11/13/2017

ASEAN Summit (November 13)

ASEAN ignores Rohingya crisis and fails to protect human rights (Press Release)

In the course of a visit to Bangladesh, Pramila Patten, UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, accused Burma’s army of systematically raping Rohingya women. Photo: UN Geneva via Flickr

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) criticizes the ASEAN states for failing to protect human rights – as the states of Southeast Asia are planning not to discuss the Rohingya crisis in the course of their summit in Manila. “The principle of non-interference that the ASEAN states are following should not be used as an excuse to ignore crimes against humanity. Anyone who acts in this way encourages further ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity,” explained Ulrich Delius, the STP’s director, in Göttingen on Monday. “Only international pressure from the ASEAN states could help to bring the perpetrators to justice and to pave the way for a political solution to the Rohingya conflict.”

The two-day ASEAN summit in the capital city of the Philippines started on Monday. The draft final document does not contain any tangible opinion on the escalation of the Rohingya refugee crisis or on the gruesome human rights violations in Rakhine State in northern Burma/Myanmar. Observers reported that this is due to the fact that Burma’s State Councilor, Aung San Suu Kyi, announced that her country would not put up with criticism regarding the way the Muslim Rohingya community is treated.

“In the past, Aung San Suu Kyi has often accused the ASEAN states of using the principle of non-interference as an excuse to ignore human rights violations. Now, she can benefit from this principle herself,” said Delius. When the Nobel Peace Prize winner was under house arrest in Burma at the end of the 1990s, she had criticized this ASEAN principle as outdated.

“Further, Aung San Suu Kyi is about to lose all her credibility if she gives a talk at a business seminar on strengthening the role of women in Burma’s society – while remaining silent about the mass rape of Rohingya women, committed by Burma’s soldiers and Buddhist extremists,” said Delius. In the course of a visit to Bangladesh, Pramila Patten, UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, accused Burma’s army of systematically raping Rohingya women. According to Patten, sexual violence is one of the main reasons for the mass exodus of the Rohingya from Burma.

Headerphoto: UN Geneva via Flickr