MYANMAR leader Aung San Suu Kyi has rejected the UN’s rights council’s decision to send an investigation team to probe the crimes perpetrated by Myanmar’s security forces on minority Rohingya Muslims. It is sad and also quite unexpected of a democracy leader who won Nobel Peace Prize as torch-bearer of human rights. The plight of the Rohingyas is now regular headlines in global media that prompted the UN involvement to protect the endangered Muslim minority in Myanmar’s Rakhine State across Bangladesh border.
Suu Kyi’s refusal to the UN Council’s decision in March this year in Geneva to dispatch a fact finding team to the Southeast Asian country over claims of murder, rape and torture of Rohingyas has invariably come as a big shock to the global community. Suu Kyi claimed at a press conference recently that she and her government firmly disagree with the allegations shows she is trying to deny the truth. But the global community believes that her claim that such atrocities have not been carried out by regime forces can only be established if she allows the investigation team to visit the troubled Rakhine State. It is more in Myanmar’s interest to prove its ‘supposed innocence.’
The point for not allowing the probe is simple – there is enough to hide and there are far too much tangible and intangible evidences of inhuman crimes perpetrated on helpless Rohingya population. The Nobel Laureate is reported to have said her country would be ‘happy to accept’ recommendations that are ‘in keeping with the real needs of the region’. That said – the real need of the hour is actually to cooperate with the independent UN investigative body in unearthing the actual situation to find the solution.
Various Rights Groups have already decried of massive crime against humanity on the stateless Rohingyas that continued from 2012 when they were stripped off their citizenship. The crimes then expounded from October last year following a raid on a police post on Myanmar border. Many were killed; women raped and homes of the Rohingyas were torched to vacate their villages. Some 75,000 Rohingyas have alone fled to Bangladesh since then for safety.
At a recently held press conference at Geneva, UN officials highlighted the crimes making the case for the investigation team. But Ms. Suu Kyi yet, continues to deny all these allegations raising question from many quarters of her genuine claim over the Nobel Peace Prize. It is clear that she is trying to hide the crimes by avoiding the UN team and this is how she is rejecting a solution to the problem.
We must say the UN and the global community now give the only hope to Rohingya people to go back to their homes in full safety and protection to their human rights. The world can’t afford to have yet another stateless people to aggravate global refugee crisis. Myanmar must pay heed to the call of the UN body and cooperate.
The point for not allowing the probe is simple – there is enough to hide and there are far too much tangible and intangible evidences of inhuman crimes perpetrated on helpless Rohingya population. The Nobel Laureate is reported to have said her country would be ‘happy to accept’ recommendations that are ‘in keeping with the real needs of the region’. That said – the real need of the hour is actually to cooperate with the independent UN investigative body in unearthing the actual situation to find the solution.
Various Rights Groups have already decried of massive crime against humanity on the stateless Rohingyas that continued from 2012 when they were stripped off their citizenship. The crimes then expounded from October last year following a raid on a police post on Myanmar border. Many were killed; women raped and homes of the Rohingyas were torched to vacate their villages. Some 75,000 Rohingyas have alone fled to Bangladesh since then for safety.
At a recently held press conference at Geneva, UN officials highlighted the crimes making the case for the investigation team. But Ms. Suu Kyi yet, continues to deny all these allegations raising question from many quarters of her genuine claim over the Nobel Peace Prize. It is clear that she is trying to hide the crimes by avoiding the UN team and this is how she is rejecting a solution to the problem.
We must say the UN and the global community now give the only hope to Rohingya people to go back to their homes in full safety and protection to their human rights. The world can’t afford to have yet another stateless people to aggravate global refugee crisis. Myanmar must pay heed to the call of the UN body and cooperate.
