Myanmar slams 'finger-pointing' after landing in hot seat at boatpeople crisis meeting

Myanmar went on the defensive today at regional talks to resolve the boatpeople crisis in Southeast Asia, complaining it was being “singled out” for criticism over its treatment of Rohingya Muslims driven to flee its shores. Htin Linn, the acting director of Myanmar’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, spoke after several officials urged delegates to address the root causes of the problem – a reference to minority Rohingya Muslim refugees who have fled persecution in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar for years. At the tense meeting, Htin Linn said “finger-pointing” would not help. Delegates from 17 nations, as well as the United States and Japan, gathered at the one-day meeting – which is not being attended at a ministerial level – to address the flight of thousands of desperate people on boats across the Bay of Bengal, aiming for Malaysia and Indonesia. In the last few weeks alone, at least 3,000 people have washed ashore in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, or have been rescued by fishermen, and several thousand more are believed to still be at sea after human smugglers abandoned boats amid a regional crackdown. Survivors, including women and children, came ashore with first-hand accounts of beatings, ransom kidnappings by traffickers and near-starvation. Earlier this month, a Thai crackdown on people-smuggling threw the multimillion-dollar industry into disarray, leading gangmasters to abandon their victims on land and at sea. Images of stick-thin, dazed migrants trapped on boats or stumbling onto shores and out of forests shocked the world, heaping pressure on Southeast Asian nations to act. WATCH: Heartbreaking images of starved Rohingya migrants that made waves around the world In his opening remarks, Volker Turk, assistant high commissioner for protection at the UN’s human rights body, urged Myanmar to tackle the flow of Rohingya. To address the root causes “will require full assumption of responsibility by Myanmar to all its people”, Turk said. “Granting of citizenship is the ultimate goal. “In the interim … recognising that Myanmar is their own country is urgently required [as well as] access to identity documents and the removal of restrictions on basic freedoms.” Myanmar denies citizenship to the majority of its 1.3 million Rohingya and does not accept them as an official ethnic minority, instead calling them “Bengalis”, shorthand for foreigners from neighbouring Bangladesh, which also does not recognise the Rohingya as citizens. Htin Linn shot back in a speech afterwards, saying Turk should “be more informed” and casting doubt on whether “the spirit of cooperation is prevailing in the room”. “Finger-pointing will to serve any purpose. It will take us nowhere,” he said. Myanmar routinely rejects any internationalisation of the question of the status of the Muslim minority, since communal violence in 2012 between Rohingya and the Buddhist majority in western Rakhine State brought their plight to the fore. Htin Lynn called Volker’s comments a “politicisation” of the migrant subject, and added that “some issues” are internal matters. The word “Rohingya” did not appear on the invitation to the meeting, after Myanmar threatened to boycott the talks if it was included. Most people who spoke at the beginning of Friday’s meeting avoided saying the word Rohingya. Speaking at the start of Friday’s conference, Thai Foreign Minister Thanasak Patimaprakorn said that “no country can solve this problem alone”. “The influx of irregular migrants in the Indian Ocean has reached an alarming level,” Thanasak said. But “while we are trying to help those in need, we must stop the outflow of irregular migrants and combat transnational crime and destroy their networks.” WATCH: Myanmese protesters denounce UN complaints over treatment of Rohingya minority Bangkok began its belated crackdown on the smuggling trade in the country’s deep south on May 1, after dozens of bodies were pulled from mass graves in a remote border area studded by migrant camps. On the Malaysian side of the same frontier, authorities have found 139 suspected migrants’ graves, raising fears that both officials and residents had turned a blind eye to the lucrative business. Southeast Asian nations finally bowed to international pressure to offer humanitarian aid to migrants trapped at sea in recent weeks. Myanmar’s Rohingya are one of the world’s most persecuted minorities. They face restrictions on movement, jobs and family size, while their pariah status means they are unrepresented – even Myanmar’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi chooses not to exert her moral authority on their behalf. Malaysia and Indonesia agreed last week to provide Rohingya with shelter for one year. It is unclear what happens after a year, though both countries have called on the international community to help with resettlement. Thailand has offered humanitarian help but not shelter. More than 100,000 refugees, mostly from other Myanmar ethnic groups, have been living in Thai border camps for decades, and Thailand says it cannot afford any more. The United States, which is attending as an observer, is set to pledge financial assistance to tackle the crisis. The US has flown five surveillance flights in the region so far, trying to find migrants at sea.