'Thousands
have been killed, where are their bodies, their mass graves?'
By Dhaka Tribune
Security experts and
human rights activists believe Myanmar is carrying out a media campaign to
blame Rohingya insurgents for the killing of Hindus in Myanmar in a bid to take
attention away from the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Myanmar army in the
Rakhine state, and also to influence public opinion in India.
Don’s miss, here are witness videos of state run
genocide: https://lnkd.in/gTatT2W
“Myanmar is trying
to get support from India by trying to establish that the ARSA is involved the
anti-Hindu activities,” said veteran journalist and political commentator Afsan
Chowdhury.
Myanmar, said
security analyst Major General Md Abdur Rashid (retd), is trying to prove that
the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) had killed the Hindus to convince the
outside world that the army clampdown was a timely and a right one.
Indian Prime
Minister Narendra Modi went on a two-day state visit to Myanmar around two
weeks after the country’s army started a crackdown on the Rohingya, on
September 7, where he refrained from criticising the government for the
atrocities being carried out on the Rohingyas.
On September 27,
Myanmar claimed to have discovered mass graves containing bodies of 45 Hindu
Rohingyas, including 28 bodies in one place, and blamed Rohingya insurgents for
it. Most international publications and news agencies promptly ran the story,
including all major Indian outlets. India Today and Daily Mail took it a step
further and ran stories on the “forced conversion” of Hindus in the Bangladeshi
refugee camps.
India on Friday
asked Myanmar to bring the people linked to the Hindu carnage to justice.
Maung Zarni, a
Burmese academic exiled in the UK, on Tuesday told The Citizen that this
development came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s endorsement of Suu Kyi,
adding, “I do not believe it at all, not at all.”
“Thousands have been
killed, where are their bodies, their mass graves?” he asked.
“The information
[about the corpses] has come from the Burmese military and government and not
an independent source. If this is so then let the government bring in the
United Nations to investigate these mass graves and determine whether indeed
this crime has taken place at all,” he said.
Abdur Rashid said:
“Myanmar initially tried to defend the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya in the
name of fighting terrorism, which the rest of the world did not believe.”
“When Myanmar
realised that its counter-terrorism theory was failing, it tried to label
Rohingya people as Bengali terrorists, but in vain, as Bangladesh protested the
issue vigorously,” he said.
Shahab Enam Khan,
associate professor of International Relations Department at Jahangirnagar
University, said: “The first question is whether the ARSA really is capable of
killing a huge number of Hindus in Myanmar? Until now, it is just a tiny outfit
which was suddenly made out to be a huge force by the Burmese Junta.”
“…Myanmar’s claim of
Hindus being killed is an effort to dress it in the garb of Islamic terrorism
and a ridiculous attempt to divert the world’s attention from the Rohingya
genocide,” he said.
Myanmar government’s
Information Committee on September 25, quoting an unnamed person, said 300 ARSA
militants had detained some 100 people from Yebawkya village, killing most of
them the same day.
Reuters, on
Wednesday, while reporting that Myanmar authorities displayed the bodies of Hindu
villagers they say were killed by Muslim insurgents, described them as ‘victims
of a surge of violence in someone else’s fight, now playing their part in a
propaganda war.’
On the same day,
Human Rights Watch also published a statement critical of the discovery of
Hindu bodies.
Also
Read- Rohingya Hindu women share horror tales http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/09/19/rohingya-hindu-horror-myanmar-military/
“While Burmese
authorities have put on a stage-managed tour to the Hindu village in question,
as well as Rohingya villages unaffected by the recent violence, they have
denied access to independent monitors to the mass graves and the rest of
northern Rakhine State…,” it said in the statement.
Dead bodies must be investigated by International Investigation Commission: https://mirsdq.blogspot.com/2017/09/dead-bodies-must-be-investigated-by.html
The government’s
quick conclusion on ARSA’s guilt contrasts sharply with its own unwillingness
to credibly investigate countless alleged crimes committed by its own forces
against Rohingya Muslims, it said.
“Burma’s government
should stop playing politics with the dead. Beyond stopping military
atrocities, it should allow the United Nations fact-finding mission into the
country to investigate all crimes,” the rights body further said.
Maung Zarni said
many powerful western countries have completely rejected Myanmar’s claim over
the mass grave, however South Asia has bit into the narrative being put out by
Myanmar, as was visible when Modi went and stood by SuuKyi despite strong world
criticism.
“What is really
scary is the Burmese military’s attempt to expand the circle of enemies against
the Rohingya,” Zarni said.
Meanwhile, the
editor and executive director of Myanmar Times, the oldest privately owned and
operated English-language newspaper in Myanmar, Kavi Chongkittavorn, made some
revealing statements about Myanmar’s position vis-à-vis the Rohingya.
“What is the role of
media under the current government?” Chongkittavorn posed the question to
himself during a panel discussion that ran from August 11 to 13. His answer:
“The most important [role] is constructing the Myanmar narrative.”
“You read Aung San
Suu Kyi’s comments, you read New Light of Myanmar, and you read everything that
comes from the government. The government wants to construct the Myanmar
narrative, which is still absent,” Chongkittavorn said.
“You need a massive
[number of] people to believe the same thing.”
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