The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Muslims protest anti-Rohingya campaign
Protesters in Russia, Australia, Indonesia decry army moves.
Protests erupted Monday among Muslims in Asia, Australia and Russia over a brutal military campaign in Myanmar that has forced tens of thousands of fellow Muslims to flee across the border to Bangladesh.
The demonstrations raised the pressure on Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of Myanmar and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who once embodied her country’s fight for democracy and human rights.
In Chechnya, tens of thousands poured into the streets in a government-sanctioned protest against what the country’s leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, called Myanmar’s “genocide” against the persecuted Rohingya minority.
Kadyrov also criticized the Russian government, issuing vague threats if the Kremlin does nothing to stop violence that he compared to the Holocaust. “If Russia were to support the devils who are perpetrating the crimes, I will go against Russia,” he said in a video released before the rally.
Demonstrations against the targeting of the Rohingya took place Monday outside Australia’s Parliament in Canberra. In Jakarta, Indonesia, protesters burned photos of Suu Kyi and lobbed a gasoline bomb at the Myanmar Embassy.
“The world remains silent in the face of the massacre of
Rohingya Muslims,” Farida, an Indonesian who organized the protest and uses only one name, told reporters.
The Pakistan Foreign Ministry and the Indonesian
president, Joko Widodo, deplored the violence and displacement of Rohingya refugees and called for an investigation of the reported massacres.
Amid the protests, a fellow peace prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai, took to Twitter to confront Suu Kyi, asking her to condemn the violence. Some wondered whether the Nobel Committee, which conferred the honor on her in 1991, would publicly criticize her or could even revoke the prize. Yanghee Lee, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, appeared to go even further, suggesting Suu Kyi should intervene on behalf of the Rohingya.
“That’s what we would expect from any government, to protect everybody within their own jurisdiction,” Lee told the BBC on Monday. “She is caught between a rock and a hot spot, but I think it’s time for her to come out of that spot now.”
The latest violence in Myanmar began last month when Rohingya militants attacked Myanmar military positions. They said they were trying to prevent further persecution by the country’s security forces.
The military responded with what it has called “clearance operations.” According to human rights groups, soldiers razed hundreds of Rohingya homes in Rakhine state. As a result, thousands of Rohingya have made the treacherous journey to squalid refugee camps across the border.
Their plight has drawn increased attention — and renewed criticism — from many people around the world.
Last year, a group of Nobel laureates signed an open letter that “warned of the potential for genocide.”