By TamilNet

The US Establishment’s carrot and stick approach has resulted in selecting the genocidal military of Myanmar in the US-ASEAN joint naval exercise held recently in the international waters of Southeast Asia. The move comes just a few weeks after the USA banned Myanmar’s Commander-in-Chief, his deputy and two brigadier generals from travelling to the USA over the crimes committed against the Rohingya Muslims. A UN fact-finding mission, which was led by Marzuki Darusman, released a report on Monday this week stating that 600,000 Rohingya remaining inside Myanmar face systematic persecution and continue to live under the threat of genocide. The Darusman-led mission also said it has a confidential list of over 100 names, including Myanmar officials, suspected of being involved in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, in addition to six generals it named publicly a year ago.

What is unfolding in Myanmar under President Trump is similar to what Eezham Tamils have experienced during President Obama’s Establishment trading off allegations of Tamil genocide and international justice with its geopolitical interests in the island. The paradigm of genocidal-denial still continues even in the UN Human Rights Council.

The various regimes of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka have been using the Trincomalee and Hambantota port-centric maritime tactics to trade off the threats of international investigations and the allegation of genocide from human rights quarters of the international community.

Similarly, Myanmar is deploying its port of Kyaukpyu, which is a natural harbour facing the Indian Ocean to trade off international actions against its genocide. The Rohingya genocide is promoted by the extremist Theravada Buddhist Establishment, which has emboldened itself through drawing ‘lessons’ and ‘inspirations’ from the Sinhala Theravada Buddhist establishment waging genocide against the Tamils in the island.

“The US likely fears Kyaukpyu will be another Hambantota,” Nikkei Asian Review quoted an ASEAN diplomatic official as saying on 14 September.

Eight warships, four aircraft, and more than one thousand military personnel of seven countries took part in the joint exercised named ASEAN-US Maritime Exercise (AUMX).

The AUMX drills started at the Sattahip Naval Base of Thailand on 02 September and concluded in Singapore on 06 September.

The navies of Brunei, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam were active in the AUMX while Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, and Indonesia took part as observers without sending their naval vessels.

The exercise was co-led by the US and the Royal Thai navies.

Back in 2011, Indonesian politician Marzuki Darusman led the UN Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka.

The Darusman Report on Sri Lanka failed to identify the crime committed on the island as Tamil genocide.

The same paradigm is still upheld by the Office of the UN Human Rights High Commissioner and the Council.

The USA was influencing the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) during the times of President Barack Obama and State-Secretary Hillary Clinton. The USA was taking a lead role in proposing the draft resolutions on Sri Lanka at the UNHRC.

However, during the administration of President Donald Trump and State-Secretary Mike Pompeo, the USA withdrew from the UNHRC in June 2018 branding it as a “hypocritical and self-serving organisation” that displayed “unending hostility towards Israel”.