'The Burmese government is committing atrocities not only against the Rohingya, but also against 17 other ethnic communities.

The international community and the Bangladeshi people must stand by the Rohingya during the most rapid forced mass exodus the world has seen in a generation, rights activists and religious leaders said at a conference in Dhaka on Wednesday.

They were speaking at the “Ending the Slow Burning Genocide of Rohingyas by Myanmar” conference organised by the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) in the Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Building of Dhaka University.

“We are witnessing the death of a nation,” Dr Maung Zarni, a Myanmarese human rights activist and scholar of genocide and racism, said.

“The Buddhist people in Burma are purposefully wiping out a community, and they have been doing this for the past 45 years.”

In addition to 400,000 Rohingya who were already living in Bangladesh, a total of 620,000 refugees have entered the country from Myanmar since August 24, when ethnic conflicts in Myanmar’s Rakhine state sparked the most rapid human exodus seen worldwide since the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

“Over 600,000 people have been severely endangered and displaced by the Myanmar military’s vicious persecution,” Ma Khin Mai Aung, a Myanmarese-Rakhine lawyer, writer and activist based in New York, said.

“The misconception that the Rohingya people do not fundamentally belong in Burma is unfortunately widespread among the Burmese, and has been fostered by the country’s military for its own goal of promoting extremist Buddhist nationalism.”

Sanghanayak Suddhanda Mahathero, president of Bangladesh Buddha Kristi Prochar Sangha, called on the international community to pressure Myanmar to repatriate its nationals from Bangladesh.

“As a Buddhist, I am ashamed that Buddhist people are committing genocide against Rohingya people in Myanmar,” he said.

Slamming Myanmar’s State Counsellor for her apparent silence over the crisis, Prof Emeritus Serajul Islam Chowdhury said: “Aung San Suu

Kyi’s role has taken us by surprise. She was once a victim, but now she is an ally of the perpetrators.” Dr Zarni urged the global community to extend a helping hand to the persecuted minority.

“The Burmese government is committing atrocities not only against the Rohingya, but also against 17 other ethnic communities in the country. This is a slow process of genocide [by the Myanmar authorities],” he said.

“It’s our duty to stand beside the Rohingya people and against the Burmese military; otherwise our next generation will ask questions about what we did when the Rohingya were persecuted.”

Other attendees at the conference on Wednesday included Prof CR Abrar of Dhaka University; Chair Emeritus of Parliament of the World Religious Dr Malik Majahid; rights activist Hameeda Hossain; Supreme Court Judge Syed Refaat Ahmed; Prof Gayatri Spivak of Columbia University in New York; and Rohingya activist Ro Nay San Lwin.

Human Rights Watch says pontiff missed 'important opportunity' to raise international concerns in Burma. But a leading Rohingya blogger tells The Independent the blame does not lie with Francis himself

Pope Francis should not be blamed for his failure to mention human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims during the keynote speech of his trip to Burma, a leading activist in the country has said.

International rights groups said the pontiff had “missed an opportunity” to raise international concerns and that it was “disappointing” he chose not to mention the Rohingya by name as he appeared alongside Burma’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi in the capital Naypyidaw.

But Nay San Lwin, who has run a website called Rohingya Blogger since 2005, said it was the fault of those who advised Pope Francis on his conduct. 

“The Pope is an amazing person,” Mr Nay told The Independent from Bangladesh. “If I have to blame someone I would blame Burmese Cardinal Charles Maung Bo... In my opinion Charles Maung Bo violated the basic human rights.”

Pope Francis should “condemn the ongoing genocide”, Mr Nay said. In his speech, the Pope called on the government in general terms to “respect each group and its identity”. “Religious differences need not be a source of division and distrust, but rather a force for unity, forgiveness, tolerance and wise nation-building,” he said.

Mr Nay also noted that Burmese military chief Aung Hlaing “said they don’t discriminate (against) anyone base on religion”. Mr Nay said: “That was a lie. Rohingya and other Muslim minorities have been discriminated (against) for decades.”

Refugees continue to flee to Bangladesh, which has seen an influx of almost 700,000 refugees since 25 August, when Burmese security forces began a campaign against Rohingya villages.

The country’s military has insisted it is conducting a counter-insurgency clearance operation that was provoked by Rohingya militants’ synchronised attacks on 30 security posts in the northern part of Rakhine State.

The response has been almost universally condemned by the international community.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in September that ethnic cleansing is taking place in Burma, leading to a “catastrophic” humanitarian situation for the Rohingya Muslim minority. 

Burma rejects the term “Rohingya” and its use, with most people instead referring to the Muslim minority in Rakhine State as illegal migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

The Pope had used the word in two appeals from the Vatican this year.

But, before the diplomatically risky trip, his advisers recommended that he not use it in Burma, lest he set off a diplomatic incident that could turn the country’s military and government against minority Christians.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, accused the pontiff of missing “an important opportunity to speak truth to power, and publicly refute the unconscionable pressure by Aung San Suu Kyi and the Myanmar military to deny the Rohingya their identity”. 

“The fact that the word ‘Rohingya’ is so contentious shows the lengths to which Burma has gone to demonise a desperately poor and repressed religious minority.”

Meanwhile, Daniel Aguirre, a former legal adviser to the International Commission of Jurists in Myanmar, said Pope Francis was slightly more sympathetic.

The pontiff was “damned if he did and damned if he did not say the word Rohingya,” he told the The Independent. “Although it is disappointing that he did not refer to the Rohingya by name, his visit brought attention to the human rights violations against them.”

He said it’s is up to the “diplomats in Yangon, the international community and especially neighbouring countries to use their influence with the government to halt violations of human rights and protect minorities in Burma”. 

“Most of all, national leadership is required; Burma’s public intellectuals, religious leaders and voices from civil society need to promote a more inclusive, tolerant version of a national identity that respects human rights.”

And it was emphasized that freedom of movement for Rohingya will be only within Rakhine(fig.4) and not throughout all Burma as has been restricted for Rohingyas since 1990s. Even in Rakhine state, it must be inconformity to the existing laws and regulations. Form these points, one can easily conclude that Myanmar does not want to recognize Rohingya as citizens, and does have ulterior motives of confining Rohingya within Arakan. Anywhere in the world, is there any law which prescribes to its citizens the rules and regulations for the freedom of movement with the country? Till date, Rohingyas have to hold temporary travel permit even to visit one’s parents’ house. It is clear that Myanmar wants Rohingya to keep in those same restrictions. At the end of the paragraph, the deal exposes that all returnees will be issued NVC. NVC is a mechanism that was targeted Rohingya to making them foreigners though Rohingyas had identifications card as other nationals of Myanmar. NVC was introduced after 2012 violence and very few Rohingyas were forcibly made to accept those cards. 

And in Paragraph 5, it was expressed that returnees who have cases in the involvement of terrorism or criminal activities will punished. As the whole world know, Myanmar’s rule of law is discriminatory towards Rohingyas and therefore, Rohingyas have no trust Myanmar’s rule of law. The returnees will be criminalized on false grounds as have been done in 2012, 2016 and 2017 majority of whom are still serving their jail terms. 

In Paragraph 16(Fig.5), it stated that both Governments will refrain from conceiving and implementing any policy that is discriminatory to any particular community that violates universally agreed principles on human rights. To what extend you understand these phrases? Myanmar has been labeling Rohingyas as Bengali since long. Is not that implementing discriminatory policy towards Rohingya and Bengali people? Universally, any race or community has the right to give their names as they wish. They have the right to be called them as other people want themselves to be called by other.

In the final part of the deal, it talked about implementing Annan’s commission report. Very pretty move from the side of Myanmarese Government. If you (Myanmar) are(is) not going to place all the returnees at their original places, to issue NVC cards, to strict freedom of Movement, then what use of implementing Annan’s report in which all the mention points are not favorable?

Conclusion 

Strictly speaking, Myanmar surpass Bangladesh in this deal because the points in the deal are impractical to accept from the side of Rohingyas. And Myanmar just was successful for another few weeks to weaken international pressures. All the Rohingyas who took shelter in Bangladesh are seriously denying the repatriation according to this deal signed on 23rd November, 2017. And from the right groups also are alarming voices that the deal did not meet international standard and repatriation need to be monitored by the outside world. 

Remarks: The full text of the deal is from Poppy McPherson (@poppymcp) Twitter 

Prime Time interview called Channel i X-clusive Interview with Dr Maung Zarni, Bangladesh, 26 Nov 2017

Dr Zarni: "I had supported both Suu Kyi and the generals, in good faith. But they've crossed the line."