The ethnic conflict in Myanmar: from the British colonisation to the 2021 Coup d’état. Focus on the stateless Muslim Rohingya community.

Burma has been considered a strategic territory for its geographical position, mainly in the period under the British Empire since the first decades of the 19th century. In particular, since 1962, internal policies have drastically thrown the country into a state of internal ethnic conflicts, characterised by the passage of several military governments and a parallel humanitarian crisis for the ethnicities involved. Nevertheless, in 2010 (with the first Myanmar democratic elections after a long period of military dictatorship), hopes for a more democratic future began in Myanmar, arriving in 2015 with the elections’ victory of the NLD Party guided by the country’s democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Despite the optimistic promises, one of the larger and known forced displacements of people occurred during the democratic government. More specifically, starting in 2012, the internal political situation has been dramatically exacerbated due to several intern ethnic clashes, evidencing the Myanmar Muslim Rohingya minority – residing in the Northern Rakhine state bordering Bangladesh – as the most affected. The Myanmar government does not officially recognise this ethnic group as one of the Burmese indigenous groups since 1962, so they cannot directly apply for citizenship despite clear evidence of their presence within the country even before the British colonisation. They have been experiencing the denial of their identity, being exposed to military pressures and harassment deployed by the Myanmar Army and constant clashes with the local majority Buddhist Rakhine ethnicity. As a result of these constant military menaces enacted by the Tatmadaw (Myanmar Army), many startled Rohingya have fled toward Bangladesh and Thailand to find shelter, abandoning their land and lives. Currently, more than 900000 Rohingya are confined in refugee camps in Bangladesh, experiencing critical living conditions due to the camps’ overpopulation and precarious health conditions. Moreover, the International Organizations are not acting exhaustively to deal with this humanitarian crisis, implying the persistence of several refugees’ issues regarding education, health, and security matters. For these reasons, this research aims to find the leading causes that have created the hatred matured by the Burmans majority groups toward the Muslim Rohingya minority. Specifically, a vast number of sources will be used to analyse how the former British colonisation government had impacted Burmese society since the 19th century, also covering the historical path from the post-WW2 Independence to the 2021 Coup d’état. Finally, this study will expose the international responses to the crisis, focusing on the 2021 military Coup d’état and the involvement of some Italian Associations dealing with Myanmar before and after the Coup.