March 13, 2014 12:08 p.m. ET
Rangoon
Burma
has enjoyed a remarkable several years of economic and political
opening, but it is now also suffering a far darker development—serious
ethnic violence. Coordinated arson attacks and periodic massacres in the
remote Rakhine State have flattened entire villages and left hundreds
of Rohingya men, women and children dead since June 2012. More than
140,000 are relegated to miserable displacement camps and tens of
thousands have fled by sea.
Western
governments have spent the past two years trying to reconcile a brimming
optimism about political reforms with harsh realities on the ground.
Can the central government in Naypyidaw really be blamed for unrest in
far-flung Rakhine State? The latest developments suggest the answer is
yes and paint a dark picture of state-sponsored persecution.
My organization, Fortify Rights,
recently published leaked government documents revealing abusive
"population control" measures against Rohingya Muslims. This and other
evidence demonstrates that state and central government authorities are
responsible for denying Rohingya fundamental human rights by limiting
their freedom of movement, marriage and childbirth, among other aspects
of daily life, in northern Rakhine State.
These
findings support an already sizable body of evidence implicating
Burmese government officials. A 2005 order from local Rakhine State
authorities, for example, requires Rohingya "who have permission to
marry" to "limit the number of children, in order to control the birth
rate so that there is enough food and shelter." This order is imposed as
a strict two-child limit that also prohibits Rohingya from having
children out of wedlock. As a result, fearful Rohingya women have fled
the country and undergone illegal abortions that have resulted in severe
injury and even death.
The government's
implementation is as bad as its policies. An undated confidential
enforcement guideline on "Population-Control Record Keeping," which was
circulated as recently as 2008, urges authorities to force Rohingya
women to breastfeed infants in their presence "if there is suspicion of
someone being substituted" in the family registries.
Rohingya
couples in northern Rakhine State cannot live together unless they are
married, nor can they marry without permission, which can be difficult
to obtain.
For decades, as a matter of
state policy, menacing security forces in northern Rakhine State have
restricted freedom of movement between village tracts, townships and
beyond. This limits the Rohingya ability to work, access health care and
enjoy other basic rights. If Rohingya attempt to violate such policies,
they risk years in prison, fines or both.
These
abuses are supported and implemented by the highest levels of Burmese
officialdom—by the same reformers that Western governments and investors
are lauding as the hope for a better Burma. The minister of home
affairs in July 2012 told parliament that authorities were tightening
regulations against Rohingya "in order to handle travelling, birth,
death, immigration, migration, marriage, construction of new religious
buildings, repairing and land ownership and right to construct
building[s]."
Other military and
civilian officials are on record discussing restrictions against
Rohingya as recently as last year. State-level policies (dating from
1993 to 2008) are signed by various officials and copied to departments
that fall under state and central government jurisdictions. All of the
policies remain in force today.
Meantime
the government refuses to respond credibly to these revelations.
Recently it expelled Doctors Without Borders (known by its French
acronym, MSF) from Rakhine State. The Nobel Prize-winning organization
provides life-saving health aid to tens of thousands of people in
Rakhine, and the neediest recipients are Rohingya Muslims. The
government claims that MSF wasn't transparent in its work. It also
faults the organization for hiring "Bengalis"—a pejorative reference to
Rohingya that implies that they are foreigners from Bangladesh.
The
expulsion of MSF can only be interpreted as the latest act of state
persecution against the embattled Rohingya. For some it will be a death
sentence, and it has removed hundreds of humanitarian eyes from remote
corners of Rakhine State—a truly frightening notion.
At
the root of this tragedy is Rohingya statelessness. Of the more than
1.33 million Rohingya in Burma, all but 40,000 are stateless because of
the country's 1982 Citizenship Law, which provides full citizenship only
to certain groups that can demonstrate that they lived in Burma before
the beginning of British colonial rule in 1823. All levels of government
routinely refer to Rohingya as "illegal" intruders from Bangladesh,
even though they have lived in Burma for hundreds of years.
If
the international community and the government of Burma want to
stabilize Rakhine State and prevent future outbursts of ethno-religious
violence, they must end abusive state practices against Rohingya. The
government of Burma should provide unfettered humanitarian access in
Rakhine State, and foreign governments should press for an independent
investigation into human rights abuses there.
These abuses pose an existential threat both to the Rohingya and to the delicate democratic transition now underway in Burma.
Mr.
Smith is executive director of Fortify Rights and author of the
organization's report "Policies of Persecution: Ending Abusive State
Policies Against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar." He is on Twitter
@matthewfsmith.
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