Aung San Suu Kyi tries to appease international critics
by forming a panel to investigate the military’s alleged atrocities in Rakhine
state. But nobody seems to be buying it ...
BY RIK GLAUERT 05 AUG 2018
Half of the commission members investigating alleged atrocities
committed during a brutal crackdown against Rohingya Muslims have a
questionable track record on human rights, adding to doubts that the inquiry is
nothing more than a fig leaf as Myanmar tries to buy diplomatic goodwill.
The four-person team was formed this week, nearly a year
after a military operation forced 700,000 Rohingya to flee the country. The
military has been accused of killings, rape, torture, and arson during sweeps
through Rohingya villages.
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State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto
leader, launched the investigation in an effort to stave off renewed diplomatic
isolation over accusations of ethnic cleansing.
But the “independent” inquiry, which includes two foreign
diplomats, has been denounced as being formed by a government unwilling and
unable to bring security forces to account and dismissed as an attempt to buy
itself time and goodwill on the international stage.
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Sitting on the commission are: the Philippine’s former
deputy foreign minister Rosario Manalo, Japan’s former UN representative Kenzo
Oshima, the former chairman of Myanmar’s constitutional tribunal U Mya Thein
and Aung Tun Thet, who directs the Myanmar government body dedicated to the
Rohingya crisis.
Manalo has a history of placing politics over human
rights, according to deputy director for Asia at Human Rights Watch, Phil
Robertson.
She was part of a push for Association
of Southeast Asian Nations to
develop its own human rights accord which had the potential to undermine
existing international standards, he said. https://www.scmp.com/topics/asean
“She’s the epitome of what this commission will do,”
Robertson said. “Talking big like she respects human rights while covertly
sabotaging real accountability for violations.”
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Aung Tun Thet has been criticised as neither impartial
nor independent. In 2016, he was part of a national investigation that rejected
a UN report of previous atrocities against Rohingya, and in April he flat-out
denied that abuse against the Rohingya was systematic or could be labelled as
ethnic cleansing.
“If you wanted to point to the government’s man on this
commission who will ensure it does nothing to threaten the government’s
narrative about what was done or not done to the Rohingya, he’s the one to look
at,” said Robertson.
Myanmar has persistently claimed that the military
campaign launched in western Rakhine State in August last year, believed to
have killed thousands of Rohingya, was a legitimate security operation in
response to attacks by Rohingya militants.
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Suu Kyi’s government has dismissed evidence of crimes
against humanity presented by rights groups as “fake news”, imprisoned
journalists uncovering evidence of Rohingya massacres, and blocked an official
UN fact finding mission, as well as human rights observers, from entering the
country.
While this led to isolation from several Western
countries, its powerful neighbour China has blocked UN resolutions holding
Myanmar to account.
In May, in a possible sign Suu Kyi was succumbing to
international pressure, Myanmar allowed a UN Security Council delegation to visit
the country and, at its request, promised to form an independent inquiry with
international members.
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According to Sean Bain of the International Commission of
Jurists, a Geneva-based human rights NGO, “an effective inquiry requires
adequate capacity, resources and a clear legal mandate to investigate with a
view to prosecuting crimes”.
This commission was formed without a mandate and previous
inquiries in Myanmar – including on Rakhine – have rarely led to prosecutions.
Domestic action was the only realistic possibility for
accountability in the short to medium term, Myanmar-based analyst Richard
Horsey told This Week in Asia, as international jurisdiction may not have
sufficient access to indict perpetrators, and even then Myanmar would be
unlikely to hand them over.
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He said Suu Kyi was keen to appear proactive ahead of the
UN General Assembly next month and show the world progress was being made a
year after the violence erupted.
But a genuine inquiry would confront Myanmar’s powerful
military. Human rights groups have said the top brass spearheaded the
systematic destruction of Rohingya villages, including widespread massacres,
torture and gang rapes.
According to Myanmar’s constitution, the military is free
from civilian oversight, retains control of three important security ministries
and a quarter of the seats in both houses of parliament. There was hope Suu Kyi
would rein in the powerful generals after sweeping to power in landmark
democratic elections in 2015, but she has failed to do so.
“Civil-military relations are quite poor so there is
unlikely to be strategic behind-the-scenes discussions to conduct the inquiry
in a way acceptable to the military,” Horsey said.
Not having former international military officials on the
commission was “discouraging”, a senior diplomat in Yangon said, because they
would have had a better chance engaging with Myanmar’s army.
“This isn’t a job for diplomats,” he said.
The new commission strikes a difficult “public relations”
balance between international pressure and domestic sentiment, according to Soe
Myint Aung of the Yangon Centre for Independent Research.
Most of Myanmar’s population, as well as the government,
label Rohingya “Bengali” to infer they are interlopers from Bangladesh, despite
the fact the ethnic group were, until relatively recently, regarded as being
from Myanmar.
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Military politicians and Buddhist nationalists have
denounced the commission, accusing the government of failing ethnic Rakhine
Buddhists in the state. They say the international scrutiny infringes on
sovereignty, and have urged the government to instead investigate atrocities
allegedly committed by Rohingya militants.
Halfway through Suu Kyi’s ruling National League for
Democracy’s first term in office and with by-elections in November, it is
unlikely that The Lady will want to rock the boat domestically.
Given the political recalcitrance of the military, the
government, and political parties, it is hard to see what the commission can
accomplish, Robertson said.
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“Unless this national commission comes up with clear
findings about which Tatmadaw [Myanmar army] commanders and police are
responsible for atrocities, it’s likely the international community will ignore
it,” he said.
The Rohingya, more than a million of whom now languish in
camps in Bangladesh, outnumbering those left inside Myanmar, deserve to know
who committed these crimes and how they were committed, according to Rohingya
activist Sam Naeem.
“But we are tired of commissions, we want solutions,” he
said. “The government is just trying to buy time in front of the international
community. If they really wanted to solve the problem they should apply rule of
law, give Rohingya their rights that were taken away, and let them return
unconditionally.”