Dissident [Maung Zarni] Slams Attempts to Link Rohingyas to IS
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 3 Aug 2015
August 01, 2015 – A prominent Burmese dissident and human rights activist slammed attempts by certain quarters to brand Rohingyas as sympathetic to IS terrorists.
Dr. Maung Zarni
Dr Maung Zarni wrote on his facebook wall – “… the careerist sickos in the fields called “Security Studies” and “Anti-Terrorism Research” centers, and some lazy journalists, are barking up the wrong tree when they attempt, again without success, to link #Rohingya genocide with ISIS, radicalization, blah blah blah.”
Zarni also referred to presidential spokespersons trying to brand Rohingyas with terrorists as ‘3rd rate Nazi propagandists’.
His comments come following reports in some sections of the international media that Rohingyas might be attracted towards terror groups such as the IS as they continue to face ethnic cleansing by the Myanmar regime.
Following these reports, the security forces have launched a crackdown in some parts and tortured many Rohingyas on charges of belonging to the terror group. In one instance, army personal sexually harassed women in the IDP camp of Cilkhali in Rathedaung as they pretended to search for foreign fighters.
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Dr. Maung Zarni, Associate Fellow, the University of Malaya, is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment, founder and director of the Free Burma Coalition (1995-2004), and a visiting fellow (2011-13) at the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, Department of International Development, London School of Economics. His forthcoming book on Burma will be published by Yale University Press. He was educated in the US where he lived and worked for 17 years. Visit his website http://www.maungzarni.net.
Go to Original – burmatimes.net
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