By Ibn Siddique, Staff Reporter, AW
30 April 2017
The president of Indonesia, Joko Widodo has hark back to his first proposal remembering State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi that leaving Rohingya crisis unsolved would affect peace and stability in the ASEAN region as well as in Burma itself.
President Jokowi conveyed his concerns during a meeting with Suu Kyi on the sidelines during the 30th ASEAN Summit in Manila, which took place from April 26 to 29 in Philippines, on Saturday. In the bilateral meeting, they discussed conflicts that had affected the Rohingya Muslims in Arakan (also known as Rakhine), a state in Burma. He verily highlighted that the stability in Buma was very important not only for the country but also for the whole region.
Jokowi used directly to articulate the Indonesia’s support for solutions to the Rohingya crisis in this first meeting with Suu Kyi.
A report released by the London-based Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN) affirms that at least 30,000 people in Rakhine have been internally displaced, while ongoing violence has led to shortages of food and aid for more than 70,000 people in the area.
Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi, foreign minister of Indonesia said that Indonesia had proposed mid- and long-term cooperation agreements with the Myanmar government in the fields of health and education, among others. “What the point Indonesia wants to see is Arakan’s transform to an inclusive region free from all sorts of discrimination”, Retno Masudi added.
The crisis has led the minority Muslim Rohingya group to suffer widespread extra judicial killings, gang rapes, displacement and fleeing of Rohingya Muslims enmass into neighboring Bangladesh for years.
“Daw Suu Kyi said that the situation was not simple, but she said the Myanmar government had a strong commitment to fix the situation in Rakhine,” Retno told journalists after the bilateral meeting.
Retno said Suu Kyi thanked the Indonesian government for its active campaigns to solve the humanitarian conflicts in Rakhine.
Indonesia has so far shown its serious concern about the conflict by sending its envoy several times to Myanmar in the past few years to discuss Indonesia’s position. In January this year, Jokowi sent 10 containers of goods such as rice, medicine, instant noodles and biscuits for babies for the Rohingya people.
