By Dr. Maung Zarni

September 20, 2018

NGOs destroy civil society, said a top sociologist at Columbia.

He is absolutely correct.

If Rohingyas do NOT hang together they will be hang separately.

I see the disaster or humanitarian colonialism being repeated in Rohingya situation. There is an immediate need to forge and expand intra-Rohingya solidarity and collaboration.

I define INGOs as neo-COLONIAL, that do not identify with Rohingya resistance to repatriation under duress, or have organic ties to Rohingya's struggles (meaning groups that impose their agendas & priorities).

Mine is not an original insight, but drawn from David Korten's: the only western or external NGO that is NOT colonial is the type that is connected with and support the oppressed's resistance and movements.

If I were a Rohingya refugee, or a member of the diaspora, I would work with any NGO that comes in with $, has political connections, and a voice.

However, I would NOT have any expectation or illusions that humanitarian INGOs (and politicians) will have pure moral desire or political will to respect, listen to or appreciate Rohingyas' wishes

and needs.

Generally, or typically, INGO-recipient relations will necessarily be INSTRUMENTALIST. That is, they come because it's their job, income generator, career, or professional or personal interests. There are of course NGO individuals who care, genuinely. But in the INGO politics it is organizational interests and logic that in the final instance drive what these entities officially say and do. Human rights INGOs are not immune from this cancer.

Rohingyas deal with them because there are no better choices - accept their money, medicine, work as fixers, field "researchers", informants or informers, whatever the case, etc.

That's the reality: the crucial thing is to know this instrumentalist nature - they use the refugees and refugees use them - of these interactions.

The last thing Rohingyas need is be swayed by these INGOs and their slanted, trendy advocacy campaigns - that never ask for what Rohingya really need, that is, protected homeland where they can live in peace and safety as normal human community, like everyone else.

To be able to maintain a healthier power equation between the INGOs and the refugees - nearly 1 million now - Rohingya refugees and the diaspora must forge ties that go beyond little family circles , or that cling to petty little organizations where they are "Chairmen" or "Chairwomen" "President" or whatever.

So far I have not seen Rohingya elites in diaspora building this absolutely necessary intra-Rohingya solidarity, respect and organizational collaboration.

The absence of this broad-based solidarity amongst the victims, both the diaspora and in sub-human camps, is deeply troubling, both from moral and strategic perspectives.

If Rohingyas do NOT hang together they will be hang separately.

I have seen this NGOs as disease in the context of the armed Karen revolution. The result is ugly: capable potential revolutionaries are snatched out of the movement and into program manager positions, from where they sing the NGO tunes.

With absolutely nothing - beyond the presence of 1 million bodies in the sub-human camps in Bangladesh - Rohingyas are far more vulnerable to this politics and exploitation by the NGOs and politicians than the Karens have ever been.

Media Release From Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK

3rd September 2018

Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK: Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo Must Be Freed

Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK strongly condemns the sentencing of Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.

They were sentenced to seven years in jail today after being convicted of breaking the Official Secrets Act. Evidence that came out during the trial showed that they were framed by the police. The police force in Burma is under the control of the military.

“These journalists were simply doing their jobs, exposing massacres of Rohingya villagers which the United Nations has now concluded constitutes genocide,” said Tun Khin, President of Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK. “We admire the bravery of these journalists, working to uncover massacres of Rohingya villages.”

Since its founding Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK has campaigned for freedom of expression and for the release of all political prisoners in Burma. It saddens us that this is still necessary under a government controlled by the National League for Democracy.

“The international community now needs to apply real pressure to the government of Burma to free these journalists and all political prisoners,” said Tun Khin. “Political, technical and financial support should only go to the government once it starts to respect human rights, including media freedom.”

For more information, please contact Tun Khin +44 7888714866.

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

Anadolu Agency

August 29, 2018

LONDON -- The atrocities targeting Myanmar’s Rohingya minority are similar to those committed by Nazi Germany, according to a prominent Buddhist human rights activist.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency in Kent, the UK, Maung Zarni, a coordinator at the Free Rohingya Coalition, said the international community should act against his country of origin.

Zarni’s remarks come after the UN released a report earlier this week documenting mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings and disappearances committed by Myanmar state forces. In its report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.

“We have a situation wherein a UN member state run by a Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, and her partners in power, Burmese military generals…is found by the [most] credible and highest body of human rights authorities in the world to be like Nazi Germany,” Zarni said.

“Genocide is what the Nazis did. Genocide is what happened in Rwanda, in Cambodia, or to the Bosnian Muslims.”

Zarni underlined that when a case is determined to be “genocidal”, the responsibility for dealing with it lies with all UN member states.

“The highest political and moral obligation rests with the [UN] Security Council,” he added.

He said setting up an international criminal court as was done for Rwanda or Bosnia would not be enough; the Rohingya minority needs “a protected region where they can live safely and as normal, decent human beings”.

The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar has called on Myanmar’s top military officials, including army commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, to be tried at the International Criminal Court for genocide committed against Rohingya Muslims.

“My expectation, in an ideal world…[is that] the UN Security Council will authorize some form of intervention so that the atrocities can be stopped and the Rohingya can be given their land back and allowed to live in dignity and in safety,” Zarni said.

- Sanctions

Zarni said there are now more Rohingya living outside Myanmar than those who are left in the country following decades of violence but especially after a full-scale attack was launched against them in August last year.

Underlining that the international community should impose sanctions on Myanmar’s government and army, Zarni pointed out that the exclusion policy against the Rohingya must end.

Rohingya Muslims “are being purged,” and the ultimate goal in introducing sanctions against Myanmar should be “to fundamentally change the Burmese state’s policies and change the structures [which] have been mobilized by the Burmese military and public opinion makers to repress and persecute and essentially annihilate this population,” Zarni added.

The ultimate goal of multiple sanctions should be providing Rohingya “international protection” and creating “an autonomous region where the Burmese military would not be allowed to continue the atrocities,” he said. 

- Solution

Zarni said Myanmar has four major pillars: the military, the Buddhist order, political parties, and the public.

“All four of these major institutions…have categorically rejected the Rohingya. We are telling them they don’t belong to Burma, we don’t want them in Burma.”

Zarni said the solution to the problem does not lie in the country but has to be formulated internationally and within the UN institutions.

- Call for Turkey's assistance

Zarni added that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish government “have been extremely vocal and supportive of the Rohingya people”.

“This is the time for Turkey to show serious moral and political leadership,” he said.

Pointing out that the UN Security Council is in a “coma” and “paralyzed” as it cannot resolve the problems, Zarni emphasized that Turkey can really help in Myanmar’s case by “leading to form a coalition of Muslim and non-Muslim governments that accept that this is genocide and [say] we must not be bystanders to genocide”.

He said there are more than 500,000 Rohingya trapped in Myanmar and they can be driven out any time, adding it is the time to act and to form a coalition.

“My appeal is not to the Burmese people. My appeal is to the Islamic world as well as non-Islamic communities to help the Rohingya.

“Because this is not just about Muslim people. They are human beings. But we, Burmese, in my country treat them like [they are] less than animals.”

On Aug. 25, 2017, Myanmar launched a major military crackdown on the Muslim ethnic minority, killing almost 24,000 civilians and forcing 750,000 others, including women and children, to flee to Bangladesh, according to the Ontario International Development Agency.

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world's most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

Buddhist Nationalism in Burma

Institutionalized racism against the Rohingya Muslims led Burma to genocide

By Maung Zarni

SPRING 2013

Rohingya are categorically darker-skinned people—sometimes called by the slur “Bengali kalar.” Indeed, the lighter-skinned Buddhists of Burma are not alone in their fear of dark-skinned people and belief that the paler the skin, the more desirable, respectable, and protected one is.

Read more: https://tricycle.org/magazine/buddhist-nationalism-burma/

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The Slow-Burning Genocide of Myanmar’s Rohingya

By Zarni, Maung; Cowley, Alice

Since 2012, the Rohingya have been subject to renewed waves of hate campaigns and accompanying violence, killings and ostracization that aim both to destroy the Rohingya and to permanently remove them from their ancestral homes in Rakhine State. Findings from the authors’ three-year research on the plight of the Rohingya lead us to conclude that Rohingya have been subject to a process of slow-burning genocide over the past thirty-five years. The destruction of the Rohingya is carried out both by civilian populations backed by the state and perpetrated directly by state actors and state institutions. Both the State in Burma 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. 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 Burma to address the slow-burning Rohingya genocide.

Read more: http://digital.law.washington.edu/dspace-law/handle/1773.1/1377

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THE SYSTEMATIC REPRESSION OF THE ROHINGYA MINORITY CONTINUES

By Maung Zarni 

March 14, 2017

The 1.33 million Rohingya Muslims may be “too many to kill,” but that has not stopped the state security forces or the local ultra-nationalist Rakhine from carrying out waves of pogroms against the Rohingya. The state's racist draconian policies make life so unbearable that the Rohingya would rather risk their lives on voyages across the high seas than wait like sitting ducks to be slaughtered in their ghettos or “open-air prisons,” as the BBC put it. 

Read more: https://www.dissidentblog.org/en/articles/systematic-repression-rohingya-minority-continues

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An Evolution of Rohingya Persecution in Myanmar: From Strategic Embrace to Genocide

By Alice Cowley and Maung Zarni 

April 20, 2017

“Send us as many birth control pills as you can. They (Myanmar troops) are gang-raping our women. They are arresting and killing all our men. There is nothing else you can do. Just pray to Allah and to wish us speedy deaths! This is just simply unbearable,” said a Rohingya woman talking from her mobile phone from Myanmar’s predominantly Rohingya region of Northern Rakhine State bordering Bangladesh.

Read more: http://www.mei.edu/content/evolution-rohingya-persecution-myanmar-strategic-embrace-genocide

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Waves of Genocidal Terror against Rohingyas by Myanmar and the Resultant Exodus Since 1978

By Maung Zarni and Natalie Brinham

November 14, 2017

International lawyers, U.N. officials and world leaders may and do debate as to whether Myanmar’s mass atrocities constitute the crime of all crimes, a genocide. But over one million Rohingya refugees, displaced in Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Malaysia, India and other countries and the smaller number that are being trapped inside Northern Rakhine State between the unwelcoming world and the hateful Burmese society do not have the luxury of deciding what to call the crimes they have been subjected to for nearly 40 years. 

Read more: http://www.mei.edu/content/map/waves-genocidal-terror-against-rohingyas-myanmar-and-resultant-exodus-1978

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Maung Zarni -- Myanmar's Slow-Burning Genocide of the Rohingya People

Watch a short video: https://watson.brown.edu/events/2017/maung-zarni-myanmars-slow-burning-genocide-rohingya-people

Joint Statement 

August 28, 2018

UN Investigators Confirm ‘Myanmar Genocide of Rohingya’, UNSC must support ICC referral and Urgent International Protection for the Rohingya 

We, the undersigned Rohingya Organisations worldwide welcome the report released yesterday (27 August 2017) by the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (FFM) calling on the international community to take action against Myanmar for its genocide against the Rohingya people.

The FFM, consisting of three human rights experts, which was established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2017, called on Myanmar’s top military generals, including Commander-in-Chief Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing, to be investigated and prosecuted for genocide in the north of Rakhine State, as well as for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan States. It also points out that the civilian authorities, including State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi are implicit in the genocide against Rohingya for contributing to the commission of atrocity crimes through their acts and omissions. 

The report states that the gross human rights violations and abuses committed against Rohingya population for decades “undoubtedly amount to the grave crimes under international law” that establish the genocidal intent. They include the crimes against humanity of murder, imprisonment; enforced disappearance; torture; rape, sexual slavery and other forms of sexual violence; persecution and enslavement, extermination and deportation. 

The Mission reminds that the justice has remained elusive for the victims in Myanmar for decades, and “the impetus for accountability must come from the international community.” But, the international actors are standing idly by the side-lines, failing to act, while genocide is unfolding in Myanmar. How much more evidence the UN and the international community need to act? According to the “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crimes of Genocide”, they are under obligation to “prevent and punish” Rohingya genocide right now. 

The report released by the FFM yesterday is a summary version of the full report, which is expected to be presented at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in September 2018.

The FFM’s calls add to a global chorus of voices urging members of the UNSC to refer the situation to the ICC. Since Myanmar is not a party to the Rome Statute, only the UNSC can trigger a comprehensive investigation by the ICC. Justice is crucial to ensuring that the authorities in Myanmar do not feel emboldened to repeat the same crimes again.

Members of the UNSC must act now and immediately refer the situation in Myanmar to the ICC and future of the Rohingya as a people depend on it. In this regard, we are anxiously looking forward to seeing a comprehensive resolution at the UNSC meeting today.

Meanwhile, we urge upon the international community to provide international protection to approximately half a million Rohingya population trapped inside Rakhine State, and to empower Genocide survivors taking refuge in Bangladesh. 

Signatories

1. Arakan Rohingya Development Association – Australia (ARDA)

2. Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)

3. British Rohingya Community in UK

4. Burmese Rohingya Association in Queensland-Australia (BRAQA)

5. Burmese Rohingya Association Japan (BRAJ)

6. Burmese Rohingya Community Australia (BRCA)

7. Burmese Rohingya Community in Denmark

8. Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK)

9. Canadian Burmese Rohingya Organisation

10. Canadian Rohingya Development Initiative

11. European Rohingya Council (ERC)

12. Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation in Malaysia (MERHROM)

13. Rohingya Advocacy Network in Japan

14. Rohingya American Society

15. Rohingya Arakanese Refugee Committee

16. Rohingya Association of Canada

17. Rohingya Community in Finland

18. Rohingya Community in Germany

19. Rohingya Community in Norway (RCN)

20. Rohingya Community in Sweden

21. Rohingya Community in Switzerland

22. Rohingya Community Ireland (RCI)

23. Rohingya Organisation Norway

24. Rohingya Society Malaysia (RSM)

25. Rohingya Society Netherlands

26. Swedish Rohingya Association (SRA)

For more information, please contact: 

Tun Khin (Mobile): +44 78 887 14866 

Nay San Lwin (Mobile): +49 69 260 22349 

Ko Ko Linn (Mobile): +880 172 606 8413

By Abdul Aziz

Dhaka Tribune

August 28, 2018

The UN likened the Aug 25 crackdown in the Rakhine state to genocide

The Rohingyas have announced to observe August 25 as the "genocide day," a year after a Myanmar military crackdown forced more than 700,000 members of the ethnic minority to flee the Rakhine state.

The announcement came from protest rallies by the Rohingyas at Ukhiya and Teknaf on Saturday.

A group calling itself the "Free Rohingya Coalition" has been campaigning to highlight the last several days of the barbarity and atrocity of the August 25, 2017 attack on the minority.

In the declaration letter, the Rohingyas said Myanmar since had been continuing oppression of the predominantly Muslim community after cancelling their citizenship in the ‘80s. Nobel laureates Amratya Sen and Desmond Tutu have called last year’s crackdown on the minority genocide.

“We (the Rohingyas) are joining voices with them and declaring it as genocide,” the declaration said.

Despite having lived for generations in Myanmar, Naypyidaw does not recognize the Rohingyas as citizens and dubs them ‘Bangalis’ to imply that they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

State-sponsored discrimination against the minority stretches back decades. The latest crackdown in the Rakhine state has been likened to genocide by the UN.

KutupalongBottoli Rohingya camp leader Mohammad Idris said the Myanmar military killed their people, raped the women and girls and burned their homes to ground, forcing them to flee. “August 25 was the beginning of a dark chapter. We will observe it as the ‘genocide day’ every year,” he said.

Ukhiya’sBalukhali Rohingya camp leader Ayub Majhi said, they plan to observe the ‘genocide day’ even after going back home. “We want to live in our homeland with dignity,” he added.

Kutupalong camp’s management committee general secretary Nur Mohammad said the declaration of all the Rohingya people.

“The Myanmar military has been attacking and oppressing the Rohingya people in the Rakhine state using various excuses. It has killed thousands of people since August 25. So, we will observe the day as ‘genocide day’,” he said.

A Year in Hunger of Justice 

RB Poem

August 25, 2018

Joint Statement

August 25, 2018

1st Anniversary Commemoration of Rohingya genocide must spur world to action

On this day of Remembrance, we, the undersigned Rohingya organisations, reiterate that the international community takesgenuine action against the perpetrators of the Myanmar genocide of Rohingya and prevents it from recurring in the future. 

On this day of 25 August last year, the Myanmar military, police and non-state actors launched a carefully preplanned vicious operation in northern Rakhine State killing thousands of Rohingya, torching hundreds of their villages, and raping a large number of women and girls, resulting into an unprecedented exodus of more than 700,000 genocide survivors into Bangladesh. The attack was the latest chapter in Myanmar’s decades-long genocide which surpassed all previous campaigns of violence, including the onslaughts in 1978 and 1991-92. But the perpetrators are still enjoying full impunity while the Rohingya continue to suffer without justice and protection. 

The human rights and humanitarian situation of those Rohingya still left inside Rakhine State remains under constant threat facing high levels of poverty and malnutrition. At the same time, Myanmar continues to impose a callous system of state-sponsored segregation that amounts to apartheid, which often confines Rohingya to ghettos and villages in virtual open-air prisons. The situation inside Rakhine State is not conducive for voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable repartition of the Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh. It warrants urgent international protection. 

We urge upon International community to redouble effort to hold Myanmar officials to account for atrocity crimes, care for victims, and ensure that conditions in Rakhine State are safe enough for the hundreds of thousands who have fled in desperation to return. Specifically, members of the UN Security Council should refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court. It is equally important that International states support the calls of Yanghee Lee, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, to establish an international accountability mechanism that aims to impartially investigate human rights violations in the country

As we share stories and honour the memories of those who have lost their lives, we do so with an eye to the future. We hope that one year from now we will have more positive developments to look back on, but this is something that will only be possible with the world’s support.

Signatories

1. Arakan Rohingya Development Association – Australia (ARDA)

2. Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)

3. British Rohingya Community in UK

4. Burmese Rohingya Association in Queensland-Australia (BRAQA)

5. Burmese Rohingya Association Japan (BRAJ)

6. Burmese Rohingya Community Australia (BRCA)

7. Burmese Rohingya Community in Denmark

8. Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK)

9. Canadian Burmese Rohingya Organisation

10. Canadian Rohingya Development Initiative

11. European Rohingya Council (ERC)

12. Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation in Malaysia (MERHROM)

13. Rohingya Advocacy Network in Japan

14. Rohingya American Society

15. Rohingya Arakanese Refugee Committee

16. Rohingya Association of Canada

17. Rohingya Community in Finland

18. Rohingya Community in Germany

19. Rohingya Community in Norway (RCN)

20. Rohingya Community in Sweden

21. Rohingya Community in Switzerland

22. Rohingya Community Ireland (RCI)

23. Rohingya Organisation Norway

24. Rohingya Society Malaysia (RSM)

25. Rohingya Society Netherlands

26. Swedish Rohingya Association (SRA)

For more information, please contact: 

Tun Khin (Mobile): +44 78 887 14866 

Nay San Lwin (Mobile): +49 69 260 22349 

Ko Ko Linn (Mobile): +880 172 606 8413

RB News

August 20, 2018

No Man's Land — Myanmar's military are planning to raid our camps tonight (19-20 August night) or tomorrow night (20-21 August night), said Rohingya Genocide Survivors taking refuge at "No Man's Land" between Myanmar and Bangladesh Border(s).

Lieutenant Colonel Nay Htay Aung, the Commander of the Myanmar military battalion camped at (the school of) Taung Pyo Letyar (Myanmar) is ordering his troops to raid the camps (located beyond Myanmar's Border), according to the refugees.

"We have got the information from the reliable sources. The Myanmar military could raid our camps (at No Man's Land) tonight. We are seeing that they are taking positions with heavy weapons. They are patrolling along the Border now. If not tonight, they could raid tomorrow night. We are really afraid of being terrorised by the brutal Myanmar military again" U Dil Mohammed, a refugee leader in the camps, expressed his deep fear.

U Arifullah, another refugee in the camps, said "if night falls, they threaten us in various ways by taking positions against us and by climbing mountains and acting as if they are about to shoot us. What we fear is they would kill us using force. Instead, they should fulfill our basic human rights demands and negotiate with us."

There were 6,000 Rohingya Genocide Survivors taking refuge at No Man's land since early September 2017; and out of them, 1,000 left the camps and entered Bangladesh camps as the Myanmar armed forces kept repeatedly threatening them and shooting at them from Myanmar side.

The Myanmar officials from the Capital Naypyidaw, under international pressures, have visited "No Man's Land" and tried to persuade them to go back to Myanmar. However, the survivors are adamant that they will not return to Myanmar unless their demands for native and ethnic rights, protected return to protected homeland, restorations to their original villages (not into concentration camps built in Myanmar) and other basic human rights. 

On August 9, while Bangladesh Foreign Minister visiting Myanmar to hold talks with the Myanmar government regarding Rohingya's Return, the Bangladesh authorities also halted humanitarian aids to the Genocide Survivors (taking refuge at "No Man's Land)."

[Reported by Mohammed Salim; Edited by M.S. Anwar]

Please email to: editor@rohingyablogger.com to send your report and feedback.

By Niels Lesniewski | Published by Roll Call on July 31, 2018

Signs point to McConnell not allowing language targeting country also known as Burma

A legislative effort to punish officials responsible for atrocities committed against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar appears to have stalled thanks to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Minority Whip Richard J. Durbingave a speech ahead of floor consideration of the fiscal 2019 defense authorization conference report in which he decried, “the irresponsible removal of provisions related to Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.”

“The House bill contained five provisions restricting security engagement with Burma, imposing sanctions on Burmese officials responsible for human rights abuses and requiring the State Department to make a determination on whether the atrocities committed against the Rohingya people, a minority, constituted ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity or genocide,” the Illinois Democrat said.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has advanced similar legislation, authored by Armed Services Chairman John McCainof Arizona and Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Md.

“It looked like these provisions were destined to be in the final work product,” Durbin said.

Under normal circumstances, language backed by McCain would not be dropped from a defense policy bill, especially one that now bears his name. But, when it comes to Myanmar, perhaps there should be no surprise.

Durbin attributed the rejection of the House language to a Senate leader, which was more than likely McConnell. The Kentucky Republican has had a long interest in Myanmar, and he has longsupported and defendedState Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, even as she has come under a barrage of criticism in recent years.

“The Senate Majority Leader insisted that there be no Burma sanctions in the NDAA,” a House aide confirmed to Roll Call after the Durbin speech.

McConnell’s office did not offer an immediate reaction.

Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor included a direct message to Suu Kyi, who was long viewed as a champion of democracy, earning a Congressional Gold Medalback in 2012.

“In Burma, the government authorities to continue to deny that any of this took place,” Durbin said. “I’m particularly disappointed in Aung San Suu Kyi. Her silence on these problems is hard to explain.”

The Senate is expected to vote on the defense conference report on Thursday, according to Sen. James M. Inhofe. The Oklahoma Republican has been filling the duties of McCain while the Armed Services chairman has been battling cancer at home in Arizona.

Patrick Kelley contributed to this report.

By Tapan Bose | Published by CounterCurrents.Org on August 1, 2018

Rohingya refugees are back in the news again. On Tuesday (July 30) Mr. Rijiju, the Minister of State for Home said some of the Rohingya living in India do not have the status of “refugee” but are “illegal migrants” who would be deported once their details have been prepared. Reiterating his earlier position, Rijiju said since they are illegal migrants, they are not entitled to any government facility.

Responding to a series of supplementary questions in the Parliament, Rijiju said the government has reports that some of the Rohingyas have been involved in illegal activities but he would refrain from getting into details, and maintained that security forces have been deployed to stop their infiltration into the country.

Earlier, the government of India had claimed that the Rohingya were a “potential” threat to India’s national security, as they were vulnerable to manipulations by Islamic terrorists organisations and Pakistan’s ISI. The government is yet to produce evidence of Rohingya refugees indulging in terrorist activities in India. The latest statement of Rijiju is not substantiated with facts. He refused to disclose any details of the criminal activities of the Rohingya refugees. An unsubstantiated statement of this nature, which is capable of inciting violence against the hapless refugee community is unworthy of a responsible minister.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh told the members of the Parliament that the Border Security Force and the Assam Rifles guarding international borders have been asked to ensure that Rohingya asylum seekers do not enter the country. Six months ago, in February this year, Mr. Singh, the Home Minister of India had said, that states asking them to confine Rohingyas in one place and keep them under watch. He said state governments have been asked to carry out enumeration of all Rohingya people living in their respective jurisdictions, collect their biometric data and share it with the Home Ministry. The objective of this exercise was to take up their deportation with Myanmar. This move completely disregards the fact that Myanmar does want Rohingya people in their territory. Myanmar army has been raping Rohingya women, torturing them, killing them, burning down their villages and forcibly evicting them. It exposes the hollowness of Indian governments “humanitarian concern” for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

Different reports have given varying figures of Rohingya immigrants in India. According to one estimate, there are around 40,000 Rohingyas residing in India. The UNHRC data, on the other hand, shows that 16,500 Rohingya Muslims have settled in India as refugees. Of these, 5,700 are settled in Jammu and rest in New Delhi, Jaipur and Hyderabad. Whereas, according to the Jammu and Kashmir government, there 5,700 Rohingyas in Jammu and 7,664 in Ladakh.

Rohingya Muslims have settled in Doda and Samba sectors of Jammu region and in Ladakh. These areas which border Pakistan and China. These areas are considered “sensitive” from security perspective by Indian intelligence agencies. The agencies claim that Rohingya terror group, known as Aqa Mul Mujahideen (AMM), was in touch with terrorist outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and men belonging to AMM got trained in Pakistan. It is also claimed that Zakir Musa, the Head of Al-Qaeda’s offshoot in Kashmir, Ansar Gazawat-ul-Hind, has expressed solidarity with Rohingyas living in Jammu. In early September, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulma (MMU), headed by separatist Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and other religious organisations also observed a Solidarity Day in the Valley for Rohingya settlers. Apparently, this is a good enough reason for the government to deport the Rohingya refugees in national interest.

At the same time, India is witnessing a growing intellectual debate which is trying to create a pro-Rohingya perception and the Hindu right wing ruling party, the BJP is pushing for deportation of Rohingyas just because they are Muslims, India Today, a leading Indian news magazine reported that Rohingya Muslims had forcefully converted Rohingya Hindu women to Islam in Bangladesh, insinuating that some of the Rohingya Muslims harbour anti-Hindu feelings. In a fragile state like Jammu and Kashmir which is divided on religious lines, such news can potentially flare up — invoking fear in the minds of Hindus in Jammu and Buddhists in Ladakh. It would further motivate the “ultra-right wing” ruling party to deport the foreign Muslims settlers who might damage the demography of the country.

As the Indian government announced that it would deport the Rohingya asylum seekers back to Myanmar, some Twitter accounts have been sharing fake images taken from different sources, each from a different event claiming the Rohingyas persecuted Hindus in Rakhine. Using photographs pilfered from different unrelated sources and “photoshopping” them to fit the false narrative, rightwing Hindu organisations in India are generating fake news to show the Rohingya Muslims as terrorists and killers. Unfortunately, Indian government is also using these fake news from the social media to project the Rohingya as a “potential threat” to India’s national security. In the absence of evidence, the government is trying to build a public opinion against the Rohingya refugees and also to deter the support they are getting because of the genocide in progress in Myanmar. The news items such as “Rohingya Killing Hindus” and “Rohingya forcibly converting Hindu women to Islam” have added fuel to the hate campaign, which is being spread through its troll and photoshop by Hindu right wing organisations. Several corporate owned media houses have published news articles about Rohingyas killing Hindus in newspapers and online portals, without bothering to check its authenticity.

Such views serve the communal agenda and make short-term political gains, but the political class has so far failed to take into account the larger threat this poses not just to the Rohingyas, but to the country’s political and social stability. Rohingyas are the most persecuted people in the world. Let us not add to their misfortune. It is possible that a few individual Rohingya refugees might have committed some crime. But that should not be the reason to classify the entire community as “criminals”. It is important for the saner people of India to stand up for the protection of the Rohingya and ask the government to support the global call for an independent investigation into the allegations of “crimes against humanity” committed by Myanmar army. India had earned the international community’s respect for standing up for the oppressed people and against the oppressors, no matter how powerful they were. We must stand by the Rohingya in their hour of need.

Tapan Bose is an independent documentary filmmaker, human rights and peace activist, author and regular contributor leading journals and news magazines in India, Nepal and Pakistan. His award winning documentaries on human rights and democratic issues include An Indian Story (1982) on the blinding of under trial prisoners in Bhagalpur and the nexus between landlord, police and politicians and Beyond Genocide: Bhopal Gas Tragedy (1986). His film ‘Behind the Barricades; Punjab’ (1993) on the state repression in Punjab, as with the earlier cited films, was banned and after a long legal struggle was shown. His latest film is The Expendable People’, (2016) a passionate appeal for justice for the tribal peoples of India, cheated, dispossessed, pauperised and criminalized in their forest homes, made to pay the price for extractive development.

By Safvan Allahverdi

Anadolu Agency

July 31, 2018

Richard Potter

RB Article

July 20, 2018

Early in the morning on May 31st U Maung Kyaw Nu passed away. Maung was known by most as a political activist and president of the Burmese Rohingya Association of Thailand. He was a political prisoner in Burma for his role in protests in 1974. He was a proud rebel, and spoke fondly and often of his time in the jungle with various insurgencies, and his ability to coordinate between many religious, political and ethnic groups. Maung’s last years were spent in exile in Thailand, where his work continued in various forms. He helped organize student uprisings in Burma from his living room. He worked himself to exhaustion cooking and delivering food for Rohingyas locked away in Bangkok’s immigration detention center. He met with journalists, political leaders and human rights organizations every week. He sheltered Burmese dissidents, including monks, in his home. He stood up to and undermined human traffickers, even to their face. U Maung Kyaw Nu was my friend, and I saw him do all of these things. 

I met Maung Kyaw Nu for the first time, five years ago outside a cafe in Bangkok. We smoked and had coffee for some time, a habit he hid from cameras but one that would ultimately take his life. He was as passionate then as he was in his last days to make sure anyone who would listen would hear about the plight of his people. In the same week he took me to Bangkok’s Foreign Correspondents Club (FCCT). At the FCCT it was clear Maung had a fondness for speaking and making sure he would be heard. Any time there was an event regarding the Rohingya he positioned himself to ask questions to the panel and before the cameras. There were audible groans from some western journalists, researchers and pundits as Maung’s questions typically turned into speeches, and many would try to cut him off so they could return to demonstrating their expertise on all the things which Maung Kyaw Nu himself had lived through. He was never phased or insulted by this, but understood it as a game he’d have to play to try and make sure his and his people’s concerns were a part of these outsiders’ discussions about them. 

Maung Kyaw Nu was a man who existed in layers, but each of them was sincere. To those who spent enough time to get close with him, he would reward them with incredible stories from his life and work. His journey from political prisoner, to freedom fighter, to exiled political leader is complicated, to say the least, but consistently his goal was a free Burma where none would be oppressed. Maung Kyaw Nu was unique not only because he held concern for various ethnic and religious groups in Burma that often were at odds with each other, but that he was able to mediate and break bread between them. 

The small insurgencies in Rakhine State are a subject often omitted by activists, squeamish of the optics and implications, but Maung Kyaw Nu never let this deter him from speaking openly. Maung had a saying for the public, a call to unity among the Burmese civilians downtrodden by the state and the ethnic minorities who faced even worse oppression, “We fight, we win.” It was simple, hopeful, and direct, like Maung himself. In private he was even more blunt, “Fuck the Bamar army,” he said to me many times with a smile and a seriousness of work undone and ongoing. 

Insurgency in Burma is as old as the country itself, and to Maung this was simply a matter of fact and political reality which was useless to pretend didn’t exist. And while vast speculation still persists about the Rohingya insurgency in previous decades, there is a rarely noted militia called the National United Party of Arakan (NUPA) where Muslim Rohingya and Buddhist Rakhine belonged together, fighting the same battle. No group has managed to reconcile these two ethnicities so closely before or since, and Maung Kyaw Nu was their Vice President. As an achievement this can’t be overstated, but in the collected histories composed by foreign writers it is seldomly even a footnote. 

In his work in exile, Maung utilized every connection he had to further a future he hoped would come. In an instance that resulted in controversy, Maung managed to arrange a meeting with members of the Kachin Independence Army(KIA), one of Burma’s largest militias which is composed of the largely Christian Kachin ethnic minority. A video of the meeting was posted online and clips of Maung suggesting that the KIA train and cooperate with Rohingya caused rage and panic inside of Burma. Maung played this controversy two ways simultaneously, downplaying the meeting as an informal get together through a mutual western intermediary, which was true, but also as something worth aspiring for. He understood the public, especially the Burmese public, wasn’t ready to be inclusive to his Muslim minority as a political ally, but also that work with those who believed it was possible could be done behind closed doors. It was a line few but Maung could manage to walk, and one perhaps tragically left lingering with his passing. 

Maung’s final years saw him in deteriorating health, facing economic hardship and troubled deeply by the uncertainty of the Rohingyas’ future. He worked himself to exhaustion frequently and had difficulty sleeping. His situation, like that of the Rohingyas, worsened as time passed, but he was relentless in his aspirations. He suffered a stroke, then saw his health further decline. His black hair peppered as he was less able to keep it dyed before finally going white. He avoided the hospital for lack of funds, until he finally had no other option. Finally, cancer took him on the last day of May, 2018. He left behind a world of friends and family who loved him dearly, and now scramble to fill the gaps left in his absence. 

From his youth to his final days, Maung was a fighter, living through extraordinary events I’ve sworn to keep secret even in his passing. He loved his country and hated the corrupt Military regime which controlled it. He loved every ethnic and religious group of his countrymen, even when they rejected him for his own religion and ethnicity. He understood what many still are long to realize; that there would be no freedom for anyone until there was freedom for all. And there wasn’t a day i talked to Maung that he wasn’t striving with these believes deep in his heart to ensure a future where that freedom was a reality.

RB News

July 19, 2018

Buthidaung, Arakan State -- Rakhine officials in the local admininstrations are profiteering on the assistances provided by the Myanmar central government for the violence-hit local (Rohingya) Muslims in Buthidaung Township and also barring INGOs from helping them, according to reliable sources.

Officers from Rakhine Buddhist community have occupied about ninety percent of positions in the Buthidaung Township General Administration and sixty percent in the village administrations all over the Township and therefore, making it easier for them to steal the assistances given for the Rohingyas or profiteer on them. 

According the reports, the Myanmar central government has approved health-care assistances of Kyat 30,000 to Kyat 45,000 ot Kyat 75,000 to Kyat 90,000 each for 2 months for 200 pregnant Rohingya women in Buthidaung based on the seriousness of their health. However, the Rakhine officials in the administrations have cut down not only the numbers of the beneficiaries by distributing assistances to only 100 women instead of 200 but also the amounts of the aid money by half.

Out of agricultural subsidies allotted by the central government for 85 Rohingya villages, the township administration have only distributed agricultural subsidies to 15 villages. It has also been learnt that the township administration have been barring INGOs from assisting the local Rohingya villagers.

"It appears that the Rakhine Buddhist authorities simply want us to leave this country from the way they are making every aspect of our lives difficult," said a Rohingya farmer in Buthidaung.

[Reported by RB Correspondent; Edited by M.S. Anwar]

Please email to: editor@rohingyablogger.com to send your reports and feedback.

Joint Statement

July 19, 2018 

Rohingya organizations worldwide call for accountability for genocide and crimes against humanity in Myanmar

We, the undersigned Rohingya organizations worldwide, call for accountability for genocide and crimes against humanity in Myanmar and for the international community to take action. The international community has failed us and needs to urgently reverse course. We believe it is imperative that the international community urgently address the human rights situation in Myanmar.

The new 160-page report by human rights group Fortify Rights, “They Gave Them Long Swords,” documents how the Myanmar military and authorities made systematic preparations to commit mass atrocity crimes against Rohingya communities during the weeks and months before Rohingya-militant attacks on August 25, 2017. 

Our organizations have documented how Myanmar authorities are responsible for human rights violations in Rakhine State including killings, rape, destruction of property and burning of villages, and avoidable deprivations in aid. The government denies Rohingya citizenship and denies the very existence of our ethnicity.

The Government of Myanmar also denies allegations of human rights violations in Rakhine State and refuses to cooperate with the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar Yanghee Lee as well as the U.N. Fact-Finding Mission. The government also continues to restrict access for aid groups. 

Myanmar military and police officials are responsible for the atrocities in northern Rakhine State and should be brought to justice for genocide and crimes against humanity, including Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. 

We believe Aung San Suu Kyi is also complicit in genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya.

In 2016, the international community failed to act to stop the atrocities against the Rohingya, and in 2017, massive attacks ensued. The failures of the international community to date have created an environment for genocide. 

We support the call of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Fortify Rights, and others for the U.N. Security Council to urgently refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court for atrocity crimes, including genocide and crimes against humanity, against the Rohingya and other ethnic groups, including the Kachin and Shan people. U.N. Security Council member states should apply appropriate pressure—collectively and bilaterally—on any states who do not support a referral to the ICC in order to ensure a referral can take place.

We call on the Government of Myanmar to grant unfettered access to journalists, human rights monitors, and aid groups, and to amend the 1982 Citizenship Law without delay. 

We also call on the Government of Bangladesh to continue to provide protection and humanitarian access to Rohingya refugees, and to cooperate with international efforts to ensure justice and accountability in Myanmar. 

Signatories

1. Arakan Rohingya Development Association – Australia (ARDA)

2. Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)

3. British Rohingya Community in UK

4. Burmese Rohingya Association in Queensland-Australia (BRAQA)

5. Burmese Rohingya Association Japan (BRAJ)

6. Burmese Rohingya Community Australia (BRCA)

7. Burmese Rohingya Community in Denmark

8. Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK)

9. Canadian Burmese Rohingya Organisation

10. Canadian Rohingya Development Initiative

11. European Rohingya Council (ERC)

12. Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation in Malaysia (MERHROM)

13. Rohingya Advocacy Network in Japan

14. Rohingya American Society

15. Rohingya Arakanese Refugee Committee

16. Rohingya Association of Canada

17. Rohingya Community in Finland

18. Rohingya Community in Germany

19. Rohingya Community in Norway (RCN)

20. Rohingya Community in Sweden

21. Rohingya Community in Switzerland

22. Rohingya Community Ireland (RCI)

23. Rohingya Organisation Norway

24. Rohingya Society Malaysia (RSM)

25. Rohingya Society Netherlands

26. Swedish Rohingya Association (SRA)

For more information, please contact: 

Tun Khin (Mobile): +44 7888714866 

Nay San Lwin (Mobile): +49 69 26022349 

Zaw Min Htut (Mobile): +8180 30835327