Original Article– October 12, 2019
Recently, Myanmar’s authorities imprisoned 21 Rohingya adults and inhumanely detained several children.
Human Rights Watch’s Asia director, Brad Adams, explains the main reason: “These 30 men, women, and children are being punished for simply seeking an escape from the daily brutality they’ve been subjected to for years.”
The Myanmar crisis has been likened to apartheid by rights groups. This harsh remark is a lamentation. It is in regard to how the government is resolving an age-old national conflict with the Rohingya people. They are still using violence against them.
In a typical case reported by Human Rights Watch, a five-year-old child and twenty-one adults from the group were jailed for two years. This was under a law that bars the usage of false identity cards. This comes in after a one-day trial in which they were reportedly denied a lawyer.
Sadly, the fate of eight children sent to a “training school” in the Yangon region is undecided. That is including a five-year-old.
Rohingya adults become refugees
Since 2012, tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have been registered refugees in Bangladeshi refugee camps for the same reasons. In 2017 alone, 600,000 Rohingya left Myanmar.
Unfortunately for those living in villages outside the camps, there are severe restrictions on leaving their townships; on the contrary, their mostly Buddhist-Rakhine neighbors are allowed to move more freely.
Ignoring campaigns from the United Nations to try all Myanmar’s top generals, the military still insists all attacks were legitimate. They claim counterinsurgency operations against an armed Rohingya group it calls “terrorists.” This is in opposition to what Rohingya adults, who have been stripped of all their fundamental human rights, recount. Also, two adult drivers have been arrested while a third is on the run. The Police Major Tun Shwe told The Irrawaddy news website.
Saed in Sitwe camp told Al Jazeera, “If I want to go to Yangon, I have to ask for travel authorization from the immigration office.” That involves submitting various documents. Equally, there should be proof of identification, including a letter from the administrator of the applicant’s village.
Recommendation
Minors and children, per the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, are not supposed to be subject to any form of imprisonment.
Article 37 stipulates (b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention, or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time; (c) Every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a manner which takes into account the needs of persons of his or her age.
In particular, every child deprived of liberty shall be separated from adults unless it is considered in the child’s best interest not to do so and shall have the right to maintain contact with his or her family through correspondence and visits, save in exceptional circumstances.
Myanmar ratified the CRC in 1991. Therefore, she is obliged to respect her international obligation to protect all children as she celebrates her 20th anniversary. The government must refrain from using pressure and violent methods as a peace tool. National dialogues and the restoration of the human rights of the Rohingya people should be a national emergency.
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