Indiscriminate killing, mass rape and arson, Unimaginable
atrocities, committed by Myanmar's armed forces, local militia and even
Buddhist monks. Soldiers shouting anti-Muslim obscenities while shooting
people.
The extreme cruelty in north Rakhine state revealed by
Fairfax Media's south-east Asian correspondent, Lindsay Murdoch, is almost
beyond belief.
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| Rohingya refugee children wait at a Red Cross distribution point in Burma Para refugee camp. Photo: Kate Geraghty |
But believe it we must. It has gone far beyond a mere
humanitarian crisis. This, the deliberate killing of a specific ethnic group,
is genocide.
It has caused the fastest refugee exodus since the
Rwandan genocide. Soon the depopulation of Rohingya from northern Rakhine will
be complete. We must make it stop before it reaches that point.
Myanmar's murder of up to 13,769 Rohingya people – almost
half of them in August alone – is a crime against humanity. It very clearly
fits that definition, of a deliberate, systematic campaign causing death and
human suffering.
Those murdered include at least 730 children under the
age of five, Medecins Sans Frontieres has revealed. More than half of those
children died after being shot.
The United Nations Human Rights Council last week
condemned the "very likely commission of crimes against humanity" by
Myanmar security forces. It ignored the denials of the Myanmar government, led
by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been widely criticised for her
inaction and refusal to condemn anti-Muslim violence.
Yet the Turnbull government continues to resist the
growing calls for it to end Australian Defence Force training and support to
Myanmar's military in response to the atrocities. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop
has said Australia is "deeply concerned" by the violence. Yet she has
avoided directly condemning either the Myanmar government or military. That is
not good enough.
Australia needs to step up and do something about this
disaster in its region. We cannot afford to ignore the killings and
displacement of around 835,000 Rohingya who have fled to Bangladesh.
This is the kind of situation that radicalises people. It
has the potential to destabilise the entire region. It poses huge problems that
would likely directly affect Australia not only in terms of security but also a
potential influx of displaced people (170 Rohingya have been held in detention
by Australia on Manus Island and Nauru for more than four years).
This campaign of violence takes place within the context
of a worsening human rights record across south-east Asia. From President
Rodrigo Duterte's extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, to killings and
torture committed by Cambodia's security forces, communist Vietnam's oppression
of basic freedoms of expression and religion, and abuses that continue unabated
in the conflict between separatist groups and security forces in Thailand's
north, Amnesty International has described
as "endemic" the region's human rights violations.
In Myanmar, those violations now appear to include its
treatment of journalists, with two Reuters reporters arrested and charged by
the government late last week, accused of leaking documents on brutal military-led
attacks on Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State.
Australia must immediately condemn Myanmar's actions in
the strongest manner, and call them out for what they undoubtedly are. We must
end any co-operation with the Myanmar military.
And as a country able to influence ASEAN, as well as a
newly elected member of the United Nations Human Rights Council from January
2018, we have a moral responsibility not just to act, but to lead by example.
Source: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/australia-must-act-on-rohingya-genocide-20171215-h05ku0.html