It often seems that Myanmar is impregnable to any kind of pressure and will keep getting away with cleansing their own people. In the last half a century, since the military took over, the government has been at war against its own people, carrying out murderous acts including the targeted killing of children and women from the myriad ethnic groups inhabiting this country. The most brutal offensive against an unarmed ethnic group was carried out in 2017, when the military led forces killed at least 25,000 people from the minority Muslim community. Victims included children who were thrown into fire or drowned after being snatched from their mother’s wombs.
So it with a ray of hope that Rohingyas woke up to the news that an independent UN investigation called for the prosecution of Myanmar’s top generals, the very men who masterminded the brutal genocide of 2017. Very unusually and significantly, the report named the men to be investigated. They include the top brass who runs the show and the ethnic cleansing of people considered as enemies of the state. The report, unlike many others in the UN does not mince words. It also recommends the case be referred to the International Criminal Court in the Hague, or for an ad hoc tribunal to be created to investigate the actions of the alleged perpetrators.
This is obviously an unprecedented setback for Myanmar regarding the genocide of Rohingya Muslims, one that the military men had hoped would fade away as it had in the past. The pointing of figures at the six senior men, the real rulers of Myanmar has sent the signal that the world, or at least a significant portion of them, is with the Rohingyas. Myanmar had not allowed the UN team access and have of course binned this allegation.
Despite a significant step in a right direction, Rohingyas should not take this as a given victory. Myanmar only opened up to the world seven years back in 2011, and it might well survive as a pariah state as it had in the past. Development will suffer, but despite all its minerals and resources, the people, including the Buddhist Burman majority have always been poor. The country’s populace has been swept away by an extreme right wing Buddhist ideology and unlike in the past, many will stand behind the military in their quest for the ‘Muslim blood’. Myanmar is also a major neighbour of China, the world power which can easily frustrate any plans the UN has to bring the pariah state to justice.
