Indian children stand with the Rohingya.

(Photo by Raminder Pal Singh/EPA)

Tehran, Iran stands with the Rohingya at a rally yesterday.

(Photo by Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA)

Athens stood with the Rohingya at a rally yesterday.

Someone hacked my Facebook account & has been posting. I’ve just changed my password & kicked the hacker to the curb. If you find anything offensive–maybe it’s better to say, out of character with me–just delete it.

Jordanians stood with the Rohingya at rallies in Amman & Maan. Palestinians in Israel protested at Burmese embassy in Tel Aviv. This is protest in Afghanistan.

(Photo by Omar Sobhani/Reuters)

Maung Zarni is a Buddhist Burmese dissident in exile who is playing a singular role, respected by Rohingya activists, in speaking out against the Rohingya genocide. It’s repugnant & profoundly racist to dismiss the voices of Rohingya, including 400,000 refugees, but it isn’t so easy to write off a Burmese Buddhist who also has academic & activist credentials.

Media are apparently not asking Rohingya spokespersons to appear in interviews but they are asking Dr. Zarni & he is not pulling his punches in any way about the character of this genocide. But this matter of silencing the cogent voices of Rohingya is quite consequential & as solidarity activists we need to make sure we don’t fall into such a shameful trap. That makes the testimony of Dr. Zarni very important. Rohingya activists & Dr. Zarni will be testifying at the International People’s Tribunal on Burma’s Crimes Against Humanity in Kuala Lumpur starting on Monday.

Irrawaddy News which was formed by 1988 generation activists in exile has become a rancid & racist voice defending the genocide. In this photo, they label Dr. Zarni an “enemy of the state.” He’s the man in the red jersey on the right under that designation, which he proudly admits to being.

Paris stands with the Rohingya at rally today: “Je suis Rohingya.”

There have also been protests across Turkey.

FB is under the gun by the Mueller investigation for “weaponizing” racist, anti-immigration posts paid for by Russia. We ought to keep a close eye on that because FB has long had a close relationship with India where it censors Kashmiri activists & their supporters on behalf of India. Now Twitter is doing the same thing by shutting down the accounts of Kashmiri activists because Modi claims they violate Indian laws. This may provide an opening for us to legally challenge censorship on social media.

“Proud to betray my birthplace genocidal Myanmar. I am a Buddhist raised in a good, honest family. I don’t do genocide.”

Maung Zarni, Burmese dissident in exile

Regrettably, the Rohingya solidarity rally in Los Angeles did not come off for unknown reasons. It could be because the initiator was new to organizing rallies. If anyone would like to organize a rally & doesn’t know how to go about it, please let me know & I can give you some ideas based on over 50 years of doing so.