US position on Rohingyas
We are glad that the US has moved beyond "voicing" its concern on the persecution of the Rohingyas by Myanmar to something relatively more substantive. It has realised that the situation, which has been described as a "typical textbook ethnic cleansing" by the UN, merits dispatch of a senior-level state department official to that country.
Given the impunity with which the military junta in Myanmar has been perpetrating violence on this helpless ethnic minority, the international community must bring to bear the severest pressure on Myanmar to stop it forthwith. And in this regard, we feel that the US has an important role to play. It cannot escape notice that there is a direct correlation between the spike in the intensity of state-perpetrated violence on the Rohingyas and the lifting of US sanctions on Myanmar. It is thus our expectation that the US would use its multi-dimensional leverage on Myanmar to stop the violence.
The shift, albeit very minor, is an acknowledgement by the US administration of the ground reality in the State of Rakhine, and, according to a state department spokesperson, the message sent by the move is "a tough one". However, we deem it not quite the tough message that ought to be sent to the virtual rulers of Myanmar: the military.
What is equally important is to compel the Myanmar authorities to remove the fundamental cause of the unrest in Rakhine; that only can ensure a permanent peace in that region. The government must recant its position on the status of the Rohingyas, who must be accorded the full citizenship rights. Myanmar's position on this issue is a denial of history and unless that is rectified there cannot be permanent peace in that region.
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