The bloodshed is the most serious since hundreds were killed in communal clashes in Rakhine in 2012. It has exposed the tension between Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi’s seven-month-old civilian administration and the army, which ruled for decades and retains key powers, including control of Ministries responsible for security.
Soldiers have poured into the area along Myanmar’s frontier with Bangladesh, responding to coordinated attacks on three border posts on October 9 that killed nine police officers. They have locked down the district, where the vast majority of residents are Rohingya Muslims, shutting out aid workers and independent observers, and conducted sweeps of villages. A series of skirmishes and attacks during the six days to Monday had led ‘to the death of 69 violent attackers and the arrest of 234’, the military’s True News Information Team said. Ten policemen and seven soldiers were also killed in the clashes, it added.
The announcement takes to 102 the tally of deaths of suspected Rohingya Muslim attackers since October 9, while the security forces’ toll stands at 32, based on reports in state-owned media.
Myanmar’s 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims are denied citizenship, with many of the country’s majority Buddhists regarding them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The Rohingya face severe restrictions on travel and access to health care. Many were dependent on regular nutritional and medical aid long before the outbreak of fighting in October.
It is no secret that Rohingyas are among the world’s most persecuted communities, with most of them being Internally Displaces Persons (IDPs) in their own country — a horrendous situation. When your own country does not wish to give you citizenship then you have very little options left — either migrate or live a squalid life with no hope. Such has become the fate of the Rohingya.
In such a situation hatred of the authorities can easily bring about a situation which escalates into needless violence like the killing of police officers. It is very easy to motivate people who have no real hope about their future. But for the situation to end the Myanmar government must enable the Rohingyas to have access to basic rights and not deprive them of the necessities to live a reasonable life. Setting up endless UN Commissions will go nowhere — they must be afforded the basic protections given to citizens in their own land. By artificially making them pariahs the pathway to increased violence will continue.
