By The Irrawaddy
YANGON — Despite the
Myanmar Army’s announcement of the expulsion of a couple of high-ranking
officers on Monday over their mishandling of the northern Rakhine issue, which
caused nearly 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh in late 2017,
many political analysts and politicians predict that international pressure on
Myanmar will continue to grow ahead of the United Nations General Assembly in
September.
The European Union
(EU) released a list of targeted sanctions on Monday against seven military and
border guard police officers directly involved the clearance operations in
2017. On the same day, the Office of the Commander-in-Chief announced its
punishment of the officers. The targeted sanctions were not new; in February
2018, the EU condemned widely alleged human rights violations by Myanmar
security forces and it has been preparing targeted restrictive measures on the
responsible officers since then.
The EU statement
targets the following officers for sanctions: Lieutenant General Aung Kyaw Zaw,
the commander of Bureau of Special Operations No. 3 at the military’s Western
Command from 2015 to 2017; Major General Maung Maung Soe, chief of the Western
Command of the Myanmar Armed Forces from 2016 to 2017; Brigadier General Than
Oo, commander of the 99th Light Infantry Division; Brigadier General Aung Aung,
commander of the 33rd Light Infantry Division; Major General Khin Maung Soe of
the 15th Light Infantry Division (a branch of Infantry Battalion No. 564);
Brigadier General Thura San Lwin, head of the Border Guard Police; and
Commander Thant Zin Oo of the 8th Security Police Battalion in northern Rakhine
State’s Maungdaw Township, who assisted Brig-Gen Aung Aung during the
operations.
A statement
subsequently released by the military reiterated the Army’s March 6 suspension
of Maj-Gen Maung Maung Soe from his position and his official removal on June
25 as the Western Command chief for failing to carry out the necessary actions
against members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) despite having
received prior information about the group’s attacks on civil servants and
members of the security forces, as well as his mismanagement of military
operations on the ground.
Additionally, Lt-Gen
Aung Kyaw Zaw, who was assigned to closely supervise operations in Rakhine
State, voluntarily resigned on May 22 and Brig-Gen Thura San Lwin was removed
from his position in the same month. The Office of the Commander-in-Chief did
not mention whether action would be taken against the three other Army officers
and one Border Guard officer.
The Irrawaddy phoned
Police Commander Thant Zin Oo on Tuesday but he declined to answer questions,
saying, “I am too busy with security matters and meetings with my superiors.”
The Burmese-language
Army statement used the phrase “violent Bengalis”. “Bengali”, the term used by
most people in Myanmar to refer to Rohingya, implies they are immigrants from
Bangladesh brought in by British colonial administrators to fill a labor
shortage in northern Rakhine.
Some political analysts
and politicians concluded that the Army announcement was prompted by
international pressure, while others saw it as a normal development.
Yangon-based
political analyst Dr. Yan Myo Thein welcomed the Army’s move as an initial
step, saying it represented a break with the past. He interpreted it as
diplomatic gesture expressing a willingness to maintain a positive relationship
with the international community. Dr. Yan Myo Thein pointed out that the
support of the EU, the US and other Western countries was crucial to Myanmar’s
democratic transition. If international pressure is mounting, Myanmar should
strategically tighten its relationship with the international community, he
said.
The analyst urged
the military to apply the law equally to every single military officer by
closely monitoring them to ensure they follow the laws, rules and regulations
of the Army (or Tatmadaw), as well as social norms. When officers overstep
their legitimate authority, the Army should investigate the alleged abuses and
reveal its findings to the public, he said, adding that it is standard practice
around the world for militaries to monitor the behavior of its soldiers and
carry out inspections.
“I think the
Tatmadaw will do this more in the future,” Dr. Yan Myo Thein said.
He believed that
increasing engagement with the UN could reduce the challenges, dilemmas and
international pressure on Myanmar, as the country is itself a member of the
world body, though he acknowledged that there would be advantages and
disadvantages to this approach.
Ethnic affairs
expert Maung Maung Soe, who spent time in northern Rakhine before the armed
conflict, agreed that the recent move by the Army to kick out four senior
officers would do little to reduce international pressure on Myanmar.
“It’s very important
that both the government and Army should broadly engage with the EU and the
international community. And facilitating the opening of a new EU office in
Naypyitaw is one of the significant steps that Myanmar intends to take,” Dr.
Yan Myo Thein said.
National League for
Democracy Lower House lawmaker Daw Pyone Kathy Naing, who is also a member of
the Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development
in Rakhine, said the EU sanctions were widely expected, adding that the Army’s latest
step demonstrated that it is willing to take legal action against officers who
abuse their authority. However, she said simply blaming all security members
would be unfair, as several key actors like the armed rebel group the Arakan
Army (AA), as well as ARSA militants and narcotics gangs, were also moving
around the region. Community hostility in the villages involved in the attacks
also contributed to the explosive situation, she said.
“Army officers
should find evidence to prove the other groups’ abuses, rather than simply
making verbal arguments at this time,” she said.
She urged the
international community to understand that Myanmar experienced terrorist
attacks in late 2017 for the first time ever, and that the country might have
some weaknesses when it comes to implementing counter-terrorism operations.
“It’s really good
for us to take lessons from past experiences,” Daw Pyone Kathy Naing said.
While some
politicians welcomed the Army’s move, Arakan National Party (ANP) Lower House
lawmaker U Pe Than had a different stance. He said punishment was unnecessary
to ease the international pressure on Myanmar, as other countries had similarly
mishandled conflicts. He argued that the situation on the ground made it
extremely tough for members of the security forces to determine who was a
terrorist, because by the time the clearance operation began every village
involved in the serial attacks in August 2017 was either directly or indirectly
linked in some way to ARSA. This was a result of poor law enforcement in the
region for years, which had allowed ARSA militants to gain a foothold, he said.
“Today’s situation,
in which we see continued referrals [of Myanmar military leaders] to the ICC,
is the result of the international community’s lack of information regarding
what is happening on the ground. Whenever they talk about the northern Rakhine
conflict, they focus solely on human rights and the mass exodus,” U Pe Than
said.
While their views on
the EU sanctions and Myanmar’s short-term future may differ, local analysts and
politicians generally agree that the international pressure will likely rise
again in the run-up to the UN General Assembly, which is scheduled to be held
in September, as Rohingya sympathizers and lobbyist groups’ ultimate goals are
to bring Myanmar military officers before the International Criminal Court
(ICC) and to secure a citizenship guarantee for the Rohingya.