Sins Of The Past

Tragedy Of The Present
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

The quickest way to destroy an enemy that you perceive due to race is ironically not through the bullet. Bullets are costly when you are talking about killing not only the living but those still yet to be born. Soldiers have to be rewarded for their efforts in annihilating another race of man. Eventually hatred alone is not the only sin needed to continue the descent into hell. Bullets are the embodiment of hate on genocidal battlefields. But they can't sustain a prolonged effort to exterminate. That is where other sins come in. Sins such as lust.

When the Serbian militias began their war to purge old Yugoslavia of Bosnian blood their commanders knew the battle would be long. Almost from the beginning the leaders of death squads knew that payment and patriotism alone would not keep their savage troops on the battlefield. Leaders like Mladic and his fellow dogs told their soldiers that the rape of a Bosnian was their duty to the Serbian people. Through "breeding" the Bosnian out, the Serbs could end an entire ethnicity. And through that approach they could save their bullets for the religion of the Bosnian people while their soldiers could get cheap entertainment at the cost of the Bosnian women and girls.

Today the lessons of Bosnia are being repeated as history itself tries to teach us what we apparently didn't learn the first time. In places such as the Congo and Burma rape is once again being used to motivate murderers and keep them on the battlefield. The human cost unfortunately is harder to measure than simply putting another tally mark on the wall or adding another body to the count. The initial victim passes on her misery and pain to future generations. Her family and friends experience the crime in ways they themselves could have never imagined. And the war criminal usually gets to walk away without even facing a judge or jury.

Recently Assed Baig released an article about the Myanmar military's use of sex trafficking as a weapon of war. In it he describes how the Burmese government is complacent in allowing it's soldiers to keep Rohingya women as sex slaves. In particular, Assed Baig focused on Regiment 270's encampment just outside Sittwe where Rohingya girls are taken and held as sexual slaves.
(Link listed in Source Documents)

The story of the Rohingya's exploitation is remarkably similar to that of the Bosnian people during the Serbian prosecuted genocide against the Bosnians. Once again we can see that the militants use the Rohingya as a source of military moral. Prisoners that happen to be male are beaten and at times killed by Burmese military who become bored with the lulls between "riots" (pogroms). Rohingya women however are subject to a living hell.

 Rohingya women are claimed by a Burmese soldier or the entire camp. Their families, especially their children, are used as leverage to keep them silent during their imprisonment. During their imprisonment the Rohingya women are subjected to abuse and rape whenever the Burmese soldiers wish. It is only upon release that the Rohingya women are given an illusion of liberty. Their families are still kept as leverage (threatened to kill or have killed) to keep them quite after they have left the custody of the camp.

This is how rape is used in war. It is a weapon meant to degrade the lives of the targeted community. When it kills its victims it adds another number to the body count in the eyes of the outside world. But for the victims, death is a release from the hell their captors have made for them. For most this form of victimization is one that they will have to live with. It is a nightmare that will forever haunt them. It is a weapon worse than bullets alone... for it not only damages the flesh but manages to wound the soul as well.





Source Documents
(note that not all sources are listed)

Assed's Article via Vice
http://m.vice.com/en_uk/read/rohingya-women-are-being-kept-as-sex-slaves-by-the-burmese-military

Washing Away The Kalar

Buddhist Water Festival Could Spark Ethnic Violence
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

On April 13th the Buddhist Water Festival will begin in Myanmar. This holiday is symbolic and sacred to the Buddhist people of Burma. However in the Arakan this holiday could flow with blood rather than water.

Reports of racist Buddhist clergy participating in spreading the message of the Burmese hate group 969 have been popping up every since the riots and anti-Muslim attacks in March. The tweeters who have been reporting these warnings of potential attacks on the Rohingya all point toward the Water Festival as the key time for such pogroms. People like Jamila Hanan and Aung Aung (@JamilaHanan1 and @AungAungSittwe on twitter) have been sounding the alarm of yet another attempt by groups like 969 to complete their campaign of ethnic cleansing in the Arakan. It is also important to note that these same citizen reporters were the first to warn about the pogroms that took place in Meiktila and other areas were Muslim minorities were attacked in Burma last month.

In a recent report by Burma News International (http://www.bnionline.net) information about tensions leading up to the Water Festival have come out. In their account of the rising tensions in the Arakan region the Nasaka (Burmese Border Guards) have been extorting money from impoverished Rohingya communities to help fund the Water Festival in neighboring Buddhist villages. In the case they reported the Rohingya were forced to pay an exuberant amount of cash despite being hungry and without water. The money was then going to fund a Buddhist village that consisted of Rakhine from Sittwe and neighboring areas in addition to Rakhine who had migrated from Bangladesh once the Rohingya homes had been burnt.

Once again the racial element of the tensions in the Arakan cannot be overlooked. It is clear through reports like the one from Burma News International that government affiliates are using racial code to enforce biased laws. And yet despite clear cases of ethnic cleansing, pogroms, and racial discrimination within Burma the West remains eerily silent on the issue. Great world leaders, or so they claim, have failed to put pressure on Thein Sein and his military puppets as they continue to grind the Rohingya community into dust.

It should be clear that when a government openly refers to a community as "Kalar" (or any other racially charged term) that the said government does not intend to defend the basic human rights of that targeted community. It should also be clear that when an exploited community has been targeted by government funded mobs and military alike that if violence restarts the world should expect no different outcome than the last.

This is genocide.

If the world will not listen, if it will not stand up and fight for the down trodden... if nothing is to be done to stop it... Burma will wash away it's "kalar" communities. And like a river of blood, the stain this chapter in our history will not simply disappear. The stain this has left, the blot it will leave, will forever be upon our hands as well as upon those of the murderers'.







Source documents

Burmese News International
http://www.bnionline.net/index.php/news/kaladan/15094-nasaka-forces-rohingya-to-pay-for-maungdaw-buddhist-water-festival.html

Open Your Eyes

It's Time To Wake Up...
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

(Soldier On Patrol In Rohingya Part of Sittwe, June 2012)

For the past six months the world has been basically shut out of the Rohingya ghettos and IDP (internally displaced peoples) camps. The government of Myanmar has made it hard if not impossible at times to reach the Rohingya minority as the Buddhists extremist attempt to complete their intended genocide. But there are brave individuals still attempting to get the word out of the "open air prison" that Burma has made for the Rohingya. 

Assed Baig is one of those people. His voice is lending an outlet to the Rohingya who have been made voiceless by their own government. His articles give a written word to a people who are being forgotten. And his broadcast out of Burma are being leaked through the iron grip of the Myanmar government. 

These are few of his reports... this is the news from the front line. 

(Rohingya IDP Camp Outside Sittwe, 2012)

Please note that it is hard to get information out of Burma. When the government notices that Assed is trying to get information about the Rohingya out they take actions to hinder or stop his progress. The work is hard, the government is hostile, and the local Rakhine are possibly violent to an individual they view as "Kalar" (unclean or dark skinned). Yet Assed is still over in Sittwe doing the work that the European and American media refuse to do. 

The facts from the front still support the information we have received from people like Aung Aung in Sittwe. From the outside looking in it is still incredibly dangerous to be doing the things that Assed and Aung Aung are doing daily. But their work is vital. The world must bear witness. We can not look away and pray for the best of luck. 

It is time for the West, and perhaps long overdue, to begin to scream for the oppressed. It is time that good, honest, decent people stand up and step into the gap between the Rohingya and death itself. We can not in good conscience set on the sidelines and wait till this is all blow past and the blood finally stops trickling out of the Arakan. If you can not donate your time or money, for the love of G-d, scream for the those who are dieing. 

By sharing videos like these and articles like this one you can help raise awareness of the Rohingya Genocide. It does not take any measurable effort with all the social networking we do these days. And would your time really be better spent on Pintrest for the next five minutes than it would be by spending a few minutes tweeting or sharing these images on Facebook? 

Its time to wake up to the suffering of others, to feel their pain and make it your own. It is time to join the fight to stop this senseless slaughter of the Rohingya people. It is time to scream America.

Myanmar's Great Leap Forward

Following Mao's Form Of Reforms
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

("Flickers of Hope," Obama Speaking About Burma)

Thursday January 31st, 2013 as Reported by Burma News International

More land has been confiscated by Arakan state authorities for recently resettled Rakhine villagers in southern Maungdaw, according to a Rohingya farmer who spoke to Kaladanpress on condition of anonymity.

The farmer claims that about 150 acres of arable land that was being used to cultivate paddy was seized. Now the new settlers are utilizing the fields to grow their own produce. Another Rohingya farmer, who also didn’t want his name used, wondered how he will survive.  “We’re really struggling because the government isn’t allowing us to do anything.”

Much of the Rohingya populations in Arakan state have been restricted to their villages since the sectarian violence broke out in June. They can’t work; therefore they have no means to feed their families. Some are getting limited support from aid groups in the southern areas of the state. But in the north, where many Muslims are on the verge of starvation, there are no relief groups helping them. Groups like Nasaka (Burma’s border guard force) are making their lives even harder by making arbitrary arrests to extort money, and there has even been allegations of summary executions by the notorious border force.

Burmese Military Enforcing Barricade at Aung Mingalar Ghetto

As Myanmar enjoys the praise of world leaders from Europe to the United States and Canada the Rohingya continue to starve. Many are facing death as the country that afflicts them with hunger grows fat off of trade with the EU, China, and the Americas. Women, children, and the elderly are at the greatest risk of dieing as the world looks the other way. And yet despite all this men such as Barack Obama dare to praise Thein Sein and his fellow dictators for their "flickers of progress" in guiding Burma toward democracy. 

"Progress" in Burma appears however to be far from what we would expect President Obama to align himself with. The progress the government of Myanmar is looking at currently is the ever increasing death tolls in the Arakan state and the Kachin region. This effort to rid the state of given ethnic groups and religions does not reflect democracy, at least in the way the United States practices it, but more directly reflects Mao's cultural revolution.

With the confiscation of land to resettle the area with acceptable ethnic groups the Burmese take yet another step toward completion of their genocide. This step forward allows the Arakan authorities the opportunity to build the ranks of Rakhine people and at the same time to decrease what little food the Rohingya had available. But to the silent West this still somehow seems to be another "flicker of progress".

Arbitrary Arrests Help Nasaka Extort Bribes

Arakan authorities have also forced Rohingya out of villages that were attacked in the June and October pogroms to further make room for Rakhine settlers. Rohingya who tried to defend or protect their homes and families also now face arrest as their old villages are bulldozed. As of Tuesday, February 5th, eleven Rohingya men have been convicted to ten years for their part in fighting off Rakhine mobs. The homes and villages of these eleven men, from Zeydi Pyin and Hati Para, are now bulldozed.

This policy of arresting the male Rohingya once again only points toward the type of progress that Myanmar is looking towards. By arresting the males of the Rohingya community the Arakan authorities leave the Rohingya villages and camps helpless and defenseless. If and when ethnic violence starts again in the Arakan the Rohingya will be at an even greater disadvantage. And with the arrests still taking place they will constantly be reminded of what will happen if they even attempt to defend themselves.

Yet despite all of this mounting evidence of a government hellbent on the destruction of a designated ethnic group the world remains silent. When given the opportunity to speak out against the blatant campaign of ethnic cleansing the West has repeatedly shown their incompetence. Western media has gone out of its way to praise Burmese politicians such as Suu Kyi while avoiding the discussion of the Rohingya all together. Their deafening silence on the issue is only further amplified by world leaders who use Burma as a political tool rather than the humanitarian crisis it is.

All the while thousands of Rohingya in and around cities like Sittwe are reduced to begging for food just to survive.

“What most of the world is not aware of are the refugees that are not living in [registered] camps,” said Oddny Gumaer from Partners Relief and Development. “And those people are living in conditions that are so bad that I’m sure if the international community doesn’t do something very soon they are going to die.”

Relief workers struggle to help those in the most need as Burmese police and politicians fight to find ways to minimalism their efforts. Even with what little aid is flowing through the blockades the Rohingya are still starving to death. And with conditions constantly growing worse, disease and pestilence run rampant.

“If they are lucky they have a tarp to cover them, many of them have stitched together old rice sacks. There are no toilets, no sanitation, doctors, and no access to hospitals. I saw babies that were so malnourished and children with bloated stomachs and mothers that couldn’t feed their babies because they didn’t have any milk.” Oddny Gumaer

So how much longer are we going to wait before the world begins to act? It should be obvious by now that Myanmar is not even close to showing "flickers of progress". If this situation is not dealt with immediately the Rohingya people of Burma will perish. The outside world must force Myanmar to get serious about their so called "democratic reforms". And most importantly, we must stop the slaughter of the Rohingya and force Burma to allow all humanitarian aid to reach the Rohingya in both camps and villages.

Ultimately the world will have to protect the Rohingya and provide food for them. We can not wait till we are looking back at this and telling ourselves "never again" again.

From Warsaw To Aung Mingalar

Welcome To The Ghetto
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

(Hitler Used The Ghetto As A Steppingstone To Auschwitz)

From day one the residents of Warsaw's ghetto were told that they were being housed here because they were no longer equals to their once neighbors and countrymen. The ghetto was never meant to be a permanent solution to the "Jewish Question" in Poland and Europe. It was only meant to segregate the "unclean" from the "pure Aryan" race. For many in Warsaw the ghetto was just the beginning of the end. 

In Aung Mingalar, a modern ghetto in its own right, the segregation they now face is obviously not meant to be a permanent solution to the situation that Myanmar has manufactured. This crises, or series there of, is not being wasted upon the government of Burma. The creation of ghettos and camps across the Arakan is just one step in the long game that the old Junta set in motion. For many in Aung Mingalar this ghetto will simply be the beginning of the end. 

It has long been a model of history to repeat itself. In doing so it has shown us that by ignoring the lessons it has attempted to teach us we are assuring ourselves the opportunity to repeat them. In the case of genocide the lessons have not been learned. With every repetition of this lesson we watch without fail as the world misses the opportunity to learn... the chance to set old wrongs right and to save more victims from history's darkest fate. 

(Burma's Open Air Prison. Aung Mingalar Ghetto)

"I have lost everything," Mohammed Rafi, a Rohingya man who's house was burnt on the same day that his father-in-law was hacked apart with machetes. 

During the June outbreak of ethnic cleansing the Rohingya of Sittwe were targeted for segregation and annihilation. Entire Rohingya neighborhoods were razed as the Rakhine mobs were pointed toward their intended targets. The military offered resistance only for villages and neighborhoods where they would turn around and barricade the Rohingya within. Almost over night the ghettos of Burma were erected and the crisis had begun. 

Violence and the perception of anarchy gave the Burmese military a smoke screen that can not be overlooked. It was with this crisis that Burma acted out its darkest desires and sickest fantasy. By exploiting the racial tensions that already existed the Burmese government was able to fan the flames into and inferno. And with the help of the Buddhists monks they were able to guide the fire across the map just as they desired. All the Burmese government had to do was set back and wait till they could step in and "restore order" to the burning Arakan. 

The tragedy that occurred in June of 2012 was orchestrated. The chaos was planned in as much a manner as how Hitler's SA had planned the pogrom of Kristallnacht. With the use of religious fervor and racial hatred, Burma was able to go forward with their plan to ethnically cleanse the Arakan once and for all. 

In previous post Alder's Ledge has laid out the eight stages of genocide and just how Burma has been checking off the stages. Much like the Nazis of Germany, Burma is using these stages a blueprint to their final goal of solving their Rohingya question. The ghetto is simply a tool used to achieve the construction of a "pure" society. 

“If they gave us the security and allowed us to go the market, then I think that could easily solve the problem,” says Rafi. “The Rakhine [Arakanese] can go to the market and they can go to the hospital, but we cannot.”

Through segregation and isolation the Burmese government has been able to increase the rate of death at a higher rate in the ghettos than in the refugee camps. With overcrowding and poor sanitation common diseases are able to spread easily. To further the spread of these diseases the Burmese have taken the ghetto a step further by denying medical aid and blockading any form of medical assistance or supplies. In doing so the government of Myanmar has created the perfect conditions for higher mortality rates and the rise of what would otherwise have been easily preventable diseases. 

To increase the rate of death even further than disease alone could afford, the Burmese also have taken the measure of preventing food and water from entering the ghettos. Without predictable and reliable access to food and water the people of these ghettos resort to scavenging what few resources they can come across. Food items that would have been overlooked in better days are now utilized regardless of their cleanliness. Water that would have been thrown out is now a source of drinking water regardless of the risk it presents. 

The Jews of Warsaw saw the same steps taken by the German SS. As the Warsaw ghetto became more and more crowded the German SS made fewer and fewer patrols through its streets. This was mainly due to the amount of human waste, the smell of death, and lice and other petulance that plagued the ghetto. For the most part the German SS only entered the ghetto when they believed that food or weapons had been smuggled into the ghetto by children who routinely risked their lives by slipping in and out of the ghetto to scavenge for their families.

“Segregation affects both communities economically, but its impact on the Muslim communities is absolutely disastrous,” says Chris Lewa, head of the Arakan Project. “It curtails their livelihoods, confines them to squalid camps or ghettos making them dependent on humanitarian aid whose delivery is hampered by security threats on aid workers.  [Seven] months on – this is outrageous, unsustainable and inhumane.”

History has shown us that once a government engages in this behavior it is highly unlikely to stop utilizing these criminal tactics on its own. Had it not been for the actions of Polish Resistance fighters the attempts to wipe out Poland's Jewish population would have been successful. It was only through the actions of outsiders that the German regime was halted in its attempts to fulfill their genocidal aims. Burma's case is no different. 

If the government of Burma is allowed to continue forward with its use of ghettos the world will undoubtedly see death camps in Myanmar's future. After all, this is a regime that is facing countless rebellions by ethnic groups it does not believe are "purely Burmese". In the Kachin the Burmese have been using weapons considered illegal by the conventions adhered to by the UN. In the Arakan they have been openly utilizing methods that recreate the crimes of the Nazis and other genocidal regimes. Yet as a world community we treat Burma as though it is special. 

When Cambodia fell into the hands of Pol Pott and the Khmer Rouge the crimes that followed were leaked out to the world almost routinely. We as a world community knew of the "killing fields" and did nothing to stop it. It was only with the invasion of the Vietnamese that the brutal genocide in Cambodia came to an end. 

Burma is no exception to the lessons history has taught us. Just because it has put on the charade of pretending to be in midst of "democratic reform" does not mean it is not committing genocide. Aung San Suu Kyi may very well be the world's sweetheart for her role in this "democratic movement", but that doesn't wash her hands when it comes to ethnic cleansing. 

In the end we will have to look back on Burma in the future and admit to ourselves that we were there when the ghettos went up. We will have to look back on this day and tell ourselves honestly that we did nothing to end the suffering of the Rohingya people. And when that day comes the world will undoubtedly tell itself in the most vain way it can manage... never again.

A Look At The Murderers

The Tactics Used In The Rohingya Genocide
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

(Propaganda Sparked A "Scorched Earth" Policy)

Back during the summer of 2012 the Myanmar government allowed and sponsored a systematic launch of propaganda that was meant to portray the Rohingya as "invaders" from Bangladesh. The use of the words "Bengali" and "illegal worker" were not only repeated like scripture by the regime of Myanmar's "reformed government" but were implemented to alienate the Rohingya community. The old Junta had made a conscious effort to isolate the Rohingya from the newly "democratic" society they had created in Rangoon.

In the basic eight steps of genocide the Burmese government had already taken step one prior to the riots that took place that summer. Step one had been completed long before the attacks when the Burmese as a society decided it was acceptable to continue to highlight the ethnic and religious differences between the Rohingya and Rakhine. This is the "classification" step.

It is normal in society to note the differences between ourselves. We clearly know that some of us are Jews others are Christians and others are Muslims. In a stable society these differences float just below the surface. It isn't until a portion of society decides to manipulate these differences that the focusing on these "classifications" is actually wrong. This allows the militant portion of society to paint the image of "us versus them" instead of portraying a united society. This step allows for the combative portion of society to move on to the next steps of initiating and carrying out genocide. 

For the Burmese generals it was easy to form a symbol. Around twenty years ago the generals had tucked their symbol away by sentencing her to house arrest. Aung San Suu Kyi became the poster image of democracy in Burma. And in the end it will not matter if she actually supports the genocide against the Rohingya or not. The fact that the generals could use her image while uniting the people of the Rakhine against the Rohingya is hard to deny. For the democracy movement in Myanmar it is now clear that not everybody is created equal. 

The use of images like Aung San Suu Kyi fulfilled the second step of genocide. They had created an image to unite their followers. This was vital to giving a rallying cry for the "true Burmese" people. It also gave the generals the ability to flawlessly take the next step in committing genocide. 

Sine it is now clear that Suu Kyi does not support the Rohingya people it is easy to see that her image means little to the suffering Rohingya. However her image, her story of oppression, rang loud with the Rakhine and Arakan. This allowed the generals to use step one and step two to justify taking step three. 

Members of the regime such as Maung Aye used words like "invaders" to purposefully dehumanize the Rohingya. These descriptions allowed Maung Aye to further isolate the Rohingya within the Rakhine state. By making the distinction between the "actual Burmese" people and the "Bengali invaders" Maung Aye was able to strip the Rohingya of something all Burmese value... their connection to their homeland. 

Maung Aye had taken step three flawlessly. By dehumanizing the Rohingya he could make the "us versus them" mentality into more than just a sense of resentment. Now the Rohingya could be hated without a sense of breaking up the community that the Burmese value. Instead the Rakhine could feel that they were uniting their society against an outside threat. This would help them feel like they did back when they fought the colonial powers. This would help the Rakhine feel like "true Burmese". 

It was at this point the generals began to organize the police and military. It was at this point that the junta launched step four. 

Bringing slurs like "kalar" (dark or black) back to the forefront of society the generals were able to organize society against the Rohingya. Schools, hospitals, and even communal areas in villages suddenly started sporting signs that warned the Rohingya to not enter. Hospitals began telling would be patients that if they were "kalar" they should just stay home. To enforce this the Junta began telling police to enforce these demarcations between the Rakhine and and the Rohingya. 

In many ways these actions stumbled the generals into organization, polarization, and the preparation of the Rakhine state. And it was with this that the society in the Rakhine state was prime for disaster. 

In the midsummer of 2012 the excuse for action came. With the launch of a propaganda campaign and the claims of Rohingya atrocities, which never occurred, the generals work was justified by the horrific events that followed. 

Seemingly overnight Rohingya villages were being torched and those who could not flee were being killed. The seventh step of genocide was now being conducted within Burma. 

(Rohingya Village in Pauk Taw Burnt on October 25Th 2012)

The methods used during these attacks was similar to those seen in pogroms in Europe. The only difference here was that it was now Muslims being killed rather than Jews. From the outside one could only look at the Rakhine as though they were rabid. From the inside, the Rakhine were being fed a steady stream of propaganda from the Junta back in Rangoon. The mobs of angry Buddhists were also receiving aid and support by Myanmar military and local police. This was a state sponsored genocide. 

For those who dared go against the regime's wishes and offered any support at all to the Rohingya there were Nazi style punishments for their "treason". 

In many cases the same tactics used by the fascist Nazis of the 1930s and 40s are now being seen in Myanmar. They are used so that the Junta's "final solution" for the Rohingya can be carried out in its entirety. The young man pictured above had done little to stop the starvation of Rohingya in Myebon, Arakan st. but sell food to the Rohingya in that area. Yet by doing this the young man had helped slow the progress in the generals end goal... the deaths of all Rohingya. 

In the Arakan and Rakhine states there is now a "forced famine" in progress. In areas such as Sittwe the Rohingya that are in camps are forcibly isolated. Military and police in these areas make certain that food and water can not make it into their "refugee camps". Both outside aid groups and local Burmese are forbidden to interact with the Rohingya trapped within these concentration camps. By doing this the Myanmar government plans to starve the Rohingya or drive them out of the country all together by leaving them no other options. 

(Rohingya Child Dehydrated And Starving To Death)

Yet it is not just the Rohingya within these concentration camps that are suffering. The campaign of implementing a famine in a country not currently suffering a natural one also means that the generals must isolate those Rohingya still living in their own homes. It is these groups of Rohingya that the outside world has little or no contact. They are ironically now suffering the same sentencing that Suu Kyi just was released from. Only this time, the prisoners have no hope of getting out. 

Police and Burmese military officials have taken the method of blockading and applied it to these villages. Humanitarian aid groups have been banned from going near these areas. In some cases the aid groups have been told that these areas are just simply too dangerous to enter. And any medical or food aid that is sent to these areas is often handed over to Rakhine villages instead. Making it impossible to reach the isolated communities. Even harder to judge just how many Rohingya are still alive in these villages. 

The only things we do know about the isolated areas and the camps alike is that the old Junta methods are still in place. Rohingya men and women alike are used as slave labor for the Burmese military. Young Rohingya girls and boys are often used as sexual slaves for the Myanmar police and military alike. The raping of Rohingya is seen as legal since they technically have no right to live within Burma in the first place. It also allows the generals to keep moral up amongst the ranks since the Burmese military has been fighting endless wars every since the British left in 1948. 

As for the final stage in the the eight steps of genocide, the Burmese government has already begun the denial step. 

By simply amping up their efforts to deny the Rohingya citizenship the Burmese government is denying that they are doing anything wrong in the first place. And since the outside world is doing nothing to stop the killings or even address them as wrong the Myanmar authorities have no reason to deny anything. It is almost as though we are watching the first genocide to take place where no outside power recognizes anything as even being questionable. 

With dictators, world leaders, and the United States President all backing Burma it is hard to imagine anything will change. Obama said little to nothing in opposition to the Rohingya Genocide. If one was to listen to his speech a dozen times over they might never realize that anything was going on in Burma at all. Obama's words were carefully crafted as to not address the genocide but rather to build a relationship with the killers themselves. 

One voice that is echoing out of Burma through the miracle of Twitter is that of a refugee. Possibly the only voice left for the Rohingya, Aung Aung (@aungaungsittwe) is the link between the outside world and the restricted access we have to the Rohingya. For this reason I want to close this post by inviting all those reading it to please get on Twitter and follow Aung Aung. Through reading his post you can readily find out more about what is happening on a daily basis in Burma. And more importantly, please retweet Aung Aung every chance you get. 

Please scream for the Rohingya. Please fight for those in need of your help.