House debates

Monday, 14 July 2014

Private Members' Business

Human Rights in Myanmar

11:03 am

Photo of Melissa ParkeMelissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to amend private member's business notice No. 1 in the terms circulated to honourable members.

Leave granted.

I move notice No.1, as amended, relating to human rights in Myanmar:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) the sectarian unrest in parts of Burma, including Rakhine State, but also in the Mandalay, Bago, and Rangoon regions. Of particular humanitarian concern is Rakhine State, where around 140,000 people have been displaced for almost two years;

(b) Human Rights Watch released two reports on the unrest in Rakhine State and the situation of Rohingya Muslims there which raise concerns about persecution against Rohingya and outlines the dire humanitarian situation in Rakhine State;

(c) Rohingya in Rakhine State were unable to self-identify in the national census in Burma in April 2014;

(d) on 27 May 2014 Burma’s state-run media published a draft law on religious conversions that would impose restrictions on citizens wishing to change their religion, which would encourage further repression and violence against Muslims and other religious minorities;

(e) the Australian Government continues to assist affected people in Rakhine State through direct humanitarian assistance, and has provided almost $10.7 million in humanitarian assistance since the violence in 2012, making Australia one of the largest humanitarian donors to Rakhine State; and

(f) significant acts of discrimination or violence against any persons in Burma will impact on Burma’s international standing and consequently harm its bilateral relationships; and

(2) calls on the Australian Government to urge the Myanmar Government to:

(a) elevate its efforts to resolve sectarian unrest in parts of Burma and provide a safe and secure environment for aid personnel so they can continue to provide vital humanitarian assistance to people in need, including in in Rakhine State;

(b) allow the establishment of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights in Burma with a full rights protection, promotion and technical assistance mandate, and permit unfettered access to all areas where sectarian violence has occurred;

(c) permit Médecins Sans Frontières to freely enter and operate in Rakhine state, and provide humanitarian assistance to all persons needing it;

(d) impartially investigate and bring to justice all those responsible for abuses, regardless of their status, position, or rank;

(e) ensure the security of all persons in Rakhine state while protecting human rights, including the right to freedom of movement, maintaining proper rule of law and good governance that includes an end to all discriminatory policies against Rohingya;

(f) take steps to remove or amend any current laws which discriminate against minority ethnic or religious groups, including the 1982 Citizenship Law;

(g) abandon the proposed law on religious conversions that would politicise religion and permit government intrusion on decisions of faith;

(h) ensure right to fair trial to all persons held in jails in Burma;

(i) ensure all local laws are non-discriminatory and fair to all people of Burma, and respect the rights to movement, religion, work and access to health care and education;

(j) condemn violence and abuse inflicted on any persons, ensuring proper judicial procedures are applied;

(k) ensure Burma security forces protect all communities equally and uphold the law of the state;

(l) initiate appropriate investigations into incidents of violence involving minority ethnic or religious groups, such as the Du Cheer Yar Tan incident in Maungdaw township in January 2014

(m) support the citizenship rights of Rohingya and reconciliation of local communities;

(n) ensure the rights of women by protecting a women’s right to choose whom they will marry without regard to religious faith, and permit persons the right to freely choose the size of their family;

(o) provide appropriate humanitarian assistance, including adequate shelter, and grant access by humanitarian organisations, to those affected by the unrest; and

(p) ensure that any return of internally displaced peoples to their place of origin is conducted voluntarily, in safety and with dignity.

The ethnic and sectarian conflict in Burma continues to involve serious and persistent outbreaks of murder and violence against the Rohingya, a Muslim minority of some 800,000 people who are concentrated in Rakhine state, which in the north borders Bangladesh. Though Burma is home to more than 130 recognised ethnic groups, the Rohingya have been denied recognition and the government continues to regard this group as comprising an illegal migration from Bangladesh, despite evidence that Muslim communities have lived in Rakhine state for centuries.

There is substantial evidence of widespread discrimination against the Rohingya, and this has been enabled and exacerbated by both government policy and government inaction. As a result, the Rohingya have been subject to very serious oppression and to human rights abuses, including violence, dispossession and forcible displacement. The purpose and effect of the mistreatment of the Rohingya has been a form of ethnic cleansing. People have been forced out of their homes—out of the towns and cities where they have lived all their lives—and into camps where conditions are dangerous to health, especially now in the monsoon season.

The oppression of the Rohingya has led many to flee by boat, and this in turn has resulted in deaths at sea, in detention and incarceration without due process of asylum claims, and in the exploitation, ransoming or trafficking of vulnerable people, especially through Thailand. Unfortunately, the transition that took place in Burma in 2011 from military based authoritarianism to a fledgling form of democratic civilian government has released some long-contained antipathies in places like Rakhine state—and certainly the Rohingyas have been comprehensively targeted since that time. Conflict between Buddhists and Rohingyas in Rakhine state in 2012 resulted in nearly 200 people killed and more than 100,000 Rohingyas displaced.

With international concern growing, Burma's President Thein Sein commissioned a report into the situation in Rakhine, but its recommendations, released in April last year, were in large part unhelpful in moving towards a lasting settlement of the issue. The report referred to the Rohingya as 'Bengalis', a clear suggestion that they emanate from and belong in Bangladesh, and also made reference to the need for family planning advice, which adverts to a common prejudice regarding the birth-rate of Muslim minority groups. Other government initiatives have involved seeking to register Rohingyas for resettlement, but this first required them to identify as Bengalis, which, understandably, they refuse to do. In May this year a draft law was published which would ban religious conversions without prior consent—another measure that reinforces a prejudicial perception that the Muslim minority is seeking to grow through intermarriage. This approach is not a recipe for peace and reconciliation, let alone for the sensible and proper integration of the Rohingya within the mainstream of civic life in Burma, with the human rights and protections that such inclusion would guarantee.

I am glad that Australia has made a contribution to addressing the crisis in Rakhine state, including through the provision of nearly $6 million in humanitarian aid, which makes us one of the largest contributors of assistance. But there is more that can be done; and there is more that we must do. Only through persistent and coordinated international pressure can the plight of the Rohingyas be alleviated. In circumstances where the Burmese government's capacity and willingness to prevent further oppression of the Rohingyas is inadequate and uncertain, it is essential that there be greater scrutiny and direct on-the-ground assistance provided by relevant UN agencies and by humanitarian NGOs.

As it stands, the involvement of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights occurs by deployment of personnel from Bangkok when it would be far preferable if that office could maintain an appropriately resourced presence in Burma itself. Similarly, the banning of Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, from operating in Rakhine state is unacceptable and must be protested at the highest level. Medecins Sans Frontieres has been the principal provider of health care in Rakhine, operating nine clinics in towns across the state, but it was ordered by the Burmese government to cease providing this critical function on the grounds of alleged impartiality shown towards the Rohingya. The real reason may be that MSF has been prepared to report accurately on atrocities committed against the Rohingya, such as the incident at Maungdaw earlier this year, where 48 villagers were killed.

In April, the Asia Society announced that a team from Reuters had won the 2014 Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Journalism on Asia for their series of investigative reports on the 'dirty war' against the Rohingya people. I encourage interested members to visit the Asia Society website, which includes links to all the Reuters reports and which, in addition to presenting both the complexity of the big picture and the tragedy of individual human stories, also reminds us of the importance of free, courageous journalism at a time when journalists like Peter Greste and many others are silenced by regimes that would prefer to operate without criticism or scrutiny.

Finally, I thank the government for supporting this motion and those members who are contributing to this debate. I am sure that there is a shared recognition of the terrible mistreatment of the Rohingya minority by their own government and a shared desire to see Australia take all appropriate action to help bring this oppression to an end.

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