- Published: 28/10/2012 at 12:00 AM
- Writer: Pichai Chuensuksawadi
Mr Surin said he is renewing his call for Asean to act, otherwise there is a serious risk that the country's Rohingya population will become radicalised.
Violent clashes between the Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya communities have claimed the lives of at least 150 people since June.
In August, Mr Surin sent a letter to all Asean foreign ministers urging them to meet and address the Rohingya issue. The Asean chair, headed by Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Nam Hong, called a meeting of the ministers. However, Myanmar refused the meeting and said the situation was under control.
In recent days, a surge of sectarian violence in western Myanmar has left at least 67 people dead and scores more wounded. Authorities have imposed emergency rule in the face of continued tension in the region.
"The situation is deteriorating and there is now a risk of a radicalisation of the Rohingya. This would not be good for anyone," the Asean secretary-general said.
"The conflict has been presented as an Islamic issue when it is not", Mr Surin said. "It is a political, democratic, human rights and constitutional issue, and has direct implications on political reform and national reconciliation processes in Myanmar."
Without an effective resolution, the situation would fester and worsen, Mr Surin said, which could mean a radicalisation of the country's 1.5 million Rohingya.
"This would have wider strategic and security implications for the region," Mr Surin said.
"Can you imagine the Malacca Straits becoming a zone of violence like the waters off Somalia? This would jeopardise East Asian and Southeast Asian economic security," he said.
The Asean secretary-general called for an approach to engagement similar to that adopted in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, which left more than 138,000 people dead in Myanmar.
He said the situation needs to be calmed down and put under control.
The United Nations has responded to the recent bloodshed with a stark warning that Myanmar's recent political reforms are under threat from the continued unrest between ethnic Rakhine and the Rohingya.
"The vigilante attacks, targeted threats and extremist rhetoric must be stopped," a spokesman for UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said in a statement released yesterday in Yangon. '
"If this is not done ... the reform and opening up process being currently pursued by the government is likely to be jeopardised."
President Thein Sein has been widely-praised for overseeing sweeping reforms in the former junta-ruled nation. But the Rakhine violence poses a stern challenge to the reform process.
Share your thoughts
- Discussion 1 : 29/10/2012 at 04:12 PM
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#18 Sorry buddy - but you could say the same just as easily about football fans, groupies, Communists, and Thaksin followers. It's human nature. It's not that religion, or football, or music, or even Communism is inherently evil (Thaksin is evil however), it is that people in general are easily manipulated and led. Also - please go look into this Myanmar situation - it really has absolutely nothing to do with religion. It is geopolitics.
- Discussion 2 : 29/10/2012 at 10:07 AM
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Wakeup, re D16 & 17,
Religions can only be, as they typically all are, put to and actively foster such evil by those at the top, on the sides, and in the middle because they have a well-drilled body of followers who are taught: not to reason but believe, not to be moral but to be obedient, and not to accept but to exclude.
The trinity of unreason, intolerance and inhumanity is inherent in religions in principle: without unholy trinity of primary religious values, there could be no politically powerful and abusive religions preying on human frailty.
- Discussion 3 : 29/10/2012 at 04:45 AM
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#10 Most of what people do in the name of religion is the result of amoral people at the top who are not religious, but simply manipulate those that are. The refugees are being wiped out by Aung San Suu Kyi's "pro-democracy" monk organizations - including the Young Monks Union, who distributed flyers telling people not to associate with the refugees and to block humanitarian aid from reaching them.
- Discussion 4 : 29/10/2012 at 04:39 AM
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People don't just come into the streets to kill each other. There are always instigators on one or more sides. So who's instigating the violence here & why isn't the press covering? Turns out it is EXACTLY the same monks who back Aung San Suu Kyi & groups that receive direct funding from the US & UK. Wirathua - the "activist monk," is leading mobs, and the "pro-democracy" 88 Generation Students group has also called for the ethnic cleanings of the Rohingya. Can you name another pro-democracy group who are actually just violent political tools?
- Discussion 5 : 28/10/2012 at 06:56 PM
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to Bop
Thailand doesnt ever admit they want or need help
I posted on social networking site re UN/asean etc.. intervening in thai south and a thai person posted 'its nothing to do with the international community' enough said!
- Discussion 6 : 28/10/2012 at 05:37 PM
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The Asean Secretary General is correct. In fact, the southern insurgency is getting worse and the situation in Myanmar, has the potential to link up with the southern insurgency. Being faced with two radical fronts is a direct threat to the Kingdom of Thailand.
- Discussion 7 : 28/10/2012 at 04:45 PM
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This guy is working for ASEAN, this is his job!
It seems many Thai people want ASEAN to intervene our own affair.
- Discussion 8 : 28/10/2012 at 04:00 PM
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D10 : Best comment today. Spot on.
- Discussion 9 : 28/10/2012 at 02:00 PM
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Mr.Surin , don't worry too much about so called Rohingya in Myanmar.
You should ,instead,worry about your own problems in southern Thailand.
I think, the killing of Thai people in the south is much much more than the killing of both Rakhine and so called Rohingya in Myanmar.
- Discussion 10 : 28/10/2012 at 11:44 AM
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The joys of religion: intolerance, unreason and inhumanity.
But who needs justice, reason or decency when you have a divine sanction immune to error?
- Discussion 11 : 28/10/2012 at 11:10 AM
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Interesting how, as a Thai, Mr. Surin never asked all ASEAN foreign ministers to meet to address Thailand’s civil strife and killing of 5000 Thais over the past ten years. I’m sure the response would have been similar, refusing the meeting and claiming the situation was under control.
- Discussion 12 : 28/10/2012 at 10:41 AM
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Nobody likes these people. Even Bangladesh doesnt want them. There must be a reason why. Thailand please do get involved with more muslim headaches you have enough problems in the south to deal with.
- Discussion 13 : 28/10/2012 at 10:34 AM
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the asean pact is just like the arab pact all talk,no action
- Discussion 14 : 28/10/2012 at 09:32 AM
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Please solve our southern provinces' problem first instead of being a busy body.
- Discussion 15 : 28/10/2012 at 09:30 AM
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Reform or democracy "in progress" is a painstaking process.
When carried out overnight its like peeling an onion.......the faster you peel, the more you cry!
- Discussion 16 : 28/10/2012 at 09:30 AM
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Wonder why the Lady is quiet about Rohingya issue. I guess when she was democracy fighter, she faught for ideology, but now she is a politician, she fights for votes. It's better to keep quiet.
- Discussion 17 : 28/10/2012 at 08:33 AM
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An open cquestion to the Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan: What about Thailand deserving the urgent attention of Asean and the international community concerning the insurgency in the deep of Thailand that has killed thousands and injured tens of thousands?
- Discussion 18 : 28/10/2012 at 04:56 AM
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Does Surin Pitsuwan think that Thailand's southern provinces deserve attention from the international community before they become radicalised?
- Discussion 19 : 28/10/2012 at 03:48 AM
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Why don't we welcome these Muslims with an opened arms like the Burmese did just decades ago, only to watch them breed like rabbits and begin displacing the native people?
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