But
analysts say Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of Myanmar and a
Nobel Peace Prize winner, has little if any control over the country's
military forces that are enacting the brutal campaign against the
Rohingya.
Since
August 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked 30 police posts, killing
12 police officers, according to Myanmar state media, the military and
its surrogates have cut a swathe through Rakhine State, targeting
Rohingya Muslims in "clearance operations."
The
military junta, which ruled the country with an iron fist from 1962
until 2011 -- arresting democracy advocates including Suu Kyi, imposing
martial law and killing protestors -- still controls the security
forces, the police and key cabinet positions in the government. And
there's nothing Suu Kyi can do about it.
"Under
the Constitution the commander-in-chief (of Myanmar's Armed Forces) is
his own boss, he doesn't report to Aung San Suu Kyi. He can't be fired,"
said Aaron Connelly, a research fellow in the East Asia Program at the
Lowy Institute in Sydney.
"If the
military has to choose between control and international respect, they
will choose control. It's a question of how much they're willing to give
up. We haven't seen much evidence that they're willing to give up
anything beyond what they gave up in the 2008 constitution," he told
CNN.
Still wielding control
In 2008 a new
Constitution allocated a quarter of the seats in parliament to the military.
It was the military's way of easing Myanmar's return from exile as a
pariah state: constitutional reform, civilian government, and the
restoring of Suu Kyi to public life. But also enshrined in the
Constitution is the ability for the military to flex its muscle when it
senses that those newfound freedoms might encroach on its hold over
defense in Myanmar.
Among
the edicts in the document is the condition that no one with
dual-citizen relations (including parents or children) can ever be
president. Because both of Suu Kyi's adult sons are British citizens, as
was her late husband, she was unable to assume the presidency. However,
she is able to still largely play that role in a position that was
created especially for her, State Counselor. During the 2015 elections
she told a news conference that should her party win and form the
government
"I will be above the president. It's a very simple message."
In
the Constitution, the role of the commander-in-chief -- who is the
ultimate military authority. -- often overrides that of the President.
Along with nominating military candidates for seats in both houses of
parliament, the Constitution also allows the commander-in-chief, in the
event of a state of emergency "the right to take over and exercise State
sovereign power." The constitution also bans "retrospective" penal law
-- an addition possibly meant to prevent the military from being
prosecuted for past crimes, including the house arrest of Suu Kyi and
the junta's disavowal of the 1990 elections that would have effectively
routed the generals from power.
When she addressed diplomats in Myanmar on September 19,
Suu Kyi stressed that her government was still young -- in power for
a mere 18 months -- and efforts to bring democracy to the country were still fledgling.
"After
half a century or more of authoritarian rule, now we are in the process
of nurturing our nation," she said. "We are a young and fragile country
facing many problems, but we have to cope with them all. We cannot just
concentrate on the few."
The
internationally-feted democracy advocate has had to endure the howls of
outrage from around the world at the military's treatment of the
Rohingya. For her military counterpart, Commander-in-Chief Sen. General
Min Aung Hlaing, on the other hand, it's been business as usual.
While
Suu Kyi chose to cancel a trip to the US to speak at the United Nations
General Assembly to deal with the problems at home, Min Aung Hlaing has
been hosting foreign diplomats, speaking to military audiences and
receiving donations to a fund for people displaced by the "chaos"
instigated by Rohingya insurgents.
His formal engagements are posted almost daily to his verified Facebook page, to more than 1.28 million followers.
A prolific Facebook account
On September 15, 2017 a
post written in English quoted Min Aung Hlaing
saying there had been 93 clashes with "extremist Bengalis" since August
25. The militants, the post claimed, intend to build a stronghold in a
district in Rakhine State. "They have demanded recognition as Rohingya,
which has never been an ethnic group in Myanmar. Bengali issue is a
national cause and we need to be united in establishing the truth."
Earlier, on September 1, 2017,
another post in English harkens back to the loss of "Rakhine ethnics"
of Rakhine State in 1942, "in which Bengalis attacked, murdered and
coerced them into leaving their homes. We will never let such a terrible
occurrence happen again."
Both
Suu Kyi and the military have said the violence in Rakhine State, which
prompted the mass exodus of nearly half a million people, was
instigated by Rohingya militants.
As
well as refusing to publicly refer to the name Rohingya, Suu Kyi
insists the violence and the displacement has affected many other people
too.
There is long-held prejudice against the Rohingya among the people of Myanmar. Some Rohingya were
originally brought in as laborers under British rule
from 1824 to 1948 in what the British considered an internal migration
because the area was part of British-administered India. Many Rohingya,
however, say they are descendants of Muslim traders who can be traced
back to the ninth century. In reality, there is likely to be a mix of
ethnicities among them.
When the
government of Myanmar passed a citizenship law in 1982, it said Rohingya
could apply if they spoke an officially recognized language and could
prove that their families had lived in the country before independence.
But most Rohingya were never granted the paperwork to prove their roots
and are effectively stateless. They did not make the list of the 135
recognized ethnicities in Myanmar. In his public statements Min Aung
Hlaing doesn't refer to Rohingya by that name, using instead the term
"Bengali."
Arms sales and weapons embargos
The
military has avoided condemnation from Western nations precisely
because it is still wending its way out of isolation. For decades,
countries like the US had limited diplomacy with Myanmar, assigning
defense attaches instead of ambassadors to the US embassy and attempting
to maintain contact while trying not to be tainted by the military's
disregard for human rights.
