By Fatimah Mazhar
Several international human rights organizations have
recorded gross abuses against Rohingya Muslims at the hands of Myanmar’s army.
But Aung San Suu Kyi remains silent.
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| Reuters |
Myanmar’s de-facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, spent nearly
15 years under house arrest for her human rights advocacy under a military
regime.
However, now that her democratically-elected party is in
power, she is rejected a United Nations probe into alleged human rights abuses
against an ethnic minority at the hands of Myanmar’s military.
The U.N. human rights council agreed to send a dispatch
to the South Asian country in March following allegations of abuses, including
murder, rape and torture, against Rohingya Muslims by Burmese soldiers and
police officers in Rakhine state. But Suu Kyi has rejected the decision.
Her reason: “We do not agree with it,” Aung San Suu Kyi,
Myanmar’s de facto leader, told a press conference on Tuesday with EU
diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini during a visit to Brussels, when asked
about the investigation. “We have disassociated ourselves from the resolution
because we do not think that the resolution is in keeping with what is actually
happening on the ground.”
Read more here: More than 1,000 feared killed in Myanmar
army crackdown on Rohingya - U.N. officials: http://reut.rs/2kOo23l
She added her government would be happy to accept
recommendations that would be “in keeping with the real needs of the region ...
But those recommendations which will divide further the two communities in
Rakhine we will not accept, because it will not help to resolve the problems
that are arising all the time”.
Read more here: When It Comes To Minority Rights, Aung
San Suu Kyi Is Worse Than Trump: https://goo.gl/D3Yuuz
The statement is more than upsetting – and disappointing,
coming from a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Firstly, what is actually happening on the ground is difficult
to know because Myanma security officials, according to Committee To Protect
Journalists, has been obstructing and harassing reporters from covering crisis
in Rakhine State. In fact, reporter Fiona MacGregor, formerly of the Myanmar
Times newspaper was reportedly “sacked after articles critical of security
forces were said to have damaged its reputation.”
Secondly, despite being in power for almost two years,
she hasn’t herself addressed the “real needs” of the embattled region. Rohingya
Muslims are considered to be among the most persecuted minorities in the world.
For years, Buddhist extremists in Buddhist-majority Myanmar have been trying to
subjugate the community, which is not considered to be a part of Myanmar.
Rohingya Muslims have been murdered and driven away for
years now – formerly under military regimes and now under Suu Kyi’s
faux-democratic rule.
Since October, more than 1,000 Rohingya Muslims may have
been killed in a Myanmar army crackdown. Nearly 70,000 have fled to neighboring
countries, according to U.N. officials. Several independent international human
rights groups and journalists also found Myanmar’s military carried out a mass
“rape campaign” against the ethnic community. In fact, the extent of targeted
killings of Rohingya Muslims border on genocide.
However, far from resolving the issue, Suu Kyi has not
shown the least bit of interest in addressing the plight of the minority.
Worse, she banned the term “Rohingya” to appease Buddhist extremists who wield
considerable power in the country’s politics.
Read more here: Has The UN Woken Up To The Genocide
Against Rohingya Muslims? https://goo.gl/EzRPZh
So, if Suu Kyi herself won’t do anything and not even
allow a U.N. probe, how does she plan to address the crisis? Also, if there’s
nothing to hide, why block an international investigation?