Habib Siddiqui
RB Article
August 7, 2017
Every day I receive dozens of emails. Most of these emails (at least 30) are about Myanmar’s inhuman treatment of the minorities. It is simply depressing to read the sad stories of their extermination, aptly termed the slow-burning genocide by Dr. Maung Zarni, a fellow human rights activist.
Who would have thought that in a Buddhist country, run by Suu Kyi, a winner of the Nobel Prize for peace, these unfortunate minorities – mostly Muslims – will continue to be victimized for total annihilation simply because of their different religious and ethnic identity? Obviously, the non-violent messages of Siddhartha Gautam Buddha have miserably failed to humanize the Buddhists of Myanmar. They remain mortgaged to their savage past of extreme intolerance that had terrorized their neighbors for centuries.
I am aware that in the post-9/11 era, some world leaders are willing to look the other ways or excuse the inexcusable crimes of Suu Kyi’s government to stopping genocide of the Muslim minorities. But genocide is a serious matter that deserves our serious attention. It would be utterly irresponsible to overlook this grievous crime simply because the country is now run by an elected, popular lady, a practicing Buddhist who was the poster lady for democracy, and not a hated military junta that she successfully replaced.
The United Nations in 1948 defined genocide to mean any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, including: (a) killing members of the group (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group (e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
As I have repeatedly mentioned since the mid-2000s, what is happening with the minority Muslims in general, and particularly the Rohingyas of Myanmar who mostly live in the Rakhine state (formerly Arakan) bordering Bangladesh, is nothing short of genocide. The overwhelming verdict of the subject matter experts, since at least 2012, is also the same. The destruction of the Rohingya – politically, culturally and economically – is a complete one that is carried out both by Buddhist civilians backed by the state and perpetrated directly by state actors and state institutions. I have been calling it a national project that is scripted and directed by the state since the days of General Ne Win enjoying the full cooperation, collaboration, contribution from, and execution by the Buddhist majority – monks, mobs and the military.
As noted by Dr. Maung Zarni and Alice Cowley in their seminal work “The slow-burning genocide of Myanmar’s Rohingya”, both the State in Myanmar and the local community have committed four out of five acts of genocide as spelled out by the 1948 Convention on the Punishment and Prevention of the Crime of Genocide.
What is so disturbing with the on-going genocide of the Rohingya and Muslim minorities in Myanmar is that it is happening in our time, some 69 years after the UN Convention. For the sake of argument, one may find some excuses for the major perpetrators of genocidal crimes of the pre-1948 era saying that they did not know better (this is not to excuse their horrendous crimes!) but what’s the excuse for Suu Kyi and her predecessors within the military?
Our human history has repeatedly been tarnished by genocidal crimes of the few. But rarely do we see genocide as a national project with full participation of the all to annihilate the ‘other’ people. And yet, such is the reality in today’s Myanmar!
Buddhist monks, businessman and politicians influence the general public on the need to purify what they call the ‘Buddhist motherland’ from any vestige of ‘outsiders’, the kalar (kala) - Islam and Muslims; false rumors are spread like wildfires to create unfathomed animosity; they stage demonstrations demanding the government to go tough with the already marginalized targeted group, to put them in concentration camps or to kill them unprovoked creating the urge for the victims to get out of this ‘den of extreme intolerance’ if they still want to survive; cordon off or surround Muslim neighborhoods with guns, pistols and machetes, and terrorize the victims with all the devious methods known to mankind – scorched-earth policy of burning their homes, businesses, educational, social and religious institutions, arresting, and detaining, harassing and killing innocent people, esp. anyone below the age of 50, and finally, using rape as a weapon of war to dehumanize the victims. And the list of such evil measures goes on with full participation from all the segments of the Buddhist people of Myanmar. It’s a complete project of elimination of the Rohingya and other minority Muslims.
Otherwise, how can we explain the on-going crimes of the Buddhist people and government of Myanmar? It is no accident that Suu Kyi wants to cover Myanmar’s heinous crimes by disallowing any investigation from the international community and using the kangaroo parliament to condemn the efforts and reports of the UN special rapporteur Yanghee Lee. For such crimes, I need neither go to the history of ethnic cleansing drives of the 1930s and 1940s of the British era nor even those of the newly independent Burma. Just the current events in the past week are enough to understand the gravity of the situation and the monumental crimes of the Buddhist Myanmar against the minority Muslims.
A 45-year old Rohingya man was brutally killed by Rakhine extremists, aided by Myanmar security forces, inside the premises of the Sittwe University on Saturday, August 5, 2017 at around 9:30 a.m. The victim was identified as Mohammad Abul, son of U Ali Ahmad of Kone Dagar (Konka Fara) Rohingya IDP camp, Sittwe (formerly Akyab). Commenting on the brutal murder, a Rohingya rights activist lamented the fact that under Suu Kyi’s watch and tacit encouragement the “Rakhine extremist are trying to eradicate all Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar systematically. The Buddhist community’s mission is ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya minority.” On the same day, a Rohingya youth Eliyaz (26), son of Mohammed Hassan from the village of Ohn Taw Gyi, is feared to have been killed by Rakhine extremists in the village of Aung Dain.
In the early hours of Thursday, August 3, a group of about 30 Buddhists armed with sticks and swords attacked the Muslim-majority Sakya Nwe Sin neighborhood in the former royal capital, Mandalay. A local administrator said two young Muslim men were injured.
Mandalay residents told Reuters the incident had stirred fears of a repeat of deadly communal violence that hit the same neighborhood in 2014.
Mandalay and other central towns have seen sporadic outbreaks of hate crimes against the minority Muslims since Myanmar's transition from full military rule began in 2011.
On Wednesday, August 2, small groups of Buddhist monks with dozens of lay supporters set up two “boycott camps” close to country’s most important Buddhist site, the Shwedagon pagoda, and at a Mandalay pagoda just blocks from scene of the mob attack later that night.
Behind banners accusing Suu Kyi’s administration of failing to protect Buddhism, the monks upturned their alms bowls - a traditional symbol of defiance against the country’s rulers.
Since Tuesday, August 1, the minority Rohingya community – comprising of some 650 people - living in the village of ‘Zaydi Pyin’ in Rathedaung Township remains surrounded by State-backed Rakhine extremists. Their access to food and to roads, forests and rivers are cut off with barbed wire fences erected by the government-backed extremists, thereby restricting their movement and forcing starvation on them. Unless the blockade is removed immediately many Rohingyas may die.
A human rights activist said, “The main reason behind such a blockade is to make them starve and die; and eventually force them to leave their homes once and for all. So, the Myanmar government can tell the world that the Rohingyas are leaving their homes on their own.”
On Sunday, July 30, 2017, a group of Military and BGP raided Yedwin Pyin village northern Maungdaw and fully demolished some Rohingya houses, looted their properties such as money, jewelries and other valuables and left the immovable things destroyed. Then the military and BGP gang-raped three Rohingya women from the village.
Nearly 1000 Rohingyas died and tens of thousands were displaced in 2012 in Rakhine state. Genocidal violence against the Rohingya people escalated there last year after attacks on border posts allegedly by Rohingya militants. The military operation sent an estimated 75,000 people across the nearby border to Bangladesh, where many gave accounts of serious abuses. A United Nations report issued earlier this year said Myanmar's security forces had committed mass killings and gang rapes against Rohingya during their campaign against the insurgents, which may amount to crimes against humanity.
The European Union has similarly proposed the investigation after the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said the army's operation in the northern part of Rakhine State - where most people are Rohingyas - likely included crimes against humanity.
Reuters was among international media escorted to the area last week in a tour closely overseen by security forces. Rohingya women told reporters of husbands and sons arbitrarily detained, and of killings and arson by security forces that broadly match the accounts from refugees in Bangladesh. Typical of genocide deniers, Suu Kyi’s government continues to deny such accusations and says most are fabricated.
In several recent cases, local officials have bowed to nationalist pressure to shut down Muslim buildings that they say are operating without official approval. Two madrassas were shuttered in May in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon.
Local media reported the closure of a mosque and another Islamic school in Oatkan, on Yangon’s outskirts, this week.
Authorities in Kyaukpadaung, central Myanmar - famed for not accepting non-Buddhist residents - last month agreed to demolish a structure that was falsely suspected of being a mosque.
In a letter to Suu Kyi on Thursday, August 3, twenty groups working on human rights in Myanmar said the government needed to do more to protect Muslims, who make up 4.3 percent of the population. "The Burma government must not appease the ultra-nationalists who are utilizing hate speech, intimidation, and violence to promote fear in Muslim communities across the country," said the letter. "It is extremely alarming to see how anti-Muslim sentiment has spread beyond Rakhine state, where the Rohingya Muslim minority has been harshly persecuted and isolated, even to major cities like Yangon."
On August 4, responding to mounting reports of violence in northern Rakhine State, including the deaths of villagers in the last week, Amnesty International’s Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific James Gomez said: “The alarming reports of attacks in northern Rakhine State underscore the need for everyone operating in the area to refrain from violence before it spirals out of control. These latest attacks underscore the need for the Myanmar authorities to cooperate fully with the UN Fact-Finding Mission and allow them unfettered access to all parts the country. The people of Myanmar and the international community deserve to know the truth. The authorities’ pledge to respond to the latest killings in Rakhine with ‘intensive clearance operations’ is particularly worrying, given the scorched-earth tactics Amnesty International has documented during these operations in the past. While the Myanmar authorities have the duty to maintain law and order and investigate these attacks, they must ensure that these investigations are conducted in a fair and transparent manner, in accordance with international human rights law.”
In Myanmar, Rohingyas face extinction. They are denied all the fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Myanmar's nationality law, approved in 1982, denies Rohingya citizenship. Rohingyas are not recognized among the 134 official ethnicities in Myanmar because authorities see them as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh. They are subjected to forced labor, have no land rights and are heavily restricted by the government. They have no permission to leave the camps built for them, have no source of income and must rely on the World Food Program to survive, which is often restricted to them. The local Buddhists are forbidden to supply food or do any business with them.
Adolf Hitler’s instruction to his Army commanders on August 22, 1939 read: "Thus for the time being I have sent to the East only my 'Death's Head Units' with the orders to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish race or language. Only in such a way will we win the vital space that we need.”
We falsely assumed that after the fall of Nazism we shall never again see a repeat of such grievous crimes. The fact, however, is Suu Kyi’s government, like her predecessors, has perfected such criminal policies to wipe out the Rohingya and minority Muslims.
Despite growing evidence of genocide, the international community has so far avoided calling this large scale human suffering genocide because no powerful member states of the UN Security Council have any appetite to forego their commercial and strategic interests in Myanmar to address the slow-burning Rohingya genocide. Dr. Zarni quotes Terith Chy, a Khmer Criminologist, “The world is watching and does nothing to end the sufferings of the Rohingya. This is much like what happened in Cambodia and Rwanda. The world stands by. It keeps on watching, watching, watching . . .” [(Genocide) Documentation Center of Cambodia]
I wonder how long shall we just watch and watch, and do nothing to stop the genocidal crimes of the Myanmar government!
Ro Mayyu Ali
RB Article
August 5, 2017
Since I was in kindergarten, Rakhine students and Rohingya students have been sitting together in the same seats in the classroom. We have been playing together in the same playground in our school. We have been drinking water from the same metal pot with a small thick plastic cup. Our school is situated in Maungdaw, Northern Rakhine State.
The desks and chairs in our school are not for individual students, but rather it is long worn out wooden bench and desk. We use to sit three to five students per desk. Boys and girls sit separated in the classroom during the lesson, but there is no separation by ethnicity. Perhaps this is where we first are taught the values of friendship and togetherness.
When I was in grade two, I can vaguely recall that I had a Buddhist boy who sat at the same desk as me in the classroom. I have trouble recalling his name now, but I vividly recall his face, always red-nosed. He was the beloved son of a military Investigation Officer. His parents relocated to our village and he joined our school. I remember he was the best dressed and most stylish boy in our classroom.
Neither of us could understand each other’s language. He didn’t know my language, and I couldn’t understand his Burmese accent at that age. But we found other ways to understand each other. I could help him when I understood his needs. It was simple when we were that young, even without word. We were too young to fear each other, and the idea that we were a threat to each other had never occurred to us.
Since secondary classes, I have had some close Rakhine classmates. They were Aung Naing, Soe Min, Zaw win and Ma Ninn Wai. All of them are from my village. When there were sports matches in our school we took the lead roles together. We enjoyed our time together during festivals and wedding ceremonies of our siblings. We freely visited each other’s homes.
We never argued over anything greater than our sitting arrangements for the seat of first-row in our classroom. Perhaps we used to tease each other, but harmlessly and never bullying. We all had our own dreams. Aung Naing and I wanted to be school teachers. Soe Min and Zaw Win wanted to be in the armed forces. Ma Ninn Wai never told us what she wanted to be.
The more we grew the stronger our friendships became. We grew close enough to share more with each other. We felt secure in front of each other. We used our exchanges and knowledge to help each other. During our exams we helped each other’s study. Our friendships were pure, even when we were not.
With a vigorous might and bonding we stayed friends all the way to our matriculation exams. We studied the same subjects and attended the same tuition classes. We never had to feel different while we were together in school.
When the results were in, Aung Naing and I passed the exam. Soe Min, Zaw Win and Ma Ninn Wai were studying again for the next academic year. We were preparing for our higher education. Yet, nothing pushed us apart at all.
Aung Naing and I were on the same path. We share the same dreams or our lives, and he came from a less privileged family like mine. We were not able to join Day University. He worked at a goldsmith shop in the market and I ran a tuition class in my town. We both were bookworms and loved learning and reading new books. We share a passion to write down quotes, poems and essays. We both were soft spoken, gentle. We were similar in many ways, but that Aung Naing was fatter than me.
In 2011 I joined Distance University of Education in Sittwe for my first year hoping to obtain a B.A. in English. During this time, my friend Aung Naing was studying final year for Physics. Our friends who failed the matriculation still took their exams in the next academic level. Luck, however, did not favor them. When we were in our village we often met each other. We’d sit in the teashop together watching movies. Everything was simple and fair in our relationship.
When our results were announced I passed my first year. Aung Naing became a graduate in B. SC, Physics. It was time for him to chase his dream, as it was for me and my dream to finish my study. He had already applied to be a school teacher. I enrolled for a second year. Time moved so quickly.
In Jun 2012, sectarian violence broke out. There were deep tensions between the Rakhine people and my Rohingya people. We believe now it was manipulated to happen by the government, to pit our peoples against each other. The violence pitted the Buddhist people against the Muslim people in our state. With the destruction and loss of property and life came the destruction of the relationship between our communities. Love and kindness between our peoples were replaced by distrust and tension.
Since then no Muslim student has been allowed to attend Sittwe University. At the same time, no restrictions have been placed on the Buddhists. My Buddhist classmates can all still pursue their dreams. When I see them now, they all look quite different. Aung Naing became a school teacher. Soe Min became a Border Guard Police. Zaw Win is a policeman now. I however have had to remain incomplete. How can a wave crash in two directions on the same shore? I wondered often.
Five years later I’ve waited to rejoin my university. I hoped to be teaching a classroom in school by now. Even as I am qualified I have applied but have been rejected for not being Buddhist. My dreams and hope have been lost to this conflict, and I find myself also lost in it.
Even though my dream is the same as Aung Naing, we are different in faith. Aung Naing is Buddhist and I am Muslim. In my country this distinction matters, and it has crushed the dreams of my younger self.
Today, my heart breaks when I see the Rakhine I was friends with in childhood – Aung Naing in his school teacher’s uniform and Soe Min and Zaw Win in their armed forces uniforms. I feel lost and worthless. In my young age I faced the many ways a human can suffer on this planet. I had all the potential to achieve my dreams, but lost them as soon as they should have become reality. It is a suffering I think few can understand in this world.
Even though we are still friends since we have known each other since childhood – since our births really, some external factors divide us. Time separates us. Circumstances marginalize us. We have lost the bonds that kept us together as we once were, and our loyalty and closeness is not what it once was. Our coexistence is incomplete. Now, we are not who we were. We are not children who were peaceful and happy together.
What then should we do now? Should we look at our childhood to learn? How we once were the same and supported and understood each other? Should we see we were born on the same soil and grew together? Should we remember we were taught in the same school, and to this day survive in the same place?
Then why now can we not sit together again at the tea shop? Why can’t we watch movies together as we once did? No longer we can enjoy each other’s’ festivals and ceremonies. We could have this time again. We could revive this once more. My friend and childhood friends! We could once again live peacefully together.
If we only allow ourselves to! So drop down the rope of this distrust and tension. A new peaceful future looked-like our past is waiting for us. We have nothing to pain more but much to gain.
***The names of the characters in the post are changed for the sake of safety and for privacy desire. However, the sequences of the story articulated in this post represent my real childhood, once we all Rakhine and Rohingya class-friends were the same and altogether. ***
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(Photo: Anadolu Agency) |
Robert J. Burrowes
RB Article
June 28, 2017
It is a tragic measure of the depravity of human existence that genocide is a continuing and prevalent manifestation of violence in the international system, despite the effort following World War II to abolish it through negotiation, and then adoption and ratification of the 1948 Genocide Convention. https://treaties.un.org/doc/publication/unts/volume%2078/volume-78-i-1021-english.pdf
According to the Genocide Convention, genocide is any act committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group by killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group and/or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
While this definition is contested because, for example, it excludes killing of political groups, and words such as ‘democide’ (the murder or intentionally reckless and depraved disregard for the life of any person or people by their government,) and ‘politicide’ (the murder of any person or people because of their political or ideological beliefs) have been suggested as complementary terms, in fact atrocities that have been characterized as ‘genocide’ by various authors include mass killings, mass deportations, politicides, democides, withholding of food and/or other necessities of life, death by deliberate exposure to invasive infectious disease agents or combinations of these. See ‘Genocides in history’. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocides_in_history
While genocide and attempts at genocide were prevalent enough both before World War II (just ask the world’s indigenous peoples) and then during World War II itself, which is why the issue attracted serious international attention in the war’s aftermath, it cannot be claimed that the outlawing of genocide did much to end the practice, as the record clearly demonstrates.
Moreover, given that the United Nations and national governments, out of supposed ‘deference’ to ‘state sovereignty’, have been notoriously unwilling and slow to meaningfully respond to genocides, as was the case in Rwanda in 1994 and has been the case with the Rohingya in Myanmar (Burma) for four decades – as carefully documented in ‘The Slow-Burning Genocide of Myanmar’s Rohingya’ https://digital.lib.washington.edu/dspace-law/handle/1773.1/1377 – there is little evidence to suggest that major actors in the international system have any significant commitment to ending the practice, either in individual cases or in general. For example, as official bodies of the world watch, solicit reports and debate whether or not the Rohingya are actually victims of genocide, this minority Muslim population clearly suffers from what many organizations and any decent human being have long labeled as such. For a sample of the vast literature on this subject, see ‘The 8 Stages of Genocide Against Burma’s Rohingya’ https://www.undispatch.com/the-8-stages-of-genocide-against-burmas-rohingya/ and ‘Countdown to Annihilation: Genocide in Myanmar’. http://statecrime.org/data/2015/10/ISCI-Rohingya-Report-PUBLISHED-VERSION.pdf
Of course, it is not difficult to understand institutional inaction. Despite its fine rhetoric and even legal provisions, the United Nations, acting in response to the political and corporate elites that control it, routinely fails to act to prevent or halt wars (despite a UN Charter and treaties, such as the Kellogg-Briand Pact, that empower and require it to do so), routinely fails to defend refugees, routinely fails to act decisively on issues (such as nuclear weapons and the climate catastrophe) that constitute global imperatives for human survival, and turns the other way when peoples under military occupation (such as those of Tibet, West Papua, Western Sahara and Palestine) seek their support.
Why then should those under genocidal assault expect supportive action from the UN or international community in general? The factors which drive these manifestations of violence serve a diverse range of geopolitical interests in each case, and are usually highly profitable into the bargain. What hope justice or even decency in such circumstances?
Moreover, the deep psychological imperatives that drive the phenomenal violence in the international system are readily nominated: in essence, phenomenal fear, self-hatred and powerlessness. These psychological characteristics, together with the others that drive the behaviour of perpetrators of violence, have been identified and explained – see ‘Why Violence?’ http://tinyurl.com/whyviolence and ‘Fearless Psychology and Fearful Psychology: Principles and Practice’ http://anitamckone.wordpress.com/articles-2/fearless-and-fearful-psychology/ – but it is the way these (unconsciously and deeply-suppressed) emotions are projected that is critical to understanding the violent (and insane) behavioural outcomes in our world. For brief explanations see, for example, ‘Understanding Self-Hatred in World Affairs’ https://www.popularresistance.org/understanding-self-hatred-in-world-affairs/ and ‘The Global Elite is Insane’. http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/06-02-2014/126767-global_elite-0/
Given the deep psychological imperatives that drive the violence of global geopolitics and corporate exploitation (as well as national, subnational and individual acts of violence), we cannot expect a compassionate and effective institutional response to genocide in the prevailing institutional order, as the record demonstrates. So, is there anything a targeted population can do to resist a genocidal assault?
Fortunately, there is a great deal that a targeted population can do. The most effective response is to develop and implement a comprehensive nonviolent strategy to either prevent a genocidal assault in the first place or to halt it once it has begun. This is done most effectively by using a sound strategic framework that guides the comprehensive planning of the strategy. Obviously, there is no point designing a strategy that is incomplete or cannot be successful.
A sound strategic framework enables us to think and plan strategically so that once our strategy has been elaborated, it can be widely shared and clearly understood by everyone involved. It also means that nonviolent actions can then be implemented because they are known to have strategic utility and that precise utility is understood in advance. There is little point taking action at random, especially if our opponent is powerful and committed (even if that ‘commitment’ is insane which, as briefly noted above, is invariably the case).
There is a simple diagram presenting a 12-point strategic framework illustrated here in the form of the ‘Nonviolent Strategy Wheel’. https://nonviolentliberationstrategy.wordpress.com/strategywheel/
In order to think strategically about nonviolently defending against a genocidal assault, a clearly defined political purpose is needed; that is, a simple summary statement of ‘what you want’. In general terms, this might be stated thus: To defend the [nominated group] against the genocidal assault and establish the conditions for the group to live in peace, free of violence and exploitation.
Once the political purpose has been defined, the two strategic aims (‘how you get what you want’) of the strategy acquire their meaning. These two strategic aims (which are always the same whatever the political purpose) are as follows: 1. To increase support for the struggle to defeat the genocidal assault by developing a network of groups who can assist you. 2. To alter the will and undermine the power of those groups inciting, facilitating, organizing and conducting the genocide.
While the two strategic aims are always the same, they are achieved via a series of intermediate strategic goals which are always specific to each struggle. I have identified a generalized set of 48 strategic goals that would be appropriate in the context of ending any genocide here. https://nonviolentliberationstrategy.wordpress.com/strategywheel/strategic-aims/ These strategic goals can be readily modified to the circumstances of each particular instance of genocide.
Many of these strategic goals would usually be tackled by action groups working in solidarity with the affected population campaigning in third-party countries. Of course, individual activist groups would usually accept responsibility for focusing their work on achieving just one or a few of the strategic goals (which is why any single campaign within the overall strategy is readily manageable).
As I hope is apparent, the two strategic aims are achieved via a series of intermediate strategic goals.
Not all of the strategic goals will need to be achieved for the strategy to be successful but each goal is focused in such a way that its achievement will functionally undermine the power of those conducting the genocide.
It is the responsibility of the struggle’s strategic leadership to ensure that each of the strategic goals, which should be identified and prioritized according to their precise understanding of the circumstances in the country where the genocide is occurring, is being addressed (or to prioritize if resource limitations require this).
I wish to emphasize that I have only briefly discussed two aspects of a comprehensive strategy for ending a genocide: its political purpose and its two strategic aims (with its many subsidiary strategic goals). For the strategy to be effective, all twelve components of the strategy should be planned (and then implemented). See Nonviolent Defense/Liberation Strategy. https://nonviolentliberationstrategy.wordpress.com/
This will require, for example, that tactics that will achieve the strategic goals must be carefully chosen and implemented bearing in mind the vital distinction between the political objective and strategic goal of any such tactic. See ‘The Political Objective and Strategic Goal of Nonviolent Actions’. https://nonviolentliberationstrategy.wordpress.com/articles/political-objective-strategic-goal/
It is not difficult to nonviolently defend a targeted population against genocide. Vitally, however, it requires a leadership that can develop a sound strategy so that people are mobilized and deployed effectively.
Robert J. Burrowes has a lifetime commitment to understanding and ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of ‘Why Violence?’ http://tinyurl.com/whyviolence His email address is flametree@riseup.net and his website is here. http://robertjburrowes.wordpress.com
RB Article
June 23, 2017
The Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim community, a people developed from the interactions of various ethnicities over the period of many centuries, have inhabited Arakan with a long history. In terms of their origin and culture, as well as their present geographical location, they have more in common with people from India rather than the other Burmese races. This has encouraged vested quarters backed by the military to unleash a successful propaganda campaign against this Muslim race to a point their very existence is not tolerated by people from other races in the country, despite the unceasing imploration of the minority community for peaceful co-existence.
The Rohingya problem is a longstanding issue of ethnic, religious and political persecution to rid Arakan of the Muslim population. “… with increasing frequency over time, … 1942, 1977, 1991, 2012 and 2014, waves of Muslim minority Rohingya fled Rakhine (Arakan) due to extreme forms of repression from the authorities dominated by the majority Buddhist and Burmese people.”[1] The horrific Muslim massacre of 1942 where about a hundred thousand were slaughtered by a Rakhine dominated militia is now a forgotten chapter in the pages of history lost amidst the gory backdrop of the Second World War.
With the 1962 military takeover, the determination of the military regime to expel the Rohingya entered a new phase, quickly assuming the nature of ethnic cleansing and genocide that by now mankind has made regrettably conventional in many other corners of the world. Since then, for decades, the defenseless Rohingya have been stripped of their citizenship rendering them stateless in their own homeland of Arakan/Burma and refugees beyond its borders. Violently rejected in Burma and unwanted in neighbouring Bangladesh and elsewhere, the poor Rohingya are even in a realm hardened by terror and genocide, described by the UN as the world’s most persecuted people, a race without a country, adrift on the sea of sorrow.
Sensing a bleak future amidst a hostile militant Buddhist environment, the 1942 pogrom motivated many Rohingya youths to embark on an armed revolution, on the eve of Burma’s independence in 1948, under the honorific nomenclature of Mujahid Party/Movement in order to safeguard the rights and freedom of their people. The Mujahids enjoyed widespread community support so long as they remained disciplined and steadfast.
Unlike Buddhist Rakhine groups -- whether communist or nationalist movements -- the mainstream Mujahid and all succeeding Rohingya freedom movements never demanded separatism, although Burmese regime(s) and vested interests have engaged in a calculated and pernicious propaganda to tarnish the image of Rohingya emancipation movement as separatist, extremist, terrorist and having links with international terrorist organisations. However, Rohingya people did not show up in struggles outside their country and remained committed only as a community within Arakan. After the Mujahids ceased activities in 1961 in return for concessions promised by the regime, no significant Rohingya armed revolutionary groups have emerged only because the vast majority continued to believe in the path of peaceful political settlements, despite the continuous setbacks that followed. All armed remnants, including the much publicised Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) has become defunct for a long time. Nevertheless, there was no change of attitude by the government or representatives from the majority Buddhist communities towards the Rohingya people. They soon became invariably subjected to horrific crimes against humanity which amounts to ethnic cleansing and genocide. Giving little or no attention to the predicament and current terrible situation besetting the Rohingya people, those who practice unethical journalism have over the years shifted the Rohingya issue to that of illegal immigration and extremism rather than what it really is - - a case of the ethnic cleansing of a defenseless minority.
Deviating from his previous position, a renowned Swedish Journalist Bertil Lintner recently wrote in his article titled “Militancy in Arakan State” dated 15 December 2016 that Muslims of Arakan who now call themselves “Rohingya” are unlikely to have anything to do with the Rooinga- as recorded by East India Company’s Scottish ethno-linguist Buchanan in 1789. He continued that it was not until the late 1950s that the name Rohingya came into use and the government recognised the designation. U Nu, who had resigned as prime minister in 1958 to give way to a military caretaker government headed by Gen Ne Win, wanted to get the Muslim vote when he sought re-election in 1960 – and the creation of the Mayu Frontier Administration as well as the recognition of the name of Rohingya was part of the campaign, according to Lintner. It is devoid of meaning as there was no such statement or record. The acceptance of ‘Rohingya’ as an ethnic name was also accepted by Prime Minister U Nu’s socialist rival U Ba Swe. On top of that no credible Rakhine political Party at that time did ever raise any citable objections to the recognition of Rohingya as one of the ethnic nationalities of the Union of Burma. In fact, “the plan to set up Mayu Frontier Administration (MFA) for the predominantly Rohingya was made by the Ministry of Defence Border Affairs Division as the Rohingya leaders from North Arakan townships were bitterly opposed to granting Rakhine an autonomous statehood as promised by U Nu –and even long before that.”[2] At that time Gen Ne Win was Chief of Staff and Brigadier Aung Gyi was Deputy Chief of Staff. It may be pointed that the concept of MFA was based on “Muslim Area of North Arakan” that the British Military Command declared vide its announcement No. 110-CC/42 dated 31 December 1942.
As atrocities continued and attitudes hardened, the community slid towards desolation leading to desperation, especially among the young generation. It was in the midst of this already volatile situation that in 2012, the anti-Muslim riots took place, virtually obliterating the social fabric of the Rohingya community. It was an event where almost everybody from Maungdaw to Kyauktaw lost someone dear to them. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had long been the last beacon of hope for the Rohingya Muslims, but instead she attempted to shield the military rulers and the perpetrators of this gruesome violence. Gradually her stance moved more towards the anti-Muslim bloc till a time came when she started to pin the blame on the victims. It was a great shock for the Rohingyas, a community whose members had almost unanimously prayed for the day she would rule Burma. The so-called democratic transition made the Rohingya even more disenfranchised subsequently excluding them from the 2014 census. By then, many from the Rohingya young generation whether in their homeland or in their places of refuge were ready to listen to anyone who offered them a message of violent retaliation.
Even then, it was four years after the public declaration of the Tatmadaw and their nationalist allies to annihilate the Rohingyas that the attacks on the Border Guard Police headquarters and its two outposts in Maungdaw district took place, on 9 October 2016. The attackers belonged to a hitherto unknown Rohingya group, apparently in hundreds, under the name of Harakat al-Yakeen (the Faith Movement or the Movement of Hope). It is, however, worth mentioning that the Border Guard Police (BGP), formerly NaSaKa, has been established by the former infamous Gen Khin Nyunt to steadily annihilate the Rohingya community from their ancestral homeland. The members of the BGP and security forces are unofficially licensed to indulge in extra-judicial killing, arbitrary arrest, rape, arson, destruction, looting, extortion, and other inhuman acts against the Rohingya community.
The military under the pretext of cleansing operation or counter insurgency retaliated with excessive force indulging in summary executions including that of infant children, mass rapes and destruction of the properties of innocent Rohingya civilians, while aid organisations, foreign journalists and international observers were denied access. The government announced that the group was well trained and well-funded and backed by Middle Eastern patrons, ringing alarm bells across foreign capitals. In reality, the evidence and videos released suggest that the attackers while belonging to the country’s long oppressed Rohingya Muslim minority are ill quipped, and a significant majority of them are children under 12, armed with few assorted obsolete arms, swords, spears, sticks and even farm tools, devoid of proper uniforms or shoes; the attacks were confined to the Rohingya area of Northern Maungdaw; and their tactics and behaviours did not seem sophisticated. As a researcher with the Burma Human Rights Network points out in an article analysing the new insurgent group, “The feeling quickly sinks in that these children are being marched to their deaths for something they are not even old enough to understand. Frankly, it is horrifying.”[3]
It is impossible to comprehend how a force like the Tatmadaw, fighting guerilla movements for more than six decades missed the textbook conditions that were brewing up leading to the present armed insurgency in Arakan. The Armed Forces, well versed in ‘counter insurgency’ knew very well what was going to hit them. Whatever the objectives of the ill equipped attackers, they had played right into the hands of the shrewd Tatmadaw officials who have long been waiting for an opportunity to execute another bout of ethnic cleansing similar to 2012, but one that could be continued over time with more brutal efficiency. Intentions of such a violent confrontation with ill equipped Rohingya villagers would be to (i) frustrate regional and international efforts for communal reconciliation and to address the human rights situation in Arakan, (ii) keep the Rohingya majority area of northern Arakan under military control raising false security alarm from the angle of so-called terrorism thereby to create an “exclusive military administration within the government” and slowly but surely weaken the NLD-led government (iii) diminish the existing sympathy and support of the international community for oppressed and persecuted Rohingya by portraying them as having connections with militant Islam (iv) produce IDPs in Maungdaw district as in Akyab/Sittwe with the intention to ultimately destroy the whole community; (vi) push the Rohingyas into Bangladesh (vii) permanently divide the two sister communities of Rohingya and Rakhine on ethnic and religious lines; and (viii) divert the attention of the people away from the ongoing wars in Kachin and Shan states.
A report by the Brussels based International Crisis Group (ICG) published under an unfavourable title, “A new Muslim insurgency in Rakhine State”, perhaps unwittingly gave the Myanmar regime invaluable support. It does not help that Rohingyas are Muslims. In all fairness, the ICG report calls for addressing the root causes of the Rohingya insurgency. It condemns atrocities against the Muslim population and identifies the failure of the government as the reasons this insurgency was born. One of the authors of the ICG report said, it is at heart motivated by local grievances rather than trans-national Jihad like IS or al-Qaeda. Yet the practical truth is the ICG report did not lead the international media to carry headlines such as “Crimes Against Humanity or Genocide or Ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas creating new Muslim insurgency”. Rather the headlines read more like ‘Myanmar’s Rohingya insurgency has links to Saudi, Pakistan’, giving impetus to the government claim it was fighting well funded terrorists at a time when Rohingya villagers, including women and children were being slaughtered indiscriminately in what was a colossal assault on defenseless civilians and not a counter-insurgency operation. Through no fault of their own, the Muslim community was placed on the wrong side of the war on terror, with the situation playing into the hands of one of the world’s most brutal security forces. As for the group’s funds, by now it is well known they were indeed being financed by another ragtag band of refugees based only in Saudi Arabia, and not by conventional governments or oil barons. At a time when their friends and relatives were being slaughtered, with children being thrown into the fire, the bewildered Rohingya had to bear with allegations of supporting militant outfits whose very names sounded strange to their ears.
It is shocking that the writer Bertil Lintner was callous to writes, “it is also not known whether today’s militants, as suggested, want to establish an Islamic state in northwestern Arakan State, or are only looking for operations in the region, including perhaps even India”. He intentionally avoids highlighting the clear statement of the Harakat al-Yakeen that rejected the trans-national terrorist label, called for the restoration of rights and freedom, demanded to resolve the Rohingya problem and redress the grievances of the beleaguered community, and expressed a feeling of abandonment by the international community, while calling on the Myanmar government to end the decades-old civil war with the ethnic nationalities in the country. Despite the fact that Rakhine youths are ganging up with the security forces in unleashing violence against Rohingya villagers, no Rakhine miscreants have been targeted by the members of the Harakat al-Yakeen. Their demands are minimum and legitimate. When all other remedies are completely exhausted, self-defense will accrue from all standpoints.
[1] “Sanction Myanmar And Give The Rohingya A State Of Their Own”, an article by Anders Corr Contributor, Forbes, 28 December 2016
[2] Bertiil Linter makes facts up about Rohingya while playing to popular and policy-Islamophobia, an article by Dr. Maung Zar Ni, 17 December 2016.
[3] Taking the Rohingya Insurgency at Face Value”, an article by Richard Potter in Diplomat dated October 30, 2016
Nurul Islam is Chairman of Arakan Rohingya National Organisation.
By Liz Mys and Andrew Day
RB Article
March 22, 2017
Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh
“In some camps there are latrines in front of their dwellings upon the mazes of long bamboo sheds. They are choked with the blackest rancid bubbly mixture of everything nasty that you can possibly imagine from excrement to dead animals. Mosquitoes hovering over their putrid breeding ground just inches from where thousands of people are laying on the mud floors of their huts. In the midst of the hot season, the gunk in the latrines thicken into a bog like mixture.- Andrew Day
Unlike the Kutapalong Registered camp where the main source of water is ground water, with tube wells (one functioning tube well to 107 families on average), Nayapara camp, which is in Teknaf sub district beside the river Naf and groundwater is not available due to hydrological constrains.
In order to provide water in the Nayapara camp, an artificial reservoir was constructed within the boundary of the camp. Drinking water is supplied through a pipe line network and during the dry season, water is trucked in to the camp.
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Nayapara. Photos by Andrew Day |
The operating time of the water taps is 2 hours per day, though it is of one cause of discrepancy. The families report that they only manage to collect 3 to 4 containers per family per day, 6 to 8 liters. For an average family of 6 or more this ration is hardly enough and well below the 15 to 20 liters recommended.
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Shamlapur |
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Leda Unregistered Camp |
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Nayapara Registered Camp |
The water they are getting to drink and to cook with, depending on where you are will come from a dirty ravine, shallow tune wells or pumped from reservoirs. The quality of water is terrible. Most of the water sources begin to dry up at the end of the hot season, before the rain comes, making supply scarce.
Men can bathe with a bucket standing by a tube well, or some will go to the murky brown water that has collected in an ablution pond at some of the larger mosques. The women can’t do so as easily without harassment.
In these densely populated areas, many women can only hope for a small water pail to wash themselves inside their huts.
The rain will finally come during the monsoon season. The heavy downpours will cause the latrines to flood over and the hellish contents therein flows into their sleeping quarters and saturates all their possessions. Their clothes, their cooking pot, whatever that has not been taken away by the current of flood water, which when it gets so bad could rise up to chest high of this bacteria laden runoff.” – Andrew Day
“It is dangerous in the forest where we go to collect wood or dry leaves, there are robbers, or villagers or forest ranger demand money from us. They sometimes take our tools or beat is until we pay. But we don’t have money to pay”. – Refugee, Leda Camp.
Many have told stories of beatings from thugs and police for something as basic as collecting water from a nearby stream. Women folk tells of how they are stopped, verbally abused and raped if they are intercepted by these men. These incidents doesn’t get reported to the authorities as their statuses of being unregistered deem them illegal and unprotected by any laws.
The access to clean and safe water everywhere is a problem. Very few water sources are ever tested but with the shallow wells and reservoirs so overlapped with sewage, it is inevitable that eating and drinking will make them sick.
These unnecessary circumstances are breeding grounds for infections and typhoid is a reoccurring condition or rather a perpetual one, to the point where fevers and vomiting are not to be taken as cause for alarm because they are so common. A common combination is typhoid with anemia and most likely a bacterial skin disease.
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Skin diseases are common and spreads easily in the communities due to the unhygienic living conditions, poor sanitation and polluted water. Photo by Andrew Day |
Living is impossible when people are eating and drinking traces of faeces daily. That’s if they have anything to eat at all.
Many unregistered Rohingya live in unofficial refugee settlements, where malnutrition rampant. In one makeshift camp, the global acute malnutrition rate is at 30%, double of emergency threshold.
But despite of this, the government has denied permits for aid agencies to assist unregistered refugees, stating that medical, food, drinking water and training facilities run by the charities were encouraging an influx of Rohingya to the country.
Borrowing, lending, trading, selling and buying food are common coping mechanisms among the refugees to compensate for the food deficit. Those who are registered also share their food rations with those who are not. There have also been reported incidences of forced sale of food rations to local villagers which have been instigated and aided by camp personnel, the Mahjees and local thugs.
“I have to borrow sometimes up to five kilograms of food a week to feed my family.” Nayapara refugee, family of 14.
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The dry season and monsoon season each year poses a huge risk to the people living in these areas. |
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Much help is needed in building safe access to clean water and to build lavatories for the communities. |
According to UNHCR the recent influx of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, saw 70,000 people cross over to Bangladesh since October 2016. From the 1990s, the country has had a huge number of refugees who fled the persecution and violence against them. The number of refugees in Bangladesh is reported to be almost 1 Million in total, only 10% refugees able to receive aid in the UN registered camps.
Adding to the already huge number of refugee in the country, these families are currently living in makeshift tents around the border areas. Some 2000 families are reported to be hiding in the forests.
With the monsoon season expected in 2 months time and almost right in the middle of the month of Ramadan, these families will have to face an event more dire situation on top of lack of food and medical care.
• UNHCR seeks equal treatment for all Rohingya in Bangladesh
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Four Rohingya women are shownin an illegal Rohingya colony in Bangladesh (Dec. 26, 2016). Photo: Saiful Islam/VOA |
Ro Mayyu Ali
RB Article
February 28, 2017
Women and children are the ones who suffer the most during crisis and disaster. Indeed, it is our common understanding. In this same regard Rohingya in Myanmar are counted as the world’s most persecuted people which is compounded by Myanmar military forces having a reputation of impunity for rape during times of conflict targeting the country’s minority women and minor girls.
As the agenda of Myanmar’s slow-burning genocide against Rohingya in the country is a decades-long operational, few have also thought of how Rohingya women suffer from the same impunity for rape and sexual assault by Myanmar’s military and BGP forces. On top of this the Rohingya live in one of the poorest places in the state where there are severe restrictions even for the flow of humanitarian aids and foreign-based journalists and reporters.
“Uncle, what happened inside of your home?” asked the 26-years-old Hassan to his old-aged uncle sitting on a wooden chair with teary eyes. They live in the same village tract, Sin Thay Pyin even his uncle is in East hamlet. Hassan had heard a scream of woman while he was passing his uncle’s home. “Where? Nothing!” the old man was reluctant. “I heard a scream suddenly!” Hassan wanted to know. He is so a close relation and wanted to convince his uncle to believe in him.
“Nail into my head! What can I share with you?” his uncle bursts into tears suddenly. “The waste of military forces! This is your sister, brutally raped by forces.” the father took a deep breath then. “She got pregnant and now having a miscarriage and there is non-stop discharging.” he added.
“One evening, the military forces came into my home. Firstly, they asked about my father and brothers and I said they all have run away seeing them. And they said, ‘Give us all the money and gold you have.’ I did. I gave them everything including my earrings. Then they said, ‘Take off your clothes!’ A soldier kicked me badly and said ‘Don’t shout’. I did what they told me. Then they all raped me one after another. All but one. He was the last and said he was not going to use his penis for me. And so instead, he used his knife.” the father shared to Hassan everything his daughter had explained to him about the incident.
Sexual violence is a violation of Universal Human Rights protected by International Human Rights conventions, including the right to security of person; the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; the right to freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment; and the right to life.
When the situation for Rohingya women is one where it is impossible to even receive a pill to prevent their unwanted pregnancy caused by security forces, the home-delivery with a native traditional birth attendant would be out of our imagination. How could they manage their delivery if it is during the night time, if their hamlet is besieged by the forces and if there are even no fences in their compound?
On 27 of January, around 12 am, there was an unusual delivery by a Rohingya woman in state-run clinic of Ta Man Thar Village, northern Maungdaw. She was the 20-years-old Assara Begum, wife of Ubidul Rahaman, from Panisara hamlet. Her husband took her to Dr. Maung Tha Tun, the responsible in Ta Man Thar clinic. The doctor checked on her and said the fetus was dead in mother’s womb. Despite finding the resources to have an operation, the doctor took the dead fetus out cutting piece by piece through the mother’s birth canal.
“The Doctor pushed the mother’s womb with both hands and a little part of fetus came out through then he cut it off. Again he pushed it then cut another piece off. Again and again on! Soon, the woman was unconscious as the pain is unbearable with severe bleeding. And she was returned home dead.” said an eye-witnessed from Ta Man Thar Village. “As it is her first pregnancy, the doctor should have arranged to have an operation. At least, he could have referred her to Malteser International’s Office in Ta Man Thar. It has ambulance and can assist transporting to Maungdaw hospital.” he added.
You have not heard it before. But it is no wonder, because it is Rohingya women’s stories in Myanmar. It is under-reported and rarely told. I want you to hear more of their untold stories.
On 12 of February, 2017, 33-years-old Noor Habar, daughter of Yaseen, was dlivering at home with an untrained old woman. They live in Shwe Zarr’s Doleya Para Hamlet, downtown of Maungdaw. At around 9 pm at night, the baby was delivered but not the placenta. Accidentally, the old birth attendant cut the umbilical code off before the placenta was passed through. Then the woman was severely exhausted. “As the hour moved into the curfew period, the family was afraid to take her to hospital. While attempting to pass the placenta, the woman died at home.” said a downtown-based activist. “However, the new born baby is alive.” he added.
Two days later, Montaaz, 27 years old, the youngest sister of Noor Habar gave a twin birth at her parent home in Shwe Zarr Village. The first baby was born alive but the second was dead. On the next day, the first one also died due to lack of medical assistance. Montaaz and her husband live in Wabaik Hamlet, Kyi Kan Pyin Village. Their home was burnt down by military forces last October and she moved to live with her parents in Shwe Zarr Village.
“While she was fleeing to her parent home, she had to cross a long lake while she was 6-months pregnant. Then she suffered a serious illness.” said Azeem, one of her neighbors. Of course, the workload and stressful worries of pregnant women can jeopardize the balance of their pregnancy. Sometimes, it causes miscarriage, too.
Indeed, Rohingya women are not even fortunate enough to receive prenatal and postnatal cares. In this time, the aid of INGOs and UN Agencies are severely restricted from flowing to affected areas. Thus, the need for vaccinations during their pregnancy is frequently denied. Their home delivery typically with an old local untrained midwives are dangerous and uncertain. In this week, Rohingya are being forced to receive National Verification Cards, so that they will be able pass the check points. Nevertheless, it is Suu Kyi led Myanmar government’s present step towards the targeting and isolating of the Rohingya, instead of finding a sustainable resolution to restore their national rights.
These stories follow international outcry over the allegations of widespread Human Rights abuses by Myanmar security forces in Northern Rakhine State in the military and Police led area clearance operation. These operations began after an attack on police out-posts on 9 October and officially came to a halt on the 16th of February. The military operation might have ended but the oppression of the Rohingya in Myanmar continues. Still, Myanmar military forces are in the area crouching silently over us.
BURMA’S ARMED FORCES – A LIE TOO MANY
Leaked video of Koe Tan Kauk
By Haikal Mansor, A Journey Through Darkness
RB Article
January 2, 2017
When an army lies, it lies too many too often
Since General Ne Win’s coup on March 2, 1962, Tatmadaw (Burma’s Armed Forces) becomes a delusional institution entirely built on a lie.
He announced the lie after coup, “I have to inform you, citizens of the Union that Armed Forces have taken over the responsibility and the task of keeping the country’s safety, owing to the greatly deteriorating conditions of the Union.”
For 55 years, the military tells lie after lie and commits crimes after crimes against the country’s ethnic minorities.
On December 6, 2016, the current commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing also lied to the world that “Myanmar (Burma) security forces have never committed any human rights violations,” after pouring of international condemnations on his army’s severe human rights abuses which could amount to “crimes against humanity”, “ethnic cleansing” or even “genocide” against Rohingya minority.
A video leaked from Police officer Zaw Myo Htike on December 31 speaks otherwise, highlighting the security forces rounding up, kicking, racially abusing and torturing Rohingya men and boys above 8 in entire Koe Tan Kauk, Rathedaung Township on November 5, 2016.
Caught in lie, the office of State-Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of founder of Burma Independent Army, the predecessor of modern-day army, released a statement confirming the incident took place, but with full of lies, too many lies.
LIE No. 1: Release villagers on the same day
The villagers were subjected torture, hunger and forced to remain under the open-air in the 2-day siege in an atrocious position frequently intimidated, humiliated and kicked.
LIE No. 2: Search for six attackers
It is a collective punishment towards the villagers for highlighting the human rights abuses with posters and signs (with phrases such as ‘Stop Genocide’, ‘Stop Killing’, ‘Stop Raping’, ‘Stop Ethnic Cleansing’, ‘Stop Religious Discrimination’, ‘Safety and Dignity’, Equality and Humanity’, ‘Access Humanitarian Aid’, ‘Access Medical Care’ and ‘We need UN Protection’) during the visit of a delegation led by UN Envoy Renata Lok-Dessallien on November 3.
During and after the 2-day Siege, 5 religious scholars – MD. Halim, Rahmat Ullah Abul Kasim, MD. Shomu and MD Syed were brutally assaulted, and Shomu and Syed were killed in the custody.
LIE No. 3: Attack on Outpost
The statement claimed that 6 armed Rohingya in 2 motorbikes attacked No. 22 Border Guard Police Outpost in Nu Ru Lar village at 5:50 pm, November 3, killing Sub-inspector Myint Myint Soe and injuring Inspector Moe Zaw Ko.
There was no attack taken place on the day rather than a reportedly infighting between border guards on the same day.
LIE NO. 4: Attackers hide in Koe Tan Kauk
The government also claimed that the six attackers fled Nu Ru Lar and hid in Koe Tan Kauk village. It is a blunder lie considering, the region is declared as ‘operation zone’ and in complete lockdown since October 9; the curfew has been in place with prohibition of more than 5 individuals gathering; and the distance between Nu Ru Lar and Koe Tan Kauk is approximately 52 km with a checkpoint in every 7-8 km along the route, which is dementedly impossible for any Rohingya to travel such as long distance.
The statement ended with a promise of taking disciplinary actions against the police officers who were present at the time of Border Guard Police’s acts of crimes against humanity.
The Burmese army lies and too often fails to keep the promise.
Aung San Suu Kyi, on the other hand, a newcomer to the vicious cycle of promise and lie, assured in Singapore, “to find out if the allegations of human rights violations are accurate and if so, we will take necessary action.”
Can she keep her promise this time or will she apply her new talent – LIE?
2016 in RETROSPECT – A Year of TOO MANY Human Rights Abuses for Rohingya
By Haikal Mansor, A Journey through Darkness
RB Article
January 1, 2017
Things that begins badly ends worse!
PEOPLE WITHOUT IDs
Rohingya welcomed the Year 2016 as people without IDs. Former President Thein Sein ordered to repeal of temporary identity cards, also known as ‘White Cards’ in February 2015. The last pieces of document Rohingya came to possess after decades of systematic forceful documents seizures.
DISENFRANCHISED PEOPLE
The revoke of the IDs completely stripped of Rohingya last right - Voting despite having participated in every election before and after Burma’s Independence.
NO PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATIVES
For the first time in Burmese history, no members of Rohingya or Muslim communities in general are allowed to represent in both parliaments as well as 14 State and Regional parliaments. U Shwe Maung, a sitting Rohingya members of parliament was barred running again in the November 2015 Election.
IDPs REMAIN IDPs
Nearly 140,000 Rohingya who were displaced from their homes during the genocidal campaign in 2012, continue to live in horror without basic human rights – freedom of movement, education, healthcare, religion, occupation and security.
NO HIGHER EDUCATION
Since 2012, Rohingya students are barred from pursuing university education within and outside Rakhine State, living with little hope for their future.
MORE DISCRIMINATORY LAWS
Four Race and Religion Laws (Monogamy Law, Religious Conversion Law, Interfaith Marriage Law and Population Control Law) brought by Ma Ba Tha, an extremist Buddhist group were signed into law by President Thein Sein on August 31, 2015. The laws are especially designed for Rohingya and religious minorities, still effective under Aung San Suu Kyi led NLD government. AUGUST 31, 2015
THIS IS A MILLION TOO MANY
Ms Yanghee Lee, Special Rapporteur to Burma highlighted the situations of human rights. “There are more than a million Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar deprived some of the most fundamental human rights. This is a million too many.” MARCH 14, 2016
AUNG SAN SUU KYI’S PROXY PRESIDENT
Aung San Suu Kyi handpicked her long-time confidant Htin Kyaw as Burma’s first civilian government in its 53 years of history. MARCH 15, 2016
NLD GOVERNMENT SWORN
President Htin Kyaw and his 18-member cabinet sworn in Naypyidaw. MARCH 30, 2016
STATE-COUNSELLOR BILL
President Htin Kyaw signed the bill to create State-Counsellor role for Aung Sans Suu Kyi. APRIL 6, 2016
AUNG SAN SUU KYI’S ISLAMOPHOBIC REMARK
Peter Popham revealed in his book “The Lady and The Generals – Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s Struggle for Freedom” that Aung San Suu Kyi has reportedly said off air in October 2013 interview with BBC Presenter Mishal Husain, “No one told me I was going to be interviewed by a Muslim” after the presenter pressed her on the plight of Rohingya.
BIGOT AS PRESIDENTIAL SPOKESPERSON AGAIN
In April 2016, Zaw Htay was reappointed as ‘the spokesperson’ and promoted to ‘Deputy Director-General’ under Aung San Suu Kyi government despite a strong advocate of Burma Military (Tatmadaw) and Thein Sein whom he also served as presidential spokesperson. Famous for his bigotry, inflammatory remarks and anti-Rohingya sentiments, he is one of main culprits who constantly stirs up fear, violence and hatred through his Facebook He spread false rumours of “terrorists coming from Bangladesh” and posted a photo of Ma Thida Htwe, an alleged rape victim which is still widely used to justify the genocidal acts and to continue mobilizing anti-Rohingya and anti-Muslim sentiments. APRIL, 2016
BOAT TRAGETY
At least 21 Rohingya including women and children drown off the coast of Sittwe after being forced to use sea route to buy basic goods and medicine in an apartheid-style movement restriction Rakhine State. APRIL 20, 2016.
MA BA THA’S BARK ON ‘ROHINGYA’
Extremist monks and their supporters protested in front of the U.S. Embassy in Yangon on the use of ‘Rohingya’ by Ambassador Scot Mariel in his condolence statement on the Boat Tragedy. APRIL 28, 2016
AUNG SAN SUU KYI AND ‘ROHINGYA’ TERM
She told the United States, the European Union and the UN Special Rapporteur to refrain from using ‘Rohingya’ term instead recommended ‘Muslim Community in Rakhine State’ denying the right to self-identification. MAY 4, 2016
RAKHINE MONKS COUNTERACT
Thousands of Rakhine nationalists led by monks protested against the use of ‘Muslim Community in Rakhine State’ proposed by Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, instead asked to use ‘Bengali’. JULY 3, 2016
NLD’S ‘NATIONAL VERIFICATION CARDS’ SAGA
Aung San Suu Kyi government, border affairs minister, immigration minister and Police commissioner of Rakhine State persuaded Rohingya to accept and register for National Verification Cards which intended to remove ‘Rohingya’ from the official record completely. A saga she has failed terribly. JUNE 16, 2016
DALAI LAMA CHIDES AUNG SAN SUU KYI
The Dalai Lama urged Aung San Suu Kyi to take “moral” responsibility to solve the crisis of Rohingya. JUNE 3, 2016.
HEADCOUNT IN GHETTOO
Rohingya in famous Aung Mingalar ghetto were forced to count after Rakhine extremists claimed that hundreds of Rohingya entered and lived illegally in the ghetto. The headcount found fewer than 4,000 compared to 4,500 from four years ago. MAY 16, 2016
CURFEW EXTENSION
The curfew placed after 2012 genocidal campaigns was extended from 12am to 4m until October 8, and prohibited congregation of more than 5 persons in public areas or mosque. The curfew is only applied to Rohingya community alone. AUGUST 8, 2016
KOFI ANNAN THE COMMISSIONER
Aung San Suu Kyi announced Kofi Annan as the head of 9-member (6 national experts) Advisory Commission on Rakhine State to “find lasting solution” without a member of Rohingya community in the commission, but included people who publicly engage in denials of Rohingya rights to self-identification and human rights abuses against Rohingya. AUGUST 23, 2016
ANP CALLED FOR ITS CANCELLATION
The Arakan National Party ANP called the government to cancel the commission for the inclusion of 3 international experts despite inclusion of Rakhine nationalist Saw Khin who condoned “to go and kill all of those Bengalis (Rohingya) people with our own hands! We’ve now got the advantage of gaining the support of all the national races all over Myanmar on the incidents that we’ve sacrificed so far”. AUGUST 28, 2016
ARMY GANG-RAPED ROHINGYA WOMAN
Raysuana, 25 was abandoned on road side near an army compound naked and unconscious, and died due to the restricted medical treatment imposed to Rohingya. No independent investigation was ever undertaken on the rape. AUGUST 18, 2016
EU PRAISED BURMA’S HUMAN RIGHTS PROGRESS
The European Union praised Burma’s Human Rights Progress and did not introduce a resolution at the United Nations condemning Burma’s records for the first time in 15 years. SEPTEMBER 23, 2016
SANCTIONS LIFTED
The Obama administration lifted the remaining sanctions imposed in 1997 on Burma including military officials and cronies. Easing of the sanctions provides the military a blunder embrace to further commit human rights abuses. OCTOBER 7, 2016
DEMOLITION THREAT
Rakhine State’s Border Affairs Minister Colonel Htein Linn threatened to bulldoze 2,270 buildings including 9 mosques, 24 madrasas, 1,667 Rohingya houses, 445 shops and 125 other buildings in Maungdaw Township, and another 1,056 buildings – 3 mosques, 11 madrasas, 876 houses, 159 shops and 7 other building in Buthidaung Township, what the official termed ‘illegal buildings’. SEPTEMBER 21, 2016
THE CLEARANCE OPERATIONS
A little known ‘Harakah al-Yaqin’ attacked three police posts with swords & spears killing nine officials in Kyikanpyin, Kotankauk and Ngakhuya, northern Maungdaw and Rathedaung at 1:30 am, Sunday, October 9, 2016.
Blame quickly and collectively shifted to Rohingya Muslims for the attacks and announced “the State of Emergency” and extended Curfew further from 7pm to 6am and closed down of 402 schools in Maungdaw District (Maungdaw and Buthidaung)
A. Summary Killing – approx. 400
Myothugyi (Shidda Fara) and Kyauk Pyin Seik (Nari Bil) became the first two villages to witness extrajudicial killings. At least 13 Rohingya civilians (7 in Myothugyi including a 13-year old schoolboy) were killed on October 9. Nine more were killed along with a child and a woman in Nwa Yung Taung in the third day of ‘clearance operations’.
The killing become rampant with pouring of armed forces and ‘blanket denial’ of media. More mass graves are slowly being discovered in Kyauk Pyin Seik, Kyet Yoe Pyin (Kiari Farang), Nwar Yon Taung and many other places. The government official number of death is stuck at 86 like the number of 2012 genocidal campaign while “RAW DAILY LOG OF ROHINGYA REPORTS”’s record documented triple of the official number.
B. Arbitrary Arrest – at least 1,000
The mass arrest of Rohingya civilians is being reported widely since the start of clearance operations. The military put the number of arrest at 575. According to sources from the ground, at least a thousand including women and minors are held behind the cells subjected to torture, and a number of cases of death behind the bar also came to the broad-light.
A video leaked on December 31 shows the rounding up of Rohingya men and boys as young as twelve, in Kotantauk (aka Dounsay Fara), Rathedaung on November 5, 2016. It also clearly indicates beating, use of derogatory term ‘Kalar’ and threat to kill the men. The state media has published a number of reports where the arrestees were falsely levelled ‘terrorists’ or ‘suspected militants’, as a tool to acquire the growing anti-Rohingya public sentiment on the crackdown of Rohingya civilians.
C. Rape as Weapon – at least 250
“They are very dirty. They Rohingya women have very low standards of living and poor hygiene. They are not attractive so neither the local Buddhists men or soldiers are interested in them,” is the sexist and racist remark of Aung Win, a Rakhine MP from Myebon Constituency No. 1 and also Chairman of Rakhine Investigation Committee, on BBC, November 7.
The first rape case reportedly took place in Singiri village on October 12, since then the rape is ‘used as a weapon’ to dehumanize and demoralize Rohingya community. At least 250 is estimated, though it could be higher as majority of cases remain unreported due to the cultural and religious stigma. Many of the victims of rape ‘begged for contraception’ in video messages sent to outside Rakhine State as the region is in complete lockdown.
On October 28, Zaw Htay used Facebook to denounce Fiona MacGregor’s special investigative reporting on the alleged rape of dozens of Rohingya women by the Burmese armed forces in Maungdaw. Subsequently the pressure of Ministry of Information forced the Myanmar Times to sack Fiona from the job. Fiona later said, “It’s extremely concerning and unacceptable that representatives of the democratically elected government would use social media and bullying tactics to suppress stories about important issues like gender-based violence in conflict.”
D. Scorched-earth Technique
The technique is widely used by the Burmese army in the regions of ethnic minorities. It is not surprising to see the application of the technique, but the extensive destruction of Rohingya houses, properties, schools and religious structures coupled with looting of goods, gold and cash, and confiscations of documents, highlights the severity of the human rights violations.
Despite the eye-witnesses, the video recordings and the series of satellite imagery released by Human Rights Watch on 9, 14 and 22 October and 10, 17 and 18 November, the military deny burning down of approximately 3,500 (1,250 in HRW Reports) houses and instead blamed Rohingya ‘burning their own houses’ in order to ‘get new houses’ according to Commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing.
E. Mass Displacement – more than 50,000
It has been a long time coming. Maungdaw is one of the last two remaining towns (another being Buthidaung) with vast Rohingya majority, which affected very less in terms of mass displacement during the 2012 campaign. The towns have been under the radar of the military and the Rakhine extremists to depopulate Rohingya as highlighted in “1988 SPDC Rohingya Extermination Plan” and “2014 Rakhine Action Plan”.
Having displaced nearly 140,000 Rohingya in nine townships across Rakhine State, the new displacement more than 50,000 Rohingya from northern Maungdaw greatly pinpoints their motive being fulfilled in the context of clearance operation.
Several video footages show Rohingya women, children, elderly and men are living in paddy fields with little or no shelters in the harshest time of winter.
30 security posts in addition to the existing 96 posts, and 7 Buddhist resettlement villages (provided with arming and training of Buddhist villagers) in the region already work in progress accordingly to a Rakhine State minister.
F. Push-back
Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) are “given strict orders to prevent any Rohingya entering Bangladesh”, though more 40,000 Rohingya managed to infiltrate into the Bangladesh side of 237-km long border while hundreds of small boats full of Rohingya are continuously pushed back into Naf River. Many of them stranded in the river rejected by guards on both sides of the border or perished in the water, as it occurred on December 5 when a boat carrying women and children capsized in the river killing 31 Rohingya. Zafar Alom, a Rohingya toddler from Yae Khat Chaung Gwa Son (Bor Gozi Bil) who was widely compared to Elan Kurdi the Syrian boy, for the similar tragedy – found dead ashore. It has been reported that at least 250 died in the border crossing while whereabouts of many push-back victims are yet to be known.
G. Refugees in Bangladesh
Rohingya who fled into Bangladesh face harsh restrictions as the government denies to recognize them as refugees and also places restrictions on local or international NGOs to humanitarian access. The majority of the newcomers take refuge in unregistered makeshift Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, with poor shelter, little food, clothes, water and medicine.
On December 19, Ukiya Forestry Department destroyed 120 temporary sheltered built by the new refugees forcing to sleep under open-sky without shelter. On the following day, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi briefly met Rohingya refugees in Kutupalong Refugee camp.
The rape victims who fled also face lack of treatment, and reportedly asking to be killed due to the unbearable psychological and physical trauma sustained from the vicious rape crime. Tales of human rights abuses are rapidly coming out of the Rohingya refugees who witnessed the various forms of abuses under the hands of Burmese armed forces.
H. Denial of humanitarian access
The effect of restriction on humanitarian access in Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung is greatly felt by approximately 150,000 Rohingya who depend on the international donors, now facing access denial nto the region since October 9.
On December 9, a delegation of UNHCR and WFP led by Rakhine State Chief Minister Nyi Pu visited Alay Than Kyaw, south Maungdaw instead of north to distribute ‘blanket, sleeping mats and mosquito nets’ for ‘a publicity stunt’ against mounting international pressure.
I. Commission of Inquiry
As an escape or cover-up plan, President Htin Kyaw formed a13-member commission of inquiry on December 1, chaired by Vice-President 1 U Myint Swe who as the Chief of Military Security Affairs oversaw the notorious border security force NaSaKa which had track-record of severe human rights abuses until it was defunct in July 2013 and renamed as the current Border Guard Police. Not a single member of Rohingya was included in the commission, while anti-Rohingya Burmese nationals are heavily featured.
On December 12, the commission made visit to Maungdaw where the military have pre-arranged Rohingya men and women to be interviewed, and a week later, the commission released a statement which said ‘there is no concrete evidence that points human rights abuses’ being committed by the armed forces.
The similar commissions of inquiry were formed following the massacre of 10 Muslim pilgrimages in Taungup, Rakhine State on June 3, 2012, the genocidal campaign unfolded on June 8, 2012 and the Duchira Dan Masscre took place on January 13, 2014, which all distorted facts, covered up the evidence and blamed the Rohingya victims.
J. Denials and ‘fabrications’
On December 1, Aung San Suu Kyi laughed out loud and openly agreed with the allegations as ‘fabrications’ and urged the Burmese public to disregard and counter these allegations. Her State-counsellor office accused me of ‘propagandist fighting Myanmar with malicious falsehood video footages” for translating and putting English subtitles on her Q&A video taken in Singapore.
Despite mounting evidence of crimes against humanity being committed against Rohingya, her office defended the military “regarding those incidents (rape, extrajudicial killing, destruction of Rohingya villages, etc.), after asking the Tatmadaw (Burma’s armed forces) and Border Guard Troops in those regions, it is known that the information is absolutely not true”, when herself once said in May 2011, that “rape is used in my country as a weapon against those who only want to live in peace, who only want to assert their basic human rights. Especially in the areas of ethnic nationalities, rape is rife. It is used as a weapon by armed forces to intimidate the ethnic nationalities and to divide our country.”
Read more: Aung San Suu Kyi, look yourself in the mirror, instead of pointing fingers at genocide victims
INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATIONS
Malaysian Prime Minister
Najib Tun Razak told on December 14, “we want to tell Aung San Suu Kyi, enough is enough… The world cannot sit and watch genocide taking place”, causing anger in Naypyidaw which responded banning Burmese workers from going to Malaysia.
UN Human Rights Commissioner
Zeid bin Ra’ad Al-Hussain, condemned, “The repeated dismissal of the claims of serious human rights violations as fabrications, coupled with the failure to allow our independent monitors access to the worst affected areas in northern Rakhine, is highly insulting to the victims and an abdication of the Government’s obligations under international human rights law... If the authorities have nothing to hide, then why is there such reluctance to grant us access? Given the continued failure to grant us access, we can only fear the worst.” DECEMBER 16, 2016
UN Special Rapporteur on Burma
Ms. Yanghee Lee questioned, “The Government has mostly responded with a blanket denial. This begs the question as to whether relevant evidence is being preserved to enable perpetrators to be held to account for their wrongdoings. Pointing fingers without definitive answers should be avoided. However, it is crucial to recognize the issue at hand - as objectively as possible - and immediately embark on a transparent, non-partial, independent investigation." “It is not acceptable that for six weeks there was a complete lockdown, with no access to the affected areas." NOVEMBER 17, 2016
European Parliament
The parliament called, “End persecution of Rohingya in Myanmar. MEPs are extremely concerned about reports of violent clashes with the Rohingya people in the state of Rakhine in Myanmar and deplore the loss of life, livelihood and shelter, as well as the reported ‘disproportionate use of force’ by the Myanmar armed forces. They urge the military and security forces to put an immediate stop to the killing, harassment and rape of the Rohingya people and to stop burning down their homes.” DECEMBER 15, 2016
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Manager
Andrea Gittleman, Programme Manager for the Centre for Prevention of Genocide at U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum raised concerns, “Given the history and context and given reports [on the recent violence], we would be very concerned about the threat of genocide against the Rohingya.” DECEMBER 22, 2016
International State Crime Initiative
Penny Green, professor of Law at Queen Mary University of London and director of ISCI predicted, “We sounded the alarm in 2015 that what we saw amounted to the early stages of a genocidal process. Local sources now report a ramped up security and military presence, additional restrictions on freedom of movement, and a further limiting of access to food and healthcare.” OCTOBER 17, 2016
Amnesty International
Rafendi Djamin, director of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Amnesty International pointed, “The Myanmar military has targeted Rohingya civilians in a callous and systematic campaign of violence. Men, women, children, whole families and entire villages have been attacked and abused, as a form of collective punishment. The deplorable actions of the military could be part of a widespread and systematic attack on a civilian population and may amount to crimes against humanity. We are worried that the horrific tales of violations we have uncovered are just the tip of the iceberg. While the military is directly responsible for the violations, Aung San Suu Kyi has failed to live up to both her political and moral responsibility to try to stop and condemn what is unfolding in Rakhine state.” DECEMBER 19, 2016
Fortify Rights Group
Matthew Smith, Chief Executive pointed the finger, “The situation has taken a dramatic turn for the worse for the Rohingya in the north. We were talking with a group of people today, conducting interviews. In a group of 9 or 10, every single one had witnessed family members being killed, every single one coming from different villages. Seeing the same tactics employed in disparate locations indicates the systematic nature of what’s happening… Her true colours are being shown based on how she thinks of Rakhine State, and those colours are very concerning. She’s not only failing to prevent atrocities but she’s also denying atrocities are occurring.” DECEMBER 22, 2016
The Arakan Project
Chris Lewa, Consultant and Coordinator of the Arakan Project saw worst, “They’re starting to harass the community even more by trying to say, ‘You’re not a citizen, you can’t do this, you can’t do that — you need permission. So really, there is more oppression in the last few months under the NLD government than there was before.” OCTOBER 15, 2016
WORLD LEADERS WARNED AUNG SAN SUU KYI
A group of 13 Nobel Laureates and 10 world leaders wrote a letter to the United Nations Security Council expressing the disappointment on the failure of Aung San Suu Kyi’s handling of Rohingya situation and urged for ‘immediate action to avoid ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity’. DECEMBER 29, 2016
There is nothing to call Year 2016 a good year. It is a disaster when it comes to human rights. It is a collective failure of the world on protecting and standing for the rights, particularly Burma’s Nobel Peace Laureate. She has shamelessly betrayed the world including those who have worked tirelessly to release her from the house-arrests, now instead of standing for human rights, she is now siding the army which in first-hand house arrested her for 15 years, kept her family apart for almost the entire life, failed to assassinate her in 2003, nullified her 1990 election results and denied her to be president in 2016.
From the perspectives of current situation, the future looks grim for Rohingya as the clearance operations enter into another year, adding to the four decades of state-sponsored institutionalized human rights abuses.
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