A human tragedy approaching ethnic cleansing is unfolding in Burma, and the world is chillingly silent.
In
recent weeks, hundreds of Muslim Rohingya people have been killed, and
more than 30,000 displaced.
Houses have been burned, hundreds of women
raped and many others arbitrarily arrested. Access for humanitarian-aid
organizations has been almost completely denied. Thousands have fled to
neighboring Bangladesh, only to be sent back. Witness all the hallmarks
of past tragedies: Bosnia, Darfur, Kosovo, Rwanda.- This isn’t the first explosion of violence against the Rohingyas, who are among the world’s most persecuted minorities. For decades these Burma-based Muslims have been subjected to a campaign of grinding dehumanization. In 1982, they were stripped of their citizenship rights and rendered stateless, with restrictions on movement, marriage, education and religious freedom.
- The Burmese government and military claims that the Rohingyas are in fact illegal Bengali immigrants. But Bangladesh doesn’t recognize them. As some Rohingyas say, “We are trapped between a crocodile and a snake.”
- Their plight intensified in 2012 when two severe outbreaks of violence resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands and a new apartheid emerged between Rohingya Muslims and their Rakhine Buddhist neighbors. Conditions have since become increasingly dire.
The
latest episode was sparked by an Oct. 9 attack on Burmese border-police
posts, which killed nine officers.
While no conclusive findings have
been made about the attack, Burma’s military alleges that a group of
Rohingyas were the perpetrators.
Even if that were true, the
military’s response has been grossly disproportionate.
Rounding up
suspects, interrogating them and putting them on trial would be one
thing. It’s quite another to reportedly unleash helicopter gunships on
civilians, rape women and throw babies into a fire.
According to
one Rohingya interviewed by Amnesty International, the military “shot
at people who were fleeing.
They surrounded the village and started
going from house to house. They were verbally abusing the people. They
were threatening to rape the women.”
Another witness described
how her two sons were arbitrarily arrested: “It was early in the
morning, the military surrounded our house, while some came in and
forced me and my children to go outside. They tied my two sons up. They
tied their hands behind their backs, and they were beaten badly. The
military kicked them in the chest. I saw it myself. I was crying so
loudly. When I cried, they pointed a gun at me. My children were begging
the military not to hit them. They were beaten for around 30 minutes
before being taken away.” She hasn’t seen them since.
Two people may be able to prevent this crisis from further deteriorating: Burma’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Ms.
Suu Kyi is already facing increasing criticism for her failure to act,
though she faces severe constraints. She won an electoral mandate last
year and runs Burma’s first democratically led government in more than
half a century, but the military still holds enormous power. Under
Burma’s constitution, the ministries of home affairs, border affairs and
defense remain in military hands. Her caution is thus understandable,
denying the military any pretext to destabilize her new and fragile
government. But the priority must be to save lives and prevent a
humanitarian catastrophe.
In September, Ms. Suu Kyi invited former U.N. chief Kofi Annan
to head a commission and find solutions to the Rohingyas’ plight. But
her response to the latest abuses has been disappointing. At the very
least, she should lift all restrictions on humanitarian aid so that
people can receive emergency assistance. She should allow access for
journalists and human-rights monitors, and set up an independent,
international inquiry to establish the truth about the current
situation. She should call for an end to mass attacks on civilians.
As
for Mr. Ban, his visit and negotiations to lift the military regime’s
block on international aid after Cyclone Nargis hit Burma in 2008 saved
thousands of lives. In his final weeks in office, he should repeat this
strategy: Go to Burma and, using his good offices, bring together Ms.
Suu Kyi, the military and the Rakhine state authorities and insist on
humanitarian access.
John McKissick, head of the office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on the Bangladesh side of
the border, has accused Burma’s government of ethnic cleansing. The
U.N.’s special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Yanghee Lee, has condemned the lockdown on Rakhine State as “unacceptable.” It’s time for action from the very top.
It’s
also time for the international community to speak out. If we fail to
act, Rohingyas may starve to death if they aren’t killed by bullets
first. We could end up as passive observers once again wringing our
hands belatedly, saying “never again.”
Let us act now before it’s too late.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
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