Editorial: For Suu Kyi, it’s time to speak up

A genocidal disaster is being unmasked in Burma before the face of an international community that incredibly seems unwilling to intervene. Tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled ethnic violence in the northwest of the country, in which hundreds have died.
To add to the mounting death toll as Rakhine Buddhists rampage through Rohingya communities, comes the tragic news that at least 120 people, including women and children, drowned Wednesday when the flimsy boat in which they were fleeing, sank in the Bay of Bengal.
What is anyone doing to stem this vicious tide by local Buddhists, who have long persecuted the Rohingyas? Since accusations this summer, that a Buddhist girl was raped by Muslims, the violence has increased to the extent, that it now appears to be planned and organized by powerful landowners and community leaders. The local police and courts seem unprepared to intervene and investigate. Rohingya demonstrations protesting the innocence of the men accused of rape and demanding a proper inquiry, resulted in many of the demonstrators being arrested. They were mistreated in police cells, where some of them remain detained, without being charged with any crime or brought before the courts.
If the local authorities in the state capital Sittwe, will not intervene, then it is up to the central government. Since Monday, a curfew has been imposed by army units on areas where there has been most trouble. There were yesterday, however, unconfirmed reports that while members of the Rohingya minority were being confined to their homes, many of the local Buddhists were moving around unhindered by the security forces.
Burmese President Thein Sein has acknowledged the extensive persecution of the Muslims, and said that he had ordered security to be tightened. Yet it can be argued that this move is far too little, far too late. It was clear four months ago that a very dangerous situation was building up. Whether or not a Buddhist girl was raped, quickly became less important than the excuse the alleged crime gave to the Rakhine community to turn on the Muslims. Yet the president did nothing to head off the gathering storm. There was no attempt to order a thorough investigation of the rape allegations, nor to ensure that the accused men were treated properly. Now was there any initiative to speak to the community leaders on both sides, to counsel them to urge calm on their communities.
Indeed looking back over the last four months, at best the president has been guilty of poor judgment, at worst his lack of firm interventions has been deliberately calculated to allow the Buddhist community free rein against their Muslim neighbors. In August, Thein Sein set up a commission to look into the violence, a step that would have been unnecessary had his administration taken firm action, as soon as the risk of renewed ethnic conflict was recognized.
The response of the international community has been hardly less blameworthy. The United Nations has only recently warned that the massacres and oppression of the country’s Muslims, could jeopardize Burma’s political reform program.
Even though international businesses are starting to flow back into the country — the accountants KPMG were this week the latest big name to reopen operations in Rangoon — neither the economic rehabilitation nor the political reforms, can as yet be regarded as a done deal. The junta of generals that once openly ran the country, has not departed the political scene entirely. They still have the capacity to take back full power from Thein Sein, the man they appointed.
However, could the generals expect to cope with the towering figure of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has joined Nelson Mandela in the minds of many in the international community, as a living political saint? Possibly not. But then, where in the horrors of the massacre of Muslims, has the Buddhist Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi been? For sure she has deplored the violence and called on the Rakhine to stop their murderous attacks. But where has been the decisive intervention, in which she uses her political standing, to demand the Rakhine cease their killing or face the consequences ?
Her supporters might argue that she has not done so, because she is not yet leader of a freely elected Burmese government. This however is not good enough. Burma’s Muslims cannot carry on dying until Aung San Suu Kyi takes full political power. They need the Nobel Peace Laureate’s help right now, and she should be using her considerable moral authority to provide it.