Less Than Admirable, Ashin Wirathu

The Joseph Goebbels of Myanmar
(The Darkness Visible series)

(Note He Opted To Be Photographed Looking Down Upon His Audience)

Joseph Goebbels portrayed my ancestors as rats in his infamous propagandist films. His news reels showed Jews as animals or portrayed us as a plague. This allowed Goebbels to make the quick leap from a disease to the supposed cure. That was why we were the rats, so that he could show Europe it was acceptable to exterminate us. Such is the power of repetitive and persistent propaganda. Through a position of power and influence the insanity of a few can become the reality of many.

The "venerable", or maniacal, Wirathu has become to the 969 movement in Myanmar what Goebbels was to the Nazis. Much like the Nazis in Europe, 969 under the guidance of Wirathu has forced boycotts of Muslim shops and merchants along with an unofficial (yet forced) ban upon intermarriage between Buddhists and Muslims. Wirathu has followed in Goebbels footsteps by portraying the Rohingya Muslims as an ethnic group that is growing out of control and supposedly overpopulating the Arakan region of Burma. At times Wirathu has made the same parallels as Goebbels did when talking about the Rohingya.

"As far as Muslims go, a snake is a snake. Snakes are dangerous, so we shouldn't let them be," Wirathu- As Reported in The Australian

The desire to dehumanize the Muslim population of Myanmar falls in line with the perceived need to rid the country of them. It allows members of 969 and its supporters to accept the neglect and ill-treatment of their Rohingya neighbors without a second thought about it. Through this filter the Rohingya can be seen as an enemy regardless of the shared history the Rakhine and Rohingya have had for generations. It also permits and suggest that Rohingya should be killed if they cannot be dominated by other social and political means. This is why Wirathu calls them snakes when talking to the Western media. 

Goebbels knew that the first step toward the Nazi "final solution" was dehumanization. The Hutu militias knew that the constant use of words such as "cockroaches" would wear at the moderates' collective conscience. It is a part of genocide. It is a requirement if the attacking force wants to engage and the rest of society and justify their crimes. 

In Myanmar Wirathu has long passed this stage. In 2003 Wirathu directly instigated riots that led to the reported deaths of 10 innocent Muslims. It was due to this tendency to incite violence that the old junta had Wirathu thrown in prison in the first place. Yet under the supposed democratic reformist Thein Sein the nationalist hero Wirathu was suddenly released. 

(Desperate to save his shop, owner scribbled 969 on shop door during Lashio attacks.)

Where Goebbels saw himself as the match that would ignite the inferno, Wirathu sees himself as the fire itself. In attacks such as that in Meiktila, Wirathu's 969 stormtroopers were at the front lines of the fight his words sparked. Leading his troops into battle through word alone, Wirathu is able to throw the weight of the Buddhists monks well organized battalions out onto the battlefield. Instead of leading his fellow radicals to the conclusion through imagery, Wirathu instructs them on how and where to attack. 

This difference has led Wirathu to shift his "economic nationalist" movement from boycotts to bombs. Laying waste to Muslim villages and shops, the 969 savages show no mercy to their victims. This is the intended product of Wirathu's teachings. Through a relentless indoctrination of radical nationalism in place of traditional Buddhist teachings, Wirathu is able to set fire to the pillars of Burmese society.

(Mosque Burnt By 969 Fascist In Lashio, Burma)

So how does Wirathu see himself? 

"Do you know the English Defense League? We would like to be like the EDL. Not carrying out violence, but protecting the public," Wirathu -  As Reported in The Daily Mail

The English Defense League is a radical right-wing group that claims to protest the spread of Islam and "Sharia Law" in the United Kingdom. Though they claim to be a peaceful organization that only uses their civil liberties to express concerns over the imagined imposition of Islam upon the West their actions prove otherwise (example as shown here). The group itself leans toward fascism and openly promotes the desire for an "ethnically pure" UK. Yet despite the racial aspect of the EDL this is who the radical nationalist in Burma model themselves after.

Perhaps it is just the "common enemy" that draws Wirathu to the EDL. Maybe he doesn't realize with any real level of certainty that the all white crowd which the EDL is comprised of wouldn't accept Buddhism any more than they do Islam. No matter how pale skinned Wirathu may consider himself, the English Defense League is just as bitter as he is. 

But that is beside the point I'm trying to make here... 

When it comes to his view of what 969 is all about and why they exist in Burma, Wirathu sees his cause as being just as far removed from peace as that which drives the EDL. When it comes to the peaceful teachings of Buddhism this monk has drawn a blind eye. No matter how Buddha might have seen the Rohingya, Wirathu sees them as less than human... less than even the insects or snakes themselves. It is a blind hatred for a perceived enemy that links the EDL to the 969 movement. And it is due to this blind hatred that no compromise can be reached. 

How can you bridge the gap between love and hate? Is it in that space between that we call tolerance? 

If Burma is to take the next step toward democracy, true democracy, the government will have to find a path forward that does not include hate groups such 969. Radicals like Wirathu must be isolated and cut off from the mainstream. Their propaganda must be thrown out and their "economic nationalism" rejected at face value. For if Burma is to accept even a portion of what Wirathu preaches then there is no hope for a true democratic movement within Myanmar's government let alone it's society at large. 

When the seeds of hatred are allowed room to grow the society that tolerated the weed as a seedling cannot be spared it's fruit when it matures. There will be consequences for the crimes that have taken place in Burma. If not through Myanmar's own actions then the world community at large must accept responsibility. Sanctions upon the regime must be a looming threat and the UN's court system must be prepared to prosecute the perpetrators. If we fail here... if the crime is forgiven... then the cycle of this crime will continue. Either way, there will be consequences... we just have to ask ourselves how bad we want them to be.

Source Documents
(not all sources listed)

The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/man-of-peace-venerable-wirathu-approves-violence-to-rohingyas/story-fnb64oi6-1226654775865

Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/05/31/deep-seated-prejudice-radical-buddhist-monks-fuel-violence-against-myanmar/

Daily Mail UK
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2333858/Right-wing-Buddhist-leading-campaign-force-Muslims-Burma-says-wants-group-like-English-Defence-League.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
-
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1259409/Police-attack-right-wing-group-anti-fascists-clash-violent-street-protests.html

Aljazeera
http://www.aljazeera.com/video/asia-pacific/2013/05/2013531193133115210.html

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

Will We Ever Break The Silence?

Zipped Lips, Bloodshot Eyes
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

Every since the end of the October massacres the few strong voices on Twitter and the blog-a-sphere have warned us of the coming "third massacre". Hate groups such as 969 in Myanmar have been feeding the fires that fuel the hate for Muslims across Burma. This was the same sort of fuel that had sparked the flames of the first two Rohingya pogroms. The religious fervor that they feed upon has not been subdued or left to die as the Buddhist monks help prop it up. And it was this basis that had led many of the Rohingya activist around the world to fear the next wave of massacres.

Jamila Hanan on Twitter (@JamilaHanan) spends countless hours warning her 8 thousand plus followers of the both present and coming massacres. Yet the vast majority of them remain silent or stuck in the world of retweets as the genocide goes unabated. Their voices remain silent as the screams of the Rohingya people echo out of the abyss Myanmar has created.

Apathy kills.

Aung Aung out of Sittwe, Burma (@AungAungsittwe on Twitter) is one of the few voices coming out of Myanmar can only get 2.5 thousand followers? Is the voice of the suffering not important enough to warrant some attention? Or is Justin Bieber's 36 million plus followers just too fixated upon an idol to be bothered with the agony of their fellow man?

We may not all be able to travel to Burma to help the few NGOs still delivering aid to the Rohingya do their jobs. We may not all be able to gather the attention of millions of online followers. But we all can take a few moments out of our busy days to be human... to pay some attention to the plight of the most overlooked people on the planet. Our few voices raised together can help those in the most need. And yet our lips remain zipped.

I for one have been watching the horrible news scroll pass on a daily basis. The lack of help from others has left me jaded to the point of wondering what it would be like if genocide started here in the US tomorrow. Perhaps if the Myanmar monks used the phrase "nigger" instead of "kahlar" to describe the Rohingya than perhaps the West would pay attention. Perhaps if the Rohingya were not Muslim but rather Christians than US citizens might find them more ready for their help. Or perhaps if the Rohingya were not wrongfully accused of being "illegal immigrants" than perhaps conservatives could find it in them to scream for the Rohingya.

Or perhaps this post is just a result of my bloodshot eyes and jaded mind. Whatever the case, the plight of the Rohingya people leaves me to ask just how much better a world it would be if there were more people willing to scream?

Where Is The Love In Burmese Buddhism?

Love? What Love?
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

(Monks Patrol Meikhtila As Military Watches)

When Buddha was a young man he sat at beneath a large tree and watched as the peasants prepared the fields for the planting. Instead of worrying about the hunger of his people, the Buddha thought to himself about the plight of the worms in the soil as the plows turned over the land. If the crops were not planted the people would starve to death. But that did not cross the Buddha's mind as he worried about and animal that can survive being cut in half. To the Buddhists of today this is supposed to represent his love for even the least of these. But I ask what love? 

It is hard to imagine any person, regardless of his supposed deity status, thinking that the life of a single worm was more important than the lives of millions of starving humans. It is a self righteous behavior that has become characteristic of the Buddha. While he had everything provided for him the people beneath his "enlightened" state died of hunger. So once again, what love? 

(Helix058 Is My Account On Instagram, This Is Burmese Hate)

"Parasites"... "Termites"... "Cockroaches"... 

Is this the love of which Buddhists speak? Is this the compassion which Buddha supposedly held for the worms? What if the worms had been called "parasites"? Would the Burmese still refer to Rohingya and other Muslims as such? 

When a people forget the morality that helped shape their culture they forget the soul of their culture. Stepping away from love and compassion brings us to the brink of catastrophe. It takes us beyond the point of no return... it drags us to place where we no longer recognize the people we once were. This is the hate with which Burmese Buddhism has been poisoned. What love was once there is trapped beneath it's heel. The hatred for their fellow man now replaces the love of which Buddha spoke. 

The parable of the worms and Buddha was much more than mere self righteousness. It was meant to show that at times when we think we are helping others, performing a task greater than ourselves, we often hurt others without knowing. Buddha showed that with other ways of doing the same task we can often avoid the casualties of even the least of these (those society rejects or abandons). 

If Buddhism is to ever heal in Burma it will have to learn to exercise resistance to the hate that has worked it's way into Myanmar's culture. The racism, bigotry, and intolerance must be dealt with in ways other than the killing and ostracizing of an entire portion of the population. Those who have introduced this disease must be dealt with also. The sickness must not be allowed to govern the politics of a nation. In approaching this problem in this way, Myanmar must recall that the illness of one man changed the way Europe thinks today. Had Hitler's disease not been permitted to take hold, Europe and America might have been able to avoid the Nazi's "Final Solution". 

But none of this can be accomplished or even worked on until the country of Burma decides to first abandon its policies of extermination and religious bigotry. Until the blood stops flowing this disease can not be contained. The love that Buddha tried to spread can not be achieved as long as hate is allowed to rule the hearts and control the minds of the Burmese.

Meikhtila Riots Illustrates Burma's Failures

Where Is Thein Sein's Democracy?
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

(Helpless and Homeless)

On Saturday afternoon the Myanmar military finally gained control of a burnt out and devastated city center. The city of Meikhtila had become a pile of rubble and burnt out timber. Cars sat like carcasses along the roadside as the military drove past. Refugees carried what little they had left on their backs as they dared not look at the soldiers. Only the Buddhists monks wielding weapons bothered to greet the military. 

When cleanup began the military reported that they had uncovered 32 dead and were tending to wounded and displaced Muslims. Once the 6,000 plus Muslims who had fled to a sports stadium were evacuated to safety the military secured the burnt out city. Taking up positions at banks and "valuable infrastructure" the military began patrols to keep the peace. 

(The Hallmark Of The Ethnic Violence)

For months the Buddhists have been pumping propaganda into areas like Meikhtila. They have used the plight of the Rohingya in the Arakan state to justify these attacks on other Muslim minorities. Their goal has been to create an ethnically pure Myanmar with one religion. And yet the pogroms have been successful due to the lack of protection the religious minorities in Burma receive.

This incredible amount of hatred was not only evident in the shear amount of Muslim's left homeless but also by the methods used to attack them. The Buddhists mobs were armed with machetes and hammers thus leaving their victims either hacked to pieces or beaten savagely. The homes and businesses that were burnt were torched so as to leave the Muslims no place in Meikhtila to call home. And the mosque that were razed had been hiding places for many of the Muslims fleeing the initial waves of Buddhists assailants. 

As the smoke clears the Muslims of Meikhtila are left with the horrible decision of whether they should flee to the military protected refugee camps or attempt to salvage their homes. For many it is hard to imagine that the Burmese military will protect them in the camps if the Monks decided to use the camps as ghettos like they did in Arakan. For those who dare stay the threat of death is more immediate. 

Thein Sein had promised to make Myanmar into a democracy. He had said that this would be a modern state where all of Burma's citizens would have a voice. Yet Meikhtila shows the weakness or unwillingness of the ex-general when it comes to protecting Muslims. It once again illustrates the desire on the part of the Burmese government to create a society in which tolerance has clear and concise limits. Thein Sein's version of democracy is thus clearly a form in which liberty is prisoner to the whims of the state. 

(Mother And Baby Now Homeless)

Life Under Siege

What the Blockades in Burma Look Like
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

(Rohingya Camp Being Kept Under Blockade By Myanmar)

In previous post Alder's Ledge has told you what life under blockade was like in Myanmar. We explained what it was like to be starved to death slowly by a government that seeks to destroy an entire ethnic group. We explained how and why the radical Rakhine movement in Burma is carrying out their campaign of ethnic cleansing. Yet nothing compares to seeing the destruction yourself. That is why we are bringing you these images (first provided by @jamiliahanan on Twitter).

This Rohingya woman has a skin condition that has been left untreated due to lack of medical aid being allowed through the blockade. The skin condition has left painful blisters on her feet making it hard to walk. There is currently no relief in site due to the endless blockades being maintained by the Burmese government. 

This Rohingya child has the hallmark sign of malnourishment, a swollen stomach protruding from under rigid ribs. During the Holodomor in the Ukraine (part of Stalin's Forced Famines) children became swollen like this from eating thatch roofing materials. It is hard to say what has caused this child's condition. But it is clear from history's lessons that this condition is fatal if left untreated. 

This Rohingya boy has grown rail thin as starvation slowly claims him. Hips, ribs, and joints show through his thin tight draping of skin. This form of death is a cruel form of torture in Burma. It could easily be prevented. If food was allowed to enter the camp this boy would not be in the condition he is in now. If water was allowed, at the least, his strength would not be so rapidly depleted as his organs begin to shut down.

This Rohingya man is emaciated as his body uses up its own muscles to fuel itself on just a few more days. Just as with other Rohingya starving to death, this man is suffering with each passing day. His body is growing rigid as it looses the ability to move limbs. He is basically suffering from the symptoms of death long before death ever claims him. 

Another swollen stomach, another sad face. This Rohingya boy is rail thin everywhere except his stomach. In previous genocides where starvation was used to kill large numbers of people the children were described as "little fat men" due to this symptom. It was a cruel way of describing the children on their last leg before death set in. 

This is a typical home in the Rohingya concentration camps. In the dry season it may be almost bearable. In the wet season there is little between the Rohingya and the heavy rains. What was dirt beneath their beds quickly becomes mud. There is nowhere to flee from the dirt and mud due to the blockades that keep them in and the food and medicine out. 

A beautiful Rohingya girl, starved and hunched over in her tent. Her bones peak through her flesh as she looks away from the camera. Most Americans would have a hard time distinguishing her from any other Burmese or Bangladeshi individual. Yet the Burmese and Bengalis both hate her and her people. They refer to her as "Kalar".

Another symptom of malnutrition, this child's hair is falling out. It is a painful thing to watch as a child waste away right before your eyes. Yet for the Rohingya in Burma this is what life has been reduced to. A long and painful walk from degradation to death. 

This Rohingya man finds it hard to walk as starvation claims his body's muscles. He is frail and thin at a time in his life when he should be living rather than dieing. Instead of enjoying life, this Rohingya man has to watch his family, friends, and community die before his eyes. 

Another child, another swollen stomach. This Rohingya child does not deserve to live like this. He had done nothing but simply be unfortunate enough to be born Rohingya in Burma. That should not be a death sentence. And yet here he is, starved and homeless. 

Sunken eyes, protruding ribs, and thin limbs. These are the hallmarks of Burma's own forced famine. This is what it is like to live under constant siege by a government that is hellbent upon the destruction of the Rohingya people. This is what it is like to be starved to death slowly by a government that is carrying out a campaign of genocide. 

These images came out of Burma so that the world may see the faces of genocide in Myanmar. Now that we have seen them it is our duty to act. It is our duty as human beings to stand as one and fight this inhumanity. We can not remain silent as more and more Rohingya die daily. 

Scream for the Rohingya. Your voice goes much further than you could ever imagine.