(July, 2013, MuslimLink)
By Matthew
Behrens
While the Harper government imposes
stricter sanctions on Iran, it is opening up trade and diplomatic relations
with Burma, despite that government’s ongoing oppression of a Muslim minority
that has led to well-placed charges of ethnic cleansing and crimes against
humanity. Burma may soon become the only nation on the planet that limits family
size based on religion (with a revived policy restricting Muslims to two
children), yet Canada is forging ahead with plans to open an embassy and
full-time trade commission in Rangoon.
According to an April, 2013 report
by Human Rights Watch (HRW), Burma’s Rohingya Muslim population has been under
attack by ethnic Rakhine Buddhists who have killed hundreds, displacing over
100,000 Muslims while the Burmese government appears at best to have stood back
and refused to intervene, and at worst to have encouraged the looting, rape,
and murder of Muslims in that country. The HRW report was released the same day
that the European Union lifted long-standing sanctions against the Burmese government,
best known for the lengthy military dictatorship’s brutal repression and the
long-time house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been
notably silent on the issue.
The majority Buddhist country has
long refused to recognize the status of the Rohingya – indeed, they were
stripped of their citizenship in 1982 – declaring them illegal immigrants who
should be removed from the country, and enforcing discriminatory laws that
prevent employment and freedom to move, such as the recent proposal that would
ban Muslim men from marrying Buddhist women. British MP Rushanara Ali
recently wrote that the Rohingya, whose heritage in the area can be traced to
the 7th century, have been designated by the United Nations as “one
of the most persecuted minorities in the world.”
A
long history of discrimination forms the backdrop to the massacres and human
rights abuses documented in the
153-page report, “All You Can Do is Pray: Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic
Cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Burma’s Artakan State.” HRW documents how the
Burmese government has created “a humanitarian crisis” with “coordinated
attacks on Muslim neighborhoods and villages in October 2012 to terrorize and
forcibly relocate the population. The tens of thousands of displaced have been
denied access to humanitarian aid and been unable to return home.” HRW’s deputy
Asia Director added in a press statement, “the government needs to put an
immediate stop to the abuses and hold the perpetrators accountable or it will
be responsible for further violence against ethnic and religious minorities in
the country.”
On
October 23, over 70 Rohinya Muslims were massacred in Yan Thei Village. HRW
reports, “Despite advance warning of the attack, only a small number of riot
police, local police, and army soldiers were on duty to provide security, but
they assisted the killings by disarming the Rohingya of their sticks and other
rudimentary weapons they carried to defend themselves. Included in the death
toll were 28 children who were hacked to death, including 13 under age 5.”
The
October, 2012 atrocities were preceded by earlier destruction of mosques, mass
arrests, the razing of villages, and killing of residents. Since the 1990s, UN special rapporteurs have
identified and condemned such abuses as “widespread,” “systematic,” and
resulting from “state policy”, while new technology confirms what governments
seek to deny or downplay: HRW last
year obtained satellite imagery of areas affected by the violence, which showed
the destruction of over 4,800 structures across some 350 acres of largely
Muslim property.
“Many
of the displaced Muslims have been living in overcrowded camps that lack
adequate food, shelter, water and sanitation, schools, and medical care,” the
reported continued. “Security forces in some areas have provided protection to
displaced Muslims, but more typically they have acted as their jailers,
preventing access to markets, livelihoods, and humanitarian assistance, for
which many are in desperate need.”
Attacks
have continued unabated, and while Aung San Suu Kyi, considering a run for the
presidency, has been extremely cautious, offering only tepid, bland remarks
about respecting the rule of law and not wanting to take sides, President Thien
has stoked the flames by suggesting the Rohingya all be placed in refugee camps
or expelled from the country.
A
month before the October 2012 massacres, the Harper
government send a trade delegation, including representatives of the Bank of
Nova Scotia, Manulife Financial, and Skywave Mobile Communications. While Ed Fast,
Minister of International Trade, has warned that Burma-bound corporations should be
cautious because of the fluid economic situation, he has been non-specific on
the Rohingya’s plight. “We’ve made it clear that as we engage in
trade and investment relationships around the world that we also expect our
partners to respect basic human rights, respect democratic processes,” Fast
said in a prepared statement, a common shout-out to rights that has little effect
as investment begins to pour into the country and there appear to be no
sanctions on the horizon to ensure human rights compliance.
While
the government of Canada insists that trade is the mechanism that opens the
door to democratic rights (a claim that has not worked well in China, where
Canadian Muslim Huseyin Celil remains detained because of his religion),
British MP Rushanara Ali declared “The international community must push the
Burmese government to amend its 1982 Citizenship Act to ensure that all persons
in the country have equal access to citizenship and are not discriminated
against on grounds of ethnicity and religion.” The United Nations last month
also called for full citizenship status as well, noting the Rohingya remain
segregated in camps that they are not allowed to leave.
Such
a specific recommendation to end the violence against Muslims in Burma is not
apparent in vague Canadian statements. Canada’s language on the attacks in Burma
has been instructive, carefully worded in a manner that some might view as not
wishing to harm investment opportunities by insulting the current government.
While Canada’s Office of Religious Freedom has in recent months issued
statements with strong language – “Canada Condemns Iran’s Continued Religious
Freedom Violations, Including Persecution of Baha’is”, “Canada Condemns Church Bombing in Tanzania” –
its March statement on Burmese atrocities was more measured: “Canada is concerned by recent reports of
deadly violence targeting Muslims in Meiktila, Burma.”
Such
language appears to be a deliberate choice that sacrifices the rights of the
Rohingya Muslims to the niceties of diplomatic and commercial engagement. It is
also clear from a long line of similar statements that Canada downplays the
violence that both now and historically targets Burmese Muslims. Indeed, in a
2011 speech to the UN, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird declared: “We respect state sovereignty, but Canada
will not ‘go along’ or look the other way when a minority is denied its human
rights or fundamental freedoms.” Laudable as the sentiment is, Baird went on to
condemn Iran for “persecution” of women, Christians and Bahai, but said in the
same breath that in Burma the regime simply “restricts the activities of
Muslims.”
While
Canadian companies line up to reap the riches Burma may offer, Human Rights
Watch lists a series of recommendations that Canada and other nations should be
pushing for, from holding to account those behind the atrocities to new
legislation upholding the rights of all Burmese Muslims, immediate lifting of
all restrictions on freedom of movement, unhindered humanitarian agency access,
an independent international mechanism to investigate crimes against humanity, and
a return of displaced persons to their homes.
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