‘Do more to end genocide’

‘Global peace at risk’

“THERE are historical roots for every struggle and this is applicable to the current situations in Myanmar,” columnist and attorney Riyadh Al-Sanea wrote for Annahar daily.

“Here we would like to point out the hatred of the Indians in the then Burma post World War II when the country was ruled by the British. But according to some statistics there were as many as half-a-million Indians in Burma in 1921 and as much as 50 percent of them were Muslims.

“Since 1963, the Burmese Muslims have been braving waves of marginalization and exclusion to such an extent they were even expelled from the ‘Burmese’ Army. Not just that, the Burmese Buddhists who constitute a majority branded the Burmese Muslims as ‘killers of cows’, because the Muslims slaughtered cows to mark the advent of Eid Al-Adha.

“In March 1997, Myanmar was embroiled in racist tensions between the Buddhists and Muslims during which the Buddhists particularly the monks and priests went on a rampage and attacked the Muslim mosques and properties and looted their homes and stores. The Muslim mosques and shrines were devastated and their religious books were defiled.

“In 2001, the Buddhist monks circulated a book throughout Myanmar ‘The Fear of Losing the Race’. This book was anti-Islam of sorts and as such it had played a significant role in tickling the emotions of the Buddhists against the Muslims in Myanmar as a result of which the Buddhists attacked the Muslim mosques and persecuted the worshippers and Muslims in general.

“The statistics shows following the distribution of the book, as many as 400 Muslim houses were torched, 11 mosques were destroyed and 20 Muslims killed.

“In 2012 alone, 2,000 Muslims fled the country due to the sectarian violence promoted by the Buddhists and 50 Muslims were killed with the blessing of the Buddhist army.

“However, the violence against the Muslims in Myanmar in general still persists and against the Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State (Arakan) in particular. The Muslims of Rakhine are facing a cold-blooded genocide on a daily basis and in full view of the international community while Myanmar is still boasting of democracy, equality and justice.

“As a matter of fact the security in Myanmar is at the lowest while the troops in that country continue to kill civilians of Rakhine in addition to the incineration of many villages in the framework of a campaign which was launched last Friday just a few hours after a statement was issued by the government that the army had attacked some border points north of Rakhine which had resulted in the killing of 12 people — securitymen and army personnel.

“But according to a government statement, the army in retaliation had killed 77 unarmed Muslims in addition to between 2,000 and 3,000 civilians. This tragic situation resulted in thousands of Muslim civilians seeking for refuge in the border towns of Bangladesh and Thailand where they have been living in camps where simplest constituents of the standard of living are lacking.

“However, the Myanmar army and the security forces did not only kill innocent civilians, they even raped women and set fire to the crops and the properties of Muslims in what is seen as a state of imbalance between a violence blessed by the government and the killing of minority people who are exposed to genocide just because of their religion.

“Such being the case, we call on the civil organizations which are concerned about international security and peace to urge the international community to shoulder its ethics and security responsibilities and stop the massacres and violations against the Muslims of the Rakhine State.

“In the meantime, we would like to draw the attention of these organizations to the fact that all minorities throughout the world are enjoying their legitimate rights on equal footing with the majority living in the same country, but the genocide facing the Muslims in Myanmar poses a threat to global peace.

“It is also a violation of the human rights and this means the United Nations must halt these violations instead of just issuing statements of condemnation and denouncements in the face of these violations.

“It is no secret such statements can be seen in the context of just a blessing in some or other way that encourage violations and massacres in question.”

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Al-Sanea

“What is currently happening to the Muslim minority of Rohingya at the hands of the Myanmar army is torture, murder, persecution and expulsion filled with pain and sorrow,” columnist Abdurrahman Al-Awwad wrote for Al-Sabah daily.

“This is indeed a crime against the innocent minority which is currently subjected to the bloody massacres and genocide without any fault of theirs but just because they are ‘Muslims’.

“The army of Myanmar is involved not only in violations against the civilians of this minority, rather this army according to Amnesty International is planting land mines along the Myanmar border with Bangladesh to prevent the fleeing Rohingya refugees from returning back to their homes in Rakhine State.

“The Amnesty International says it has obtained reports from eyewitnesses including reports from weapons experts confirming mines have been planted to prevent the refugees from returning to their homeland in gross violation of international laws and conventions.

“In the context, we cite a statement that has been issued by the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razaq who has said the Muslims in Myanmar at the moment are facing methodical violence, including torture and rape at the hands of the security forces.

“As a matter of fact, the tragedy of the Muslims of Rohingyas is steadily aggravating on a daily bases and this can be attributed to the default among the Arabs and Muslims in dealing with this tragedy facing their brothers in Myanmar.

“This happens at a time when the Arabs and Muslims are busy fighting each other for nothing and promoting discords to fight each other and add fuel to the fire of aggression and hatred among them.

“Such being the case, we wonder when the Arab and Muslim countries will realize the importance of its leading role to achieve unity among them and promote love and peace on our planet. As a matter of fact, this means this nation must rise to the occasion and bear its responsibility.”

“Aside from privatization strategy the Government intends to implement according to the recent statement of head of the technical system for privatization and pricing of fuel, electricity and water, Government’s idea regarding the economic document is fading out,” columnist Dr Badr Al-Daihani wrote for Al-Jarida daily.

“Government claims the economic document will amend the financial and economic defects of the entire State. There have been official statements about dealing with budget deficit in spite of withdrawing from the Public Reserve and making use of financial institutions from within and outside the country.

“Was the aim of the economic document to implement the recommendations of the World Bank and those of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concerning privatization of institutions and official bodies that are relevant to citizens’ daily life, while reducing subsidy on basic commodities and collecting fees from citizens in order to subsidize the financial and real estate companies—even as they add nothing to the national economy? This means the majority of people will bear consequences of the deficit, although they’re not the cause of it.

“Budget deficit became a reality! What is the Government doing to rectify the situation while wrong policies that drain public funds and increase squandering remain the same? Moreover, political and administrative teams are responsible for dealing with crises and finding solutions to issues. None of the concerned officials has been questioned for the rate of squandering and public funds depletion. On the contrary, some of them have been rewarded.

“On the other hand, the Parliament pays no attention to the issue of budget deficit because of the system and the manner in which some MPs were elected. They do nothing to end the spread of corruption or transform economic and financial strategies. Sadly, we have seen some MPs adopting wrong economic strategies simply for publicity and temporary electoral gains.

“Regarding the civil society organizations, they are not in a better position, as they either seek satisfaction of the Government in order to win senior official positions for their members or to serve as bridge for candidates to win National Assembly seats.

“Budget deficit is expected to continue and even become worse year after year, besides the accumulation of public debts that leads to unprecedented unemployment rates and dwindling living standards among the medium class. In the end, it will increase the suffering of needy people.”

“The political analyses of negotiations cannot be done by jumping into conclusion and accelerating results,” columnist Dr Haila Hamad Al-Mekaimi wrote for Annahar daily.

“International negotiations are processes that need a long time, especially in building trust between the negotiating parties. This is the base where Kuwaiti mediation sets off in terms of dealing with the current dispute between Qatar and the four countries.

“Since the very beginning of the crisis, the media covered a large number of political analysts who stressed that the crisis has been solved from the first week. Others expected the crisis to last long and they expected it to turn into an armed struggle.

“International mediations have intensified the scene. However, they all come in one line with the aim to push for the success of Kuwaiti mediation – whether by putting pressure or offering their guarantee.

“Since the dispute erupted, there were countries that supported each party and there were countries that offered mediation and Kuwait started its initiative earlier than the rest.

“The support for each party is a way of maintaining international balance in contrasting situations. Mediations included frequent visits of the ministers of foreign affairs of countries like Germany, Britain, America and recently France. These visits seek to respond to the four boycotting countries’ request, represented in the guarantee. This might explain the reason for revealing the Riyadh documents (2013/2014).

“Turning the 10 verbal requests into 13 written ones and then reducing them to six prove that the negotiations are on the right track. Everybody has to realize that international crises have no absolute winner or perfect defeat. The lack of trust case must disappear in order to activate the Gulf machinery towards reaching a solution. The disputing parties have to avoid postponing decisions and searching the past in order to bring back old situations that might support each party’s argument.

“We stress here the importance of Kuwaiti mediation which guarantees and enhances the Gulf’s role as the best place for solving disputes of Gulf countries.”

“Washington revealed its worry about the possibility of the extension of the Gulf crisis for another few months,” Mohammad Haza Al-Mutairi wrote for AlQabas daily.

“This reminds us of the statement issued by the former US secretary of state John Kerry during the reign of former American president Barack Obama when he said the Mosul liberation battle might take three years for an end to the DAESH.

“The cycle has been repeated. However, this time the issue is related to political and economic factors without the inclusion of the military factor. This is because the Gulf dispute is limited to politics due to lack of trust among some Gulf countries and existence of intense competition among them.

“Returning to the American statements, we are certain that America has a dominating role in this matter. Of course, it is the right of every country to take relevant actions for protecting its national security and economy. Here we have to direct the spotlight on the secret role played by the USA in this regard.

“Since the beginning of the dispute, we witnessed a number of contradictory releases from the American President Donald Trump, the American Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the American Ministry of Defense. We heard accusations leveled by Trump against Qatar of supporting terrorism. On the other hand, we heard the American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson praise Qatar for its role in the international campaign for confronting terrorism. We also heard the American Minister of Defense highlight the American-Qatari military cooperation. He had also denied any intention to transfer AlAideed military base from Qatar.

“From this, it is evident that America is involved in extension of the crisis based on its own interests and viewpoint.

“Since the Gulf countries are allies to the United States of America, it is essential to block the way for America and ensure the keys for solving the crisis are not handed over to America. We need to issue prompt solutions based upon compromise among the disputing parties especially in consideration of the complete absence of the Arab League’s intervention in this matter.

“The Gulf dispute has to be minimized as much as possible, similar to any interior dispute that might occur in a country. The issue needs to be solved within the GCC alone. Only Kuwait has been exerting sincere outstanding efforts to end this dispute. No one will be happy when the issue gets globalized. We have witnessed that many issues that were globalized ended up becoming aggravated while the gap between the disputing parties became wider day after day. This was what happened in Iraq, Syria and Libya.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb