Australian Army Chief Bats For Rohingyas
Australia’s Army Chief has confronted Myanmar’s military about atrocities committed towards Rohingya Muslims, urging the country to show greater openness.
The United Kingdom and the United States have suspended defence co-operation with the Asian nation due to ongoing violence against Rohingyas, but Australia has so far refused to do so.
More than 600,000 Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar’s Rakhine state since late August, escaping what the UN has described as a “textbook case of ethnic cleansing”
The Defence Department has confirmed Army Chief Lieutenant Angus Campbell spoke “openly and frankly” with his counterpart in the Tatmadaw Army, Vice Senior General Soe Win, during a military conference in Seoul last month.
“Lieutenant General Campbell acknowledged the complexities of the situation, but called for peace and stability to be restored to Rakhine State and basic human rights be afforded to all peoples, whether a citizen or not,” the Defence Department said in a statement to the ABC.
“He also called for Myanmar to demonstrate openness by giving greater access to independent organisations and media.”
Defence says it will “continue to utilise senior level engagement opportunities” to raise Australia’s concerns on Rakhine State and promote the importance of adhering to international humanitarian law”.
Meanwhile, Department of Foreign Affairs officials have told a Senate estimates hearing Australia’s ongoing defence engagement has allowed human rights concerns to be communicated directly with Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw.
DFAT secretary Frances Adamson insisted Australia’s military cooperation remained “at the minimalist end of the spectrum”, meaning joint military exercises and weapons sales were banned.
Department officials have also denied Australia tried to “whitewash” a United Nations resolution against Myanmar’s atrocities towards Rohingyas.
Under questioning from Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Penny Wong, DFAT official Philip Green said whitewashing was “certainly not the intention” of a language change.
“Its intention was to increase the likelihood that the Myanmar Government wouldn’t see the fact-finding mission’s results as being prejudiced and thereby to increase the chances that the Myanmar Government would engage with the fact-finding mission and allow it to undertake its activities in Myanmar,” he said.
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