'We must accept what happened’: Myanmar's
young rebel voices defying genocide denial
As lawyers for Gambia yesterday implored the
United Nations’ top court to provide protection for the Rohingya Muslims still
in Rakhine state, Aung San Suu Kyi sat opposite the judges; perhaps comforted
that away from the accounts of rapes and murders were thousands of compatriots
cheering her name.
Some supporters even traveled from Myanmar
and other nations to The Hague for the three-day hearing. Meanwhile, rallies
across the country celebrated her decision to defend allegations of genocide
against the Rohingya.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) case
is directed at the Myanmar people, claims state media, and is an affront to the
nation’s dignity. But three young activists amid a thundering of pro-Suu Kyi
chants in downtown Yangon manned a table displaying in English: “I stand
against genocide, change my mind.”
They distributed Burmese-language leaflets on
the definition of genocide as well as the Myanmar 2008 Constitution definition
of state and a question asking: “According to the current law of Myanmar, are
you the state?”
“The state is defined as the people in the
government organisation,” one of the activists, Zin Linn, 23, told Myanmar Mix.
“The state is not the people and we wanted to show that.”
“We expected people to be sensitive and
aggressive to us, but when we got there, they didn’t understand what genocide
is, what the ICJ accusations are, or even what the ICJ is. They just came to
support Aung San Suu Kyi.”
After about 20 minutes an organiser of the
pro-Suu Kyi rally threatened to sue the activists and called over a police
officer, said Zin Linn. By then, their leaflets were dwindling—partly because
rally organisers had scooped up so many—so they left.
“[The state] is making the majority of people
become criminals and deniers like them, manipulating the people by using the
support of Aung San Suu Kyi,” adds Zin Linn.
His small group is among pockets of
dissenting voices within Myanmar arguing the National League for Democracy’s
(NLD) "affront to dignity" claim muddies the waters. The Myanmar army
led the 2017 bloody campaign that drove out around 740,000 Rohingya to
Bangladesh and some people are risking relationships with friends and family to
call for accountability over the crimes.
“Some supporters of the NLD may get angry
because I support the rights of the Rohingya,” says Thu Aung, 28, an atheist
from a Buddhist background in Bago region. “They should have human rights and
freedom of religion and expression. As humans they’ve a right to have a life in
the area where they were born."
The majority of people in Myanmar view the
Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, but Thu Aung said the minority
should have the same rights as other ethnicities in the country.
With a dominant state media, Myanmar does not
have a “clear message of what is happening” in Rakhine state, he said.
But he believes the public will eventually
face up to the atrocities in Rakhine state, adding that “we still have a future
if we can promote federalism and equal rights.”
Yangon-based Esther, 25, an independent
researcher, asked to conceal her ethnicity and religion because she was
concerned it would make further targets of her minority group.
Although some of her relatives were initially
swayed by the government line—“every national news channel is mentioning this
case belongs to every one of us,” she says—their past experience as victims of
state-sponsored violence soon made them question it.
“These kinds of cases have been happening for
over 60 years,” she says, “Not only in Rakhine state but also in other ethnic
areas. This case has only come to the world stage because Bangladesh can be a
witness. We have to accept it and face the problem by not covering up the
mess.”
For everyone except those who committed the
crimes to take responsibility is senseless, she adds, saying that her friends
reject the idea of the case damaging the dignity of the Myanmar people because
“we only stand with the dignity of the victims. We do not want to stand with
the perpetrators.”
Yangon Youth Network president, Zay Linn Mon,
23, argues that Myanmar “can not bring justice for the Rohingya, so other
countries around the world have to become involved.”
Zay Linn Mon said his stance on reform issues
has already cost him friendships, but that “to improve the image of Myanmar, we
must accept what happened in Rakhine state.”
"We hope Aung San Suu Kyi will accept
what is happening in Rakhine and work together with the international
community,” he says. "That is the only way Myanmar can improve its image
again. Denying genocide will not promote its image.”
Aung San Suu Kyi is due to speak at the ICJ
today, and is expected to argue that the court has no jurisdiction and that
Myanmar was targeting Rohingya militants.