Editorial Desk :
It is really surprising that despite Myanmar military government is applying dillydallying technique for not taking the forcibly displaced Rohingyas back to their home in Rakhaine for over the years, the international community is showing, up until now, a lenient attitude towards the establishment in Myanmar. The military not only tortured, killed and burned down the habitats of Muslim Rohingyas in an attempt to force them to leave their homeland on the pretext of flimsy security reasons, they have also brutalized their democracy-loving Buddhist citizens in the recent days and made future of democracy in the country uncertain.
Once regarded as a democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi also turned out to be anti-Muslim in her attitude by supporting the military that committed genocide against Rohingyas and shamelessly defended the crimes against humanity in International Court of Justice. For her inhuman attitude, she fell from the grace of the world. She has recently been convicted with a five-year jail term in the hands of the military.
But the Myanmar military is continuing to take controversial and offensive steps one after another. On Thursday, it detained a former UK envoy Vicky Bowman. Her husband, prominent artist Htein Lin, was also arrested by the regime. In the backdrop of worsening ties with Myanmar, the UK again has imposed a fresh round of sanctions against the military-linked companies. The point here is that the authoritarian military regime under General Min Aung Hlaing is just showing a damn-care attitude towards the democracy-loving free world with serious violation of human rights.
Is the international community waiting for the outcome of the trial on the charge of ethnic cleansing to take punitive actions against Myanmar? If it does so, then clearly it will be too late and the military establishment’s effort to dehumanize its own people will be complete. On the occasion of the
observance of 5th year of the Rohingya exodus to Bangladesh, we welcome the joint statement that envoys of 14 countries to Bangladesh made condemning the ‘horrific events’ suffered by the Rohingya people who are now languishing in Bangladesh camps as ‘stateless citizens’. The international community must feel that the condition of being stateless is the most dehumanizing predicament human beings can face in this twenty-first century.
The envoys have declared that “five years on, the international community stands resolute in solidarity in its support for Rohingya and Bangladesh.” While we welcome their statement, we also like to express that unless harshest economic measures are taken, the military regime will not listen to mere words of humanity and the voice of conscience.
The regime knows for sure that with China and Russia backing them at the UN Security Council by their veto power, no military force can be applied against them. But severe economic and other sanctions by the West will certainly bear results. The sanctions imposed on Myanmar so far have not proved enough, because the generals are still living in a savaged era of the past. They now need to be punished not only to remind them that the kind of cruelty they are inflicting will not be tolerated in this modern age. A state killing its own people or throwing out a section of its own people as street dogs to be refugees and a burden on another country should be considered too much to be acceptable.
The generals of Myanmar feel overconfident of their preparation. They must in their place understand that the civilised world is neither helpless nor insignificant. The fear of involvement of any big power cannot totally restrain the free world to make the situation clear that there is no victory but only ashes in their own mouth if the insanity of nuclear confrontation is considered an easy option.
But everything must be done to save the civilised world from the rise of dominance by weapons against the value of humanity.
