Burma (Myanmar) Jihad in historical perspective.

  My source used for this essay is Dr. Aye Chan's research at Japan's Kanda University of International Studies, in his review of Britsh correspondence between the years 1947 and 1975. As well as his later original research papers and articles on this conflict.

This is a very complicated subject, that has little if any historical context accompanying contemporary articles or commentary on the truly disturbing accusations arising from this long-term conflict.

I am completely against the targeting of civilian populations on either side to achieve political or religious agendas not conforming to international laws and the norms of civil conflict resolution.

What is a legitimate defense of indigenous cultural and religious traditions?

What steps can a civilian, military, political leadership take to secure the long-term security of its people and their traditions in the face of an organized operation to obliterate its very existence through an international theocratic campaign of Jihad?

Records of the diplomatic exchanges of the national archives of the British Commonwealth make clear that a jihad was declared in the 1940s against the nation as well as the Buddhists of the borderlands of Burma (Myanmar) East Pakistan (Bangladesh)

An insurgent enclave of sedition was purposely set up to advance the goals of theocratic interests in East Pakistan ( later Bangladesh) along the border region separating Burma and East Pakistan. I believe it was the same general tactic employed to great effect, to frustrate and then attempt to overturn the Jewish effort to reconstitute their homeland in the middle east. Just as the word or designation, "Palestinian" has no real historical context relating to Arabs. Linguistic research suggests the same with the word, "Rohingya" as unconnected to any indigenous population group related to a specific geographic area, and is instead connected with the religious concept or word, "Mohammedans" in the Rakhine Languages (Arakanese). Evidence strongly suggests the "Rohingya" Muslims are in reality Bengali Muslims, simply cynically designated as persecuted stateless victims to further a narrative to an uninformed world community to advance an Islamic agenda. The parallels with the Israeli, Palestinian conflict are utterly stunning in the similarities.

 “A Comparative Vocabulary of Some of the Languages Spoken in the Burma Empire in 1799 ″ by Francis Buchanan – which mentioned Rohingya is the native of Arakan and their language with comparing others languages. U Haty Lwin Oo pointed out the pronunciations – Sun, Mon and earth – which is similar to recent Rohingya languages. He also appointed out with report that Rohingya means Mohammedans (Islam religious). After seeing the references book, Dr. Aye Chan said Rohingya mean Rakhine and after again seeing languages he again said the Rohingya language is Rakhine Languages (Arakanese).”...

http://kaladanpress.org/index.php/news/328-news-2013/march-2013/4139-rohingya-means-rakhine-dr-aye-chan.html

From Amnesty international

The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)

rejects the existence of a separate ethnic group called "Rohingya"

The vast majority of Rohingyas are not believed to possess Myanmar citizenship. Moreover they are not recognised as one of the 135 ‘national races’ by the Myanmar government: In actual fact, although there are (135) national races living in Myanmar today, the so-called Rohingya people is not one of them. Historically, there has never been a ‘Rohingya’ race in Myanmar. The very name Rohingya is a creation of a group of insurgents in the Rakhine State..(page 5)

https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/92000/asa160052004en.pdf

From Oxford University

In the late 1950s, Muslim leaders and students in North Arakan (officially known as Rakhine State since 1989) began to use the term Rohingya to assert a distinct ethnoreligious identity for the region’s Muslim community, as distinct from its majority Buddhist population, to which the term Rakhine usually refers.1 In the early 1960s, Muslim authors of Rohingya pamphlets were keenly aware of how novel their chosen appellation was for the Burmese public at the time. The use of the name spread widely in the international media after riots in Rakhine State in 2012, when Rohingyas became widely known internationally as a state-oppressed Muslim minority.2 The term Rohingya embodies an ongoing process of identity formation that has unified Muslim communities in the North Arakan region with a similar cultural profile, but a diverse historical background; at the same time, Myanmar officials reject Rohingya as an ethnic denomination, as they reject the legitimacy of the postcolonial Rohingya movement of political emancipation, aiming at the creation of an autonomous Muslim area in North Arakan.3

http://asianhistory.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277727-e-115

This east Asian conflict was funded and encouraged to frustrate any resolution not aligning with the goals of the religious fanatics fanning the flames of intolerance within the Ummah (theocratic Islamic community) inhabiting the area, as well as those outside forces seeking to gain political/religious, influence in the region under dispute.

Burma's Western Border as Reported by the Diplomatic Correspondence (1947 - 1975) If one explores the diplomatic records of the British Commonwealth in the National Archives in London, two files will be found in the accession to the Southeast Asia Collection, bound with the corresponding letters between the British Embassy in Rangoon, the Foreign Office in London, the High Commissioner of the United Kingdom in Karachi, Pakistan and the Deputy High Commissioner of the United Kingdom in Dacca (Dhaka). According to the British Archival Law, these files were kept secret as government documents until 1979 and 2005 respectively. Both of them consist of the correspondences between these diplomatic missions, regarding border problems between Burma and East Pakistan (later Bangladesh ) .Burma (Myanmar) was a British colony until 1948:Arakan (Rakhine State) that shares an international boundary of 45 miles with Bangladesh today was the first Burmese province annexed to British India after the First Anglo-Burmese War (1924-26). The Naaf River serves as the emblematic border between the two countries. The aforementioned documents have shed lights on new information on the Jihadist movement of the Chittagonian residents (or so-called Rohingya) in North Arakan, the illegal cross-border migrations, and the communal violence on Burma's western frontier in the first decade of independent Burma.

On the Mujahid Rebellion in Arakan . The Mujahids of Chittagonian Muslims from North Arakan declared the jihad on Burma after the central government refused to grant a separate Muslim state in the two townships, Buthidaung and Maungdaw that lie along the East Pakistani (present-day Bangladeshi) border. The Mujahid movement was launched before Burma gained independence , and sabotaged the resettlement program for the refugees in the Buthidaung and Maungdaw Townships.

 During the World War II, the Arakanese inhabitants of Buthidaung and Maungdaw were forced to leave their homes. The people of Buthidaung fled to Kyauktaw and Minbya where the Arakaneselived as the majority. The Arakanese from Maungdaw were evacuated to Dinajpur in East Bengal by the British officials. Even though the British administration was reestablished after the war, the Arakanese were unable to return to their homes:     For want of funds only 277 out of about 2400 indigenous Arakanese, who were displaced from Buthidaung and Maungdaw Townships after the British evacuation in 1942, could be resettled on the sites of their original homes. There are also two thousand Arakanese Buddhist refuges brought for fear of Muslims' threatening and frightening them by firing machine guns near the villages at night. While our hands are full with internally displaced refugees we cannot take the responsibilityfor repatriation of the Muslim refugees from the Sabirnagar camp which the government of India is pressing."....The Muslim refugees from the camp at Subirnagar were also unable to resettle in the interior part of Akyab District at Alegyun, Apaukwa and Gobedaung. All 3,000 of them were initially sent to Akyab Island. Two Muslim Relief Committees were formed in Akyab and Buthidaung in order to provide any possible assistance to the refugees. Then a proposal to send about 1,500 refugees in small groups to the Muslim villages in Buthidaung Township as a temporary solution was accepted. The District Welfare Officer was instructed to work out the expenses for transport and building materials.2)       In August 1947, the Sub-Divisional Officer of Maungdaw, U Tun Oo, was brutally murdered by the Muslims. The Commissioner of Arakan reports:..........."I have no doubt that this is a result of a long fostered communal feeling by the Muslims. The assassins who committed the murder were suspected to be employed by the Muslim Police Officers and have been organizing strong Muslim feelings and dominating the whole areas. This is a direct affront and open challenge to the lawful authority of the Burma Government by the Muslim Community of Buthidaung and Maungdaw Townships whose economic invasion of this country was fostered during the British regime. Unless this most dastardly flouting of the government is firmly and severely dealt with, this alien community will try to annex this territory or instigate Pakistan to annex it.3)"

The newly independent republic had to cope with the insurgency of Karen ethnic group rebels and the communists after celebrating the independence in 1948. Major cities were captured by the Communists and Karen rebels. Two battalions of the regular army went underground to join the communists. The rebels surrounded the Capital City, Rangoon. The Union government was scrawled in the international newspapers with the epithet of "Rangoon Government." In such a situation only a few hundred troops from the Battalion (V) were sent to the western front to fight the Mujahids. Buthidaung and Maungdaw were under the control of the government forces but the countryside around the town was out of control.Concerning the objective and strength of the Mujahids, The British Embassy in Rangoon reported the Foreign Office in Londonon February 12, 1949

"It is hard to say whether the ultimate object of the Muslims is that their separate state should remain within the Union or not, but it seems likely that even an autonomous state within the Union would necessarily be drawn towards Pakistan. The Mujahids seem also to have taken arms in about October last,although this does not exclude the possibility that some have not gone underground and are still trying to obtain their objective by agitation only. There are perhaps 500 Muslims under arms, although the total number of supporters of the movement is greater.4)

http://ci.nii.ac.jp/els/contentscinii_20170920113716.pdf?id=ART0009830506

I think I have presented the general direction of the correspondence recorded by the British, but please take the time to read the full report. Do your own research, do not believe those pushing an agenda, make up your own mind. If you learned something here, just think what can learn on your own. It's only with knowledge of the truth, that we can make informed decisions. Ignorance is always, in every case, a poor companion to reason.