GENOCIDE IN MYANMAR

3. STIGMATISATION AND DEHUMANISATION
The first step in destroying previously cooperative relations within or between social groups is stigmatisation.
(Feierstein) 137
The stigmatisation and dehumanisation of the Rohingya operates from the highest levels of government
to local Rakhine civil society. In 2015 the Head of the Myanmar Human Rights Commission, Win Mra, an
ethnic Rakhine who refers to the Rohingya who mainly live in Rakhine state as ‘strangers’, said:
As human beings… we have the right to food, health and other human rights, but when you
claim yourself as a Rohingya, that's a different issue. 138
A leading Rakhine human rights organisation, said:
But these Bengalis are not like humans - they are intolerant demons which spill blood and inflict
pain and suffering on others. Thus we must resist them. 139
The process of stigmatisation and dehumanisation has been in play for over three decades. A key moment
in re-positioning the Rohingya outside the state’s sphere of responsibility was in 1982, when General Ne
Win removed the Rohingya from the list of officially recognised ethnic minorities. Central to this ongoing
re-positioning is the government’s explicit refusal to recognise or use the term ‘Rohingya’.
Demonisation on the basis of skin colour, other physical characteristics or alleged behaviour patterns –
a feature of genocides elsewhere in the world – is widespread in Myanmar. In 2009, for instance,
Myanmar’s senior official in Hong Kong, Ye Myint Aung, compared the ‘fair and soft skin’ of Myanmar
people with the ‘dark brown’ complexion of the Rohingya who he described as ‘ugly as ogres’. 140
137 Ibid.
138 Paluch, G, ‘As Myanmar rights official, an Elvis impersonator sings different tune’, LA Times, 1 July 2015: http://www.latimes.
com/world/asia/la-fg-ff-myanmar-elvis-20150701-story.html#page=1. Accessed 10 October 2015.
139 Arakan Human Rights and Development Organisation (AHRDO), ‘Conflict and Violence in Arakan (Rakhine) State, Myanmar
(Burma): What is Happening, Why and What To Do’, July 2013 p.21: http://www.burmalink.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/
AHRDO.Arakan-Violence-Report-for-reading-Online.pdf. Accessed 10 October 2015.
140 ‘Myanmar envoy terms Rohingyas “ugly as ogres”’, The Dawn, 12 February 2009: http://www.dawn.com/news/342940/
myanmar-envoy-terms-rohingyas-ugly-as-ogres. Accessed 10 October 2015.
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