There can be no concessions made to the notion that what is going on in Arakan state is communal violence between Buddhists & Muslims. It is a genocide orchestrated by the Burmese military which exploits the strategy of divide & conquer & organizes & incites Buddhist nationalists to attack Rohingya.

It is an outrage that media reports atrocities have been committed by both sides. The overwhelming number of Rohingya are unarmed civilians at the mercy of a military & civilian goon squads who are torching, raping, murdering, hunting down Rohingya like animals. If Rohingya attempt to defend themselves by any means possible, that is not atrocities but self-defense.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) is not responsible for setting off the current military assault on the Rohingya people. As Dr. Maung Zarni, a Burmese Buddhist in exile, pointed out, several weeks before the current siege “the Burmese military high command was very busy, mobilizing & air-lifting hundreds of troops from Light Infantry Division 33–notorious for merciless & indiscriminate killings of civilians in any urban unrest–to Rakhine; arming & training anti-Rohingya Rakhine villagers in fire arms & fighting; blockading the predominantly Rohingya region of N. Rakhine from accessing food & jobs; & spreading fears of attacks on INGOs & UN agencies providing humanitarian assistance….You can’t analyze Rohingya militancy & recent attacks, without taking into account this build-up of both the government troops & militarizing & arming of hostile local Rakhine villages.”

In this photo, Bangladeshi villagers are covering the bodies of Rohingya women & children who died when the boats they were using to flee genocide capsized.

Stop the genocide of the Rohingya people. Full solidarity with their struggle for human, democratic, civil, & refugee rights.

(Photo by Suvra Kanti Das/AP)