Source: Author thematic analysis of Roots of Arakan archive (2025-2026). Inductive coding with inter-rater reliability
verification.
Three patterns in the archive data are analytically significant. First, the near-universal (91%)
presence of return and justice aspirations directly contradicts narratives that Rohingya refugees
may prefer permanent resettlement. Second, 72% of testimonies documenting structural
violence before 2017 confirms the genocide was the culmination of decades of engineered
exclusion, not a sudden rupture. Third, the 45% engaging Rohingya-Rakhine relations provides
empirical grounding for the intercommunal dialogue work that Roots of Arakan facilitates.
"I am 82 years old. I remember Thursday markets, the Kaladan River, the call to prayer at dawn. My
grandchildren were born in this camp. They have never seen Arakan.
When I am gone, who will tell them? That is why I talk to these young people who record my memories.
So my grandchildren will know who they are, where they come from,
and that they have a right to go back. Not charity. A right."
— Rohingya elder (female, 82), Roots of Arakan interview, Cox's Bazar, March 2026
6.3 Intercommunal Dialogue: Evidence from Rakhine Youth Partnership
"I grew up being taught to fear the Rohingya. When I began working with Roots of Arakan and listened
to Rohingya elders describe the same rivers and hills my grandparents described,
I understood how much I had been lied to. The lie was designed to make what happened in 2017 feel
necessary to people like me.
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