Myanmar’s Genocide of Rohingya Must End
ANALYSIS, 5 May 2014
28 April 2014
What is really going on in Myanmar/Burma beyond tourist brochures, media spin and official reform hype?
Unspeakable crimes are being carried out against innocent humans: children, women and men by the country’s government and racist extremists.
Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya (of whom there are more than 1 million inside the country and another million around the world) have been singled out for systematic destruction.
Successive governments, for decades, have institutionalized a system of apartheid against these people. Kept in concentration camp-like conditions and ghettoized neighborhoods, Rohingya are not permitted freedom of movement.
Every aspect of their lives, including marriage, childbirth and ability to work, is severely restricted. Their right to identity and citizenship is officially denied; in other words, they are not recognized as humans before the law. The Myanmar government even denies humanitarian agencies unfettered access to nearly 200,000 Rohingya in the camps.
Rohingya are profoundly vulnerable to all forms of oppression and atrocities.
As a nation, Myanmar is committing numerous crimes including systematic persecution and discrimination, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.
Of the country’s ethnic groups, only Rohingya are subjected to a policy of compulsory birth and marriage control because of their ethnicity.
As a matter of national policy, Myanmar is:
DENYING Rohingya legal existence, and right to nationality; access to medicine, food, and other basic necessities to sustain life; and
DESIGNING extensive structures of discrimination, genocidal hatred and popular violence that amount to the extermination of Rohingya as an ethnic group. Thereby, both the government and racist extremists, are
DESTROYING an entire people with impunity and popular consent. Myanmar’s official deeds speak volumes about its intent to destroy Rohingya as an ethnic group.
We call on everyone: in governments, in the streets and fields around the world to stop the destruction of Myanmar’s Rohingya.
This is genocide.
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The following organizations and concerned citizens have endorsed this global call:
Non-Rohingya Organizations:
International State Crime Initiative (ISCI), King’s College, University of London
The Sentinel Project for Genocide Prevention, Canada
Global Campaign for the Rwandans Human Rights
London Centre for Social Impact
Justice for All, USA
Burma Task Force USA
Burmese Welfare Association, USA
Burmese American Muslim Association
Myanmar Muslim Association in Thailand
Myanmar Muslim Youth – Malaysia
Myanmar Muslim Civil Rights Movement
Dignity International endorses
Pax Romana ICMICA
International Movement for a Just World (JUST)
Concerned Global Citizens:
Prudentienne Seward, a survivor of Rwandan genocide against Tutsi and founder of PAX – Peace for the African Great Lakes
Rene Claudel Mugenzi, Rwanda genocide Survivor, founder of Global Campaign for Rwandas Human Rights
Sai Latt, Burmese scholar and writer, Simon Frazer University, Canada
Ko Aung, former Burmese political prisoner and activist, London, UK
Soe Aung, Burmese human rights activist, Bangkok Thailand
Dr Kyi May Kaung, Burmese writer, scholar and artist, Washington, DC, USA
Dr Zarni, Burmese scholar and activist, University of Malaya and London School of Economics
Youk Chhang, Executive Director, The Documentation Center of Cambodia
Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey, Rome Conference/ICC Signatory, ICTY Witness on Genocide & Former Foreign Minister – Bosnia & herzegovina
Daniel Feierstein, President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars & Professor in the Faculty of Genocide Studies, the University of Buenos Aires
Veronica Pedrosa, journalist and TV presenter
Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, University Professor in Humanities, Columbia University & founding member of Post-Colonial Studies, USA
Barbara Harrell-Bond, OBE, Dir, Fahamu Refugee Center; founding director, Refugees Studies Center; Emeritus Professor, Oxford University, UK
Mary Kaldor, CBE, Professor of Global Governance and Director, Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, London School of Economics, UK
Dr Helen Jarvis, Genocide Studies Researcher and co-author of “Getting Away with Genocide: Elusive justice and the Khmer Rouge tribunal”
Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, Parliament of World’s Religions (for identifications only), USA
Penny Green, Professor of Law and Criminology & Director of the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI), King’s College, University of London
Dr Hassan Saeed Elmogummer Taha, human rights activist, Qatar
Alex Caring-Lobel, Associate Editor, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, USA
Antara Dev Sen, Editor, The Little Magazine, India
Mohanad Hage Ali, Journalist, Lebanon
Dr Sabina Alkire, Dir. Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), University of Oxford, UK
Bridget Anderson, Professor and Deputy Director Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), University of Oxford, UK
Prof. Johan Galtung, dr hc mult, founder, TRANSCEND International
Barbara Harriss-White, Emeritus Professor of Development Studies and Founder-Director of Contemporary South Asian Studies, University of Oxford, UK
Geoff Whitty, Former Director, Institute of Education, University of London, UK
Michael W. Apple, John Bascom Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Professor of Educational Policy Studies, University of Wisconsin at Madison, USA
James C. Scott, Sterling Professor of Political Science and Professor of Anthropology, Yale University, USA
Jack Healey, Executive Director, Human Rights Action Center, Washington (and former Executive Dir. Amnesty International/USA)
Antonio Carlos da Silva Rosa, M.A., Editor, TRANSCEND Media Service-TMS, Brazil
William Nicholas Gomes, Human Rights Ambassador for Salem-News.com, UK
Roland Watson, Dictator Watch, Thailand
Francis Wade, Journalist, Thailand
Dr Nancy Hudson-Rodd, School of Land and Food, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia
Michael Ratna, Sri Lanka
Chandra Muzaffar, President, JUST, Kualar Lumpur, Malaysia
Darwis Khudori, Indonesian academic, France
Arash Sedighi, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
Dr Laleh Khalili, SOAS, London
Dr Rahul Rao, SOAS, London
Dr Samantha Langsdale, SOAS, London
Dr Ashraf Hoque, University College London (UCL)
Dr (Medical doctor) Mohsin Badat, UK
Dr. James Abdulaziz Brown, UK
Dr. Jonathan Saha, University of Bristol
Sophie Ansel, Journalist & Writer, France
Lynn Lee, Film Maker, Singapore
James Leong, Film Maker, Singapore
Dr Syed Farid Alatas, National University of Singapore
Dr Matt Phillips, University of Aberystwyth, Wales, UK
Rohingya Organizations Worldwide:
Arakan Historical Society
Arakan Rohingya National Organization
Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK
Burmese Rohingya Community in Australia (BRCA)
Burmese Rohingya Association (BRA), UAE
Burmese Rohingya Community Netherlands
Burmese Rohingya Community in Denmark (BRCD)
Burmese Rohingya Association Deutschland
Canadian Burmese Rohingya Organization (CBRO)
European Rohingya Council
Rohingya Arakanese Refugee Committee, Malaysia
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 5 May 2014.
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