Posted: July 18, 2018

IPAC Report 46: Indonesia and the Rohingya Crisis

(Jakarta, 29 June 2018) The government of Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has tried to manage domestic anger over Myanmar’s violence against the Rohingya by a combination of high-level diplomacy and humanitarian aid. Domestically, the combination has worked, and President Jokowi is under no serious pressure to take more dramatic measures that might jeopardise its relations with Myanmar, a fellow member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). There is no indication thus far, however, that diplomacy, whether bilateral or multilateral, has won any concessions on the Rohingya from Myanmar. The question is whether Indonesia can use its newly-won seat as a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council to press for a solution that includes greater access by humanitarian organisations and citizenship rights and freedom of movement for Rohingya inside Myanmar.

Indonesia and the Rohingya Crisis, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), looks at Indonesia’s efforts to respond to the late 2017 violence against the Rohingya that led to one of the largest, fastest refugee flows on record, with more than 700,000 people flooding into Bangladesh in a matter of weeks.