Nicholas Kristof's article on Rohingyas of Myanmar
Nicholas Kristof has
written an article in the New York Times on the failure of the world leaders
like Suu Kyi and Obama to bring about a change in the fate of Rohingyas of
Myanmar, who continue to remain the most persecuted people of our time.
In his article, Kristof
writes, "SOON the world will witness a remarkable sight: a beloved Nobel Peace Prize
winner presiding over 21st-century concentration camps. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, one of the world’s
genuine heroes, won democracy for her country, culminating in historic elections in
November that her party won in a landslide. As winner, Aung San Suu Kyi is also
inheriting the worst ethnic cleansing you’ve never heard of, Myanmar’s destruction of a Muslim minority
called the Rohingya.
A recent Yale study suggested
that the abuse of the more than one million Rohingya may amount to genocide; at
the least, a confidential United Nations report to the Security
Council says it may constitute “crimes against humanity under international
criminal law.”
Yet
Aung San Suu Kyi seems to plan to continue this Myanmar version of apartheid. She
is now a politician, and oppressing a minority like the Rohingya is popular
with mostly Buddhist voters."
As
such, Aung San Suu Kyi remains silent rather than denouncing them at every
turn. "But for those of us who have deeply admired her for years, her
willingness to sacrifice principle for political expedience is wrenching to
watch. Defenders of Myanmar
and of Aung San Suu Kyi note that the country has many problems; they see the
Rohingya as one misfortune in a nation with a vast swath of misfortunes. The
priorities, as they see them, are economic development, democracy and an end to
the country’s many local conflicts, and they protest that it’s myopic to focus
on the problems of one ethnic group in a nation so full of challenges.
Yet
to me, there is something particularly horrifying about a government
deliberately targeting an ethnic group for destruction, locking its members in
concentration camps and denying them livelihood, education and health care.
When kids are dying in concentration camps, after being confined there because
of their ethnicity, that’s not just one more problem of global poverty. It’s a
crime against humanity, and addressing it is the responsibility of all
humanity," Kristof notes.
Kristof is right. I, too, have been
disappointed with Suu Kyi's criminal silence. How long shall we wait for
stopping this genocide of the Rohingya people?
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