Preventing the Next Genocide

Burma's Rohingya minority could fall victim to full-scale

genocide if the international community doesn't
intervene.
BY SIR GEOFFREY NICE , FRANCIS WADEMAY 12, 2014
In conflicts that
have potential to produce the worst of human atrocities, states and international actors
must take action to identify the precursors of mass killing and stop it from ever
happening. That's precisely what is needed now in western Burma, where the
Rohingya minority faces attacks so violent that state crime experts fear a full-on
genocide is in the making. The uslim minority, num!ering around " million, shares
the state with Rakhine Buddhists, who consider them to !e illegal Bengali immigrants.
The Burmese government, which shares this view, denies them citi#enship as well as
limiting their access to education and healthcare. $rgani#ed mo! violence in late
arch, which wrecked the entire aid infrastructure serving "%&,&&& displaced
Rohingya, was only the latest in a series of incidents in recent months that 'ualify as
one of five commonly accepted indicators of a genocide.
The Burmese government's apparent reluctance to intervene in the
situation -- it took the state three weeks and persistent warnings to allow
some aid groups to return -- should be of pressing international concern. It
signals a disregard for the lives of hundreds of thousands of people that can only !e
influenced !y strong glo!al condemnation.
The violence of late arch was clearly planned, as were the resultant effects( The mo!s
effectively cut off access to life-saving medicine, destroyed warehouses storing food
donations, and dismantled !oats and vehicles used to transport those donations to
Rohingya camps. The attackers clearly intended to sever the assistance on which
displaced Rohingya rely. In the aftermath, aid workers have reported do#ens of
preventa!le deaths )ust three weeks after the attack, showing that victims of
persecution can !e made to suffer as effectively !y indirect assaults on the support
systems as !y direct physical attack. *The photo a!ove shows an in)ured Rohingya
woman whose doctor is una!le to help her due to a lack of medicine and medical
e'uipment.+
,or the Rohingya, deprivation of food and aid, rendered more powerful !y isolation,
has received little domestic sympathy. But this attack marks the start of a dangerous
process( Those Rakhine complicit in the violence have signaled that Rohingya aren't
worthy of the essential support mechanisms that a highly vulnera!le population
re'uires for its survival. The significance of this dehumani#ation process isn't )ust
known to academics and political leaders -- it is felt !y all involved, on !oth sides. -nd
it is one stop on the path, short or long, to genocide.
In -pril, the government, with funding from the .nited /ations, carried out Burma's
first census in more than 0& years. But the pro)ect was marred !y reports that the
census enumerators re'uired Rohingya to identify as Bengali, or otherwise would not
count them at all. Both options entailed denial of the ethnic group's existence.
The campaign of vilification is nothing new. Two ma)or pogroms were carried out in
"123 and "110, each time pushing more than 0&&,&&& Burmese uslims into
Bangladesh. 4haka has refused to register the vast ma)ority as refugees and therefore
provide them with assistance, fearful that doing so would act as a pull factor for those
in Rakhine 5tate now denied !asic human rights. Thus, those Rohingya who have fled
Burma since the first ma)or wave of violence in 6une 0&"0 have largely done so !y
!oat, with hundreds drowning. 7ocal media, politicians, and Buddhist monks have
!een active in circulating vitriolic rhetoric to dehumani#e the group. Burma's former
consul general in 8ong 9ong, :e yint -ung,referred to the minority in 0&&1 as
;ugly as ogres,; while a headline in the popular domestic Weekly Eleven in 6une
0&"0 described Rohingya as ;prowling around; outside the Rakhine capital of 5ittwe.
The inference is clear( <hen an -ssociated =ress )ournalist last year re'uested that her
government minder arrange an interview with Rohingya, the minderasked why she
wanted to meet with ;dogs.;
The dehumani#ation process changes the mind of the perpetrators of genocide. The
Rakhine may not know that they are at deploying a common tactic that often precedes,
and helps normali#e, mass killing( the depiction of minority groups as animals. <e saw
this in Rwanda, when the Radio Television 7i!re des ille >ollines station repeatedly
called on 8utus to ;exterminate the cockroaches,; and we are seeing signs of it now in
Burma. 4ehumani#ation allows humans to overcome their normal revulsion towards
murder. -s 8itler's architect, -l!ert 5peer, who escaped the noose at /urem!erg,
commented on historic incidences of mass killing( ;In such periods there arealways
only a very few who do not succum! ?to complicity in genocidal crimes@. But when it is
all over, everyone, horrified, asks ',or heaven's sake, how could IA'; The Burmese state
has had decades to ;rationali#e; violence against Rohingya. -n editorial in the
/ovem!er 0&"0 issue of the influential Rakhine /ationalities 4evelopment =arty's
maga#ine, the Progress, commented on the violence !etween Rohingya and Rakhine
communities( ;In order for a country's survival ... crimes against humanity or inhuman
acts may )ustifia!ly !e committed as with 8itler and the 8olocaust.... <e will go down
in history as cowards if we pass on these issues ?Rohingya@ to the next generation
without getting it over and done with.;
Racist talk is part of racist action. In 6anuary, the ../.reported that a massacre of %&
Rohingya men, women, and children in the northern Rakhine state town of aungdaw
was carried out !y Buddhist mo!s, assisted !y Burmese security forces. The
government repeatedly denied the massacre and has sought to take punitive action
against witnesses. <hen the ,rench medical charity 4octors <ithout Borders *5,+
went pu!lic a!out its treatment of 00 survivors, the government took immediate action
and expelled the /B$ from the state. This has had long-term repercussions( 5,, the
largest provider of healthcare to displaced Rohingya, was not among the /B$s allowed
to return to Rakhine state at the end of -pril. The group was the lead provider of
medical care in Rakhine 5tate, with a patient count of around 2&&,&&&. It estimated
that in the three weeks after its expulsion, 0C,&&& consultations were not carried out.
The effects of this loss of healthcare were acutely compounded !y the destruction of
food stocks in late arch. Signs of starvation are clear.
Rohingya in and around 5ittwe are confined to camps and !arricaded ghettos,
surrounded !y a population that, spurred on !y influential politicians and monks, has
!een vocal a!out its wish to maintain these segregationist measures -- if not to force
the Rohingya out of the country altogether. Dven =resident Thein 5ein in 6uly 0&"0 has
unsuccessfullyasked for ../. help in resettling the entire Rohingya population
a!road.
The situation has !een allowed to fester -- and actively encouraged -- for too long.
<hat were once horri!le !ut sporadic !ursts of violence have !ecome sustained and
deeply sinister. The government has done little to help and much to harm the
conditions in Rakhine state. It has rendered the Rohingya stateless, impeded aid,
failed to punish perpetrators of violence and hate-speech, and there!y created an
environment that allows violence to flourish. But all the while, it maintains the
pretense that the mo!s are operating on their own whim, and that the violence is
purely communal. The tactic is familiar to state crime scholars( =olicies are devised !y
leaders at the top, and delivered !y those on the ground, with the puppeteer's strings
rarely visi!le. /ow tensions are at a point where even small disputes are erupting into
mass violence, with attacks on Rohingya occurring !ecause of who they are, and not
what they have done. -ll leaders in Burma must know that this is the mental state that
ena!les genocide. -nd they also must know that once the genocidal mindset is free to
act, it is rarely possi!le to stop, save !y another greater force.
5adly, however, Burma's leaders, across the spectrum, have remained silent. In a BB>
interview last year, -ung 5an 5uu 9yi commented that ;uslim power is very great;
around the world, and referred to the ;many moderate uslims in Burma who have
!een well integrated into our society.; This suggests that she, too, considers uslims a
foreign presence. 4espite her su!stantial leverage, the /o!el 7aureate has not given
voiced opposition to the violence. 5he is playing the long game, and risks losing
support from voters if they !elieve she is attempting to heal the rifts !etween uslims
and Buddhists. The international community, meanwhile, is all talk. Though the
.nited /ations was the first to cite the involvement of national security forces in the
aungdaw massacre in 6anuary, it has yet to sanction Burma in any way. It maintains
its invitation to Burma to send troops around the world as ../. peacekeepers, a
'uestiona!le move to !egin with, given the ongoingconflict in the northern and
eastern !orderlands.
/ext year marks the 0&-year anniversary of the 5re!renica genocide. That genocide
was forecast from within the .nited /ations !y the non-aligned group leader 4iego
-rria, who forced his way into 5re!renica. There he discovered that the international
community had misrepresented the seriousness of the situation there, laying !are its
unwillingness or ina!ility to act. In "11E, he spoke of a slow-motion genocide. Two
years later, the state's army killed over 3,&&& men and !oys in the course of two days.
The international community avoids telling the truth of what happened for fear of
having to !ow its head in shame at its failure to prevent what had !een foreseen. <ill
this !e the lot of today's .nited /ationsAAre thousands of unknowing Rohingya
doomed to oin the !"### souls of Srebrenica as forgettable victims of
international indifference$
-ll Burma's politicians must put electioneering aside to finally address the criminal
killing of a significant section of Burma's population. To do nothing -- to fail to )oin
hands on this issue and remedy those minds that are already turning to violence --
would !e to risk complicity in the world's worst crime.
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