Once again, international politics and point-scoring are being put before humanitarian and moral action by the international community. The United Nations organised a donor conference this week to raise funds to help Rohingya refugees. More than 600,000 members of the Muslim minority community have fled violence and threats in Myanmar, and the UN says that number will soon pass 1 million. At the same time, the upheaval in western Myanmar has caused problems elsewhere that also require and deserve international aid.
The Rohingya are trying to survive in desperate conditions in tolerant Bangladesh. It is sad news indeed from Unicef and Doctors Without Borders that Myanmar is probably about to succeed in its campaign of ethnic cleansing. Unicef's representative to Bangladesh, Edouard Beigbeder, told the donors' conference in Geneva that there is no end in sight to the Rohingya's flight. Lacy Swing of the International Organisation for Migration, a UN refugee arm, says the population in the border camps will soon pass 1 million -- near the total number of Rohingya people in Myanmar before the campaign to expel them began.
The aid conference raised $344 million in pledges from UN members, including new promises of $228 million. Almost all outside aid up til now has come from Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Of course, true praise for providing shelter, food and water must go to Bangladesh. The very unprepared government has allowed all arriving refugees from Myanmar to remain. That said, the accommodation is worse than sparse, with most refugees camped out on mud flats along the border river, with the familiar blue plastic sheets for protection from sun and rain.
While almost all the refugees are Rohingya Muslims, some are Hindus. The xenophobic and murderous ethnic violence in Myanmar's northwestern Rakhine state has underscored deep hatreds in that country, along both religious and ethnic lines. The plight of the Rohingya is by far the worst. The Tatmadaw or Myanmar army has targeted and wiped out entire villages in its ethnic cleansing campaign. But other minorities also have suffered -- the Hindu, Mro and Daignet communities especially.
Aid is thus needed inside Myanmar as well as at Rohingya refugee encampments in Bangladesh. The chief problem with getting aid to the region, especially inside Rakhine state, is the central government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Nay Pyi Taw has on several occasions barred aid shipments completely or put up red tape and paperwork that made it virtually impossible. The country has been as unfriendly to aid efforts by fellow Asean members as by other UN members.
The exodus of Rohingya from Myanmar now dwarfs last year's refugee crisis in the Middle East and Europe. Ms Suu Kyi's pledge to welcome back the Rohingya is completely empty, and in fact merely emphasises the problem her government has helped to exacerbate. Only refugees who can prove their Myanmar citizenship will be allowed back into the country -- presuming any even want to go. And it is Myanmar's policy that no Rohingya is eligible for citizenship.
The refugee crisis thus involves both politics and pity. It also threatens regional security. UN and international aid officials are reporting that Rohingya refugees now appear ready to support the armed revolt against the Myanmar army that flared into the open only last August.
This now has become a serious problem for regional stability. China and India already are in strong public disagreement, with Beijing unreservedly backing Myanmar's refusal to recognise, let alone repatriate the Rohingya refugees. Aid to the 700,000-plus refugees is an emergency priority, given that the vast majority are women and their 300,000 children. But Asean and the UN must also face up to their responsibility to prevent major violence because of the plight of the refugees.