Arakan’s Struggle for Justice and Integrity Amid Historical Misrepresentation

By Warazein, GAN

Longread: Opinions                                       July 7, 2025

ULA-Led Social Cohesion Football Match (photocrd)

In recent years, Arakan (Rakhine State) has re-emerged as a key focal point of international attention, largely due to complex ethnic, religious, and political dynamics playing out along its borderlands. While humanitarian concern is valid and necessary, it has too often been misapplied or manipulated to serve selective narratives that obscure the truth — and unfairly vilify the Arakanese people.

A Commitment to Inclusion and Pluralism

Under the leadership of the United League of Arakan/Arakan Army (ULA/AA), a new vision for Arakan is taking shape: one rooted in justice, equality, and pluralism. Far from being an ethnonationalist movement, the ULA/AA has worked to integrate Muslim leaders and communities into critical institutions such as the judiciary, education, public health, and law enforcement. In 2020, during an informal ceasefire, the ULA/AA launched a social cohesion program that encouraged intercommunal engagement through sporting and cultural events. During last Eid celebrations, a local Muslim leader publicly acknowledged that 19 mosques had been built with ULA/AA support — a feat unthinkable under a discriminatory regime.

Distortion by Diaspora and External Actors

Despite this progress, diaspora-based Rohingya activists and certain segments of the Bengali community continue to wage smear campaigns aimed at discrediting the inclusive governance efforts of the ULA/AA. These campaigns ignore the reality on the ground, preferring to paint a simplistic picture that reduces the crisis to religious persecution — while excluding the lived experience of non-Muslim Arakanese who have also suffered under military brutality.

Weaponization of Humanitarian Aid

The humanitarian situation has been further complicated by Bangladesh’s role, especially under successive governments. In one striking incident, a UNICEF boat carrying vital supplies to Arakan was ambushed by Bengali militants, forcing it to return. Meanwhile, internationally donated aid stockpiles — intended for all civilians — are reportedly languishing in Bangladeshi warehouses, blocked by bureaucratic or political obstacles. These supplies, meant to alleviate suffering, have instead become tools of pressure and manipulation.

AA Sending Back Illegal Bengladeshi Fishermen (photocrd)

Historical Roots of Tension

The roots of this crisis are older than many care to admit. Following the 1971 war between East and West Pakistan, over 500,000 Chittagonian Bengalis fled into Arakan. The Burmese government at the time turned a blind eye, expecting their return post-conflict — but many never left. In 1978, a citizenship verification campaign prompted both original residents and war-time refugees to flee together, leading to a narrative of victimhood that excluded the role of mass migration and deliberate evasion of state verification.

Worse still, calls for a “protected Muslim zone” in northern Arakan — echoed as recently as this year — trace back to 1947, when certain Muslim leaders petitioned Mohammad Ali Jinnah to incorporate northern Arakan into East Pakistan. These ambitions were never merely about safety — they were, and remain, political and territorial.

A Moral and Strategic Betrayal

The most painful part of this history is the reversal of gratitude. The Arakanese once opened their land to those fleeing war, regardless of ethnicity. Today, many of those same communities — or those claiming to represent them — have turned against their hosts, backed by diaspora activists and sympathetic international lobbies.

To vilify the Arakanese people today, after decades of shared suffering and effort toward coexistence, is not just misleading — it is morally wrong.

Closing Note

The path forward must be built on truth, accountability, and respect for local agency. The ULA/AA’s efforts to create a pluralistic Arakan deserve to be recognized — not sabotaged by disinformation or politicized humanitarianism. All ethnic communities, including Muslims who now stand with us, are part of the future we are building.

We ask only for fairness — and the space to rebuild our home, together.