Nov 9, 2020 | FoRB, Opinion Articles, RM
By Charles Santiago
APHR Chairperson
MP, Malaysia
We all thought that’s the end of Myanmar’s charade. We believed the latest report by the United Nations will leave Myanmar with no space to maneuver or manipulate.
We are dead wrong.
Myanmar’s presidential spokesman, Zaw Htay, said the allegations of atrocities against the Rohingya are harsh.
According to Zaw Htay, there will be an immediate investigation by a commission led by Vice President U Myint Swe and necessary action will be taken if there is “clear evidence of abuse and violations.”
Aung San Suu Kyi has responded by saying the government would need more information.
This is outrageous.
The UN report is based on the testimonies of 220 out of 69,000 Rohingya who fled Myanmar into neighboring Bangladesh following an escalation of violence since October last year.
It says thousands of Rohingya children, women, and men have suffered gang rapes, killings, beatings, disappearances, and other acts of cruelty at the hands of Myanmar’s police and security forces.
Witnesses testified to “the killing of babies, toddlers, children, women and elderly; opening fire at people fleeing; burning of entire villages; massive detention; massive and systematic rape and sexual violence; deliberate destruction of food and sources of food.”
The investigators concluded that Myanmar may be guilty of crimes against humanity.
The mission head, Linnea Arvidsson, said that the testimonies are similar to ethnic cleansing.
Therefore, Myanmar cannot have the luxury of time to conduct another investigation as hundreds more could die while the military investigates itself.
Myanmar has not shown any remorse to the butchering of the minority Rohingya.
Neither does it have the political will to stop the killings.
It’s therefore imminent that Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who has been vocal in his condemnation of Myanmar, leads an ASEAN campaign to exert pressure on the rogue state to immediately stop the violence.
ASEAN governments must now strengthen their call for human rights accountability, an independent investigation, access to humanitarian aid, access to diplomats, the media, lawmakers, and other key stakeholders to visit Arakan and the rights of refugees.
ASEAN civil society must take up a more vocal role in voicing their concerns about crimes against humanity and push for protection mechanisms for the Rohingya to be put in place immediately.
As suggested by Arvidsson, the UN Human Rights Council must refer the senseless violence perpetrated against the minority community to the UN Security Council, which in turn has the power to recommend the issue to be taken up at the International Criminal Court.
It is also imperative that an arms embargo be imposed on Myanmar. Also, senior military officials involved in committing the atrocities should be immediately suspended and investigated for crimes against humanity.
This is the time for foreign governments, corporates, media, political leaders, interfaith groups, non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, and ASEAN parliamentarians to come together to oppose the grave travesty of human rights against the Rohingya.
If we do not act now, thousands more will die as the Burmese military will continue to kill with impunity.
Nov 9, 2020 | FoRB, RM, Statements
JAKARTA — ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) today urged the Myanmar government to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into reports of abuses by security forces against civilians in northern Rakhine State. The network of regional lawmakers also called on the Myanmar military to allow aid workers and independent journalists access to affected areas in order to provide humanitarian assistance and document developments.
“The reports coming out of Myanmar’s Rakhine State are alarming and demand a credible investigation. At the same time, all authorities must take urgent action to prevent further violations and fulfill their responsibility to protect the rights of all civilians,” said APHR Chairperson Charles Santiago, a member of the Malaysian Parliament.
“We remain deeply concerned, however, that as a result of the lack of government oversight of security forces, effective systems are not in place to protect civilians or support their chance of seeing justice served.”
Reports of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, sexual violence, and destruction of homes and property have emerged in the weeks since a coordinated attack on three border guard posts in Rakhine State killed nine police officers on 9 October. The subsequent alleged abuses by security forces have reportedly targeted Rohingya villages in Maungdaw Township, near the border with Bangladesh. Condemning all acts of violence, APHR stressed the importance of adherence to the rule of law.
“The loss of any life is a tragedy, and Myanmar authorities should certainly investigate and bring to justice the perpetrators of the attack on police posts. But that effort cannot come at the expense of the safety and well-being of innocent civilians. Security forces in Rakhine State must uphold the rule of law by ensuring that their operations are limited in scope and do not target civilian populations,” Santiago said.
At least 13,000 people, including members of both Rohingya and Rakhine communities, are estimated to have fled their homes as a result of operations by security forces in the aftermath of the 9 October attack. Severe restrictions on access to northern Rakhine State, where the majority of the country’s Rohingya population lives, have made it difficult for independent groups to verify information coming out of the area.
“Myanmar government officials have denied outright that rights violations are occurring. But the lack of access makes these claims impossible to verify and severely undermines their credibility. Allowing independent monitors and journalists to access the area would therefore be in the interest of Myanmar authorities, as well as the local population,” Santiago said.
The Myanmar government has reportedly extended invitations to select diplomats to visit areas in northern Rakhine State beginning today. APHR cautioned that this should not be seen as a substitute for a thorough investigation of alleged abuses, but expressed hope that the invitation might soon be followed by a widening of access for all groups, including journalists and aid workers.
Regional role
Parliamentarians urged regional partners, including ASEAN, to support the Myanmar government in its investigation of alleged abuses, where necessary, and to play a proactive role in resolving existing tensions in Rakhine State.
“Ongoing violence could force increasing numbers of Rohingya to leave Myanmar, and many could end up caught in a web of human trafficking and further abuse. ASEAN has a moral duty to act to prevent this,” Charles Santiago said.
“Just a few weeks ago State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi welcomed ASEAN as a productive partner in resolving the situation in Rakhine State. ASEAN should make clear that it is ready and willing to step into that role, recognizing that what is going on in Rakhine State has the potential to directly affect other member states, as we saw with the regional boat people crisis in 2015,” said Eva Kusuma Sundari, Vice Chair of APHR and a member of the Indonesian House of Representatives.
During the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) meeting in Naypyitaw on 30 September, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi discussed the situation in Rakhine State and called for regional support in resolving it, saying: “We are working to build understanding, harmony and trust between communities while standing firm against prejudice, intolerance, and extremism. In doing so, we ask for the constructive support of our regional neighbors.”
Despite the State Counsellor’s request, APHR noted that the recent developments highlight the problematic status of Myanmar’s security forces, who remain out of the direct control of the civilian administration as a result of the military-drafted 2008 constitution.
“The constitution grants the military complete autonomy and no civilian oversight,” Sundari said. “The current situation lays bare the profound problems with this arrangement and further emphasizes the need for constitutional reform and democratic accountability. The struggle for democracy and human rights in Myanmar is far from over. ASEAN must be ready to support Myanmar on the path toward genuine democracy.”
Click here to read this statement in Burmese.
Nov 9, 2020 | FoRB, RM, Statements
JAKARTA — Parliamentarians from across Southeast Asia today renewed their calls for a credible independent investigation into alleged rights violations in Myanmar’s Rakhine State following an escalation of violence in the northern part of the state over the weekend.
“In the past few days, we have heard reports of violence escalating and seen strong evidence of atrocities — reports of more killing of Rohingya civilians and images of burned out villages. Without access, these heartbreaking reports are impossible to verify, but the Myanmar military’s long history of human rights violations undermines its credibility as it continues to tell us that these abuses aren’t occurring,” said Charles Santiago, a member of the Malaysian Parliament and Chairperson of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).
“If the Myanmar government is incapable of preventing further bloodshed or controlling its security forces, then it is the responsibility of the regional and international community to act. The United Nations, as well as ASEAN, should step in to lead an investigation.”
According to state media, violence escalated on Friday when Myanmar army troops were ambushed by “attackers” in Maungdaw Township and the military responded with an air assault from helicopters. The renewed violence comes more than a month after Myanmar security forces shut down access to northern Rakhine State following an attack on police checkpoints in the area by unknown assailants.
On Sunday, Human Rights Watch published new satellite imagery showing large-scale fire-related destruction of Rohingya villages. Unverified video footage of Rohingya casualties have also raised concerns. A “public information team” from the Myanmar military has denied the veracity of the evidence presented, but parliamentarians said this only further demonstrates the need for more access.
Parliamentarians also called on Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been largely quiet during these events, to intervene.
“We understand the huge pressures and sensitivity surrounding the issues in Rakhine State and the institutional separation of powers between the military and civilian leadership, but we implore the Nobel laureate and her government to prioritize efforts to address this situation and its root causes before it’s too late,” Santiago said.
“ASEAN member states must remember that what happens in Rakhine State affects more than just Myanmar. This violence is not an ‘internal affair,’ but a situation with clear regional implications — implications which we have sadly seen played out before. In order for ASEAN to live up to the commitments made in its Declaration Against Trafficking in Persons, the region must take action to address root causes that can lead to people becoming trafficking victims, including state-sponsored persecution and violence.”
Click here to read this statement in Bahasa Indonesia.
Click here to read this statement in Burmese.
Nov 9, 2020 | DFF, Opinion Articles
State of the Nation Address Statement of Citizens’ Council for Human Rights in the Philippines
Drafted by Walden Bello
Former MP, Philippines
In a little less than a month since his inauguration, President Rodrigo Duterte has delivered on his campaign promise to go after suspected drug pushers and users with little or no regard for human rights and due process. Units of the Philippine National Police, under the command of his close associate General Ronald (“Bato”) de la Rosa, have turned many low-income neighborhoods in the country into free fire zones. The bloody encounters taking place daily have polarized the country between those who support the president’s quick and dirty methods of dealing with drugs and crime and those who regard them as illegal, immoral, and self-defeating.
To date, more than 500 people have been killed in intensified anti-drug operations since the May 9 elections in which Duterte emerged as the victor. The pattern is worrisome: The police announce that drug pushers or users have been killed in an operation. Slain people are shown on television, invariably with firearms near their hands. The now routine police explanation: “The victims resisted arrest and fired on us, so we had to shoot them in self defense.” In some instances, the police story borders on the incredible. In a Pasay City precinct, for instance, two manacled suspects are shown on television being led into jail. Shortly thereafter, a policeman emerges to tell the press the father and son were shot dead inside the jail since they tried to reach for the police’s pistols and had to be killed “in self-defense.”
The suspicious circumstances surrounding incidents like this and many others have convinced many that the killings are rub-outs by the police profiting from the illegal drug trade who are out to eliminate people who can connect them to drugs. Others wonder if this anti-drug push might not be a case of killing the small fry but protecting the big fish since there have hardly been any big-time drug lords apprehended.
Whatever the causes of the wave of extra-judicial killings by police and unidentified people, the president must take responsibility for having encouraged them. Throughout his campaign for the presidency, he claimed that criminals had no rights and that they were better off dead than alive. During his victory speech in Davao on June 6, he asked people to take the law in their own hands and kill drug pushers, offering a higher bounty to people who killed suspected drug dealers than to those who brought them alive to the authorities. He has repeatedly said that rehabilitation does not work and at the solidarity dinner at the Del Pan Sports Complex on the very night of his inauguration, he told people that “If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourselves as getting their parents to do it would be too painful.” To the police who follow his orders, he has said more than once, “If in the process you kill one thousand persons because you were doing your duty, I will protect you.”
Fighting Drugs and Crime the Right Way
Those who uphold human rights and due process have been accused of not sharing the population’s concern with curbing crime. This is a lie.
We do not question the goal of fighting drugs and crime. Indeed, we support it. But it cannot be achieved by trampling on human rights. No one has the right to take life except in the very special circumstance and in a very clear case of self-defense—not a police setup masquerading as “self defense.” Everyone is entitled to the right to life and its protection by the state.
Moreover, denying some classes of people these rights, as Duterte does, puts all of us on the slippery slope that could end up extending this denial to other groups, like one’s political enemies or people that “disrupt” public order, like anti-government demonstrators or people striking for better pay. In this connection, we cannot forget that candidate Duterte threatened to kill workers who stood in the way of his economic development plans and made the blanket judgment that all journalists who had been assassinated were corrupt and deserved to be eliminated. That was no slip of the tongue.
A Dangerous Path
President Duterte’s explicit, indeed boisterous denial of human rights and due process to suspected wrongdoers makes him unique among those who have served as chief executive, most of whom explicitly promised to uphold due process even if some of them deliberately violated it in practice in pursuit of their political enemies. Duterte would not, however, be as confident in his attack on the universality of human rights and the state’s duty to ensure due process to suspects were he not supported in his extreme views by many if not most of those who voted for him. Duterte feels he has a blank cheque to disregard the law, and he is encouraged in this behavior by the rabid support he gets from many supporters who copy his aggressive style in expressing their views in the media.
This dangerous synergy between the Leader and his followers is normalizing the denial and ridiculing of human rights and due process. And this can only lead to the erosion of the foundational belief of the 1987 Constitution: that each citizen of the Republic is endowed with fundamental, political, civil, social, economic, and cultural rights and is entitled to the protection of the law. Further the Constitution’s Bill of Rights states that: “No person shall be held to answer for a criminal offense without due process of law.” And that “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall be presumed innocent until the contrary is proved, and shall enjoy the right to be heard by himself and counsel, to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation against him.”
We demand that President Duterte order a halt to the extra-judicial killings and restore the rule of law and due process. We urge him to desist from inflammatory rhetoric that can only turn this country into one vast killing field where a rogue police force and vigilantes roam with impunity.
But above all we ask our fellow citizens to come out and speak up for the inviolability and universality of human rights, the rule of law, and due process. These gains that our people made in their long struggle for their fundamental rights and democratic rule are under threat. Impunity should neither be made the foundation nor should it be made to serve as a “counter-balance” or “exchange” for future economic and social development. Acquiescence and silence in the face of the impunity that now reigns is the surest way to the loss of the rights of all.
CCHR is a broad coalition of non-government organizations (NGOs), people’s organizations (POs), human rights lawyers, religious sector and members of the academe that came together to defend and assert human rights for all.
