With deep sadness, I relinquished Gustavo to the shelter here, not a no-kill one & certain to euthanize him within the week. Bianca must have sensed something was up because when I tried to get her in the car, she hid under the house & refused to come out. I thought it would require two trips to the shelter since it was impossible to keep them any longer & of the several rescues I contacted, none would take large dogs. I won’t describe how awful it was to see Gustavo resist & whimper as the shelter attendant took him away.

One of the women from Yaqui ranch animal shelter came by since they will be taking the bambinos tomorrow for adoption in Arizona. When I told her about Gustavo she was as devastated as I was. This morning a Yaqui person called to say they were so upset about Gustavo that they would pull him from the shelter & find a foster for him (with high fences) until they could find someone willing to adopt. Miracles do happen. Even for dogs.

This is Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Commander-in-Chief of the Burmese military since 2011 & the man organizing genocide against the Rohingya people in Arakan state as well as war crimes against other ethnic groups in Kachin & Shan states.

The European Union has maintained an arms embargo on Burma since 1996 which comes up for renewal on April 30th. Under the sanctions, it is illegal for EU countries to sell or export weapons, with the exception of non-lethal military equipment. Since India classifies pellet guns as non-lethal for use in Kashmir, that designation probably covers a multitude of lethal loopholes.

On April 23rd, just days before the renewal date this year, before it was certain what decision the EU would make about renewing sanctions, Germany & Austria hosted a delegation of top Burmese military officials led by Hlaing. They toured arms & aircraft factories & met with senior military officials in both countries. A week later, the EU renewed the arms embargo until April 30th, 2018.

Last November, whilst the EU sanctions were in place & during a major military assault in Arakan state that sent nearly 90,000 Rohingya fleeing for their lives, Hlaing was being given red-carpet treatment by Belgium & Italy where he also visited arms factories. Britain has been providing free military training to the Burmese army since 2013, sarcastically calling it “training in human rights & the law of armed conflict.” You can’t make this Kafkaesque crap up. Last year that training cost the UK £305,000 ($405,000 USD). A few days ago, 157 British MPs urged the government to suspend the training.

That would explain the dead silence by those European countries & for that matter the EU in response to the genocidal crackdown going on. Is what the Rohingya are sustaining the result of British “training in human rights & the law of armed conflict”? Or is the UK teaching them the methods it used when it was a colonial power & in its wars in the Middle East?

No military aid to Burma. Stop the genocide of the Rohingya people. Stand with them in their struggle for full human, democratic, civil, & refugee rights.

(Photo of Hlaing from Reuters)

Many may prefer I post links & leave the commentary to myself. That’s not how I operate. A lot of journalism bores me, takes too long to tell the story & often gets it wrong. On top of that, the politics often stink. So I read lots of articles on a story & preempt all the other stuff by writing my own. That’s how I roll, like it or not.

Haven’t seen any reports about the fate of 150,000 Rohingya held in concentration camps in Arakan state since the 2012 genocidal campaign. If anyone does, please send me the link.

Jonathan Head, the BBC correspondent reporting about Burma, has published both a video & written report from the guided tour a group of journalists were allowed in Arakan state under guard by the army. Both reports confirm what traumatized refugees are claiming: a deliberate policy of genocide. Why else would now 370,000 people flee to another country while pregnant, carrying parents on their backs & in baskets, & as unaccompanied children? Despite the horrors of his report, Head just can’t help himself from parking his ass on the fence. He doesn’t even once use the terms genocide or ethnic cleansing. This is how he introduced the nightmare of what he witnessed:

“…the government has arguments that need to be heard. It is now facing an armed insurgency, albeit one some would argue has been self-inflicted. The communal conflict in Rakhine state has a long history, & would be difficult for any government to deal with.”

When he went to the military official in charge to hear ‘the arguments that need to be heard’, this is what the colonel said:

“…Bengali terrorists, as they call the militants of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, had taken control of Rohingya villages, & forced them to offer one man per household as a fighter. Those who refused to comply have their houses burned, he said. He accused the militants of planting mines & destroying three bridges.

“I asked whether he was saying that all of the dozens of burned villages had been destroyed by the militants. He confirmed that was the government’s position. Responding to a question about military atrocities, he waved it away. “Where is the proof?” he asked. “Look at those women,” he meant the Rohingya refugees, “who are making these claims – would anyone want to rape them?””

For any journalist with half an ounce of intellectual or investigative rigor, this nationalist, racist, misogynist crap would discredit all government claims about Rohingya terrorists & he would hotfoot it to the refugees to find out what really happened. At least, such a journalist would report only what he knows for sure & not believe one single allegation coming from the military or Suu Kyi.

But read his report because despite Head’s equivocations, he confirms exactly what the refugees are saying:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41222210?SThisFB

(Photo of refugee carrying his mother from Arakan News Agency)

Denmark stands with the Rohingya: thousands marched in Copenhagen on Sunday to protest the genocide in Arakan.

(Photo from Arakan News Agency)

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/rohingya-crisis-sikh-volunteers-reach-bangladesh-myanmar-border-to-provide-langar-to-refugees-4839349/

This is an article about Khalsa Aid, a Sikh humanitarian aid group (including a volunteer from Kashmir), sending teams for a major relief program to a border town in Bangladesh where thousands of Rohingya are encamped. They report it’s raining there but the refugees have no shelter so they will be providing food for 50,000 & trying to construct shelter.

According to the Dhaka Tribune, about 100 Rohingya babies have been born on the border since the refugee crisis began on August 25th. Births were carried out without medical care & under dangerous, unhealthy conditions. It’s likely some of those babies were born premature. Imagine being in the final stages of a pregnancy when the military or paramilitary death squads attack or torch your village & having to flee on foot nine months pregnant. The paper reported that most mothers & newborns had critical health conditions as a result.

Our protests must demand an end to genocide & human, democratic, civil, & refugee rights along with demanding massive humanitarian aid to the refugees, including healthcare addressing the particular needs of women & children.

(Photo from Arakan News Agency)

Gaza stands with the Rohingya: a rally September 10th in front of the UNHCR office in Gaza.

(Photos from TRTArabic)

The latest estimate of new Rohingya refugees seeking asylum in Bangladesh is 300,000. There’s plenty cause for criticism of the Bangladeshi government but it now has nearly 800,000 Rohingya refugees & needs help from other countries in addressing the humanitarian crisis. Of course, since only a few countries have raised even a peep of protest against the genocide, it’s unlikely most will lift a finger to help provide shelter, food, healthcare, or asylum to the Rohingya–especially with so many political forces claiming there is no genocide but only communal violence & Rohingya terrorism.

That’s what makes the ongoing protests in solidarity with the Rohingya people so important. We must demand not just an end to the genocide but humanitarian aid & rights for the refugees, including the right of asylum in other countries (including our own).

Photo is a Rohingya refugee who fled from the military carrying both parents in baskets. There are countless photos of refugees carrying parents on their backs or in baskets like these, of unaccompanied children carrying siblings, of course parents with children & infants, & that wrenching image of the little girl carrying her baby sister in the rain. That’s the breadth of spirit we should try to emulate in building solidarity with their struggle against genocide & for full human, democratic, civil, & refugee rights, including massive humanitarian aid in Bangladesh.