The refugee blame game

The refugee blame game

In the South, a human drama is unfolding, around the flight of thousands of Rohingya from Myanmar. The past week has seen a surge of people coming into Thailand. The government is concerned, the military is angry, security officials have been diverted from their jobs. Now the United Nations is involved, and authorities will attempt to split hairs over whether the victims of this tragedy are migrants or refugees.

During the past week, when security forces in the South rounded up nearly 1,000 Rohingya, the problem became more clear. An organised effort at people-smuggling is under way, centred in Thailand but extending to neighbouring countries. The smugglers are almost without pity. They see the Rohingya strictly as a way to make illegal, immoral money. The human smuggling probably reaches into local or national politics in Thailand and nearby countries.

But amidst the problems, security threats, tangled diplomacy and human tragedy, one point is missed. The reason the Rohingya are fleeing is because their government cannot protect them. Indeed, the Myanmar authorities do not recognise that the Rohingya have even basic rights. By all accounts, the army and police of Myanmar treat the Rohingya shabbily at best, and often use violence against them.

Myanmar's new democracy has discovered the sad truth of tyrannical governments before it _ make life unpleasant enough for a sector of the population and people will flee. Then, the government causing the exodus can put blame and responsibility on the countries receiving its own unwanted people.

In 1978, the victorious communist government in Vietnam began a severe, punishing harassment campaign against ethnic Chinese and other "undesirables". The result was the largest boat-people exodus ever known, leaving tens of thousands of helpless refugees stranded on shores in Thailand and throughout the region. In 1980, Cuba told its prison population it was free to leave, causing another huge boat exodus, this time to the United States. Dozens of similar campaigns by oppressive governments have caused millions of refugees over the past century.

In such cases, the countries receiving the unwanted migrants shoulder most of the burden. Civilised and ethical standards require Thailand to provide basic living conditions to those without a home _ more than a million Indochinese and Burmese in the 1980s, and now the Rohingya. It is heartening to see a rare, concerted aid effort by Thai Muslims, led by the Chularatchamontri Aziz Pitakkumpon, a native of the South. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and the government have committed the country, correctly, to guarantee to care for these helpless victims of their own government's cruelty.

The government of President Thein Sein has won many friends and much praise for its reform efforts. But two huge deficiencies stand out. The first is its failure to face and take down drug cartels and big-time traffickers. The other is its abysmal treatment of minority groups _ especially the Rohingya.

Supreme Commander Gen Tanasak Patimapakorn rightly criticised the international community for wringing its hands instead of taking strong action on the issue of Rohingya migrants. But Myanmar's neighbours, especially Asean members, have failed too often to point out that country's terrible, harmful shortcomings. Many policies and countries share the shame for the plight of the Rohingya, but none as much as Myanmar.

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