Third World Quarterly 955 durations and high intensity of cascades of violence against the Rohingya people. Although they were officially recognised both as citizens and as an ethnic group by the first three successive governments of post-independence Burma – due to their deep historical roots in Arakan/Rakhine – since the 1970s Rohingya have been subjected to state-sponsored terror; deprivation; illegalisation; attacks on their identity, culture, social fabric, and history; indiscriminate killing; and waves of mass expulsions (Green, et al. 2015; Zarni and Cowley 2014). Even during the intervening civilian administration of Myanmar (2011–2021) the fate of the Rohingya did not improve as the Buddhist–Bamar majoritarianism remained the rule (Paliwal 2024). Amidst daily practices of violence and ostracisation in the past six decades, there are at least four distinct waves of high-intensity cascades of violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar – respectively in 1978–1979, 1991–1992, 2012, and 2017 – intended to coercively remove them from their ancestral homeland, in the process subjecting them to untold cruelty that threatens their destruction as a group. In late 1977 the military rule launched a large-scale operation – named ‘Nagamin’/’Dragon King’ – ostensibly to separate nationals from non-nationals (Elahi 1987, 231). Whilst this was a country-wide operation, in Arakan ‘it degenerated into abusive attacks on Rohingyas by both the army and local Rakhines’ (Human Rights Watch 1996, 11) who falsely accused the Rohingya of being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, many of whom were detained and tortured (Zarni and Cowley 2014, 707). Escalating into a violent campaign – with blatant assaults carried out by army personnel and the local Buddhist population – ‘Nagamin’ was responsible for the mass expulsion of over 200,000 Rohingya by May 1978 (Human Rights Watch 1996, 11). Subsequently, a reverse step was enacted, with a bilateral agreement between Bangladesh and Burma opening the way for forced repatriation of 187,250 Rohingya (Abrar 1995). In the process Bangladesh used coercive tactics to ensure Rohingya return to Burma, including hunger, as a result of which a reported 12,000 refugees died between June 1978 and March 1979 (Zarni and Cowley 2014, 707). In Burma, authorities ensured that Rohingya returnees remained landless and without documentation, unable to access services, education, and employment. Moreover, Rohingya were subjected to draconian everyday restrictions and forced to live in localised areas in the northernmost districts of Arakan, areas which the government turned into security grids (Zarni and Cowley 2014, 706, 708, 731). Subsequently, Rohingya’s rights were systematically assaulted, culminating in statelessness via the 1982 Citizenship Act, on which light will be shed in the following section. The state-sponsored abuses of the Rohingya amounted to another intense cascade of violence in the early 1990s when, in addition to daily restrictions, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, torture and even execution, they were subjected to reprisals of the newly established (in 1992) military border force – NaSaKa. As a consequence, about 250,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh in the course of approximately one year (The Equal Rights Trust 2012). The UN High Commission on Refugees that was granted access to the northern region of the Rakhine State by officials in Naypyidaw oversaw another temporary reversal with the return of about 236,000 Rohingya to Myanmar, although local conditions remained unchanged and therefore were not conducive to their return (Human Rights Watch 1996). Rohingya repatriations have been involuntary, violating the principle of non-refoulement.6 In subsequent years, violence against the Rohingya did not cease. For instance, in 2001 and 2002, following violent attacks by Rakhine Buddhists, aided by security forces, at least 28 mosques and religious centres were destroyed and scores of Rohingya were killed (Human Rights Watch 2013). This round of violence was carried out with direct or tacit approval from