THE United Nations on Saturday commended Bangladesh government’s commitment to support the Rohingya refugees and highlighted that ‘the root causes of the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar must be addressed’. Adama Dieng, UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on the prevention of genocide said this while addressing the closing session of a workshop titled “Fostering Peaceful and Inclusive Communities in Bangladesh: The Role of Religious Leaders and Actors” in a city hotel, as per local media reports.
He stressed the importance of ensuring that Rohingya refugees are given opportunities to uplift themselves educationally and have access to livelihood opportunities in Bangladesh until they return to Myanmar. Dieng said religious leaders can play a very important role by promoting messages of peace and tolerance and by fostering dialogue between the Rohingya refugees and host communities. Mia Seppo, UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh, emphasised that the government and the people of Bangladesh were the biggest donors to the Rohingya response.
It is very easy to comment and highlight but when it comes to taking action the UN sometimes acts like a lame duck. The power of vetos in the UN Security Council ensures that rogue states like Myanmar and Israel can, and often do, get away with everything because their supporters in the UN have the veto power and thus act like a godfather spoiling a rather petulant grandson.
But spoiled grandsons have no incentive to behave properly. Similarly Myanmar has no solid incentive to act in a proper way by giving the Rohingya the rights to live peacefully with full citizenship rights. Instead they are dilly-dallying over the repatriation of over 1,000,000 refugees currently enjoying Bangladesh’s hospitable climate while denying the Rohingya inside Myanmar basic rights like education and healthcare and jobs.
As long as the regional heavyweights continue to appease Myanmar for geopolitical concerns Myanmar will have no incentive to act otherwise. The Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s army, similarly sees no reason to react with kindness as they know Suu Kyi will never question their decisions –after all they have been doing the same thing with the Karen and Shan tribes for decades.
