Myanmar resouces silence US-led West on Rohingya genocide : Dr. Randy Short

Fri Mar 29, 2013 11:55AM GMT

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Interview with Dr. Randy Short

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I believe that these people are being cleansed so there can be access to do offshore drilling to get these people out of the way. And of course you have to get the approval of the government of Myanmar to drill and to bring your corporations in.”

A human rights activist tells Press TV that the world has been silent on the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar in order for them to get the access they want to the country’s energy resources.

The United Nations says there are reports showing the government of Myanmar has been involved in recent deadly violence against Rohingya Muslims. On Thursday, the UN special rapporteur on Myanmar human rights Tomas Ojea Quintana issued a statement saying that “I have received reports of State involvement in some of the acts of violence.” Myanmar's government has been repeatedly criticized for failing to protect the country’s Muslim community, known as Rohingyas. Hundreds of Rohingyas are believed to have been killed and thousands of others displaced in attacks by Buddhist extremists, who frequently attack the Muslim community and burn their homes in the state of Rakhine.

Press TV has interviewed Dr. Randy Short, a human rights activist from Washington, regarding the issue. The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Press TV: What is being reported by this rapporteur from the UN is nothing new. State collusion was raised time and time again with regards to the repression of the Muslim community there. why did it take so long for the UN to come up with this conclusion?

Short: It is not so much that took so long. Who funds the UN? Who are the dominant nations in the UN? I think the United States gives a disproportionate amount of money for the UN’s operation as well as the other countries in Europe.

So they do not really have any interest in the lines of Muslims, in particular poor minority groups and just maybe capitalism and finance -- as you look at -- Myanmar has recently opened up its country to foreign investment. Some of these countries that put money into the UN do not want to anger the government there.

Myanmar is a new frontier for investment, for infrastructure, for construction, for energy, for these countries in Europe ... the top five, you are talking about the economic problems in Europe. Why would these countries speak up for poor hated Muslim minority group when they stand to get money, to invest in their sagging economies and I will go one step further.

One thing that all of these countries want is energy. I believe that whether Rohingyas live in Myanmar along the West Coast, offshore drilling is in the offing, the same way that Chevron and other American energy groups such as General Electric and others are interested in that country’s energy sector.

I believe that these people are being cleansed so there can be access to do offshore drilling to get these people out of the way. And of course you have to get the approval of the government of Myanmar to drill and to bring your corporations in.

So there is this corporate interest that trumps the human lives of these people who have suffered for centuries and the government has always been complicit. If they claim to be in charge of that state and killing happens, they are at fault. So everyone looks the other way as these people are slaughtered.

Press TV: Right, now that is so far as the West goes but what about within Myanmar itself? Where are those so-called human rights activists like Aung San Suu Kyi who pioneered human rights and won the Noble Peace Prize? Where is she? Why isn’t she speaking up about this?

Short: You are too kind. Her father is a xenophobic racist type of ethnocentric politician in Myanmar. She is not different from her father. So I mean that runs in the family to do nothing for the Rohingya.

She has a peace price but so does F. W. de Klerk, so does Henry Kissinger and for that matter Barack Obama who is making war all over the world has a peace prize.

What does that really mean to me? Forgive me for asking you. It does not mean much these days especially when it comes down to the lives of Muslims or Africans or people in the third world. Basically they give the prize for how many they kill.

 

credit-Press Tv interview