Published On:Friday, 24 October 2014
Posted by Celebrate Life Style information Blog
US Think Tank Faults Burma on Arakan Response
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| Burmese President Thein Sein, right, and US President Barack Obama share the stage in Bali on Nov. 19, 2011. Relations between the two countries have improved rapidly since this first meeting between the two leaders. (Photo: Reuters) |
Those criticisms come in a very mixed assessment by the Center for Strategic and International Studies of the situation in Burma, three years after it began a historic transition to democracy from decades of oppressive and ruinous military rule.
The centrist think tank, which
has the ear of the Obama administration, visited Burma in August and issued its
report on Wednesday. President Barack Obama, who counts US support of the
Southeast Asian nation’s reforms as a foreign policy success, will make his
second visit to Burma in two years when it hosts a summit of regional leaders
in November.
The report points to some hopeful
signs in Burma, which is gearing up for elections in late 2015. It cites
prospects for a nationwide cease-fire in long-running ethnic conflicts,
improvements in a woeful health care system and economic reforms that have
spurred rapid growth.
But the report also says power is
deeply skewed in favor of the military, and that decision-making on key
political reforms has stalled. It says that likely reflects a struggle between
“reformists” allied to President Thein Sein — the former general who has
overseen the shift to democracy — and establishment interests who fear losing
privileges through more change.
“It is not yet clear that the
military’s overwhelming dominance will diminish significantly as the current
government approaches the end of its formal tenure in April 2016,” the think
tank says.
The report says massive human
suffering continues in Arakan, where 140,000 stateless Rohingya Muslims have
been rounded up into barbed-wire-enclosed camps after sectarian violence
erupted in mid-2012 with majority Buddhists. It said for months the Burmese
government has “abdicated its leadership responsibilities” as worsening
violence drove international humanitarian groups out.
The government’s action plan to
address the situation in Arakan State — criticized by human rights groups as
discriminatory — puts forward ideas for peaceful coexistence, citizenship and
resettlement, but it remains to be seen if the government can defuse the
crisis, the report says.
In the past three years, the
United States has led the charge as Western nations have re-engaged with Burma
and rolled back sanctions, and Wednesday’s report advocates continued American
engagement despite congressional concerns over Burma’s “backsliding” on
reforms.
The report calls for the US to
double health aid to Burma, including in the fight against drug-resistant
malaria, and to sustain limited US engagement with the military. It says
however, those ties shouldn’t be expanded before it is clear the military
hasn’t intervened in the elections. - Irrawadi.
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