By Habib Siddiqui
Recently Myanmar’s de facto leader Suu Kyi
met the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo.
"With regard to the alleged human rights violations in Rakhine State, it is indispensable that the Myanmar government and military take appropriate measures promptly," Abe was quoted by the Japanese Foreign Ministry as telling Suu Kyi in their meeting.
Since 2017, nearly 742,000 Rohingya refugees
have fled to Bangladesh in search of safety, according to the United Nations.
The Rohingya are considered stateless people in Buddhist Myanmar where for more
than half a century they have faced genocidal pogroms, unfathomed
discrimination and unparalleled persecution. Each and every one of the rights
enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are denied to them.
Before the current crisis unfolded, they were already recognized as the most
persecuted people of our time.
Recently Myanmar’s de facto leader Suu Kyi
met the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo."With regard to the alleged human rights violations in Rakhine State, it is indispensable that the Myanmar government and military take appropriate measures promptly," Abe was quoted by the Japanese Foreign Ministry as telling Suu Kyi in their meeting.
There is nothing ‘alleged’ any more about
Myanmar’s genocidal crimes and intent against the Rohingya people. But mindful
of Myanmar’s ugly face-saving position trying to evade any responsibility for
its horrendous crimes and its willful abhorrence for the ‘R’ (Rohingya) term,
Abe was understandably diplomatic in his choice of words when hosting Suu Kyi.
But how long can his government continue to please a murderous, genocidal
criminal regime?
While tens of thousands of Rohingyas were
killed in Suu Kyi’s Myanmar and perhaps even a larger number raped in one of
the most calculated genocidal pogroms of our time in the full view of the world
community, forcing exodus of so many survivors to seek refuge in Bangladesh –
their repatriation to their ancestral land in Arakan (Rakhine) state remains a
challenge. The world community has done virtually nothing to ensure their safe
return in UN-monitored safe zone with their citizenship rights and dignity
intact as free citizens of Myanmar. In particular, the roles of China and India
have been ignoble by trying to protect Suu Kyi’s criminal regime.
Of course, we can understand such rogue
attitudes from two of the global upstarts that through their own crimes have
proven to be guilty of creating their own version of the Rohingya crisis with
the minority Uighur and Kashmiri Muslims who today face extinction – political,
social, economical and cultural.
Since its birth, Burma (later named Myanmar)
has been a highly racist and fascist state. Its government had changed but its
basic incoherence as a modern state that is respectful of its diverse
religious, ethnic and racial groups has remained the same. Suu Kyi inherited a
criminal regime and now leads another criminal regime. She remains a
remorseless mass murderer and has mastered the art of political doublespeak.
During her meeting with Abe she expressed her
intention to address the Rakhine issue "correctly" and take necessary
steps. Abe pledged Japan's support. It is worth noting that despite Myanmar’s
genocidal crimes, the Japanese government remains one of its major donors. Last
year, Abe promised an aid package of 7.73 billion USD to Suu Kyi as Japan
competed for regional influence with China, which remains Myanmar’s biggest
trading partner.
How long can Japan evade its own culpability
for birthing the Rohingya crisis? Its blood-stained connection is rather very
deep and old.
After all, imperial Japan had played a
dreadful role during the Second World War after occupying Burma. Its occupation
led to the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Muslims all across
Burma, let alone the Indian community that hitherto provided the majority of
the employees in the service of the British government. Many of the survivors
fled to the British-ruled Bengal in India. The Rohingyas of Burma were
particularly affected when the Rakhine Buddhists and Burmese fascists, aided by
the Japanese occupation forces, conducted horrendous crimes of obliterating
their existence in the southern part of the Arakan state. They faced
extinction, rape and pillage; the survivors fled to the north in what would
later be known as the Mayu Frontier region and fought on the side of the British
forces against the fascist Rakhine and Buddhist forces that were allied with
the Japanese occupation forces.
Sadly, the British colonial government [as it
has done in many of its former colonies] betrayed the Rohingya people soon
after Japan had lost the great-war. In spite of their cultural and religious
ties with Bengal, the Rohingya majority territory in the northern Arakan state
was made part of newly independent Burma. And the rest is history!
As is quite evident now, Myanmar has no
desire to take the Rohingya refugees back. Worse still, the remaining 600,000
Rohingyas those are inside Myanmar face daily persecution and are more
vulnerable today as a religious and ethnic minority than any time before.
As hinted above, much of the problems that
divide the major communities in the Arakan – Rakhine and Rohingya – go back to
those tragic years of the Japanese occupation of Burma.
It is sad to see that even after some 70
years, Japan continues to provide financial incentives and aids to the Burmese
governments, in spite of the latter’s incessant crimes against the ethnic
Rohingya and other minorities.
So, while one may appreciate Prime Minister
Abe's call to redress the Rohingya issue, it does not absolve his government of
providing a lifeline to the murderous regime that is guilty of genocide. One
cannot but also question the wisdom of Abe’s government that continues to
fatten a rogue beast that has proven to be savage and murderous.
What Suu Kyi’s government needs is a big
stick and not economic aid that only energizes its murderous instinct and
boosts its savagery.
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Rights body throws doubt on Dhaka’s plan to
relocate Rohingya to Remote Island https://mirsdq.blogspot.com/2019/10/rights-body.html
Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi scolds world for
lacking focus on Rakhine 'terrorists' https://str.sg/JUho
French film exposes “Roots of Crimes” against
Myanmar’s Rohingya: https://mirsdq.blogspot.com/2019/10/roots-of-rohingya-genocide.html
Bangladesh to move Rohingya to flood-prone
island next month: https://mirsdq.blogspot.com/2019/10/bangladesh-to-move-rohingya-to-flood.html
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Don’t forget to reach here: https://t.co/yY28vR35fZ to know about
inhumane of Myanmar against Rohingya.
@mir_sidiquee is a Human Rights Activist, DG
of R4R (Rohingya Human Rights Initiative) and researcher of Rohingya Crisis