{"id":102329,"date":"2017-11-27T12:01:02","date_gmt":"2017-11-27T12:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=102329"},"modified":"2017-11-22T09:46:42","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T09:46:42","slug":"burma-myanmar-call-it-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/11\/burma-myanmar-call-it-genocide\/","title":{"rendered":"Burma\/Myanmar: Call It Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UN calls the Myanmar army’s aggression against the Rohingya \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d. \u201cEthnic cleansing\u201d is a term invented by Slobodan Milosevic. It’s a euphemism for forced displacement and genocide. It’s an insidious term because there is no international treaty law against it, whereas there are international laws against forced displacement and genocide.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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People take part in a rally in support of Myanmar’s stateless Rohingya minority in the Chechen capital of Grozny, Russia,on September 4, 2017.
PHOTO: Reuters<\/p><\/div>\n

20 Nov 2017 – <\/em>\u201cEthnic cleansing\u201d is not a crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. It has no legal meaning in international law. Another term without legal meaning is \u201catrocities\u201d.<\/p>\n

Genocidal massacres are acts of genocide. Genocide is defined as acts intended to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. They include killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and inflicting conditions of life on a group calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part.<\/p>\n

Over 600,000 Rohingya have fled into Bangladesh in the past three months to escape systematic massacres by the Myanmar army that has slaughtered thousands of Rohingya and burned over 500 Rohingya villages to the ground. The killings continue today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Genocidal massacres are precisely what the Myanmar army and Rakhine militias are committing against the Rohingya. Myanmar is committing both \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d [forced displacement] and genocide. The crimes often go together. Genocidal massacres are used to terrorise a victim group into fleeing.<\/p>\n

Why does the so-called \u201cinternational community\u201d avoid using the word \u201cgenocide\u201d?<\/p>\n

Many people think \u201cgenocide\u201d requires millions of deaths. Thousands aren’t enough. But the Genocide Convention outlaws intentional destruction \u201cin part\u201d of ethnic or religious groups.<\/p>\n

Lawyers have gutted the word \u201cgenocide\u201d by insisting on proof of \u201cspecific\u201d intent beyond a reasonable doubt. Some even claim that only a court can invoke the word \u201cgenocide\u201d.<\/p>\n

This view is profoundly wrong. It ignores the very name of the International Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Courts judge genocide after it’s over\u2014when it’s too late for prevention.<\/p>\n

Myanmar’s systematic campaign of mass murder and destruction is surely enough proof of specific intent to destroy part of the Rohingya people.<\/p>\n

Those who ignore the power of words argue that \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d, \u201ccrimes against humanity\u201d or \u201catrocities\u201d are just as terrible as genocide.<\/p>\n

They’re wrong. \u201cGenocide\u201d is a much more powerful word.<\/p>\n

Three epidemiologists and I studied the impact of using the words \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d rather than \u201cgenocide\u201d in four genocides: Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Darfur. We counted the number of times \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d and \u201cgenocide\u201d were used in The New York Times, UN statements, major law journals, and reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.<\/p>\n

Our study concluded:<\/strong><\/p>\n