 |
| Kyaw Win (The Author) |
By KYAW WIN JULY 13,
2017
This past week news
emerged that Myanmar would refuse to issue visas for members of a UN-mandated
fact-finding mission investigating allegations of human-rights violations.
Although the mission is looking into allegations of crimes against humanity in
Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states, it has a strong focus on recent allegations of
severe and widespread abuses against the ethnic Rohingya inside Rakhine state.
The Rohingya are a
long-oppressed Muslim minority who are not considered citizens by Myanmar. The
country’s democratic icon, State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, said she
disapproved of the fact-finding mission because she did not believe it could
meet the needs of the region and that it would deepen tensions.
Where Suu Kyi sees
the status quo as acceptable and even preferable, the truth is that it is not
only unsustainable for Myanmar, but also costly and dangerous for the entire
region. With conflict areas remaining volatile, an overwhelming number of
people displaced and the possibility of terrorist networks seeking to exploit
the situation, it is utterly irresponsible to both Myanmar and the greater
region to leave the situation unaddressed, unresolved and likely to turn into
greater conflict while there is an opportunity for resolution, accountability
and reconciliation readily available.
The fact-finding
mission, established by a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution and
adopted without a vote on March 24, has recently had its members announced by
the president of the UN General Assembly. Since then, Suu Kyi and other senior
Myanmar government officials have indicated that the UN mission would not be
welcome.
The mission is
largely in response to the Myanmar army’s clearance operation against an armed
group called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, who were responsible for an
attack on police posts on October 9 last year in Rakhine state. The clearance
operation was conducted by the security forces and harshly targeted civilians in
a way that can be viewed as collective punishment.
However, the
government has denied accusations of human-rights violations and rejected the
UN-mandated fact-finding mission. As Rakhine state remains on the brink of
further conflict that could easily result in mass suffering and displacement,
it must be understood that the UN mission, if allowed full access, might truly
be one of the best and only tools to allow peace and reconciliation inside
Myanmar, and prevent greater crises from further spilling over the borders into
the region.
After the attacks on
October 9, the government has locked down much of northern Rakhine state. Media
and international aid agencies have had their access to much of this area
blocked or severely limited. People who had not fled the crackdown faced widespread
malnourishment and were at serious risk of mass starvation during much of late
2016 and early 2017.
Cutting off aid with
the intention of harming the civilian population is a tactic the military has
previously deployed, called the “four cuts strategy”. This strategy, first used
against ethnic Karen, starves, displaces, tortures and abuses the general
population with the intention of turning them against militant groups.
Many Rohingya people
who escaped to Bangladesh gave accounts of having to flee after the military
and police destroyed food rations in their villages. Several Rohingya women
described horrific accounts of being gang-raped. Multiple witnesses described
seeing small children thrown into fires and burned alive.
Similarly, in
northern Myanmar, ethnic Shan and Kachin have faced assaults by the army
against the local militant groups that has involved allegations of gang rape,
children being kidnapped to serve as frontline porters for the military,
civilians being shot indiscriminately, and a massive blockade against all
regions under the control of rebel groups, where villagers and displaced people
in remote regions now have almost no access to food or medicine. These
blockades, while drawing less media attention, are undoubtedly the most dangerous
weapon deployed by the Myanmar military, and cause far more death and suffering
than direct violence does.
During the clearance
operation in Rakhine state, Suu Kyi defended the military and their mission,
stressing the importance of rule of law. Her words were extremely disappointing
from a woman who had been under house arrest for 15 years by the same military.
She, more than most, knows their cruelty, and for the minorities who supported
her when she needed them there is a deep hurt when she fails to support them
every time they need her.
Suu Kyi’s efforts in
the conflict made wartime rape easier, justified heinous abuses against
civilians and left a vulnerable people forsaken in a land that hates them. The
Ministry of Information, which was appointed by Suu Kyi, claimed that the
accusations of rape and torture recorded by international rights organizations
were fabricated.
This is the same Suu
Kyi who, during the Nobel Women’s Initiative in 2011, said, “Rape is used in my
country as a weapon against those who only want to live in peace, who only want
to assert their basic human rights.”
This is the Suu Kyi
we knew, and the one we hope will show up, but we do not see her any longer.
Previously Myanmar
formed its own commission to investigate the allegations of human-rights abuses
in Rakhine state, which was widely seen as an effort to whitewash crimes
against humanity and as the government’s inability and unwillingness to
investigate itself seriously. Often this commission is presented as evidence that
Myanmar is taking the situation in Rakhine seriously, but it seems far more
evident that its purpose was to exonerate the security forces and attempt to
reduce criticism from the international community without having to make any
serious changes in policy toward minorities or practices within the security
forces.
Beyond this, the
Rohingya crisis is no longer an internal issue that affects Myanmar alone, but
has become a broader regional issue for two significant reasons: the refugee
crisis and the threat to regional security.
According to the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees, Myanmar now is the eighth-largest contributor
to the world’s refugee population. As the violence increases in Rakhine state,
so too do the number of refugees forced to flee to Bangladesh, Malaysia, India,
China, Indonesia, Pakistan and Thailand.
The country’s
Muslim-majority neighbors are already facing extremism and their security
forces are at times inundated with complicated extremist networks and threats.
Both Indonesia and Malaysia have faced threats from domestic groups and
individuals affiliated with ISIS, and Indonesia has previously thwarted
attempted terrorist attacks that had been motivated by the situation in Rakhine
state. These problems have forced Malaysia and Indonesia to break a core
principle of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations of non-interference
into other member states’ internal matters.
Malaysian Prime
Minister Najib Razak was the first leader to come out in protest against the
Myanmar government for the persecution against the Rohingya when he issued
statements on the situation, and took part in rallies and aid delivery to the
Rohingya. More recently Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said
his country would be looking into humanitarian and diplomatic responses to
Myanmar’s denial of visas for those working on the UN fact-finding mission.
The Indonesian
government adopted a milder approach, attempting to ease the new Myanmar
government into understanding.
These approaches,
however, need benchmarks that can measure tangible ongoing improvements, rather
than sporadic praise every time Myanmar allows aid to be delivered to
populations it has intentionally starved. Progress can be measured by specific
actions the Myanmar government should be
taking, such as unfettered access for aid to affected areas, free access by the
press, and freedom of movement for the Rohingya population who have been
severely restricted.
The current efforts
have not yielded any of these improvements, despite their being basic,
fundamental human rights. It is with this in mind that we should consider the
UN-mandated fact-finding mission as crucial for uncovering the truth of the
events that took place, holding those responsible accountable, and creating
conditions that will allow fundamental human rights to be universal and
unquestioned.
If Suu Kyi believes
the UN mission will fail, what alternative does she think will succeed? If the
UN will inflame tensions, what effect does she believe leaving legitimate
grievances of a brutalized civilian population unaddressed will create? Her
words seem misleading, in that her objective may be more accurately described
as offering a blanket denial to security forces while upholding the status quo and
the Islamophobia, tension and potential for escalation therein.
Here we find the
Nobel laureate deflecting accusations of crimes against humanity with blanket
denials and avoidance when leadership, foresight and courage are needed.
The international community,
especially the major world powers and Myanmar’s neighbors, need to adopt an
effective strategy to stop the persecution of minorities in Myanmar and to
allow the fact-finding mission to proceed without restrictions. These countries
should consider having a strategy not only because it is the right thing to do,
but because it is in the best interest of regional stability.
While pressure has
increased, it has plainly not yet been sufficient to pave the way for
mechanisms like the UN fact-finding mission, which would offer a true chance
for peace and reconciliation. Alternatively, the further away peace appears,
the more vulnerable populations will be to radicalization, which will ignite
and spread the currently isolated conflict deeper and deeper into the
surrounding region through exploitation by outside groups.
Suu Kyi faces a
choice between emerging once again as a true leader or cowering from the crisis
and appeasing powers that have brutalized civilians. As the cries to act grow
louder, and the international community increases pressure, the greatest hope
for Myanmar and the region is that she will finally hear them.
Source: http://ati.ms/gGfCFR
Readers note: As a
woman, Daw aung San Suu Kyi should be realized the feeling of raped women but
she used to deny all rape cases and all atrocities conducted on Rohingyas. At
least 300 Rape cases has been enlisted, more than 1000 Rohingyas has been
killed and above three thousand Rohingya houses has been burned to ashes. Above
90000 Rohingyas been escaped to neighbouring Bangladesh for their lives and
modesty. As for properties of Rohingyas, been looted and destroyed.
