Myanmar — the Southeast Asian nation that until recently most Western nations preferred to call by its colonial moniker Burma — is suffering from growing pains.
Granted, transitioning from an oppressive military dictatorship to an open democratic society is no easy task.
And even with a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, at the helm, it is hard to make the leap from pariah nation to upstanding member of the international community.
But while Myanmar has definitely made important strides toward becoming a more inclusive and just society since its people finally wrested their country from the grip of a military junta at the start of this year, Suu Kyi’s six-month-old civilian government may now be facing one of the biggest potholes in its brief administration as it tries to cope with the mounting tensions in the northern Muslim-majority state of Rakhine.
Allegations of summary executions, sexual violence, arson and other rights abuses against the region’s ethnic Rohingya are beginning to tarnish the once glistening image of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, especially with recent U.N. reports of soldiers blocking access for aid workers.
Aerial surveillance footage produced by the independent, international watchdog organization Human Rights Watch earlier this month, shows evidence of the fire-related destruction in three villages in Rakhine, and calls for an impartial and independent U.N. investigation into these torchings have been mounting.
The Rakhine crisis has placed Suu Kyi in the middle of a face-off with the military, which had ruled the country since 1962 before tepidly agreeing to conditional democratic elections late last year and which still maintains control over all ministries responsible for security.
According to civilian government sources in Myanmar, military commanders have persistently ignored requests from Suu Kyi’s office for information about alleged misconduct by soldiers, and the situation is only getting worse.
The death of nine soldiers at the start of October led to a major military crackdown and a brutal witch-hunt against 400 Rohingya civilians.
The situation soon turned violent, with another five officers dying, and, officially, 33 insurgents being killed, including several suspects in custody (although, given the secrecy that has been imposed by the military regarding Rakhine, there are fears the death toll could be much higher).
The entire area has since been sealed off from outsiders and direly needed international aid has been blocked from entering.
So far, Suu Kyi has kept silent, perhaps weighing her own government’s survival against that of the Rohingya people, preferring to focus her attention on boosting Myanmar’s foreign relations and trade, and leaving the dirty work of dealing with Rakhine to the country’s military muscle.
The eruption of violence in the region at the start of last month found her conveniently abroad on a state visit to India, and she has since made several other overseas trips.
But Suu Kyi can’t run from the Rakhine crisis forever.
She must either confront the army and rein in the violence or face becoming just another Third World puppet leader who kowtows to the military brass.
Thérèse Margolis can be reached at [email protected].
