We, the undersigned civil society organisations, people’s organisations and individuals, affirm our belief in peoples’ right to self-identification, and the primacy of dialogue and a politically-negotiated settlement in transforming conflicts.
We express our deep anguish and concern with the latest escalation of violence in Rakhine State, Burma/Myanmar, and the attacks against unarmed civilians. We condemn the targeting of civilians of any ethnicity and religion, by any armed group, for any reason. This latest wave of conflict, which has festered for decades and been perpetrated by the Burma/Myanmar military (Tatmadaw) on the Rohingya population, was lately spawned by the Tatmadaw’s heavy-handed response to a recent attack by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on border guard and police outposts. The aftermath of the ferocious Myanmar/Burma military action has led to hundreds of innocent civilian people being killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. Over 600,000 civilians from northern Rakhine State, mostly members of the Rohingya community, have been forced to flee their homes. We are particularly concerned about the “clearance operations” conducted by the Burma/Myanmar military, during which various independent reports have documented systematic burning of Rohingya villages, sexual violence against Rohingya women, and opening fire on unarmed civilians.
The conflict’s impact on the civilian population has been multiplied by restrictions on humanitarian access to vulnerable communities. In 25 August 2017, humanitarian agencies were forced to suspend all operations in northern Rakhine State, including provision of aid to internally displaced persons (IDPs) and other vulnerable populations due to several factors including the security situation on the ground, government field-visit restrictions and protests by ethnic Rakhine against international aid. While some aid workers have reportedly been allowed access to Rakhine, the overall approval process remains cumbersome. Myanmar media and government-linked social media accounts have contributed to a strong anti-international sentiment in the country fanned by circulation of falsified information including information linking humanitarian agencies and the ARSA. Myanmar nationalists, including those within the government and military as well as those in the host countries in Southeast and South Asia, have also contributed to an atmosphere of fear and hatred through hate speech, propaganda and inflammatory remarks that dehumanize the Rohingya and increase support for the military’s response.
We believe that aside from the immediate end in hostilities and emergency humanitarian response, we must address the root causes of the issue and bring into focus the structural-legal discrimination against the Rohingya people. We must also situate the recent violence and abuses within the overall and long-standing patterns of human rights violations against ethnic civilians by the Burma/Myanmar military in other conflict areas in Myanmar that includes – but not limited to – northern Shan and Kachin States. Impunity for abuses against civilians during decades of conflict with ethnic armed organizations has encouraged the Burma/Myanmar military to apply the same tactics in Rakhine State.
There will be no end to the cycles of conflict and displacement in Rakhine State without addressing the main drivers and the roots of this conflict.
Thus, the below signatories call on the:
Burma/Myanmar Military to:
Burma/Myanmar Civilian Government to:
Civil Society in Burma/Myanmar to:
International/regional intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to:
The Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) and its members states to:
Initial Signatories:
Organisations
1. Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC)
2. Solidarity for ASEAN Peoples’ Advocacies (SAPA)
3. Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID) / GPPAC Southeast Asia, Philippines
4. Progressive Voice (PV)-Myanmar/Burma
5. SUARAM-Malaysia
6. Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
7. Working Group for Peace (WGP), Cambodia
8. Alliance for Conflict Transformation (ACT), Cambodia
9. Cambodia Civil Society Working on Asian (CCWA)
10. Cambodian Civil Society Partnership (CCSP)
11. IM Centre for Dialogue and Peace-Indonesia
12. Institut Titian Perdamaian (Peace Building Institute) (ITP), Indonesia
13. People’s Empowerment Foundation, Thailand
14. Southeast Asian Conflict Studies Network (SEACSN)
15. ASEAN SOGIE Caucus
16. Think Centre, Singapore
17. SAMIN, Indonesia
18. Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN)
19. Center for Peace Education-Miriam College (CPE), Philippines
20. Acehnese Civil Society Task Force (ACSTF), Indonesia
21. Asia Democracy Network (ADN)
22. ALTSEAN-Burma
23. International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), Indonesia
24. Pusat KOMAS, Malaysia
25. Islamic Renaissance Front, Malaysia
26. MARUAH, Singapore
27. Vietnamese Women for Human Rights (VNWHR)
28. Arakan Watch
29. Rohingya Arakanese Refugee Committee (RARC), Malaysia
30. Rohingya Youth Development Forum (RYFF), Arakan-Burma
31. Rohingya Academy
32. Destination Justice, Cambodia
33. Coalition for Integrity and Social Accountability, Cambodia
34. Cambodian Youth Network (CYN), Cambodia
35. Centre for Development Resources
36. KontraS, Indonesia
37. Swedish Burma Committee (SBC)
38. GZO Peace Institute, Philippines
39. Burmese Relief Center, Japan
40. Free Burma Campaign, South Africa
41. Info Birmanie, France
42. International Campaign for the Rohingya
43. Karen Community of Canada
44. Rhiza Collective
45. The Arakan Project
46. Coalition of Cambodia Farmer Community
47. Vietnam Committee on Human Rights
48. Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organization Malaysia (MERHROM), Malaysia
49. Empowering Singaporeans, Singapore
50. ReturnOurCPF, Singapore
51. Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (APR2P)
52. Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP)
53. Women Health, Philippines
54. Migrants Rights Council, India
55. Pambansang Koalisyon ng Kababaihan sa Kanayunan (PKKK/NRWC), Philippines
56. Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA), Philippines
57. RIGHTS Network, Philippines
58. Vietnam Coalition Against Torture
59. Buhay Na May Dignidad Para Sa Lahat (DIGNIDAD)/Life of Dignity For All, Philippines
60. Action Aid International
61. Network for Transformative Social Protection (NTSP)
62. SYNERGY (Social Harmony Organization), Myanmar/Burma
63. Khmer Kampuchea Krom for Human Rights and Development Association (KKKHRDA), Cambodia
64. ASEAN Youth Forum
65. Boat People SOS
66. Burma Human Rights Network
67. Burma-Initiative
68. Stiftung Asienhaus
69. Acehnese Women’s Education Foundation
70. Women Peace Network-Arakan
71. Sustainability and Participation thru Education and Lifelong Learning (SPELL), Philippines
72. Centre for Community Development and Social Work (Codes Vietnam)
73. Center for Community Development and Education (CCDE)
74. Europe solidaire sans frontières (ESSF), France
75. Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF), New Delhi, India
76. Tampadipa Institute, Myanmar/Burma
77. Mrinal Gore Interactive Centre for Social Justice and Peace, India
78. Partido Manggagawa, Philippines
79. National Garments Workers Federation, Bangladesh
80. Migrant CARE, Indonesia
81. Mindanao Peoples’ Peace Movement (MPPM), Philippines
82. Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee, Pakistan
83. National Garments Workers Federation, Bangladesh
84. Focus on the Global South
85. Stop the War Coalition, Philippines
86. New Trade Union Initiative, India
87. Bangladesh Krishok Federation, Bangladesh
88. Philippinenbüro e.V., Germany
89. Network of Young Democratic Asians (NOYDA)
90. People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), South Korea
91. PeaceMOMO, South Korea
92. Green Formosa Front, Taiwan
93. Genocide Watch, United States
94. Alliance for Peacebuilding, United States
95. International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI)
96. World Federalist Movement (WFM)
97. Permanent Peace Movement (PPM), Lebanon
98. Middle East and North Africa Partnership for Preventing of Armed Conflict (MENAPPAC)
99. femLINKpacific / GPPAC Pacific, Fiji
100. Vanuatu Human Rights Coalition, Vanuatu
101. Coordinadora Regional de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales (CRIES) /GPPAC Latin America and the Carribean, Argentina
102. International Center on Conflict and Negotiation (ICCN) / GPPAC South Caucuses, Georgia
103. Foundation for Tolerance International (FTI) / GPPAC Central Asia, Kyrgyztan
104. GPPAC Eastern Europe
105. Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
106. Igarapé Institute, Brazil
107. United Nations Association of the United Kingdom (UNA-UK), UK
108. Nansen Dialogue Centre, Serbia
Individuals
1. Sushil Pyakurel, Former Commissioner National Human Rights Commission , Nepal
2. Andrew Khoo, Advocate and Solicitor, Malaysia
3. Walden Bello, Philippines
4. Wensislaus Fatubun, Papuan Film-maker, Human Right Defender and Lobbyist in Geneva
5. S. M. Enamul Hoque, Independent Consultant (development, public health and humanitarian service) and human rights activist, Bangladesh
6. Huynh Thuc Vy, chairwoman of Vietnamese Women for Human Rights (VNWHR), Vietnam
7. Bruce Van Voorhis, United States
8. Masjaliza Hamzah, Human rights activist, Malaysia
9. Marina Mahathir, Writer, Malaysia
10. Dayang Karna Bahidjan, Development Worker and Muslim woman, Mindanao-Philippines
11. Andrew Paul, MA Candidate, York University, Toronto, Canada
12. Ging Cristobal, Philippines
13. Han Hui Hui, Singaporean Human Rights Defender, Singapore
14. Anabelle Vitacion, Philippines
15. Naomi Fontanos, Philippines
16. Tuan Q. Nguyen, USA
17. Tabrani Yunis, Director of Center for Community Development and Education (CCDE)-Aceh, Indonesia
18. Tabrani Yunis, Indonesia
19. Dorothy Guerrero, Philippines
20. Oksana Chelysheva, member of Union of Journalists of Finland
21. Kamal Mitra Chenoy, India
22. Anuradha Chenoy, India
23. William Nicholas Gomes, Human Rights Defender and Freelance Journalist, UK
24. Thin New Soe, Burma/Myanmar
25. Aresenio Pereira da Silva, Timor Leste
26. Susanne Sutthisunsanee, Thailand
27. Eduardo Tadem, Philippines
28. Gamini Keerawella, Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, Sri Lanka
29. Jehan Perera, National Peace Council of Sri Lanka
Download this joint statement HERE.