Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has stood silent as reports of killing and rape at the hands of the Tatmadaw have emerged from Rakhine State over the last several weeks. Researchers at Queen Mary University London say this amounts to the Nobel Peace Prize laureate “legitimizing genocide”.
The researchers, who are part of the university’s International State Crime Initiative (ISCI), published a report last year that determined that Myanmar’s history of institutional and organized persecution of the Rohingya precisely parallels the trajectory of other genocides.
They write:
Our research, and that of others, confirmed systematic, widespread and ongoing violations, including: institutional discrimination, torture, sexual violence, arbitrary detention, destruction of communities, apartheid structures of segregation, targeted population control, mass killings, land confiscation, forced labour, denial of citizenship and identity, severe restrictions on freedom of movement and access to healthcare, food, education and livelihood opportunities; and state-sanctioned campaigns of religious hatred.
They also assert “without any doubt, that the Rohingya are currently experiencing the genocidal stage of systematic weakening wherein state strategies denying access to healthcare, livelihood, food and civic life [that renders] a population so physically and psychologically diminished that they are unable to engage in purposeful life”.
In addition to remaining silent on the escalation of genocidal processes against the Rohingya, Suu Kyi has also appointed an investigation commission for Rakhine State in an apparent effort to combat the perception that she favors the status quo. The claim in September by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, who heads the commission, that he saw nothing in Rakhine State that he would describe as oppression is consistent with Suu Kyi’s apparent motive.
While she stands idle and her commission whitewashes the destruction of lives in Rakhine State, presidential spokesperson Zaw Htay has been been left free to fill the air with claims that “the international community misunderstood us because of Rohingya lobbyists who distributed fabricated news”, while military-friendly media in Myanmar claim that the Rohingya are setting fire to their own homes in an effort to sway international opinion in their favor.
Since her party’s highly anticipated electoral victory last year, Suu Kyi has used her public office to suppress the use of the term “Rohingya” by foreign diplomats, while state-run media under her government have implicitly referred to the Rohingya as a ‘terrorist’ ‘foreign’ threat in Rakhine State and a ‘thorn which must be removed’.
The Suu Kyi-Zaw Htay alliance has also suppressed independent investigations of the situation in northern Rakhine State, creating an information black hole. The Myanmar government denies any abuses while placing the burden of proof upon the very people they forbid from entering the area.
The ISCI analysts conclude:
Aung San Suu Kyi, as the country’s de-facto leader, must be seen as ultimately responsible for the atrocities being perpetrated against the Rohingya. The evidence of genocide is now irrefutable. The Rohingya need strong advocates – they need the world to understand that the persecution they face is genocidal and that only enormous pressure on the Myanmar government will succeed in halting the devastation.
