The Rohingya ethnic minority is once again being subjected to the inhumane actions of the Myanmarese authorities. This occurred after the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked a number of Myanmarese police posts, killing 12 cops, on August 25.
A number of countries, including Indonesia, are currently committed to a humanitarian mission to rescue the Rohingya people who have either been injured or joined the massive exodus from Rakhine state. However, these humanitarian efforts may not be enough to end the conflict that Foreign Minister Retno L Marsudi has called“repeated brutality”.
R2P
That the incident in Rakhine state is called brutality is not without grounds. The brutality occurred due to disproportionate efforts by the Myanmarese authorities to maintain domestic security. Some have even said that what the authorities did could be viewed as ethnic cleansing. Security personnel have become uncontrollable in the field and tend to conduct gross human rights violations.
Under international law, ethnic cleansing is a crime against humanity and an international crime. Even if the state’s high-ranking officials did not give the orders to commit the crime, they can be deemed accountable. This is known as superiors’ responsibility. They can be seen as guilty of neglect.
In order to end and, in time, bring the responsible parties to the international court, the international community has proposed a concept called the “responsibility to protect”, or R2P.
The R2P was formally proposed at the 2005 World Summit attended by all United Nations member countries. At the summit, all countries joined a global R2P commitment to ensure the prevention of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and other crimes against humanity.
R2P is the responsibility of the international community to intervene in an offending country to stop its actions by policymakers that have been deemed international crimes.
As an analogy to everyday occurrences, will a community keep quiet when it sees a husband being violent towards his wife and children? Surely, the answer is no. In such a context, the people who have knowledge of the abuse will surely report the husband to the police.
The same thing also applies to international relations. The international community will not keep quiet when the government of a country commits international crimes against its own people. It is just that, in the context of the international community, there is no global “police”.
The role of policing is then taken up by the international community itself, be it through international coalitions or through international and regional organizations.
Under the R2P concept, intervening instate sovereignty is justified in order to protect human lives from acts of cruelty. Because of this, a government cannot claim that its cruelty against its own people is “a domestic affair”. The R2P concept has been turned into action several times in response to incidents in Africa and the Middle East.
ASEAN
At a time when the world is busily taking care of various global problems and the UN is powerless in taking effective action, can a regional organization lead an R2P movement against a country in the region?
This is both a question and a challenge for ASEAN as a regional organization, in light of the brutality in Myanmar.
If the cycle of violence does not end, can ASEAN respond to the Myanmarese government in accordance with the R2P principle?
The answer to this question will emerge soon. If the Myanmarese government keeps letting its authorities persecute, commit ethnic cleansing and even genocide against the Rohingya, ASEAN must take action.
The Indonesian government should and can initiate this effort. However, one thing for certain is that an R2P movement must not be undertaken as a unilateral action by Indonesia. On a number of occasions, the US has “asked” other countries to take part to ensure approval from international organizations such as the UN.
The initiative that the Indonesian government can take is to call for an ASEAN emergency meeting. ASEAN must act firmly and should not avoid the issue under the pretext of respecting the ASEAN Charter, especially on the principles of non-interventionism and decision-making by consensus.
ASEAN countries must not point their fingersat the UN and say that it is the UN that has the authority to take action against the allegations of ethnic cleansing or genocide in Myanmar.
Regional organizations must take the initiative when incidents arise that are purported to be international violations. The existence of ASEAN will have no meaning if it cannot take action in desperate times.
If ASEAN finally takes the R2P route, an economic embargo for Myanmar should be declared.
The hope is that other countries in the world would follow suit in the economic embargo and that this will stop the cycle of violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. This can only be hoped.
HIKMAHANTO JUWANA
Professor of International Law, University of Indonesia
