BROUK addresses Rohingya genocide at Cambridge University

RB News

November 6, 2015

London -- Rohigya genocide brought to the attention of the world's top universities including Cambridge University last week. 

The event was organised by the Cambridge Union Society along with BROUK President Tun Khin, Professor Penny Green Director of International State Crime Initiative, Greg Constatine internationally renowned photographer, Amal from Equal Right Trust and Professor Kirsten Mc Connachie expert on stateless issue from Oxford University. 

BROUK President Tun Khin highlighted the background history of Rohingya people and the current situation. 

Tun Khin said, “I don't exist. That is what Burmese Government says. The Burmese government also claim the ethnic Rohingya of Burma, who are around 1 million peope, never existed. We have lost everything from our ethnic rights to citizenship, the right to marry, have children, and now the right to vote and the right to be a candidate. It is deeply troubling that the international community does not oppose this strongly, or consider it unreasonable, the genocidal acts against the Rohingya. Whenever genocide happens, they say never again. It is time to stop Genocide against Rohingya in Burma". 

Regarding the election Tun Khin stated that when the people of Burma go to the polling stations on November 8th, for the first time since independence the majority of Rohingya will not be allowed to vote. In another first all Rohingya candidates for the national parliament were rejected by the Union Election Commission (UEC), and there will be no Rohingya MPs in Parliament. The international community should not be funding any Burmese government bodies or any body which applies discriminatory policies against the Rohingya. If they do, they are complicit in that discrimination. As such, they are also complicit in the government's broader policy to eliminate the Rohingya from Burma. 

Professor Penny Green address recent reports which provide compelling evidence of a coordinated, State-led plan of genocide against the Rohingya. The report is based on the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) scholars’ unprecedented systematic field research in Myanmar. In a report titled Countdown to Annihilation: Genocide in Myanmar, researchers from the university-based International State Crime Initiative concluded that "dehumanisation and stigmatisation" techniques are being used against Rohingya and warrant comparisons with Germany in the 1930s and Rwanda in the early 1990s. 

"It can be stopped but not without confronting the fact that it is, indeed, genocide," Professor Green said. Professor Penny Green also said “Myanmar’s Rohingya are being slowly annihilated through sporadic massacres, mass flight, systematic weakening and denial of identity. A genocidal process is underway in Myanmar and if it follows the path outlined in our report, it is yet to be completed. It can be stopped but not without confronting". 

The other speakers discussed about Rohingya refugees situation in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. The speakers discussed how to work closely to raise issue with the UNHCR for the Rohingya refugees resettlement.