of face-to-face are considered more trustworthy and hence in some cases, even spread of false news contributed towards a complete breakdown of law and order. During 2013 conflict, Buddhist group argued that Rohingya boy raped a Buddhist girl and during 2015 conflict, state authorities and Buddhist community claimed Rohingya attacked police and killed nine officers whereas Rohingya claimed kidnapping and killing of several Rohingya by the Buddhist community and aggressive attitude of the state forces as the prime cause of violence. State authorities rarely investigate the wrong doing of police and never take any measures to prevent police forces from using excessive power, torture and harassment towards Rohingya. Indeed, the Inquiry Commission in 2013 found that the authorities have been “inconsistent” in applying and following the rule of law. The same happened in August 2017 as well when based on an allegation of attack by the Rohingya terrorist group towards law enforcing agencies, Myanmar Army and Buddhist community started to burn houses of thousands of Rohingya and killing of civilian Rohingyas, which has already created a grave situation of trauma and torture compelling more than 4,00000 Rohingya for fleeing to Bangladesh within one month as of September 20, 2017. Many Rohingya fleeing from conflict zone in Myanmar after conflicts erupts in August 2017 described horrific experiences of physical abuse, torture, rape, destruction and burning of property and unlawful killings carried out by both Rakhine Buddhists and security forces and Amnesty International and Human Rights watch has already verified and confirmed some incidents of harassment, abuse and destruction.
Despite prolong mistrust and conflict, peace building is possible in Rakhine State, but many challenges need to be addressed for achieving sustainable peace and stability in the region. Considering existing research gap, this study intended to explore following two research questions-
Does the religion play a major role for conflict in Rakhine state? and
What can be the potential solution to the conflict in Rakhine State, Myanmar for promotion of peace?
While identifying responsibility of religion in terms of peace and conflict in Rakhine state, Myanmar, this study analyses the historical background of the rift and lessons to be learnt for possible way outs and long term peace-building in Rakhine state.
2. Methodology : Critical Discourse Analysis, Doctrinal Study and Qualitative Case Study
Considering the complex nature of the study, which revolves around religion, peace and conflict a qualitative and interpretive method will be deployed. This study used critical discourse analysis and doctrinal study for critical review of the available news reports and literatures of various academic field including peace and conflict studies, world politics, terrorism studies, history, religion, sociology and human rights studies. The study further examined materials produced by the Non-governmental organizations and other religious groups working in the conflict zone or nearby areas. Reports of various International organizations including governmental institutions have also been examined. In order to review news paper report and to understand role of politics and religion behind the conflicts in Myanmar critical discourse analysis (CDA) has been applied for better understanding of the subject matter. CDA is a vital instrument to explore political, social and ideological connotation inside or outside the text.
The study further adopted case study using semi-structured interviews among persons fleeing from violence and took shelter in Bangladesh and also participants residing in conflict zone including individuals from majority and minority religious and ethnic groups and other relevant stakeholders. Due to privacy issues, lack of proper security measures and potential threat for the participants, this study maintained anonymity and confidentiality of the participants. While selecting qualitative method using semi-structured interviews, the researcher considered weakness of using single method and in this regard the use of CDA for analyzing news reports could strengthen research result to avoid potential weakness, if any.
2.1 News Report analysis using CDA
Fairclough (1997) rightly stated that “ideologies reside in texts” and ideology originates from the manner of thinking that forms an economic and social policy. Hence languages are always influenced by ideologies that govern our lives and thus political language discourses also reflects in daily activities, news and reports. Machin and Mayr (2012) noticed “in both texts and in speech it is extremely revealing if we look closely at the words chosen to represent how someone has spoken” and the authors prescribed some tools within CDA namely, quoting verbs, representational strategies in language, personalization and impersonalisation, which might be used for analyzing various literature and text analysis in my area of research. For example, selection of quoting verbs could help to understand various notions involved in a text. It can be surrounding situations beyond the incidents mentioned in any text, how the author tried to characterize the situation to influence the reader, it can be utilized to rationalize power and status of the people and to illustrate neutrality. Therefore, diverse media-based news reports and text that address news, views or the political development in Rakhine state could be interpreted pragmatically by using discourse analysis approach.
This study selected three news reports to understand political, social and religious nature of the conflict using CDA considering it as “a tool for deconstructing the ideologies of the mass media and other elite groups and for identifying and defining social, economic, and historical power relations between dominant and subordinate groups”. While analyzing the selected news report, this study applied some tools within CDA such as quoting verbs, representational strategies in language, personalization and impersonalisation for deconstructing the nature of conflict.
First news report titled "Who will help Myanmar's Rohingya?" appeared in BBC on 10 January, 2017 (hereinafter BBC) mentioned Rohingya " as the world's most persecuted people". The report mentioned "horrifying stories of rapes, killings and house burnings" as stated by the fleeing Rohingya and also wrote about statement of the government of Myanmar – claiming all these reports are "false" and "distorted". The report further indicated that "the BBC cannot visit the locked-down area to verify the claims [of the Rohingya] and the Myanmar government". It also mentioned that " Myanmar's government denies citizenship and sees them [Rohingya] as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh – a common attitude among many Burmese".
Second news report titled "Myanmar-promises-to-investigate-allegations-of-atrocities-against-rohingya" published in Euro news (hereinafter Euro News) rather than highlighting claims of Rohingya tried to indicate some positive action taken by the international community, Myanmar Government and also aspirations of the Rohingya. As the report mentioned "many Rohingya were reportedly hoping that Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, would work to restore their rights". It also quoted statement of Myanmar Presidential spokesperson Zaw Htay as: “These are extremely serious allegations and we are deeply concerned..We will be immediately investigating these allegations through the investigation commission, led by Vice-President U Myint Swe.” It also mentioned about the establishment of communication between the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights -Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein and the Myanmar Government quoting the statement of Zeid- “I did speak to Aung San Suu Kyi about an hour and a half ago,..I am not going to go now into the extent to which she should have done more or less,.. there should be some responsibility.”
Third news report titled "Rohingya strength and resilience captured in photo exhibition" published in The Burma Times (hereinafter Burma times) highlighted post-conflict life and resilience of Rohingya based on the report of photo journalist Ali MC, who visited Rohingya refugee and internally displaced peoples’ camps in Myanmar and Bangladesh. He intended to photograph Rohingya people, document their living conditions and better understand the events that forced them into this situation.
If we analyse further selected news reports using CDA, we could understand that BBC report tried to maintain neutrality and show objectivity while quoting "stories of violence, burning and rape" by the Rohingya and also stating claims by Myanmar Government terming them as "false and fabricated', whereas second report tried to give more emphasis on practical action and establishment of communication between Myanmar authority and UN High Commissioner of Human Rights and mentioned that there should be some responsibility. Second report tried use positive tone of action whereas first report indicated inaction by the international community and Myanmar state authorities. On the other hand, third report tried to see situation from different angle and it rather highlighted Rohingyas strength and resilience to cope with the situation without indicating issues of violence and conflict between two communities.
Although three selected reports mentioned that Rohingya Muslims are targets of ongoing violence in Rakhine state, none of the report clarified whether religious belief is the main reason of attack or there are some other reasons behind the conflict. That is why, it might be important to see how existing literature depicted issues of Rohingya in Rakhine state, Myanmar and possible role of religion behind the conflict and other factors and also potential role of religion towards peace building.
2.2. Doctrinal Analysis
The doctrinal analysis uses interpretive methods to examine to what extent existing literature identified and analyses the cause of violence in Rakhine state and potential approaches to solve the problem. As the core research question involves to identify whether religion has a role play or not as the root cause of problem or to what extent religion could play a role for future peace-building, the doctrinal analysis assesses options suggested by the existing literature. Therefore, the doctrinal analysis explores whether religion has become part of the problem or not and/or to what extent it could become part of the solution.
2.2.1 Religion as a driver for conflict, non-integration and oppression
From the dawn of human civilization politics and religion are interconnected. In the history of human civilization religion always played an important part in determining the society and political life of the people. Religion's significance may differ in the perspective of different country or society but its influence and appeal in social and political sphere is general around the globe. The world has observed in last few decades number of incidents how religious ambition turned social movement into violent conflict, political rights give rise to religiously aggravated armed conflict, how blind nationalism transformed into religious based ideology therefore inspires violence and intolerance and more importantly utilization of religion as an instrument to fulfill political dream. Much conflict having religion as 'centrality' also encompasses strong political dynamics. There are many incidents and situation in the history when religion is used as a weapon to implement political desire or social dominance. Use of religion is always been the most powerful weapon to oppress others to gain political dominance or societal control. Most heinous crimes like mass killing, rape, executions or in other words ethnic cleansing were and still approved under the name of religion to retain political control or due to the fear that minority community must be subjected to prejudice otherwise supremacy will be compromised. In the history of Holocaust we find that a learned man Gerhard Kittle professor New Testament theology and many of his followers supported Hitler and Holocaust owing to their fear of losing anti modern values and social prominence to urbanization and modernization. "Kittle shared with many of his fellow German Protestants a dislike for these offspring of the French and the Industrial Revolutions, an anti-modern stance which made them politically vulnerable." Kittle nullified the idea of equality and tolerance, feared of losing respect for church and social elites so he found Hitler as a savior against Jews. Though it was more Kittle's anti modern view of losing societal dominance and German nationalism fantasy but he tends to legalize his discriminatory idea against Jews under religions clothing as he viewed Jews as 'thread' to Christianity and prescribed to held them 'behind ghetto walls'.
Similar discriminatory ideas are still prevailing in the world, one of such example could be radical Islamic group 'Al-Qaeda’, which emerged to realize its political wish to confront Arab leaders from Middle Eastern region and replace them with more creditable and obedient religious governments. In the absence of desired political success 'Al -Qaeda' took more ambitious project from region now focus shifted to global aiming to cut the western influence from Muslims and Arab world and launched attack against west specially US hence attempts to justify terrorism on innocent western civilians as targeting 'enemy of Islam'. In both cases we see religion is taken as a resort to validate the monstrous crimes where the ultimate aim was not religious rather political.
Religion and politics are very closely associated with each other since time immemorial. Priest, monks, Imams and other religious leaders were and in some cases still possess greater political role than religious one. Today, the situation is not changed but modified. In many states persons holding religious position are interfering with state politics and influencing violence against minorities. Though the original goal is retaining some sort of political authority over policy making and society but they tend to give their political views a religious shade. If we look at conflicts in Sri Lanka, particularly disagreement between Tamil (minority) and Singhalese (majority) were based on the politicization of monks or movement of 'Sangha'. Promulgator of sangha Walpole Rahula was not ready to accept the idea of monks non-participation in politics and society, so he initiated 'political monk' model in association with Mahindra Rajapaksa government hence paved way for monks representation in parliament and against any kind of peace agreement with minorities. In some cases we see transformation of controversial religious norm into state law to encourage hatred and reinforce political power. Even in secular countries majority populations religious norms is utilized to achieve ulterior motive. For example, India is a secular country having Hindu religiously motivated government in power (BJP) which in order to strengthen political power employ religiously motivated rules against minorities for example current BJP government to retain support of its fundamental Hindu organization RSS banned cow slaughter and eating beef in several states and even promoted violence against beef eating communities like Muslims and Christians. Incidentally, series of violence including death were recorded after the declaration of state ban against beef.
Though cow slaughter, eating and selling beef were allowed earlier and not illegal under India's secular state constitution but as per Hindu's religious norms 'cow' is a holy animal and consuming beef and kettle business is prohibited. Government in this case took the 'religious' sentiment of majority Hindu to satisfy its political ally and maintained silence against such atrocities.
Shia and Sunni both sects of Islam are product of internal Muslim politics. Sectarian conflict between these two sects is more political than religious spins around high political ambition, power, authority, territorial control and economic benefit resulted in long-lasting civil war. Both sect vowed to deploy religion against each other and continue the legacy of their predecessors in terms of criminal actions and hatred towards each other.
From various incidents which I mentioned we can see religion could become a tool of political game and could end up in justifying atrocities, mass murder and killing of civilians. Similer kind of situation is somehow prevailing in Myanmar.
Due to complex physical location and belonging to acute poor financial zone of the world, Rakhine state remained a place of oppression, discrimination and violence and failed to receive adequate attention of international community and human rights groups. Therefore, there are very few and well researched literature that clearly identified causes of violence and role of religion for such conflict in Rakhine state in Myanmar. Azeem Ibrahim (2016) tried to show that Muslim identity of Rohingya and their linguistic identity played a role for oppression and violence against them whereas some other study indicated that it is due to discrimination and discriminatory citizenship law that contributing towards segregation and violence rather than religion itself.
Most of reports produced by The Rakhine Commission of Inquiry in 2013 indicated linguistic and religious segregation of the Rohingya and rather indicated non-integration of the Rohingya is the prime cause of non-cooperation and violence between the Buddhist and Rohingya Muslims. Rohingya community speaks different language which is similar “Chittagong Dialect“ as spoken in parts of Bangladesh. Most of the Rohingya people cannot read and write Burmese official language instead some of them can read and write urdu. Government and most of the Burmese population agreed on that position that Rohingya Muslims are illegal migrants.
Apart from that Rohingya failed to coup with Burmese culture and way of living life. Another important perspective is that Rohingya was always considered as outsiders and serving the interest of sovereign Myanmar. This idea is based on the colonial part of Myanmar when Rohingya minorities preferred to stay within British regime negating Burmese independent movement. This sentiment gave rise to the ethno-Burman nationalism that Rohingya are unwanted migrants from neighboring countries and should be expelled from Burman lands.
Furthermore, religion is often seen as a key cause of conflict, both in many individual incidents and on the several international conflicts. Samuel Huntington is considered one of the most prominent voice claiming that religious and cultural identities would be the main driver of international conflict in the new world order following the end of the Cold War. However, the notion of Huntington is not fully true as we see major conflicts around the world more or less has also linked with the political agenda of the governments and/or economic interest of groups or the state itself. Most of the existing literature on the situation in Rakhine conflict both literature sympathizing with Rohingya or justifying actions by the Myanmar authority or Buddhist community admitted that religion as a driver of conflict. It is again interesting that Kyaw San Wai stated that "there appears to be a distinct line drawn between other Muslims in Myanmar and the Rohingya in the Burmese perspective – the ‘sentiment’ has been anti-Rohingya rather than anti-Muslim". Further, Siegfried O. Wolf argued that " Rakhine state is one of the country's poorest areas, despite being rich in natural resources. The Rohingya are thus considered an additional economic burden on the state, as they compete for the few available jobs and opportunities to do business. The jobs and businesses in the state are mostly occupied by the Burmese elite. As a result, we can say that Buddhist resentment against the Rohingya is not only religious; it is also political and economically driven". This statement perhaps not baseless as it is not only Muslims but also Hindus are forced to leave Myanmar in a report is has been identified "amid an increase in violence in Myanmar, not only Rohingya Muslims but many Hindus too are leaving the Buddhist majority country and are seeking refuge in Bangladesh".
Futher, Sakia Sassen analysed and questioned whether Rohingya persecution guided by 'business interest rather than religion' as in her study she stated Myanmar government is in need to more land for allowing foreign investments hence expelling them (Rohingya) from their land is a way of freeing up land and water. Burning their (Rohingyas) homes makes this irreversible: the Rohingya are forced to flee and leave their lands behind. Hence, religion has captured the attention of observers and commentators around the world as the motivation behind this conflict, in the meantime, almost whole Rakhine will become empty as most of the Rohingya would be compelled to flee to neighboring countries particularly bordering Bangladesh and the Myanmar government could allocate million of hectares of abandoned house and lands in Rakhine state to foreign investors for extraction of natural resources and further development. That is why, Sassen considers that that the conflict is the design of military-economic interests, rather than by mostly religious. She offered no detail evidence for this proposition although indicated that the Myanmar government had already designated 1.27m hectares of land in Rakhine for agricultural development.
If we consider that religion is not main factor behind conflict than simply addressing religious freedom could not solve problem rather need to assess role play of institutions particularly law enforcing agencies, judiciary and social services such as education and health sector and over all rule of law and non-discriminatory equal treatment could become part of the solution. Therefore, it deserve further analysis to see whether religion is the main driver of conflict or there are other political and/or economic drivers that are instigating the conflicts between the Buddhist and the Rohingya and greater role of non-discriminatory state institutions and rule of law to maintain equality and justice for all in the Rakhine state.
2.2.2. Religion contribute to state and institutional failure/collapse
There appears to be a strong correlation between the emergence of religious conflict and situations of state failure or collapse. In case of conflicts in Rakhine state, it is admitted by international human rights groups and several state inquiry reports institutional failure contributing towards religious conflicts and state agencies need to maintain rule of law and non-discriminatory action.
Susan Hayward and Mathew Walton rightly remarked "Religious minority communities and actors, on the whole, are more vulnerable to intimidation, arbitrary arrest, and social bias… the judiciary and other rule of law institutions [in Myanmar] fail to protect religious minorities and sometimes enable discrimination, a legacy of their historical abuse by previous military regimes".
While commenting on the killing of one imminent Muslim human rights advocates in Myanmar Scot Marciel (US Ambassador to Myanmar in 2016-2017) remarked "one of the key challenges for Myanmar is building..—the rule of law, and part of the rule of law is justice, which means.., completing a credible and transparent investigation to make the people of the country feel that justice has been done". Even back in 2012 former Us Ambassador to Myanmar also mentioned his dissatisfaction and shock to see deep seated intolerance in the Myanmar society and non-discriminatory treatment and clear absence of rule of law to address atrocities and injustices against the Rohingya including stripping them from the right of citizenship.
There are several study that tried to show that lack of legal recognition or citizenship of the Rohingya community contribute to institutional failure as "the Rohingya are the single largest “stateless” community in the world. Their “statelessness” or lack of citizenship increases their vulnerability because they are not entitled to any legal protection from the government". Those who break the law risk imprisonment and the government blacklist their children. Without legal status, their children cannot go to school; they cannot travel or buy property. Even the police can arrest and imprison them without any reason. To understand the scenario on the ground in the Rakhine State in particular and Myanmar, in general regarding the role of religion for peace and conflict in the Rakhine state, I conducted interview with some stakeholders particularly addressing the concern of Rohingyas who are fleeing from conflict and also majority Buddhist who are supporting Myanmar government actions.
2.3. Case Study using qualitative interviews
Due to limitation of time and security issues, it was not possible to visit Rakhine state or to take interviews from the fields, rather I took interviews using online tools such as skype, email and messenger. Online interview was conducted to inquire the real life experience of the violence. Access to social media is restricted and controlled by government in Myanmar. Considering ongoing conflicts in Rakhine state during August-September, 2017 and so called security threat, very few participants agreed to provide interviews and even if they agreed it was very brief directly supporting only self-guided perspectives either blaming governmental actions or Rohingya community. Among the participants, only one participant agreed to provide a detailed interview regarding past, present and ongoing perspectives of the conflict and touched upon religious and political dimension of the conflict. The reason behind such attitude perhaps due to having pressure for supporting dominant perspectives and so called self-censorship to avoid future harassment and security threat. On the other hand, who has given detailed interview and was free to provide wider perspectives was due to his present living condition as he is now living in a democratic country and free society having full freedom of expression and no security threat for drawing own conclusion without fear (he is now living in UK). Considering importance of his detailed interview, I reproduced it here as follows-
People belong to Rohingya community settled in abroad agreed to provide interview but not willing to disclose their complete identity as their family members still living in Myanmar.
Ali a rohingya Muslim living in United Kingdom, he settled in UK under United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) resettlement programme. Interview was taken using online platform Skype.
1. What is your name and please can you give some personal information? Any childhood memories in Myanmar?
Hadayet Ali date of birth 1st January 1978 and I was born in a small village which officially known Kazzabek township Buthidaung in Rakhine state Myanmar and I did not have enough information in the relevant Rohingya and Rakhine Buddhist at that time but something I remembered we get scare when we see a Buddhist or an official body due to arbitrary harassment, extortion and taking away force labor and discrimination was continue in against Rohingya minority group.
2. How old were you when you left Myanmar?
I fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh on 28th of February 1992 When I was 14 years old boy.
3. Can you tell me in brief about the faith and ethnic community you belonged?
I was born in a Muslim family and I believe in Islam as a Muslim.
My parents were belonged to Rohingya ethnic community.
4. When did you left Myanmar? Can you remember any specific incident which made it obvious that you must escape from there?
In Rakhine there were most troubles situation against Rohingya minority in 1991 for example confiscated their properties and land. They were restricted to movement from village to village and many mosques were closed in Rakhine state. The military authorities started forced labour, extortion and arbitrary harassment including rape against Rohingya Muslim women. In the meantime, my father was killed by the military as he refused to go for force labour to the military Camps and finally my mother and elder sister decided to flee to Bangladesh.
5. What kind of treatment you received from Bangladeshi parts as a refugee?
In 1992 I registered as a refugee with my mother, brothers and sisters with a great hope peace and safety in Bangladesh and firstly Bangladeshi authorities and local people helped us as victim and vulnerable refugees.
3. Findings and recommendations
3.1. Ways to promote "desacralisation"
As religion has more or less some role play in the conflict in Rakhine state, peaceful disposal of conflicts having religious sentiment could be achieved by using a process of " desacralisation ". . Isak Svensson in his Book "Ending Holy Wars: religion and conflict resolution in civil wars " proposes several methods which can be utilized to achieve peaceful negotiation of religion based armed conflict using desacralisation process. The author intended to focus on a phenomeneon called 'desacralisation' “de-escalation of relious related tensions“ to reach peaceful solution against religious armed conflicts.
Svensson defines 'desacralisation' as “the process through which religious factors decrease in importance in the context of an armed conflict ” The theory of 'desacralisation' has four aspects first, it can be continous or sudden deduction of religious aspiration to an armed conflict. Second, it links the matters at risk not the identity phase of the concerned parties. Third, it can be "driven by political leaders and actors, or it can be a larger societal shift." Fourth, elimination of religion from armed conflict considering "religious incompatability" for the political arena.
Svensson further observed that 'desacralisation' can be either political or societal. In former case, religion can be less issue of cocerrn, the religious actors can reformulate the significance of religion or religious topic can be moved to political area whereas in latter case it can be delegitimisation, fractionalisation or reconvergence.
In order to initiate peace in Rakhine state in Myanmer Isak Svensson`s “theory of desacralisation“ can be taken into consideration engaging political and religious actors from concerning communties. Sevensson argues that if dynamic of desacralisation used to resolve religious conflicts then as religion ‘can become less of a tool for war, and instead more of a tool for peace’.
In this regard, role of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine state and report of the commission might be a guide towards a reconciliation process and long term peace-building.
3.2. Role of The Advisory Commission on Rakhine State and importance of greater multi-religion dialogue and cooperation
The Advisory Commission on Rakhine State – chaired by Mr Kofi Annan – was established on 5 September 2016 at the behest of Myanmar’s State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. According to the Commission’s Terms of Reference – Commission will consider humanitarian issues, living conditions, access to health, education and livelihoods, the question of citizenship and freedom of movement, and the assurance of basic rights. In accordance with established international standards, the Commission was instructed to develop recommendations within five thematic areas: conflict prevention, humanitarian assistance, reconciliation, institution building and development. The Commission submitted final report in August 2017 recommending among others following issues for the settlement of conflicts and long term peace building in the Rakhine state-
a) Citizenship- The report stated "Myanmar harbours the largest community of stateless people in the world, and the Commission was specifically mandated to explore this issue and provide recommendations related to citizenship and documentation and propose actions to clarify questions of citizenship". The report warned if this issue is not addressed it will continue to cause significant human suffering and insecurity. The report particularly indicated that 1982 citizenship law need to revised based on international norms and standards.
b) Freedom of movement: the report recommended that " the Government should ensure freedom of movement for all people in Rakhine State, irrespective of religion, ethnicity,
or citizenship status. The freedom of movement and access to services are deeply interlinked, and therefore should be addressed in parallel. All communities should have access to education, health, livelihood opportunities and basic services".