Asean bloc must step up to solve Rohingya crisis: US official

[webfact]

Asean bloc must step up to solve Rohingya crisis: US official

By SUPALAK GANJANAKHUNDEE 
THE NATION

 

A boat (L, front) carrying 56 Rohingya refugees from Myanmmar is escorted to Kuala Kedah jetty before being handed to authorities at the Kedah Immigration Department, in Kedah State, Malaysia, 03 April 2018. // EPA-EFE PHOTO

 

THE UNITED STATES has urged all stakeholders, including the Asean bloc, to take the proper steps to provide protection and adequate humanitarian assistance to Rohingya –those remaining in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and those in squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh.
 

The United States has urged all stakeholders, including the Asean bloc, to take the proper steps to provide protection and adequate humanitarian assistance to Rohingya –those remaining in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and those in squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh.

 

Meanwhile, the Rohingya community in Thailand has called on the nation to participate in solving the crisis. 

 

The Rohingya crisis was discussed during the 31st US-Asean dialogue in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, said US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Southeast Asia Patrick Murphy.

 

“The collective body of participants agreed on the need for steps to improve the delivery of humanitarian assistance, create a secure environment, particularly for very vulnerable Rohingya,” he said in a phone conference with journalists in the region.

 

“We also discussed the need to assist Myanmar with its transition to democracy. There was certainly an acknowledgement of the complex environment there,” he said. 

 

Some 700,000 refugees have fled from Rakhine state since August last year when a militant group attacked Myanmar security outposts in the western state, prompting a heavy handed response under the cover of a “clearance operation” by the Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) that killed thousands of people. Rohingya have been victims of atrocities including arson, torture, murder, gang rape and massacre within their Rakhine villages and as they travelled to the Bangladesh border over the past months.

 

Murphy (left) is in the 31st US-Asean Diloague in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday

 

“We are very concerned for the plight of the Rohingya, both the populations that have fled into Bangladesh, and those that remain,” Murphy said. “This has been a massive human population movement, and it’s the result of insecurity, in some cases atrocities and abuses. And it’s been very, very troubling.”

 

While de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi continues to be strongly criticised over what some see as complicity in what the UN has labelled as “elements of genocide”, the international community is reluctant to undermine Myanmar’s nascent democratic government.

 

Murphy said the international community wants to support the government and see it come to terms with the crisis. 

 

“Of course it’s a complex problem and it’s longstanding, and the elected government in Nay Pyi Daw has inherited this problem and they are struggling with it,” Murphy said.

 

The US and Asean nations want to help encourage actions that bring about protection for vulnerable populations, ensure adequate delivery of humanitarian assistance, and pave the way for repatriation so that the Rohingya can return to their homes in a safe, dignified, voluntary manner, he said.

 

“We also want to pursue accountability for those who have committed abuses and atrocities in order to bolster the rule of law and ensure that such events do not repeat themselves,” Murphy said.

 

Asked if the international community could address the Rakhine crisis at its root cause, rather than just providing humanitarian assistance, Murphy said there’s some reason to be encouraged, because the government itself had established the Kofi Annan Commission and embraced last August’s recommendations that came from that process. 

 

The 88 “very solid” recommendations of the Commission address short, medium and long-term challenges, and if implemented, could go a long way to addressing the root causes of underdevelopment, discrimination, the lack of rights in citizenship, he said.

 

Suu Kyi picked Thai former foreign minister Surakiart Sathirathai to lead an advisory board to implement the Annan recommendations. 

 

Surakiart led a board meet with Aung San Suu Kyi last month and with Singapore foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan this week as they seek ways to help end the crisis with broadened Asean roles. 

 

However Siyeed Alam, chairman of Rohingya Association in Thailand, said yesterday that Asean should allow the Rohingya communities in the region to participate in the problem-solving process.

 

“Asean and the Surakiart board are acting as if they are white-washing the Myanmar government,” he told The Nation. “They said they are doing it for the Rohingya but never listen to our voices.”

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30342567

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-04-06

[leeneeds]

Humans destroying humans,  

have another meeting and another and another after that,

and still all the brains will not end this tragedy

no Accountability whats so ever, 

tragic human misery caused by other humans

we are such a cruel species, sometimes.

 

 

 

[wombat]

[farcanell]

??? really?

 

the famously “immigration friendly” republican government of USA, giving advise to other countries about taking immigrants.... wow.

 

ship them off in a leaky boat, bound for Hawaii, and I bet that they will change their tune

[Bluespunk]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

While de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi continues to be strongly criticised over what some see as complicity in what the UN has labelled as “elements of genocide”, the international community is reluctant to undermine Myanmar’s nascent democratic government.

A democracy built on genocide is not worth preserving. 

 

Burma needs to have the severest possible sanctions imposed upon it until the state sponsored campaign of genocide is halted. 

Edited April 6, 2018 by Bluespunk

[rickudon]

Yesterday saw a report from Myanmar, the old Rohingha villages are being razed to the ground (what wasn't destroyed already) and rows of nice new shiny huts have been built in them by the government - great, homes for the Refugees to return too! Ahhhh - of course not - good ethnic Burmese buddhist families have already moved in .... the ethnic cleansing now completed, there will soon be no where for the Rohingya to return. A sure sign that the government has no intention of taking back these refugees.

[JohanB]

 

The chinese are building the Kyauk Pyu Deep Sea Port in the Rakhine State. China is very eager to take control of the economics and also build a nearby industrial park.

Maybe the chinese don’t want the muslims to make trouble nearby, so probably they ignited/ordered the ethnic cleansing....

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/china-silkroad-myanmar-port/china-to-take-70-percent-stake-in-strategic-port-in-myanmar-official-idUSL4N1MS3UB

 

”China has been pushing for preferential access to the deep sea port of Kyauk Pyu on the Bay of Bengal, an entry point for a Chinese oil and gas pipeline that gives it an alternative route for energy imports from the Middle East that avoids the Malacca Strait, a shipping chokepoint. 

The port is part of two projects, which also include an industrial park, to develop a special economic zone in Rakhine.”

 

 

[thaibeachlovers]

It's as much the responsibility of ASEAN as all of Europe is responsible for all the "refugees" that Merkle encouraged to come.

It may sound good in the corridors of power in the US and Europe, but it's not going to find favour with the locals.

 

However, Thailand already takes a lot of Burmese as cheap labour force, so perhaps they could take ( vetted ) Rohingyas instead. That would still provide cheap labour force and punish Burma at the same time.

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎4‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 1:33 PM, Bluespunk said:

A democracy built on genocide is not worth preserving. 

 

Burma needs to have the severest possible sanctions imposed upon it until the state sponsored campaign of genocide is halted. 

Burma already had severest possible sanctions imposed on it by the west for years, and didn't change anything. They are being supported by the Chinese now, so probably wouldn't give a monkey's.

Edited April 8, 2018 by thaibeachlovers

[seajae]

makes it hard when the military still control what happens to them despite there being an elected no military govt, makes you wonder what will happen especially with the chinese backing them

[Bluespunk]

4 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Burma already had severest possible sanctions imposed on it by the west for years, and didn't change anything. They are being supported by the Chinese now, so probably wouldn't give a monkey's.

Maybe, maybe not, but playing nice is doing nothing to halt their genocidal actions. 

 

There has to to be a line no govt can be allowed to cross.

 

Burma, to its eternal shame, has long gone beyond this point. 

 

Sanctions now. 

 

 

[Sir Dude]

Good luck with that, considering ASEAN's lame policy of non-interference (even acknowledgement of issues) in member state's internal affairs. ASEAN makes the UN look like the affirmative action club. Pfft.

Edited April 8, 2018 by Sir Dude

[baboon]

On 06/04/2018 at 4:37 AM, leeneeds said:

Humans destroying humans,  

have another meeting and another and another after that,

and still all the brains will not end this tragedy

no Accountability whats so ever, 

tragic human misery caused by other humans

All the while turning us against one another for their own benefit. All of these bastards in every country. For me, there is next to nothing I can do, but one thing I am capable of is recognising their propaganda and refusing to join in the Two Minutes' Hate of the day as directed by the media barons and their friends in government. 

Again; don't look to me for the solution, but I for one refuse to be part of the problem.

[Chris Lawrence]

Sad just watching the news, babies in arms children malnourished, mum and dad with a far away look, and the old people still plodding along.

 

For what?

 

The people having these meetings would be better off on the ground handing out necessities to all concerned. Just the cost of  a pair of underpants from the woman in the silk dress may feed a family for a week, not to mention the perfume she may be wearing. 

 

A sanitised group talking on how to overcome a impoverished people?