Children Targeted By Rakhine Nationalist
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

Jack Lee

Alders Ledge

February 9, 2013

In the darkest of hours a voice cries out from the scorched earth of the Arakan. Desperation has left a scar upon it that shapes it, molds it into the familiar tone of those who came before it. Hunger muffles its plea. Tears flow over its words as they fall over its breath like rain.

"Take me back to the killing fields", it pleads. "To where I can imagine life as it was when we did not bleed. Take me back to the world where rice grew in the fields and fish swam in the sea. Take me to time before the blade and bullet came for me. 

"Take me there where I can rest in the warmth of the setting sun. Take me there where I once stood beneath the shade of tall old trees. Let me see my home once more. Let me hear the sound of my children play just one last time.

"Take back to a time when the rats didn't eat better than me. Take me back to that place where the buzzards didn't hover and wait for me to lay down and die. Let me know once more what it was like to live beyond death's shadow.

"Take me back to a time when my brothers and sisters were not memories. Take me back to that time before they were taken from me. Take me back to when I could remember their faces, their voices, their touch. Take me back to that place where we use to gather as one... where my family once felt like more than ancient history."

History has a way of repeating itself. It is a cruel yet dedicated teacher that will not relent. It attempts to show us where we have failed as a species. With its painful repetition it offers us chance after chance to learn from our mistakes. No amount of blood or misery will satisfy it. No amount of suffering can abate its curriculum or spare us our failures in learning from it. 

The cry that comes out of the depths of Burma's most oppressed community are those same cries that echo throughout history. It is a plea for humanity that was lost upon the killing fields of Cambodia. It is a cry that was silenced by the jackboots during the Holocaust. It is a scream that was brutally crushed by the Young Turks as the Armenians were marched off to their deaths. And yet the same cry for help comes out of Burma once more. It calls upon the rest of mankind to step up and fulfill the promises we made after defeating the fascist in World War Two. It begs us to not forget those two words once again... never again.

"Take me back to the killing fields," it rasp voice screams. "But not as they are or as they will soon be. Take me back to the fields as they were before. With grass grown up and the crops swaying in the breeze. Let me loose there where I was once free. Let me live upon that soil once more where my ancestors once called home. 

"Do not take me away from here to live in exile. Do not tell me to take to the sea when there is nowhere left to run. Do not pray for my safety in those little boats. Do not hope for the best while my brothers and sisters drown beneath those unforgiving waves. 

"Take me back to the villages I once called home. Take me back to the streets I walked as a young man. Take me back to the mosque in which I once prayed. Let me live in peace as I did in those days before the fires, the fights, the mobs. 

"Do not let hunger do to me what the mobs could not. Do not let my ribs break the flesh as I rot in the camps. Do not let me live like a skeleton draped in flesh. Please do not rob me of my dignity. 

"Take me back to a place where I did not pray for crumbs. Take me back to a time when I did not pick through the weeds for dropped or discarded grains. Take me back to a time when I was not considered less than a dog that I might eat like a man and not scavenge through waste. Take me there so that I might live free... free of hunger... free of fear."

It has been said that those who do not learn from history are damned to repeat it. With Syria, Darfur, the Congo, and Burma we are living through it once more. There are more genocide occurring right now than were occurring at the time of the Holocaust. The number of dead might not be as high as that of what Hitler, Stalin, or Mao killed in their horrific deeds, but the crime is the same none the less.

For those in the West these crimes are treated as anomalies, as oddities that occur in distant lands. We tend to think of genocide as a crime against humanity that we ourselves could never suffer. Americans in particular picture genocide as a thing from which we rescue others.

History has a way of remedying that.

When the Nazis came for the communists,

I remained silent;

I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,

I remained silent;

I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,

I did not speak out;

I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,

I remained silent;

I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,

there was no one left to speak out.We never think these things can come home to where we live. We dream of them as perverse sins that stay put in the history books where they belong. And even for those who acknowledge their existence in our time, we often distance ourselves through the hope that we ourselves could never become their victims.

But how long can societies last when they do not face the sins of their fathers? How long can we keep going if we do not recall the crimes that taint our own past? And if we never learn from our own mistakes than how do we ever prevent them from happening again?

There is not a single European nation that can stand before the world and say that it has never once participated or practiced genocide. America and Canada were built upon the genocide of the native peoples that once inhabited these lands. And yet the history of our forefathers' sins is vastly ignored by the masses that now inhabit these great countries.

It is only upon looking at how, why, and when we committed genocide that we realize the warning signs that came with those crimes. Once identified and taught a society can be prepared to prevent those same crimes from occurring once again. 

In the West we learned our lessons from the Holocaust. We had to repeat genocide after genocide till it climaxed in the slaughter of millions of innocent victims. But we did learn the warning signs.

So why are we ignoring those very sings when they pertain to Burma? Or Syria? Or Darfur?

Perhaps it is just my paranoia, perhaps it is my own view of history that creates it...

But how long before the next government leaning toward ethnic cleansing realizes just how relaxed the world is on the issue and topples over into genocide? After all, all you need to do is look around and watch as country after country funds genocide after genocide without even a second thought. Morality, ethics... they both seem lost now days as world leaders pander to genocidal regimes to make a quick buck.

How long before a government of a developed nation starts to flirt with the idea of ridding themselves of "undesirables"?

Once again, my history with genocide might lend to my perceived paranoia of it, yet the question remains to be answered. History has a way of repeating itself. History has a way of forcing us to deal with an issue that we so desperately try to ignore. Genocide is just another portion of our history that we can not escape.

As long as we continue to ignore the cries echoing out of Burma we assure ourselves that we will have to face this sin once again. It is a crime that knows no borders. It is a crime that knows no boundaries. Genocide does not regard anything as sacred. It does not respect any given religion. It does not look up to any race or down upon any given level of degradation. And as long as we continue to ignore it in Burma, Syria, Darfur, and the Congo we assure ourselves that we will never truly be able to honestly say those two words... never again.

Qutub Shah

RB News 

January 14, 2013

(Edited by Jack Lee)

Jack Lee

Alders Ledge

January 14, 2013

It has always made me uncomfortable comparing any group of modern murderers to the fascist Nazis of the 30's and 40's. Having ancestors who fled from the spread of Nazism into Yugoslavia I have a deep grudge towards those who encouraged genocide in Croatia. And all be it that my family that died at the hands of fascist most likely did so at the hands of the Ustase I still found it hard to compare the RNDP to the German Gestapo. Yet over the past few months the comparison continued to nag at my conscience. 

In the 1930's the Gestapo took off as a branch of the already established Nazi SS (Schutzstaffel). It's goals were clear from the very beginning. The Gestapo was meant to enforce the Nazi theology by enforcing its social code amongst the German people. This meant that the Gestapo had to act like sheepdogs by separating the "pure" German population from the "undesirables". It's main target was of course the Jewish population within Germany. 

The Rakhine Nationalities Development Party began officially on May 6th, 2010 as an extremist group with very clear ethnocentric goals. From the start the RNDP was meant to force the racial ideology of racially driven politicians who were forced out of the majority part the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) due to their extremist views. This meant that upon founding the RNDP had to begin acting like pit bulls in their relentless attacks upon any political opponents and all portions of the population they deemed to be "foreign" to the "pure" Rakhine nationalities. Their main target has been shown to be the Rohingya minority within the Arakan region. 

At first glance one could say that the RNDP was just another political party in Burma looking to advance their ethnic group's political ambitions. After all, there are currently nearly a half dozen parties dedicated to a given ethnic group or another within the Amyotha Hluttaw (House of Nationalities) and just as many in the Pyithu Hluttaw (House of Representatives). Yet it is hard to find a party within either of these houses of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Assembly of Union) that is so violently dedicated to the destruction of an entire ethnicity. And that is where the RNDP stands out amongst the many corrupt parties that make up Burma's government. 

In the Rakhine state the RNDP is the controlling party. It is in this area of Burma that the government is defined by the RNDP. It is here that the modern day Gestapo has the ability to begin enforcing their radical ideology upon the citizens of the Rakhine. 

Much like the original Gestapo, the RNDP does not need to be present in every village to achieve its goal of the complete destruction of the Rohingya people. With only 11 township offices the RNDP has been able to spread its propaganda across the Rakhine region by infiltrating the religion of its people. By making their goal of an ethnically pure Rakhine state and a religiously run state appealing to the monks of the Arakan region the RNDP was able to feed the flames of hate over the summer of 2012. In Nazi Germany the Gestapo achieved the same success by lifting community leaders in areas it controlled up through the ranks of the Nazi party. This method allowed the Gestapo to gain control of the religion, politics, and police of an occupied area with as little presence as possible. 

Once the religion, the backbone of Burmese society, was under control of the RNDP the fascist only had to feed the flames of hatred they had already sparked. Turning a little known murder in the Rakhine state into a propaganda campaign, the RNDP had the fuel they needed to turn the Arakan into an inferno. Now the RNDP could simply point the Rakhine people at their target and watch as the mobs acted as stormtroopers. 

When the killings began during the summer of 2012 the RNDP highlighted Rohingya neighborhoods that were meant to be torched to the ground and those meant to be left standing. In what now appears to be a systematic assault, the RNDP made certain to leave select villages standing so as to act as per-assembled concentration camps. Much like the Gestapo the RNDP is now active in the said camps and the villages acting as concentration camps. 

In October of 2012 the RNDP attempted to whip the Rakhine people into yet another outburst of ethnic violence. This attempt resulted in the deaths of a known 89 people. More importantly it led to the complete blockade of all aid that had started to flow towards the Arakan state since the summer riots. The RNDP had completed its aim of forming modern concentration camps by blocking the Rohingya from leaving and keeping the aid from arriving. 

Today the RNDP has begun performing the role the Gestapo played during the final years of the Nazi rule in Europe. Today the RNDP is attempting to perform ethnic cleansing throughout the Rakhine state. Through using the blockades and deportations the RNDP fulfills their aims of killing off and destroying the Burmese Rohingya population. 

During the fall of the Nazis the Gestapo joined in the effort to carryout the "final solution". By increasing the number of deportations and executions the SS and Gestapo were able to drastically decrease the populations of "undesirables" in Western Europe in the last few years of the war alone. The methods of dehumanization that they had formed early in the war only further degraded as the war continued to drag on. The Gestapo was not immune to the increase of barbarism as it too relaxed code of conduct and increased its activities throughout occupied Europe. 

In Burma the RNDP has begun to notice moves by other parties as threatening to their genocidal efforts. For this reason it appears that the RNDP has decided to increase its efforts to deport Rohingya whom they consider to be taking longer to die of starvation than time will allow. Young men and children are being led out to waiting boats where they are often forced out to sea. This tactic appears to be believed will work since the outside world now views the "waves of boat people" fleeing Burma as normal. On the other hand the RNDP bribes Rohingya families and girls to leave their villages, an act that is illegal for all Rohingya throughout Burma, so that they can be sent off into human trafficking rings. Other Rohingya who see the RNDP as helping them flee Burma are often turned over to Burmese police and military so as to be detained seemingly indefinitely. All of these methods are obviously intended to either drastically decrease the Rohingya population or more directly lead to the completion of the RNDP's genocidal goal of a complete Rohingya extermination. 

For me personally the realization that there is in fact a group of radical fascist active today was not hard at all. The realization that they were using the same tactics that led to the deaths of my ancestors was the hard part. Not because I think there is anything unique about how genocide plays out over time but rather because it was hard to imagine this happening in my time. It is never easy to believe that such an evil endeavor as this one is taking place. Often when faced with such atrocities it is easier to look away. And with the distance between us it is often the path most Americans take. 

Once again Alder's Ledge would like to take the opportunity to offer you the reader to change that, to help end this. If you have been reading this blog very long at all you know by now what a screamer is (if not follow the links below). We here at Alder's Ledge would like to ask you to scream on behalf of all the Rohingya people. We ask that you never remain silent. That you lift your voice and join with us as we demand our government and world leaders end this senseless slaughter. 

Do your part. Wake up, Stand up, and Scream. 

The photo above was taken more than a month ago and was taken in near a Rohingya refugee camp. These Rohingya are living life beyond the villages where their fellow Rohingya live in modern day concentration camps. These Rohingya live where food consist of grass and weeds found alongside dirty streets. They are not allowed to go into the Rakhine villages and purchase food. They are forbidden to use the same water as their Rakhine neighbors. Yet in comparison to the Rohingya still living in the villages, these are the lucky ones. 

Checkpoints much like those seen around the ghettos the Nazi's built during the Holocaust pot mark the area around the refugee camps. Though there are coconuts hanging in the trees outside the camps, though there is rice in the fields that the Rakhine now claim... the Rohingya starve. The barbed wire is a constant reminded that they are considered less than human in their own homeland. The lack of food makes it clear that they are considered of less value than the livestock the Rakhine raise in nearby pastures. This is the life that the Burmese have damned the Rohingya to. 

Ali Hassan, a 24 year old Rohingya man told Phuket Wan Travel News, "My babies are starving in front of my eyes. I cannot buy anything now I have no money." 

Ali Hassan had newborn twins at the time. It is impossible to know for sure if his children have survived. It is hard to imagine any child, let alone babies, living a life of starvation. But his story survives. Even if he and his family do not, his story will never perish. 

This war, this barbarism that Myanmar carries out, is meant to starve the Rohingya out of existence. The violence that plagued the Arakan state forever lingers in the air. Death hovers behind every shadow. It waits for the Rohingya... with open arms it accepts them of every age, gender, shape, and size. This is a war in as much as it pins one group against the other. Yet in this horrific struggle only one is armed... only one gets to fight... only one survives. 

There is an abundance of fish in the seas and waters along the Rakhine coasts. However the Burmese officials have confiscated almost all the fishing equipment the Rohingya once owned. Nets, poles, and hooks... nothing is left to harvest the food that the Rohingya so desperately need. 

For now the Rohingya slowly waist away as the little aid that is making it through the blockades is barely enough to keep even a small portion of them alive. It is in this slow starvation that many are turning to the the very people who cause their suffering to offer "a way out". The Rakhine Nationalities Development Party uses this wide spread starvation to traffic the Rohingya out of Myanmar. 

Over the last couple days nearly 700 Rohingya have turned up in human trafficking camps in Thailand. Over 500 Rohingya had to swim ashore in Malaysia after their boat sank 500 km off the coast. All of these Rohingya were trafficked out of the country by the RNDP. And of the RNDP's trafficking victims... they could easily be considered the lucky ones. 

Over half of the Rohingya who are sent out to sea each year die trying to make their way to Malaysia. Almost all Rohingya who are sent into Thailand are sent back to Myanmar having lost everything they had including the bribes that got them out of Burma the first time. These 1,200 Rohingya are lucky just to still be alive and outside of Myanmar. 

It is important to note at the close of this post that this tragedy, this genocide, could had been prevented. This horrific case of ethnic cleansing could be immediately stopped. All that is needed is for the outside world to finally wake up. To wake up and start taking action.

Jack Lee

Alders Ledge

January 7, 2013

We Will Not Look Away, We Will Scream 

(Part of The Darkness Visible series)

As the world neglects the minorities of Myanmar the old Junta continues to deprive many ethnic groups in Burma of their basic human rights. From the Chin to the Karen to the Rohingya the use of forced slave labor, rape camps, and starvation are killing countless minorities every day in the still barbarically brutal regime in Rangoon. Religion has played its part in the butchering of Rohingya (Muslims) and the oppression of the Chin (Christians). But race is the main factor. 

The majority of what the Junta calls "Burmese" are Buddhist. They all come from differing ethnic groups and smaller communities. Yet during the brutal rule of communist style leaders and Junta power these groups fused as one. The most important thing to this new ruling class is that the minorities "know their place" in Myanmar's new "democratic" society. 

For the Chin, nearly 80-90% Christian, the new Burma is odd in the fact that Myanmar recognizes the Chin people in the fact that they named one of the seven ethnic states in Burma the "Chin State". Like the Arakan, a people who are accepted by the Junta as "Burmese", the Chin were apparently given a place in Burmese society. Yet the old Junta continues to force the Chin into slavery to the state as they use rape to keep the Chin in line. Unjust taxation mixed with random denials to property rights makes it nearly impossible for Chin to make a self-reliant life for themselves within Myanmar. Thus the Chin are among the hordes of refugees that annually take to the borders of Myanmar and attempt to flee the ruthless regime once willingly called the Junta. 

Meanwhile the Rohingya are trapped on the border with Bangladesh, a fact that Myanmar exploits by calling the Rohingya "Bengali invaders", with no place to turn. Myanmar now has turned to the method of "forced famine" to starve out the Rohingya who have been forced out of their homes. Many of the starving Rohingya can be found in refugee camps throughout the Rakhine state. These camps are being blockaded so that food and water can not make it inside. Thus creating a famine within the camps while food flows freely just outside the camps. 

In addition to forced starvation the Rohingya face common diseases that could be prevented if the Burmese government was not also withholding basic medications from the encamped Rohingya minority. This allows for malaria to spread throughout a camp without warning. The people trapped inside have no access to medications that are often cheap or free when provided by humanitarian groups. However the Junta has made certain that children and women in these camps are restricted in access or forbidden access all together from help from the outside world. 

No matter how we look at this. No matter how we try to rationalize this. This is genocide. 

When a government attempts to restrict the population growth or drastically reduce it they are engaging in ethnic cleansing. When a government is attempting to kill off a portion or the entirety of an ethnic group they are engaged in genocide. The attempts of the Junta in Burma to bring about a "democratic" society in Burma is not to be praised by people like Barack Obama. This is not an attempt to spread "hope" to an oppressed people in a newly opened up frontier of Asia. This is genocide. 

It has been the battle cry of Alder's Ledge that we might take upon the suffering of others as our own affliction. It is our purpose in life that we might live their pain so that even in the darkest hour they might not be left alone and persecuted by the most evil aspects of humanity. In doing so we can bear witness to the anguish of those who have suffered so that the world may not deny their pain or at worst their very existence. 

Our voices will continue to be raised till our throats can suffer no longer... till blood trickles from our vocal cords. Our eyes will forever be transfixed upon the darkest chapters of man so that we might shine a light into the abyss. This is our battle cry. This is our mission. 

As 2013 lay before us it is our goal to make our voices so loud that every soul around us knows the pain of the Rohingya. We will keep their suffering at the forefront of our daily lives. As long as there are children and women lingering in death's chains we will fight. As long as there are Rohingya men being dragged off to their deaths at the hands of barbarians we will cry out. We will bear witness. 

Today, Alder's Ledge, makes only one demand of those of you who are reading this. We ask that you take to your Twitter, your Facebook, and any other social media you have to start sharing these post. We ask that you become a screamer. 

A screamer is a person who witnesses genocide and refuses to remain silent. A screamer uses the one weapon our G-d gave to all men and women... his or her voice. In the modern era a screamer takes to social media to effect change in a world where we are all linked by media. A screamer, most of all, forgets his own misfortune and takes up the suffering of others as his own. This is what drives a screamer to act... to scream. 

It is time that we all scream as one. It is time to fight.

Jack Lee

Today in Burma the military Junta has gone about the call for Rohingya "papers" in a different way. For decades now the Rohingya have not been allowed to claim citizenship in Myanmar. They have however had to go to the local authorities and document their intent to travel, give birth, or even the death of a family member. The paper work that piles up documents the peril of being a Muslim Rohingya in a Buddhist dominated country. It also makes clear that the Rohingya have lived in Myanmar for generations all the way back to the start of the Burmese government. And for that the Burmese Junta must demand the papers of the Rohingya in a different manner than the Nazi Gestapo did in Germany. 

The official claim of the Myanmar government is that the Rohingya are "invaders" that came from Bangladesh. The proof that lay in the stacks of official Myanmar records tells the story differently. Thus the Burmese military and police have come up with a method to alter that past. Instead of relying upon the official paper work, Burmese officials are now relying upon testimony derived through torture and repressive tactics that put the victim in duress. 

Every since the first roundups in June of this year the Junta have used interrogations of helpless victims to force Rohingya to sign documents stating that they are Bengali. This forced testimony and signed document is then used to justify the deportations or the endless imprisonment that the victims now face. It also helps further the genocidal ambitions of ethnic cleansing that Myanmar is currently engaged in. 

In the last few weeks these methods have been ramped up. The victims are never heard from again. If they do not sign they do not get to see their families again. If they do not sign they are lost to the illegal prisons of the Burmese Junta. And if they do sign... they are deported or thrown back in prison. Their signature is simply used as a tool in the arsenal of the Burmese authorities. Their papers are used to justify the extreme measures taken by the Myanmar government to "end civil unrest". 

There is no way of telling for sure where the Rohingya victims of this tactic end up. Some activist have claimed that the Burmese government is simply exterminating those who will not sign. Though hard to believe, it is plausible when one thinks back and looks at how the Burmese military willingly opened fire upon unarmed Rohingya fleeing the mobs. Others claim that the prisons in which they are held are nothing more than concentration camps in which starvation and disease is meant to kill through attrition. Once again, hard to imagine in this day in age... but very plausible when one looks at Burma's human rights record. 

We can not say with any certainty how many Rohingya have been killed in Burma as of today. We can say, however, that the Rohingya in Myanmar now face total annihilation by the Burmese government. Through tactics like this one mentioned here the Myanmar government is pushing for the removal or complete extermination of the Rohingya. The government of Burma is receiving absolutely no pressure from the outside world to end their campaign of genocide. And without that pressure, the million plus Rohingya face certain death.

(Wasting Away As The Outside World Watches)