A Legacy Of Failure

How The World Left Syria To Burn

This post contains opinions that do not reflect the opinions of all of Alder's Ledge's contributors and writers. They are personal in nature and may be considered offensive to some. We suggest that you read this post with an open mind and consider it polite debate rather than an argument or fact.

We watched in Bosnia as the aggressors were rewarded by UN apathy as the blue hats dragged their feet. The tin star blue hats watched as the Serbs sat up their artillery and began to shell civilians. We were so close to the fight that we could watch the snipers pull their bloody triggers. So damn close that we could watch as another mother took her last breath as she fell in sniper alley. Yet we did nothing to stop the sniper in the first place. Instead we made certain that the Bosnian civilians were disarmed and unable to fight back. Thus making the slaughter possible.

The notion of peace through talking died in Bosnia. Over and over the Bosnians watched as their politicians pleaded with the Serbs to end the war. Over and over again they watched as the Serbs took their brothers and fathers off to die in camps the UN knew about from day one. Peace never came to Bosnia through talking to the tyrant. Instead all the Bosnians got from the fight was a legacy of broken promises and failure.

In Syria the peaceful protests were met with aggression unparalleled by modern fascists. Yet the world turned their eyes away as they hoped their beloved "Arab Spring" would pan out elsewhere. Nobody wanted to imagine that a little resistance to the "change" Obama claimed to inspire would end up like it has today. We didn't want to believe that 100,000 lives (and counting) would be lost to the arrogance of a tyrannical regime.

Had we decided to respond then maybe things might have worked out differently. Just perhaps if the world had decided to intervene then maybe more Syrians would be alive today.

When Libya went to hell the world responded by siding with a group of rebels that we deemed to be the lesser of two evils. We didn't have a bloody clue who we were arming or who were helping to kick Gaddafi out of office. But we took our chance to finish off the old persistent pain in Northern Africa. The thorn in the West's paw was finally removed.

Of course there were anti-war isolationists who wanted to defend their position of zero tolerance for war at all (and any) cost. And the one thing they got in the whole mess that was Libya was that UN/US never put "boots on the ground". Even when the rebels began to slaughter black African civilians as they "liberated" Libya from Gaddafi, we never put a blue hat on the ground. Even as the rebels began committing summary executions in retaliation for the times they suffered defeats at Gaddafi's hands, we never put a single boot on Libyan soil. We maintained our support in the air above while ignoring the atrocities happening below.

If the US does in fact decide to send in a few rockets or jets they will most definitely be committing themselves to a longer war than that of Libya. They won't have the option to keep their precious boots off the bloody soil below. What lay ahead for Syria if America gets involved isn't just war... it will be hell on Earth.

Where We Failed

From the very start in Syria's "civil war" we should have noted who the aggressors were and exactly what war crimes they were committing. At that moment it would had been clear to realize that Assad's regime was willingly attacking it's own people. And from that moment the international community should have begun to act. 

But we didn't...

In March of 2011 the first chance we had at breaking Assad's grip on Syria slipped away. With the initial abuses by Syria's security forces the world should had began applying heavy economic pressure upon Syria. The most direct method would had been to freeze the accounts of Syrian leaders and those actively supporting the regime from the outside. Cutting the regime off from it's supply of money would had gained the attention of even the most hardline supporters of the Assad government. 

Yet we didn't...

From the start Assad has been purchasing the weapons he needed to "restore order" from the Russians. Countless reports have shown that Russian arms companies have been the lifeblood for the struggling Syrian leader. Had these companies faced the economic muscle of the outside world they would have found it hard to justify two years of losses while supporting Assad. But since the pressure was never applied upon the arms companies those would be losses have been translated into massive profits. 

Had Russia faced history making sanctions for it's support of Assad's barbarism the world would had been forced to take notice. If either Western Europe or the United States had found their courage and stood up to Putin the world at large would have had to stop and look. What would have looked like the Cold War erupting after a short intermission would have gotten even Assad's attention as he continued to slaughter his own. 

But again, we didn't...

As the fighting grew and refugees began to pour over the border into Turkey the world had the opportunity to document the war from the outside. Had information been extracted from the refugees methodically and published for all the world to see the war in Syria would have been recorded as starting in early 2011. Instead the "internal struggle" in Syria was routinely sidelined as the world media refused to take the matter seriously and label it for what it was. 

In June of 2011 when Assad laid siege to Jisr al-Shughour and 10,000 refugees almost immediately fled to Turkey the world had another chance. Their stories told the world of a military that was readily placing heavy artillery fire squarely upon civilian homes that had no discernible military significance. They were amongst the first ones to testify that Assad's air force was readily strafing city streets and dropping bombs on public buildings. These were the first ones to tell the world that what was happening behind the curtain wasn't war... this was systematic slaughter.

So where was the world? One word... Weiner.

While the United States and the rest of the West should had been pushing for immediate economic and political retaliation against Assad and his regime, we were focused on congressmen who couldn't keep it in their pants. While we should have been focusing on stopping the flow of conventional weapons into the country we were too focused on trivial sideshows. So while the US was talking about wieners, Assad was purchasing weapons from companies like Rosoboronexport.

Rosoboronexport isn't talked about however since the company has partners all across the world. Making lucrative deals with India, Italy, Malaysia, Brazil, China, France, Kazakhstan, and Peru (just to name a few) the company shows no sign of pulling back. And why should they? The world has shown absolutely no outrage while companies like Rosoboronexport supply the weapons for genocidal regimes across the globe.

As long as companies like this one produce "conventional weapons" for embattled regimes the world has no real say in the matter. If the country buying the weapons feels like using them to kill hundreds of thousands of their own citizens... well that is just up to the country now isn't it?

And that is where the next major failure came when dealing with Syria's barbaric leadership.

The Ultimate "Red Line"

Since the very start of the League of Nations following World War One the world community has battled the question of state sovereignty. In the most simplistic analogy the question can be compared to an apartment building. When one neighbor hears their neighbor beating his wife there is supposedly a question of how and when to intervene. The United Nations (the modern League of Nations) is supposed to act like the cop in this scenario. Yet what if the cop never goes to even check about the supposed domestic violence?

In the world community this has been one of the major problems with the United Nations. In times of blatant abuses committed across the globe the UN has neglected all such incidents unless they cross a border. As long as the beating (killing) is contained to the apartment (country) the UN appears far to willing to ignore the scenario all together. And in many cases the abuses have been tolerated even when the blood starts to pour over national borders.

In Bosnia the genocide was tolerated by simply applying the term "ethnic cleansing". In Rwanda the genocide was tolerated due to the deaths of 11 Dutch blue hats. And in Cambodia the world was happy to ignore genocide since it was just a poor country killing it's own. Containment of the crime seemed preferable to stopping it all together in every case.

This trend however didn't start with the 20th century. One of the main reasons for the United States not signing the Genocide Convention was the fear that our own sins committed against the First Nation would be rehashed. After all, many of those crimes were committed on lands we technically didn't own at the time. And if we could be accused of the crime than why should we go punishing others for the same offense?

At the end of World War Two the United States managed to kill it's conscience by pushing forward the Nuremberg Trials. While we watched Nazis commit suicide rather than face the music over crimes the US had committed in its past, Washington claimed the moral high ground. The hypocrisy of the fact that Washington was (and still is) committing a slow cultural and ethnic genocide of the Native American community wasn't up for question. We were after all punishing a genocide that had spread across borders, seas, and continents.

So why do we hesitate to punish acts of genocide when they occur within the confines of a nation's borders?

Syria's Alawite controlled government has long kept it's boot on the throat of Syria's religious majority. By offering protection through a bolstered military the Assad regime pretended to be protecting the national interest of self-defense. Offering planes, tanks, and germs to guard against the ever lingering "Jewish threat", Assad built up the arsenal he knew he would eventually need to maintain control. All the weapons, all the lies, were just to maintain power.

To the outside world this lie of legitimate interests in protecting Syria's desire for self-determination
of it's own fate seemed almost heroic. Here they had a minority leader placing the rights of all Syria ahead of his own self interest. The flimsy facade was varnished over by the platitudes of weary Western nations. Nobody wanted a repeat of the Yom Kippur War after all.

So while Syria built up it's chemical weapon stocks the West ignored the abusive regime. From as early as 1968 the government of Syria was publicly showing interests in the obtaining and use of a weapon the rest of the world had banned. Syria's increase of interests in the unconventional weapons was ignored in the 80s as the regime began to bolster it's military with chemicals and scuds.

It never occurred to the world to tell Syria no. After all, they hadn't shown any intention to use them across any border (except Israel's). And as long as the weapons were being contained to their own country, why should the world act?

When Iraq and Iran began using chemical weapons in their little recreation of WW1 the world turned a blind eye. However all the while the West and East were supplying the very chemicals that Iraq and Iran needed to keep the blood flowing. Washington didn't even blink when Iraq launched it's al-Anfal campaign against the Kurdish population of northern Iraq. And why should they? That was still technically within Iraq's borders right? And they hadn't complained when the same weapons were used on Iranians...

With Syria the question of national sovereignty was still the issue. The West needed to attempt to chip away at the shell Syria had built around itself. Questioning a state's sensitive attachment to it's ego (national sovereignty) wasn't exactly the way to warm Assad's government up to the "great Satan". And complaining about weapons that Israel is still believed to have wasn't going to help either.

Had the world used sanctions perhaps there would have been a way to work around the egotistical posturing that was taking place between Syria and the West. By limiting the influx of weapons into Syria in both the 20th and 21st century the world could have weakened a regime that we all knew was a danger to sustainable peace. And yet it is in this aspect of applying sanctions and embargoes that the liberal minded war opposing majority gets lost.

Crossing The Line Of State Sovereignty 

(Peacefully)

When applying sanctions with the intent of crippling a regime and forcing unrest with the long term goal of peace you generally lose the fringe elements on both ends. The idea of causing internal crisis with no clear idea of what comes out on the other side is generally considered interfering rather than intervening. And in cases such as Iran, the United States has proven just how piss poor that strategy works.

In the case of Syria the ideal way to force Assad to either change or leave would had been to reward surrounding states for cooperating with us while forcing Syria into further isolation. It isn't a perfect strategy, but it is far more preferable to the options we are left with today.

In this method the world should not have leaned upon the United States and the UN should have stood up and questioned Syria's state sovereignty. The continued abuse of Syria's own people when seeking a change in their own right to self governance should had been our first response as a world community. In 2008 the world should had spent more time forcing Assad to meet the standards of the international community rather than accept his brutal methods of governance. This would have of course continued the international isolation of Syria from the West. Yet it would have kept the Syrian government in a position where it had no bargaining chips to play.

However the opportunity to political and economic muscle was passed up as France bent over instead.

At that point the world should have begun to stand up to Assad's main cheerleaders in Moscow and Beijing. By implementing roadblocks between the flow of oil, weapons, cash, and chemicals between Assad's main backers the world could have drastically shortened the crisis that we are watching today. This method would have been of course portrayed as the West interfering and playing political brinksmanship with Putin and Assad. Yet the flow of weapons would have at very least been interrupted.

Just as JFK had done with Cuba, the United Nations should have said screw the rules and enforced any measures possible to stop the influx of helicopters and ammunition. Unlike Russia in the 1900's however, Putin would had been more than willing to see just how bold the West really is. And that is where the entire plan goes to hell.

Without the will to play chicken with dictators like Putin the world community can only expect more bloodshed like that in Syria. If the world is not willing to accept some destabilization of countries like Syria in an effort to end the imperialistic aspirations of countries like Russia then the cycle of purges will continue.

Syria should have been pushed to the brink while the world community prepared to bust in the door with the first misstep Assad took. Isolation, deprivation, and the promise of relief being kept just out of reach are all three methods that (while risking war) have the chance of ending in peace.

Of course history doesn't show us this. And for most that have read this far this post is just a bit too far to accept. But all you really have to do is ask yourself if you want to see another Syria? Another Bosnia? Or another Cambodia?

(close enough to watch it all come tumbling down)

The Alternative

Had the UN prepared themselves to shoot anyone from either side that dared cross the line in Bosnia the genocide may have never happened. However the Serbs had seen how blue hats responded to even the slightest hint of violence. It was for this reason that the Serbian guerrillas exercised extreme violence in the face of blue hat observers. The utter lack of fear of reprisal or accountability was blatantly obvious.

The main fear on the part of the UN was getting themselves involved in a shooting match. The idea of having multiple nations in one area where the bodies are bound to start piling up seemed way to far out in right field. Yet it was in their obvious fear of using their guns that the UN showed their lack of commitment to ending the killing.

The one thing history has shown us in Bosnia, and all other such cases, is that no army of savages has ever been stopped by asking them politely.

Kosovo showed the world what brutal aerial bombardment could do to the moral of a ground bound foe. The world watched as jets and rockets filled the air and the Serbian aggressors began their retreat. Digging in, the hardliners waited for their number to be called.

Had the UN ordered ground units into the area to mop up the resistance the Serbs across the map would had taken notice. The will to fight would had been crippled. The desire to die for a cause they had no possibility to achieve would had died right there and then.

No man wants to die so that another man can be oppressed by his blood. We either fight for freedom or we fight because that is the lie they have fed us. For the Serbs the fight for soil would had been far less appealing had they known that the world would not tolerate their genocidal efforts.

But all that requires a world where we are willing to question the morality of imposing ideals of national sovereignty over the ideal of basic human rights. It requires a world where the division between West and East is ignored and abandoned. It requires a world that simply ask what we would do to stop the crime rather than how we are expected to handle it.

Overly Simplistic?

For me the moral obligation to refrain from inflicting pain upon another person has always been thrown out when faced with things I know to be wrong. When faced with watching somebody who is outnumbered and outgunned I have always thrown my hat in on the losing side. Not because I wanted to fight, but because I wanted to end the fight. And once it was over I have always saught to resolve the conflict with words rather than fists.

Those who have read this blog for any length of time know that I (the main author) was a punk growing up. All those years of running around with spikes and chains didn't teach me much, but they did show me that sometimes fighting is preferable to the guilt of not doing so when you should.

Is this view of Syria overly simplistic?

Hell yes.

Is it realistic?

Well that we may never know.

Want to reply to the author of this post? 

Contact him on Twitter: @alders_ledge

Source Documents:
(Not All Sources Listed)

Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2012/04/09/cold-blood-0

BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14703995
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17344858

WW4 Report
http://ww4report.com/node/12589

Africa News Network
http://www.ann7.com/article/2566-2708201327082013all-we-are-left-with-is-god-ghouta-survivor-says.html#.Uij9fLypYXy

International Business Times
http://www.ibtimes.com/syria-chemical-weapons-program-helped-western-companies-selling-precursor-nerve-agents-1395301

NTI
http://www.nti.org/media/pdfs/syria_chemical.pdf?_=1316466790

A Liar's Promise

Fate Of Kachin Still Hangs In Thin Air
(The Darkness Visible series)

"A lasting solution, the possibility to begin a new life, is the only dignified solution for the refugee himself."

~ Poul Hartling

What is the value of a promise made by somebody who has lied to you time and time before? How much weight do those words carry with you? Trust is not a measure of how much that person is respected by others but by how much they have earned it from you personally. It cannot be purchased through goodwill gestures offered at the expense of someone else. It can't be manipulated by the assurances of others. It must be earned by the person who has betrayed you in the past. For history is the best indicator of future behavior. It cannot be ignored even by the most credulous of individuals. And it most certainly is never ignored in the heat of battle.

For two years the Kachin people have been fighting a brutal war against the aggressive Burmese military. In June of 2011 a 17 year old ceasefire fell apart as war returned to their lands. Children who had been born into the uneasy peace were now ripped away from the homes they once knew. Their families, their neighbors, their villages; all was put in jeopardy by the callousness of Myanmar's generals. For two years the Kachin have simply been trying to survive.

This month a rickety agreement was reached and for the time the Burmese government seems willing to hold back it's old military rulers. In the meantime the Kachin people are forced to hold out on the other side of battle line. 100,000 internally displaced peoples remain under the fog of war. Food remains scarce and water is still a daily struggle for most. Despite agreements, these internally displaced peoples cannot return home.

Two years of war has meant that Kachin children have had no real access to an education. Some 40,000 estimated Kachin children have not received a formal education since the fighting broke out two years ago. Those who have received any form of schooling have received only minor support from NGOs and charity organizations who work around Myanmar's restrictions on the Kachin people. And yet even with the peace plan still holding, these 40,000 (est.) children are still suffering from a lack of teachers and schools in the Kachin region.

The outbreak of war in the Kachin region has led to increased vulnerability of Kachin women and children to the crime of human trafficking. With a price tag running up to $6,500 USD for each victim, the traffickers that operate along the Burmese-China border have stepped up their operations since June of 2011. Utilizing illegal trade routes the criminals transport Kachin women and girls as far as the eastern shores of China, selling them into slavery or forced marriages. Those who manage to escape are at times assisted by Chinese authorities in their attempt to return home to the Kachin region. Myanmar on the other hand does nothing to help Kachin victims, the Burmese anti-trafficking liaison office along the border does not even appear to be manned. Thus not one case of a Kachin trafficking victim contacting Myanmar authorities has yet to be reported.

Continued occupation of Kachin lands has led to confiscation of Kachin farms and villages by the Burmese authorities. These plots of valuable land have been turned into state sponsored mass agricultural projects (plantations), unregistered and unregulated gold mining operations, and foreign investment projects. One NGO even managed to document cases that have led to around 3,500 Kachin people being evicted forcibly by the Burmese military in the past few years alone. These villagers now have very limited options on how to provide for their families and future. All as a result of the seemingly lawlessness of the Kachin region under Burmese military occupation.

All of these things are promised to end soon. That is if we are to believe the government of Myanmar. This would mean that we are to believe a government that has continuously lied when talking about the Kachin region and it's people. Where the Burmese government has promised peace it has delivered unmitigated brutality and aggression. When the government promised to combat the exploitation of minorities, especially when dealing with human trafficking, it has created the "perfect storm" for criminal enterprise. To those Burma promised protection, education, and social services it has offered only homelessness, helplessness, and neglect in the worst degree.

The only token of goodwill that Myanmar has given the people of the Kachin in two years was the small gesture of allowing a UN convoy to pass through the front lines of the Kachin conflict zone. This week members from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, and World Food Programme managed to break the siege for the first time in over a year. Delivering food, water, medical aid, humanitarian supplies, and urgent care the United Nations convoy pushed into the Kachin region unmolested. This was the first sign that Myanmar could tolerate some form of compassion being shown to it's enemies. It was the first token of goodwill shown by Burma in two miserable years of fighting in the Kachin.

But once again, what is the value of a promise when it comes from a liar? How much weight can one put to the words of a bitter enemy? Can trust be earned by flimsy documents and cheapened promises? Or will only time be capable of telling whether or not the government of Myanmar is lying once again?

"It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath."

~Aeschylus

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Source Documents
(note: not all sources listed)

Democratic Voice of Burma
http://www.dvb.no/news/aid-push-to-stem-kachin-refugee-crisis/19035
-
http://www.dvb.no/news/un-convoy-delivers-aid-to-idp-camps-in-rebel-territory/28809

United Nations OCHA
http://www.unocha.org/top-stories/all-stories/myanmar-un-aid-convoy-crosses-kachin-frontlines

Mizzima News
http://www.mizzima.com/news/ethnic-issues/9511-kachin-refugee-children-in-desperate-need-of-schools

Thomson Reuters Foundation
http://www.trust.org/item/20130605081951-jpk6z/

Kachin Women's Association Thailand
http://www.kachinwomen.com/advocacy/press-release/37-press-release/110-burmas-war-against-kachin-creating-perfect-storm-for-human-trafficking-.html
-
http://www.kachinwomen.com/images/stories/publication/pushed_to_the_brink.pdf

Irrawaddy News
http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/35684

Open Society Foundations 
http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/women-violence-and-burma-reporting-frontlines-kachin-state

More Mass Executions

Less Hope For An End To The War
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

(Bodies Dragged Out Of Kuwait River In Aleppo)

Syria was the original source for The Darkness Visible series. The horrific massacres that marked the outbreak of "civil war" in Syria inspired a seemingly endless focus on the tragedy. At times I have been unable to think of anything else but Syria and how easily it could be ended. Knowing what was happening due to Assad's insanity was making me question my own. Today Syria calls out to the world once more.

When Houla broke last May the world couldn't help but stare with their mouths hung open. Among the 108 dead were 49 children and babies. Many of the children had had their throats slit and or shot at point-blank range. This was the worse atrocity in the civil war up to that point. 

The UN has finally accepted the fact that the Shabiha (an Alawite death squad) had been the murderers in Houla. This was a claim that human rights organizations had backed from the start. It was obvious that Assad was paying this minority sect of Islam, Assad's own sect, to commit bouts of ethnic cleansing across Syria. The Houla massacre was just one of the many atrocities that became the hallmarks of Assad's genocidal campaign. 

This latest massacre is just one more grotesque display of Assad's dedication to the destruction of Syria. It is obvious by the trademarks of this massacre that the Shabiha were most likely responsible for the slaughter. Key points, such as hands being bound and signs of torture, point to the brutal mob and the support of the Syrian army. 

"With every day, with every week, with every month, the chances of him surviving are becoming less and less," Russian Prime Minister Dimitri Medvedev.

As for the Russians and Chinese, their support for Syrian president Bashar Assad remains in tact. Instead of focusing on the innocent civilians the Russians continue to focus on their desire to keep Assad in power. This dedication is born out of a desire to keep rather lucrative arms sales up and running and their control of the region alongside Iran. For the Chinese their allegiance is born out of both arms sales and the promise of cheap oil and the backing of their exploitation of Africa. 

(Civilians Shot Execution Style And Dumped In The River)

"... the tragedy does not have an end." Lakhdar Brahimi while speaking to the UN.

Around 70 young men were pulled from the Kuwait River near Aleppo. The people in the area who had missing relatives came to identify the dead as best as they could. However with the victims having been bound and shot in the head or face, identification was difficult. The fact that all of the victims were male was impossible to miss. And the fact that the youngest victim was 12 years of age was even more difficult to overlook. 

This was a war crime at best. And given that the victims will most likely all be Sunni and not Shia (or Alawite) this is possibly a case of genocide. After all, Assad's goal and the goal of his family since they took power has been to sustain control over the majority of Syria's Sunni Muslims. This goal has required countless infringements upon even the most basic of human rights in the past. It now requires that Assad kill any and all those who oppose his heartless rule. 

The question that arises from this struggle between the two basic sects of Islam is that of whether the outside world can label this as genocide. Is it possible for two competing views of the same faith to engage in genocide against one another? Or will we now need to rewrite the definition of genocide to better fit the internal struggle Islam faces today and has faced for hundreds of years? 

It is the humble opinion of Alder's Ledge that genocide occurs when any group (especially a modern state) engages in acts that are meant to destroy or diminish a given targeted community. The targeted community is most often defined by a given faith, ethnicity, creed, or distinguishable social class such as those given in the caste system of India. The term genocide thus becomes imperative when the attacks are shown to be targeted at either driving the targeted community out of an area, decrease their presence in the area, or ultimately annihilate the community all together.

Assad's actions show that he is operating off a "burnt earth" policy. Reprisals committed against the civilian population, though common in war, in the case of Assad are blatantly targeted at his religious competitors. More importantly there remains the fact that Assad has gone out of his way to raise his own religious group up in social standings while deliberately crushing outsiders and targeting those from directly opposing religious groups. 

For these reasons Alder's Ledge believes that this latest massacre is just one more display of a brutal genocide being carried out by a dictator we have often referred to as the "Nero of Damascus". And as we have stated time and time again it is the duty of the civilized world to step in and put an end to this crisis immediately. We can not wait till the tragedy plays itself out while we talk about polite policy as it relates to "national sovereignty". The wanton murder of one's own citizens must not be treated any differently than it would be if Assad's actions crossed the border over into Turkey or Israel. It is time that Assad be stopped and the cease fire be enforced with more than blue hat smurfs that run away the moment they are shot at. 

How many more need to die?

Source Documents Used  (note not all sources are listed) 

The Australian

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/civilians-shot-in-aleppo-massacre/story-fnb1brze-1226565396059

The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/29/syrian-rebels-bodies-aleppo-canal

The Telegraph 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9838299/Aleppo-massacre-as-more-bodies-are-lifted-from-the-river-families-bury-their-dead.html

The Independent 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/bodies-of-at-least-65-young-men-are-pulled-from-river-in-syria-following-mass-execution-8471362.html

France 24

http://www.france24.com/en/20130129-syrias-aleppo-horrific-new-massacre

French Government Website

http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/country-files/syria-295/events-5888/article/syria-massacre-in-aleppo-30-01-13

Al Jazeera English (video)

Hunted Down Like Dogs

RNDP Puts Up A "Bounty" For Every Dead Rohingya
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

(This Boy Is Now A Commodity, Sold As A Slave Or Killed For A Bounty)

Rakhine Prime Minister, U Hla Maung Tin, arrived at Pauktaw this morning and made a beeline for the Rohingya refugee camp. Once there the PM fell in line with his party (the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party) by demanding that the Rohingya in the internally displaced peoples' camp sign documents that state that they are illegal immigrants. The documents state that the Rohingya are illegal Bangladeshi immigrants that have no claim to Burmese citizenship. These documents would be used therefore to deport the Rohingya to a country that has shown no interest whatsoever in accepting them. And without actual legal documents to show that they are either Burmese or Bengali, the Rohingya would officially in Burmese courts be "stateless". 

When the Rohingya in the camp refused to sign the documents Maung Tin threatened the refugees and left. Maung Tin told the Rohingya refugees that if they did not sign that he would see to it that no aid ever made it through the blockades again (including rice from the foreign aid organizations). The RNDP went further by going to Rakhine villages and camps to pass around word of just what these threats entailed. The RNDP then went on to tell the Rakhine that they would pay one lakh kyats for every Rohingya, or kalar (a slur for the Rohingya), they kill. Together, Maung Tin and the RNDP, are making threats that could lead to a return to the June and October riots that launched their genocidal campaign. 

This tactic of "sign or die" has been getting used more and more as the campaign of ethnic cleansing has been amped up. In addition to calling on renewed butchery by the RNDP, the Rakhine extremist have maintained their blockades of Rohingya villages and camps. The RNDP has also begun encouraging Rakhine from Bangladesh and impoverished areas of the Arakan to move into Rohingya villages. By calling the Rakhine "settlers" the RNDP shows that they are intent upon wiping out the memory of these Rohingya villages that were burnt or bulldozed. 

With all the actions taken recently by a major Burmese political party to kill and deport an entire minority one might wonder how the outside world is ignoring this? Time and time again Alder's Ledge has brought proof of genocide taking place right now in Burma and yet these same articles fail to show up in mainstream media. So once again I'm sure there are those wondering just how something like that which has been shown above can take place without their media source covering it. I'm sure there are still far to many people with their eyes closed to this subject to understand that genocide is taking place as they sleep. 

So imagine for a moment that you are a Rohingya trapped behind barbed wire and military checkpoints. Imagine that your family and friends are starving to death as you pick through the grass for any source of food you can find. Imagine that your government, your homeland, is treating you as though you aren't even human. Now imagine that you aren't allowed to leave... you aren't even allowed to travel to neighboring villages or camps. 

All you know is hunger. All you know is pain. All you know is desperation. 

Now imagine that the only way out is to flee by boat. Yet to do this you have to sell everything you have and scavenge for something to bribe the boat's owner. Imagine that you have no way to know if this boat will make it to the presumed safety of Malaysia or not. All you can do is hope that the Nasaka don't catch you as you drift off into the night. 

Imagine that while you starve to death you are approached by Rakhine who promise they can get you out of Myanmar. Imagine that you are asked to sign a paper in exchange for a promise of a better life. Imagine that you don't realize that this paper will make you a slave and that you will be sold in Thailand or Bangladesh. 

But imagine that you stay...

Now try to imagine that the RNDP just visited your village. Imagine that you just heard them proclaim that your Rakhine neighbor can earn cash money just for killing you. You know that your local police don't stop these attacks. You know that the military sides with the RNDP. You know that there is nowhere you can run. Now imagine that you are being hunted... but instead of running, you can only wait for your hunter to strike. You know that you are like a caged animal. You know that there is nowhere in you homeland that you can hide. 

This is the life of nearly a million Rohingya trapped in Burma. This is how the government of Myanmar has allowed ethnic cleansing to occur in the Arakan. The Burmese have committed a forced famine, constructed death camps, blockaded entire villages, and permitted the wholesale slaughter of the Rohingya people. 

It is a story that would enrage the common citizens of the West. It is a narrative that would sell papers across America and Europe. And it is a tragedy that the West could exploit at a moment's notice. Yet the prospects of Myanmar's untapped wealth have curtailed the actions these crimes demand. Once again the numbers were run and the prospect of economic gain topped the cost of saving lives.

Has Burma Crossed Obama's "Red Line"?

Chemical Weapon Claims In Kachin
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

(Myanmar Military Firing Mortars)

“Our military never uses chemical weapons and we have no intention to use them at all. I think the KIA (Kachin Independence Army) is accusing us wrongly,” presidential spokesman Ye Htut. 

When talking about Syrian President,  Bashar al-Assad, Obama said that the use of chemical weapons would have "consequences and you will be held accountable". This was the "red line" that Obama had laid out in his warning to Assad. It appeared by the end of Obama's speech that killing people with bullets and bombs was perfectly acceptable as long as more unconventional weapons did not enter the conflict. This speech also laid out a clear line in the sand for all tyrants that might be interested in slaughtering their own citizens. 

Burma is no exception to that long list of tyrannical regimes interested in committing genocide and ethnic cleansing. The one difference is that the Junta in Burma has no desire to exercise restraint. Unlike Iran or China, Burma is starting off with a virtually clean slate when dealing with the West. They are free from the sanctions that bind Iran and lack the economic leverage that currently binds China's hands. 

When dealing with what the West affectionately calls "ethnic clashes", Burma has used every weapon in their arsenal thus far. The "reform" party has engaged in mass starvation of the Rohingya, carpet bombing of the Kachin, and illegal deportations and mass executions of the Rohingya in the Arakan. Now the Kachin rebels claim that the Burmese military is and has for some time been using chemical weapons to push the Kachin people over the border and into China. 

As with most "ethnic clashes" the UN and Western governments has once again hopped into the conflict on the side of the ruling power... in this case Burma. 

(Laiza Citizens Build Bomb Shelters)

In 2011 the KIA made claims that the Burmese military had used chemical weapons. Back then the world seemed a little more interested since at the time Burma was still closed off to the outside world. However today with Burma ready to allow foreign economic investment the rest of the world seems painfully unwilling to admit that there might be chemical weapons being used. Once again money overrides human suffering. 

According to the KIA rebels the Burmese military has been using chemical weapons to push their soldiers off key outpost along the front line of the conflict. The soldiers that have claimed to survive the attacks say that the blast occur with a large wave of heat and then people loose consciousness. However the one flaw in their claims is the fact that nobody seems able to provide physical evidence of the bombs or the their affects. 

While dead bodies are easy to come by along the battle front the evidence of gassed soldiers or civilians seems impossible to find. For the most part chemical shell fragments and what appear to be cluster bombs are the only pieces of evidence provided. And while cluster ammunitions are illegal for use in any form of conflict their use has not been punished by the UN or ICC in either Syria or during the Iraq-Iran war. So there is no reason to believe that the UN will even enforce the law when dealing with Myanmar. 

As with most cases of war crimes the UN proves itself incompetent when facing the crimes as they occur. Even if Myanmar is found innocent and has not used chemical weapons it has committed several war crimes during this conflict. Evidence of mass executions, arbitrary arrests, and intentional targeting of civilians have all been documented in the conflict with the KIA. Myanmar has also committed several crimes against humanity when dealing with the Rohingya and other minority groups across Burma. And yet the UN refuses to act. 

So the question remains, has Burma crossed Obama's "Red Line"? And if so, what will the UN or US do to enforce these said "consequences"? Or will the West simply look the other way as yet another genocidal regime perpetrates horrific crimes against humanity?

Source Documents

(Note not all sources are listed)

CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/03/world/meast/syria-civil-war/index.html

The Express Tribune 

http://tribune.com.pk/story/492081/myanmar-denies-using-chemical-weapons-on-rebels/

The Democratic Voice of Burma

http://www.dvb.no/news/burma-denies-using-chemical-weapons-in-kachin/25671

Mizzima 

http://www.mizzima.com/special/kachin-battle-report/8707-burma-govt-denies-using-chemical-weapons-on-kachins.html

The Guardian 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/jan/03/burma-air-strike-kachin-rebels-video

Starvation Fuels Slavery

Exportation Helping Complete Ethnic Cleansing
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

(It is not their eyes that are blind, but their hearts. Koran 22:46)

Since the October pogroms the Rakhine officials and Myanmar's government have been enforcing a campaign of mass starvation amongst the Rohingya population of Burma. The method of killing those who refuse to leave changed from mass murder to mass starvation. And for many in the media this change from outright slaughter to passive barbarism offered some sort of perverted hope that Myanmar might actually uphold its promise of "democratic reform". Yet here we are over six months later and the original intent of Burma's sins is still being carried out without mercy as Rohingya die on a daily basis. 

In July The Guardian posted a piece in which they quoted an aid worker that described the Rohingya refugee camps as "open air prisons". This was back in July of 2012 when the fighting had only recently ended. This was just as humanitarian workers began to actually see just how horrid the conditions were amongst the Rohingya. Or at the very least the Rohingya they were allowed to see in the camps since many Rohingya were at that point blockaded in their villages. 

"We are worried that malnutrition rates already have and will continue to rise dramatically; if free and direct humanitarian access accompanied by guaranteed security is not granted with the shortest delay, there's no way they won't rise," said Tarik Kadir of Action Against Hunger. (July 2012)

Over the next six months the world did nothing to stop the campaign of ethnic cleansing that the Burmese have been carrying out. Instead the aid groups found it impossible to reach those in desperate need of food, water, medicine, and basic humanitarian aid. All the while governments around the world have increased trade with Burma while denying that any crisis is under way. 

Human Rights Watch, Elaine Pearson, "Would expect a strong international response" to any attempt to deport the Rohingya."

After the October pogroms the Burmese government decided to begin the very deportations the Human Rights Watch organization predicted back in July. But unlike they expected, the world did nothing to stop the deportations. Instead countries like Thailand and Bangladesh have decided to profit off the horrific crimes that Burma has been perpetrating for over half a year now. While America and Europe continue to look for new ways to exploit Burma for its natural resources and economic contributions to the emerging markets of China and India.

Today nearly 1,000 Rohingya are stuck in a system of limbo created by Thailand as the government decides just how many if not all are deported back to Burma. Around 800 of these Rohingya were just recently "rescued" from human trafficking camps. And to add to this around 40 percent of the Rohingya found in Thailand's trafficking rings are below the age of 18. Yet despite facing death back home in Burma and facing slavery at the hands of traffickers, Thailand is in a hurry to send their "problems" back to Myanmar.

Rohingya often end up these days in the hands of human traffickers simply because desperation drives them to desperate actions. Using whatever money or materials they can bribe their captors with the Rohingya appear to enter slavery willingly. And at the same time it is blatantly obvious that nobody wants to be a slave. It is from that point of rationalization that makes us ask why?

Why would they risk breaking up their families and sending them out across southeast Asia? Why would anyone give up apparent freedom for a life of oppression?

The answers are almost as unfortunate as the trade off they are making is.

Rohingya have no freedoms in Burma from the moment they are born to the day that they die. A Rohingya person must be documented in multiple ways from birth yet are never admitted citizenship. Their parents must pay taxes upon them from birth while their children will have to pay taxes upon their death. Movement from village to village during life is taxed and restricted unless being dictated by Rakhine authorities.

In the long list of oppressive laws and restrictions put in place upon the Rohingya the part that preps the Rohingya for human trafficking the most happens to be the slavery they are raised with in Burma. It is a well known fact even outside Myanmar that the Rohingya are often used as slave labor when the Rakhine or military wants free labor. They are not fed nor do they receive any form of compensation during these times of forced labor. Their fields do not get worked, their boats don't go out to fish, and their children do not get fed during these times of slavery. It is this part of Burma's treatment of the Rohingya that prepares them for life as human cargo at the hands of human traffickers.

Thai officials have repeatedly been found cooperating with human traffickers and often doing the trafficking themselves. It is only in recent years that industry and the free market have begun to demand that the "free labor" portion of Thailand's economy be brought under control. Sadly these demands have only arrived out of the desire to gain larger portions of economic shares rather than out of concern for the Rohingya peoples' well-being.

The only good news coming out of Thailand is the fact that they have for now decided to hold the Rohingya till the UN can have a look at them. This does not mean that the Thai authorities will take the UN's suggestions seriously. It does not meant that the Rohingya will not be deported after the UN leaves. It does however mean that for now, at least, these Rohingya are spared the reprisals that await upon return to Myanmar.

For the rest of the world the question of how to stop human trafficking still remains. Last year MTV Exit put on a concert in Myanmar (counter productive since Myanmar is the heart of human trafficking in Southeast Asia). President Obama and other world leaders have talked endlessly about this subject. The United Nations has countless programs and branches dedicated to stopping this crime against humanity. Yet the sin of slavery still plagues us. And for the Rohingya it is a painful way out of Hell on earth.

Source Documents 

(Note not all sources used are listed)

CNN (December 7th, 2012)

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/07/myanmar-can-keep-rohingya-from-starving-but-will-it/

(November 26, 2012)

 http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/25/world/asia/myanmar-rohingya-violence-rivers/index.html

The Guardian (July 13, 2012)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/13/burma-humanitarian-crisis-rohingya-arakan

Rohingya.org (December 16th, 2012)

http://www.rohingya.org/portal/index.php/burma/63-news--article/427-the-rohingya-suffer-ethiopian-like-starvation.html

The Independent (October 30, 2012)

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-world-must-act-to-protect-burmas-rohingya-from-starvation-and-slaughter-8262073.html

Phuketwan (December 26, 2012)

http://phuketwan.com/tourism/desperation-marks-rohingyas-fight-rights-survival-17303/

Aljazeera (January 11, 2013)

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2013/01/201311184320327355.html

Only Grass And Dirt To Eat

Starvation: A War Of Attrition
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

(Rohingya Refugee Camp: Searching For Food In The Ditch)

The photo above was taken more than a month ago and was taken in near a Rohingya refugee camp. These Rohingya are living life beyond the villages where their fellow Rohingya live in modern day concentration camps. These Rohingya live where food consist of grass and weeds found alongside dirty streets. They are not allowed to go into the Rakhine villages and purchase food. They are forbidden to use the same water as their Rakhine neighbors. Yet in comparison to the Rohingya still living in the villages, these are the lucky ones. 

Checkpoints much like those seen around the ghettos the Nazi's built during the Holocaust pot mark the area around the refugee camps. Though there are coconuts hanging in the trees outside the camps, though there is rice in the fields that the Rakhine now claim... the Rohingya starve. The barbed wire is a constant reminder that they are considered less than human in their own homeland. The lack of food makes it clear that they are considered of less value than the livestock the Rakhine raise in nearby pastures. This is the life that the Burmese have damned the Rohingya to. 

Ali Hassan, a 24 year old Rohingya man told Phuket Wan Travel News, "My babies are starving in front of my eyes. I cannot buy anything now I have no money." 

Ali Hassan had newborn twins at the time. It is impossible to know for sure if his children have survived. It is hard to imagine any child, let alone babies, living a life of starvation. But his story survives. Even if he and his family do not, his story will never perish. 

This war, this barbarism that Myanmar carries out, is meant to starve the Rohingya out of existence. The violence that plagued the Arakan state forever lingers in the air. Death hovers behind every shadow. It waits for the Rohingya... with open arms it accepts them of every age, gender, shape, and size. This is a war in as much as it pins one group against the other. Yet in this horrific struggle only one is armed... only one gets to fight... only one survives. 

There is an abundance of fish in the seas and waters along the Rakhine coasts. However the Burmese officials have confiscated almost all the fishing equipment the Rohingya once owned. Nets, poles, and hooks... nothing is left to harvest the food that the Rohingya so desperately need. 

For now the Rohingya slowly waist away as the little aid that is making it through the blockades is barely enough to keep even a small portion of them alive. It is in this slow starvation that many are turning to the the very people who cause their suffering to offer "a way out". The Rakhine Nationalities Development Party uses this wide spread starvation to traffic the Rohingya out of Myanmar. 

Over the last couple days nearly 700 Rohingya have turned up in human trafficking camps in Thailand. Over 500 Rohingya had to swim ashore in Malaysia after their boat sank 500 km off the coast. All of these Rohingya were trafficked out of the country by the RNDP. And of the RNDP's trafficking victims... they could easily be considered the lucky ones. 

Over half of the Rohingya who are sent out to sea each year die trying to make their way to Malaysia. Almost all Rohingya who are sent into Thailand are sent back to Myanmar having lost everything they had including the bribes that got them out of Burma the first time. These 1,200 Rohingya are lucky just to still be alive and outside of Myanmar. 

It is important to note at the close of this post that this tragedy, this genocide, could had been prevented. This horrific case of ethnic cleansing could be immediately stopped. All that is needed is for the outside world to finally wake up. To wake up and start taking action.

Waiting For Hope

A Look At The Blockades' Affects
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

(December 03, 2012 Rohingya Children Starving in Burma)

In Burma the blockades still stand. Living testaments to the savagery of a government dedicated to the annihilation of the Rohingya, the police and military still hold back much needed food, water, and medicines. This incredibly disturbing method of warfare is dead set on starving the Rohingya out of existence. And yet for the past few months I have been unable to pinpoint where and how this method was being used.

Today that changed.

Thanks to Jamila Hanan, an activist on Twitter, I was able to finally get my hands on some hard facts. The information however is nothing to be celebrated. For the man who sent it out of Burma is still stuck inside living the same hell his Rohingya brothers are suffering through. Aung Aung posted the following information earlier this month.

(Life For The Rohingya Hinges On Every Meal)

There are currently 15 Rohingya villages within the Min Pya area of Arakan, Burma. This is what is being reported out of Min Pya over the last month's time.

• Tara Auk: 1,570 Rohingya currently living, 30 dead including 9 children. WFP & UN distributed some rice and beans. Still no medicine; many people are dieing of malaria, asthma, cough, fever, and diarrhea. 
• Naga Pyan Ywa: 1,165 Rohingya alive, 20 dead including 8 children and 3 women. Blockaded and starving. No aid can make it through. 
• Nagara Pauktaw: 2,800 Rohingya still living, 48 have died including 11 children. Blockaded by government. Situation is bad, they are desperate. No help can get through. 
• Saung Gyi Pyin: 2,383 Rohingya alive, 15 dead including 7 children. Blockaded. Need food, water, and medicine. Not able to find food.
• Naw Naw Ywa: 1,067 Rohingya still living, 11 died including 7 children. They are asking for food and medicine. 
• Aung Daing: 2,003 Rohingya alive, 15 died including 6 children. WFP able to deliver some rice and beans. They need medicine and blankets. 
• Thatori Ywa: 894 Rohingya living, 10 have died. Need food and medicine. 
• Samali: 1,952 Rohingya alive, 24 have died including 11 children. WFP provided some rice and beans for only half of them. Most houses burnt to the ground during October massacre here. 
• Peik Thay Ywa: 1,358 Rohingya live here. 11 have died. WFP provided some assistance to those who lost homes in October attacks. The rest are starving to death. 
• Kyein Tuang: 791 Rohingya living, 9 died this month. WFP provided little rice and beans. 
• Tha Dar Ywa: 961 Rohingya still alive, 14 dead this month including 6 children. Have received no aid at all. Starving to death.
• Lama Ywa: 4,901 Rohingya live here. 46 have died this month alone including 15 children and 5 women. Blockaded by Myanmar government. Can't be reached and can't leave. 
• Sakkya Ywa: 1,581 Rohingya still alive. 15 died this month including 7 children. No help has arrived. They need food and medication desperately. 
• Teint Seik Ywa: 2,090 Rohingya live here. 20 died including 9 children. They are blockaded and can't find any food. They desperately need food and medication. 
• Hara Praing: 955 Rohingya alive. 11 died this month alone. No medication at all. They need food and medicine. 

 All these villages are starving to death due to the blockades the government of Burma has put in place. Out of this region the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party has been able to get 61 to leave Burma. Since Rohingya are forbidden to move from village to village without permission the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party is able to offer them a sense of false hope. This allows the RNDP to deport the Rohingya and achieve their aim of an ethnically pure Rakhine state.

 (July 5th, 2012 Hungry Then, Starving To Death Now)

In the Mrauk U area of Arakan, Burma there are 12 Rohingya villages. Aung Aung was not able to reach a handful of them due to the restrictions on communication. Of these we know only what has occurred in 8 of them over the last month's time. 

• Zula Fara at Yanthay: Rakhine mobs attacked here in October killing 61. There are currently 2,421 Rohingya here. Last month 73 died including 22 children. WFP gave some rice and beans. Due to blockade there is no access to medicine and food is scarce. 
• Ziza Ywa at Naga Kuay: there are 734 Rohingya, 8 died last month. All are in desperate need of food and water. No medicine here.
• Ziza Ywa Gyi: 695 Rohingya here, 7 died last month. Have received no aid. Need food and medicine desperately. Most are nearly starved to death.
• Kun Baung: there are 1,500 Rohingya here. 11 have died including 5 children. Must get some food, medicine, and blankets immediately or more will die this month. 
• Sithay: 525 Rohingya are here, 11 died this month including 6 children. Most Rohingya here have only rice gruel and broken rice grains to eat. Starving to death. 
• Amauk Taung: 560 Rohingya, 10 died this month. They need food, blankets, and medicine. 
• Pothalun: there are 1,574 Rohingya here, 17 died including 9 children. Most Rohingya here are surviving on rice gruel. If no food or medicine arrives many will die this coming month. 
• Kaing Daw: 1,105 Rohingya live here, 13 died last month including 7 children. They desperately need food and medicine. 

All Rohingya in Arakan are banned from moving from one place to the next. Going out and looking for food will result in death or imprisonment. The WFP and other aid groups have only provided aid to one village in this area. The outside world that is helping seems to think that only the refugee camps need aid. Yet in reality those who are suffering in their homes, in their villages near by, are starving to death due to the blockades. The Rohingya in these villages can't go to the camps. The blockade is meant to keep them in place so that they will die where they are at. In affect, their homes are now their concentration camps.

Na Sa Ka and the RNDP are the only source through which Rohingya can travel anywhere. The Myanmar government however does not grant travel to the camps or to another village where food might have been rumored to exist. Instead the RNDP and Burma government find boats for the Rohingya. Then they send them out to sea without food, water, or medicine. These floating prisons are meant to kill as many Rohingya as the RNDP can trick into risking their lives at sea. They get them into the boats by telling them that they are going to Malaysia or some other foreign country.

(Any Hope Of Food Get Attention In Starving Villages)

There are 22 villages in the Kyawtaw area of Arakan, Burma. In those 22 villages are 4,989 Rohingya who are starving to death. Due to the blockades and restrictions on communication, Aung Aung was unable to contact any of them except one. 605 Rohingya in Napukan Ywa were able to report that they were starving since food ran out last week. In addition to this we know that WFP provided a little food to 7 burnt villages ( Sancar Taung, Apauk Wa, Shwe Hlaing, Guppa Taung, Ambari, Ywa Nyar, and Radana Pun Taung Pway). The rest of the 15 villages are starving to death without aid or medicine. 

Around 200 Rohingya in Kyawtaw area fled to the mountains last month. They were soon after arrested and taken into custody by the Myanmar government. Nobody knows what will happen to them. But it is safe to say that they will most likely end up dead. 

 (Anything That Can Be Ate Is Being Cooked Just To Survive)

It is clear that the genocide in Burma is entering its final stages. The government is prepared to starve those they cannot kill outright. Children and women are being used in human trafficking and as sex slaves by the Myanmar officials. Men are being sent out in boats to die at sea by the RNDP. Those who are trapped in their villages are just waiting to die. Either the Rakhine mobs will reform or the Burmese government will wait for nature to take its coarse. 

For now we are trapped in a position of waiting. We wait to see if the world will wake up before the clock runs out for the Rohingya of Burma. We wait to see if humanity can be salvaged or if we will watch yet another genocide reach completion right before our eyes.

Pushed Back Into The Abyss

Failure Of Humanity In Thailand
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

(Rohingya Refugees Awaiting Deportation From Thailand)

Found drifting off the shore of Thailand's resort town, Phuket, 73 Rohingya refugees are set to be deported back to Myanmar. Among the refugees are women and children. And despite their claims of physical abuse at the hands of the Burmese military, none are going to receive asylum within Thailand.

The question remains just why the Rohingya would want to stay in Thailand in the first place? 

Human traffickers in Thailand have used Rohingya as slaves for factories and fishing trawlers operating out of Thai waters. Thai police and military are often seen abusing Rohingya refugees and forcing the Rohingya back out to open water. Government organizations in Thailand have been discriminating against the Rohingya for decades. And yet the Rohingya still try to enter Thailand in droves. 

This leaves us to guess that even moderate discrimination and routine abuse are still seen as a better life than what awaits them back in Myanmar. 

(Refugees Show The Wounds Burmese Military Gave Them)

The UN says that the Thai authorities should halt all attempts to deport the refugees by labeling them "migrant workers". This cheap trick in labeling has allowed Thailand to persistently deny entry to Rohingya in the past. On many occasions the Thai navy has claimed that they had at the very least given some supplies to the "boat people" before sending them back to sea. But even in doing this the Thai navy was simply giving the Rohingya a death sentence in boats that obviously had already failed. 

UN officials have pleaded with Thailand to wait until UN observers could arrive to meet with the latest wave of Rohingya refugees. Yet, just as with most cases of "boat people", Thailand shows no intention of waiting before shipping the Rohingya families back over the border into Burma. 

(Thai Military Guard Rohingya Refugees)

In response to this failure by Thailand to show at least some form of humanity we can expect the UN to propose some new plan for Southeast Asian countries when dealing with Rohingya refugees. In doing this the UN will once again fail to do anything to actually stop the cause of this new wave of refugees in the first place. While telling Thailand, and other Southeast Asian countries, to accept the refugees the UN has shown no sign of telling Myanmar to cease the killings that have caused this exodus. 

If the West will not act to stop the genocide the Rohingya will continue to flee by sea. Those who take to the ocean will once again face hostile navies and deadly cases of starvation and dehydration. As history has shown, hundreds... if not thousands... will be lost to the sea or be forced into slavery. 

Life amongst the Burmese government and Rakhine Buddhist has proven impossible for the Rohingya trapped within Myanmar. For this reason death at sea appears to be the only way out. And yet the West promised these people time and time again... Never Again.

If They Were Christians Would We Help?

From Syria to Burma
(The Darkness Visible series)

(Just Another Funeral in Syria) 

Over the past few months I have found it hard to not ask myself if things would be different if the current genocide victims were not Muslim. From Syria (where Assad, an Alawi, slaughters Sunni Muslims) to Burma (where the Buddhist regime targets Muslims for extermination) the victims all have one thing in common. Their faith. 

The response given by the United Nations and the Western governments that help guide it has reminded me since the start of how the UN responded to Bosnia. In 1992 the Serbian forces within Bosnia decided that the Muslims had to die to help create a "Greater Serbia". The United Nations responded just as one might have expected. Their actions helped further the cause of the Christian Serbs while punishing the Bosnian Muslims. No arms were allowed to be distributed to the Bosnian forces so as to help defend themselves and their families. Aid to the Bosnian community was seemingly given under the conditions that Bosnian Muslims would not defend themselves but commit to damned attempts at "diplomacy". All the while Serbs were allowed to funnel arms and ammunition across the border from Serbia so as to fuel their war upon Islam. 

The entire time I spent studying Srebrenica I couldn't help but ask myself... if the dead weren't Muslims would the West care? 

In Syria today the Alawi, a minute percentage of the population, have taken every action to reduce the Shiite population while securing power for the Shia minority. Dehumanization began from the very start of the protest against Assad. But it wasn't the rebels who were comparing their opposition to cockroaches. Instead it was Assad who was laying the ground work for genocide. And it was Assad who began working his way through the steps of genocide as if reading them from a book. Yet in Syria today the UN and US can be seen as only helping the Shia die in a little more comfortable ways than Assad would wish. They do not seem willing to stop the bleeding. 

Children are massacred in waves of violence not seen in the region since Saddam's campaign to annihilate the Kurds. Yet the UN did nothing more than ask Angelina Jolie to come and visit the refugee camps... across the border in safety. Aid has been slow (it wasn't till recently that America secured 1.5 billion in aid... with vast restrictions on its use of course) and at times has been left rotting on docks in neighboring countries so as to never arrive. The only thing that the UN seems competent to deliver has been the dirty white tents that help cameras capture the appearance of UN aid. Most aid has arrived through private organizations that have stretched themselves to the limit so as to save at least some of the refugees who have fled. 

Those left in Syria have been subjected to mortars, artillery, jet and helicopter attacks, and scud missiles that may be used to deliver chemical weapons. The dead are buried wherever a spare patch of ground can be found. Water, food, and electricity are subject to Assad's desire to either starve a region out or reward a region for their loyalty. All of these are seemingly random since Assad has begun to see rebels behind every rock and around every corner. 

So why does the West not act to help end the genocide in Syria? 

(Humanitarian Aid Remains Behind Blockades While Rohingya Starve To Death)

In Burma the Buddhist regime has been praised almost religiously by the West as the governments of Europe and America prepare to race in and claim as much of the economy as they can before China gets it all. In doing business with the Myanmar government the governments of the West are funding genocide. For decades now, of and on, the Burmese have been attempting to slaughter the Rohingya minority and all other Muslim groups. Under the Junta regime the Rohingya were not only dehumanized but often massacred. This latest burst of genocidal slaughter was just an extension of the decades of systematic slaughter the Junta perpetrated. 

As the violence spread the Rohingya were rounded up into camps where the Burmese military was seen attacking the Rohingya who attempted to flee. When it wasn't the military killing Rohingya it was the Rakhine mobs that the police let through from time to time to keep the Rohingya terrorized. In effect the Myanmar government was establishing concentration camps like those the Serbs established for the Bosnian Muslims. Yet the West refused to call these "refugee" camps what they truly were. Instead we now find ourselves in a place where Rohingya are banned from leaving the camps and aid is blockaded from entering the camps. 

Food and water have been restricted while the Burmese Muslims are starved to death. Babies, some seen on previous post, are left forever harmed by this cruelty... if they survive at all. Yet the West fails to go beyond their business prospects in Myanmar. 

Once again I have to ask, if the Rohingya were not Muslims would the West care anymore?

Many "humanitarians" in the media and Western culture have spent years upon years trying to get governments to help the victims in Darfur and the Congo. The obvious difference in this post is that the victims in this case are predominately Christians. And the attackers are predominately Muslims. This is not to say that genocide in these two cases should not be protested or should not be stopped. But it is painfully clear that those speaking out for the victims share a fairly obvious link to the victims themselves. Their faith.

With this we should all take a look at the reasons for why we get involved. And more importantly we should take a real hard look at the reasons why we tend not to get involved. Both are the sources for our inaction when faced with genocide. And both have effects that last for generations. By not taking action to help those in need we show our true selves... our greatest weaknesses... and most of all our prejudices.