An image of a dead Rohingya toddler washed up on a river bank in Myanmar’s restive Rakhine province has evoked strong reactions on social media, with parallels being drawn to a Syrian kid Aylan Kurdi who drowned in the sea fleeing violence in Syria in 2015.
When will the world notice the genocide against the Muslims of ‘The Rohingya Alan Kurdi https://t.co/TZwMcDUUQe pic.twitter.com/ZuMuSc4sZF @UN pic.twitter.com/bouoki1WL8
— shuaib ahmad (@shuaiba60661585) January 4, 2017
(Source: Twitter)
Sixteen-month-old Mohammad Shohayet, along with his mother, uncle and a three-year-old brother, drowned as they tried to boat up the Naf river that makes Bangladesh-Myanmar border. The family is among many in recent years fleeing army violence in Rakhine for Bangladesh.
Rakhine in the north-west of Myanmar is the site of a bloody crackdown on Rohingya Muslims by the country’s security forces. Violence and torture against Rohingya civilians in Myanmar by the state forces has seen a sharp surge since an army post was attacked by a handful of Rohingya militants in October. A recently surfaced video of Myanmar’s soldiers kicking and caning the face of a squatted Rohingya villager prompted the Buddhist nationalist government of Aung San Suu Kyi to institute an enquiry into complaints of human rights violations.
Warning: Distressing images
(Source: Youtube/Al-Jazeera)
However, the government on Wednesday in its interim report absolved Myanmar’s forces of any blame, a finding which has been slammed by human rights groups worldwide. US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has dubbed the investigation as “methodologically flawed.”
The story of Mohammad Shohayet is eerily similar to that of a Syrian asylum seeker kid Alan Kurdi, who was found washed up on a Turkish beach in September 2015 after the rickety boat his refugee group was travelling in capsized in the Mediterranean Sea. Kurdi’s image became a powerful symbol of the plight of Syrian refugees, playing a significant role in mobilising global public opinion in favour of Syrian asylum seekers.
On the other hand, though touching a raw nerve on social media, the image of dead Shohayet has failed to move foreign governments into stepping up pressure on Myanmar government to stem human rights abuses against Rohingya by its armed forces.
According to Amnesty International, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar over the last three years, mainly to Bangladesh and south-east Asia. The government of Bangladesh has of late reportedly imposed restrictions on the movement of Rohingya people fleeing Myanmar, concerned by massive influx of refugees putting additional strain on resources of an already impoverished and densely populated country.
Between 3,00,000 to 5,00,000 Rohingya Muslims are believed to be hosted in Bangladesh.
Why is India wary of interfering in the Rohingya crisis?
India does have a commendable track record when it comes to help solve humanitarian crisis unfolding in the neighbourhood. However, the South Asian giant has been stunningly quiet on the ongoing Rohingya exodus from the Myanmar.
There are three possible explanations behind India’s stand:
- Losing ground to China
While India does play host to nearly 40,000 Rohingya Muslims, the aspiring superpower has failed to voice its concerns on the Rohingya situation. Security analysts reason that New Delhi doesn’t want to upset the Myanmar government in fear that a pro-Rohingya stance would prompt Myanmar to further veer toward China.
“But New Delhi does not want to be seen as interfering in the Rohingya crisis, especially as the ties between both nations were strained for a long time, after New Delhi suspended relations when the military junta took over in Myanmar. During this period, China made tremendous inroads. It was only in the 1990s that India re-established links with Myanmar,” a foreign policy scholar at India’s OP Jindal University wrote in The Hindu newspaper in June 2015.
Little has changed since then, as India still maintains quiet, unbecoming of a democracy powerhouse and potential Security Council member that the country projects itself to be.
2. Hindu nationalist agenda
One of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign pledges was to end the flow of undocumented economic migrants from Bangladesh, who over the years are believed to have altered the demography of Indian villages lying along the border.
According to an analysis, India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) doesn’t look favourably upon the prospect of Bengali Muslim immigrants, or Rohingya, settling in India’s north-east and West Bengal, two regions lying at India’s borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar.
It is believed that a surge in numbers of Muslim migrants would hurt the image of the BJP among its core supporters, who have been calling for reduced migration from Bangladesh for long. The BJP, which is gaining political ground in the north-eastern states, would’t want to go back on the electoral gains it has made in recent years.
3. India’s security cooperation with Myanmar
Indian security forces are believed to closely cooperate with Myanmar’s army in counter-insurgency operations against separatist groups in India’s north-east.
Many of these groups in the past have found hideouts in Myanmar, crossing the porous border between the two countries with relative ease after committing violent acts in India. Things started to look up for India after the end of rule of Myanmar’s military junta, with which India had strained relations.
In June 2015, Indian forces ambushed a camp of Naga separatist rebels holed up inside Myanmar’s territory, believed to have been carried out with cooperation and help from Myanmar’s army.
India may not want to risk its security cooperation with Myanmar just because of a bunch of impoverished, stateless people.
