Leaders fail to condemn attack on Rohingyas

China, Philippines agree to avoid force in Sea dispute

MANILA, Nov 16, (Agencies): Southeast Asian leaders kept silent over accusations of ethnic cleansing carried out by Myanmar’s army in a statement Thursday, instead expressing support for the country’s efforts to bring peace and harmony to northern Rakhine state.

More than 600,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled mainly Buddhist Myanmar since a military crackdown was launched in Rakhine in August, which the United Nations and watchdogs have said amounts to ethnic cleansing.

Rights groups had urged the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to take a strong stand on the crisis in its summit in Manila this week.

But a statement released by the bloc after the meeting failed to condemn the atrocities and merely said an unspecified number of leaders backed Myanmar’s humanitarian relief programme in Rakhine.

“They expressed support to the Myanmar Government in its efforts to bring peace, stability, rule of law and to promote harmony and reconciliation between the various communities,” it said.

Myanmar authorities insist the military campaign was aimed at rooting out Rohingya militants who attacked police posts on August 25.

But the UN and rights groups have documented civilian accounts of murder, rape and arson at the hands of the army.

The ASEAN statement was issued hours after watchdogs released reports on “widespread and systematic attacks” on Rohingya civilians including troops gangraping women and girls.

Summit

Myanmar’s de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi attended the ASEAN summit where the UN chief and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with her on the Rohingya crisis.

The bloc has a principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of members despite criticism over the years that it is little more than a talking shop.

Ironically Suu Kyi was one of those who once criticised ASEAN for its quiescence on regional rights abuses, when she was peacefully confronting years of junta rule.

In a July 1999 article for Thai daily The Nation, Suu Kyi called on ASEAN to harden its stance towards the junta in Yangon, saying the group did not have a “clear conscience” over human rights.

“This policy of non-interference is just an excuse for not helping. In this day and age you cannot avoid interference in the matters of other countries,” she wrote.

ASEAN groups Myanmar, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam as well as Muslimmajority Indonesia and Malaysia, where there have been protests on the treatment of the Rohingya.

Thursday’s ASEAN statement stressed the importance of increasing humanitarian access to Rakhine and helping affected communities.

The leaders also urged Myanmar to implement the recommendations of a commission led by former UN chief Kofi Annan to scrap restrictions on movement and citizenship for the Rohingya.

The statement did not use the word “Rohingya” to refer to the persecuted Muslim minority, an incendiary term for Buddhist nationalists who label the group “Bengalis”.

Amnesty International has said the bloc’s response to the Rohingya crisis has been “toothless at best”.

Resolve

Meanwhile, China and the Philippines have agreed to avoid force to resolve their differences over the South China Sea, according to a joint statement issued on Thursday by China at the end of a visit to Manila by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

China and the Philippines have long sparred over the South China Sea, but relations have improved considerably under Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

Malaysia, Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam and the Philippines claim some or all of the South China Sea and its myriad shoals, reefs and islands. China claims most of the waterway and has been aggressively building and militarising artificial islands.

The joint statement, carried by China’s official Xinhua news agency, said China and the Philippines reaffirmed the importance of peace in the South China Sea and of freedom of navigation and overflight.

There should be no violence or threats of violence and the dispute should be resolved via talks between the “relevant sovereign countries”, it added.

“Both sides believe that the maritime dispute is not the full sum of the ChinaPhilippines relationship,” the statement said.

In a separate statement summing up discussions at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, Duterte took note of the “improving relations between ASEAN and China” in the South China Sea.

“In view of this positive momentum, we looked forward to the announcement of the start of substantive negotiations on the Code of Conduct (COC) with China” he said, hopefully in early 2018 in Vietnam, where the two sides will meet at the earliest.

Meanwhile, Southeast Asian nations avoided mention Thursday of China’s construction of islands in the South China Sea and a UN-linked arbitration ruling that invalidated Beijing’s claims in the disputed waters in the latest show of China’s regional clout.

Rights

President Rodrigo Duterte, speaking on behalf of fellow heads of state of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, also expectedly skirted any expression of alarm over serious human rights concerns in the region, including the plight of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and his deadly anti-drug campaign in a statement following their annual summit Monday in Manila.

Such statements have been made public shortly after the annual gatherings of leaders of the 10-nation bloc but there was no immediate explanation for the three-day delay, which drew the attention of some Manila-based diplomats. The few instances of delays in the past were caused by differences over wording on long-thorny issues, like the territorial rifts.

China, which wields considerable influence on ASEAN, has steadfastly opposed criticism of its artificial islands, where it has reportedly installed a missile defense system despite widespread concern, including by the United States, Japan and Australia.

Duterte, who took office last year and assumed ASEAN’s rotational chairmanship this year, has openly tried to court China’s friendship, trade, investment and infrastructure financing. He has toned down sharp rebuke of China’s assertive actions in the strategic waterway, one of the world’s busiest, and refused to immediately seek Chinese compliance with an arbitration ruling last year that invalidated its vast claims in the South China Sea on historical grounds.

His rapprochement turned the Philippines from being one of Beijing’s sharpest critics in the disputed sea.

In the ASEAN statement, Duterte repeated previous calls for a peaceful resolution of the disputes, adherence to the rule of law and welcomed the approval of a framework or outline of a proposed “code of conduct” aimed at preventing confrontation in the contested waters. Deadly clashes have erupted in the past between Chinese and Vietnamese forces.