Human rights
Over 400 000 women, men and children belonging to the Muslim Rohingya minority group forcedly fled to Bangladesh owing to a resurgence of acts of violence and persecution perpetrated by the army of Myanmar, with entire villages set to fire. Leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi broke the silence on the humanitarian crisis, but human rights activists are not satisfied. The opinion of James Gomez from Amnesty international, Bangkok
“The human rights violations against the Rohingya people is by far the most tragic case of ethnic cleansing in Asia in recent times”, said James Gomez, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, coordinator of a team of local activists. He is following from Bangkok the crisis of the Rohingya people, the Muslim minority of Rakhine State in Myanmar, a Buddhist-majority Country afflicted by several internal conflicts related to integration difficulties of the various ethnic groups, especially in the States of Shan and Kachin.
400.000 people fleeing to Bangladesh. “Over 400 000 were forced to cross the border of Myanmar and seek shelter in Bangladesh in the past three weeks as a result of the Scorched-earth campaign carried out by Myanmar’s army – Gomez told SIR -. Over 800.000 people were forced to flee over the past years.” The resurgence of acts of violence and human rights violations perpetrated by the army began on August 25 as a result of terror attacks carried out by the Arakan Rohingya salvation army (ARSA) against police outposts and a military basis in Rakhine State. Amnesty had already denounced numerous episodes of torture, extrajudicial executions, village bombardments and restrictions on freedom of movement and access to humanitarian aid in North Myanmar in a report published past June. The situation escalated over the past weeks: reportedly, 200 villages were set ablaze, while human activists continue posting photos and videos of women, men and high numbers of children in desperate conditions that escape by swimming across the river or walking along perilous tracks in the attempt to cross the border and seek refuge in Bangladesh. Amnesty has collected new evidence based on fire-detection data, satellite imagery, photos and videos, as well as interviews with eye-witnesses in Myanmar and in Bangladesh, where the conditions of makeshift camps for displaced persons are dramatic.
Amnesty on Aung San Suu Kyi: “Too much silence on the violations.” The “de facto” Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Laureate, has remained silent for weeks, while other Nobel Prize recipients, diplomats and the UN asked her to intervene. Finally, on September 19, she delivered a public statement, which nonetheless disappointed human rights activists. The leader of the National League of Democracy, the party that won the first free elections in 2015, after decades of harsh military rule, said she “was deeply saddened and concerned” to hear
“the number of Muslims fleeing areas to Bangladesh” (she did not mention the Rohingya because in the Country it’s a taboo-word) and invited diplomats and UN observers into the Country to study the peaceful areas in most part of the State of Rakhine. In fact she was accused of failing to condemn the violence perpetrated by the army, which still plays a major role in Myanmar and with which Suu Kyi must maintain mediated relations in order to govern the Country.
“Aung San Suu Kyi spoke in general terms about democracy and political problems, failing to mention the humanitarian problems of 400 000 people, and she is still silent about the role of the security forces in human rights violations. She invited the diplomats and the intellectual community but not the independent observers. The army is involved and still benefits from total impunity, even with regard to the persecution of minorities in the Kachin and Shan States.”
“Asian Countries remain silent.” Gomez is in touch with UN human rights representatives and urged to “undertake an independent inquiry on these crimes against humanity.” He considers Pope’s Francis’ appeals on the humanitarian crisis of the Rohingya “very important” but he said he hopes that also other actors with strategic roles in geopolitical balances will speak out:
“I would like to hear the voice of Asian Countries, especially of India – which unfortunately failed to voice the defence of the Rohingya – and of China, that should acknowledge the abuses carried out by the army.”
In the meantime Salil Shetty, Amnesty international’s Secretary General, called upon world leaders gathering in New York for the UN General Assembly to discuss the ongoing refugee crises, such as the Rohingya refugees “who are in a desperate situation. “In case they have forgotten, this is what the United Nations is for.” Amnesty launched an online appeal to stop discrimination and ethnic cleansing. Doctors without Borders asked Myanmar’s authorities that “people too injured or sick to flee Rakhine State be accessed without further delay” and to meet the huge humanitarian needs of hundreds of thousands of people, including 120 000 internally displaced persons who are entirely dependant on humanitarian assistance.
