N.B. All reference to "Buddhists" in the following post does
NOT refer to monks, but rather a sect of Hindu's.
One man goes on a killing spree in an American cinema, killing twelve people, and every news channel, news paper and radio station is covering it - not to mention, it's plastered all over the world wide web.
Apparent thousands are being massacred in Burma, a sovereign country in South-East Asia, and it takes the world a good few weeks to even realise that something seriously wrong is in motion.
I say apparent, because according to varied reports, the death toll ranges from 20,000 to 28 to 79 - all depending on which website you choose to read. Mass media has been uninterestedly sluggish in bringing the situation to light - that in itself disgusts me. In a time where we should have the freedom of expression, we have a controlled media; we have the most powerful search engines at our finger tips, but the weakest Humanity driving them.
It's difficult to really know what exactly is going on in Burma - each report has a different tale to tell. The one common denominator that I've been able to identify in each of the accounts I've read though, is that it all began when Buddhists ambushed a bus, and killed 10 Rohingya Muslims, in retaliation for the apparent rape and murder of a Buddhist woman, by three Muslims. From there, sectarian violence has only escalated. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced and homes have been burned. Now, with the explosion of world awareness, sparked by the outrage of a few human rights watchdogs, information is slowly trickling through. The problem is, however, it is difficult to establish what is fact and what is propaganda. For instance, I came across the following in a letter penned by Zin Yaw, the Myanmar Ambassador in New Delhi, in reply to a letter from Dr. Tasleem Ahmed Rahmani, President of the Muslim Political Council in India:
"Fake photos or false information have been spread with the ill intention to agitate Muslims around the world by attempting to create the impression that Muslims are being discriminated or killed in Myanmar and that such acts are state sponsored. Such are unsubstantiated accusations. Please do not be mislead by them."
On the other hand, other sources, for example, the Pakistani News Service, Pak Tribune, report that, "the events in Rakhine 'demonstrate that state sponsored persecution and discrimination persist' despite the governments pledge to end ethnic unrest". It goes on to quote sources as saying that the military themselves opened fire on Rohingya with live ammunition. Stating, "80 people dead from both sides, based on official figures - an estimate the HRW (Human Rights Watch) said appeared, 'grossly underestimated'". Again, the operative words being, "official figures". How are we to know what is truth, and what is mere propagation? While I haven't been able to find much about this on CNN or BBC, Al-Jazeerah reports that 80,000 people have been displaced, that Bangladesh is refusing entry to refugees, and that Myanmar's President Thein Sein even suggested that the Muslim minority should be moved out of the country. The following is a timeline, I've somewhat been able to draw up, depicting the events:
- May 28th: 3 Muslims robbed, raped and murdered a Rakhine woman.
- June 4th: a mob of Rhakine attacked a bus in Taungup, believing those responsible were on the bus. 10 Muslims were killed.
- June 8th : Initial attacks - a mob of Rohingya set houses alight, surround police headquarters, damaging telephone lines. 17 villages are reported as being burnt. By 10pm, armed forces took positions. As of this date, 5 people were confirmed dead.
- June 9th: Riots spread - Riots continued, despite increased security presence. The government set up refugee camps for those whose homes had been burnt. The official report states that at least 7 people had been killed.
- June 10th: State of emergency - Control is given over to the military - who has, in the past, brutalised people in the region. On this date, according to the Rohingya, a 12 year old girl on a routine shopping trip was shot to death by police. Ethnic Rakhine burned Rohingya homes in retaliation. Five thousand people living at refugee camps by this date.
- June 11th: Police are able to calm down violence. The UN begins moving all non-essential staff and their families out of the conflict zone, due to the state of emergency declared. The official death toll is 7, though many believe it is higher.
- June 12th: more buildings are set ablaze. The death toll rises to 25. Bangladesh turned away refugees because its own resources were already under strain.
- June 14th: The death toll rises to 29 - 16 Muslim and 13 Buddhists.
- June 15th-28th: Estimated 80 deaths, though the President of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation, Tun Khin, states that as of this date, 650 Rohingya's have been killed. Rohignya's who managed to flee to Bangladesh also claim that police and army shot groups of villagers at gun point. Humanitarian workers are not allowed to enter the region by the police and army - sources say that they have received images and videos of brutal killings of the Rohingya, however, apparently due to the intensity of the violence news reporters are scared of going into the region
- July: At the beginning of this month, 30 people are held accountable for the death of the original 10 Muslims killed in the bus sabotage on June 4th.
That is the last date I can gather any 'official' information about. In an effort to better understand this turbulence in Burma, I decided to research not the current events being perpetrated, but rather the events of the past. What I learned was this:
- The Rohingya are a Muslim people who live in the Arakan region of Western Myanmar, Burma. As of this year, it is estimated that 80,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar. Muslim settlements have existed there since the arrival of Arabs in the area as far back as 8th Century CE.
- According to the United Nations, they are the most persecuted minority in the world.
- The history books write of their peaceful cohabitation with their Buddhist counterparts till the Burmese Conquest in 1785 - when the Burmese rulers executed thousands of them, and 35,000 Arkanese people fled to British Bengal. Thus, Arkan was a scarcely populated country by the time the British occupied it - according to some reports.
- According to others, the British conquered Burma in stages and eventually added it to their colony of India. These same reports state that the British and Burmese fought three wars - one in 1824-1836 when the west was conquered; another in 1852 where they took parts of the south; the last one in 1885 where-after, the remaining parts of Burma were formally annexed by Britain.
- However, after the 1932 rebellion, the Japanese invasion in 1942, the two failed British offences in 1942 and 1943 respectively, the attempted Japanese invasion of India in 1944 and the British countering in 1945, it finally became clear that they (the British) could no longer hold onto Burma and so they agreed to grant it independence in 1947.
- What strikes me here, is that anarchy began after the British occupation. And, this has happened in many other instances throughout history, the most famous being South Africa, Zimbabwe (formerly Southern Rhodesia), and India (which was broken up into India and Pakistan).
- In the case of Burma, dissent was created when the new government came into power in 1948, and throughout the 20th and 21st Centuries the country has experienced internal conflict - the Burmese government has classified Rohingya as "immigrants" to Burma and they aren't eligible for citizenship - despite their having been settled there for over 150 years; in practice, many people of Benagli descent face discriminatory legal restrictions on movement, marriage and reproduction, and are considered illegal and threatening to the country's stability (according to an article published by the Huffington Post).
- Add to the ethnic antagonism the fact that Burma is still undergoing political reform of its own, and remains a very poor country after decades of poor mismanagement, mass unemployment and high inflation, and the picture of a very volatile country emerges.
After all my research, it doesn't leave much to my imagination to fathom how the recent bout of smoke-screened bloodshed could have been ignited. Undoubtedly, a massacre of a people is atrocious - whether it be Muslim or any other - but, what we don't know is, if indeed, any or all of the reports are to believed. And if they are, are we receiving all the facts, or just the propaganda we have no legitimate way of clarifying? What it boils down to, is really, the most cataclysmic weapon of mass destruction: our mass media - which has the power to influence millions of people around the world. What is worrying, is that when the media, who is supposed to keep us informed, keeps mum on matters such as this, it is in effect placing a value on the lives of these people - by not reporting on it, it's effectually saying, "it is not worth our time." It is debasing the sanctity of Human life - purporting that the life of certain people is lesser to another, and that the loss of that life is inconsequential in the greater scheme of the World. What right have we, or any other, to make such an assertion? Whatever is going on in Burma, for now, is cloaked in conflicting versions - it's time that our mass media stepped up to the plate and lived up to their responsibility of providing unbiased, fact-based information - and it's time that people began questioning the information that they hear and read. As far as I know, many people are spreading this news of a Burmese Massacre without fully verifying the sources they get their information from, and whatever
is happening over there, had to have some sort of catalyst - which most of the world has no knowledge of. It's unsure whether all the reports are true or not, but before you propagate, do your research - will-full ignorance is just as sinful as indifference.
