Experts outline actions US should take to respond to Myanmar coup

Experts urged the U.S. to recognize Myanmar’s newly formed pro-democracy National Unity Government at Tuesday’s hearing, but some lawmakers pushed back, expressing concerns about the group’s exclusion of Rohingya.  

Several House Foreign Affairs Committee members questioned one of the witnesses — Kyaw Moe Tun, Myanmar’s permanent representative to the United Nations — about the NUG position on the Rohingya. Despite speaking out against the military coup in his country — a "brave" move described by some Congress members — he retained his post at the U.N.

Despite that praise, Kyaw Moe Tun faced some tough questions from members of Congress who probed him about why the 27-member NUG did not include a single Rohingya representative and questioned whether the government would support citizenship rights for the Rohingya.

“We are confident that ending [the] murderous military regime will pave a way to finding sustainable solutions to the challenges we face related to effective protection and permissions of rights of ethnic, religious, and all other minorities and equality for all,” Kyaw Moe Tun said at the hearing.

Once the military regime is over, he said, the NUG will be better positioned to address the issues “in line with international norms and standards” on human rights and humanitarian law. When the NUG makes way for a permanent government, there will be an inclusive dialogue to find ways to solve the problem, Kyaw Moe Tun said.

But that was not enough for all the lawmakers.

“I cannot support your National Unity Government, and I will oppose efforts for the United States to support your National Unity Government until you commit to having at least a representative of the Rohingya people and you commit to stopping the genocide of the Rohingya people,” Rep. Ted Lieu of California said at the hearing.

However, recognizing the NUG as the legitimate government is one of the key steps experts testifying at the hearing said the U.S. should take.

The U.S. should support the NUG, but it should also help empower voices within the Myanmar government to do better on Rohingya rights, Kelley Currie, former ambassador at large for global women’s issues, said at the hearing.

Another key request was a call for increased U.S. sanctions to continue to target military profits. There was agreement among the experts that the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise should be sanctioned and that the U.S. should work with companies including Chevron to ensure that royalties don’t benefit the military.

Kyaw Moe Tun also called for sanctions against the military-run Myawaddy and Inwwa banks and the state-owned Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank.

The U.S. also needs to be more flexible in providing humanitarian assistance in Myanmar, the witnesses said. Currie called herself a broken record at the hearing after saying for the fifth or so time that providing flexible cross-border support that bypasses the military is critical for reaching those who are most in need in Myanmar.

The U.S. could also pressure the Thai and Indian governments to open humanitarian corridors, which would help critical aid get in and allow people to flee violence in Myanmar, said Khin Ohmar, the founder and chairperson of the advisory board of Progressive Voice, a civil society organization.

The U.S. should also help lead a process towards a United Nations Security Council resolution that would include a no-fly zone and sanctions, among other provisions, to stop the military’s violence, the experts said.

While China and Russia are widely considered to be key roadblocks to any security council resolution, Currie said that the U.K. and U.S. have not tested them by putting forward a resolution.

The U.S. should push for security council meetings about Myanmar that are held publicly — the meetings and negotiations on the subject thus far have been behind closed doors — putting more pressure on China, she said.

China has told the Myanmar ambassador that China will not accept a resolution that includes sanctions, but he said that they must be pushed harder. The U.S. could use different channels, including working with India and Vietnam to pressure China, the witnesses said. Forcing the issue with China could push them to abstain from the vote, which would likely result in a similar vote from Russia, clearing the way for a resolution.

Thus far though attempts to address the issue have been left to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which released a five-point statement that failed to call for the release of political prisoners and was quickly violated by the military junta.

“They are very poorly set up to deal with political problems like this,” Currie said, adding that ASEAN should ask the Security Council to take responsibility for the problem “rather than be an obstacle or fig leaf for security council inaction.”

Both Currie and Ohmar also stressed the importance of the U.S. supporting accountability processes for the violence associated with the coup and the Rohingya genocide. The people of Myanmar can only move forward if the military is held accountable and comes under civilian control, Ohmar said.