Press TV
A political analyst says the international community and particularly the West has not pressured the government in Myanmar to stop the violence and to stop this genocide or ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people.
The comments came after the UN refugee agency warned of a “humanitarian
catastrophe” in Myanmar as the country’s displaced Rohingya Muslims face
the threat of monsoon floods. The United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday said it is “seriously concerned about the
risks facing over 60,000 displaced people in flood-prone areas and in
makeshift shelters.” Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar account for about five
percent of the country’s population of nearly 60 million. They have been
persecuted and faced torture, neglect, and repression since the
country's independence in 1948.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Kevin Barrett, from the
Muslim-Christian-Jewish Alliance, to further discuss the issue. What
follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Kevin Barrett, I would hate to see this monsoon season
obviously pretty much have an effect on the lives of these already most
persecuted minority being the Rohingyas but it seems like that maybe
their fate.
What has not occurred when we look at this really disaster that’s been
going on for the past six months in terms of the persecution, the
government involvement and etc.?
Barrett: Well what hasn’t happened is that the international
community and particularly the West has not pressured the government in
Myanmar to stop the violence and to stop this genocide or ethnic
cleansing of the Rohingya people.
Why is that? Quite often we do hear the West making loud noises about
human rights and sometimes in situations where the violations of human
rights are a lot, less extreme than they are in Myanmar.
And I think the answer is in this particular situation, the West and
particularly the USA has opened up good relations with the Myanmar
government just at the moment that the Myanmar government has started to
commit and countenance genocide on its territory.
And the US is basically playing a geo-strategic game, is trying to take
Myanmar out of the orbit of China and place it more firmly into the
Western orbit. The US is deluging Myanmar with representatives trying to
establish more trade ties, more business relationships, the money is
flowing more than ever and rather than use the pressure and the leverage
that they certainly do have to stop these very, very large scale abuses
and this horrible suffering of the Rohingya ethnic cleansing victims.
The US and to some extent even the international human rights community have tended to downplay it and ignore it. So this is just another example of the hypocrisy of the way Western countries especially the US use human rights more as a tool of their foreign policy in their geo-strategic objectives rather than out of concern for humanity.
Press TV: So quickly, when you say they want to pull Myanmar out
of this fear of China, of influence of China, I mean so that that border
is an area that they will probably going to, if they had not already
placed the military power whether it is soldiers, equipments etc. Is
that another aim that the US has obviously to counter China militarily?
Barrett: Absolutely. US is ringing China with military bases.
There is a containment of China strategy going on, Obama has called it
the shift to Asia . They are winding down the Middle Eastern war on
terror, although you would know that from what is going on in Syria and
they are ramping up the future war on China to prevent China from
continuing to rise and taking its place as the world’s biggest economy
and most powerful technological country.
So it is a big geo-strategic game and the Rohingya Muslims are caught in the middle.
Muslim genocide: Dr. Kevin Barrett
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