Myanmar: International Specialist
/- What reason does Aung San Suu Kyi give for the exodus of Rohingya from Myanmar?
- What is Suu Kyi asking the international community to do? Why?
[...] Burma is a complex nation, as all of you know. And its complexities are compounded by the fact that people expect us to overcome all these challenges in as short a time as possible. I think it is only fitting that I should remind you today that our government has not yet been in power for even 18 months. [...] 18 months is a very short time in which to expect us to meet and overcome all the challenges that we have been expected to do. This does not mean that we are not ready to go on with our task of overcoming these challenges. Because I believe in the community of nations, I am prepared to share, with all our friends who wish us well and who understand our problems and sympathise with us, what we have been doing to achieve democratic transition, peace and stability, and development.
I am aware of the fact that the world’s attention is focused on the situation in Rakhine State. And, as I said at the [UN] General Assembly last year, as a responsible member of the community of nations, Myanmar does not fear international scrutiny and we are committed to a sustainable solution that would lead to peace, stability, and development for all communities within that State. [...]
Unhappily, on 9 October [2016], eighteen days after the delivery of my address at the [UN] General Assembly, three police outposts were attacked by armed Muslim groups. There were further attacks on 11 October and 12 November and these clashes resulted in loss of lives, injuries, burning of villages, and the displacement of peoples in the affected areas. Many Muslims fled to Bangladesh.
Since then, the government has been making every effort to restore peace and stability and to promote harmony between the Muslim and Rakhine communities. Even before these outbreaks took place, we had established a Central Committee for rule of law and development in the Rakhine and invited [former Secretary-General of the United Nations] Dr. Kofi Annan to lead a Commission that would help us to resolve the longstanding problems of that State. But, in spite of all these efforts, we were not able to prevent the conflicts from taking place. [...]
After several months of seemingly quiet and peace, on 25 of August, thirty police outposts, as well as the Regimental Headquarters in Taungthazar village, were attacked by armed groups. Consequent to these attacks, the government declared the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army and its supporters responsible for acts of terrorism, as a terrorist group [...]
There has been much concern around the world with regard to the situation in Rakhine. It is not the intention of the Myanmar government to apportion blame or to abnegate responsibility. We condemn all human rights violations and unlawful violence. We are committed to the restoration of peace, stability, and rule of law, throughout the State. The security forces have been instructed to adhere strictly to the code of conduct in carrying out security operations, to exercise all due restraint, and to take full measures to avoid collateral damage and the harming of innocent civilians. Human rights violations and all other acts that impair stability and harmony and undermine the rule of law will be addressed in accordance with strict norms of justice.
We feel deeply for the suffering of all the people who have been caught up in the conflict. Those who have had to flee their homes are many–not just Muslims and Rakhines, but also small minority groups, such as the Daing-net, Mro, Thet, Mramagyi and Hindus of whose presence most of the world is totally unaware. [...]
Nevertheless, we are concerned to hear that numbers of Muslims are fleeing across the border to Bangladesh. We want to find out why this exodus is happening. We would like to talk to those who have fled as well as to those who have stayed. I think it is very little known that the great majority of Muslims in the Rakhine State have not joined the exodus. More than 50 per cent of the villages of Muslims are intact. They are as they were before the attacks took place. We would like to know why.
This is what I think we have to work towards. Not just looking at the problems, but also looking at the areas where there are no problems. Why have we been able to avoid these problems in certain areas? For this reason, we would like to invite the members of our diplomatic community to join us in our endeavor to learn more from the Muslims who have integrated successfully into the Rakhine State. If you are interested in joining us in our endeavors, please let us know. We can arrange for you to visit these areas, and to ask them for yourself, why they have not fled, why they have chosen to remain in their villages, even at a time when everything around them seems to be in a state of turmoil. [...]
With regard to citizenship, a strategy with specific timelines has been developed to move forward the National Verification Process. But this is a process which needs cooperation from all communities. In some Muslim communities, their leaders have decided that they are not to join in the verification process. [...]
There has been a call for the repatriation of refugees who have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh. We are prepared to start the verification process at any time. [...] Those who have been verified as refugees from this country will be accepted without any problems and with full assurance of their security and their access to humanitarian aid.
I understand that many of our friends throughout the world are concerned by reports of villages being burnt and of hordes of refugees fleeing. As I said earlier, there have been no conflicts since the 5th of September and no clearance operations. We too are concerned. We want to find out what the real problems are. There have been allegations and counter-allegations and we have to listen to all of them. And we have to make sure that these allegations are based on solid evidence before we take action.
Action will be taken against all peoples, regardless of their religion, race, or political position who go against the laws of the land and who violate human rights as accepted by our international community. We have never been soft on human rights in this country. Our government has emerged as a body committed to the defence of human rights. Not of any particular community’s rights, but of the rights of all human beings, within the borders of our country. [...]
And as we go forward in our efforts to redress the ills of this nation, I would like to ask our friends who understand and sympathise with, both our aspirations and our problems, to join us. We would like you to join us in a positive and constructive way to find new paths towards peace and stability and towards harmony.
We would like you to think of our country as a whole. Not just as little afflicted areas. It is as a whole only that we can make progress. [...]
It is sad that in meeting our diplomatic community, I am obliged to focus just on a very few of our problems, when there are so many which I think we could resolve together. That is why I am opening the door to all of you who wish to join us in our endeavors. We invite you to join us, to talk to us, to discuss with us, to go with us to the troubled areas, where we can guarantee security for you, because we don’t want the added problems of anything happening to any of you, so we would like you to join us, then to see for yourself what is happening and think for yourself, what can we do to remove these problems? And also, I want you to take special care to study the peaceful areas–how have they managed to keep the peace? How have they managed to preserve harmony? Why are they not at each other’s throats in these particular areas? This is the answer that we need. It is not just a matter of removing ills, but also of promoting what is positive. We have to remove the negative and increase the positive, and we would like to do that together with all of you. [...]
We don’t want Myanmar to be a nation divided by religious beliefs, or ethnicity or political ideology. We all have the right to our diverse identities and we all have the right to strive to fulfil our lives in the ways in which we believe are right. But we also have to work together because we belong to one nation. And as we belong to one nation, we also belong to this world.
It is for this reason that we place great importance on the role of the United Nations as an assembly of nations which was created to promote peace and harmony, to ensure that our world should not ever again, in future, fall into the suffering that we all experienced during the Second World War. [...]
It is by cooperating only, that our world can go forward. By attacking each other, either with words, or with weapons, or even with emotions, will not help us. Hate and fear are the main scourges of our world. All conflict arises either out of hate or out of fear. It is only by removing the sources of hate and fear that we shall be able to remove conflict from our country and from our world.
As you know, there are many allegations and counter-allegations. I have not gone into any of them because it is not my purpose to promote and encourage conflict, whether of ideas, or of arms, but to try to promote harmony and understanding. I hope that you will understand us and join us in our endeavors. [...]