Ethnic
violence imperils Myanmar
reform By Brian McCartan
CHIANG MAI, Thailand - Renewed violence in
Myanmar's western Rakhine State threatens to
spread across the country as rising sentiment
against ethnic Rohingyas becomes more generally
anti-Muslim. Surging Buddhist versus Muslim
violence underscores the urgent need for reforms
related to ethnic minorities and the rule of law,
issues that were neglected or exploited for
political gain during the era of direct military
rule.
On October 21, new rounds of
violence erupted in Minbya and Mrauk-U townships
in Rakhine State. The disturbances quickly spread
to Myebon, Rathedaung, Pauktaw, Kyauktaw, Kyaukpyu
and Ramree, the first time sectarian violence had
hit most of those areas. After a week of mostly
Buddhist on Muslim attacks, the unrest was
suppressed after security forces were reinforced.
Government reports claimed that 84 people
were killed with
another 129 hospitalized
in the melees. Melees between stick and knife
wielding groups of Rakhines and Rohingyas running
riot or forcefully defending their homes
characterized the violence. Human Rights Watch and
other rights groups estimated the true death toll
could be much higher, based on the testimony of
survivors and the government's propensity to
understate casualty figures that could put it in a
negative light.
Violence first flared
between the groups in June after several Rohingya
men were accused of raping a local Rakhine woman.
Riots and reprisal attacks continued into July,
resulting in the deaths of at least 90 people and
the destruction of thousands of homes. Although
the violence was eventually suppressed, some
75,000 Muslims are still displaced in camps in
Sittwe and Kyauktaw townships.
The
violence achieved a de facto segregation of the
Buddhist and Muslim populations in these
townships, especially in Sittwe, where most of the
Muslim population of the once evenly divided city
now live on its outskirts in an estimated 15
camps. Tensions have long simmered between
minority ethnic Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine
Buddhists.
The Rakhine are a minority in
Myanmar but the majority in Rakhine State, where
there are also an estimated 800,000 Rohingyas.
Myanmar is overwhelmingly Buddhist, with an
estimated 4% of the population following Islam.
A report released by the United Nations
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (UNOCHA) released on October 28 claimed
that at least 28,000 mainly Muslims have been
displaced by the recent violence. In the latest
surge of violence, Myanmar's government said over
4,600 homes were destroyed, as well as at least 14
religious buildings. Human Rights Watch documented
through satellite imagery the destruction of 811
structures in a predominantly Muslim section in
the town of Kyaukpyu alone.
Although the
violence has since subsided, anti-Rohingya and
anti-Muslim sentiment is rising dangerously across
the country. Buddhist monks of the All-Arakanese
Monk's Solidarity Conference in Rakhine State
recently called for Muslim sympathizers to be
exposed and targeted. This call has heightened a
state of fear in the region that has prevented
Rakhine Buddhists from aiding Muslims or helping
aid providers.
In its report, UNOCHA noted
that this feeling has been extended to UN and
other relief organizations, many of which have
been accused by majority Buddhist Burmans and
others of exhibiting a bias that favors Rohingyas
over Rakhines. The report claims that independent
assessment teams and relief supplies, including
from the government, have been blocked by presumed
local Rakhines from affected areas.
Volatile mix Issues of ethnic
and religious identity are closely intertwined in
Myanmar, especially for Muslims of South Asian
descent. They are often lumped together by other
ethnicities as "Muslims", or more pejoratively as
kala. This has created a situation where
disaffection against Muslim Rohingya has sometimes
sparked more general anti-Muslim and anti-South
Asian sentiments that have affected areas of the
country where there are small but noticeable
Muslim communities, especially in the major
trading towns and cities.
Anti-Muslim
sentiment was strategically tapped by the previous
military government in 2001 to deflect attention
from wider political and economic problems. In
addition to disturbances in Rakhine State between
February and October of that year, anti-Muslim
rioters destroyed mosques, shops and homes in
towns elsewhere in the country as widespread as
Taungoo, Pyi, Pakkoku, Pegu, and Henzada. At the
time, the ruling State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC) attributed most of the violence to
radical Buddhist monks.
These and other
similar actions by the previous military regime
have given rise to speculation, particularly in
Myanmar exile communities, that the new violence
may have been manufactured by a military "old
guard" keen to destabilize the region and slow, or
even reverse, the reform process. The theory
speculates that elements in the military are
unhappy with the reform process and are willing to
use ethnic unrest in Rakhine State and elsewhere
to maintain their relevance in Myanmar's politics.
Conspiracy theories aside, President Thein
Sein's government does not appear to be behind the
latest rounds of violence. The violence runs
against the government's interests of fostering
reform, rehabilitating the country's international
image and building relations with ethnic
minorities. The ethnic unrest also threatens to
sour the environment for desperately needed new
foreign investments, an area Thein Sein's
government has prioritized.
Recent
protests in Sittwe, Mandalay and Yangon against
the establishment of an Organization of Islamic
Conference (OIC) humanitarian liaison office were
nominally organized by Buddhist monks, youth
groups and women's organizations. In response,
Thein Sein suspended previous plans to open the
OIC office in Sittwe in mid-October. During a
visit by an OIC delegation to Rakhine State in
September, the global organization announced its
intention to support Rohingya Muslims fighting for
their rights as citizens in Myanmar.
Several violent incidents have been
recorded against Muslims in areas distant from
western Rakhine State. Most recently, two mosques
were targeted in grenade attacks in Kawkareik and
Kyondoe towns in eastern Karen State. The attacks
came two weeks after the so-called Group of
Buddhist Religious Leaders to Protect and Maintain
the Buddhist Heritage in Pa-an, the capital of
Karen State, issued a statement seen by Asia Times
Online that urged Buddhists to cut social and
business dealings with Muslims. The statement
threatened in bold letters that "serious actions
will be taken" against anyone who violated the
order.
Sectarian tensions have long
simmered under the surface across the country.
Prior to the violence in Rakhine State, the
construction of a mosque was halted in April by
Buddhist monks and local community members in
Hpakant, Kachin State. Another mosque was
destroyed in Magwe Division in April in a business
dispute that tapped into anti-Muslim sentiment.
In Rakhine State, the violence has spread
to encompass non-Rohingya Muslim communities. In
Kyaukpyu, for instance, many of the homes
documented as destroyed belonged to the Muslim
Kaman ethnic minority, which unlike the Rohingya
is recognized by the government. Successive
governments have asserted that Rohingyas are
illegal settlers from Bangladesh and denied them
citizenship under the 1982 nationality law.
Thein Sein has publicly acknowledged on
several occasions the potential for the violence
to spread beyond Rakhine State and the dangers
such instability would pose to his government's
reform efforts. The sectarian strife in Rakhine
State has already sparked criticism that his
government has not done enough to protect both
Muslim and Buddhist communities and has failed to
address the root causes of the situation.
Marginalized minority The
Muslim issue, and especially that of the Rohingya,
is possibly the most sensitive of the ethnic
problems Thein Sein's government faces. While
there have been widespread calls in parliament for
solutions to ethnic issues and related
insurgencies in Karen, Shan and Kachin States, the
Muslim issue has been met with silence or barely
veiled calls to send the Rohingya "back" to
neighboring Bangladesh. Even President Thein Sein
has at times called for segregation and even
expulsion of Rohingyas.
Opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi has also been criticized for her
stance on the issue. Much of the criticism has
centered on her apparent unwillingness to leverage
her considerable moral authority for a solution to
the problem. Rather than call for reconciliation
and an end to the discriminatory 1982 nationality
law, she has focused mainly on the need for rule
of law in Rakhine State, as she has for the rest
of the country.
A parliamentary Rule of
Law Committee, which Suu Kyi chairs, recently
submitted an emergency proposal calling for
increased security in Rakhine State and an
investigation into human rights abuses, though it
was couched more in terms of establishing
transparent judicial procedures than addressing
the root causes of the strife.
A report by
an investigative commission set up by Thein Sein
after the previous round of violence has been
delayed due to the difficulty of obtaining
reliable information from all sides. Originally
due to be submitted to the president next month,
it is now not expected to be completed any time
soon. The commission has also so far failed to
propose any policies or measures to address the
root causes of the problem.
The government
has also been accused of leaving many of the
75,000 displaced by the previous spasm of violence
without access to adequate food, shelter, or
medical care, in part due to Rakhine imposed
restrictions on humanitarian access.
Military mindset The problem has
been compounded by local administrative and
security bodies that, in addition to being largely
subject to societal prejudices against Muslims,
are reluctant to act without orders from central
authorities. That reluctance to act is rooted in
decades of unaccountable military rule.
In
the immediate term, the government lacks effective
mechanisms to contain civil and sectarian strife.
On both recent occasions in Rakhine State, local
security forces had to be reinforced by additional
police and military units to restore order. During
the latest round of violence, 5,000 police were
deployed and the army's presence in the region was
increased from 46 to 51 battalions.
Although the police force has in recent
years undergone some reform, it remains mainly a
paramilitary force with a largely negative public
image. That's especially true for the riot police,
who over the years have played prominent and often
brutal roles in the crushing of pro-democracy
protests.
Images of police patrols in
Rakhine State during the recent unrest showed them
armed with automatic rifles and looking more like
military units than civil police. Like most
militaries, Myanmar's army is not trained to
control crowds or suppress riots in urban areas.
Human Rights Watch and other rights
organizations documented the involvement of the
military in killings, rapes and mass arrests
during the June-July violence in Rakhine State.
While details remain sketchy from last week's
round of violence, there are initial credible
reports of security forces firing on civilians,
killing and injuring an unknown number.
These reports point to an urgent need for
wide-reaching police and military reforms,
particularly concerning their code of conduct in
dealing with civil disturbances. Although the use
of the military to quell civil unrest is allowed
for in Chapter 11 of the constitution, the actual
doctrine and commensurate training for carrying
out these operations is sorely lacking.
The state mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar
said on October 29 that with the situation now
stabilized, security forces will focus on relief
and rehabilitation work for displaced victims.
This is another role for which Myanmar's military
is neither noted nor trained. Yet international
attention will focus on its performance and
whether earmarked aid is distributed equally among
displaced Rohingyas and Rakhines.
The
speed and scale of the recent sectarian violence
has clearly outstripped government reformers'
ability to deal with the situation. If Thein Sein
hopes to maintain stability and cap anti-Muslim
sentiment before it destabilizes his
administration, he will need to quickly shift his
reform focus from political and economic matters
to judicial, administrative, and security issues.
Achieving reconciliation between Buddhists and
Muslims will be a more nettlesome task.
Brian McCartan is a freelance
journalist. He may be reached at
bpmccartan1@gmail.com
(Copyright 2012
Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights
reserved. Please contact us about sales,
syndication and republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road,
Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
