TheJakartaPost
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Collective responsibility ‘absent’ in ASEAN’s Rakhine effort
Indonesia's new representative to AICHR - ASEAN's human rights body - calls for unity in addressing the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar.
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Myanmar’s Buddhist monks march along a street during a demonstration against the planned repatriation of Rohingya Muslims from Bangladesh, in the Rakhine state capital Sittwe, on Sunday. (AFP/-)
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SEAN member states should “demonstrate political will” to collectively tackle the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar, Indonesia’s regional human rights representative told The Jakarta Post, just as the bloc’s disaster response agency sought access to Rakhine state amid renewed conflict between security forces and armed rebels.
The newly appointed Indonesia representative to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), Yuyun Wahyuningrum, views that ASEAN countries have so far not shown any collective responsibility in discussions on the Rakhine issue, a point she made after a briefing she gave to human rights stakeholders in Jakarta earlier this week.
"ASEAN always says 'we are a family', but being part of a family means having to share responsibilities,” Yuyun said in an interview at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on Wednesday. “At the moment, I don’t see any division of responsibilities raised in ASEAN discussions on the Rakhine issue.”
She said the way ASEAN was addressing the plight of Rohingya Muslim refugees was different from the handling of Indochina refugees in the 1970s and 1980s, when a large wave of Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees sought asylum in neighboring countries.
At the time, countries like Indonesia and the Philippines took on the responsibility of taking in refugees, demonstrating “more spirit of togetherness and cooperation”, Yuyun noted.
According to the United Nations, Over the next 25 years and out of a total Indochinese population in 1975 of 56 million, more than 3 million people would undertake the dangerous journey to become refugees in other countries of Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, or China.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of members of Myanmar's Rohingya community have left their homes in Rakhine over the decades, most fleeing military crackdowns and discrimination.
