"The following monograph is a draft background paper from a presentation delivered at a conference, ?The Muslim ?Rohingyas? of Burma”, organised by the Burma Centrum Nederland in Amsterdam in December 1995. Given the paucity of available data at the time, the paper did not seek to be definitive. Rather, it was intended as a draft for discussion, explaining dilemmas that the author had come across during the previous decade when researching about ethnic politics in the country. The hope was that, with the door to Burma gradually opening, other analysts and researchers would be able to develop understanding about the sensitive ethnic and political issues involved. Since this time, the crisis in the Arakan-Bangladesh borderlands has further worsened, with new violence, refugee outflows and a broader spread of ethnic nationality and Buddhist-Muslim tensions within the country. In response, there has been greater international awareness and research inter est, but the divisions in local society and politics have only become deeper. This monograph, still as a background draft for consultation, was published by the Burma Centrum Nederland in a ?Rohingya Reader II” in October 1996. Scanned versions have also appeared on the Internet. This version is a 2017-generated document in PDF. The original text has been maintained, and there are no updates. It is intended that the text should be read in the context of the understandings and landscape of the Arakan-Bangladesh borderlands in 1995."