(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The spotlight on Myanmar is development-centric. But the donors who are funnelling in big bucks are doing it as a terrific cost. They are ignoring the gross human rights violations against Muslim Rohingya minority.
The conflict between Rohingyas and Buddhists in Rakhine state has already claimed hundreds of lives and forced more than 100,000 from their homes in the last few months. The plight of Muslims is already being dubbed as the worst dispossessed minority in the world, and surprisingly there are not many takers in the Western world.
The European Commission chief Jose Manuel, who offered more than $100 million in aid on Saturday in the capital of Nay Pyi Taw, wasn't bothered to ask a question or two on the affairs of the sizzling minority. This is the same West that makes a hue and cry of such issues if they happen to be in countries that fall in their profile of irked ones. But what is more disappointing is the fact the Nobel Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, also preferred to keep mum over such a sensitive issue of human rights, which has attracted international concern and condemnation. By saying that she would not be drawn on the plight of Burma's minority group, she has committed a sheer injustice to a cause that should, otherwise, have been close to her heart. However, Suu Kyi has been committal to an extent by urging upon the military junta to look into the impugned law that excludes Rohingyas from the right to citizenship. According to estimates, more than 800,000 Rohingyas are living a miserable life in Myanmar - and that too in a stateless capacity. Human rights campaigners around the world and the custodians of democratic principles cannot afford to ignore such a sizeable community behind the fortresses of military might in the Southeast Asian country.
The World Bank, the European Central Bank and the United States that are at the vanguard of rebuilding Myanmar, and look forward to deal with an organic democratic dispensation, cannot look the other way around as excesses are reported against Rohingyas. Burma, which is widely being regarded as the next emerging market miracle in the region, cannot pride with gangrene in its body-politik. This odd equation is in need of being addressed to avoid an uncertain future.
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