A/HRC/39/CRP.2 NRCs, nearly the entire population at the time.1048 Temporary Registration Cards (TRCs), known as “white cards”, were issued in case of loss, damage or pending application for the NRC. Although NRCs or TRCs were not intended to be citizenship certificates, in reality they served as such. 475. At the start of General Ne Win’s regime, the citizenship legal framework remained unchanged. The 1974 Constitution also did not alter the definition of “citizen” significantly. All Rohingya who were citizens during the 1948-1962 period were still to be considered citizens. However, in practice, the narrative that most Muslims in Rakhine State were illegal Bengali immigrants took root, in the context of an increasing emphasis on the importance of “national races” and the need to deport alleged aliens.1049 In 1978, the Tatmadaw and immigration officials implemented a nationwide project called “Operation Dragon King” to register all citizens and aliens ahead of a national population census. Its implementation in Rakhine State led to more than 200,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, amid allegations of serious human rights violations. The Government claimed that the number of Rohingya escaping from scrutiny was an admission of their illegal status. However, analysis suggests that the number of alleged illegal immigrants identified was very low. 1050 The Government agreed with Bangladesh to repatriate the “lawful residents of Burma who are now sheltered in the camps in Bangladesh”.1051 Nearly all refugees returned to Myanmar. 476. In this context General Ne Win initiated a review of the country’s citizenship laws. He argued that citizenship under the civilian government had been poorly administered, often wrongly attributed, and leaving many people in legal limbo. 1052 He acknowledged that many people had lived in Myanmar for long and that the government was “not in a position to drive away all those people who had come at different times for different reasons from different lands”. However, he added that “leniency on humanitarian grounds cannot be such as to endanger ourselves”, and there should be a system based on “three classes of citizens”, with full citizenship reserved for “pure-blooded nationals”. The two other classes were for people who “cannot be trusted fully” and who would therefore not receive “full citizenship and full rights”. From the statement, it is clear that the people targeted included Muslims and Chinese. Current citizenship regime 477. The 1982 Citizenship Law marked a further step towards an exclusively “ethnic” concept of citizenship.1053 Together with the implementing regulations (the 1983 Procedures), the law created a citizenship framework with three distinct categories (or “classes”) of citizens: • Full citizenship is primarily reserved for “national ethnic groups … such as the Kachin, Kayah, Karen (Kayin), Chin, Burman (Bamar), Mon, Arakan (Rakhine) or Shan and ethnic groups who settled in Myanmar before 1823”.1054 The law further states that “the Council of State may decide whether any ethnic group is national or 1048 1049 1050 1051 1052 1053 1054 114 Nyi Nyi Kyaw, “Unpacking the Presumed Statelessness of Rohingyas”, 15(3) Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies (2017), p. 276. Other groups were also considered “foreign”, including Indians and Chinese. N. Cheesman, “How in Myanmar ‘National Races” Came to Surpass Citizenship and Exclude Rohingya”, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Volume 47, 2017 - Issue 3, pp. 461-483. See analysis in Nyi Nyi Kyaw, “Unpacking the Presumed Statelessness of Rohingyas”, 15(3) Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies (2017), pp. 274-275, where the author quotes several State officials and State-run media indicating that the numbers of illegal immigrants found in operation Dragon King were very low (for example, that action was taken against a total of 2,296 people across the country). 1978 Repatriation Agreement between the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and the Government of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma (9 July 1978). Available at: https://dataspace.princeton.edu/jspui/bitstream/88435/dsp01th83kz538/1/1978%20Repatriation%20A greement.pdf Meeting held in the Central Meeting Hall, President House, Ahlone Road, 8 October 1982; translation of the speech by General Ne Win provided in The Working People’s Daily, 9 October 1982. 1948 Citizenship Act and 1948 Citizenship (Election) Act were repealed in 1982. 1982 Citizenship Act, art. 3.