Myanmar I May 2017
peace process. Indeed, the country’s largest and most power-
ful ethnic armed force, the United Wa State Army, walked out
on the first day.
In the northern Shan and Kachin states fighting rages between
former ethnic allies, as well as against the Tatmadaw (Myan-
mar Armed Forces) and has displaced thousands of civilians.
For the one million-plus Muslim Rohingya minority in north-
west Rakhine State, who are mainly stateless, initial hopes
that an NLD administration would improve human rights vio-
lations and movement restrictions were quashed when party
chiefs stated that the Rohingya were “not a priority”.
The surprise announcement in September that former UN
secretary-general Kofi Annan would head a new independent
Rakhine Advisory Commission was seen by some that maybe
the new democracy was starting to bring dividends.
More cynical observers linked the sudden move to address
what had become a matter of international concern with Suu
Kyi’s trip to Washington DC, days later.
There she was to successfully persuade US president Ba-
rack Obama to lift the last remaining sanctions on Myanmar.
On the run
In October, the military responded to a series of deadly armed
raids on border police posts in northern Rakhine, believed to
be carried out by Rohingya insurgents.
Aid organisations and foreign journalists were denied ac-
cess, but unverifiable reports emerged, of summary execu-
tions, rapes and the burning of properties by the military. The
president’s office issued denials that any atrocities were taking
place and Suu Kyi was noticeably silent.
As evidence mounts of the scale of abuses occurring in
northern Rakhine, there have been protests in neighbour-
ing countries. A senior UN representative in Bangladesh,
where hundreds of Rohingya have fled, said that the violence
amounted to ethnic cleansing.
In response to international pressure, Suu Kyi has an-
nounced an inquiry headed by vice president Myint Swe, a
military man close to the country’s most powerful generals,
who gained notoriety for his role in the brutal crackdown on
protesting monks during the 2007 Saffron uprising.
His ability to produce a credible, impartial report has been
challenged.
With violence in ethnic minority areas at its worst since
reforms began in 2012 hopes are floundering that Suu Kyi has
the power or even the desire to bring change.
50
.isms I May 2017
Monks in revolt
Monks demonstrating on the streets of Yangon.
.isms I May 2017
52