Advocacy for the restoration of Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratic government should become a focal point of the Biden administration’s Southeast Asian foreign policy agenda. If it does not, the U.S. becomes complicit in the demise of yet another potential democracy.
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The Rohingya population is an estimated one million in Myanmar, which has a majority Buddhist population. Although the Rohingya can trace their origins centuries back, the government denied the Rohingya legal recognition as one of the country’s official ethnic groups. In 1982, the country passed the Burma Citizenship Law, which essentially denied the Rohingya citizenship and left many stateless. The government of Myanmar sees the Rohingya as “illegal immigrants from Bangladesh,” says BBC News.
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Two soldiers who deserted the Myanmar army appeared on video testifying to the deliberate killings of Rohingya Muslims. The video was filmed in July, but first reported by AP in early September. According to Wall Street Journal, the soldiers, Myo Win Tun and Zaw Naing Tun, defected from Myanmar’s army and were taken into custody by Arakan Army, a Rakhine rebel group who is fighting the Myanmar government’s troops. The international community has been aware of the crimes being committed in Myanmar and assumed it was being ordered by high ranking officials but did not have official confirmation until this video surfaced.
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Once one of the least connected countries in the world, Myanmar was eager to catch up to the ever-connected, globalized world when it emerged from decades of military rule in 2011.
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