Genocide Is on World Agenda Once Again

Once they were denied citizenship, it was easy to label them as Bengali refugees who had settled in Myanmar rather than people who had lived in the country for generations. And when persecution led to self-defense, demagoguery emerged and served as the excuse that the military was trying to quell an Islamic insurgency. The self-defense group created among the Rohingya was called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).

The Ottoman government used a relocation policy against the Armenians to reduce their population proportions vis-à-vis the Turks or Muslims in general, since they had aligned the Kurds to support them as fellow Muslims. Then, when out of desperation, the Armenians had to resort to acts of self-defense which played into the hands of the authorities, who would say they have to fight terrorism.

Today, the Kurds constitute almost 25 percent of the population in Turkey and their ethnic identity is under constant attack. And as the PKK (Kurdish Workers’ Party) fights for Kurdish human rights, they are labeled as terrorists and Europe and the US conveniently adopt the same policy against Kurdish rights.

The same scenario is unfolding in Myanmar. Besides one million deported refugees, about 392 villages are partially or totally razed in the northern Rakhine state. A total of 37,700 buildings are damaged. About 70 percent of the homes have been burned.

Despite the agreement worked out with Bangladesh, not a single Rohingya family has returned to Myanmar where the military government refuses to put in place security measures.

The UN report calls for six military officials to face trials for perpetrating genocide in Myanmar. It also condemns the country’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi for failing to stop the atrocities. For a long time, when she was under house arrest, she won the world’s sympathy as an icon of democracy, so much so that she received the Nobel Peace Prize. But today, she has remained silent about the elimination of a large chunk of the country’s population or even supported the actions of the military junta against the “terrorists.” Her case is very much like another ruler in Asia, Rachmawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of President Sukarno, who was deposed by General Suharto, perpetrator of the genocide of one million ethnic Chinese in Indonesia. Once she became president, she joined the military to persecute the ethnic minorities in the Aceh region and East Timor.

The military junta denies committing genocide and stands in defiance. To carry further that arrogance, the government this week jailed two journalists working for Reuters, Kyaw Soe Oo and Wa Lone, charging them with treason and betraying military secrets. In reality, they were documenting the systematic killings of Rohingyas by the military units.

This incident is exactly reminiscent of Erdogan jailing Turkish journalists who had documented Turkey’s secret arming of terrorist groups in Syria.

It was a courageous act by the UN to investigate the Rohingya case and come out with a clear message about holding the military leaders accountable. Yet, how to implement the recommendations remains challenging, first because it needs a vote at the UN Security Council, where veto-wielding China and Russia have been resisting any pressure on the Myanmar government. Even if a unanimous vote is taken, implementation remains questionable, as Myanmar is not a member of the International Criminal Court.

Genocide in any country against any ethnic group resonates in the hearts and minds of all Armenians and many have raised their voices and tried to help the victims. Fortunately, this time around, a meaningful outlet has been found to voice the sentiments of the Armenians. Indeed, the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative has announced that three international organizations — Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) and MERCY Malaysia — will share the $1 million grant of Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity given to 2018 Aurora Prize Laureate Kyaw Hla Aung, to help 375,000 Rohingya refugees.

The co-founder of the Aurora Prize, Dr. Vartan Gregorian, commented on the occasion: “We remember the horrors and violence experienced by Armenians, especially women and children, during the Genocide and we strongly believe that these humanitarian projects recommended by our latest laureate Kyaw Hla Aung will have a long-lasting positive impact for the Rohingya people in Myanmar and beyond.”

It could not have been said any better.