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A People on the BrinkBurmas Rohingya face an existential threat
and we must not look away.A People on the Brink BYCAMERON
HUDSON-MAY 15, 2015Driving through Sittwe, the dusty provincial
capital of Rahkine state in northwest Burma, you notice a small
poster affixed to nearly every shop and home. In English these
signs read white card, and they alert anyone passing by that the
buildings occupant sides with recent government efforts to prevent
Burmas most threatened ethnic and religious minority group, the
Rohingya, from participating in the upcoming national elections.
Most of Burmas Rohingya are, in fact, stateless, and white card
refers to the special identity documents issued to them by the
government in lieu of the papers held by Burmese citizens. A few
months ago officials decided that white card holders would not be
allowed to participate in the national vote scheduled for this fall
effectively excluding the overwhelming majority of Rohingya.As you
drive on, the cacophony of bustling markets and careening tuk-tuks
gradually gives way to the quiet of unpaved jungle roads and,
eventually, a makeshift barbed wire roadblock that now separates
nearly 150,000 Rohingya from the outside world. My Buddhist driver,
from the states majority Rahkine ethnic group, refused to take me
past the fence line into one of the worlds largest collections
ofinternment camps an implicit acknowledgement that he didnt feel
safe proceeding into a Rohingya community. Similarly, on the other
side, my Rohingya guide refused to try to leave, too fearful of the
consequences of being found outside the camps. They just want us
all to go away, was the best explanation one camp dweller could
give for his three years of internment.The Rohingya we met inside
the camp referred to itas an open prison. They have been interned
here since a spate ofinter-communal violence in 2012killed scores
of Rohingya and destroyed the homes and businesses of 140,000 more.
Many people described how their Rakhine neighbors perpetrated the
abuses, while others recounted that police officers or other local
government actors were also involved. One woman remembered a fire
brigade that approached when Rohingya houses were ablaze.Instead of
extinguishing the fires, the firefighters poured gasoline and
helped them spread.Small wonderthat many Rohingyaare fleeing the
country in desperation, taking toramshackle boatswhich often become
death traps. Their grim storystands in stark contrast to the
official narrative emerging from Burma. After decades of military
dictatorship and international sanctions, Burma has been haltingly
shifting to civilian government and re-engaging with the
international community since 2010. This slow liberalization has
started to feel like a success and from Washington, London, and
Brussels it looks like one: scores of prominent opposition
political figures have been released from imprisonment and are now
preparing to participate this falls general election. Some
sanctions have been lifted and foreign investment is flowing in.
The space for civil society groups is expanding.But one local
activist cautioned against the euphoria of change, stressing that a
real and lasting transition cannot occur unless it happens for
everyone in society regardless of ethnicity or religion.The
Rohingya a community of just over one million Muslims at the bottom
of Burmas ethnic caste system are not feeling the euphoria. In
fact, they are now increasingly at risk of being eliminated
entirely from the countrys political, social and economic life.
While only about 10 percent of the Rohingya population are interned
in camps and suffering from insufficient food and a lack of health
care, the entire population is at risk of elimination.The first
step towards the Rohingyas destruction is the increasingly
aggressive application of a1982 citizenship lawrequiring them to
accept the label Bengali a reference to neighboring Bangladesh and
an assertion that they are not really Burmese or else have their
citizenship and basic rights and freedoms revoked. Under either
scenario, the intention is clear: to deny Rohingya their legal
place in Burmese society. By denying us citizenship, one Rohingya
advocate told me, they are denying our entire existence, our
struggle, and our survival. The move has made the Rohingya the
worlds largest stateless people and now serves as the justification
for every indignity and transgression inflicted upon the community
from denying them freedom of movement and ability to hold jobs to
the basic right get an education, receive government services, or
hold property.This targeted nature of the attacks against the
Rohingya have drawn increasingly worried references to the United
Nations1948 Genocide Convention, which defines genocide as the
attempt to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial
or religious group, and have prompted warnings that the Rohingya
could become the latest victims of this crime of crimes.Subject to
hate speech sponsored by bothstateandreligiousfigures, targeted
attacks, forced internment, and arbitrary detention, the Rohingya
have now become targets of national legislation reminiscent of the
Nazi-era Nuremberg Laws, which stripped Jewish Germans of
citizenship rights based on their presumed ethnic origins. In
similar fashion, the latest Burmese laws aspire to limit Rohingya
birth rates and their ability to marry. One Rohingya leader
described this de facto apartheid system as an attempt to
depopulate the Rohingya people through their soft elimination.
Thisis quite literally what the governments recently proposed and
ominously sounding Population Control Bill would do.Perhaps even
more alarming is seeing how official discrimination has given way
to popular hatred of the Rohingya by the countrys Burman ethnic
majority and other ethnic groups. Even Burmas Western-backed,
pro-democracy advocates like Aung San Suu Kyi haveremained silenton
the persecution of their compatriots, as coming to their defense
now would run counter to the popular will.Added together, this
potent climate of racism, xenophobia, and hate has primed Burma for
further rounds of deadly violence, as waslast seenin 2012. Though
the official death toll remains relatively low, in the hundreds,
many human rights groupsbelievethe true number to be substantially
higher. As national elections approach later this year, the warning
signs for massive atrocities grow ever more conspicuous. The
Rohingyasdisenfranchisement could serve as the spark that sets the
country ablaze.To its credit, the Obama administration has taken
notice of these disturbing developments and has signaled to the
Burmese government that it should take steps to protect and
strengthen minority rights as a precondition for a deepening of the
relationship. Military assistance, something Burmese officials have
made a top priority, has rightfully been put on hold.Meanwhile, the
presidents newAtrocities Prevention Boardhas helped ensure that the
threats to Rohingya remain a central component of the deepening
bilateral discussion with Burmese officials. The president raised
their plight inmeetingswith his counterpart last November and has
implementedinitiativesto detect early warning signs of new violence
against the Rohingya something not done for the Tutsis of Rwanda
two decades before. But will it suffice?As Burmas opening
continues, growing numbers of European and U.S. investors are
rushing to get a piece of the countrys investment bonanza. But with
the opening of every new Mercedes dealership or luxury high-rise,
Western leverage to achieve adequate protections for the most
vulnerableof Burmas citizens erodes.In a 2012 conference at the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, then-Secretary of State
Clintonwarnedthat the United States and our partners must act
before the wood is stacked or the match is struck, because when the
fire is at full blaze, our options for responding are considerably
costlier and more difficult. So much wood is already stacked in
Burma. The crimes and injustices that have already been perpetrated
against the Rohingya represent some of the core preconditions for
genocide that analysts and advocates look for but it is not yet too
late to do something about it.Conditioning future concessional
lending, military assistance, and development packages on the
creation of new legislative protections for the Rohingya is a
meaningful step the international community could take to ensure
the rush to declare Burma a democratic success does not exclude the
Rohingya. So, too, would pressing the current and future
governments to hold accountable local, national, and religious
authorities who have helped to incite, direct, or condone past and
any future violence against Rohingya.When we asked what could be
done to improve their situation, some Rohingya told us that the
national and local authorities should allow more humanitarian
assistance to reach them. Some called for greater international
pressure on the government. Others called for efforts to change
hateful mindsets within society against Rohingya and other Muslims.
In the meantime, one woman I met in a Rohingya internment camp said
simply, We can just stay here, pray, and wait. One thing is for
certain: if violence does erupt and Burmas leaders and people do
decide to seek a final solution for the Rohingya, it will be
impossible for anyone to revive the tired refrain of past
generations of genocide apologists we didnt know.In the
photo,Rohingya refugees stand at an IDP camp on the outskirts of
Sittwe, Myanmar.
Photo Credit:Paula Bronstein/Getty ImagesPosted byThavam