Law Interview regarding Rohingya Crisis by The Daily Star
Law Desk (LD): How do you see the present
Rohingya crisis?
Nickey Diamond (ND): From the Myanmar
government policies and practices, it has appeared that the recent Rohingya
crisis is the outcome of a very systematic but unjust and authoritarian rule.
The example is the citizenship law of 1982 by which the right to citizenship of
the Rohingyas was arbitrarily taken away, although the 1947’s post-independence
Constitution of Myanmar and the 1948 Union Citizen Act recognised the Rohingyas
as one of the ethnic communities in the country. Later, 1974 and 2008 Constitutions
of Myanmar did not recognise the Rohingyas as being the citizens and ethnic
community. Constitutional fabric and citizenship law together made the
Rohingyas a stateless population. However, the problem is not of the law and
policies only. Discriminatory practices of the government also contributed to
the making of the present crisis. Once the right to citizenship was denied to
the Rohingyas, they became stateless and could not enjoy their basic human
rights. To me, it’s not a recent issue but a several-decade long issue and the
government continues to ignore it. The military leaders and their previous
regime considered the Rohingyas as the ‘illegal immigrants from Bangladesh’ and
recently after the 2017 August crackdown they said that the ‘Bengali problem’
is unfinished business. This is the kind of unfortunate scenario what I see on
the face of the Rohingya crisis.
LD: Can you illustrate the patterns of
discrimination against the Rohingyas which basically facilitated the state-led
persecution in 2017?
ND: We have been documenting Rohingya
suppression in northern Rakhine for a long time. Since 2012, they have been
forced to live in concentration camps under strict surveillance of the security
forces. They could not go out of the camp and did not live like other
communities with individual freedom and liberty. They could not even go to
another village. They were subjected to movement restrictions and needed
special permission to get married and have children. In 2016, we witnessed some
systematic execution of government policies. For example, protective fences
around the Rohingya houses were removed, and knives and other sharp implements
(basically used for agriculture purposes) were confiscated. Security patrols,
house searches and cases of beatings, theft and extortion gradually increased.
In 2017, the oppression grew more violent and the Rohingyas became defenceless.
The kind of measure adopted by the Myanmar state apparatus, I consider,
facilitated the 2012 violence which was a kind of preparation for undertaking a
larger attack and displacement in August 2017 and committing a crime of
genocide against the Rohingya ethnic minority group.
LD: Will you reflect on any propaganda used
by the perpetrators?
ND: Institutionalised discrimination in the
past and also the Buddhist nationalism played a role in the making of the
crisis. Most of the political leaders and monks made propaganda that Buddhism,
Buddhists, and Buddhist-nation are under attack by the Muslim Rohingyas who
are, to them, the ‘Bengali population’ and ‘illegal immigrants’ to Myanmar.
This kind of religious intolerance and indoctrination through ideology into the
body-politic of the state made the Rohingyas more vulnerable and the victims of
state atrocities. Ordinary people truly believed in all these radical
ideologies and became a part of state-led persecution of the Rohingyas. This
kind of radicalisation and abuse of religion had been going on for several
decades in Myanmar and one of the problems centring the present Rohingya
crisis.
LD: Do you believe that a terrorist
organisation like Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) exists?
ND: I have talked to the Rohingya community
leaders several times on different occasions. They always tell me that an
organisation like ARSA may exist, but they do not support any kind of armed
struggle or armed conflict. They truly believe in seeking their ethnic
identity, restoration of citizenship rights and peaceful co-existence in
Myanmar. In a situation of decade-long discrimination and deprivation by the state,
it is no wonder that some external forces like terrorist organisations might
have tried to mobilise and radicalise ordinary Rohingyas. It is possible that
some potential situation may have driven few of them – may be a hundred or so –
to fall into the trap of radicalisation. However, the majority Rohingya populations
believe that an armed struggle cannot bring any real solution to the crisis.
LD: What is your expectation from the
international community?
ND: I am a little skeptical about the
international response and action regarding the Rohingya crisis. The
international community is taking time and seeking legal justification under
international law to act for solving the Rohingya crisis. We need to understand
that it is a case of mass atrocity; millions of people are displaced and have
already become a humanitarian burden for another state, i.e. Bangladesh. The
situation requires immediate global action responsive to the crisis, especially
in terms of holding the perpetrators accountable under international criminal
law. Though the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has
taken an initiative to investigate into the matter, the Court is itself
struggling with different political challenges which actually frustrate us who
are time and again raising our voices to ensure justice for the Rohingyas.
Apart from this criminal justice aspect, the issue of reparation and
repatriation is also a big issue right now to the crisis since most of the
perpetrators are now in power in Myanmar. In such a situation, it is very
difficult to ensure accountability of the perpetrators and justice for the
Rohingyas. The question is – under what basis and confidence the Rohingya
people will return to their homeland, unless a tangible assurance is given and a
visible measure is taken by the government in power. Since the perpetrators are
still in power and they are not taking the responsibility of the safety of the
Rohingyas, the chances remain that they might again violate and kill these
Rohingya people on their return to Myanmar. Hence, a potential danger exists
even in future to the crisis.
LD: Thank you for your time.
ND: You are welcome.