If you haven’t been paying much attention to events in Myanmar recently, you might be shocked or surprised by Aung San Suu Kyi. Yes, her response to the violence in Rakhine state, on the country’s west coast, has been extremely disappointing. No, she shouldn’t be denying that human rights abuses are happening.
Having got that out the way, let’s focus on what’s happening to the Rohingya right now, and what can be done about it.
The military in Myanmar, led by commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing, has launched a major military operation against Rohingya civilians using the pretext of hunting down militants who attacked government buildings, including police stations on Aug. 25. Since the offensive began, almost 400,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh.
According to Rohingya sources in exile and on the ground in Myanmar, there are an estimated 100,000 or more who have been internally displaced. Perhaps 5,000 people have been killed.
Horrific human rights violations have been committed — executions, beheadings, people being deliberately burned alive in their homes. Even children are being deliberately targeted by the military, security forces and armed militias and mobs. It’s not surprising that the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, described the military attacks against the Rohingya as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”
Under Myanmar’s military-drafted constitution, Suu Kyi does not have control over the army. It is independent of her civilian-led government. The army controls the police, security services, prisons, border affairs and most of the civil service, and also appoints 25 percent of the members of parliament. Because 75 percent of MPs need to vote in favor of a constitutional change, Min Aung Hlaing effectively has a veto. He leads a second government in Myanmar, one armed with guns.
