An inside look into Burma's Rohingya conflict

In Burma's troubled Rakhine state, latest estimates put the number of "internally displaced persons" at more than 70,000 people.

Southeast Asia correspondent, Zoe Daniel, has had a rare opportunity to see for herself what is going inside Rakhine's borders.

Presenter: Richard Ewart

Correspondent: Zoe Daniel, South East Asia correspondent

DANIEL: The communities living in segregated circumstances, essentially the Muslim people are largely living in camps segregated from the ethnic Rakhine people who are still living in town, particularly in Sittwe which is the main city in Rakhine State. So as you said around 70-thousand displaced people are living both in those Muslim camps and also displaced Rakhine people are living in monasteries within the towns themselves. There's still a high level of tension between the communities to the point that the Muslim people are really not able to go into the towns to buy food supplies for example. They really are living outside the main community.

EWART: Now I gather that while you were down there that the officialdom was keeping a pretty close eye on what you were up to. So bearing that in mind I mean were you able to talk to officials, and if so what were they telling you?

DANIEL: Yes we were able to talk with officials and look while we were very closely monitored, we weren't prevented from doing anything, and we were able to speak with some local government officials, in particular we interviewed the Attorney General of Rakhine State who's involved in a community program to try to bridge the gap between the Rakhine people and the Muslim community. And he said that while at the moment they're pursuing this policy of segregation, he denies that they see that as a permanent solution, and this is one of the concerns that's obviously being raised about this idea of separating the two groups. He says that this has to be done at the moment because the tension remains very high. But they are hopeful that the communities can once again be integrated as soon as possible. I'd have to say though that I think that's going to be very difficult just because the level of tension remains very high, and that was extremely evident to us. In one instance a group of Muslim people from one of the camps came to the main market to buy supplies under guard of the riot police, and they were chased away by people wielding sticks and throwing stones, because of concern if they entered the market that could lead to violence, unrest and perhaps that the market may be burnt down or something similar to the sort of unrest that we saw back in June.

EWART: So against that background I imagine that people on both sides I mean they're having to endure this sort of state of uneasy calm and not really knowing quite what the future holds for them?

DANIEL: Yes I think both sides are finding the situation extremely difficult. The Rakhine people who are still in their houses, so who didn't have their homes damaged in the violence are very fearful. There's a very high level of anxiety about what will happen next. The few thousand Rakhine people, I think the number now is three-and-a-half to four-thousand who are still living in monasteries because their homes were burnt, obviously have a very uncertain future and are unsure what permanent housing they will eventually be settled in and where that will be. The government is building some housing for them, but that will be some distance off. So they're all living together in very difficult conditions in very heavy rain in the monasteries. And then you have tens of thousands of Muslim people who are living in essentially makeshift camps separated from the main community in which they once worked and lived, unable to make an income, therefore totally dependent on food aid for example for survival. So it's a really very difficult situation for all the people in Rakhine State no matter what their background.

EWART: Now we were speaking on the program yesterday to Benedict Rogers, human rights advocate and author, he's written extensively on Burma, travelled there many times, sometimes when he wasn't supposed to be because of the blacklist of course that's existed. But he suggested that the army potentially are stirring the pot in Rakhine in an effort to maintain some sort of grip on power, to maintain their relevance. I mean did you see or hear anything to support that view?

DANIEL: Well I know that that view's been put about. I didn't see anything to support that view. Whether that was the case back in June though is sort of a different question. I think one potential issue that was happening in June was that many of the soldiers were of the Rakhine ethnic group. Now they've brought in other soldiers who are from different ethnic backgrounds who may not be as close to the issue. And they obviously have, because of the state of emergency that was declared there, there are many more military men on the ground there now. But what we saw was essentially the army and the police monitoring. There was no evidence of anyone really stirring anything up. But what is happening is that the communities are being kept separate in order to avoid any violence blowing up. But as I've already said the sustainability of that is highly questionable.

EWART: So therefore the chances for any kind of permanent settlement would appear to be at least as far away as ever?

DANIEL: I find it very difficult to see what the permanent resolution will be just because the average person that you speak to, be they Muslim or Rakhine, can't see themselves living peacefully with the other group again. Therefore how do you move forward? And whlie it's clearly questionable whether segregation of the communities is a permanent solution, I can in a way understand why authorities have done that, just simply to keep the peace for the moment while they try to work out what to do, because it really does appear to be still a tinderbox, and putting those communities back together at this point really does seem like it would be a bad idea.

EWART: And animosity that obviously exists between the two sides. I mean does that spread throughout society on both sides or is this being driven by a minority?

DANIEL: Look it's hard to say because obviously we're only able to speak to a limited number of people. But everyone we spoke to had this view. The view is very pervasive from the Rakhine side that the Muslim people don't belong there, that they have for example for many years, and this is an allegation, been attempting to recruit Rakhine people to Islam. There's a lot of negativity from the Rakhine side towards the Muslim people. To even use the term Rohingya, which is the term that the Muslim people use to describe themselves, really does raise the ire of the Rakhine people because they don't recognise that. And then the Muslim people very much feel that they've had very few rights for a long time and that they've been unfairly treated and repressed by the local community. So the debate on the face of it among the local people on both sides is completely polarised.

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