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!

By Wa Lone

Reuters

August 6, 2017

YANGON - Myanmar on Sunday rejected allegations of crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during a crackdown against Rohingya Muslims last year, accusing the United Nations of making exaggerated claims in its report on the issue. 

Rohingya militants killed nine border guards in October, sparking a response in which the army was accused of raping Rohingya women, shooting villagers on sight and burning down homes, sending an estimated 75,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh. 

A U.N. report in February said security forces instigated a campaign that "very likely" amounted to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing. This led to the establishment of a U.N. probe which is being blocked by Myanmar. 

The country's own 13-member investigation team - led by former head of military intelligence and now Vice President, Myint Swe - has been dismissed by human rights monitors as lacking independence to produce a credible report. 

Speaking to reporters gathered in Yangon to conclude its 8-month-long probe, Myint Swe said the U.N. report exaggerated the claims and created misunderstanding for the international community. 

"There is no possibility of crimes against humanity, no evidence of ethnic cleansing, as per U.N. accusations," said Myint Swe. 

He added that, "some people from abroad have fabricated news claiming genocide had occurred, but we haven't found any evidence." 

The panel said that the U.N. report did not take into consideration "violent acts" committed by the insurgents, instead focusing on the activities of the security forces. 

The U.N. did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The Myanmar commission had received 21 reports from villagers of incidents of murder, rape, arson and torture by the security forces, but, unable to verify their veracity, it referred them to the authorities. 

"We opened doors for them to complain to the courts if they have evidence that they suffered human rights abuses, but no one came to open a lawsuit until now," Zaw Myint Pe, the secretary of the panel said. 

The commission blamed the violence on the insurgents, accusing them of links to organizations abroad, "set up to destabilize and harm Myanmar". 

The treatment of the roughly one million Muslim Rohingya has emerged as majority Buddhist Myanmar's most contentious rights issue as it makes a transition from decades of harsh military rule. 

The Rohingya are denied citizenship and classified as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite claiming roots in the region that go back centuries, with communities marginalized and occasionally subjected to communal violence. 

Editing by Antoni Slodkowski and Muralikumar Anantharaman

Maung Zarni
August 6, 2017

Myanmar Groups whipping up Genocidal Racism Against Rohingyas (& Muslims).

Irrawaddy News Group has joined the likes of ex-Chief of Military Intelligence, Wirathu, & Rakhine Racist Groups.

First with this outrageously racist cartoon (the first image), May 2016.

 

https://asiancorrespondent.com/2016/05/offensive-boat-people-magazine-cartoon-slammed-rohingya-activist-dangerous/#BTkKWItD9rjWm279.97

On 13 July 2017, in his half-hour interview with ex-Information Minister ex-Colonel Ye Htut, Aung Zaw, Managing Editor and Founder of Irrawaddy, repeatedly drove home a very clear message that Burma is now under the real threat of Jihadist attacks (by Rohingyas) in Western Burma. 

See the video here: 

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. ***

_____________________

Rohingyas Injured in the Raid by Myanmar BGP and Rakhine Extremists (Photo: FB Mayu Rashid)

Rohingyas Injured in the Raid by Myanmar BGP and Rakhine Extremists (Photo: FB Mayu Rashid)

Rohingyas Injured in the Raid by Myanmar BGP and Rakhine Extremists (Photo: FB Mayu Rashid)