Hi Jacob,
Yes, exactly to the security issues, which is why we have tried nothing
to date, any Rohingya caught with anything like a camera or radio is
tortured and killed. Ease of use is also paramount, there is no point
risking lives to get a phone in that no one can use. We are
unfortunately at final wipeout stage and the people there are agreed
that the risk of being killed is 100% with or without phones. I don't
know of anything except satellite phones they could use to document. The
military is definitely paranoid of cameras, phones and outsiders atm.
The situation in every refugee camp outside Burma is also awful, but
still not at the stage where it is worth risking lives. We have managed
to get some pictures (like of Rakhine flyers announcing the next
massacre) but almost nothing out of Sittwe. There is plenty that needs
documenting in the surrounding areas though.
In any case, they know they will die, they don't want to die without a
trace. I am slightly more optimistic that if we get some pictures out
some of them won't die at all, we have it from good sources that the
government is already very annoyed at the small publicity we have
created and worried at the war crimes documentation. The government's
official position is that the Rohingya don't actually exist, or if they
did they just left.
All the best,
Heather Marsh
@GeorgieBC on Twitter
On 13-03-17 12:29 PM, Jacob Appelbaum wrote:
Dear Heather,
ttscanada:
Hi all,
For those that aren't aware, 800,000 Rohingya people in Burma are being
cut off from communication as the military and government try to drive
them out of the country. Over 100,000 are being starved to death in
concentration camps, the rest are driven into boats which neighbouring
countries are refusing to allow to land. There have been two large scale
massacres as well, one in June, one in October. Our contacts have been
saying for weeks there is another massacre planned for the end of March,
but even if there weren't, they are living in houses made of straw and
plastic bags with no food or medical aid and the rains are coming. This
is a full scale genocide supported by the current Burma/Myanmar
government. Media and aid groups are blocked and the people are jailed
just for having a TV, they have no phones.
I'm well aware and having just been in Burma, I'm sad to say that most
people in the world are unaware; those in Burma that know seem afraid to
speak out.
More information, check out over 100 pages of links here
http://topsy.com/s/georgiebc+Rohingya?window=a the #Rohingya tag on
Twitter or google.
We have a way to hopefully get some journalists in to document war
crimes. We need satellite phones for the Rohingya people as well, as
many as possible, donated would be great. If anyone has any ideas for a
good phone source it would be appreciated.
Please be very careful - the communications systems in Burma are all
highly monitored and heavily controlled. During my recent trip to Burma,
I was part of a team that worked on a report about the communications
systems in county. Please feel free to pass it on to people:
http://www.opentechfund.org/article/access-and-openness-myanmar-2012
Satellite phones are extremely privacy invasive (interception, location
tracking, etc) and short of the Cryptophone Satellite phone (
http://www.cryptophone.de/en/products/satellite/ ) used in a very
specific way, I wouldn't even touch one of those devices if I thought
that the Burmese military was possibly targeting me.
All the best,
Jacob
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