Buddhist leaders' silence in Burma a human failing

At last somebody in an official position has said something. United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay has called for an independent investigation into claims that Burmese security forces are systematically targeting the Rohingya, a Muslim minority community living in the Arakan region. Even the Burmese government says at least 78 Rohingya were murdered; their own community leaders say 650 have been killed.

Nobody disputes the fact that about 100,000 Rohingyas (out of a population of 800,000) are internal refugees in Burma, while others have fled across the border into Bangladesh. As you would expect, the Buddhist monks of Burma have stood up to be counted. Unfortunately, this time they are standing on the wrong side.

This is perplexing. When the Pope lectures the world about morality, few non-Catholics pay attention. When Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran instructs the world about good and evil, most people who aren't Shia Muslims shrug. But Buddhist leaders are given more respect, because most people think Buddhism is a religion of tolerance and peace.

When the Dalai Lama speaks out about injustice, people listen.

But he hasn't said anything about what is happening to the Rohingyas and neither has any other Buddhist leader of note. As for Burma's own Buddhist monks, they have been heroes in that nation's long struggle against tyranny, so it's disorienting to see them behaving like oppressors themselves.

And Aung Sang Suu Kyi, the woman who spent two decades under house arrest for defying the generals, has declined to offer any support or comfort to the Rohingyas.

Recently a foreign journalist asked her whether she regarded Rohingyas as citizens of Burma. "I do not know," she prevaricated. "We have to be very clear about what the laws of citizenship are and who are entitled to them."

If she were honest, she would have replied: "Of course, the Rohingya are citizens, but I dare not say so. The military are finally giving up power, and I want to win the 2015 election. I won't win any votes by defending the rights of Burmese Muslims."

Nelson Mandela, with whom she is often compared, would never have said anything like that, but it's a failure of courage on her part that has nothing to do with her religion. Religious belief and moral behaviour don't automatically go together, and nationalism often trumps both of them. So let's stop being astonished that Buddhists behave badly and consider what's happening in Burma.

The ancestors of the Rohingya settled in the Arakan region between the 14th and 18th centuries, long before the wave of Indian immigrants arrived after Burma was conquered by the British empire during the 19th century. By the 1930s the Indians were a majority in most big Burmese cities, and dominated the commercial sector. Burmese resentment, was intense.

The Japanese invasion of Burma during World War II drove out most Indian immigrants, but the Burmese hatred of "foreigners" remained, and it turned against the Rohingya. They were targeted because they were perceived as "foreigners", but that they were Muslims in a Buddhist country made them even more alien.

The Rohingya were poor farmers, just like their Buddhist neighbours, and their right to Burmese citizenship was unquestioned until the Burmese military seized power in 1962.

The army attacked the Rohingya and drove some 200,000 into Bangladesh in 1978.

The military dictator of the day, Ne Win, revoked the citizenship of all Rohingyas in 1982, and new laws forbade them to travel without permission, banned them from owning land, and required newly married couples to sign a commitment to have no more than two children. Another military campaign drove a further quarter-million Rohingyas into Bangladesh in 1990-91. And now this.

On Sunday former general Thein Sein, the transitional president of Burma, replied to UN human rights chief Navi Pillay: "We will take responsibilities for our ethnic people but it is impossible to accept the illegally entered Rohingyas who are not our ethnicity." Some other country must take them all, he said.

But the Rohingya did not "enter illegally", and there are a dozen "ethnicities" in Burma.

What drives this policy is fear, greed and ignorance - exploited by politicians pandering to nationalist passions and religious prejudice. Being Buddhist, it turns out, doesn't stop you from falling for all that. Surprise.

Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist