Suu Kyi Must Act Independently of Army

Posted by AsiaViews | Sep 7, 2017 | 0 |

Thailand

The Nation

Aug 29, 2017

Suu Kyi Must Act Independently of Army

Only by spurning military control can Myanmar hope to avoid a brutal conflict in Rakhine

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Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s relative newness to governing is no excuse for failing to act swiftly to end the horrific conflict boiling over in western Rakhine state. The long political struggle she endured before coming to power should have taught her better than most that any military response to a political dispute is bound to fail or even worsen the situation.

In the early hours of last Friday, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) launched coordinated attacks on 30 police and army outposts in Rakhine. Equipped with homemade explosives, machetes and small arms, the militants attacked security forces in Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung townships. The government said 10 police officers, a soldier and an Immigration official were killed in the assault. The swift response by the Tatmadaw – the armed forces – left at least 77 insurgents dead (and one in custody).

It would seem that the Tatmadaw took advantage of the situation to extend its “clearance” operations throughout the area. Clashes will continue and there is no end in sight to the communal strife between Muslims and Buddhists that has ignited violence repeatedly since 2012.

This was the second time ARSA had attacked government forces. The first incident, last October, also prompted a heavy-handed backlash from the Tatmadaw, a “clean-up” that drove 87,000 people into neighboring Bangladesh, which is now forcing them back across the border. The problem’s deep roots in prejudice against the Muslim Rohingya of Rakhine among Buddhists predate Suu Kyi’s rise to power as head of the National League for Democracy (NLD). But her government bears full responsibility for ending the conflict now. Its dilemma is that the Rohingya get no sympathy from the ruling elite, not even from key members of the NLD, and yet the international community is demanding a resolution. Former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan last week submitted the report of a committee he led on exactly this issue, laying out clear recommendations to bring about resolution.

The Rohingya are not recognized as citizens, it noted, despite having lived there all their lives and having family roots dating back decades. To the Buddhist majority, they are Bengalis illegally living in Myanmar. Suu Kyi characterized Friday’s attacks as an act of “terrorism” and urged news media to use the term “Bengali terrorists” rather than “Muslim insurgents”. It was a reversal of her directive last year that, to avoid inflaming ethnic tensions, the stateless people of Rakhine should be referred to as “Muslims” rather than “Bengalis” or “Rohingyas”.

The sharp edge of her dilemma is the Tatmadaw, which continues to wield substantial power despite having relinquished some of the reins of government in an election. The armed forces believe in taking an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and will show the Rohingya militants no mercy.

Annan, a fellow Nobel Prize laureate of Suu Kyi, released his advisory committee’s report just two days before Friday’s bedlam. The government received it with gratitude. Some members of the government might well be willing to heed its recommendations and grant the Rohingya their overdue rights, enabling them to access medical care and other state services. The Tatmadaw is unwilling to bend, however, and with the three ministries of Defense, Home Affairs, and Border Affairs under its control, it still has Suu Kyi on its reins, if not the government per se. She’s going to have to reverse that situation now.

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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.”

Suu Kyi Must Act Independently of Army