Interethnic divisions in a young democracy cannot be downplayed or wished away, and it’s time Myanmar’s government and the international community acknowledge strong evidence that genocide is being perpetrated against the Rohingya and act to end it, Katherine Southwick writes.
Violence in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State escalated after a 9 October attack on border guard posts, leaving nine officers dead. Humanitarian assistance and media access to the area have been cut off for weeks while the Myanmar authorities conduct a counterinsurgency operation against allegedly Rohingya assailants. Responsibility for the initial attack remains unclear, however. More than a hundred people are thought to have died already, with 30,000 internally displaced adding to the 160,000 people who have been subsisting in squalid displacement camps since previous outbreaks of violence in 2012 and 2013. Human Rights Watch has released satellite imagery showing that over 1,200 buildings in Rohingya villages have been razed in the past month. Government soldiers have reportedly gang-raped Rohingya women and girls.
Bangladesh, which for 30 years has permitted more than 230,000 registered and unregistered Rohingya refugees to shelter in its territory, has been turning people back who seek refuge across the border. Thousands have already crossed and continue to gather at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.
These events mark a dramatic deterioration in what has long been a desperate situation for a minority that many have identified as among the most persecuted in the world. Most of them are stateless, with the government designating them as “Bengalis” or “illegal immigrants,” despite many having had citizenship in the past and having lived in the region for generations. They have been subjected to forced labour and confined to displacement camps where they do not receive adequate food and medical care, leaving pregnant women and children particularly at risk of agonising illness and death.
Rohingya are subject to harsh restrictions on marriage, family size and movement. Their religious buildings have been destroyed, and those who flee on rickety boats to other countries such as Malaysia or Thailand have, in the past, been turned back to the open seas to die or suffer at the hands of traffickers or languish in indefinite detention.
A question that haunts Myanmar’s government, and the international community, is whether what is happening to the Rohingya constitutes genocide. By now a credible claim can be raised that the internationally recognised crime of genocide is taking place in Myanmar. Accordingly, based on international legal obligations, the Myanmar government and other nation states should be taking all necessary actions to stop and avert the gravest kind of humanitarian catastrophe.
Under Article II of the 1948 Genocide Convention, which Myanmar has ratified, “genocide” is defined as “…any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (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.”
The Yugoslav tribunal has elaborated further on Article II (c) that deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to bring about a group’s destruction can include “subjecting the group to a subsistence diet, systematic expulsion from homes and denial of the right to medical services. Also included is the creation of circumstances that would lead to a slow death, such as lack of proper housing, clothing, and hygiene or excessive work or physical exertion.”
There is little doubt that for years the Rohingya population has suffered the acts listed in Article II (a) – (d) of the Genocide Convention.
On the intent requirement of the crime – that the acts are committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, an ethnic or religious group – courts have taken a highly contextualised, case-by-case approach, to determining whether intent can be inferred from factual circumstances. Such an inference must be “the only reasonable one available on the evidence.” Additionally, as the Rwandan tribunal has stated: “The offender is culpable because he knew or should have known that the act committed would destroy, in whole or in part, a group.”
This case-by-case approach to intent, along with the high burden of proof requiring the evidence to be “fully conclusive,” renders genocide determinations unavoidably contestable. Other analyses could suggest that the overall intent of perpetrators in Myanmar is better understood as “ethnic cleansing,” which reflects the idea that the actual intent is to forcibly transfer or expel the Rohingya rather than physically destroy them.
In the 2015 case of Croatia v. Serbia, which also included evidence of killings, sexual violence, forced labour, and displacement, the International Court of Justice did not find genocidal intent on the part of the Serbs against the Croats in the context of the Yugoslav war. Key considerations were that the conflict was seen as territorial and the Serbs had organised transportation for Croats to evacuate the territories that Serb forces had occupied.
The difference in the Rohingya case is that there is no clear escape from the abject misery and high risk of death or extreme abuse at the hands of traffickers or by other countries’ immigration authorities. There are no systematic measures to officially deport the population, either through providing transportation or agreeing to formal arrangements with receiving countries. Moreover, Rohingya are deterred from departing through restrictions on movement and punishments for leaving, such as by the removal from household lists, the extortion of family members left behind and imprisonment for “illegal” re-entry.
Hundreds, possibly thousands of babies born in squalid camps have suffered preventable deaths due to lack of food and medical care. The overall conditions are such that those persons imposing them over a prolonged period either know or ought to know, that the eventual outcome will be the physical destruction of the group, in whole or in part.
The complexity of proving genocide is ill-matched to the urgency of preventing and responding to genocidal situations when they arise. We could be waiting years for an international tribunal or a panel of experts to conclude authoritatively that genocide is or is not taking place. This scenario would come as too little too late for the many victims and their families, not to mention the domestic political fallout and economic disaster which would ensue after the fact. At the same time, the moral and political costs – the enduring stigma and potential criminal liability – of not acting to stop genocide are severe.
International law and institutions extricate us from this quandary through their emphasis on genocide prevention as an obligation that is at least as equally strong as protection. The 1948 Convention obligates states to prevent and punish genocide. The widely affirmed Responsibility to Protect doctrine requires states to prevent and protect victims from war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in the absence of a meaningful government response.
We can now draw on ample scholarship and case law to identify situations that look very much like genocide and compel robust responses to live up to these obligations to prevent and protect. In 2015, the London-based International State Crime Initiative released a report based on a social scientific study and concluded that, “genocide is taking place in Myanmar” and warning of “the serious and present danger of the annihilation of the country’s Rohingya population.” Others have made a legal case for genocide, or the high risk of genocide, such as scholars Zarni and Cowley, Yale Law School’s human rights clinic, and former deputy prosecutor of the Yugoslav Tribunal, Sir Geoffrey Nice, among others.
Some might argue that the label for a crime should not matter, and in a sense they are right. These crimes too often occur along a spectrum that, without corrective action, can lead to the same calamitous result; massive loss of life and destruction.
We might think the responses would be the same, regardless of the words we choose to define the crime. However, too many international conferences and diplomatic meetings over the years have lamented the long list of persecutions and suffering this group has endured over decades, resulting in responses that are disproportionately inadequate to the gravity of the Rohingya’s plight. Tepid policies toward Myanmar and the Rohingya betray a deep-seated reluctance to label these crimes as genocide for fear of subverting the narrative so many in the world have waited for; an enlightened democratic transition. The notion of genocide in Myanmar risks turning the country back into an international pariah rather than an international darling.
But the current violence painfully illustrates that interethnic divisions in a young democracy cannot be downplayed or wished away. It is time for Myanmar, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the United Nations and others to face facts, to confront the prospect of genocide being perpetrated against the Rohingya. They must be open to judgment for their inaction, or more hopefully, take action and commit the resources needed to save lives throughout the region and preserve Myanmar’s future.
Katherine Southwick is a Visiting Scholar at George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution.
This piece is published in partnership with Policy Forum – Asia and the Pacific’s platform for public policy analysis and debate.
Confronting modern Rent-Seeking (aka professional begging) in the West
Rubric of a professional beggar and attention seeker (aka human rights fighter)
1. MY VALUES MATTER. I have my values (human rights). They are UNIVERSAL and everyone must follow. Never mind my country has turned countless others into war zones with several million deaths, MY VALUES must be imposed on others. And the end justifies any cost. THOSE who do not follow MY VALUES are barbarians.
2. EVERYTHING IS JUSTIFIED for my cause. If I lie, I lie for good cause. If I fabricate information, I did it for good cause. If I am gullible enough to believe in everything ‘the victims’ say without fact-check, I am dumb for good cause. DO NOT CHALLENGE ME, I WILL LABLE YOU as ‘xenophobic, racist, denialist, etc. etc. and SHUT OFF MY MIND. I am always right and just give me attention.
3. YOU ARE A LESSER MORAL. Everyone is equal but I am more equal than others. If you disagree with me, I don’t care about your views or facts. I will shut my mind off and preach you about MY VALUES. AND I DON’T CARE about your values or facts, and I think you don’t have values at all since ONLY MY values are universal.
So what’s the problem with the Professional Begging Industry?
It’s a struggle to be relevant in a world most people have become increasingly irrelevant. The best for this world would be when people like the author would just sit back and relax, instead of begging for attention or money (aka donations). The truth is, the world, especially Asia, does not need them, just like the world did not need Christian missionaries sowing discords during the colonial period. Just like Christian missionaries before them, the human rights fighters have created so many conflicts. They have divided so many communities. They have rendered so many issues unsolvable. Blood is in their hands.
So, my message to them is, “If you want to beg (either attention or money), go and beg elsewhere.” Just not in Myanmar. We have so many problems you created during the colonial period (including this one), that have to be solved instead of moving forward.
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Excellant comments by Soe Win Han! You just hit right on the nail ! So true about these what you describes as Proffessional Begger Industry despirately seeking attention for oneself but more importantly seeking donations or fundings from infamous OIC. We are all aware the fact that Saudi is generously funding these liberal media as well as liberal elite academic universities,research centers etc,etc in the west and in US for their own hidden agenda( global jihadism and Wahabisms).What is happening now in Arskan State, Myanmar is part of the notorious British legacy left behind in Myanmar to the people of Myanmar by the British Colonial Government during their about 100 years of British occupation of Myanmar.See ” Hla Oo’s Blog: 1942 Buddhist Genocide in Maungdaw District” which was well documented in United Kingdom National Archives Library. About 400,000 to 700,000 ethnic Arakanese Buddhists were viciously massacred in Maungdaw and Butheetaung Districts and nearby Sittwe City in Arakan State by the illegal Bengali Muslims imported from then East India ( Chittagong) by the then British Colonial Government.This event happened in 1942 is a little known fact to the world now. That is the bonafide genocide and ethnic cleansing of Arakanese Buddhists in Arakan State in 1942 by the illegal Bengali Muslim migrants imported there in the region by the British Colonial Government at the time.
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@ Soe Win Han, from your comments above, it seems that you support genocide.
Can you please state here whether or not you support genocide?
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Thanks. If you want to beg for attention, beg elsewhere.
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Your deflection from my simple question gives me your answer.
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Sure, I agree there is a genocide: against the Buddhists, led by human rights fighters, funded by NGOs and foreign governments, and carried out by the Rohingya leaders, at least since Mujahideen rebellion in the 1960s. Why? Because my necessary condition for a genocide label is that the population must decrease. And percentage wise, only Buddhist population has decreased from 71% in 1983 to 59% today. Definitely, there is a “slow-burning genocide” going on there.
For your “rape, murder, or whatever-you-call-it” allegations, read the comment from Peter Cohen.
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Simon L
Where were you when the sanction by the west on Myanmar had been genocidal ?
Ko Soe Win Han is correct peddle your moral superiority going to the area to uplift the down trodden personally instead of empty rhetoric.
Chances are you will find the Yakhine are i the same boat as you might like to ignore .
The lingering genocidal effect of the west, acted exactly like yourself.
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Great response by Soe Win Han ! Bravo !
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Can you please explain where the mass graves in Myanmar are ? Can you please explain the detailed reports of any “Rohingya” being killed ? Can you please explain the population increase in “Rohingya” each successive year ? Why is there no pattern of massive population loss, as we have seen with the Yezidi and Sudanese and Tutsis ? Are you suggesting Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is Pol Pot, Omar al-Bashir, Bashar al-Assad or Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi ? Please explain why the ONLY mass graves of Bengali Muslim women and men have been found in Kelantan and Kedah, Malaysia ? Does Thai and Malay trafficking of Bengali Muslims constitute “genocide” by Burmese Buddhists ? In the cases I cited above, even the UN had population data. Why is that when Muslim nations within the OIC whine about “Rohingya” genocide, they cannot point to any actual evidence ? On the other hand, why has the UN been silent about the documented genocide of Hindus, Christians and tribal people in Bangladesh, reported by brave Bangladeshi journalists, who have been killed ?
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https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/burma0413webwcover_0.pdf
I hope that one day you have the bare minimum of sense and dignity to look back upon this post with shame and horror. There were (are) people who denied the Holocaust as well.
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Oh, somebody mentioned HRW. To say it frankly, you don’t understand the issue an iota. And for all your self-righteousness and sense of moral superiority, just like hundreds of millions of Westerners before you, history will hold you all accountable for rendering the conflict unsolvable. THEY are the hypocrites. THEY are the snobbish pathological liars. THEY are the genocidal murderers.
“By their well-intentioned activism, they [human rights fighers] have given murderous rebel militias – not only in Darfur but around the world – the idea that even if they have no hope of military victory, they can mobilise useful idiots around the world to take up their cause, and thereby win in the court of public opinion what they cannot win on the battlefield. The best way to do this is to provoke massacres by the other side, which Darfur rebels have dome quite successfully and remorselessly. This mobilises well-meaning American celebrities and the human rights groups behind them. It also prolongs war and makes human rights groups accomplices to great crimes.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/dec/31/human-rights-imperialism-james-hoge
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Sorry but the article that you linked has no real relevance to what I said. No matter what you think about HRW, you asked for evidence that Rohingya are being killed and abused by government forces. If you had even bothered to open the document, there are pages and pages of reports detailing accounts and interviews with survivors illustrating this point. Or do you suggesting that HRW fabricated those accounts? (Out of what, a sense of ‘moral superiority?)
Please try to focus on the topic at hand and not go off ranting about some irrelevant point about Western arrogance.
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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/10/exclusive-strong-evidence-genocide-myanmar-151024190547465.html
Here is another detailed report of ‘strong evidence’ of a genocide being coordinated against the Rohingya. Or is AlJazeera another Western human rights propoganda outlet? Actually, I already know what you will say – they’re part of a ‘Muslim conspiracy’ to sow unnecessary discord and divide communities. Is that close? So what news outlets would you actually trust of this ‘evidence’ you ask for?
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Show me a verifiable photo of soldiers shooting at your Rohingya and then we’ll talk about your evidence. It’s an age of phones and cameras. DON’T give me your pathetic nonsense interviews as evidence. That’s what happened WHEN YOU GIVE PEOPLE aid and asylum without verifying their made-up nonsense. Go inside any mosque, they are INSTRUCTED TO TELL GROSS LIES whenever they meet with any foreigner.
I tell you give me evidence. Back yourself up. Your pathetic nonsense “interviews” do NOT qualify as evidence. If HRW and Aljaeera interviews are all that you can offer, you’ll spend the rest of your life in snobbish moral superiority bubble.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/10/02/committee-report-rohingya-refugees-false-rape-claims.html
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Ethnic violence and genocide, like any complicated issue, is not a matter of black or white. But you have signalled quite clearly throughout these comments that you are not interested in getting into a nuanced or rational discussion. It is actually quite sad how you keep telling me that I live in a bubble. I am not the one denying that my country has been directly involved in acts of horrific violence and abuse against a minority population.
Even if Tatmadaw forces are not DIRECTLY engaging in murdering or abusing the Rohingya (IF, not EVEN THOUGH), their by and large refusal to intervene and provide protection against occurences of ethnic violence against the Rohingya and their tacit and not-so-tacit support of these actions can be taken as a signal of ongoing genocide. Please, for your own sake, refer to the case of the Armenian genocide, unless I may suspect you are also one of those who also deny that has occured.
Your stubborn refusal and hatred are what is wrong with this world – we as a humanity must learn from our worst mistakes and ensure that they do not happen again.
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Do you understand what “evidence” means? It’s more than googling “Rohingya genocide.” Let me tell you. A video of American soldiers shooting journalists is EVIDENCE. An interview with locals in which people say “everybody died” is NONSENSE. That’s especially true when there is A HUGE BENEFIT FOR LYING in terms of aid and political gains. Guess your school doesn’t do a better job than instilling moral superiority.
Your bushing of HR narrative as ‘irrelevant’ shows you have no capacity to understand. Let me tell you why it is relevant. The same narrative, demonising one side and identiying the other as ‘victims’, is unfolding in Rakhine. Believe me, you’ll spend the rest of your life in your little bubble. Humans are more hardwired than they would ever admit. So, good bye. We’ll talk again when you can offer some evidence.
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A video of American soldiers shooting journalists is EVIDENCE.
try this then ……
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfgRs-JII78
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Your constant insistence on describing and characterizing the Rohingya as liars and as morally corrupt have been (and still is) used as basis for hatred and violence against other minority populations throughout the world, such as Gypsies and Jews. I do not have the confidence in my own ability to convince you out of your own racism.
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Rohingya genocide, Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, Russian invasion of Crimea, President Rousseff’s corruption, popular uprising against Assad…all things that never actually happened.
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Wow this is a new form of ignorance. Russian invasion of Crimea never happened? The Arab Spring never occurred in Syria? Why in the world have you deluded yourself into believing this?
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SOME Rohingyas engage in lying. So are some Burmese. Just so you know, 90% of Burmese refugees, including many of my friends, in the West have never actually seen an actual “war.” Poor and unemployed, they went to Thailand or Malaysia, and registered as refugees under the UN as a ‘lucky draw.’ When interviewed, they would tell harrowing tales about how the Burmese army had abused them. Now, they live in Norway, US, UK, and other Western countries. I have no ill feelings toward my friends. But that’s the reality they would agree.
Now, look that all the benefits the West has provided for lying. Let me tell you. A woman is fertile for about a week in a month. That means if the so-called rape allegations are true, there would be so many pregnancies arising from those rapes (~25% of the rapes), given no contraception. But to date, I have yet to read a single report about one Rohingya-Burmese mixed kid. I have yet to read a report about sperm samples of Burmese soldiers present in Rohingya women. So, I call these allegations nonsense.
The same goes for so-called murder allegations. During the Du Chee Yar Tan incident, in which the peaceful Rohingyas murdered a sergeant and opened fire on the police, MSF treated several Rohingyas with gunshot wounds. Now, 20,000 so-called refugees have run to Bangladesh, allegedly due to Burmese army opening fire on them. Surprisingly, not a single gunshot wound is to be found! What I know for sure is the imams and Rohingya leaders have done an excellent job at instructing their followers to lie. But they also live in their dream establishing an independent Mulsim enclave. Sadly, they are going to dream forever.
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Why would you not having read about mixed children mean that forced rapes do not occur. Why would there even be any reports about ‘mixed kids’ being born in the first place. Who is there to run these tests on ‘sperm samples’ in Rohingya women in the first place, besides the Burmese government itself, as it does it best to shut out all other internationa NGOs from operating in Rakhine state. Your arguments get more and more nonsensical with each post.
No body is saying that Rohingya do not commit acts of violence themselves. I’m sure that any minority, when faced with horrible persecution and abuse will resor to these sorts of acts, yet I do not seek to justify this violence on either side. You keep bringing up these so-called facts like ‘no gunshots being found’ on 20,000 refugees. Who exactly are you claiming has checked each of these individuals and determined that there has been no gunshot wounds? Also how do you ‘know for sure’ that imams are telling Rohingya to lie? For all your demanding of evidence, you sadly offer none of your own.
It’s easy to see why – you have nothing to base your allegations on except likely horribly biased and sensational articles and your own prejudice and pre-determined expectations of these people. This conversation was detrmined to be fruitless from the start. Yet I would like to see you continue to respond, so that maybe you can begin to see where your beliefs come from.
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Lacking evidence, you resort to labelling others as ‘racist.’ Wow. Remind me of myself four years ago in which I called a bunch of Arakanese as racists because I had no evidence that Rohingya had been in existence in Arakan well before the British rule. Talk about nostalgia.
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Labeling an entire population of people as ‘liars’ who are making up false allegations about their own suffering for their own greed is the very evidence of racism.
I find it interesting, but not suprising, that you have failed to comment on anything else I have stated as to how the Burmese army’s failure to provide sufficient protection against mob violence constitutes a form of genocide paralllel that to of the actions of the Turkish army during the Armenian genocide. It is evidently clear that your outrage and intelligence is severly limited to what you think you understand from your pre-held beliefs.
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Do you know what “some” means? Your understanding of the issue is very limited. I have nothing to gain from arguing against your rants. Good luck.
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I have a hard time understanding what you mean when your statements go back and forth on the issue.
How do you juxtapose statements such as:
“Go inside any mosque, they are INSTRUCTED TO TELL GROSS LIES whenever they meet with any foreigner.”
and
“What I know for sure is the imams and Rohingya leaders have done an excellent job at instructing their followers to lie. ”
With your later statement that only SOME Rohingya lie? And if only SOME Rohingya lie, isn’t it true that SOME are telling the truth, meaning out of the vast records of interviews and transcripts that exist SOME are true, so that there do exist evidence of state-led violence against the Rohingya, which you so deny?
I understand your frustration, but do not blame me for your confusion. It is a result of your own twisted logic.
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Park.
For people like me, we don’t care about who are the victims, who are the perpetrators. Frankly, we don’t care whether a genocide, murder, or terrorism is right or wrong. We take pleasure in understaning why. When verifiable evidence, let’s say videos or photos, of Burmese soliders massacring civllians are out, we are among the first to acknowlege it happens, and ask why. We don’t judge even those who committed henious crimes in history. We believe they are human beings and if we have the same genes and raised in the same circumstances, we would grow up and become the same persons as they do.
So, yeah, you’re good. Only you understand things. You’re moral, a rare thing in this world. Others are racists. Burmese army is full of genocidal soldiers. Rohingyas are suffering a genocide. Your BBC, HRW and Aljazeera are reliable. My six years of reading everything into the conflict from the British rule to this day means nothing compared to your expertise. ASSK, Jacques Leider, and Robert Taylor are racist too. I apologize for my earlier rants. I hope that boosts your serotonin and make you feel better.
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Please explain to me, if there is no wave of violence going on against the Rohingya (WHETHER government forces are DIRECTLY taking part or ALLOWING it to happen), why are tens of thousands of Rohingya risking their lives to board overseas on horribly crowded, dangerously unsafe ships, and at the risk of victimization by other human traffickers? Or do you also deny that this is occuring?
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It’s pathetic that I can read your brain like a magazine. Why? Because I was someone like you, attacking others who hold different views. As I have described above, your tactic: LABEL, SHAME AND SILENCE anyone who dares to voice anything contrary to your own.
http://heterodoxacademy.org/2016/10/21/one-telos-truth-or-social-justice/
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A couple of points. “Mass graves” if you describe graves where 10,15,20 or whatever number of deceased people are buried have also been found in the forests of Southern Thailand. However, if we take the 1948 Convention on Genocide as the basis for describing whether or not genocide has occurred or is occurring then it is not necessary to uncover mass graves. Perhaps it might be better to describe what is happening to the Rohingya as ethnocide but whatever term is used it is inexcusable as to what is actually happening to the Rohingya and the democratically elected Government in Myanmar really does need to confront this issue.
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Mapim gathering proof on atrocities against Rohingya
By Intan Baha
New Straits Times Online
December 3, 2016
IPOH: Majlis Perundingan Pertubuhan Islam Malaysia (Mapim) is gathering proof of Myanmar cruelty towards the Rohingya community to bring Myanmar to the International Crime Court (ICC) soonest possible.
Its president Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid said this is an effort with the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) in London, to file the Rohingya case to the ICC.
“We are gathering proof of murder, rape and genocide and will work together with the IHRC to file the case to the ICC as soon as possible.
“We are collecting testimonies of killings; proof is being compiled and we have documents fingering the responsible party.
“IHRC is waiting for Mapim to send reports with Rohingya representatives to fulfil the report standard,” he told a press conference after the launch of the Solidarity Rohingya Fund and ‘Solidariti Rohingya dan Kepedulian Ummah’ at Sultan Azlan Shah Mosque here today.
Mapim would file the case under the crime towards humanity committed by Myanmar troops and it has not been done by any party before, Mohd Azmi added.
He said Mapim also has agreed with several international non-governmental organisations to urge Asean, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and United Nations to pressure the Myanmar government to stop its oppression against the Rohingya.
Meanwhile, Mohd Azmi said Mapim has warned Myanmar to stop the massacre within seven days before Mapim begins an international boycott of the country.
“Any activity such as trade and sporting events will be boycotted if the killing are not halted.
“Myanmar still has four days and if the killings still continue, we will launch the boycott in Kuala Lumpur and expose the atrocities to the world so that economic sanctions would be re-imposed on Myanmar,” he said.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2016/12/mapim-gathering-proof-on-atrocities.html
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From this comment, I guess the writer tagline would be ” leave the killing of Muslims to Muslims, others – butt out”
The OIC and other Islamic organisations are doing such a great job in stopping killings in Islamic countries…
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In the author’s Beltway ‘filter-bubble’, America stands for liberty, democracy and human rights. In my version of reality there are no such thing as ‘Rohingya’ and the US simply wants Myanmar’s oil and airbases.
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Peter, thanks for your comment. Just a couple of points: In the 40s, so-called ‘Indian Tamils’ in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) were disenfranchised, i.e. their citizenship was taken away from them unilaterally. Since India did not accept them either, they became stateless, though they had lived in Ceylon for at least three generations. Nobody in the world bothered, because it was assumed that a country could determine independently who it would and would not accept as citizens. Subsequently, these ‘stateless’ people were ill-treated, attacked, deported and eventually killed, again with nobody except a few academics bothering. Not talk about ‘most persecuted’. Finally India and Sri Lanka came to a series of agreements in which these Tamils were ‘distributed’ between India and Sri Lanka. In India they live in the Nilgiris, until today sometimes under precarious circumstances. Mind you: I am talking about ‘Indian Tamils’, not about Sri Lankan Tamils where genocide has definitely occurred, complete with mass graves, again with few people bothering, because the country is, after all, a ‘model democracy’.
Cut to the Rohingyas: certainly they are treated badly, but if we go by the Sri Lankan case: does Myanmar not have the right to determine who are and who are not its citizens? And why cannot Bangladesh contract an agreement similar to that between India and Sri Lanka? Certainly, as Jacques Leider has shown, the bulk of the Rohingyas came to the Rakhine after WWII, otherwise, how do you explain a 90% increase from then? That cannot be ‘natural increase’.
Certainly no group must be attacked, violated, killed or anything just because they are thought not to be legal citizens. But please, differentiate these two issues and stop talking about ‘most persecuted’. I could name you quite a few candidates more qualified for the label.
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I have not read anything from Jacques Leider that says “the bulk of the Rohingyas came to the Rakhine after WWII.” I am just curious.
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Now in Bangladesh, Rohingya describe rape, murder in Myanmar
following snipped from a much more comprehensive report :
But Begum says she has no need to exaggerate what happened in Caira Fara.
She said that after the four leaders were killed, violence churned through the village in chaotic scenes of horror. Begum’s husband, a poor, illiterate farm laborer, was beaten and then murdered by having his throat slit, along with an unknown number of other villagers, she said. Their bodies were eventually driven away in a truck.
She said attackers knocked her young son knocked from her grasp, then raped her.
Finally, when the soldiers weren’t paying attention, she grabbed her son and ran into the nearby hills. After hiding for two days, her brother gave her enough money – about $38 – to pay smugglers to get her and her son into Bangladesh.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2016/12/now-in-bangladesh-rohingya-describe.html
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This slow-burning Genocide was started by the Rohingyas formerly known as “the Chitagonian Bengali-Muslims” in 1942. Please read former-New-Mandala-contributor Hla Oo’s “1942 Genocide of Buddhist Yakhines in Maungdaw District” at this link.
http://hlaoo1980.blogspot.com.au/2016/12/1942-genocide-of-buddhists-in-maungdaw.html
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Thank-you for the lead .
However the blog article does not stand up to much scrutiny .
Muslims from Northern Rakhine State killed around 50,000 Arakanese, including the Deputy Commissioner U Oo Kyaw Khaing, who was killed while trying to settle the dispute. [3] However the number of Arakanese killed is being questioned, and the number of Muslims killed is claimed to be around 40,000 too. [4] The total casualty of both parties in that conflict is not certain and no concrete official reference can be found.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arakan_massacres_in_1942
and please before winkipedia is dismissed note that there are 2 outside references supplied.
http://prachatai.org/english/node/6760
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The U.K National Archives Library well documented this event.Wikepedia is incomplete.The then British Colonial Government provided arms and ammunitions to these imported Bengali Muslims in the region to fight back incoming Japanese Occupation in Burma at the time but did not provide any arms to the native Arakanese Buddhists there.These imported Bengali Muslims there,instead of fighting back invading Japanese forces,they turned their weapons against the unarmed and defenseless native Arakanese Buddhists living there,massacring them viciously,burning their villages to ashes,wiping out the whole villages and towns,invading ,robbing and occupying their villages and towns. Maungdaw,Butheetaung,Yethetaung districts were Arakanese Buddhists towns before until then in 1942. Since then these districts have been occupied by 99% of these Bengali Muslims and their descendants. The Muslims distorted as usual the figures that they lost about was 30,000 which is questionable. The Yakhine or Arakanese Buddhists there
at the time were unarmed vs armed Bengali Muslims.The Arskanese aforementioned villages and towns were taken and occupied by these Bengali Muslims and they have been living there since.Maundaw Distric alone the Arakanese Buddhists death tolls was said to be about 30,000 at the time.
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Regardless of whether you sympathise or not with the Rohingya situation, the ugly truth is that if Myanmar continues to be ‘heavy handed’ over their treatment of the Rohingya, this localised dispute has the potential to turn extremely ugly right across Myanmar if Jihadists and ISIL sympathisers decide to get involved.
If you have zero sympathy with the Rohingya and oppose the facts that supporters are claiming, at least have the common sense to recognise the ‘lesser’ of 2 evils and find a practical solution to the Rohingya problem.
The saying ‘cut off your nose to spite your face’ comes to mind.
Get over it.
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Main fallacy of all those “Human Rights” industry largess enjoyers is that, the mostly recognised Burmese populace in the North whoa re strafed by planes with devastating effect and are totally open to go and report is simply ignored.
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Eye-opener on genocide against my People:
Haikal Mansor
December 9, 2016
I am a Rohingya activist and professional, fluent in Burmese, Rohingya and English languages, living in exile. I made the 2-minutes video-clip with English language subtitles and posted it on YouTube with the purpose of exposing Aung San Suu Kyi’s culpability and complicity in the crime of genocide against my peoples, including babies, children, women, men and elderly people.
Amartya Sen, “The Term ‘slow genocide’ is appropriate because you deny [Rohingya] people health care, nutritional opportunities.”
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2014/11/watch-webcast-live-on-slow-burning.html
George Soros, “In Aung Mingalar, I heard the echoes of my childhood. You see, in 1944, as a Jew in Budapest, I too was a Rohingya. Much like the Jewish ghettos set up by Nazis around Eastern Europe during World War II, Aung Mingalar has become the involuntary home to thousands of families who once had access to health care, education and employment. Now, they are forced to remain segregated in a state of abject deprivation. The parallels to the Nazi genocide are alarming.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAV5E_4Thh8
Desmond Tutu, “The government of Myanmar has sought to absolve itself of responsibility for the conflict between the Rakhine and the Rohingya, projecting it as sectarian or communal violence. I would be more inclined to heed the warnings of eminent scholars and researchers including Amartya Sen, the Nobel laureate in economics, who say this is a deliberately false narrative to camouflage the slow genocide being committed against the Rohingya people.”
http://www.tutufoundationusa.org/2015/05/29/desmond-tutu-the-slow-genocide-against-the-rohingya/
Tomas Ojea Quintana (UN Special Rapporteur on human rights), “The International State Initiative… arrives at a convincing conclusion: that a process of genocide against the Rohingya population is underway in Myanmar.”
http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(16)00646-2.pdf
Yale Law School: Clinic Study Finds Evidence of Genocide in Myanmar
https://www.law.yale.edu/yls-today/news/clinic-study-finds-evidence-genocide-myanmar
“Aung San Suu Kyi’s influence with the international community helped keep Myanmar’s military in check and strengthened her political position. Now she has lost some of her lustre, and her hold on the military is slipping. Her strategy of pragmatic compromise and ignoring the plight of the Rohingya no longer seems tenable,” Motokazu Matsui, 9 December 2016
http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Policy-Politics/Crackdown-on-Rohingya-mars-Suu-Kyi-s-human-rights-image?page=2
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2016/12/aung-san-suu-kyi-look-yourself-in.html
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The Rohingya genocide – no longer a myth
Dr Habib Siddiqui
RB Article
December 11, 2016
snipped from a long article
And I am not alone when I state that the Rohingyas are victims of genocide. From the Human Rights Watch to the academic experts on genocide concur. Phil Robertson, Asia director for Humans Right Watch, wrote nearly four years ago that “the Burmese government engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya that continues today”. Professor William Schabas, former President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, went a step further and cautioned, “we’re moving into a zone where the [genocide] word can be used.”
Whatever doubt, if any, against the use of the term ‘genocide’ have to be shelved after October 9 of this year (2016) when the Myanmar security forces attacked Rohingya villages, ethnically cleansing these. According to ARNO, more than 500 innocent Rohingya civilians were killed, many hundreds of women raped, about 3,500 houses were burned down, unknown number of people arrested and involuntarily disappeared, and at least 40,000 internally displaced, in addition to systematic destruction of rice, paddy and food products. About 10,000 people had also fled to Bangladesh. Regular humanitarian assistance has been disrupted for many weeks, putting at risk over 150,000 vulnerable people.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2016/12/the-rohingya-genocide-no-longer-myth.html
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Muslim Interviewee Found Beheaded in Maungdaw
Burmese reporters who participated in a three-day government-organized trip to northern Maungdaw beginning on Dec. 20 told The Irrawaddy on Friday that U Shuna Myar was one of their interviewees from the Rohingya Muslim community in Ngakhura.
http://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/muslim-interviewee-found-beheaded-in-maungdaw.html
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You might want to add the Muslim man was beheaded for speaking the truth that there was no evidence of Muslims being killed. And people wonder why everyone lies.
“Shu Na Myar and other village elders told the journalists that they had not seen any evidence of Muslims being killed or beaten.”
http://frontiermyanmar.net/en/muslim-man-found-dead-after-meeting-reporters
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The dead villager, Shuna Mya, told reporters on a government-guided visit to the area stories he had heard from local residents who said they had witnessed atrocities being committed by security forces that moved into northern Rakhine state to look for insurgents after the Oct. 9 attacks that left nine policemen killed.
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/headless-body-of-muslim-who-spoke-to-journalists-found-in-myanmars-maungdaw-12232016144345.html
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Maungdaw, Arakan – Residents in Nga Khu Ra village tract , Northern Maungdaw Township, say that the murder of a local man was part of an orchestrated plan by the government.
U Dus Mohammed, who also goes by the name Shuna Miah, son of U Bozu Zama, from the middle hamlet of Nga Khu Ra village tract, spoke with Myanmar’s handpicked media team on the 21st of December. After that night he was reported missing. In the morning on the 22nd of December his body was recovered after it was found floating in a stream in Doe Tan Village, close to his village. The body was found decapitated and “cut into parts.”
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2016/12/murder-of-nga-khu-ra-villager-who.html
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I believe everyone would be thankful if you stop copying and pasting nonsense from Rohingya Blogger. Those who are interested will go and read themselves. Comment section is for your own opinions. Not to copy and paste articles elsewhere. That’s spamming and copyright violation.
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Look in the mirror ………a mere three posts above this one .
An who would give any credence to one who purports to speak for every one ?
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26 December 2016
A man has been found dead with stab wounds in Burma’s Arakan State, in what the government said on Monday was the second murder in under a week of a Rohingya who cooperated with authorities as they crack down on suspected insurgents.
http://www.dvb.no/news/muslim-links-government-murdered-arakan-govt/73322
wonder why there would be some here who would prefer this news is suppressed ?
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Plight of Rohingya now an ASEAN issue
While ASEAN is in its early days of shaping a role in the cross-border implications of Arakan State’s volatility and stability in Burma, the retreat at least made it clear that this “internal” matter is now officially an ASEAN issue.
http://www.dvb.no/news/plight-rohingya-now-asean-issue/73330
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