Myanmar Census Confronted by Ethnic and Racial Tensions

Yesterday Myanmar started conducting its first national census in over 30 years. The census is an important exercise, one will give the government much needed information about the total population and demographics which it has lacked for three decades. But what should be an opportunity to move forward in the democratization process for the country is instead becoming yet another controversial development in the Myanmar’s bumpy transition out of international isolation.

Chief among concerns is the government’s overall approach to ethnicity in the census questionnaire. Not only does it ask very detailed questions about ethnicity and religion but as Elliott Prasse-Freeman pointed out late last year, it also forces a very diverse society to identify with just one ethnicity and group when Myanmar is far more of a melting pot of its 135 recognized ethnic groups. This proposes an absolute view of ethnicity that could further divide the country in light of growing ethnic and religious tensions. As with the collection of any type of personal information by the government, the major question is how it will be used by the government. It is unclear whether enough reform and democratization has occurred for people not to be concerned about the collection of incredibly detailed personal information, particularly about religion and ethnicity.

These general concerns don’t take into account the controversy surrounding treatment of Rohingya Muslims who under a 1982 law are not granted Myanma citizenship despite a long history in the country. Often referred to as one of the most marginalized groups in the world by the UN, the plight of the Rohingya has only worsened in recent years due to inter-communal violence with Buddhists that erupted in Rakhine State in 2012. Since then hundreds of Rohingya have been killed and an estimated 140,000 displaced in what Human Rights Watch has called a campaign of ethnic cleansing. As Myanmar continues to take promising steps towards democratization with successful parliamentary elections in 2012 and a planned general election in 2015, the issue of the Rohingya remains a difficult thorn in Myanmar’s new image.

The national census offers little to fix this. Initially there were hopes the Rohingya would be included in the census but significant pushback by the Buddhist community complicated those efforts. Even the rumor that Rohingya would be included led to a new campaign of sectarian marking, with people hanging Buddhist flags outside their homes to signify who is, and who is not, Buddhist. When a Western aid worker took down a flag from their office building last week, hundreds of Buddhists attacked the building and forced the government to put international aid workers under protective custody. This comes after the government banned Doctors Without Borders (MSF) from operating in Rakhine State due to what they called a “Rohingya bias” as MSF became the primary provider of medical care of the increasingly displaced population. With such tensions, the option of “Rohingya” has been left off the census in favor of the foreign “Bengali”, further signaling that things are unlikely to change and the Rohingya will remain stateless and marginalized for the foreseeable future.

How a country conducts its own census is largely a domestic issue but in this case the census is being implemented with the help and technical support of the UN. That means the UN is responsible for ensuring that such an exercise does not make a volatile situation worse. Given the inter-communal and sectarian violence that has wracked Rakhine state for the last two years and the ongoing ethnic tensions throughout the country that are deeply rooted in decades of strife, it makes little sense to risk the democratization process on an ill-timed and poorly thought out census. The International Crisis Group raised a plausible compromise where only the first six questions on the questionnaire – those dealing with age, sex and marital status – could be asked, successfully giving the government the information it needs to meet the development and governance needs of the people while also not unnecessarily stirring the pot with issues that need much more thought and planning. Obviously, such suggestions went unheeded. Thus while the census exercise will wrap up by April 10, the real concern is what impact it will have on an already fragile transitional state and its most vulnerable populations.

Originally published on UN Dispatch

Ethnic Violence and Arresting UN Workers: Myanmar Backslides →

Since the historic democratic parliamentary elections in April, Myanmar has seen the world’s opinion of them shift for the first time in decades. No longer an international pariah, the moderate reforms enacted since 2010 have been enough to see sanctions eased, diplomatic ties reestablished and Western businesses reentering the country.

But this does not mean that all is well in Myanmar. The oppression of ethnic minorities has long been a part of Myanmar’s history, but recent developments in Rakhine State where ethnic violence broke out last month between the Muslim Rohingya minority and the Buddhist Rakhine majority demonstrates the devastating consequences such oppression can have and how much more is needed from the Myanmar government.

The trigger for the violence appears to be the rape and murder of a local Rakhine woman in late May. After police arrested three Rohingya men, a mob of Rakhine Buddhists pulled ten Muslim pilgrims off a bus and beat them to death in retaliation. From there, the violence spread throughout the province, testing the government’s resolve to contain racial tensions and continue enacting the reforms that have recently brought them such positive attention.

On those two criteria it appears that Myanmar is failing miserably. Although the government declared a state of emergency on June 10 and brought in the military to aid in security, it failed to halt the violence. Instead, Human Rights Watch reports that local security forces and the military are using the violence to justify further persecution of the Rohingya.

The government banned international observers from visiting Rakhine state, making accurate analysis of how bad the violence has been impossible. While the government places the total death count at 80, human rights organizations estimate that hundreds may have been killed so far. Similarly, the government estimates that 55,000 people have been displaced since the riots started while humanitarian agencies in Myanmar believe that number is closer to 100,000. Most of those killed and displaced are Rohingyas. As more and more of them flee to IDP camps, the conditions at those campscontinue to deteriorate to the point where some aid agencies are warning that mass starvation could become a reality in the near future.

Yet despite the increased need for emergency aid, the region is seeing aid agencies leave the area. Many aid agencies evacuated foreign staff as the violence escalated, and some are finding it difficult to receive government permission to return. For those who stayed, security remains a critical issue. A major cause for concern is the detention of ten local aid workers from the UN Refugee Agency, Doctors Without Borders and the World Food Program since late June, allegedly for “stimulating” the riots. Last week, the government criminally charged three of them, although the exact nature of the charges is unknown. Despite attempts by UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres to gain their release, the government continues to refuse international access to the prisoners or release details about the criminal case against them.

Instead, Myanmar President Thein Sien shared with Guterres his plan on how to fix the situation: make all one million of the Rohingyas leave the country or have them permanently settled in IDP camps. Since the Rohingya are not allowed Myanmar citizenship under a 1982 law, Sien’s view is that as a stateless people there is no reason why they should stay in Myanmar or fall under the government’s care. Needless to say, the idea has not garnered support from the UN, but with the reduced aid entering Rakhine State there is a fear that the government will continue to persecute and deny basic services to the Rohingya until they flee to neighboring Bangladesh, or simply die.

And these are just the problems in one small corner of the country. It is true that Myanmar has taken positive steps towards reform and there are high hopes that the progress continues as Western businesses begin to return and limitation on civil liberties are loosened. However, the events in Rakhine State over the last six weeks demonstrates that a leopard doesn’t change its spots, at least not overnight. The treatment of ethnic minorities remains a serious and chronic problem, as does the government’s negative attitude towards international agencies and international law. As Myanmar begins to reenter the larger international community, it is important to keep in mind that Western business contracts are not the only thing worth paying attention to.

Originally published on July 17, 2012 at UN Dispatch