84 Fascist People’s Freedom League (AFPFL) lead by Aung San and U Nu took on leadership of Burma, this status was not maintained. Religious polarisation continued in Arakan. In 1946, a group of particularly rebellious Muslims that had migrated to Arakan from Chittagong (in present day Bangladesh), appealed to Ali Jinnah to annex the region to the new state of Pakistan that would be formed in 1947. Jinnah and AFPFL leader Aung San rebuffed this proposition. In 1948, Arakanese Buddhists began returning to their land and rebuilding villages, but the rebel Muslim faction declared a jihad against them in pursuit of an independent Muslim state. Known as the Mujahid Rebellion, the group maintained an insurgency against the AFPFL and contributed to tensions between Burma and East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh) until the rebels surrendered in November 1961 (Yegar 1972). It is important to note that the Mujahid group did not represent all Muslims in Arakan, and the rebellion did not attract wide support from Rohingya leaders (Matheison 2009). At the time, both Prime Minister U Nu and later, Prime Minister U Ba Sue recognized the Rohingya as one of Burma’s ethnic groups (Constantine 2012). A reconciliation effort by U Nu’s government was abandoned when Ne Win’s military regime took power in 1962 (Yegar 1972). Timeline to today: the Rohingya This legacy of discrimination and distrust was institutionalized and systematically implemented by Ne Win’s military regime. After overthrowing the AFPFL in 1962, Ne Win’s Burmese Way to Socialism would directly affect the livelihoods of the Rohingya communities in Arakan, renamed Rakhine State in 1974. In 1978, Operation Naga Min (Dragon King) executed a massive sweep of the entire country in order to identify individuals without national identity papers. Military forces used brutal tactics against the Rohingya and around 250,000 Rohingya fled across the border to Bangladesh. Responding to outcry from the international community, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) facilitated an agreement between Bangladesh and Burma, Operation Shwe Hintha (Golden Bird), to repatriate the Rohingya refugees back to Rakhine State. When the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) took over in 1988, it continued the onslaught. Pyi Thaya Operation (Clean and Beautiful Nation) consisted of “abuse, forced labor, harassment, rape, arbitrary land seizure, destruction of property and executions of Rohingya in North Rakhine” (Constantine 2012). Over the next year, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled to Bangladesh and were resettled in refugee camps there; however, international human rights and health organisations were not permitted access. In 1992, the security force called Nay-Sat Kut-Kwey Ye, or NaSaKa, was created to monitor the border between Bangladesh and Rakhine. This body has been the main force responsible for human rights abuses in Rakhine for the past decade (Constantine 2012). Without citizenship status, the Rohingya have no rights to own property, are restricted from leaving their
ASIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS VOL. 6. NO. 1