What to Do With ‘Textbook Example of Ethnic Cleansing’ in Myanmar?

Rasa - The United Nations Security Council is set to hold an urgent meeting to discuss violence barreling through western Myanmar after the UN's rights chief warned that "ethnic cleansing" appeared to have driven the flight of over 370,000 Rohingya Muslims from the country.

News ID: 432345

Date: 13 September 2017 - 00:42

RNA - The remote border region was plunged into crisis decades ago when Myanmar's majority refrained from recognizing the Muslim minority as part of the population despite the fact that the Muslim minority has been living there for several centuries now. But according to Myanmar's claims, this last surge started after its decades-long crackdown on the Muslims has eventually been reciprocated with an attack on a police post in late August, prompting a military backlash that has sent nearly a third of the Muslim minority population fleeing to Bangladesh. Rohingya refugees fleeing the unrest have told stories of soldiers and Buddhist mobs burning entire villages to the ground, while the government blames the minority for the arson, claiming again that the minority burns its houses and then escapes the region!!

On Monday the United Nations rights chief, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, said the violence seemed to be a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing". Hours after the warning, the Security Council announced it would meet Wednesday to discuss the crisis, which has heaped global opprobrium on Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The Council met behind closed doors in late August to discuss the violence, but there was no formal statement. The hope is, this time it will be different.

As maintained by Iran’s Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, Islamic governments should also exert political and economic pressure on Myanmar’s government to make it stop the deadly crackdown. Ayatollah Khamenei has strongly criticized the silence and inaction of international bodies and self-proclaimed human rights advocates on the ongoing atrocities in Myanmar. He says the crisis is a political issue and should not be reduced to a religious conflict between Muslims and Buddhists although religious prejudice may have been involved.

Tragic enough, that's what is still happening. The UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar says the latest violence has left 1,000s dead, most of them Rohingya. The exodus has sparked a humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh, where refugee camps were already overcrowded and food and other aid is in short supply.

Humanitarian agencies have also reported that many refugees are arriving with serious medical needs including some that have been injured by gunshots and bomb blasts. Myanmar’s military has repeatedly denied targeting Rohingya Muslims. With refugee camps already bursting at the seams, many new arrivals have no shelter, food or water and limited access to health services.

It’s all the reason why the UN Security Council needs to take swift action to end the conflict. The Government of Myanmar needs to understand the underlying root causes of this problem and they should create a conducive environment so these refugees can feel safe to go back - it is a political decision that needs to be made as early as possible.

The UN has been dealing with this situation for a long time, but the Rohingya Muslims are not seeing any improvement. It is in fact getting worse. They have faced a long history of repression in Myanmar where their status as citizens is disputed and their movement and access to social services is restricted, rendering the majority of the group stateless and impoverished.

Surely now is the time for action on the plight of the Rohingya people in western Myanmar who the United Nations has described as one of the most excluded, persecuted, and vulnerable communities in the world. So far, the military junta has warned against “fake information” and “terrorists”. The world has not, however, heard a word of support or even comfort for the people that, as amply documented by international organizations and media, are subject to a campaign leading to death, widespread suffering and desperate escapes over the border.

One last point: The 1991 Nobel Prize was given to honor Aung San Suu Kyi’s so-called heroic and unflagging efforts for peace and prosperity in her country and to support efforts to achieve ethnic conciliation by peaceful means. She has mentioned that the Rohingya and the world are lying, pretending that no massacre and ethnic cleansing has happened in her country and describing the oppressed minority as the oppressor!!!

Her record, performance and thoughts once again prove the misperception or hypocrisy of the Western society in defining standards for peace and human rights.

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