Video about what happened in Arakan in the latest pogrom against the Rohingya

Here is a video based on inside report.

Some links to Thai TV coverage of Bangkok Conference on Rohingyas of Burma

Here are some links from the Bangkok conference discussing the plight of the Rohingyas of Myanmar (Burma).
1. Click here and
2. Click here and
3. Click here.

Bangkok Conference Offers Recommendations for Solving the Rohingya Problem of Myanmar

Violence against the Rohingya people, who are overwhelmingly Muslim and comprise slightly less than half the total population in the Arakan (now Rakhine) state, located in the western part of Myanmar (formerly Burma), close to Bangladesh, is not new in the Buddhist-majority country. The government media suggested that it was a communal riot triggered by the alleged rape and murder of a Rakhine woman by a Rohingya youth.

As usual, the regime failed to provide any concrete evidence proving that such a crime was committed by the alleged rapist. In the past, racial riots were known to have been orchestrated by the regime when such crimes would be committed by its own forces and then the body of the unfortunate victim dumped in a sensitive area. The fact that the alleged rapist was later found dead by hanging himself in the closely monitored prison cell once again shows that this may probably be the case here as well. As expected, with deep-seated racism that the majority Rakhine Buddhists entertain against the Rohingya Muslims, within days of the rape crime, ten Tablighi Burmese Muslims (who were not even Rohingya) were lynched to death on June 3 by an organized Rakhine mob, while the police stood by and did nothing to stop such horrendous crimes.

Then on June 8 when a peaceful funeral gathering of the Rohingya people was fired upon by the police, a wholesale riot ensued. Since then dozens of Muslim villages and hundreds of mosques have also been totally burned down by the Buddhist mob, aided often by government riot police Lon Htin and NASAKA security forces. Hundreds of Muslim owned businesses, schools and madrasas have also been destroyed. The Rohingya people were even barred from attending the Eid prayer, the happiest of Muslim festivals celebrating the end of the fasting month of Ramadhan. Curfew has been imposed by the government, which does not allow the Rohingya people to move and buy essential life saving food and medicine, while the Rakhine mobs are allowed to rob and destroy Muslim owned homes and businesses. And what is worse, Buddhist monks, encouraged by racist Rakhine politicians have blocked the sale and movement of life-saving drugs and food materials from reaching the Rohingya people who now face starvation and serious dehydration.

In the absence of reliable estimates but based on internal evidences, gathered by international human rights monitoring groups, tens of thousands of Rohingya people may have perished in this latest pogrom. Nearly a hundred thousand Rohingyas are internally displaced and many have been pushed to seek refuge or asylum in any country willing to provide them shelter.

Since the days of hated dictator Ne Win who stepped down in 1988 in the midst of violent student protests, the regimes (military or a quasi-civil-military) have exploited racism and bigotry to divide and rule the Buddhist-majority country. The on-going violence against the Rohingya people show that it is part of a very sinister and calculated national project towards ethnically cleansing them that is orchestrated by the Myanmar government and widely supported and promoted at the central and local levels by the ultra-racist elements within the government and civilian population of the Rakhine state. So pervasive is this national project that even Daw Suu Kyi, previously deemed a voice of humanity and conscience within Myanmar, is accused of silently approving of this ethnic cleansing. Many of her NLD party members have openly encouraged violence against the Rohingya people.

In the midst of international outcry, the Thein Sein government has lately announced the formation of a 27-member internal inquiry commission to investigate the causes behind the latest riot. However, its inclusion of certain Rakhine and Burmese members who had openly encouraged violence against the targeted Rohingya shows that his government is not serious about dealing with the problem honestly but is doing everything as a face-saving measure to avoid an international independent inquiry requested by the world community.

To find probable solutions to the existing problems, Arakan Rohingya Organization - Japan (JARO) and Rohingya National Organization in Thailand (RNOT) jointly sponsored an International Rohingya Conference in Bangkok, Thailand. The theme of the conference was “Contemplating Burma’s Rohingya People’s Future in Reconciliation and (Democratic) Reform.” 

The conference was held on August 15, 2012 at Thammasat University, Thaprachan, Bangkok, and was attended by nearly a hundred participants who came from Thailand, Japan, Canada, USA, Myanmar, Malaysia, Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Singapore. Several members from the local/international media, NGOs, ASEAN countries, and Thai-based foreign embassies also attended the conference.

The conference was moderated by Mrs. Chalida Tajaroensuk, Director of People’s Empowerment Foundation and started with an opening speech from Mr. Salim Ullah, President of JARO. I was invited as the keynote speaker. The other speakers included Professor Abid Bahar (author of the book - Burma's Missing Dots) from Canada, Mr. Muhammad Anwar Burmi of RNOT, Mr. Suja Uddin (a human rights activist) from Australia and Mr. Noor Alam (a human rights activist) from Thailand.

In my keynote speech I cited evidences proving that the Rohingyas are victims of an apartheid policy that has no parallel in our time. The 1982 Burma Citizenship Law has effectively rendered them stateless, thus denying all rights to them – including of movement, marriage, reproduction, education, health and employment. They are viewed as invaders or illegal immigrants from nearby Bangladesh since the British colonial period (post-1826).

In his speech, Prof. Abid Bahar challenged this false notion. With ample of historical evidences, he demonstrated that the Rohingya people were neither implanted by the British administration since 1826 nor did they intrude into Arakan from Bangladesh after the Union of Burma (Myanmar) had achieved her independence in 1948.

I noted that until and unless the 1982 Law, which violates every Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is amended, this on-again and off-again pogrom to exterminate the Rohingya people would continue; they would become an extinct community. As such the world community has a duty to stop this ethnic cleansing one way or another.

In his speech, Mr. Azmi Abdul Hamid, Secretary General of MAPIM, from Malaysia mentioned that his organization was organizing an aid flotilla to be sent next month to help alleviate the serious humanitarian crisis prevailing now in Arakan.

The conference called upon the Myanmar government to immediately amend or repeal the 1982 Burma Citizenship Law thereby removing the burdensome standard of proof for attaining citizenship, and thus granting the Rohingya and other minority entities full citizenship and accompanying rights. It asked the government to sign and ratify the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and fulfill its international obligation to prevent statelessness of all affected people.

The Myanmar government was called upon by the conference to address the other fundamental human rights problems which have caused the Rohingya and other minority communities to flee to Bangladesh and other countries, including abolishing the practice of forced labor in compliance with the 1930 International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention on Forced Labor, which the Burmese government signed in 1955. Towards this end, as recommended by the ILO, the government was called upon to amend or repeal the sections of the Village and Towns Acts that legally sanction the conscription of labor.

The conference also called upon Myanmar government to protect the rights of the children, in accordance with the government's commitment to children's rights through its ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991. In particular, it demanded that all children born of Rohingya parents (and other "stateless" minorities) should be granted Myanmar nationality, including those born in refugee camps in Bangladesh, Thailand and elsewhere. It asked the government to ensure that children are not forced to work under any circumstance, and that it does not discriminate against Muslim (and non-Buddhist) children in its provision of education benefits.

Since nearly half the Rohingya population is forced now to a life of refugee outside, the conference called upon the Myanmar government to ensure that all refugees are able to exercise their right to return and to guarantee their full reintegration with full respect for their human rights.

While Thein Sein’s gesture in releasing some political prisoners was appreciated, the conference called upon his government to release all its political prisoners and dropping all charges against them and their family members.

The conference called upon the Myanmar government to pay due compensation for the loss of lives and properties of the victims of the current pogrom, and to repatriate and rehabilitate each one of the fleeing refugees who had fled or sought refugee status outside. Furthermore, the conference called upon the government to allow international NGOs and aid agencies to provide material and medical aid to the suffering people, plus allowing the presence of international monitors, e.g., human rights groups and journalists, to continuously monitor the restive region so as to provide needed and accurate information on a timely manner.

In my talk, I also mentioned that the protection of minorities against injustice and intolerance was not a matter of compassion or sympathy of the majority.  Human rights in a democracy are held to be inalienable – no human being could be deprived of those rights in a democracy by the will of the majority of the sovereign people. As such, I called upon the government to correct its age-old xenophobia, hatred and intolerance of the Rohingya people through all means necessary including education and media outlets, plus punishing the culprits – both the perpetrators and promoters of hatred.

The conference criticized the attitude of the so-called democracy leaders in Myanmar who through endorsement or silence thereof on-going extermination campaign against the Rohingya minorities have proven to be closet fascists. They were warned about the serious consequence of their actions and that if they did not correct their ways, they could face prosecution in the international courts (much like what has happened with Julius Streicher of the Nazi era in the Nuremburg Trial).

In my closing talk on finding solution, I discussed the problems with the ideology of new “Myanmarism”, which promotes ultra-nationalism of the dominant race and religious intolerance against the minority races, which are sure recipes for a failed state in our time. I also mentioned that citizenship based on ethnicity or race is a feudal concept that has no place in the 21st century. As such, if Myanmar were to avoid becoming a failed state, it must abandon this toxic ideology and promote a series of dialogues between the leaders of the Rohingya and Rakhine community immediately towards reconciliation, inclusion and integration within Myanmar without any prejudice. 

The conference also warned the Myanmar government that its failure to resolve the crisis -- by amending or removing the Citizenship Law, which is at the heart of the Rohingya problem -- could result in its leaders being pursued in the International Criminal Court (similar to those faced by the likes of Slobodan Milosevic of former Yugoslavia) for serious violations of international humanitarian laws against the Rohingyas of Myanmar.

It further noted that if Myanmar were to survive as a Federal Union, enough trust-building provisions were necessary so that every minority community – religious, ethnic, or otherwise – could feel equal with other dominant races and groups. The true spirit of Republicanism, in clear distinction to 'Myanmarism', must be embraced as the only alternative for survival of a future democratic Myanmar.

As to the treatment of the refugees, the conference, called upon the member states of the United Nations to stop the ‘push back’ of fleeing refugees from Myanmar against their wishes, and instead, to ensure adequate provisions for food, education, job and healthcare. They should not be barred from seeking asylum in a third country.

The conference also noted the cat-and-mouse tactics of the Myanmar regime and as such called upon the UN member states, esp. the veto-wielding powers, to press the Myanmar government to immediately repeal its 1982 Citizenship Act that is highly discriminatory and in violations of several international laws and charters of the UN and its member agencies. It also asked the world body to press the Myanmar government to stop its inhuman and degrading treatment of all minorities, esp. the Rohingyas of the Rakhine State. It also called upon the UNSC to put a time limit of six months to amend the citizenship issue, thus, restoring citizenship rights of the Rohingya, failing which to prosecute the regime in the Hague for its horrible records of crimes against humanity, and to declare the Mayu Frontier Territories (in northern Arakan) a ‘safe’ territory for the Rohingyas of Myanmar so that they could live there with honor, dignity, safety and security.

In my concluding remarks I duly noted that unless Myanmar government corrects the Rohingya problem allowing them to live as equal citizens the agenda could be hijacked by extremists on both sides of the Muslim-Buddhist divide which could lead to war of secession of the troubled region.

How serious is the so-called reform minded government of Thein Sein to take his poverty-stricken country to the twenty first century which is increasingly becoming plural and open to possibilities? If he is serious, he ought to listen to the voices heard in the Bangkok international conference which while discussing the problem of current violence plaguing his western frontier territory did not shy away from offering needed recommendations that could help stabilize the country and attract much needed foreign investment. 

Myanmar Ambassador's Statement- a hogwash

As a representative of the Myanmar government, its ambassador to India recently wrote a letter to a Muslim leader in India explaining the situation inside the Arakan (Rakhine) state. It was another attempt by the government to evade its own failure or who knows - its own responsibility - towards hate crime which has probably resulted in the deaths of tens of  thousands of Rohingyas. 

Here is my assessment below of his letter:

The allegation of rape by a Muslim Rohingya was never proven. What we heard was that 3 suspects were taken to custody who confessed, and then one - the main culprit - later committed suicide. Myanmar govt. has a long history of planting such race riots. Its own forces would commit crime like rape and then throw the dead body in sensitive territories to create tension between various races. While we don't know for sure if this type of conspiracy happened again or not, but if it did I won't be surprised. The country does not have an open court system which allows people to find the truth during trial. Interestingly, the culprit killed himself - how do we know that it truly happened or that he was not killed by police who did not want the truth to ever come out? There are many such unanswered questions which beg answer. But unfortunately, we may never know.

The Myanmar ambassador's views in India are to diffuse tension and nothing else. He is puppeteering the govt. position. As I write this response, all the mosques are closed; people could not pray their eid prayer; hundreds of mosques continue to be demolished (and previously burned during riot). If that is what means by churches, pagodas and mosques are standing side by side as if to prove people of various faiths have been living in real harmony - I don't know what does the word harmony mean, nor what does persecution mean. 

What is going on against Rohingya is a pure case of neo-Nazi Racism. Burma does not want anyone who is not a Buddhist. Period! 

The world community needs to find ways to bring these criminals in the ICC for their crimes against humanity, without which today it is Rohingya, tomorrow it would be Kachins, and others and so on and so on. 

Just view the Internet to understand the level of intolerance shown by the Burman/Rakhine Buddhists who desire a "pure Burma" that is not "contaminated" by any other race. They call it "racial purity" of the nature of Japan. Is this plan anything but apartheid policy?

Myanmar president says monks, politicians kindling hate

President Thein Sein of Myanmar said that ethnic Rakhine could not accept the Rohingya as fellow citizens. “Political parties, some monks and some individuals are increasing the ethnic hatred. They even approach and lobby both the domestic and overseas Rakhine community,” Thein Sein said in a report sent to Myanmar’s union parliament – which combines the upper and lower houses – on August 17. “Rakhine people are continuously thinking to terrorise the Bengali Muslims living across the country,” he said.

I have been saying these for years.

After all these years, I am glad that someone like Thein Sein had the guts to say plainly that the Rakhines have been terrorizing the Rohingya Muslims. That is a welcome assessment.

“We don’t agree with their review… such a review should not be released in this current time…, it can worsen the clashes,” said Aye Maung, chairman of Rakhine Nationalities Development Party.

The racism of Aye Maung is obvious. Mind that this criminal has been behind fueling the current crisis against the Rohingya; so he did not like what he heard from the president.

Guys like Aye Maung should be the first ones put into prison for inciting violence and intolerance against the Rohingya, which is a crime against humanity.

Link to Al Jazeera interview of Prof. Wakar Uddin on Rohingya Problem

Here is a link in Al Jazeera about the Rohingya problem, discussed by Prof. Wakar Uddin.

Myanmar Government Can’t Hide its Crimes

In an article in the state-run New Light of Myanmar on Wednesday, August 22, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Myanmar, stated, “It is obvious that the violence in the Rakhine State are neither the conflict between two religious groups of different faith nor humanitarian issue.” “The incidents in the Rakhine State are sectarian conflicts which are purely internal affairs of a sovereign state. They are not relating to any kind of religious persecution or religious discrimination. Therefore, we will not accept, any attempt to politically regionalize or internationalize this conflict as a religious issue.” “The government of Myanmar has never practiced policy of violence against Muslims or any other faiths,” said the statement. “The government totally rejects accusations made by some organizations that the government is practicing such a policy of abuse.” 

Well, I beg to differ with the Myanmar government. It is once again trying to whitewash its horrible record of racism and bigotry against the non-Buddhists (esp. the Rohingya) inside the country. When millions of inhabitants of the country are denied citizenship because of their race, ethnicity and faith, and such exclusion includes every Rohingya Muslim in spite of maintaining their existence in that country for hundreds of years, such claims are simply laughable. When a violent mob attacks a group of Burmese Tablighi Muslims (who were not even from the Rohingya community suspected in the death of a Rakhine woman) and lynches them to death in front of the members of the police forces, who do nothing to stop such horrendous crimes, it is difficult to sell such deep-seated hatred as anything but bigotry. How does the crime of a single individual (although no proof has yet been provided by the Myanmar government) become the justification for committing hate crimes against an entire ethnic group?

When the members of the state-run riot police (Lon Htin) selectively shoots to kill members of the Rohingya community when they had gathered for a funeral service and being provoked by a hostile rock-throwing, stick and knife-wielding Rakhine crowd, no one is fooled by such government explanation. When the members of the border security force NASAKA and Lon Htin are seen (and there are plenty of video tapes available in the Internet) to participate in burning Rohingya homes, businesses and villages, and killing them simply because they are different racially and religiously, if it is not a government sponsored persecution of a Muslim religious community, what is?

When Rakhine Buddhist mobs led by Buddhist monks attack and set fire to several Muslim shops, restaurants and mosques, and kill unarmed Rohingya men and children, while the local authorities (police and the Army) did nothing to intervene nor did the fire-fighters come to their aid, how can one deny or evade responsibility for such collusion?

When the political and military leadership within Myanmar and the Rakhine state promote hatred and xenophobia, and practice open discrimination while encouraging and providing material support to the Buddhist extremists to commit acts of violence including rape of Rohingya Muslim girls and women, it is ludicrous to hide such obvious signs of religious persecution or discrimination.

When the Rakhine Buddhist monks allow their monasteries to be used for hording lethal arms, and disallow the life-saving food items to be sold to and block humanitarian assistance from reaching the starving Rohingya people, it is criminal to ignore the ugly fact that racism and bigotry against the Rohingyas have become an acceptable national project towards their total elimination that is enthusiastically supported and participated by an overwhelming majority within the Buddhist population.

Even a Muslim Rohingya is denied his/her right to reproduction. They cannot get married without government approval, which usually does not happen unless the government official is bribed heftily. US photographer Greg Constantine has recently released a book of black and white photography titled “Exiled to Nowhere: Burma’s Rohingya.” He relates the story of 20-year-old Kashida who had to “flee to Bangladesh with her husband. The Burmese authorities had denied her permission to get married, but when they discovered she had married in secret and was pregnant they took away all her family’s money and cows and goats. They forced Kashida to have an abortion, telling her: “This is not your country; you don’t have the right to reproduce here.” In Mr. Constantine’s book there are plenty of such human stories for anyone to verify the truth of the suffering of the Rohingya people.

What excuse does the Myanmar government have to offer on such monumental crimes against a religious minority?

When the government forces not only allow the slaughter of the unarmed Rohingya but also participate in the gang rape of Rohingya women as a weapon of war so that they are pushed out of the country, and then the fleeing people are shot at -- there is a name for such a crime – it is called ethnic cleansing, which has been going on for decades. For the information of the Myanmar government, the United Nations define ‘ethnic cleansing’ as “Purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.”

The Buddhist Myanmar has been practicing this crime for decades against many of the marginalized races and ethnic groups since the state got its independence from Britain in 1948. And of course, the Rohingyas have been the worst victims of this state policy. Per my count, there have been at least two dozen major campaigns to wipe out Muslim identity in Myanmar. As a result of such an on-again and off-again, slow but steady elimination strategy, nearly half the Rohingya population has been pushed out of the country and tens of thousands slaughtered, while the world almost forgot their sad plight. The ‘stubborn’ Rohingyas who continue to live inside this living hell are subjected to the worst forms of persecution and discrimination mankind has ever witnessed in the post-colonial era.

Towards transformational change of the multi-faith and multi-ethnic country to a unitary Burman dominated Buddhist country, there have been a systemic strategy since the days Ne Win (actually, one can go back to the time of Buddhist fanatic king Boddawpaya in 1784) to destroy religious monuments and insignia of other faiths. It is, therefore, not by chance that hardly a single historic mosque stands erect in Myanmar today. The state of Arakan whose shoreline once used to be dotted with Muslim shrines and mosques are now bereft of those Islamic symbolisms. The old Sandi Khan mosque (named after the very Muslim General who came to restore the throne of the fleeing Arakanese king Narameikhla in 1430 CE is long destroyed. Even the ancient Han Tha mosque did not survive Myanmarism. Along with the Taungoo Railway station mosque, this historical mosque was razed to the ground on May 18, 2001 by bulldozers owned by the previous SPDC military junta. How about Akyab’s historic Badr Makam mosque? [It is no accident either that Muslim sounding names of towns and places like Akyab (including that of Arakan state) have systematically been Burmanized to erase that Islamic connectivity.]

No religion can effectively survive or function without its places of worship. Every time a riot is initiated (often with full cooperation of the regime), the first targets are usually the mosques and madrasas because these are the only remaining institutions in Myanmar that are connected with the Islamic faith. [The Rohingya children are barred from government education beyond primary level, nor do they have freedom of movement.] And what is worse: mosques and Muslim graveyards are routinely closed down, destroyed or desecrated to make room for Buddhist model towns or expensive pagodas, where the Muslims must pay for such construction projects. [As I write, hundreds of Muslim mosques have been demolished or burned in the latest episode. All the mosques have been closed down without allowing Muslims to pray inside.  So, no one could pray even on the Eid day, the happiest of Islamic festivals.] 

As Dr. Shwe Lu Maung alias Shahnawaz Khan has noted in his book – The Price of Silence: Muslim-Buddhist War of Bangladesh and Myanmar – A Social Darwinist’s Analysis – the policy of the successive rulers in Myanmar for centuries has been to make “golden temple shiny shiny, stomach though empty empty.” Every Myanmar ruler that has come to power has always tried to outdo his predecessor by trying to build a bigger and more expensive pagoda so as to prove his unwavering ties with the Buddhist faith and people, most often however at the expense of other faiths and faithful followers.

Interested reader may like to read the reports from a multitude of human rights groups, plus the U.S. State Department’s annual report on Myanmar, or my books (esp., The Forgotten Rohingya: Their Struggle for Human Rights in Burma) to comprehend the colossal record of crime of the Myanmar government against the Rohingya Muslims.

The reports emerging from the Rakhine state, verified by several human rights groups, clearly show the regime’s dirty hands in targeted elimination of the Rohingya people. This was also obvious from the assessment made by Navi Pillay of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights who said, “We have been receiving a stream of reports from independent sources alleging discriminatory and arbitrary responses by security forces, and even their instigation of and involvement in clashes.” “Reports indicate that the initial swift response of the authorities to the communal violence may have turned into a crackdown targeting Muslims, in particular members of the Rohingya community,” she said (July 27, 2012).

Benjamin Zawacki of the Amnesty International told BBC, “Most cases have meant targeted attacks on the minority Rohingya population and they were bearing the brunt of most of that communal violence in June and they continue to bear the lion's share of the violations perpetrated by the state security forces.” “While the restoration of order, security, and the protection of human rights is necessary, most arrests appear to have been arbitrary and discriminatory, violating the rights to liberty and to freedom from discrimination on grounds of religion,” Amnesty said in a statement.

Similarly, Phil Robertson, Deputy Director, Asia Division, Human Rights Watch, said “state security forces and local Arakan communities worked together to target Rohingya communities, committing killings, rapes, and mass arrests.” On June 23, in a village near the town of Maungdaw, security forces pursued and opened fire on two dozen Rohingya villagers who had been hiding from the violence in fields and forest areas. Witnesses in Maungdaw township described several instances in which Rakhine men wielding sticks and swords accompanied the security forces in raids on Rohingya villages.

Not too long ago, a coalition of human rights group, led by Refugees International, the Arakan Project, and the Equal Rights Trust, issued a joint statement saying: “In Myanmar, what began as inter-communal violence has evolved into large scale state-sponsored violence against the Rohingya.” “Many Rohingya continue to be victims of violence and cannot leave their homes for fear of persecution, and are thus deprived of their livelihood and most basic needs,” said the advocacy groups.

To, thus, say that the government of Myanmar has ‘never practiced policy of violence against Muslims or any other faiths’ or that there is ‘no religious persecution or discrimination’ is like saying that ‘violence is peace’ and ‘persecution is love’! With more than 100,000 internally displaced Rohingyas, it is also a serious humanitarian issue. With such hypocritical words, the Myanmar government can neither hope to hoodwink anyone nor evade its responsibility for being the author and executioner for its crimes against humanity. 

Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director, Human Rights Watch, noted weeks ago, “Deadly violence in Arakan State is spiraling out of control under the government’s watch. Opening the area to independent international observers would put all sides on notice that they were being closely watched.” The UN and other human rights monitoring groups have also requested Myanmar government to allow international observers to be posted, but to no avail. Its reluctance points to the fact that the regime wants to hide its on-going crime against the Rohingya people. 

Lately, President Thein Sein has announced the formation of a 27-member inquiry commission to submit a report on this latest pogrom. One may recall that soon after the pogrom had started in June, he promised a similar inquiry report by June 30, which, however, never saw the light. The inclusion of racists like Dr. Aye Maung, Khin Maung Swe, Aye Tha Aung, Zarganar, and Ko Ko Gyi, who had played an active role in the latest pogrom against the Rohingya people, once again shows that Thein Sein is not serious about fact-finding but only about international image. It is a face-saving measure to withstand international pressure. He is trying to buy time and hope that commotion would calm down so that he could rekindle the fire of extinction some time later.

As I have noted many times, at the heart of the on-going eliminationist project against Rohingyas and other persecuted minorities lies Burma’s notorious 1982 Citizenship Law, written during hateful dictator Ne Win era. It is sad to see that how such a blueprint for racial and religious discrimination and eventual elimination has now become an acceptable law even by the so-called democracy leaders. No one inside Myanmar is crying out foul for its violations of each of the 30 Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, not even Suu Kyi Aris, once touted as a voice of conscience for humanity. The recent tragedy has shown her real color and those of her NLD colleagues. They are basically neo-Fascists who are no better than the very regime that they want to unseat. That is what a national project for elimination would do to a nation!

If  the Myanmar government is serious about bringing about a positive change towards inclusion, its 1982 Law needs to be amended or dumped altogether so that Rohingyas are not rendered stateless. Amnesty International says, “Under international human rights law and standards, no one may be left or rendered stateless.”

And this is also the recommendation from the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, Tomás Ojea Quintana. He has stressed the need for the authorities to take steps to address the “long-standing issues of deprivation of citizenship, freedom of movement, and other fundamental rights” that plague the welfare of the Rohingya people. There is no better time to amend the 1982 Law than now.

Is Thein Sein government ready to truly reform its 1982 Law that violates international human rights law and standards? If not now, when? Without such steps, he can’t escape being labeled as an executioner of an apartheid policy that leads to exclusion, discrimination, persecution and elimination. That is war crime in my book!