Ethnic Conflict Research Articles

Dilemma Over Repatriation - Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees In The Camps Of Tamil Nadu, India

A large number of Tamils had fled from Sri Lanka during the prolonged devastating ethnic war. According to a report of the ministry of Home Affairs, more than 3 lakhs Sri Lankan Tamil refugees entered India in different phases between 1983 and 2012. At present about one lakh refugees belonging to over 18,000 families are living in the state of Tamil Nadu, of whom 68,606 Sri Lankan Tamils are in 114 refugee camps. While 79,773 refugees were repatriated to Sri Lanka till 1995, some left to other countries on their own. After 1995, there is no organized repatriation. Indian government is reluctant to integrate the refugees into society. In the recent past, the delegations of India and Sri Lanka begin to discuss about the steps to be taken for the voluntary repatriation of refugees. Those who want to end their refugee status in India are willing to return home. Others want to remain in India. And many are unable to even decide whether to go back to Sri Lanka or to stay in India.

Islamic Educational Values in Cultural Harmonization in Places of Worship

<p><em>Understanding of religion is often not in line with the culture that has taken root in society. This often triggers conflicts in an area. Understanding ethnicity and religious understanding also often triggers ethnic conflicts that lead to criminal behavior such as the tragedy of the dispute between ethnic Dayaks and ethnic Madurese in Central Kalimantan in 2001. The purpose of this study is to find forms of cultural and religious interaction at the Pusaka Mosque in the District of Banua Legacy during the religious and cultural Dayak Ma'anyan people who settled in the district of Banua Lawas until the entry of Islam in the Tabalong district and found a form of harmonization symbolized at the Heritage Mosque and religious activities carried out by local residents and pilgrims who came. This research uses a qualitative method with James P. Spradley' s ethnography research type and data collection by observation is not involved as well as in-depth interviews of findings from interviews that have the potential to be explored further. The results showed that the Pusaka Mosque in Banua Lawas sub-district was a very beautiful reflection of tolerance as indicated by the construction of the mosque above the pesantren (place of worship) of the Dayak Ma'anyan people who first settled in the area. Its construction was inseparable from the participation of the Dayak Maanyan tribes who had just converted to Islam and who still guarded the religion of their Kaharingan ancestors. This research contributes to the issues of religious harmonization and moderation that are being put forward by the government to bring about tolerance, efforts to deradicalize and overcome the disintegration of the nation.</em></p>

Impact of Forcibly Displaced People's Identity Crisis on Host State’s Security: The Case of Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh

A long-term ethnic conflict between the Rohingya Muslim and Buddhist Rakhine communities, the legal exclusion of the Rohingya from the 1982 Citizenship Act, and various forms of discrimination for decades in Myanmar led the Rohingya population to become stateless in their own country and fall into an identity crisis. The study explores how Rohingya refugees fall into the identity crisis and analyzes how they threaten Bangladesh's state security and destroy the state's global image. Using desk-based research, the study found that the identity crisis of Rohingya refugees encouraged them to seek alternative ways of getting Bangladeshi passports and flights worldwide as Bangladeshi nationals, creating an image crisis for Bangladesh through their illegal activities. Focusing on how vulnerable Rohingya refugees are and looking at the security tensions within the hosting state, the study recommends changes to make identity policies for people who have been forced to move.

Policymaking in personalist dictatorships: a theory of outbidding

ABSTRACT This article offers a novel perspective on policymaking in personalist dictatorships based on outbidding theory. Originally developed with reference to ethnic conflict and terrorist organizations, outbidding suggests that individuals or organizations compete for support from their relevant audience, which produces predictable outcomes. I present a modified version of outbidding theory derived from the incentives faced by autocratic elites’ desire to avoid upward accountability and attract the favour of the dictator. I probe the theory’s plausibility for explaining policymaking in one prominent authoritarian legislature, the State Duma in Russia. Using two conditions “most likely” to reveal outbidding dynamics – the archetypal personalist regime of Putin’s Russia and the realm of electoral policy – I couple quantitative text analysis with rigorous study of legislative debates. The findings support the existence of outbidding behaviour in Russian policymaking, suggest that it may result in positive outcomes for Duma deputies, and substantiate outbidding’s effects on the repressiveness of public policy.

Ethnic Conflict between Oromo-Gumuz in Western Ethiopia Since 2008

For a long period, conflicts and instability in any part of Ethiopia have become a complex and interconnected problem that is present as part of the debate among Ethiopian communities. The primary security challenges in Ethiopia largely emanate from political exclusion/power struggle, ethnic and religious-based discrimination, violation of human rights, the proliferation of SALW, and poverty/famine as a significant threat to people's security. To strengthen this point, the article aims to study the causes of the Oromo-Gumuz inter-ethnic conflicts since 2008 along the border area. The study employed qualitative descriptive research to meet the stated objective of the study. Purposive sampling techniques were used to gather information. To attain the study objective, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were used as primary data. Primary data were gathered from different informants in both Oromo and Gumuz. The study’s finding showed that the leading cause of the conflict between the Oromo and the Gumuz was competition over farmland and grazing land, border disputes, and lack of good governance. The presence of arms dealers and cattle raiders hiding in the name of ethnicity split the communities.

COUNTERING VIOLENT EXTREMISM IN BALOCHISTAN: A CASE OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION

Pakistan is a country that is experiencing violence in different shapes and forms such as ethnic conflicts in Balochistan and Karachi. The inactions of stakeholders have led to the creation of many religious and ethnic groups, hence increasing violent extremism in the country. As a result, different plans such as National Action Plan (NAP) to control violence in the country has not been sustainable. One the main area of failure is the online glorification of extremism and fake news management. With the help of social media and strategic communication insurgents in Balochistan have been able to recruit supporters. This paper will present the case of Balochistan for countering violent extremism with the help of strategic communication by presenting a framework. This paper suggests how stakeholders can be manged for effective communication and what are the impactions of strategic communication for countering sub nationalist violence in Balochistan.

Women and Resistance in the Conflict-Affected Bodoland Territorial Council Region of Assam

The Bodoland territorial council (BTC) region of Assam has witnessed many conflicts in the past. The women of the conflicting communities, Bodo, Bengali-speaking Muslims, and Adivasi, have largely borne the brunt of these conflicts. The societies are patriarchal and women face domination at various levels—family, society, and state. This article seeks to answer the question, ‘How do the conflict-affected women belonging to the Bodo, Bengali-speaking Muslim and Adivasi communities in BTC display resistance against the dominant forces in the family, society, and state?’ The article attempts to understand the forms of resistance (overt, physical or confrontational, and everyday forms of resistance) displayed by these women, by analysing the in-depth interviews conducted with them. The narratives help us understand their condition, their struggles, and the ways in which they display resistance against the dominant forces. The article argues that the Bodo women display overt resistance, such as participating in the Bodoland movement, holding protests, contesting elections, and carrying out peace marches against insurgencies and ethnic conflicts. The Bengali-speaking Muslim women display everyday forms of resistance, such as pursuing education, holding jobs, maintaining silence and refraining from making contact with members of the dominant community. The Adivasi women display physical resistance, such as engaging in direct confrontation with forest officials, and overt resistance, like participating in protests and social movements to demand their rights.

Ethno-religious Conflicts and the Challenges of National Security in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic

ABSTRACT The threats of ethnic, religious, and ethno-religious conflicts have endured in Nigeria and become increasingly alarming in the fourth republic, which started in 1999. Ethno-religious conflicts are hostile engagements where actors and their motivations reflect a combination of ethnic and religious interests. These conflicts are deeply rooted in colonial legacies, ethno-religious-based distributions of power and resources, and failure of the post-colonial state to advance unity in diversity and promote the welfare and security of all citizens without discrimination. Between 1999 and 2021, Nigeria recorded no fewer than 2811 incidences of ethnic conflict with 18,132 fatalities, 3703 incidences of religious conflict with 29,957 fatalities, and 117 incidences of ethno-religious conflict with 2420 fatalities. These conflicts have had negative consequences for the lives and properties of the affected population, political stability, national unity, integration, development, security, and the image of the country internationally. This article examines the threats of ethno-religious conflicts in Nigeria’s fourth republic, their causes, manifestations, consequences, and possible ways forward.

Worshipping the Other: a literary anthropological study of the Datuk Gong cult in Malaysia

ABSTRACT In Malaysia, Malays and Chinese are considered to be two distinct ethnic groups. Therefore, the popular cult of Malay-Muslim Datuk Gong among Chinese religious believers – a worship of ‘the Other’ – is a fascinating ethno-religious phenomenon. Adopting the approach of literary anthropology to examine discrete writings on Datuk Gong produced by different individuals over a century, this article explores the multiple meanings of ‘worshipping the Other’ to Malay(si)an Chinese. Such worship reflects a dual respect and fear of nature and ethnic strangers, an imagination to integrate ethnic differences with the natives into a virtual kinship, a sense of harmonious community among diverse neighbours, a deep anxiety of diaspora identity and a feeling of powerlessness in ethnic conflicts with the dominant groups. Applying Pierre Bourdieu’s theory on ‘habitus’ and ‘fields’, the article argues that instead of passively participating in the Datuk Gong worship, Chinese believers actively interpret it to construct diverse ‘Selves and Others’ based on the different habitus and fields they occupy.

‘There is no gallery’: race and the politics of space at the Capitol Theatre, New York

ABSTRACT This essay brings developments in Black film historiography and architecture studies to bear on the study of Northern picture palaces as the period of their prominence coincided with the Jim Crow era. Taking as my focus New York City’s Capitol Theatre – which opened in the immediate wake of the US race riots of 1919 and was the largest movie theater to date – I show how Northern middle-class film culture enforced racial segregation in the absence of legal protection. Southern movie theaters were able either to outlaw Black attendance or relegate their Black patronage to the gallery, a seating section closest to the roof of the auditorium and farthest removed from the screen. Northern movie theaters, on the other hand, had to find extralegal ways to ensure a predominantly white clientele – while also maintaining the image of the Northern picture palace as a shrine to New World inclusivity. They accomplished this, I demonstrate, through a combination of film-programming, strategically equivocal promotional language, and, most strikingly, architectural design.

First Ethnic Violence in Colonial Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka was under the colonization of Europeans for 450 years. British ruled the country in the latter part of the colonization from 1796 to the following 152 years. Several protests were conducted by civilians against the colonial rule of Britain. Moreover, the first ethnic conflict in the country was started between Sinhalese and Muslims in Sri Lanka in 1915. This ethnic conflict laid foundation for the racial violence of the country. It is notable that several violence against minority ethnicities was carried out by the majority Sinhalese ethnicity following the first racial violence. Thus, the basis and the consequences of the first racial violence between Sinhalese and Muslims are studied.

“Memory Shot Through Holes”: The Idea of Postmemory in Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees

ABSTRACT The emergence of postmemory in recent decades has opened various tangents around which the frameworks of memory, trauma, and nostalgia can be reimagined and reexamined. The notions of memory and postmemory and the complex relation underlying their mutual interaction is a recent development in memory studies. In this light, the questions arise: What happens when people with traumatic memories are forced to flee their homelands? How do the subsequent generations of the survivors deal with the traumatic intergenerational memories of the past? Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees is set in Cyprus, a place divided by a border, destroyed by ethnic conflict, and years of violence and bloodshed. Shafak not only incorporates the idea of inherited pain and silence but also further explores the ways in which families with traumatic histories transfer these experiences of suffering, grief, nostalgia, and melancholy from one generation to another. Through the character of Ada, the daughter of Kostas and Defne, the researcher attempts to delve into the terrain of intergenerational memories and further attempts to analyze the various tenets of the notion of postmemory by undertaking a textual analysis of The Island of Missing Trees.

Sutton E. Griggs and Thomas R. Dixon: A Reconstruction Call and Response

Sutton E. Griggs and Thomas R. Dixon: A Reconstruction Call and Response

The Wrong Place at the Wrong Time? Territorial Autonomy and Conflict During Regime Transitions.

This article evaluates how territorial autonomy affects ethnic mobilization and conflict during regime transitions. Previous research has highlighted its conflict-inducing role during prominent transition contexts. Alternatively, it has shown its pacifying role in the "average" case, without distinguishing transition periods from stable contexts. Addressing these gaps, we argue that the de-escalatory consequences of autonomy depend on critical stabilizing factors which are themselves "muted" during transitions. We test our expectations in a cross-national analysis, covering all regime transitions between 1946 and 2017. We also revisit the 1989 transition from Communism, focusing on the role of "inherited" autonomy in the post-communist successor states. This enables us to address concerns whereby autonomy is offered to ward off transitions or whereby transitions are themselves induced by mobilization. Our findings indicate that during transitions, territorial autonomy increases the likelihood of ethnic mobilization, government concessions in response, and violent escalation where these are not forthcoming.

The role of ethnic identification, allyship, and conflict narratives in supporting pro-minority policies among majority and minority groups.

Using the context of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict, Studies 1 and 2 tested how ethnic identification predicted support for minority rights through the pathway of the endorsement of the conflict narrative of the minority group (i.e., independence narrative) among Kurds (Study 1) and Turks (Study 2) in Turkey. Study 2 also tested whether the paths between (a) ethnic identification and endorsement of the minority group's conflict narrative and (b) endorsement of the minority group's conflict and support for minority rights would be moderated by ally identification (i.e., Turkish ally identification). 201 self-identified Kurdish participants in Study 1 and 271 self-identified Turkish participants in Study 2 participated in an online survey voluntarily. In Study 1, stronger Kurdish identification predicted more support for minority rights through the pathway of more endorsement of the independence narrative. Study 2 showed the opposite findings with regard to the relationship between ethnic identification and support for minority rights. For the majority group, higher ethnic identification predicted less support for minority rights, through the pathway of less endorsement of the minority group's conflict narrative. Study 2 also found that the strength of the relationship between (a) ethnic identification and endorsement of the minority group's conflict narrative is particularly strong among strong allies, whereas the strength of the relationship between (b) endorsement of the minority group's conflict narrative and support for minority rights is particularly strong among weak allies. Results point to the important relationship between ethnic and ally identities, conflict narratives, and intergroup-related outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Florence Kelley: Pragmatist, Feminist, Socialist

Florence Kelley: Pragmatist, Feminist, Socialist

Beyond Rape Culture? Toward A Theory of the Work of Rape

Beyond Rape Culture? Toward A Theory of the Work of Rape

The effects of ethnic conflict and foreign fighters on conflict duration: a statistical analysis

Purpose Foreign fighters (FFs) appeared in at least approximately one-fourth of conflicts over the past 200 years. This study aims to reveal the impact of FFs in conflicts, whether they resolve the conflict faster or they drag out the conflict, and investigate the single and simultaneous impacts of ethnic conflict (EC) and FFs on conflict duration (CD). Design/methodology/approach The data set consisting of 352 conflicts from 1818 to 2022 was collected from different sources. Logarithmic Linear Regression with Dummy Variables and the Cox Regression models were used to check the hypotheses. Findings One of the key findings of this analysis is that the use of FFs extends the duration of conflicts. Similarly, conflicts involving EC increase CD. Additionally, the simultaneous effect of FFs and EC together increases the CD much more, and it is noted CD significantly varies regionally. Research limitations/implications As this study focused on the factors that affect the duration of the conflict in the hypotheses, the findings only can contribute to explaining the duration rather than factors such as the number of casualties and economic losses. The authors believe that policy and key decision-makers can benefit from the results and think twice before deciding to use FFs in conflicts. Originality/value This study offers a separate and simultaneous effect of EC and FFs on CD, which provides some empirical contributions to conflict management by filling the gap in this area.

DIALOG KARYA SEBAGAI STRATEGI KOMUNIKASI PENYELESAIAN KONFLIK BERMOTIF AGAMA TERHADAP MASYARAKAT ETNIS ROHINGNYA DI MYANMAR

Phenomenal problems that have hit Myanmar have recently been in the spotlight of the mass media. The existence of a group of Buddhist extremists who commit violence against adherents of other religions gives its own color. Discrimination based on ethnic conflict between the majority and minorities is not only identified by religious elements, but also accompanied by political, social, cultural and economic elements. Government instability also supports the spread of this increasingly prolonged conflict. In fact, the existence and teachings of the Buddha on nibbana are also questionable. Nibbana is the ultimate reality, which is said to be a situation or condition where humans experience peace and emptiness when faced with the reality of violence that causes suffering, especially for Rohingya Muslims. The theological approach that can be offered in resolving such conflicts is comparative theology which boils down to dialogue of works. However, before reaching this stage, a theological disposition is needed by returning to their respective originality, strengthening their identity roots first and then establishing dialogue and cooperation with those who differ in comfort, openness, and harmony. 
 Kata kunci: Konflik etnis, etnis Rohingnya, nibbana, dialog karya, orisinalitas, identitas, teologis.

Responsibility of Sexual Violence Under International Law

The extent and nature of sexual violence throughout the war vary. Sexual violence is pervasive in some conflicts, such as ethnic conflicts, but it is relatively rare in other conflicts. Sexual slavery is one form of sexual violence in inevitable conflicts, while detention torture is another. The ICTY has carried out in-depth prosecutions and investigations of cases of sexual violence committed during times of war, leading to the filing of several indictments for crimes perpetrated in Bosnia - Herzegovina as early as 1995. By enabling the litigation of sexual violence as a war crime, crime against humanity, and genocide, the ICTY has advanced international criminal equity in sex crimes. This article attempts to provide readers with a clear understanding of two types of obligations: personal criminal culpability and state responsibility. The responsible for sexual violence presents a significant challenge to international law and misinterprets other laws, according to the conclusion. People are struggling with responsibility because, as the article pointed out, there are two different kinds of accountability in contemporary society: individual accountability and state accountability. The article's conclusions indicate that sexual violence is a personal responsibility.