Asean must not remain silent

OVER a year has passed since the Myanmar military, the Tatmadaw, began its August 2017 “clearance operations” targeting the Rohingya Muslim population of the country’s Rakhine state. Since then, a UN-commissioned report has confirmed that the Tatmadaw was not seeking to combat terrorist elements as it claimed, but instead carried out a systematic campaign to eliminate the Rohingya from Myanmar.

The UN report describes the Tatmadaw’s campaign as one which was marked by the targeted killing of civilians, use of sexual violence and total impunity. Most significantly, it also names specific Tatmadaw officials who should be prosecuted for genocide.

Reports of torture continue to flow out of Rakhine state despite Myanmar’s express commitment to repatriating displaced Rohingya refugees. There is overwhelming evidence that the Tatmadaw, abetted by the compliance of Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government, has perpetrated some of the most serious of international crimes. And yet, the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) as a whole has met the crisis with a shameful non-response, levelling not one word of concrete criticism at member Myanmar.

Indeed, while some individual Asean countries have been critical of the situation in Rakhine state, an Association statement released at the height of the crisis in 2017 failed to even mention the word “Rohingya”. In doing so, it fed into long-standing Myanmar attempts to brand the minority as alien interlopers.

Asean countries should be reminded of their basic obligations, both moral and legal. All of Asean, bar Brunei, Indonesia and Thailand, are parties to the 1948 Genocide Convention. This treaty requires them to have taken active steps to prevent what, in all probability, amounted to genocide.

Genuine reflection is warranted over whether these obligations were satisfied. More concretely, Asean countries must now push for Tatmadaw officials to be held accountable for their crimes.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has recently found that it has jurisdiction to prosecute the forcible deportation of the Rohingya into Bangladesh. As the Office of the ICC Prosecutor continues to gather evidence, Asean countries must lend it their full support.

Asean should use all diplomatic channels to prompt a UN Security Council referral of Myanmar to the ICC. This is necessary so as to ensure the Court’s jurisdiction over the entire range of crimes which have been committed by the Tatmadaw beyond deportation. Myanmar is, after all, a non-party to the treaty which founded the ICC, the Rome Statute.

Myanmar is hardly alone among Asean countries which have not embraced the ICC. Presently, only Cambodia and the Philippines are parties to the Rome Statute.

The atrocities which have occurred in Rakhine state underline the necessity of all Asean members signing and ratifying the treaty.

Such a move would be vitally important to prevent Tatmadaw officials escaping from justice when they are criminally indicted, which by now is hopefully only a matter of time.

Asean countries would then be legally obliged to arrest and hand over any individuals on their territory sought by the ICC.

Asean, and indeed South-East Asians, must realise that the horrors in Myanmar are the consequence of failing to take human rights seriously.

It is not an “Asian value” to stand silent in the face of genocide, and it certainly should not be the Asean Way.

JEFFERI HAMZAH SENDUT

Kuala Lumpur