WORLD NEEDS TO STEP UP SUPPORT FOR ROHINGYA

The imposition of sanctions on four Myanmar military and police commanders and two army units by Washington for involvement in ethnic cleansing and other human rights abuses against the country’s Rohingya Muslims is a correct but tiny step in getting justice for the world’s most persecuted community. Since late August 2017, widespread and systematic violence against the Rohingya has forced hundreds of thousands to lee their homes in Rakhine state for Bangladesh.

Prior to that, over 200,000 Rohingya refugees were sheltering in vast, makeshift camps in Bangladesh as a result of earlier displacements.

Talk about ruthless killings, arson, rape and plunder, the Rohingya have seen it all in the hands of Myanmar security forces and Buddhist vigilantes.

Unfortunately, the Trump administration has failed to target the highest levels of the Myanmar military and has also stopped short of unambiguously calling the anti-rohingya campaign crimes against humanity or genocide.

In November, following the lead of the United Nations and the European Union, then US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared that the Rohingya crisis constituted “ethnic cleansing,” a designation that increased pressure on its civilian leader, Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Until Friday’s announcement, the United States had only sanctioned a single Myanmar commander.

There can be no denying that US President Donald Trump has been slow in his response to the Rohingya crisis.

Doctors Without Borders agency estimates that at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the irst month of the army’s campaign alone.

As Head of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi suggests, the real solution lies in Myanmar itself. There is a need for regional support to address the root causes of displacement in Rakhine: for example, investing in infrastructure that connects communities instead of dividing them, and providing expertise on resolving statelessness and inter-communal conlict.

Myanmar should improve conditions in Rakhine state for the safe return of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh and provide a clear pathway to citizenship for those eligible. Sadly, such conditions have not yet materialised.

UN agencies rightly insist that substantial progress is urgently needed in three key areas: “granting effective access in Rakhine State; ensuring freedom of movement for all communities; and addressing the root causes of the crisis.”

Any laxity on the part of the international community in getting justice for the helpless Rohingya would only be seen as a blot on humanity.