MYANMAR military has launched new rounds of “clearance operations” in Rakhine State after four local Buddhists were attacked and two were later found with their throats slit, the Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing’s office said on Thursday. The fresh violence occurred on December 17 along Pyu Ma creek in northern Rakhine State’s Maungdaw township. The Commander-in-Chief’s office in a statement on its website said that security forces were “active again” and had been carrying out “area clearance operations along Pyu Ma Creek”.
We are surprised as to why Myanmar forces have been active again without any major provocation from the Rohingya side. Generally, Myanmar does not recognise the Rohingya as one of its national races and refers to them as Bengali to falsely imply they are newly arrived immigrants from Bangladesh. Mainly for that reason, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have refused to take part in the repatriation process without being guaranteed rights, citizenship and safety.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of US senators on Wednesday called on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to designate the Myanmar military’s campaign against the Rohingya Muslim minority “genocide”. Earlier in September, leaders of the US House of Representatives foreign affairs committee called on the Trump administration to declare the military campaign a genocide, days after a State Department report stopped short of that description. A declaration of genocide by the US government could have legal implications of committing Washington to stronger punitive measures against Myanmar’s government. This has made some in the Trump administration wary of issuing such an assessment.
Though the United Nations, the United States, the UK and others have described repression on Rohingya as “ethnic cleansing”, the United Nations Security Council has failed to adopt a resolution following ‘veto’ by Russia. UN investigators also wanted Myanmar’s top brass prosecuted for genocide but failed to do so.
We fear, the fresh military operation in Rakhine State would initiate second spell of genocide and force more Rohingyas to take shelter in Bangladesh. Already more than 720,000 Rohingyas are in Bangladesh since August last year. So, new influx of refugees would create further problem for Bangladesh. Apart from US and Russia, the regional super powers China and India should take initiatives to compel Myanmar to stop such further atrocity.
