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An analysis of the Rohingya Genocide in Myanmar : An Incongruence of the State-To-Nation Balance or The Failure of The Democratic Transition?
Prof. Benjamin Miller and Cecilia Gialdini — University of Haifa,Seminar course on Regional War and Conflict
This paper tries to analyse the allegedly genocide undergoing in the Rakhine province of Myanmar to the detriment of the Rohingyas, a Muslim confessional ethnic group living in the region. The adverb “allegedly” is required, since the international community’s institutions (namely the United Nations) did not defined the mass murders of Rohingya as a genocide, and, therefore, did not call for the application of the provisions of the Geneva Convention on Genocide1. Although investigating the correct definition of the ethnic cleansing pursued by the Myanmar government is beyond the scope of this paper, it will indeed try to assess the motivations and the reasons of such. First of all, it will review the political evolution undertaken by Myanmar in the recent years, especially in the democratic transition culminated in 2015 with the victory of the National League for Democracy and the designation of the Nobel Prize for Peace Aung San Suu Kyi as State Counsellor. Then, it will give a picture of the situation of the Rohingya minority during the years, and the increasingly deprivation of civil and political rights. Finally, in order to understand the reasons of the oppression of the Muslim minority, it will frame it within the state-to-nation balance paradigm by Benjamin Miller, assessing if the ultimately motivation lies in the mismatch of country’ boundaries and ethnic groups. Within this framework, the dependent variable to be analysed shall be the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya and the independent variable the democratisation process occurring in Myanmar. The final goal will be to determine the presence of an incongruence in the state-to-nation balance, and to define what type of state should Myanmar be considered.
The definition of genocide, under article 2 of the Convention, underlines the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”. This means that the violations of human rights shall have a clear purpose, that is the elimination of a part of the population because of some characteristics. According to the classification of Professor Penny Green of the International State Crime Initiative, the main phases are stigmatization, harassment, isolation, systematic weakening and mass annihilation. As in the Holocaust, every genocide starts with the propaganda against a targeted group of people, then moves to the negation of the existence of such group, denying civil and political rights, and, at the end, the executions. Such executions can be authorised by law (Nuremberg Laws against the Jews), or be a part of a military plan (the Srebrenica massacre in the former Yugoslavia), or spontaneously carried out by parts of the population (the Rwanda genocide).
A genocide can have many motivations, but one of the most significant is the implementation of a belief or an ideology. In this case the goal is to create a pure race or an ideal society, populated by a homogeneous ethnicity, the Buddhist Burmese; in order to achieve such goal, those who do not fit the ideal shall be destroyed. The ultimate result of genocide is the annihilation of the enemy within the state, blamed to jeopardise the predominant group’s purity. There is evidence that proves that the Rohingya persecution is following the five phases identified by Professor Green. Therefore, on a pure legal point of view, the Rohingya’s ethnic cleansing is indeed a genocide. What lacks in such case is the political recognition, both from the state of Myanmar and the international community.
The paper will also present two alternative explanation applying the Social Constructivist and the Liberal approaches. The Social Constructivism will take into account the notion of identity, following Alexander Wendt’s definition. In particular, it will analyse the process of identity-definition as the construction of self in opposition to the other, and how religious identity (Muslim or Buddhist) can clash to the point of the eruption of violence. On the other hand, Liberalism will analyse how the Rohingya’s massacre is challenging the uprising democracy in Myanmar and how the very existence of democracy as a form of government does not always ensure the respect of human rights.
