Protecting Rohingya

Posted by AsiaViews | Sep 18, 2017 | 0 |

INDONESIA

Tempo Magazine

Sept 15, 2017

PRESIDENT Joko Widodo needs to send out a clear and firm message to the Myanmar government on the humanitarian crisis befalling the Rohingya people there. Diplomatic pressure, including international sanctions, are needed to push the Myanmar government to immediately halt its military operations in the civilian areas.

Albeit insufficient, Jokowi’s initiative to send Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi to meet the Myanmar army commander Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and the state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi at the start of the week should be lauded. However, amid a myriad of pledges from sending medicines, tents, and foods for the refugees at the Myanmar-Bangladesh border to building a hospital there the government was mum on the crux of the problem: the Myanmar government’s discriminatory policies against the Rohingya people.

As the Myanmar army’s military operation in the Rakhine state where the majority of Rohingya people life forges ahead, it is critical for the Indonesian government to stand up and deplore human rights violations there. The United Nations says that 270,000 out of around the 1.2 million Rohingya population in Myanmar have been displaced in the incident. They fled to Bangladesh leaving their homes and possessions, hounded by the Myanmar army assisted by local militants.

The Myanmar army did not waste any time before burning down thousands of homes of the Rohingya whom it suspected of having ties with an armed rebel group called Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Party (ARSA), an Islamic militant group that attacked several security posts at the Myanmar border at the end of August. The army then launched a heavy-handed counter operation to hunt down the armed rebels whom they labeled as terrorists.

Regrettably, the Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi cannot be counted on to resolve this prolonged crisis. Just like the powerful army which still holds considerable power, she herself refused to acknowledge serious human rights violations in the state. Not surprisingly, the recommendations by the Rakhine advisory commission, established by the UN and led by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, were never followed through.

The Myanmar military said that it learned from the Indonesian armed forces about the army’s role in Indonesia’s transition from an authoritarian state to a democratic one. President Joko Widodo should now capitalize on this tie to push Myanmar to allow the UN fact-finding team into the conflict zones to probe alleged human rights violations against the Rohingya people.

Moreover, Indonesia’s involvement in the Rohingya crisis should go beyond a mere gesture to appease the public sentiment at home, and should instead serve as a concrete diplomatic effort to safeguard human rights as well as political stability and security in Southeast Asia.

(https://en.tempo.co/read/news/2017/09/15/314909274/Protecting-Rohingya )

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POINTS TO PONDER

EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD

Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.

“It’s important that the government see these children as victims” says Dyah. “They deserve a chance to be children again.”

Protecting Rohingya