Rohingya crisis haunts Myanmar government

By The Nation

January 28, 2018

Exit of US representative Bill Richardson from advisory committee raises questions on seriousness of tackling the issues

A lot has been written these past few days about former US ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, leaving an advisory committee set up to guide the Myanmar government on dealing with the Rohingya crisis. Richardson left Myanmar earlier than expected because he felt the committee was whitewashing the Burmese government and he didn’t want to be a part of the exercise. 

Rohingya refugees

The Myanmar government shot back and said anyway they were about to dump him because, according to a statement from the office of country’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi, “it became evident” that Richardson was not interested in providing advice. He was one of five international members of the panel.  

“In view of the difference of opinion that developed, the government had decided that his continued participation on the board would not be in the best interests of all concerned,” the office said in an English statement posted on Facebook. Burma accused him of “personal attacks”. 

Regardless of whether he left on his own or was about to be eased out as Suu Kyi’s office claims, his exit was a major embarrassment for Myanmar.

Disillusioned with the failure of Suu Kyi to deal with the crisis,  the world has pinned its hopes on these advisory committee members, which includes former deputy prime minister of Thailand Surakiart Sathirathai, to pressure Myanmar and ensure accountability as well as an end to the atrocities against the Rohingya. Richardson’s resignation should be a wake-up call for all that the Rohingya crisis cannot be “business as usual”.  

About 700,000 Rohingya have been forced to flee their homes in Rakhine state in western Burma. Many were murdered and raped as they tried to make their way to the Bangladesh side of the border.  Richardson said he could not in “good conscience” sit on a panel he feared would only “whitewash” the causes of the Rohingya crisis. 

Border Fence between Bangladesh and Myanmar 

He blasted Nobel laureate Suu Kyi for an “absence of moral leadership” and described her “furious response” to his request that her government free two Reuters journalists arrested while covering the crisis. Government spokesman Zaw Htay hit back, saying the issue of the arrests was beyond Richardson’s mandate and he should not have brought it up at his meeting with Suu Kyi. 

He equated Richardson’s criticism of Suu Kyi as a “personal attack” on her.  Richardson has said that he has great admiration for Suu Kyi, and his past work has shown that. But if she is going to sit in that office, she will have to answer these tough questions. Moreover, with who else could Richardson have raised the issue of the Reuters journalists? If the two Burmese police officers who orchestrated the bogus arrest of the two Reuters journalists can get away with what he had done, what makes Zaw Htay think members of the international community have faith in Burma’s justice system? 

The more important issue is not whether Richardson overstepped his mandate, but the crimes perpetrated on Rohingya civilians which the United Nations has described as a textbook case of genocide. In the final analysis, these stakeholders need to put their egos aside and put the interests of the Rohingya people at the centre of the debate. It’s not about them; it’s about the victims and justice for them. If this means charging some of these generals with crimes against humanity, so be it.