Statelessness Working Paper Series 2016/04 and through which methods. For instance, Myanmar authorities in 2014 conducted a pilot phase of the citizenship verification process in Myebon where out of the 1,094 Muslims who took part, 209 were found eligible for citizenship. These included individuals from other ethnic groups such as Kaman Muslims, those who self-identified as Bengali, and an “unspecified number who were accepted as Rohingya.”82 Therefore, although this ‘unspecified number’ remains unknown, and on the condition that this number is not zero, it does suggest there remains some methods of acquiring citizenship for the Rohingya, and thereby, the capacity to realise an effective right to health. 5.5 Political barriers to the right to health (i): The contentious term ‘Rohingya’ Having examined the judicial barriers and solutions to citizenship, the focus will now turn to the political obstacles hindering an effective “right to health” for the Rohingya. The first of which is the term ‘Rohingya’ itself. There is widespread controversy within Myanmar surrounding the historical origins of the term 83 , the ethnic group it refers to 84 , and its role as a political tool for legal accommodation.85 Accepting the term ‘Rohingya’ or coming to an agreed consensus on an alternative term, is imperative to promoting the Rohingya’s chance of obtaining citizenship, and with it a safeguarding of their health rights. However, even if these historical and political contentions could be agreed upon, there remains the issue that even some Rohingya’s themselves do not associate with the term.86 This creates great difficulties in uniting this marginalised group and galvanising internal pressure to create legal safeguards under this term. An interview with a 12-year old Rohingya boy from the Maungdaw Township, conducted by the organisation Arakan Project, demonstrates the complexity of the issue. When asked about his understanding of citizenship the boy responded: I am a Muslim and my country is Burma; so I am a Burmese Muslim. I don’t feel that I am a Rohingya. I have never heard of the word Rohingya in Burma . . . I don’t understand the difference between a Rohingya and a Burmese Muslim. We look the same and we speak the same language. But my identity is that I am a Burmese.87 This definitional confusion amongst the Rohingya themselves is exacerbated by contrasting references to this particular group such as Rakhine Muslims88, Rohingya Muslims89, Muslim Arakanese90, Burmese Muslims, as well as Bengalis.91 The most inflammatory of these terms has been the reference to the Rohingya as ‘Bengalis’. This is suggestive that the Rohingya are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh whose identification as Rohingya, a Muslim group with historical ties to Arakan State (former name for Rakhine State), is merely an artificial and invented concept. The official spokesperson of the Rakhine State Government, Win Myaing, echoed this stance when he responded to questions about the maltreatment of Rohingya: “How can it be ethnic cleansing? They are not an ethnic group?”92 The recent refusal to accept this term is blighted by irony when one looks to the years following Myanmar’s independence where the term Rohingya was recognised as a legitimate ethnic group 82 Human Rights Watch (HRW), ‘Burma: Government Plan Would Segregate Rohingya – Force Resettlement, Discriminatory Citizenship Creates Dangers’ (2014) 83 F Buchanan, A Comparative Vocabulary of Some of the Languages Spoken in the Burma Empire (1799; Asiatic Press, reprinted in School of Oriental and African Studies, Burma Press 2003) 84 J Leider, ‘Rohingya. The name. The movement. The quest for identity. Nation Building in Myanmar’ (2014) Myanmar Egress and the Myanmar Peace Center 85 D Tonkin, ‘The R-word and its ramifications’ (2014) Democratic Voice of Burma 86 Arakan Project, Issues to Be Raised Concerning The Situation of Stateless Rohingya Children in Myanmar (2012) 87 Ibid 88 M Smith, ‘The Muslim Rohingya of Burma’ (1995) Conference of Burma Centrum Nederland 89 M Charney, A History of Modern Burma. (CUP, 2009), 184-5 90 N Zaw, ‘Population Control Bill Could ‘Stop The Bengalis’: Wirathu’ (2015) The Irrawaddy Online 91 Arakan Project, Issues to Be Raised Concerning The Situation of Stateless Rohingya Children in Myanmar (2012) 92 J Szep, Special Report - In Myanmar, Apartheid Tactics Against Minority Muslims (2013) Reuters 12