Much has changed in Myanmar since
Aung San Suu Kyi's government was sworn in in late March, but for those behind
the barricaded entrance to the Muslim quarter of Aung Mingalar in Rakhine
state’s capital Sittwe it is as if time has stood still.
The entrance is surrounded by a
red-and-white wooden fence ringed with razor wire; no one is allowed to pass a
police checkpoint without official permission.
Inside, local Muslim man,
46-year-old Ahmed Maung Sein, tells Anadolu Agency that “they still view us as
problem makers,” referring to the local authority and once-neighborhood
friends, the ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.
He says he used to own a pharmacy
in downtown Sittwe before communal violence spread to the city in June 2012
following the murder of a Rakhine girl in Yambye Township in Rakhine’s south.
“We are in here like house arrest
for years,” Ahmed Maung Sein said, adding that his four children were unable to
go to school since they had been moved to the camp.
“We are in [a] hopeless condition
now, and hoping someone helps us,” he added.
It has been more than four years
since religiously-motivated violence shook Myanmar's westernmost state, leaving
about 140,000 people displaced in camps.
Most of those affected were
Rohingya Muslims -- described by the United Nations as among the most
persecuted minority group worldwide.
They lack citizenship, are denied
the most basic healthcare and are reliant on aid due to restrictions placed on
their movement -- measures the Rakhine authorities have defended, saying that
under the continued threat of conflict they are safer where they are.
On Tuesday, an advisory commission
led by ex-United Nations chief Kofi Annan arrived for a two-day visit.
The commission was formed last
month with the aim of finding lasting solutions to “complex and delicate
issues” in Rakhine.
Awaiting them at the airport was
around 1,000 hardline ethnic nationalists, many waving banners emblazoned with
“No to Kofi Annan-led commission”.
Wednesday saw Annan visit the
Rohingya community in the Aung Mingalar quarter, followed by a trip to Rakhine
and Rohingya camps in Thetkabyin village outside of Sittwe.
While members of the Rohingya
minority expressed hope that the commission will help end the discrimination
and violence they face at the hands of the country's Buddhist majority, Tin
Htoo from the nationalist Rakhine National Network has accused it of
interfering in Myanmar’s internal affairs.
“Though we respect Kofi Annan and
his reputation, we don’t want such a commission,” he said. “The commission
should not include non-Burmese persons who don't care for our views and our
history."
However, international human rights
groups have welcomed the move.
On Aug. 30, UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon endorsed the government's efforts.
“We are happy to see the courageous
steps the government is taking, including the establishment of an advisory
commission headed by my predecessor Mr. Kofi Annan to look at overall issues in
Rakhine,” Ban told a news conference in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw.
He stressed that Rohingya deserve
hope, and called on the government to improve the conditions for the around 1.2
million people who have lived in temporary camps since the violence of 2012.
"Like all people everywhere,
they need and deserve a future, hope and dignity. This is not just a question
of the Rohingya community's right to self-identity," he said.
Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia
director Phil Robertson said Suu Kyi's government had accurately assessed that
without foreign participation, the commission would have limited credibility in
the eyes of the international community and donors who have been pressing hard
for action to end abuses in Rakhine state.
“By selecting former UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Myanmar government has for the first time
created real excitement that it might actually be serious about addressing and
fixing the root causes of the violence and discrimination suffered by both
ethnic Rohingya and Rakhine,” he told Anadolu Agency in an email last week.
“We hope [it] will lead to
accountability for past rights violations, and end the pervasive discrimination
and abuse that the Rohingya have continuously suffered."
Suu Kyi, however, has not just been
criticized by Rakhine Buddhists. The former ruling party led by ex-President
Thein Sein blasted her for taking what he sees as domestic affairs onto the
international stage. Parliament has also witnessed arguments over the
commission’s foreign make-up.
“Including foreign nationals in the
commission to addresses our internal affair puts the country’s sovereignty at
stake,” lawmaker Oo Hla Saw from the nationalist Arakan National Party told the
lower house Tuesday.
“And the State Counselor has no
right to form such a commission,” he added, before parliament -- dominated by
lawmakers from Suu Kyi’s ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party voted
down a proposal to replace the three foreign nationals with locals.
For Rohingya man Ahmed Maung Sein,
however, the commission is the first big hope he has ever had that there may be
light at the end of what has been a five-year slog down a long very dark tunnel
for most Rohingya
“What we want is to live in
peaceful conditions,” he told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday. “I want to work
regularly. I don’t want to depend on humanitarian aid for my family
anymore."
Robertson, however, underlined to
Anadolu Agency that the commission’s trip is just the beginning.
What will be more important is for
the government to be politically committed to implement whatever it comes up
with, and to state that commitment from the outset of this process.
“Creating the commission is a very
important first step,” he stated.
By Kyaw Ye Lynn
SITTWE, Rakhine State, Myanmar
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