By Christina Okello | Radio France
Internationale
Two years after hundreds of thousands of
Myanmar’s Muslim ethnic minority were forced to flee in a military-led
crackdown, a new film called Mechanics of a Crime, reveals their persecution
was premeditated. It comes as thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh
agreed to be relocated on Sunday.
His investigation began in 2012, five years
before Myanmar’s “clearance operations” against the Rohingya began, and already
then anti-Muslim sentiment was festering in Yangon, which the documentary
highlights.
It follows the rise of Ashin Wirathu, a radical Buddhist monk, who travels the country whipping up crowds against Myanmar’s Muslim minority through his hate-filled sermons.
The first reports of Rohingya homes being
torched by Buddhist villagers begin to emerge in 2012, with news that survivors
had been sent to open air prisons.
The events are presented like a news story to
capture the spectator’s attention.
“I wanted to let people know in Europe, and
in France, what’s going on in this area. We don’t know exactly what’s going in
Burma, in Southeast Asia,” Le Gouil told RFI, using Myanmar’s old name before
it was changed by the ruling military junta in 1989.
Through interviews with Rohingya refugees who
fled Myanmar to Bangladesh, Le Gouil puts together the pieces of what the
United Nations describes as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.
Different truths
“The starting point is naming a minority as a
different group from your state; the final stage is erasing all the proof after
the crime,” he says.
The worst of the violence broke out in August
2017 when a Rohingya militant group attacked several police posts with
rudimentary weapons. The army justified the subsequent crackdown as a means of
rooting out the insurgents.
“We know that these guys were youngsters,
around 25-years-old, with no guns, only sticks or knives, that’s all,” comments
Le Gouil, saying the identity of the attackers remains a mystery.
So too does the truth.
Listen: https://soundcloud.com/radiofranceinternationale/documenting-the-origins-of-the-rohingya-crisis
At one point in the film, Le Gouil is shown
trying to document evidence of the violence carried out against the Rohingya
during a guided press tour, and his taxi driver speeds up before he can take a
shot.
“It tells us that they know exactly what they
did, what soldiers did in this area”, he says, referring notably to the village
of Inn Din where 10 Rohingya men were killed.
The film also analyses the failure of the
international community to intervene, reserving a harsh spotlight for Aung San
Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader and Nobel peace laureate.
Fall of an icon
The Rohingya “are very upset with Aung San
Suu Kyi because they had a feeling what happened two years ago, could not have
happened because of this lady,” comments Le Gouil.
“Unfortunately, just to get into power, she
didn’t do anything. At that time, she let the generals do the job – a bad job,”
he said.
UN investigators are evaluating whether Suu
Kyi should be legally implicated in the abuses against the Rohingya for
complicity.
A fact-finding mission last year branded the
army operation in August 2017 as “genocide” and called for the prosecution of
top generals, including army chief Min Aung Hlaing.
Meanwhile in neighbouring Bangladesh, the
future of thousands of refugees remains in the balance.
Difficult compromise
On Sunday, Dhaka announced that it would
start relocating several thousand refugees to a flood-prone island off its
coast next month after they agreed to move.
Many, though, still want to return to
Myanmar.
“All of these people are just waiting for one
thing: just to be safe in their lands, just to be able to be back in their
villages in Burma. Nothing more,” says Le Gouil.
The Myanmar government however first wants
them to sign a National Verification Card or NVC, claiming that it will enable
Rohingya refugees to access public services.
Rights groups say the process will further
marginalise the community by making them stateless.
“It means they agree to reject their ethnic
Rohingya identity. They can’t accept this”, Le Gouil said.
Follow Christina Okello on Twitter @vivalid
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Bangladesh to move Rohingya to flood-prone
island next month: https://mirsdq.blogspot.com/2019/10/bangladesh-to-move-rohingya-to-flood.html
“Rohingya must return to their home with
their full Rights” https://mirsdq.blogspot.com/2019/10/full-rights.html
Myanmar’s plan for Rohingya is still worse,
officially hates & discrimination continued: https://t.co/1hhiJqUSJm
DG #R4R & researcher of #RohingyaCrisis
@mir_sidiquee says “they (Myanmar) are denying #Rohingyas willingly for long
term plan to drive out the existing #Rohingyas – instead of bring back the
escaped, #genocide victims about 1 million into #Bangladesh - from their home /
ancestral land.”Read: https://t.co/bZtb7EDgWB
Don’t forget to reach here: https://t.co/yY28vR35fZ to know about
inhumane of Myanmar against Rohingya.
@mir_sidiquee is a Human Rights Activist, DG
of R4R (Rohingya Human Rights Initiative) and researcher of Rohingya Crisis