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Why Myanmar's Junta Might Give Brief Reprieve to Embattled Muslim Minority

Ralph Jennings

   TAIPEI - Myanmar's military government, seen as the chief force behind
   previous long-term violence againstthe RohingyaMuslim minority, is
   leaving the population alone for now as it battles
   protesters.Butanalysts say the junta isexpected to resume the old
   crackdown over time.

   The juntaseizedpowerin aFebruary coupfrom a civilian governmentand has
   beenfocused onquelling protesters, rather thanthe Rohingya minority
   that lives in a western region of Myanmar and continues to push for
   civil rights.At least 11 protesters were killed on Monday and 57 over
   the weekend in the bloodiest period since the military coup last month,
   the United Nations says on its website.

   "The Tatmadaw is not going to change its policy toward the Rohingyas,"
   said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, political science professor at
   Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. "Tatmadaw" refers to the armed
   forces in the Myanmar language.

   "Right now, it's just preoccupied," he said. "I think it has been
   consumed by other crises and it's actually facing a nationwide revolt
   against the coup, so I think the Rohingya issue now is on the back
   burner." The protests could turn into a "prolonged crisis", he added.

   Myanmar officials had targeted the Rohingyas in a "systematic" way, the
   U.N. International Court of Justice said last year. It said "genocidal
   acts" including mass murder, rape and setting fires were intended to
   wipe out the group and cited a hardening crackdown since August 2017.

   Civilian governments ran Myanmar from 2011 through this past January,
   but the military still held sway in national affairs. The Rohingya
   issue tainted the international reputation of Aung San Suu Kyi, a
   one-time opposition figure and the de facto head of state from 2016
   through February. She was detained after the coup.
   Rohingya refugees walk with their belongings to board a naval vessel to
   be relocated to to the island of Bhasan Char, in Chattogram,
   Bangladesh, Jan. 30, 2021.

   An estimated 400,000 to 600,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar today.
   Conflicts with the government have left them without access to
   healthcare, education anda viable market for commercial tradeplaces,
   said Tun Khin, president of the advocacy group Burmese Rohingya
   Organization UK. Roughlyonemillion Rohingyas who have fled to camps in
   Bangladesh live there now in poverty.

   Myanmar, also known as Burma, hasa long history of strifewiththe Muslim
   Rohingyadating back tothealliance between theRohingyaandMyanmar's
   former colonizer,Britain, whofought together against a local Buddhist
   group. After Myanmar became independent in 1948, the government of the
   largely Buddhist country denied the Rohingya people citizenship.The
   Military led Myanmar from 1962 to 2011.

   Junta lobbyist Ari Ben-Menashe said Myanmar's generals want to
   repatriate Rohingyas who have fled to neighboring Bangladesh, Reuters
   reported on March 7.

   The military government showed a further relaxing toward old rivals on
   March 11 byremoving a rebel group, the Arakan Army, from a formal list
   of terrorist organizations.The group had quit its attacks to seek
   peace, the state-runMirror Dailysaid as cited in foreign media outlets.

   "Most people outside (the country) don't realize how serious it is --
   they're all fixated on this Rohingya issue," Priscilla Clapp, former
   permanent charged'affairesat the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar,told VOA in
   June.

   Fighting with the Arakan Army in Rakhine state had added a threat to
   the Rohingya's troubles. The state is a major base for Rohingya who
   remain in the country.

   Today's government envisions building "nationwide eternal peace",
   theMirror Dailyreport said.

   In January last year,the International Court of Justice ordered Myanmar
   to "take all measures within its power" to prevent any acts of genocide
   against the Rohingya people.

   But Tun Khin said he's "worried" that the military government will
   eventually try to eliminate all Rohingyas in the country. He estimates
   82% of the population has already fled Myanmar.

   "I don't trust this military, because this is the military that
   architected the genocide of Rohingyas for so long," he said.

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