US PRESIDENT Donald Trump wants the UN Security Council to take “strong and swift action” to end violence against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims. Speaking at a Security Council meeting on peacekeeping reform, Vice President Mike Pence accused the Myanmar military of responding to attacks on government outposts “with terrible savagery, burning villages, driving the Rohingyas from their homes”, as per reports of international dailies.
Vice-President Pence repeated a US call for the Myanmar military to end the violence and support diplomatic efforts for a long-term solution for the Rohingya, who are denied citizenship in a country where many Buddhists regard them as illegal immigrants. The Security Council has met twice behind closed doors since the crisis began on August 25 and last week issued an informal statement to the press condemning the situation and urging Myanmar authorities to end the violence.
It was the strongest US government response yet to the violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State that has forced more than 420,000 Rohingyas into Bangladesh, fleeing a military offensive the United Nations has branded ‘ethnic cleansing’. French President Emmanuel Macron earlier Wednesday described the military’s campaign as “genocide”.
Myanmar insisted to the UN the crisis in Rakhine was easing after heavy international criticism. Myanmar’s second Vice President Henry Van Thio addressed the annual UN General Assembly in place of leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who a day earlier delivered a speech calling for patience. Van Thio’s remarks are even less likely than Suu Kyi’s to mollify global concerns as he questioned the reasons for the flight of members of the Rohingya Muslim minority.
Van Thio did not even use the term Rohingya, referring to them simply as Muslims. He noted the army campaign came in response to a rebel attack and said non-Muslims have also suffered. Myanmar’s third-in-command thanked foreign countries for support, not referring directly to their criticism.
Suu Kyi’s stance has disheartened human rights groups who had campaigned for her freedom during the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s 15 years under house arrest by the ruling junta. But analysts say Suu Kyi, while now the country’s de facto leader, may not be able to curb the army even if she took the political risk of speaking out – but even this approach seems to be beyond her capacity.
However, it is unlikely that mere rhetoric, even if made by the US, is unlikely to bring about substantial change. Things will not change overnight – the Myanmar government is unlikely to give the Rohingya citizenship and grant them substantial rights just because the world wants. As long as nations such as Israel and China and lately India also supply it with weapons, and as long as no sanctions are brought against it, the ground reality will not turn in favour of the Rohingya Muslims. For this to change the Myanmar army has to have a substantial change of heart – and this is unlikely to happen as long as the majority Baman group are in charge of it.
Vice-President Pence repeated a US call for the Myanmar military to end the violence and support diplomatic efforts for a long-term solution for the Rohingya, who are denied citizenship in a country where many Buddhists regard them as illegal immigrants. The Security Council has met twice behind closed doors since the crisis began on August 25 and last week issued an informal statement to the press condemning the situation and urging Myanmar authorities to end the violence.
It was the strongest US government response yet to the violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State that has forced more than 420,000 Rohingyas into Bangladesh, fleeing a military offensive the United Nations has branded ‘ethnic cleansing’. French President Emmanuel Macron earlier Wednesday described the military’s campaign as “genocide”.
Myanmar insisted to the UN the crisis in Rakhine was easing after heavy international criticism. Myanmar’s second Vice President Henry Van Thio addressed the annual UN General Assembly in place of leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who a day earlier delivered a speech calling for patience. Van Thio’s remarks are even less likely than Suu Kyi’s to mollify global concerns as he questioned the reasons for the flight of members of the Rohingya Muslim minority.
Van Thio did not even use the term Rohingya, referring to them simply as Muslims. He noted the army campaign came in response to a rebel attack and said non-Muslims have also suffered. Myanmar’s third-in-command thanked foreign countries for support, not referring directly to their criticism.
Suu Kyi’s stance has disheartened human rights groups who had campaigned for her freedom during the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s 15 years under house arrest by the ruling junta. But analysts say Suu Kyi, while now the country’s de facto leader, may not be able to curb the army even if she took the political risk of speaking out – but even this approach seems to be beyond her capacity.
However, it is unlikely that mere rhetoric, even if made by the US, is unlikely to bring about substantial change. Things will not change overnight – the Myanmar government is unlikely to give the Rohingya citizenship and grant them substantial rights just because the world wants. As long as nations such as Israel and China and lately India also supply it with weapons, and as long as no sanctions are brought against it, the ground reality will not turn in favour of the Rohingya Muslims. For this to change the Myanmar army has to have a substantial change of heart – and this is unlikely to happen as long as the majority Baman group are in charge of it.
