Dear\u00a0International Crisis Group President\u00a0Louise Arbour,<\/p>\n
I am writing to bring your attention to the rather disturbing recent developments in Burma.<\/p>\n
Within 24 hours of your organisation\u2019s \u201cIn Pursuit of Peace\u201d dinner in New York, Burma\u2019s Minister of Immigration and former Chief of Police Khin Yi, who was part of the delegation accepting the award on behalf of President Thein Sein, reportedly reiterated the Thein Sein Administration\u2019s neo-fascist stance on the highly controversial 1982 Citizenship Act.<\/p>\n
In response to a question posed by Khaing Aung Gyaw, a\u00a0Rakhine nationalist, during his public meeting with Burmese exiles in New York City this week, Khin Yi emphatically stated that Burma\u2019s citizenship law is \u201csolely based on blood\u201d and no foreigners or \u201cforeign blood\u201d officially resided in Burma before the first Anglo-Burmese war in 1824.<\/p>\n
Khin Yi was emphatic when he said Thein Sein\u2019s government will never alter \u201ca single word, sentence or paragraph of this blood-based citizenship law\u201d as it was written by lawmakers who allegedly had Burma\u2019s \u201cnational security\u201d and \u201cnational interest\u201d in mind. The notions of \u2018racial purity\u2019 and \u2018blood\u2019 as a basis for citizenship belong to 1930s Nazi Germany and we know where these ideas led to \u2013 a series of pogroms.<\/p>\n
Against this historical backdrop, the ICG\u2019s peace award recipient, President Thein Sein, should\u00a0be held accountable for the views and words articulated by one of the key members of his cabinet.Indeed, both the timing of Khin Yi\u2019s public remarks and the defence of the blood-based foundation of Burma\u2019s 1982 Citizenship Act raise serious issues as to where the ICG stands concerning the policies of the Burmese leadership.<\/p>\n
If the ICG\u2019s award is about honouring President Thein Sein\u2019s \u201cvisionary leadership to effect profound social, economic and political changes\u201d that will \u201cbring us closer to a world free of conflict\u201d then the organisation\u2019s empirical understanding of both Thein Sein\u2019s vision and the ugly realities experienced by the Burmese people, including the Rohingya, can only be characterised as delusional. This is to say, the ICG\u2019s understanding of the country as reflected in its Burma analyses and the laudatory citation of Thein Sein\u2019s vision seem to be devoid of verifiable and factual truths.<\/p>\n
On the question of the estimated 800,000 Rohingya, whose ethnic identity was officially recognised by the first independent Burmese government under PM U Nu in the 1950s, the ICG\u2019s man of peace was reportedly in favour of both establishing an apartheid state in Western Burma and expelling the entire lot en masse. He reportedly offered these two policy options to the visiting head of the UNHCR,\u00a0Antonio Guterres,\u00a0last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n On the same day your organisation was hosting a black-tie dinner in honour of Burma\u2019s president, New York-based Human Rights Watch released an empirically grounded report about the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in June and October last year.<\/p>\n State security apparatuses \u2013 from local police, inter-agency border patrols, the army and the navy \u2013 helped target Rohingya Muslims during the two bouts of violence, according to the report. As President Thein Sein presides over the country\u2019s most powerful coordinating body, the National Security and Defense Council, the buck stops at his desk.<\/p>\n How could the ICG reconcile its official commendatory words about Thein Sein\u2019s \u201cefforts to bring us closer to a world free of conflict\u201d when the Muslim Rohingya, Christian Kachins, who have been victims of a military onslaught for nearly two years in northern Burma, and the Buddhist Burmese farming communities in the resource-rich central Dry Zone are being subject to severe repression by Burmese state security organisations?<\/p>\n Do you really believe these conflicts are \u201ca paradox of transitions that greater freedom does allow these local conflicts to resurface\u201d, as\u00a0the ICG\u2019s Southeast Asia project director\u00a0Jim Della<\/b>–Giacoma<\/b><\/a>\u00a0said during an interview with the Associated Press on March 25 this year, just three days after an\u00a0organised campaign of violence<\/a>\u00a0targeting Muslims erupted in Meikhtila and 15 other towns and locations across Burma?<\/p>\n If the ICG\u2019s relevant experts on Burma and international conflicts take even a cursory glance at the existing scholarship on the subject of ethnic cleansing they would realise societal transitions are not necessarily accompanied with ethnic cleansing or mass atrocities. There are myriad factors that account for ethnic cleansing in societies under both democratic and undemocratic regimes. One alternative explanation is that the pogroms are a result of sinister political calculations created by the transitional government.<\/p>\n Curiously, your Burma experts have dismissed this distinct possibility with ample corroborating evidence. Perhaps, they were trying to save the ICG from international humiliation? In contrast, HRW\u2019s report sheds light on the state\u2019s direct and indirect involvement in ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in western Burma last year. As Burma\u2019s head of state, shouldn\u2019t your peace award recipient be held accountable for the mass atrocities committed under his watch?<\/p>\n In fact, the ICG\u2019s explanation that the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya and atrocities against the Burmese Muslims are, unfortunately, the price Burma is paying for greater freedoms is as fantastical and credible as the immigration policies of the Thein Sein regime.<\/p>\n If you and your organisation\u2019s strategic goal in analytically glossing over the dark side of Burma\u2019s realities, as evidenced in just about every single\u00a0ICG Burma report<\/a>,\u00a0is to provide the generals and ex-generals with \u2018positive reinforcement\u2019, do you think your strategy is prodding President Thein Sein\u2019s government and its military in the right direction?<\/p>\n Judging by the fact that one of the Burmese guests of honour, Immigration Minister Khin Yi, was emphatically espousing Thein Sein government\u2019s \u2018solely blood-based\u2019 line on Burmese citizenship in New York within 24 hours of his attendance at your \u201cIn Pursuit of Peace\u201d gala dinner, the ICG\u2019s strategy doesn\u2019t seem to be positively affecting the character of Thein Sein\u2019s government.<\/p>\n I hope to hear from you at your convenience.<\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/p>\n Zarni Dr. Maung Zarni is a <\/em>member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment<\/i>, founder and director of the Free Burma Coalition (1995-2004), and a visiting fellow (2011-13) at the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, Department of International Development, London School of Economics. His forthcoming book on Burma will be published by Yale University Press.<\/em> He was educated in the US where he lived and worked for 17 years. Visit his website www.maungzarni.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n
\nVisiting Fellow
\nCivil Society and Human Security Research Unit
\nLondon School of Economics
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