Indonesia seeks peace in Rakhine
Amid all the international and domestic pressure building up around the recent outbreak of violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state, Indonesia has launched what is arguably one of its most ambitious peace missions to date, fielding its top diplomat to meet with Myanmar's top brass.
All eyes will be on Indonesia, which in spite of its continued engagement and historic affinity to Myanmar, will still have to prove whether it has enough leverage to resolve a multi-faceted problem that has persisted throughout many years without reaching a solution to the statelessness of the Rohingya Muslim minority.
Likely goaded by pressure from within the country and abroad, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo finally broke his silence on the recent violence in Rakhine, asserting the need to help victims of violence and displacement in a country undergoing a transition toward democracy.
The most recent cycle of violence, allegedly instigated by Rohingya militants and worsened by a military counter-operation last month, has resulted in nearly 400 deaths and pushed some 38,000 Rohingya to flee across the border into neighboring Bangladesh.
During an evening press conference that followed Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi's departure to Myanmar earlier that day, Jokowi said the situation in Rakhine required real action and not just empty condemnation to help the displaced peoples.
"All of Indonesia and I deeply regret the violent acts that are happening in Rakhine state," Jokowi told a press conference at the State Palace. "The government is committed to help in this humanitarian crisis [and] to work together with civil societies in Indonesia and [with the] international community."
The President said Indonesia sent 10 containers of food and medical aid in January and February. The government also built a number of schools in Rakhine and is expected to start building a hospital next month.
"This afternoon [Sunday], the foreign minister left for Myanmar to request that [the Myanmar] government stop and prevent any more violence, while also giving protection to its people, including Muslims in Myanmar, and provide them access to humanitarian aid," Jokowi said.
In her highest profile diplomatic peace mission to date, Retno will be the first foreign minister of any country to enter Myanmar and speak directly with the relevant authorities on the Rakhine crisis. The minister is sure to meet Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in Naypyidaw on Monday, with whom last year she had candid conversations on the matter. She is also hoping to meet with Defense Minister Sr. Gen. U Min Aung Hlaing, the minister of the Presidential Office, U Kyaw Tint Swe, and National Security advisor U Thaung Tun.
"My visit to Myanmar carries with it the will of the Indonesian people, so that we may aid in the humanitarian crisis, while also communicating the will of the international community so that the crisis is quickly resolved." she told reporters earlier on Sunday.
The minister has also been asked to communicate with Bangladeshi authorities to oversee preparations for more humanitarian aid to be sent next week for the refugees who crossed into the South Asian country.
In the world's largest Muslimmajority nation, public opinion on the Rakhine issue has polarized in recent weeks. Amid the mounting rage over the violence against the Rohingya, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the Myanmar Embassy in Central Jakarta on Sunday at 2:35 a.m.
The gasoline bomb caused a small fire on the terrace of the embassy, which was later extinguished by the police. Officers later found a shattered bottle with a wick attached to it. Police could not make out how many people were involved. Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Commr. Argo Yuwono said the police had questioned six witnesses and that officers were checking CCTV footage. The Gegana bomb squad will be deployed to secure the embassy, Argo said.
While the context of the attack was apparently clear, the police still could not absolutely conclude the attack was related to violence against Rohingya Muslims.
Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) researcher Sandy Nur Ikfal said the public should be more aware of the structural aspects of the crisis, which boil down to competition and discriminative policies.
"The religion card has been a main concern of mass organizations [in Indonesia]. It is not completely wrong, but the issue would be better framed as a humanitarian crisis and that everyone should be protected, whatever their race or beliefs," Sandy said on Sunday.
Myanmar urged Muslims in the troubled northwest to cooperate in the search for insurgents, whose coordinated attacks on security posts and an army crackdown have led to one of the deadliest bouts of violence to engulf the Rohingya community in decades.
Aid agencies estimate about 73,000 Rohingya have fled into neighboring Bangladesh from Myanmar since violence erupted last week, Vivian Tan, regional spokeswoman for UN refugee agency United Nations High Commisioner fo Refugees (UNHCR), told Reuters on Sunday.
Hundreds more refugees on Sunday walked through rice paddies from the Naf river separating the two countries into Bangladesh, straining scarce resources of aid groups and local communities already helping tens of thousands.
The clashes and military counteroffensive have killed nearly 400 people during the past week.
The treatment of Buddhistmajority Myanmar's roughly 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by Western critics of not speaking out for the minority that has long complained of persecution.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that violence against Muslims amounted to genocide.
It marks a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since October, when a smaller Rohingya attack on security posts prompted a military response dogged by allegations of rights abuses.
"Islamic villagers in northern Maungtaw have been urged over loudspeakers to cooperate when security forces search for Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army [ARSA] extremist terrorists, and not to pose a threat or brandish weapons when security forces enter their villages," the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said on Sunday.
ARSA has been declared a terrorist organization by the government. The group claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks on security posts last week.
In Maungni village in northern Rakhine, villagers earlier this week caught two ARSA members and handed them over to the authorities, the newspaper added.
The army wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday that Rohingya insurgents had set fires to monasteries, images of Buddha as well as schools and houses in northern Rakhine.
More than 200 buildings, including houses and shops, were destroyed across several villages, the army said.
While Myanmar officials blamed the ARSA for the burning of the homes, Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh and human rights watchers say a campaign of arson and killings by the army is aimed at trying to force the minority group out.
More than 11,700 "ethnic residents" had been evacuated from northern Rakhine, the government has said, referring to non-Muslims.
In Bangladesh, authorities said at least 53 bodies of Rohingya had either been found floating in the Naf river or washed up on the beach in the past week, as tens of thousands continue to try to flee the violence