Time for Soft Talk with Myanmar is Over

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Dr. Habib Siddiqui'

Rvnews: An (OIC) the Organization of Islamic Countries delegation, which included foreign ministers and senior officials from its member states of Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Djibouti, and Bangladesh recently visited Myanmar. It was led by the OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu. The OIC delegation pressed for unhindered access of humanitarian aid to all affected people and communities, including Rakhine , without any discrimination. They also stressed the need for clarifying misconceptions and misunderstandings on both sides and for building mutual trust and interfaith community harmony.

As has become the norm in this mostly Buddhist country that has come to signify the den of intolerance and hatred of our time, the OIC delegation was, however, met by angry demonstrators, esp. in the Rakhine state, which has seen more than its share of ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minorities. Some 3,000 protesters, led by Buddhist monks, staged their demonstrations in Rakhine’s capital Sittwe (formerly called Akyab) as they toured camps housing mostly displaced Rohingya refugees as well as some ethnic Rakhines and met local officials. The delegation’s visit to Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon on Friday also saw nearly 1,000 people, carrying "No OIC" placards.

The protests of this kind - organized by the members of the central government and local administration, Buddhist politicians and monks - are nothing new. These dark, hideous and savage forces of Theravada Buddhism want to hide their monumental crimes against humanity and want to starve to death the remnants of the Muslim minority who mostly now live in abject poverty as Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in squalid camps.

The aid is actually there to a great extent. The problem is that it can’t get in because the government of Myanmar whether at the state level or at the central government level or at the local level is just not permitting humanitarians to get in.

So at the state level there are whole section of Rakhine state where the Rohingya live - where the vast majority of Rohingya live - who simply are not being permitted to get aid. Said Sarnata Reynolds, on her interview on Press TV yesterday.
The European Commission, has said, the conditions of I D Ps in Rakhine State, likening them, to the Jewish, ghettos, set up, by the Nazis.

Describing, the levels of need, and deprivation, he witnessed, on his visit to Sittwe, in November, Claus Sorrenson, the director general of the E Us, Humanitarian Aid, and Civil Protection department, E C H O, told reporters, on November 23, at the conclusion of, a five day visit, that the conditions, can not be, a part of modern society.

Mr Sorrenson, likened, the lack of humanitarian aid, and the restrictions, on movement for displaced Rohingya, as the situation in, Apartheid era of South Africa, or Poland, under Nazi occupation.

Finally Dr. Habib Siddiqui said, since founding of the UN, at least 45 genocides and politicides have taken place in our world resulting in deaths of some 70 million people. It is a shameful record that needs to be improved.

So, the time for soft talk with Myanmar is over. It is high time for the UN Security Council to authorize armed intervention in Myanmar by a UN force under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter. The Mandate must include protection of Rohingya civilians and humanitarian workers and a No Fly Zone over the Rakhine state.

The Rules of Engagement must be robust and include aggressive prevention of killing. The major military powers (e.g., the USA, Russia and the UK) must provide leadership, logistics, airlift, communications, and financing. If Myanmar will not permit entry, its UN membership should be suspended. Myanmar’s leaders should be tried in an international criminal court for committing and aiding crimes against humanity. Nothing short of these will be able to stop these savage criminals. Sooner the better!

Rohingya Voice News