{"id":83473,"date":"2016-11-28T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2016-11-28T12:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=83473"},"modified":"2016-11-26T13:43:27","modified_gmt":"2016-11-26T13:43:27","slug":"dr-maung-zarni-on-the-rohingya-in-burmamyanmar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/11\/dr-maung-zarni-on-the-rohingya-in-burmamyanmar\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Maung Zarni on the Rohingya Muslim Genocide in Buddhist Burma\/Myanmar"},"content":{"rendered":"

26 Nov 2016 – <\/em>A journalist asked me a few questions to get sound bites and quotes.\u00a0 I turned them into a more comprehensive interview. Thought this may serve as a succinct backgrounder if you are interested in the contextual view of the current annihilation phase of the Rohingya genocide.<\/p>\n

\"myanmar-burma-rohingya-zarni\"<\/a>
\nWhy do you as a Buddhist and Burmese support Rohingys when your whole country, the military, the NLD and the society, hate and want to evict them as a group?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Historical evidence clearly indicates today’s Rakhine coastal region to
\nbe an ethnically and religiously diverse shared homeland for both
\nRakhine and Rohingya for centuries.\u00a0 This is also the region that had
\nfar greater historical interaction and inter-mingling with the Bay of
\nBengal-based communities of present-day east coast of India,
\nBangladesh (East Bengal) than the central plains of Burma, where
\ntoday’s dominant, ruling group, the Burmese, \u00a0have been based.
\nI therefore support unequivocally the right of return for Rohingya
\npeople – close to a million by now – whom the Burmese have purged
\nsince the first army-organized large scale operation in 1978. \u00a0 There
\nare more official reasons which compel me to support the Rohingyas and
\ntheir cry to live in Northern Rakhine.<\/p>\n

First, the governments of Burma, including the senior most leaders of
\nthe Burma Armed Forces embraced officially and verifiably Rohingya
\npeople as one of the ethnic minorities of the Union of Burma.\u00a0 Second,
\nRohingyas are like any other ethnic minorities along Burma’s porous
\nand long borders with China, India, Thailand and Bangladesh, whose
\npresence and identities predate the emergence of present-day Burma.
\nBurma as we know it is a colonial product of negotiations amongst the
\nBurmese nationalists, ethnic minority leaders and the British
\ncolonials, and its borders were drawn artificially, splitting up these
\nborderlands communities into members or citizens of new nation-states.
\nAs early as 1950’s the Burmese leaders, both civilians and military,
\nacknowledge the presence and adjustable identities these borderlands
\npeople.<\/p>\n

I know this because my own late great-uncle was a senior commander
\nstationed in Rakhine, who was Deputy Chief of the predominantly
\nRohingya administrative district named Mayu District, after Mayu River
\nin Northern Rakhine.<\/p>\n

In addition, there are over 1,3 million Rohingyas – by Burma’s
\nofficial, conservative estimate – that continue to live in what you
\nmay call ‘vast open prisons’ where the ethnic cleansing is taking
\nplace. \u00a0 The Burmese government of ex-general Thein Sein proposed to
\nthe visiting UNHCR head in August 2012 to effectively evict them and
\ntransmigrate them to other countries, with UN financing.\u00a0 UN rejected
\nthe proposal on grounds that Rohingyas are not refugees.\u00a0 They are the
\ncountry’s people, born and bred there, and it is the Burmese state’s
\nresponsibility to look after them.<\/p>\n

Even without discussing the genocidal acts committed by the Burmese
\nregime, the fact that it refuses categorically to register the birth
\nof every single Rohingya new born makes Burma a major violator of
\ninternational law, for instance, the Child Right Convention, which
\nentitles all new-born infants, the right to a nationality. \u00a0 \u00a0My
\ncountry is verifiably in the wrong, in terms of facts and
\ninternational law, not to mention on grounds of Buddhist principles of
\ncompassion and human kindness.<\/p>\n

Is Aung San Suu Kyi ignoring the plight of the Rohingyas?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aung San Suu Kyi is not simply ignoring or lukewarm about the plight
\nof Rohingyas.\u00a0 She is personally complicit and now officially guilty
\nin making their plight worse by the day.<\/p>\n

She is reportedly very “racist” towards the Muslims, and she unilaterally made the decision to NOT allow any Muslim MP in her party during the 2015 election,
\neffectively pandering to the majoritarian anti-Muslim electorate.
\nShe shares the Burmese generals’ concern about the growth of Muslim
\npopulation and she shares their military’s institutionalized view that
\nRohingyas are illegals or just colonial era migrants with no root in
\nthe country. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0By cleansing her now nominally ruling NLD of all
\nMuslim MP candidates and representatives, she has practically aligned
\nherself with the army, her key partner.<\/p>\n

Why is there so much majoritarian racism towards Rohingyas and Muslims?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is important to note that the ground-swell of Islamophobia is to a
\nlarge extent the outcome of decades of Myanmar military’s anti-Muslim
\npropaganda. \u00a0 The generals turned racists and purged the armed forces
\nof Muslims at all levels. \u00a0 and they turned sight on to the society at
\nlarge.\u00a0 Beyond communal prejudices between Buddhists and Muslims, \u00a0the
\nhatred, fear of Muslims among the majority Burmese, as well as other
\nnon-Rohingya non-Muslim minorities is just unprecedented. \u00a0 \u00a0This
\nanti-Rohingya and anti-Muslim popular hatred is akin to Nazi Germany’s
\npopular and official anti-Jew sentiments. \u00a0 \u00a0 That is why, Aung San
\nSuu Kyi, pandering to the military and popular racism towards
\nRohingyas is extremely troubling.<\/p>\n

Have the international communities not actually created enough pressure on Myanmar to treat the Rohingyas fairly?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The mythical international community has known the persecution of the
\nRohingyas for decades – in fact since 1970’s. \u00a0 There is plenty of
\nevidence and documentation from the Rohingyas, from human rights
\norganizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights, embassy
\nreports, UN reports, etc. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0But the UN has failed to take any real
\nand concrete measures or actions to stop a member state violating
\nblatantly all major international human rights laws and treaties –
\nlike the Rome Statute Article 6 (Genocide Convention of 1948), Child
\nRight Convention, CEDAW.<\/p>\n

The failure of the UN and the failure of the Burmese leaders to
\naddress the needs of the ROhingya to lead a peaceful normal productive
\ncommunity life in their own homeland of N. Rakhine is going to have
\nmajor negative ramifications for Burma, region and the world. \u00a0 \u00a0In an
\notherwise fractured Islamic world, Rohingya genocide is the one issue
\nthat anger 1.7 billion Muslims around the world.\u00a0 That anger will in
\ndue course translate into radical actions to end the Rohingyas’
\nplight.<\/p>\n

Friday, 25 Nov 2016 News Video:<\/strong><\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UtLnYQvx4is<\/p>\n

This is an overview of what I think is happening and what is in store for Burma.<\/p>\n

Myanmar’s persecution of the Rohingyas unites ALL MUSLIM COMMUNITIES unlike any other issue. \u00a0 In due course, this justified outrage among the Muslim communities around the world – and outrage at the failings of Western regimes and the UN System \u00a0– will morph into radical actions, support and calls for Jihad in Burma – in the real sense.<\/p>\n

Burma has more than enough on its plate.\u00a0 When – not if – the GRASSROOTS rage among Muslims of the world explodes that will spell deep troubles for the Burmese society, economy and politics.<\/p>\n

The military is on a trajectory that will prove self-fulfilling sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

Here is what I think of the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi and Min Aung Hlaing. \u00a0 (When I was trying to puncture the sanctions regime and re-engage the world in Burma I worked with a couple of young colonels.\u00a0 One of them has become Min Aung Hlaing’s right hand, and is tipped to be ‘the next commander in chief’ after Min Aung Hlaing.\u00a0 Knowing these military men – and myself a military officers’ corp admit as a young man, I have little confidence in the capacity of these one-dimensional men to lead the country out of the decades of mess, previous generations of politicians and generals have created.<\/p>\n

Aung San Suu Kyi and Min Aung Hlaing have put the country on a slippery slope of Balkanization, proxy wars, and Jihadist battles.<\/p>\n

They are doing so, out of their racist delusions, miscalculations, and illusions of power and grandeur.<\/p>\n

Min Aung Hlaing and genocidal generals thought they were brilliant in continuing on with the Tatmadaw’s 4-decades of Rohingya Genocide.<\/p>\n

The radicalized Rohingya youth attacked a few Burmese border posts.<\/p>\n

The Tatmadaw thought it was godsend.<\/p>\n

1) So, they pounced on the Rohingya. The generals attempted to wipe out as many Rohingya villages and communities as possible.<\/p>\n

2) Their propaganda geniuses – like Ye Htut, Zaw Htay, etc. – gleefully framed the Rohingya attackers as “Jihadists” “ISIS-style fighters” “militants” “extremists”, and in short, “TERRORISTS”. They didn’t even bother with the Rakhine fall-guy option and ‘communal conflict’ or “sectarian violence” spins. They were getting in on for the slaughter themselves.<\/p>\n

3) Oops, the impact of their attacks on the Rohingya got caught on satellite cameras. They were forced to admit that the Air Force was involved in the ethnic cleansing by flying gunship helicopters.<\/p>\n

4) When world cries foul, Min Aung Hlaing and his now desperate spinmasters resorted to their de fault spin: “skyful of lies” (fabricated and fake stories of rape, killings, etc.)<\/p>\n

5) Unable to conceal their genocidal deeds on the ground from the impact-dectors up the Northern Rakhine sky, Min Aung Hlaing ordered his men to seal off the genocidal fields of N. Rakhine while blocking aid to 100,000 Rohingyas.<\/p>\n

6) Honey-tongued but deceitful, Min Aung Hlaing and team decided to let a small group of western diplomats to go and assess the situation, while emptying vast areas of any Rohingya who might speak to the diplomat-investigators. (Rohingyas found ways to appear on the route of the visiting dip delegation!)<\/p>\n

7) The lies, denials and fabrications by Min Aung Hlaing and his spinmasters are such that no-body in their right mind buys any of the official spins.<\/p>\n

8) Meanwhile, the Rohingya activists have captured and disseminated worldwide all the images of crimes – all recorded on smart-phones – committed by Min Aung Hlaing and his men.<\/p>\n

9) Unlike previous waves of violence, Rohingya activists were better prepared. Smart-phones, social media, etc. enable them to let the world witness the GENOCIDE; it has been going on since 1978.<\/p>\n

10) Min Aung Hlaing and his racist genocidal deputies miscalculated the response from the ASEAN and South Asia. With thousands of Muslims angrily taking to the streets on Friday in Dhaka, Chittagong (right next to Western Burma), Jakarata, Bangkok, and Kuala Lumpur, and Rohingya news on the front pages of national newspaper, the discourse around Rohingyas have shifted irreversibly:<\/p>\n