Tillerson calls for independent probe into atrocities
NAYPYIDAW: Washington’s top diplomat yesterday said he would not yet push for sanctions against Myanmar over the Rohingya refugee crisis, but he called for an independent investigation into “credible” reports that soldiers committed atrocities against the Muslim minority.
United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was speaking after a one-day stop here as global outrage builds over impunity for a military accused of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya.
Speaking by his side, Myanmar’s de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi hit back at global criticism that she had been silent over the refugee crisis, saying she had instead focused on speech that avoided inflaming sectarian tensions.
More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled the country since the military launched a counter-insurgency operation in northern Rakhine State in late August.
While the army insisted it had only targeted Rohingya rebels, refugees massing in grim Bangladeshi camps described chilling and consistent accounts of widespread murder, rape and arson at the hands of security forces and Buddhist mobs.
Speaking after meetings with the army chief and Suu Kyi, Tillerson said broad economic sanctions were “not something that I’d think would be advisable at this time”.
“We want to see Myanmar succeed,” he said. “You can’t just impose sanctions and say therefore the crisis is over.”
But he said Washington was “deeply concerned by credible reports of widespread atrocities committed by Myanmar’s security forces and vigilantes” and urged Myanmar to accept an independent investigation into those allegations, after which individual sanctions could be appropriate.
“The scenes of what occurred out there are just horrific.”
Both the army and Suu Kyi’s administration had dismissed reports of atrocities and refused to grant entry to United Nations investigators charged with probing allegations of ethnic cleansing.
But Washington had been careful to focus blame on the military rather than Suu Kyi, whose fledgling civilian administration was in a delicate power-sharing arrangement with the army.
Though she lacked any say in security policy, the Nobel laureate had become a punching bag for rights groups disappointed by her failure to publicly criticise the military or defend the Rohingya against rising Islamophobia, partly because she was so outspoken during the junta years.
Suu Kyi, who rarely held press conferences, addressed those criticisms yesterday.
“I have not been silent... what people mean is what I say is not interesting enough.
“What I say is not meant to be exciting, it’s meant to be accurate... not set people against each other.”
Her defenders said she must tread lightly to avoid provoking a powerful army that could roll back democratic gains at any time.
The US was a major ally in the democratic opening that led to Suu Kyi taking office after free elections in 2015, ending five decades of military dictatorship.
Washington rolled back juntaera trade bans and sanctions on military cronies during the transition to encourage progress.
But the Rohingya crisis had pushed US lawmakers to propose a renewal of sanctions. AFP