Rohingya mother of five survives massacre in Tulatoli with only four of her children

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh (Shafiur Rahman) Sept 9 2017

This mother of five survived the massacre in Tulatoli, Arakan state but her husband & a son were both killed. She said she saw with her own eyes the dead bodies of about 300 small children & 200 young women about her age. She managed to escape with four of her children with the help of her brothers. As she made her escape she saw children hiding in paddy fields. The military caught them, put them flat & drove knives into their chests & stomachs, then threw their bodies in the river. She got separated from her brothers but she & her four children made their way to Bangladesh with villagers from a neighboring town. Now she faces the perils of an impoverished widow with orphans in a country where she has no rights.

Full story by documentary filmmaker Shafiur Rahman:

https://social.shorthand.com/shafiur/uyTyLld5K3/there-is-no-rohingya-left-in-tulatoli

(Photo by Shafiur Rahman)

PS Shafiur Rahman is trying to raise funds for a documentary about the Rohingya. He has been chronicling their struggle for a while & is playing an important role now in educating about the genocide. If you would like to contribute for the film, please contact him on Twitter at Shafiur Rahman @ Shafiur

The massacre of Rohingya at Tulatoli, Arakan state, Burma

Nurul Huq (Shafiru Rahman) Sept 9 2017

Nurul Huq, this 65-year-old man said “There are no Rohingya left in Tulatoli. I saw the shooting of my son with my own eyes & the dead bodies of two of my daughters. Five other daughters of mine remain missing.”

He is one of many that who survived the massacre at Tulatoli, Arakan state, who documentary filmmaker Shafiur Rahman interviewed after they arrived in Bangladesh. Eyewitnesses claim that all the villagers of Tulatoli were put to death.

Full article by Shafiur Rahman:

https://social.shorthand.com/shafiur/uyTyLld5K3/there-is-no-rohingya-left-in-tulatoli

(Photo by Shafiur Rahman)

Someone has challenged me for writing about Kashmir: what could I possibly know? No one knows better than me how little I understand about any single country. Even my own. Politics, economics, history, culture & the interactions of all these are immensely complex & when you go to study them, immensely daunting. But since we’re all human, there are some big-time commonalities. Of the fundamental kind.

I try not to be glib or pretentious & I work very hard to get the story straight. I’m not talking mainly to Kashmiris who don’t need my analyses & don’t want my opinions. But I do want them to know their work is paying off & they are educating people like myself in the importance & justice of their struggle. Mostly, I’m trying to unravel the basics for human rights activists who will support the Kashmiri freedom struggle if they understand what’s going on & I’m trying to collaborate with Kashmiri activists in building active solidarity. After 50 years of working at it, building solidarity & opposition to war, occupation, & genocide is something I know plenty about. I’m from the school that says “an injury to one is an injury to all.” If you don’t like it, you can lump it.

On the death count of genocide in Arakan state

Rohingya baby in basket (Bernat Armangue:AP) Sept 8 2017

The Burmese military claims only 400 civilians have been killed since August 25th. A UN representative told media that it’s closer to 1,000 civilians but didn’t explain how they know that since the UN isn’t allowed to enter Arakan state to investigate. Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are reporting epic-scale violence, genocidal violence by Burmese troops & Buddhist nationalist death squads, involving torching of entire villages, spraying bullets indiscriminately, stabbing & beheading civilians, corralling them into buildings & burning them alive, hunting them down like animals.

So who are we to believe? The military conducting the genocide? The UN which hasn’t even issued a mild reproach let alone a condemnation of the genocide? Or the Rohingya refugees who traveled days on foot in flight for their lives? Who you believe tells which side in this genocide you stand on.

This little guy is among the tens of thousands crossing into Bangladesh. Stand with the Rohingya people in their struggle against genocide & for human, democratic, civil, & refugee rights.

(Photo by Bernat Armangue/AP)

Pakistani military sells fighter jets to Burma to conduct genocide

Pakistan pro-Rohingya protest (Ali Hashmi) Sept 8 2017

In 2015, Pakistan sold 16 JF-17 fighter jets to the Burmese military & earlier this year began negotiations to have it produced in Burma. The JF-17 is a multi-purpose death machine which can do aerial reconnaissance, infrared search & track, ground attack, aircraft interception, & deploy different kinds of ordnance. To be used against which country? Is Burma at war with any of its neighbors? Certainly not with India, China, or Bangladesh. So are they using them against the Rohingya or any of the other ethnic groups the regime is at war with in Burma?

Pakistan joins Israel, India, Russia, & China in providing armaments to the Burmese junta. Can the military which runs Pakistan play an emancipatory role in Kashmir whilst selling weapons to the junta to carry out genocide against the Rohingya people? It’s a serious political question that must be answered, not a provocation.

As a political counterbalance to the Pakistani military, there have been several protests in Pakistan in solidarity with the Rohingya people. This one was in Gujranwala. Our deepest respect.

(Photo tweeted by Ali Hashmi)