INTERVIEW: ‘Creative solutions’ needed to aid Rohingyas within embattled Myanmar
2024.08.22
Beth Van Schaack, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice, speaks during an interview on Aug. 21, 2024.The U.S. and other countries are in need of “creative solutions” to assist tens of thousands of Muslim Rohingyas displaced by conflict in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where the ruling junta has restricted access to aid providers, according to a State Department envoy who monitors international crime.
In the meantime, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack told RFA Burmese, Washington is working with authorities in neighboring Bangladesh to support the nearly 1 million Rohingyas sheltering across the border at camps in Cox’s Bazar and helping to document persecution of the group for potential referral to international criminal courts.
“Providing humanitarian assistance inside Myanmar is much more of a challenge,” said Van Schaack. “We don't necessarily have access to cross border points where that assistance can come in, so it's just much more difficult to do that work. But I want to acknowledge how dire the situation is, and we need to look for creative solutions.”
Van Schaack spoke to RFA as Rohingyas marked the seventh anniversary of a 2017 military crackdown on Rohingya militants in Rakhine state that triggered an exodus of some 740,000 people to Bangladesh.
Since then, the number of displaced Rohingyas in camps across the border has swelled to nearly 1 million, by United Nations estimates, with more attempting to cross daily. The group has found itself caught in the crossfire between the junta, which seized power in a 2021 coup d’etat and the ethnic Arakan Army, or AA, which is fighting for self-determination in Rakhine state.
Both sides have been accused of killing Rohingya, with the AA fighters blamed for attacking people accused of supporting junta forces.
On Aug. 5, dozens of Rohingya people were killed by fire from heavy weapons as they waited for boats to cross to Bangladesh, survivors told Radio Free Asia. Some survivors said the AA was responsible though the insurgents denied that.
Civilian minorities ‘ultimate sufferers’ in conflict
Van Schaack categorized the need for assistance for the Rohingya community within Myanmar as “enormous,” but said that with junta restrictions to access and the chaotic nature of the civil war, delivering it is impossible.
“There are a number of different groups that are ascendant, and they're having conversations amongst themselves about what a future, inclusive, democratic Myanmar looks like,” she said. “But because that's the case, we can't. There's only so much we can do with respect to the territory.”
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The Ambassador-at-Large said that with a new government in place in Bangladesh, after student-led protests earlier this month turned deadly and touched off a mass movement that forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign, the hope is that the U.S. can provide greater humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar, with the goal of allowing them to return home to Myanmar.
“But they cannot do so until it is safe, until they are returning home voluntarily and until there is a sustainable plan for them to restart their lives in their ancestral homelands,” she said.
Amid the fighting in Rakhine state, it’s difficult to determine the extent of the crimes against Rohingyas, Van Schaak said.
“We do know that atrocities are being committed and that because the violence has risen, it's inevitably the civilian population – civilian communities of multiple ethnic groups – that are the ultimate sufferers of this situation,” she said.
“So we have called upon the parties to commit to more comprehensive efforts at a ceasefire,” she said. “But this government is unwilling to relinquish power at this point, and so we see these continual acts of violence and atrocities.”
‘Pages and pages of documentation’
Van Schaak said that in addition to providing humanitarian assistance to Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar and other areas where they have sought refuge, the U.S. government is also helping to bring justice to their community, by conducting investigations and operating as a clearinghouse of evidence for courts around the world to bring cases.
In August 2022, the U.S. State Department determined that members of the Burmese military committed genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya during the crackdown in 2017, but information gathering is still underway to classify the latest crimes against the ethnic minority.
She acknowledged that even with clear evidence to proceed to trial, some courts, like the International Criminal Court in The Hague, can do little more than issue an arrest warrant without the perpetrator in custody. So while senior members of the junta remain within Myanmar, it will be difficult for those cases to proceed.
“But those prosecutors and investigators are ready – they have dossiers on responsible individuals, they have pages and pages of documentation ... [not only] with respect to the genocide against the Rohingya, but also crimes committed since the since the coup in 2021,” she said.
While the conflict in Myanmar continues, Van Schaak urged ethnic armies such as the AA to “distinguish themselves from the Tatmadaw,” using the official name for the country’s military, which “throughout its history has been characterized by violence, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.”
“The ethnic armed groups, if they want to build legitimacy in the eyes of the international community, if they want to be a part of the solution, they need to strictly adhere to the laws of war,” she said.
“Treat civilian communities with respect and dignity, treat individuals in their custody humanely – even members of the Tatmadaw – and ultimately, work towards a democratic future for Myanmar.”
Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
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