Asean should lead effort to end crisis

WITH the term “genocide” increasingly being applied to the Myanmar government’s brutal treatment of the ethnic Rohingya minority, it would be unusual, to say the least, if other member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations remained silent on the matter.

There have been several reports detailing the atrocities that have been committed there, including analyses by the United Nations, NGOs and news media. If not genocide, there are widespread crimes against humanity taking place. If not genocide, it is ethnic cleansing.

The reports list incidents of arson, torture, murder, rape and massacre. Hundreds of Rohingya villages have been razed. Rohingya still living in the country are routinely threatened. Myanmar wants Bangladesh to cut off food supplies to more than 6,000 refugees stuck in the “no man’s land” along the border.

Yanghee Lee, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, has on several occasions said the situation bears “the hallmarks of genocide”. She feels unable to definitively call it genocide but has said, “We are seeing signs and it is building up to that.” Her caution about applying the term is understandable. The matter does have to go before an international hearing. For now, though, the world can proceed with a different kind of tribunal. Open forums should be organised at which everyone involved in the crisis, including the Myanmar government and the military, has a chance to explain and justify their role and share their observations. And Asean is the prime agency to do the organising. To date, the bloc has shielded Myanmar, a member, refusing to condemn the attacks, instead merely expressing “concern” in the meekest diplomatic terminology.

The situation has steadily worsened. Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s de factor head of state, has appointed Surakiart Sathirathai, a former foreign minister of Thailand, to advise her on ways to implement recommendations made by a Rakhine mission led by Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary-gen- eral – recommendations she has long ignored. Given the complexity of the crisis, everyone concedes that Surakiart faces an uphill struggle.

The difficulties in reaching a satisfactory resolution will remain in place until all stakeholders can sit down together and listen to the opposing viewpoints with open minds. Foreign efforts to shame Suu Kyi into ending the atrocities have not worked, and nor has Asean’s embarrassing insistence on saving face. An entirely fresh approach is needed to save the Rohingya, and Asean could play a leading role in bridging the gap and coordinating an adequate international response. It should get started immediately.