"Watch LIVE webcast: London Conference on the Genocide of Myanmar's Rohingya" - Time: 0900 AM (UK time), Monday, 28th April

Time: 0900 AM (UK time), Monday, 28th April

Live webcast begins at 9 am sharp (UK time) and ends at 3:30 pm except during refreshments and lunch breaks. (See the programme below)

The Slow Burning Genocide of Myanmar's Rohingya by Dr Maung Zarni

  

Welcome Remarks

Dr Barbara Harrell-Bond, OBE 

Founding Director, Refugee Studies Centre; Professor Emeritus, Oxford University & Director, Fahamu Refugee Programme

It is with sincere regret that due to illness that I am unable to be present at today’s Conference. 

You have come together in yet another attempt to increase the world’s awareness of the unspeakable suffering of the Rohingya - those remaining in Myanmar under the threat of extinction, those in flight and those living in exile under precarious conditions. 

It is worth reflecting on the fact that in May 1993, Aung San Suu Kyi gave the Joyce Pearce Memorial Lecture at the Refugee Studies programme (now Centre) at the University of Oxford. Her speech was entitled ‘Towards a True Refugee’. 

In that speech she reminded her audience that ‘The Burmese expression for refugee is”dukkha-the’, which means the one who has to bear dukkha, suffering. In that sense no one can be excluded from understanding what it is to be a refugee. At the time, Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest; her speech was delivered by her husband, Michael Aris, who only a few short years later died of cancer and whose funeral she was unable to attend. 

In that speech, she recalled that ‘The dream of a society ruled by loving kindness, reason and justice is a dream as old as civilized man’ and she went on to say that the ‘greatest threats to global security today come not from the economic deficiencies of the poorest nations but from religious, racial (or tribal) and political dissensions raging in those regions where principles and practices which could reconcile the diverse instincts and aspirations of mankind have been ignored, repressed or distorted.’ 

She admonished her audience that ‘Peace, stability and unity cannot be bought or coerced: they have to be nurtured by promoting sensitivity to human needs and respect for the rights and opinions of others. She reminded us all that ‘Diversity and dissent need not inhibit the emergence of strong, stable societies, but inflexibility, narrowness and unadulterated materialism can prevent healthy growth. And she warned: ‘…when attitudes have been allowed to harden to the point that otherness becomes a sufficient reason for nullifying a person's claim to be treated as a fellow human being, the trappings of modern civilization crumble with frightening speed.’

We ponder the incongruence of Aung San Suu Kyi’s inspired words then, in 1993, to the maelstrom surrounding the plight of all the minorities – both ethnic and religious - in Myanmar today. We pray that the eloquence of today’s testimonies will break her silence on what is happening to the Rohingya before Myanmar becomes yet another Rwanda.

Programmes