Got messaged a rather nasty rebuke for defending “all those Muslims”–not just Rohingya but Kashmiris, Palestinians, Afghans, Iraqis, Syrians too. I think you have to a cement-head or suffer cognitive disorders or more likely be an Islamophobe not to see how the persecution of Muslims up to the level of genocide & including war & occupations is one of the most consequential issues of our times. The reasons may not be all about religion but being Muslim is certainly a central feature of it. How we respond will determine the future of humanity. This isn’t a provincial or religious matter nor politically small potatoes. It is the essence of politics today made so by the US war against Iraq, US-NATO alliance against Afghanistan, the coalition of militaries aligned against the Syrian revolution, the genocide in Burma, as well as by the Arab Spring uprisings especially in Egypt, Yemen, & Bahrain–in general by an attempt to recolonize the Middle East & parts of Asia & by massive popular resistance to that.

Can you point to repressive Arab or Muslim regimes to refute these claims? That’s what the Arab Spring uprisings were about. Should we be focusing on & getting alarmed by the rise of the Taliban, ISIS, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, & other such groups? Maybe we ought to look into who’s training, arming, organizing them since without arms they would cease to exist.

You’re welcome to go on your merry way blithering about jihadism & Saudi-backed Wahhabi terrorists; good luck with your obscurantist & apocalyptic showdown with the reptilian Illuminati (wouldn’t we all love to be around to see that one with Generalissimo David Icke). My preference is to collaborate with sane, serious-minded activists who want to end these wars, occupations, & genocides & not with defenders of dictatorships or Chinese oil lines.

Pretoria stands with the Rohingya at a rally tomorrow, Friday the 15th.

A Rohingya child: just so we know who this genocide is all about. And who we’re standing for.

(Photo via Abdullah Jobair)

When you just think about the Rohingya, Palestine, Kashmir, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, & all the other wars & all the neoliberal plunder & all the refugees being turned away & getting killed, it can really kick the crap out of you. It can overwhelm & make it seem like humanity is a wash. It may seem wiser to make the world go away & just drown ourselves in diversions, culture (low or high), YouTube, or even booze. Get over it. As long as people, including little kids, are suffering & fighting back against oppression, don’t do the wallow. Pace yourself but keep stepping to build solidarity & try to make this world suitable for human beings to live & love in.

Please watch the brief video on the criminality of India using pellet guns in Kashmir & then sign the Amnesty petition against their use:

https://www.facebook.com/ajplusenglish/videos/1044795758995264/?hc_ref=ARQHyQ5-ipW

It will take a lot more than a petition to force India to stop using pellet guns & other weapons on unarmed civilians & to end the occupation but petitions serve a role in educating others, in building solidarity, & in putting political pressure on the Indian government.

Amnesty petition: https://www.amnesty.org.in/action/detail/ban-pellet-shotguns

“Both the generals & Aung San Suu Kyi sing from the same Buddhist nationalist hymn book & their vision of Burma does not have much space for Muslims–& no space for Rohingya. Her stance is nothing less than 100% genocidal. The generals view Western Burma (Myanmar) as an originally Muslim-free region & part of the kingdom of Burma–despite all evidence to the contrary that Rakhine was a rich, cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic & multi-faith kingdom.”

–Maung Zarni, Burmese dissident in exile

No one wants Trump to make a public statement about the genocide of Rohingya even if he reads it off a teleprompter from a script supplied by the State Department. He’s a stupid jackass & an Islamophobe who has nothing credible to say about anything. His indifference & contempt would be impossible to hide & his involvement would only be unseemly & inappropriate to the gravity of a genocide.

But the US has weighed in on the genocide & not in a good way. In its competition with Russia & China, it has been currying favor with the junta & with the Suu Kyi regime. In the first statement it issued nearly two weeks after the genocide began, the US refused to criticize the Burmese military. Instead, it said the generals should respond responsibly to the terrorist attacks that incited the military: “They {the generals} have a responsibility to carry out those activities in accordance with rule of law & international human rights.” How do you carry out a genocide responsibly & according to what rules of law?

The second statement from the State Department was the same blither & the same refusal to criticize the military but they added that since October 2016 the US has provided nearly $63 million in humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya displaced in the last genocidal assaults. Really? We’d like to see an accounting of that dough even though we don’t hesitate to say it’s probably as big a lie as their claims that they donated millions to Haitian earthquake relief & to Afghanistan humanitarian aid. Somewhere between the promise & the delivery it ends up in the wrong hands if it’s ever dispensed in the first place.

The US State Department can blither about terrorists until the cows come home but their refusal to address the 400,000 refugees fleeing for their lives says everything you need to know about US policy in Burma & about its attitude toward genocide.

(Photo is Rohingya refugees who drowned when their boat capsized. May they Rest In Peace.)

There is a distinction made in international law between ethnic cleansing & genocide. Ethnic cleansing is defined as systematic efforts to drive out an ethnic or religious group from a geographical area. Genocide is defined as systematic efforts to exterminate them outright. The scorched earth methods used to accomplish both are indistinguishable, especially massacres.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres & Phil Robertson from Human Rights Watch have chosen to define what is happening to the Rohingya people as ethnic cleansing. That is apparently the establishment line. Rohingya activists & Burmese dissident Maung Zarni do not hesitate for very strong reasons to call it genocide. Making such a distinction doesn’t mean the UN will do more or less to stop the genocide; because of Chinese & Russian support for Burma in the UN Security Council, the UN hasn’t even condemned what’s going on. Guterres only shook the naughty finger at the generals & the head of the UNHCR said it looked like ethnic cleansing.

You can hear some of that debate about ethnic cleansing or genocide here (in a video within this article) between Phil Robertson & Maung Zarni. They also take up the question of Aung San Suu Kyi’s role where Robertson expresses hopes that Suu Kyi will come around & “step up to halt the genocide”. You ought not to be in a position of authority on human rights issues if your credulity is still on the level of a five-year-old who can’t come to grips with the fiction of the tooth fairy. Maung Zarni who has no illusions on that score (& no commitments to power) answers quite cogently.

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2017/09/aung-san-suu-kyi-step-halt-rohingya-crisis-170914180143270.html

(Photo is Rohingya refugees attempting to cross into Bangladesh by Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters)