Hi Gregory,
How ... nauseating? Rohingya had their citizenship (vote and right to be
recognized as human) stripped in 1982 even though they have been in
Burma for generations. ASSK and her supporters democratically decided
that the majority do not like Rohingya so they will exterminate them.
She calls the Rohingya 'an international problem', ie they belong
somewhere other than Burma. Yay, ASSK and democracy.
http://www.arabnews.com/suu-kyi-calls-rohingya-massacre-%E2%80%98international-tragedy%E2%80%99
http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/WOR-TOP-dalai-lama-asks----hitherto-silent----suu-kyi-to-intervene-in-rohingya-issue-4004768-NOR.html
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,USCIS,,MMR,,3ae6a6a41c,0.html
Here's something you might like to look at:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/129534164/Buddhist-Nationalism-in-Burma-How-Institutionalized-Racism-led-to-the-Genocide-of-Rohingya-Muslims-Tricycle-Spring-2013
All the best,
Heather Marsh
@GeorgieBC on Twitter
On 13-03-17 1:07 PM, Gregory Foster wrote:
I've been learning about the recent history of Burma through a
collection of Aung San Suu Kyi's writings and speeches. A quotation
from her essay "In Quest of Democracy" written before her house arrest
in 1989:
Revolutions generally reflect the irresistible impulse for necessary
changes which have been held back by official policies or retarded by
social apathy. The institutions and practices of democracy provide
ways and means by which such changes could be effected without
recourse to violence. But change is anathema to authoritarianism,
which will tolerate no deviation from rigid policies. Democracy
acknowledges the right to differ as well as the duty to settle
differences peacefully. Authoritarian governments see criticism of
their actions and doctrines as a challenge to combat. Opposition is
equated with 'confrontation', which is interpreted as violent
conflict. Regimented minds cannot grasp the concept of confrontation
as an open exchange of major differences with a view to settlement
through genuine dialogue. The insecurity of power based on coercion
translates into a need to crush all dissent. Within the framework of
liberal democracy, protest and dissent can exist in healthy
counterpart with orthodoxy and conservatism, contained by a general
recognition of the need to balance respect for individual rights with
respect for law and order.
The words 'law and order' have so frequently been misused as an
excuse for oppression that the very phrase has become suspect in
countries which have known authoritarian rule. Some years ago, a
prominent Burmese author wrote an article on the notion of law and
order as expressed by the official term /nyein-wut-pi-pyar/. One by
one he analysed the words, which literally mean
'silent-crouched-crushed-flattened', and concluded that the whole
made for an undesirable state of affairs, one which militated against
the emergence of an articulate, energetic, progressive citizenry.
There is no intrinsic virtue to law and order unless 'law' is equated
with justice and 'order' with the discipline of a people satisfied
that justice has been done. Law as an instrument of state oppression
is a familiar feature of totalitarianism. Without a properly elected
legislature and an independent judiciary to ensure due process, the
authorities can enforce as 'law' arbitrary decrees that are in fact
flagrant negations of all acceptable norms of justice. There can be
no security for citizens in a state where new 'laws' can be made and
old ones changed to suit the convenience of the powers that be. The
iniquity of such practices is traditionally recognized by the precept
that existing laws should not be set aside at will. The Buddhist
concept of law is based on /dhamma/, righteousness or virtue, not on
the power to impose harsh and inflexible rules on a defenceless
people. The true measure of the justice of a system is the amount of
protection it guarantees to the weakest.
gf
On 3/17/13 2:29 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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