The incentives for the Burmese government need to change if it is to stop “destroying” the Rohingya, a former UN ambassador has said.
Samantha Power, who was US ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017, also said there is a lack of diplomacy surrounding the crisis.
Speaking in Armenia at the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, the former adviser to Barack Obama said: “An entire people has been systematically murdered, raped and deported from their country.
“And no contact group has been formed, there has been no high level ministerial summit that I am aware of.
“There has been humanitarian systems, the United Nations Secretary General has used his voice, but if you actually want to change the calculus of a government that has decided to expel and destroy a group, which it looks like the Myanmar government and military have decided to do, you have to change the incentives for them.
“Right now they think the benefits of destroying the Rohingya population exceeds the costs.
“The only way that gets changed is through dealing with their sources of revenue, and through them feeling such concerted and sustained diplomatic pressure, not just from the UN secretary general, or the high commission for human rights, but from a coalition of diverse countries – the neighbours, bringing in China.”
Asked what needs to happen in order for the situation to change, Ms Power said: “Diplomacy and then changing the calculus of government which right now – like many governments around the world – feels a great sense of impunity.”
Rohingya Muslims have long been treated as outsiders in Burma, despite many of their families having lived in the country for generations.
They have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless, and forcing many to cross by land into neighbouring Bangladesh.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here