Suu Kyi accused of silence on minority rights abuse

[T-Rex]

Suu Kyi accused of silence on minority rights abuse

Date
July 28, 2012


AUNG San Suu Kyi is facing a backlash from fellow pro-democracy campaigners dismayed at her refusal to speak out against abuses being committed by Burma's military.

Activists who supported the icon of human rights through her years of imprisonment accuse her of staying silent on the most pressing human rights issue in the country today - the treatment of the Rohingya, a stateless group identified by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities.

Critics contend that she has dodged the subject throughout eight weeks of strife in Rakhine State in western Burma, where hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands displaced from their homes.

There have been consistent reports of army beatings, intimidation and extra-judicial killings of the Rohingya, who are Muslim.
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Her refusal to criticise President Thein Sein, a former general, for endorsing policies that could be seen as recommending ethnic cleansing have caused particular consternation. Mr Thein Sein said the 800,000 Rohingya population should be put in camps and sent across the border to Bangladesh.

''She is in a difficult position, but people have been disappointed she hasn't been more outspoken,'' said Anna Roberts, executive director of the Burma Campaign UK.

''She passed up opportunities to say good things on this,'' said Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch.

''This was all blowing up when she was travelling in Europe and she didn't confront it,'' he added, referring to her recent foreign tour when the Nobel laureate was feted in London, Dublin, Paris and Oslo.

The sweeping reforms that let Ms Suu Kyi take a seat in Parliament have also eased censorship laws, exposing resentment towards the Rohingya among the majority ethnic Burmese population.

Some activists said it was unclear if the Nobel peace laureate shared commonly held prejudices towards the dark-skinned minority from the subcontinent, who first migrated from Bengal centuries ago.

In her first parliamentary speech this week, Ms Suu Kyi cited the importance of protecting minority rights, but that was widely regarded as referring to larger Buddhist groups such as the Karen and Shan.

Australia's peak Muslim body, Muslims Australia, recently wrote to Foreign Minister Bob Carr urging him to speak up on the ''genocide'' against Rohingyas.

Maung Zarni, a Burmese academic who was on a panel with Ms Suu Kyi at the London School of Economics in June, said: ''She has been very non-committal on the issue of the Rohingya.''

There have been reports that Buddhist monks in Rakhine have distributed pamphlets urging boycotts of Muslim traders and shops.

When asked about the Rohingya issue, Ms Suu Kyi has vaguely referred to the need for the ''rule of law'', or for a clear immigration law, which critics say suggests she sees the Rohingya as immigrants.

The Rohingya have never been granted Burmese citizenship and a 1982 law excluded them from the list of officially recognised minorities.

Suu Kyi accused of silence on minority rights abuse

 

[T-Rex]

I have been watching this lady and I had a suspicion. It seems I was right about her. She is another of those self-proclaimed so-called champions of human rights and democracy. The friends of bush, blair and obombomb just cannot be a true democrat, they are all hypocrites, implementing uncle sam's hidden agenda in the name of human rights and democracy. Suu Kyi is a charlatan of the west and the world has a proof of it now!

 

[Qasibr]

Most leaders of the Muslim world are completely quiet on this, it goes to show how subdued they really are.

I wish Bangladesh's government steps in and does something, they enjoy military superiority over Burma and could easily intimidate them, or perhaps diplomatically pressure them as much as they can as a neighboring state. What's going on there is really quite tragic.

 

[T-Rex]

Most leaders of the Muslim world are completely quiet on this, it goes to show how subdued they really are.

I wish Bangladesh's government steps in and does something, they enjoy military superiority over Burma and could easily intimidate them, or perhaps diplomatically pressure them as much as they can as a neighboring state. What's going on there is really quite tragic.

Most leaders of the Muslim world are either too afraid or paid servants of foreign powers, so expecting them to act or even voice concern isn't reasonable. The PM of Bangladesh is the worst kind of puppet, she is ruthless in her own country and a tame *****-cat in New Delhi. As for the military superiority, I think the Bangladesh army is one of the most poorly equipped armies in the world. Even the Burmese army has an edge over the Bangladesh army.

 

[Cloakedvessel]

Most leaders of the Muslim world are either too afraid or paid servants of foreign powers, so expecting them to act or even voice concern isn't reasonable.

Maybe this powerless, old woman is also afraid? Afraid of the military rulers in her own country. Most leaders in the Muslim countries have a life with all the luxuries, power and money, this woman has been imprisoned for decades by the junta because of her political views in Myanmar. Maybe she is not ready to go to jail again.

 

[T-Rex]

Maybe this powerless, old woman is also afraid? Afraid of the military rulers in her own country. Most leaders in the Muslim countries have a life with all the luxuries, power and money, this woman has been imprisoned for decades by the junta because of her political views in Myanmar. Maybe she is not ready to go to jail again.

She wasn't afraid to speak for the other Burmese in the name of democracy and human rights, suddenly she is afraid to speak out for the human rights of the Burmese Muslims. Your statement is a sloppy job, try something else. Perhaps you should use the terrorism card, try this, "All Muslims are not terrorists but all terrorist are Muslims." Your big daddy preached this.

 

[livingdead]

She is afraid of losing support among burmese people. Not everybody is a gandhi.

 

[T-Rex]

She is afraid of losing support among burmese people. Not everybody is a gandhi.

In other words, she is a part time advocate of human rights. So much for her commitment to human rights and democracy! A nice show indeed, she needs to go to Hollywood in order to excel in this art of acting.

 

[Cloakedvessel]

She wasn't afraid to speak for the other Burmese in the name of democracy and human rights, suddenly she is afraid to speak out for the human rights of the Burmese Muslims. Your statement is a sloppy job, try something else. Perhaps you should use the terrorism card, try this, "All Muslims are not terrorists but all terrorist are Muslims." Your big daddy preached this.

Speaking out for the persecuted minorities would mean political suicide for Suu Kyi. Her life long struggle gone in a wimp. She is in a though spot, she holds no real power and has limited freedom to reform the country's policies. If she goes against the authorian rulers and the general sentiments of the people, she risk losing everything, maybe even the few political reforms Myanmar just made. You can't ask that from her, that's unreasonable. She already collapsed on her Europe tour, you want to give her a heart attack or a stroke by terrorizing her, in order for her to become your personal Islamist minion? Get real..

 

[metro]

She loves her country and she knows it is in the greater good of her country to keep Bangladeshis out, so why would she raise voice against it ?
It makes no sense, any nationalist Burmese would support it.

 

[livingdead]

In other words, she is a part time advocate of human rights. So much for her commitment to human rights and democracy! A nice show indeed, she needs to go to Hollywood in order to excel in this art of acting.

I wont question her commitment to democracy. About human rights, yes, she failed my expectation. But then that does not invalidate her struggle as such.

 

[T-Rex]

Speaking our for the persecuted minorities would mean political suicide for Suu Kyi. Her life long struggle gone in a wimp. She is in a though spot, she holds no real power and has limited freedom to reform the countries policies. If she goes against the authorian rulers and the general sentiments of the people, she risk losing everything, maybe even the few political reforms Myanmar just made. You can't ask that from her, that's unreasonable. She already collapsed on her Europe tour, you want to give her a heart attack or a stroke by terrorizing, in order for her to become your personal Islamist minion? Get real..

There you go, "Islamist minion", now, something tells me that you're one of those seasonal human rights advocate, the ones who have literally hijacked the term hypocrisy. As I said the lady is a charlatan groomed by the west.