Three Nobel Peace Prize winners yesterday urged fellow laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to speak out about the violence against the Rohingya minority, warning she otherwise risks prosecution for genocide.
The trio, Tawakkol Karman, Shirin Ebadi and Mairead Maguire implored the embattled Myanmar leader to wake up to the atrocities after visiting squalid camps in Bangladesh home to nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees.
"This is clearly, clearly, clearly genocide by the Burmese government and military against the Rohingya people," Maguire said Monday, using another name for Myanmar, as reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP). "We are against this genocide policy of the Burmese government. They will be taken to the [International Criminal Court] ICC and those who are committing genocide will be held responsible."
The U.N. has described the systematic violence by Myanmar against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state as possible genocide and ethnic cleansing but has stopped short of outright accusing the army of war crimes.
Suu Kyi, once a global rights icon, has watched her reputation among the international community crumble over her handling of the Rohingya crisis. Critics have called for the Nobel prize she won under house arrest in 1991 to be revoked.
Her fellow three female laureates issued a personal appeal to the beleaguered leader as they toured the overcrowded camps in Cox's Bazar district, hearing firsthand stories of rape and murder being committed against the Muslim minority.
Karman, a Yemeni rights activist, warned Suu Kyi that she risked being hauled to the ICC if she did not intervene. "If she will continue her silence, she will be one of them," said Karman, fighting back tears, after meeting Rohingya refugees. "It is an appeal to our sister Aung San Suu Kyi to wake up; otherwise, she will be betrayed [as] one of the perpetrators of this crime."
While Bangladesh and Myanmar talk of repatriating the refugees, the influx continues. Some days 200 people cross the border, while on others a few dozen make the perilous journey. So far in February, more than 2,500 have entered the overflowing camps in Bangladesh. But Rohingya leaders bluntly refuse to return. The U.N. says anyone who goes back must be a volunteer, while Myanmar shows no sign of accepting the Rohingya as full citizens.
At least 9,000 Rohingya were killed in Rakhine state from Aug. 25 to Sept. 24, according to Doctors without Borders. In a report last December, the global humanitarian group said the deaths of 71.7 percent or 6,700 Rohingya were caused by violence. They include 730 children below the age of 5.
The stateless Rohingya have been the target of communal violence and vicious anti-Muslim sentiment in mainly Buddhist Myanmar for years. Myanmar has denied citizenship to Rohingya since 1982 and excludes them from the 135 ethnic groups it officially recognizes, which effectively renders them stateless. They have long faced discrimination and persecution with many Buddhists in Myanmar calling them "Bengalis" and saying they migrated illegally from Bangladesh, even though they have lived in the country for generations.
Myanmar has staunchly denied the charges and blocked U.N. investigators from the conflict zone in Rakhine state, souring relations with a host of western allies.
Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have sought sanctuary in Cox's Bazar after fleeing a Myanmar army crackdown launched last August, sparking a humanitarian emergency in the Bangladesh border district.
Critics have accused Suu Kyi of adopting a siege mentality as global condemnation has mounted. Myanmar has signed an agreement with Bangladesh to repatriate some 750,000 refugees back across the border.
The process has stalled, as the U.N. warns any returns must be voluntary and rights groups warn Rohingya could be forced into ghettoes once in Myanmar.