Aug 2, 2012
© 2012 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. All rights reserved.
Myanmar continues to pursue reforms at an impressive pace, but the
plight of the country’s Rohingya population remains a disgrace for a
state seeking to engage the international community. That disgrace is
not the government’s alone—it is shared by the opposition movement,
including its leader Aung San Suu Kyi as well as the country’s neighbors
and the international community.
The more than 800,000 Rohingyas that live in Myanmar today, most in
western Rakhine state, are denied citizenship by the government and face
a range of abuses including forced labor, marriage restrictions, and
unlawful detention. Their suffering is so severe that many have sought
refuge across the border in Bangladesh, while others have fled on
dangerous voyages by boat to Thailand and Malaysia. Amnesty
International July 20 noted that both security forces and Buddhists in
Rakhine state have been carrying out “primarily one-sided” attacks,
including massive security sweeps, detentions, and killings, against the
Rohingya in the weeks after a wave of communal violence erupted between
the area’s Buddhist and Muslim populations.
During the recent communal violence, the country’s news outlets
engaged in base fear-mongering, equating Rohingyas with “terrorists,”
and the government did nothing to dispel these assertions. Officials and
most commentators from Myanmar’s majority Burman ethnic group insisted
that the Rohingyas are recent migrants from Bangladesh and do not
qualify as one of the country’s roughly 135 ethnic minorities.
Immigration Minister Khin Yi said this week that they will not be
included in the country’s 2014 census. Popular Myanmar News Journal has
reported that he told Bangladesh’s ambassador to Myanmar that Rohingyas
are not citizens because they only began migrating to the country after
1824.
The impossible situation in which Rohingyas find themselves has been
on display since the eruption of violence nearly two months ago. Many
have attempted to flee to Bangladesh with their families, where they
have been stopped at the border and refused entry. Those who made it
across the border face detention and deportation back to Rakhine state.
Myanmar’s president Thein Sein announced that only those Rohingyas with
proof of citizenship would be permitted to return to their homes, but
the government has long denied Rohingyas the right to legal
documentation of any kind. The president said Myanmar will not accept
“illegal immigrants” and has requested that the United Nations refugee
agency either place the Rohingya in refugee camps or deport them to a
third country, which the UN understandably refused.
On the opposition side, the widely respected Aung San Suu Kyi has
avoided the subject. During her June trip to Europe, which coincided
with the outbreak of communal violence in Rakhine state, she said only
that the country must clarify its citizenship laws. Whether such
clarification would embrace or dispossess the Rohingya was left unclear.
In her first parliamentary speech July 25, Suu Kyi spoke of soaring
poverty rates and other roots of violence in “ethnic states,” but did
not mention the deadly violence in Rakhine state or the government’s
treatment of Rohingyas. Other leaders of her National League for
Democracy have made clear that they are of one mind with the government
in declaring the Rohingya squatters on their own land.
Some international commentators argue that the opposition’s position
is to be expected since the issue is politically sensitive and most
citizens hold extremely hostile views toward the Rohingya. But that is
no excuse for silence in the face of killing, rape, and abuse of a
helpless people. Some have argued that Suu Kyi herself has her arms tied
now that she is an elected member of parliament from a conservative
district. This wildly underestimates the influence of “the Lady.” Suu
Kyi is much more than a parliamentary opposition leader; she is the
scion of the nation’s greatest hero, the symbol of resistance to what
was until recently one of the world’s most repressive regimes, and to
many of her countrymen a bodhisattva, one on the path to enlightenment
and Buddhahood.
The government of Myanmar needs to snap out of its denial and
confront the Rohingya issue head on. The nearly million Rohingyas in
Myanmar are the country’s responsibility, and proper rights must be
accorded to
them. President Thein Sein should also have a frank and practical
discussion about repatriation issues with his Bangladeshi counterpart
during his upcoming visit to Dhaka.
Aung San Suu Kyi must break her silence on the issue. She cannot
change the collective opinions of an entire country over night, but her
voice is critical in getting the ball rolling. Even if the government
tomorrow decreed the Rohingya citizens of Myanmar, most of the
population would still see them as intruders. Only Suu Kyi’s opinion can
carry enough weight with the Burman majority to make a dent in that
prejudice.
The international community also should play a stronger role. It is
encouraging that ASEAN secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan has taken a
“personal interest” in the issue and spoke directly to Myanmar and
Bangladesh during ASEAN meetings in Cambodia in July. However, the
organization and its member states can do much more to facilitate a
solution. A good opportunity will be at an upcoming international
conference on the Rohingya in August, where progress can hopefully be
made toward allowing access for aid that is currently being blocked by
the government. The conference was announced by the Malaysian
International Islamic Cooperation Institute, but the exact location
remains undecided.
Other concerned actors ranging from the United States to the
Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) should also hold Myanmar’s feet
to the fire on this issue since it remains an enormous blemish on the
country’s path to reform. The United States and Europe have spent
decades condemning the treatment of the country’s other minorities,
particularly the Karen and, more recently, the Kachin. Their response to
the plight of the Rohingya has been, by comparison, remarkably muted.
At the very least, they should support the call by the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights for an international inquiry into the
widely reported abuses against the Rohingya by security forces in
Rakhine state.
UN special rapporteur on human rights for Myanmar Tomas Ojea Quintana
traveled to Rakhine state this week to assess the situation. He was
told dismissively by Immigration Minister Khin Yi that “this is just a
regional but not an international issue . . . so I don’t think the
government will accept the call to open an inquiry as if this were an
international issue.” The international community must make clear that
the problem will not simply go away. The plight of the Rohingya may well
constitute crimes against humanity, according to a June report by
respected researchers at the Irish Center for Human Rights. Myanmar’s
civilian government, its democratic opposition, the country’s neighbors,
and the global community all have an obligation to confront this
reality and ensure that it is rectified. (This Commentary first appeared
in the August 2, 2012, issue of Southeast Asia from the Corner of 18th
and K Streets.)
Gregory Poling is a research associate with the Southeast Asia
Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in
Washington, D.C. Prashanth Parameswaran is a researcher with the CSIS
Southeast Asia Program.Commentary is produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s).
© 2012 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. All rights reserved.
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