28 June 2017
by James Roberts
Cardinal Bo said, while there are many issues
facing the minority Muslim group, “ethnic cleansing” of the Rohingya is not
taking place
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| File Photo: Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi |
In an embarrassment for the Myanmar Government, which is
effectively led by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the latest study released by
the United Nation’s refugee agency says the number of people fleeing Myanmar is
now almost half a million.
By the end of 2016, according to the UNHCR’s annual
global trends study released on 20 June, refugees from Myanmar rose to 490,300,
up from 451,800 the previous year. Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for
Democracy came to power early in 2016 after 50 years of military rule. Myanmar
is now the eighth largest refugee producing country in the world after Syria,
Afghanistan, South Sudan, Somalia, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and the
Central African Republic.
Bangladesh hosts 276,200 Myanmar refugees while Thailand
looks after 102,600, Malaysia 87,000, and India 15,600.
Muslim-majority Bangladesh initially offered a relatively
safe haven to Muslim Rohingyas from Rakhine state, who faced ongoing conflict
there with Buddhist ethnic Rakhines. In 2013, however, Bangladesh sealed off
its border with Myanmar and refused entry to boatloads of fleeing Rohingyas.
After a deadly Rohingya militant attack against Myanmar
border police on 9 October last year, some 75,000 Rohingyas still managed to
cross the border to Bangladesh to escape the subsequent crackdown. Action by
security forces left about 600 people dead, dozens of women were raped and
Rohingya villages were razed. Around 30,000 people have reportedly since
returned to their villages, with temporary shelter provided by the UNHCR.
Fr Thomas Htang Shan Mong, director of the Myanmar
Catholic bishops' office for peace building and justice, blamed a range of
political and economic factors for the rise in refugees. “There has been 70
nearly years of conflict and unrest in Myanmar, especially in ethnic areas,” Fr
Mong told ucanews.com.
Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, said
while there are many issues facing the minority Muslim group, “ethnic
cleansing” of the Rohingya is not taking place.
Cardinal Bo has been a strong advocate for better
treatment of the Rohingyas, and in February called on the Myanmar
Government “to allow unhindered access
to all parts of Rakhine State,” as well as to allow “international humanitarian
aid agencies, media and human rights monitors.” Cardinal Bo pointed out that
all religious minorities, including Christians, face problems in the
Buddhist-majority country.
Cardinal Patrick D’Rozario of Bangladesh, where Pope
Francis may visit later this year, said on World Refugee Day last month that
the new arrivals from Myanmar are “human beings who have a right to dwell in
their own traditional way. They have a right to live where they have been
living, but now they are refugees.”
The Myanmar military maintains control of 25 per cent of
the seats in the national assembly, enough to block reform of a national
charter that entrenches the armed forces within the corridors of power. Aung San Suu Kyi told the BBC earlier this
year that the army was “not free to rape, pillage and torture” but was “free to
go in and fight. And of course, that is in the constitution.” She said she
aimed to amend the constitution.