World silent on massacre of Muslims in Myanmar: Analyst

Press-tv, 11 Aug 2012

The world has been silent on the persecution and massacre of Muslims in Myanmar in order to continue the long-running domineering colonial and post colonial trends, a political analyst tells Press TV.

“This is not the first time that acts of violence are taking place against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, formerly Burma. I think this problem has colonial roots that some years before Burma became independent in 1948 this region was autonomous where Rohingya Muslims reside and it was made part of the Burmese state by the British,” said Ishtiaq Ahmad in a Friday interview with Press TV.

He further argued that the killing of the Rohingya Muslims, which are a minority in Myanmar, is a process of ethnic cleansing.

“Because there are domineering trends which are long rooted in the colonial and post colonial history and in this case there is this Buddhist extremist [who] in collision with a military Junta are massacring a minority ... the current situation in its factual status can be described simply that a process of ethnic cleansing is currently taking place in Myanmar,” Ahmad explained.

Reports say some 650 Rohingyas have been killed in the Rakhine state in the west of the country in recent months. This is while 1,200 others are missing and 80,000 more have been displaced.

The UN Human Rights authorities point the finger of blame at Myanmar security forces, who are believed to have been targeting the Muslims rather than bringing the violence to an end.

The political analyst went on to say that, “There is only a declaratory sort of position that the UN has taken although international human rights organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have released reports and have taken a solid stand on that but when you see the approaches being pursued by the Western governments including particularly the United States, they are completely indifferent.”

Ahmed finally noted that the plight of the Rohingyas is the result of a “grand bargain” that took place between Myanmar’s military junta and Aung San Suu Kyi.

“So as long as influential members within the international community or the organization of the United Nations are indifferent towards this issue and the guest before me already explained the reason why there is this indifference and I really share his opinion that perhaps this year or last year a grand bargain has taken place in which Myanmar’s military Junta agreed to provide freedom to Aung San Suu Kyi and in return the Western governments changed their approaches towards Myanmar for the sake of simply commercial interest,” he concluded.