Any suggestions that alleged actions of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) are responsible for the military onslaught against Rohingya are to be rejected with contempt. Unconfirmed charges are circulating that ARSA militants attacked Myanmar security forces with knives, guns & homemade explosives. Maybe they did; maybe they didn’t. Since the source of the charges are the Myanmar government, there isn’t an ounce of credibility to the claims.

According to some reports, ARSA has been active in Arakan state since the genocidal military onslaught in 2012; according to other reports, they were behind the October 9, 2016 attack on border patrol that unleashed the military onslaught that lasted for several months. The Rohingya people have the right to defend themselves by any means necessary but there’s something about ARSA that doesn’t quite add up. It’s origins, existence, & alleged actions have proven an advantage to the regime in justifying genocide. It’s not certain what their politics are or if they do more than issue occasional videos on YouTube. Even if they turn out to be behind the attacks on security forces in Arakan state, they are not responsible for the genocidal onslaught on Rohingya villagers.

These are among five-thousand Rohingya, mostly women & children, stranded on the banks of the Naf river at the Burma-Bangladesh border. Many have managed to cross into Bangladesh but thousands are being denied asylum & many who managed to cross are being forcibly returned to Myanmar by Bangladeshi border patrol under orders from the government.

Since Friday when the Aung San Suu Kyi regime relaunched a genocidal assault on Rohingya in Arakan state, an estimated 15,000 Rohingya men, women, & children have taken shelter in hills & forests; nearly 500 Rohingya men, women, & children have been killed by gun fire, arson, & slaughter; 1,000 are seriously injured; 300 to 400 houses have been torched along with mosques & other buildings; livestock have been killed in large numbers.

We stand in full solidarity with the Rohingya struggle against genocide & for human, democratic, civil, & refugee rights.

(Photo & information from Arakan TV)

Bangladeshi Muslims are protesting today in Chittagong against the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar: “Stop genocide on innocent Rohingya in Arakan, Myanmar.”

There is a distinction made in international law between ethnic cleansing, which is forcible removal of a religious or ethnic group from a particular region, & genocide, which is the complete extermination of an ethnic or religious group. There is no distinction in the methods used to achieve ethnic cleansing & genocide & in some places like Gaza & Arakan state, Myanmar, the distinction becomes useless.

Stop the genocide of Rohingya Muslims. Full solidarity with their struggle against genocide & for human, democratic, civil, & refugee rights.

(Photo from Arakan TV)

“I have an idea for replacing one of those statues…”

(Tweeted by FishingForTruth‏ @FishBlanc)

One hopes the volunteers & first responders rescuing people in Houston will show those many with an attitude problem toward Texans the error of their ways & that we’ll never hear another word about Texas being the wellspring of rednecks. George Bush could have been any monster’s child. I knew types like that in Minnesota & even more in Massachusetts.

The Kashmiri Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) & Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) will be commemorating the International Day of the Disappeared on Wednesday, August 30th with a silent sit-in protest (at Municipal Park, near General Post Office, Residency Road, Lal Chowk, at 12:00 noon). It is estimated that since 1989 between 8,000 & 10,000 mostly men & boys have been forcibly disappeared. That is about one person every day for 28 years.

The organizers suggest a virtual solidarity campaign on social media using the hashtags #expressionsofsolidarity or #disappearances. The solidarity campaign can include photos of those disappeared from around the world as well as Kashmir; photos of protests against disappearances; artwork from solidarity activists like Rollie Mukherjee, political cartoons by Kashmiri activists like V Arun Kumar & Mir Suhail.

Forcible disappearance is an unspeakable crime with a grief among survivors that is complex, unforgiving, & unresolvable. This is a day to highlight the character of this crime, to educate about it, & to demand governments around the world stop using it as a way to repress dissidence & punish activists for social justice.

You can like & share this FB page to prepare for the event:

https://www.facebook.com/events/492413927784187/?

Spent the morning with two women very well-informed on the details of the Trump fiasco. Powerful forces with big grudges against this ass are working to take him down ingloriously. From here on out we should just sit back & enjoy the spectacle. The blowhard faces extermination & of course it will all be done smothered in legalities. There’s no soft coup by the imaginary deep state on the horizon.

Sophie the Schnauzer who’s smart enough to go to college figured out a way to jump the fence around the yard & would take the four new rescues with her. Two are close to 70 pounds (32 kg) & the two bambinos are about 25 pounds (11 kg) each. By the time I figured out where they were jumping, the entire neighborhood was up in arms threatening to call animal control. They were likely afraid of the two galoots. It took me two days to find where they were jumping & build a barrier wall to keep them in.

Wouldn’t you know, Sophie found a way around my new barrier wall & took them all out this morning. I repaired the weak spot & tried to corral the dogs back in the yard with treats & threats but they were on a roll. Meanwhile, I had an appointment to meet someone & couldn’t be late. So off I went with two dogs still running the neighborhood. I figured animal control didn’t work Sundays if the neighbors called them & the dogs would come back to where the food got dished out.

On the way home I saw an animal control truck out & thought my goose was cooked but lo & behold, Sophie & Gustavo the galoot had broken through the front fence barricade to get back in the yard. For their own safety they have to get on a caravan north for adoption but the hurricane threat also made me realize the problem of evacuating with twelve dogs & nine birds in one small car. News reported that in Houston a lot of those being rescued are family pets left behind when people fled the flooding.

Many people among my friends have been through monsoons, hurricanes, floods, tornados, & other natural disasters so I know you will understand the criminality of US immigration policy during hurricanes. Since this area is the border region with Mexico & a major transit point for undocumented immigrants & refugees, there are thousands living & working here without papers. That’s because about 50 miles or so north of the border the US Border Patrol has checkpoint stations on the highways. When you travel north you have to pass through these checkpoints car by car where you’re briefly interrogated by an agent. It is extremely difficult for undocumented immigrants to bypass, especially in blistering heat, & many die in the attempt.

Originally they thought Hurricane Harvey (which has Houston, Texas buried in two feet of water) might be headed for this region which is one of the poorest in the country because of the high population of undocumented immigrants. The US Border Patrol announced that if the hurricane hit the region they would still maintain the checkpoints lest any undocumented immigrants evacuate with everybody else. That is not a Trump-era policy but was fully in force during Obama’s tenure. Consider the barbarism of a policy that would allow human beings to endure a hurricane, often without shelter, just because they did not have papers. Consider the ignominy of a policy that would force thousands fleeing a hurricane to stop in hours of traffic so that agents can confirm they are not undocumented. It isn’t just Trump we have to take down but also these barbaric policies.

It appears Aung San Suu Kyi & the military have given their response to the recommendations of the Kofi Annan commission released just a few days ago: escalation of genocide against the Rohingya people. If Annan has any integrity left he should denounce the regime & its actions & be done with the whitewashing.