UN has failed to address Rohingya issues: Pundit

Press TV has interviewed Jahangir Mohammad, director of the Center for Muslims' Affairs from Manchester, to ask for his take as to a recent report saying the US has approved that Myanmar is persecuting Rohingya Muslims, but that the treatment of the religious minority does not amount to genocide.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.  

Press TV: There are two issues that I would like you to address. Number one is: Do you think it is questionable that this statement falls short of calling the treatment of the religious minority Rohingyas amounting to genocide? And the second issue is the condemnation and these words of concerns altogether; will they do any good for the situation of the Rohingya or they are just mere platitudes?

Mohammad: Well, I think you know the charges of genocide particularly by western nations and the United States are often leveled or decided not on the basis of reality and facts but on political agendas. So where they choose to charge people with genocide and it is politically-convenient, they do so. It is not politically-convenient for them in this case because despite all the evidence showing that there is a systematic attempt to create a pure Buddhist state and to expel the Rohingyas, deny them of their rights and basically eliminate them from the country in one way or another and the systematic campaign to achieve that without any protection of their rights, then they do not take that as evidence and therefore they are denying the reality. And the comments being made, which is part of the judgment, whether there is a systematic campaign and whether they can evidence them.

So there is no will in this case because the United States wants to support the military Junta and the so-called transition to democracy, which really gives them an opportunity to influence Myanmar and to exploit its economic resources. So they have a political agenda in Myanmar and it is not to support the Rohingyas; it is to support a transition to a military-struck democracy type situation which is beneficial for them.

Press TV: There is a new government in Myanmar taking the helm with a civilian president. Do you think that there is a glimmer of hope for the situation of the Rohingya under this newly-found government in Myanmar?

Mohammad: No. I mean this is not…nobody seems to address the issues of the Rohingya in the run-up to the campaign. Rohingyas have mainly been excluded from voting and exercising their choice and the military [is] still in control. The military retained a quarter of the seats without election in this new government. They also have one of the vice president’s positions without any kind of election nomination from the party that is in power. They basically prevented Suu Kyi from becoming president herself. And therefore what we see is a kind of a voted down control of Myanmar through the military with a potency of democracy, which will satisfy the West allowing it to have relationships with Myanmar and enter into all kinds of economic and trade negotiations with them.

Press TV: And what about more tangible push by the United Nations and the international community to alter this situation of the Rohingya Muslims?

Mohammad: Well, the United Nations has failed to do or prevent anything that has happened. There have been no reference to the International Criminal Court (ICC), there have been no attempts to look at whether a genocide is occurring and they have evaded all the serious issues, and serious questions. Apart from producing reports which show what everybody else knows already, they are at the mercy of the main powers and the Unites States in particular. So they will not do anything which the United States does not want it to do.

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