Such is the state of resistance & transformational politics today that there are no protests in response to monstrous human rights crimes & wars. But we can beat the drums loudly on social media to let Palestinians, Kashmiris, Rohingyas, Uyghurs, & those in war zones know we stand with them & to help rebuild movements of international solidarity.
Monthly Archives: November 2018
Note how this article refers to Suu Kyi’s “indifference to atrocities committed against Rohingya Muslims” when she is a central figure in the genocide. Also note that a spokesperson for her political party, heralded as a return to democratic & civilian rule, defends the genocide. The only reason for maintaining the fictions about Suu Kyi & her party is to enable massive investments in Burma’s neoliberal economic programs. By the way, Suu Kyi raked in over 150 human rights awards & only a few have dumped her. Canada dumped her as an honorary citizen but they have not withdrawn from their joint mining project with the military. When it comes to genocide, you can’t play both sides of the street.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/dont-prize-myanmar-defiant-amnesty-pulls-suu-kyi-085627664–spt.html?
On the psychopathic criminality of US refugee policy:
No one could claim Hamas are adepts at manipulating public opinion but they have a right to defend Gaza against Israeli bombers—even if a few mortars are no match for war planes. Anyone who dares fault Hamas for provoking Israeli bombing function as two-bit apologists for genocide & should hang their heads in shame.
A study that ranks scientifically with Zizek’s comparative analysis of toilets: now if the researchers could just explain the correlation between beauty, right wing politics & anti-social lunacy. Or have a go at explaining how ugly farts like Ted Cruz, Trump, & Bannon fit into all this: “Right-wing people are better looking than those on the left, study claims”
Maung Zarni on forcible deportation of Rohingya refugees.
“Bangladesh is committing one of the greatest and gravest foreign policy mistakes since it suffered genocidal violence at the hands of Pakistan in 1971: forced repatriation of #Myanmar genocide survivors known as Rohingyas. Dhaka’s decision is as illegal as it is inhuman.”
Not that Burma & Bangladesh fooled anyone, but it’s now clear that voluntary repatriation plan was a set-up for forcible deportation. If international solidarity were at the level it needs to be, there would be protests all over this globe.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/rohingya-shocked-terrified-deadline-myanmar-return-nears-
Burmese & Bangladeshi officials keep insisting the ‘voluntary repatriation’ plan for 2, 25l Rohingya refugees is all set to go for Thursday but not a single Rohingya has stepped forward to volunteer. What’s next? Forcing them voluntarily at gun point? Every once in a while a human rights group or UN rep will peep out a protest when the international clamor should include economic & military sanctions against Burma. But why would they make more fuss about deportation back to the killing fields of Burma than they make about the genocide?
No need to throw the baby out with the bath water but Amnesty is really discrediting itself with its 2015 report blaming Hamas for Israel’s genocide of Palestinians & its 2018 report blaming ARSA for Burma’s genocide of Rohingyas. It’s beyond shameful to politically collusive with the darkest forces in world politics.
Let’s talk about that absolutely appalling Amnesty report titled “Myanmar: New evidence reveals Rohingya armed group massacred scores in Rakhine State” which is a sustained indictment of ARSA (Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army) for “killings & violent attacks against members of Hindu & Buddhist ethnic groups.” First we’d like to know how Amnesty got access to Arakan state since it ends its dishonest report with a call for Burma to “immediately allow independent investigators, including the UN Fact-Finding Mission, full & unfettered access throughout the region.” Were Amnesty investigators allowed special access by the regime? Were they escorted by regime officials? Were restrictions placed on where they went & who they interviewed? Why was Amnesty investigating ARSA who they claim killed 99 Hindus rather than the Burmese military & Buddhist death squads who killed, tortured, raped thousands & sent 700,000 fleeing for their lives? What’s up with that Amnesty? Where’s the sense of proportion?
Amnesty claims that accountability for atrocities is just as crucial for irregular forces as for security forces. Of course, even though the magnitude of the genocide against Rohingyas dwarfs the alleged crimes of ARSA. But the actual charges of Amnesty against ARSA really cannot be considered seriously until Amnesty lays out for us its methodology, who escorted them, what restrictions were imposed by the regime on their investigation, & why Amnesty was allowed access when even the UN has been barred entry.
The fatal flaw in this report is their assertion that the genocide was prompted by ARSA attacks on 30 police posts & an army base, a number which most likely came from the Burmese government. But Rohingya activists, the citizen journalists who were disappeared in the genocide, claimed the military was deploying additional forces in Arakan & preparing for the genocidal onslaught long before August 25th, 2017 when the alleged ARSA incitement took place. Does Amnesty really think it reasonable to blame a handful of irregular ARSA forces for inciting a state-sponsored genocide of such a colossal scale?
To put this report in context, Amnesty issued a report in 2015 on Israel’s 2014 seven-week bombing onslaught over Gaza which was just as shameful as this piece of rubbish on ARSA. The report on Gaza justifies Israel’s murderous siege by claiming it was bombing “possible military targets” in response to thousands of Hamas rockets & mortars (the evidence of which does not exist) when it bombed ambulances, hospitals, schools, apartment buildings, refugee centers in Gaza.
There’s a shameful pattern to these reports: Amnesty’s equation of self-defense with military aggression. That equation allows Amnesty to water down the genocidal aggression of Israel & Burma & in that regard these reports are absolutely worthless apologetics. What should concern Amnesty, or at least it should have been mentioned in the report, is the apparent disappearance of ARSA in the past several weeks. Wouldn’t that suggest that the real perpetrator of atrocities in Arakan state was in fact the military & its auxiliary Buddhist death squads? One doesn’t have to be a supporter of guerrilla warfare to understand that in a genocide, ill-trained & inadequately armed irregulars like ARSA had a right to defend unarmed Rohingya civilians. Whether or not they committed human rights crimes against Hindus should be investigated within the context of a genocide against them–not to rationalize their acts but to understand how & why they occurred. As Javed Akhtar commented on Twitter: “If there is a mass grave of Hindus,” as Amnesty claimed, “it must be the army’s doing. Or why were hundreds of Hindus also escaping with Rohingyas?”
Shame on Amnesty. It’s a pity they compromise their credibility by such unsubstantiated & worthless reports that amount to apologetics for genocide.
–Originally published May 23, 2018
(Photo of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh by Marko Durica/Reuters)