“Muslims
in Myanmar are the victims of the strategic interests of the big
powers,” Selçuk Çolakoğlu, an expert from the Ankara-based International
Strategic Research Organization (USAK), told Sunday’s Zaman, adding
that the Myanmar issue has an international dimension.
(Ahlul
Bayt News Agency) - Although continuing violence against the Rohingya
Muslims in Myanmar alarmed the international community, bringing their
plight to the international agenda, experts agree that Muslims in
Myanmar are the victims of a global power struggle and that the
international community should end its silence on the situation
affecting the Southeast Asian country.
The first glimmer of violence in
Myanmar occurred in June after claims that three Rohingya Muslims raped
a Buddhist woman. Following the allegations, extremist Buddhists
started killing Muslims living in Arakan province, the location of the
recently escalating violence in the country, near Bangladesh. “What kind
of solution can be found for the conflict is a question mark. The issue
should be put on the UN agenda. But it’s impossible for the UN Security
Council to issue a resolution against the Myanmar government due to
Chinese influence. Myanmar’s government has had very close relations
with China for 20 years. Therefore, Myanmar is an important country for
the other powers due to its relationship with China. The competition for
leadership between China and the US in the Indian Ocean is serious.
Recent visits by US officials to Myanmar are to break Chinese influence in the region,” said Çolakoğlu.
Agreeing
with Çolakoğlu regarding the role of the global powers in Myanmar, Sait
Demir from Turkey’s Humanitarian Aid Foundation (IHH), told Sunday’s
Zaman that the major powers had significant interests in Myanmar, adding
that due to these policies they remain silent on the situation in
Myanmar. “Myanmar also has important natural resources. Therefore, the
US and China have conflicting policies in Myanmar,” said Demir, adding
that both powers supported Myanmar’s government.
According to official
statistics, 4 percent of the 75 million people in the country are
Muslim, while 89 percent are Buddhist. The Muslims are not seen as
citizens of Myanmar by nationalist Myanmar leaders, officials and
fanatical Buddhists, and in turn are exposed to discrimination.
“Myanmar’s government has an
important role in the current conflict. Since the independence of the
country, there has been an exclusionary policy carried out by the
government against the Rohingyan Muslims to create a nation-state based
on the Buddhist ethnic group. In this sense, the other religious and
ethnic groups are either being assimilated or forced to migrate. This
policy is carried out to reduce the influence of these groups within the
country,” said Çolakoğlu, adding that the conflict in Myanmar had two
aspects, ethnic and religious.
Tun Khin, president of the
Rohingya Organization, said the international community should take
immediate action concerning the situation in Myanmar, adding that
pressure should be put on the government.
Stating that the attacks on
Muslims are not a sectarian issue, Khin claimed that the regime in the
country had prepared a plan to murder Muslims.
Agreeing with Khin, Demir said
Myanmar’s government was provoking the conflicts between Muslims and
Buddhists, adding the government was arming the Buddhists against
Muslims. “The government is applying a divide and rule policy,” said
Demir.
Turkey has called on
international organizations, especially the UN, not to remain silent
about the violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu
spoke with the secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation (OIC), Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, and Bangladeshi Foreign
Minister Dipu Moni last week about the situation of Rohingya Muslims in
Myanmar.
A Turkish diplomatic official
told Sunday’s Zaman that Turkey was following the situation in Myanmar
closely, adding that Turkey has always supported the reform process in
Myanmar. “Turkey is currently carrying out a fact finding process in
Myanmar. Turkey has contacts with both the OIC and the UN. Turkey is
also in touch with authorities in Myanmar and Bangladesh,” said the same
official.
Meanwhile, to mobilize
international opposition to the situation, during a visit to China in
June İhsanoğlu discussed the situation with Chinese authorities,
pleading with them to closely follow the situation and to take the
initiative with its southern neighbor Myanmar, with which it has close
relations.
Myanmar President Thein Sein
declared a state of emergency in Arakan province following clashes
between Buddhists and Muslims and deployed army troops to restore
stability.
Defining the attacks as “ethnic
cleansing based on race and religion,” Wakar Uddin, chairman of the
Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU), said the state of emergency in Arakan
further was further deteriorating the living conditions of Muslims,
while Buddhists ignored the state of emergency.
Decades of discrimination have
left the Rohingya stateless, with Myanmar implementing restrictions on
their movement and withholding land rights, education and public
services.
Myanmar’s government is currently not allowing any media organizations to enter the country.
“No one is allowed to enter Arakan province. The government has also arrested UN staff in Myanmar,” said Demir.
UN High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Melissa Fleming said last Friday that 10
UN staff and aid workers have been arrested in Myanmar. Martin Nesirky,
spokesman for the UN secretary-general, also confirmed this news, adding
that the UN was following the situation with concern.
There are also contradictory
figures regarding the death toll of Muslims in Arakan province. An aid
team from the United Nations, which is the only foreign team that was
allowed to enter the region, has said the death toll was neither as low
as Myanmar’s government had declared nor as high as activists have
claimed.
“The number of deaths is not
clear, and it is contradictory. It is not possible to find the bodies of
the Muslims. It is said that 1,500 bodies are lost,” said Demir.
While tens of thousands of
Muslims fled Myanmar due to the violence, Bangladeshi authorities did
not allow the Rohingyans waiting at the border gates to seek refuge in
their country.
“Even though Bangladesh closed
its doors to Rohingyan Muslims, there are still 150,000 Rohingyans in
refugee camps in Bangladesh,” said Demir, adding that relations between
Myanmar and Bangladesh had deteriorated due to the Rohingyan Muslim
issue.
Demir stated that Rohingyans,
who are denied citizenship and ethnic recognition in Myanmar and instead
are viewed as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, are not allowed to
work or have a house, adding that there is no electricity in Muslim
villages in Myanmar.
Although, local sources claimed
last Monday that the conflict had somewhat eased, Demir, who has been
serving in Myanmar for nine years, said he didn’t believe that the
conflict had eased, adding that the Myanmar government had started
deploying army troops near the region to provoke the conflict
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