10 M. SCHISSLER during these months, with Rakhine political parties as well as coalitions of civil society organizations and monks issuing proclamations demanding that Rakhine people cut off social relations with Rohingya and warning of consequences for failure to comply. A ten-point statement resulting from a large meeting of monks in Sittwe during October, for example, called for the creation of “discipline preserving” groups and the distribution of photos identifying “national traitors … who support the Bengali Kalar”52 (a slur often used to reference the Rohingya). The proclamations were enforced, including through the beating and public shaming of people giving or selling food and basic supplies to Rohingya and other Muslims. In some cases, Rakhine “traitors” were made to publicly apologize or even walk pillory through busy areas, with humiliating photographs posted on Facebook. In the photos below, the placards hung from the necks of the two men read, from left to right, “I am a traitor” and “I am a traitor and slave to kalar” (Figure 1).53 The organized in-group policing that developed in Rakhine State following the 2012 vio­ lence continued, particularly as military operations against the Rohingya intensified during 2016–17 (Figure 2). In the image at right, the caption says the man was “arrested as a national traitor by local residents and monks” for transporting “rations, including rice” to the “infidel Bengali kalar.” Not long after, a report from Reuters indicated that monks and community leaders in the same area had been playing announcements over loudspeakers mounted on vehicles, “exhorting Buddhists to avoid contact with Muslims.”54 In the image at left, also from 2016–17, the caption says that the two men had sold things to “terrorist kalar.” The last line of the caption reads, “people that want to support the terrorist kalar should shrink in fear.” Throughout this period, these campaigns also focused on humanitarian organizations, accusing them of “bias” in favour of Rohingya and, not long after the 2012 attacks, severely curtailing their activities. They also featured intimidation of local staff, which had been noted with concern by the UN and prompted Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to issue a rare public statement in February 2013.55 “In pamphlets, letters and Face­ book postings, MSF and others have been repeatedly accused … of having a pro-Rohin­ gya bias,” the statement said. “[T]his intimidation … is the primary challenge MSF faces.”56 “[S]ignificant number of [humanitarian workers] resign after threats to them and their families were posted on Facebook pages,” a journalist wrote in a follow-up some months after.57 Five years later, the UN Fact Finding Mission also identified such threats as a “constant” fear expressed by “numerous interlocutors.”58 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 State and other parts of Myanmar, see Tharaphi Than and Htoo May, “Multiple Identities of Young Sittwe Muslims and Becoming Rohingya,” in Flows and Frictions in Trans-Himalayan Spaces, Histories of Networking and Border Crossing, ed. Gunnel Cederlöf and Willem van Schendel (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2022), 231–54; Jean Berlie, The Burmanization of Myanmar’s Muslims (Bangkok: White Lotus Press, 2008). Copy on file. My thanks to Chris Lewa for sharing documents circulating in Rakhine State during this period. This translation and all others by the author. In the image at left, the man’s head is wrapped in a woman’s sarong. In the traditions of Myanmar patriarchy, this would have heightened the public act of humiliation. See Jane Ferguson, “Editor’s Note,” Journal of Burma Studies 27, no. 1 (2023): 1–27; Aye Lei Tun, “Deconstructing and Reinforcing Gender Norms and Cultural Taboos in Myanmar’s Spring Revolution,” Journal of Burma Studies 27, no. 1 (2023): 29–63; Marlar, Justine Chambers, and Elena, “Our Htamein, Our Flag, Our Victory: The Role of Young Women in Myanmar’s Spring Revolution,” Journal of Burma Studies 27, no. 1 (2023): 65–99. Kyaw Soe Oo, “Segregation Fans Fears of Fresh ‘cleansing’ in Myanmar’s Rakhine,” Reuters, 9 October 2017. UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “Humanitarian Bulletin Myanmar,” Issue 08 (1 September 2013), 1; Gwen Robinson, “MSF Warns of Emergency in Myanmar Camps,” Financial Times, 8 February 2013. MSF, “Myanmar: Humanitarian Emergency in Rakhine State,” 7 February 2013. Fiona MacGregor, “Rakhine Aid Workers Resigning over Social Media Threats,” Myanmar Times, 18 August 2013. IIFFMM, 170–1, 319.