The Rohingya Muslim population in Myanmar has long been deemed one of the world’s most persecuted minorities, its plight called a “most urgent matter” by President Barack Obama. Episodes of sectarian violence drove the Rohingya from their homes, leaving more
The Rohingya Muslim population in Myanmar has long been deemed one of the world’s most persecuted minorities, its plight called a “most urgent matter” by President Barack Obama. Episodes of sectarian violence drove the Rohingya from their homes, leaving more than 100,000 in squalid camps for the displaced. Restricted in how they travel and denied educational opportunities, they are the outcasts in majority-Buddhist Myanmar.
Myanmar made a stunning transition from military rule to the newly elected government led, in effect, by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. Human rights advocates hoped she and her ruling National League for Democracy party would dismantle the repressive measures against the Rohingya. Suu Kyi, who was disturbingly noncommittal on the issue during the election, has now spoken up — but, woefully, only to endorse the previous government’s discriminatory practice of refusing to recognize the Rohingya as one of the country’s more than 130 officially sanctioned ethnic groups. Instead, her government advised foreign embassies to stop using the word “Rohingya.” Many Buddhists in Myanmar refer to them as Bengalis — a designation that casts them as outsiders with no claim to citizenship. It’s unconscionable on the part of Suu Kyi to support this and a disappointing start for a new government rooted in democracy.
Given the new government’s refusal to call the Rohingya by their name — and Suu Kyi’s reported advice to the new U.S. ambassador to do the same — oppression of the Rohingya seems likely to remain official government policy for the foreseeable future. As such, the U.S. government should keep in place at least some of the rules for investors and the sanctions against Myanmar that are set to expire later this month, particularly the ones that require American companies working in Myanmar to report on their efforts to ensure human and labor rights are maintained, and to not do business with specially designated nationals with ties to human rights abuses. Myanmar’s march to democracy shouldn’t leave the Rohingya behind.
— Los Angeles Times
