Leave Nothing Behind

Rape, Pillage, and Plunder
(Part of The Darkness Visible series)

(The Defiant Ones)

In Myanmar's northern Kachin state there is a war that seems to never end. Generations of ethnic Kachin have come and gone as the war clouds continue to break up just enough to let a little hope in. Then just as the light of peace begins to shine down upon them, Burma's savage military darkens the sky with mortars and lights up the darkness with machine gun fire. For those who become trapped by the all encompassing hell that is this war the promise of peace is a faint memory now that the fighting has begun once more.

The level of brutality that the Kachin face as the Burmese military pushes them toward the border was once undocumented. It was intentionally kept from prying eyes as the Burmese pushed the Kachin refugees just within sight of the nation's borders. Yet today the barbarism that Myanmar has been practicing in the Kachin state can be hid no more.

The use of "black zones", established rape camps, mass executions, and slave labor have all been exposed as the most savage weapons that Myanmar has used against the Kachin people. These methodical tools of death have left the Kachin as a people without a homeland. When allowed to enter their lands they are treated as outsiders. In the few gaps of peace they have endured under Burma's regime the threat of these abuses has always lingered over their heads. Today these tools of war are back out and being used upon the killing fields that Thein Sein's military has prepared upon Kachin lands.

(Upon their backs, this war is fought. (Bodenham/AFP/Getty Images))

Black Zones

 The killers in black zones aren't always walking around stalking the prey. In these "no man's land" areas the most prolific killer doesn't even carry a gun. Instead it is buried just beneath the surface. Weeds and flowers can often grow up around it covering and concealing it's location. Yet once stepped upon this grotesque mangler of men arises in a ghastly eruption of sheer violence. 

Landmines kill and wound more civilians than any other form of explosive brought upon the battle field in the Burma's embattled northern states. These horrific weapons are the cornerstones of Burma's fatal grip upon lands where they have pushed ethnic minorities out. Through unrestricted placement the weapons make fields of death where crops once grew. Wherever they are placed they stay and wait to either be disarmed or detonated... there is nothing in-between the two.

Women and children who disperse at the sound of approaching soldiers are often the victims of these gruesome weapons. If they attempt to return to find anyone or anything the threat of military patrols, snipers, and the ever present landmine linger. Those who survive are left with scars, missing limbs, and trauma that plays itself out in their minds and dreams. 

Those who cannot flee the violence are treated as combatants regardless of their age or sex. Women and girls are traded as sexual slaves amongst the Burmese military till they are either killed or discarded. Men and boys are used as slave laborers if they are not first killed or killed after. Yet for the most part Kachin are able to flee since the Burmese military is slow and noisy in attempts to scare potential enemies off. 

Yet for all the Burmese military has to offer in these "conflict" (genocide) zones, the Kachin people also have to worry about rebel groups. Atrocities have been recorded on both sides of the battle lines. However for the most part the threat to Kachin civilians is not the gun or the bullet but once again the indiscriminate use of landmines by the rebel groups. 

Had this one weapon of war not been used there would be more Kachin men, women, and children alive today. Had the two sides refrained from this one form of barbarism there would be more children growing up today with parents, with all their limbs, without the trauma of watching people explode. Without this tool of torment the lives of hundreds of thousands of Kachin civilians would be better today. 

Of course the war would still be going on. The stubbornness of Myanmar's military regime and it's genocidal ambitions would not let the war end simply because mines were removed. Yet the ability of relief workers and aid agencies to reach the wounded would be drastically increased. Though the war would have continued to grind the Kachin peoples' hearts and souls the ability to provide hope would be much more available without the threat of landmines all across Northern Burma. 

Without the landmine the "black zones" would had been far more difficult to sustain. Without the ability to maim their victims endlessly the Burmese military would have had to extend itself far wider than it has. The demoralizing factor of endless war would have been far more affective had the landmine not filled the role of sentry on the lonely battle field. 

Yet all that is hard to prove and difficult to believe since we will never know for certain. All we know now is that Burma is continuing to use these black zones and supports them with continued placement of landmines across embattled regions. The silent killer that maims countless civilians remains upon the battlefield and new ones continue to join them there everyday. 

(The Most Vulnerable Victims Of War (Credit AP))

The Weapon Of Sex

In the Kachin State last June there were 18 reported rapes (some resulting in murder of the victim) committed by Myanmar's military against Kachin women. This was initially reported as an "up tick" in such sexual violence during the surge of battle in the Kachin State. However, with the continued violence that initial report has proven to be the least amount of such sexual violence that the Kachin women and girls could expect for the remaining duration of this genocide. 

Refugees across the region have reported either witnessing or being the victims of rape committed by the Burmese military. Their stories routinely indicate the use of gang rapes and organized rape camps by the Burmese soldiers. This form of torment, though at times ending in death, is meant to inflict generational scars upon the victims. And though the stories of survivors it is evident that the intent of the crime is not just effective but growing in the Kachin State. 

Rape as a weapon was well documented in Bosnia. The effects of the crime have been shown to last well after the genocide has been completed. No matter what the remaining portion of the victims life might bring, the rape at the hands of an enemy is both a personal and communal offense. If the woman is able to block the pain from her own mind the community often cannot. And regardless of the time that passes, the shame associated with the rape itself appears to linger in such a way that it can often be passed onto the next generation. 

In Bosnia rape was used to provide a cheap moral boost to the perverted ranks of the Serb militias. It offered the soldiers a chance to release their sexual desires while harnessing their aggression. The aggression came into the equation since rape is never simply about sex but also engages the desire of the attacker to dominate their victim. It then results into a barbaric display of sexualized violence that personalizes the entirety of the overall conflict and places the burden of the war upon the victim's flesh and spirit. 

For the Burmese military the use of rape as a weapon has been no different in the Kachin than it was for the Serbs in Bosnia. The delusion of "diluting the blood" of the ethnic minority still persist in Burmese soldiers as they target Kachin women in particular. The desire to inflict a lasting pain upon the targeted community is then personalized in such a way that the Kachin woman will bare the weight of societies hatred alone. She becomes powerless in a way that Burma's government would wish to apply to the Kachin people at large. 

The effects of rape upon the victim, their family, and community are the added bonus for the perverted society which perpetrates and harnesses this weapon. The scars that are affixed to the victim's flesh, spirit, and mind are the consequences that motivate generals to encourage the use of rape as a weapon of war. It is why the use of rape has been so prolific during broader acts of genocide. 

The Anchor Leg 

For over five decades the Kachin people have been running from these atrocities. Their parents, their grandparents, have run from these battles. Children have grown up and given birth to the next generation of battlefield children. Entire generations have grown up either displaced or continually running from battles imposed upon them by a government that was supposed to represent them. 

This endless war has been the anchor leg for a people that simply want the right to self-determination. They do not want to have their culture, their people, and their way of life taken from them at gun point. The only offense they have ever committed has been to cling to the desire to live free... to live in the way their ancestors had... to live upon the lands that their ancestors had fought to preserve for them. 

For five decades the world has looked away as the Kachin have struggled to cling to the fringes of Burmese society. For five decades the world has ignored the defiance in the voice of the Kachin people as they demand to be treated as humans and not the beasts of burden that Myanmar would make of them. Now they cling to existence as a supposedly reformed government commits the same sins against them that the last one did. Now they wait for the eyes of the world to turn to them, to open up our ears to listen to their cries, and see what they have suffered at the hands of tyrants. 

Once we have seen what they have had to bare under the heel of Myanmar will we look away? Will their cries have fallen upon deaf ears? Or will our hearts open to these oppressed and weary people? 

There are people who are working to bring relief to the Kachin people. Two of the organizations that most directly provide aid to the Kachin are Partners Relief and Development and The Free Burma Rangers. These two organizations provide for the Kachin people a sense of hope that shines through the dark clouds of war that continue to linger over the Kachin State. 

Alder's Ledge as an organization (small as we might be) openly donates to Partners Relief and Development through the pocketbook of the main author here. We donate monthly to the Arakan Relief to aid the Rohingya people. However we urge anyone who is reading this to visit the Partner's website and do your research. Then search your soul and decide how and if you would like to donate to their efforts. 

To donate directly to the Kachin you can select Partner's "Kachin Relief" in the donation tab. 

Doing this will allow you to join the Kachin in their anchor leg. It allows you to partner with the Kachin people and help ease their burden more directly than simply sending your best wishes. It gives you the chance to come alongside the Kachin people and take up a portion of their burden. It allows you to give them comfort in a time when they need it most. 

Want to do more? 

Scream for the Kachin people. By lending your voice to their cause you can spread awareness and increase the possibility that even more people will partner with the Kachin people. Your voice can bring more people into the race to save Kachin lives and ease their pain and suffering. 

All you have to do is share Partner's website and the stories you will find there. You can also share articles found here on Alder's Ledge on your social media outlets. This simple act can help you scream in such a way that those around you (and around the world) will have the chance to hear about the plight of the Kachin people. 

Still want to do more? 

Consider volunteering with Partners Relief and Development. By lending your skills, your talents, and your two hands to the cause you can help in ways that you might not imagine possible. It may very well get you into the race to help the Kachin people, literally.

Want to learn more about this issue or others covered by Alder's Ledge?

Follow us on Twitter: @alders_ledge

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Source Documents 

(note: not all sources listed)

IRIN Asia

http://www.irinnews.org/report/93822/myanmar-military-guilty-of-rape-activists-say 

Burma News International 

http://www.bnionline.net/index.php/news/kng/16116-burma-army-plunder-abandoned-kachin-farms.html 

http://www.bnionline.net/index.php/news/kng/16119-burmese-authorities-block-evacuating-kachin-war-refugees.html

Radio Free Asia

http://www.bnionline.net/index.php/news/kng/16116-burma-army-plunder-abandoned-kachin-farms.html

Times Colonist 

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/world/in-myanmar-s-north-a-persecuted-minority-dreams-of-canadian-style-federalism-1.615903

Kachin News

http://www.kachinnews.com/news/2557-burma-army-troops-plunder-abandoned-kachin-farms.html

http://www.kachinnews.com/news/2558-burmese-authorities-block-evacuating-kachin-war-refugees.html

http://www.kachinnews.com/news/2555-more-than-100-kachin-villagers-trapped-near-putao-after-heavy-fighting.html

Free Burma Rangers

http://www.freeburmarangers.org/reports/

http://www.freeburmarangers.org/2012/01/30/villager-shot-and-beaten-to-death-on-christmas-eve-as-burma-army-continues-to-oppress-people-in-northern-karen-state-2/

Asia Times

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/MB18Ae01.html

The Epoch Times

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/burmas-kachin-people-in-crisis-318035.html

Stealing Their Heritage

Myanmar's Slow Genocide
(The Darkness Visible series)

When a tyrant finds that they can no longer effectively kill off a targeted community the endgame scenario they often turn to is no less atrocious then the original sin. It is an option for genocidal regimes that has been a persistent fix all throughout the history of genocide. For the Germans it was the cattle car solution to the "Jewish Question". In Armenia it was defined by death marches into the wilderness where the victims were made to suffer a slow death if not immediately executed. And in Myanmar it is expressed clearly in the eyes of every "refugee" created through the government's barbarism.

Slow Genocide

"We will take responsibility for our ethnic people but it is impossible to accept the illegally entered Rohingyas, who are not our ethnicity," ~Thein Sein

Genocide is defined as the deliberate killing of members of an ethnic, religious, or national group with intent to destroy the group in part or in whole. It can include the imposing of living conditions meant to bring about the death or deterioration of the group in any capacity. This means that the deportations of members of the group can be interpreted as intent to impose living conditions that would destroy the group in part or in whole. For this reason the use of deportations on any scale is a tactic of savagery by a state that can legally be defined as genocide. However slow it might be... it is still genocide. 

In previous post we have explored the intent on Myanmar's part to create refugees of it's minority populations with intent of "ethnically cleansing" it's lands of said groups. Though there are arguments amongst some about the supposed difference between ethnic cleansing and outright genocide, it is the opinion of this blog that the two are the same crime regardless. For that reason the use of such tactics on the part of Myanmar constitute a history of genocide and the continuation of it when dealing with all it's minority groups. 

For the Rohingya this slow bleed has been up to this point has been a genocide characterized by pogroms designed to look like "flash point" events of ethnic unrest. These supposed spontaneous attacks have been accompanied by military action that rapidly follows up behind state supported Rakhine mobs. Where the civilian attackers cannot finish the job the Burmese military picks up the slack. This cooperation shows that despite the appearance of spontaneity, the attacks are often organized and carried out in the same military fashion Myanmar has displayed in the Shan and Kachin states. 

The initial blitz approach to genocide lost steam as the world turned it's eyes upon the newly "democratic" Myanmar. Feeling the pressure to maintain appearances, Burma turned away from outright slaughter and moved toward a slower version of death. Rohingya were rapidly placed into concentration camps without regard to living conditions for the Rohingya themselves. This aspect of organizing IDP camps that would bring about disease, starvation, and eventual death should had shown the intent of genocide on Myanmar's part. But the world looked the other way as Burma sealed off Rohingya villages and created the ghettos that Poland once endured. 

During this entire campaign of slowing down the death toll in the Arakan state the government of Burma expressed a desire to begin deportations. Under the Nasaka small scale deportations did exist. Yet with the old SA gone and the new SS building up it's numbers, the deportations have all but ended. Border security in Myanmar still utilizes human traffickers to deport the Rohingya in boats and along dangerous paths into neighboring countries. This turns a profit for the corrupt Myanmar regime while at the same time fulfilling the government's desire to ethnically cleanse the Arakan. 

Endgame

"We will send them away if any third country would accept them," Thein Sein. "This is what we are thinking is the solution to the issue."

When Hitler laid out his 'Final Solution' to the 'Jewish Question' he did so with the same vitriol that can be heard in Thein Sein's voice when talking about Myanmar's Rohingya question. The hatred that spewed forth in Mein Kamph can be read in every sentence that has come forth from Thein Sein when addressing the "issue" of Rohingya in Myanmar. It isn't enough that the man calls an entire ethnic group and "issue" but that he feels a need to find a "solution" to them. This is the nature of Burma's endgame.

It is not beyond reason to imagine that if Myanmar cannot deport enough Rohingya fast enough (before the next elections) that Thein Sein could look toward more "spontaneous" actions to reduce the Rohingya population. But for now the endgame solution that Burma has chosen to move forward with is that of deportations and concentration camps. The relationship between the two methods is vital to the endgame that Thein Sein's regime (note that Thein Sein is a puppet to a military backed government) has chosen for the genocide of the Rohingya people.

Deportations are a complex operation when carried out by the state. It has historically been shown that the leaders of such crimes feel a compulsion to document the events a dozen different ways. States compelled to expel ethnic groups in mass seems to need such documents to prove the enemy is really gone. But for whatever reason, the removal is always capable of being proven through the perpetrators' own accounts.

One way to organize these crimes has been to first create ghettos, concentration camps, or detention centers of some sort. These facilities, no matter how inhumanely constructed, are vital to the efforts by states to expel any portion of their population. It helps to confine the members of a targeted group so as to prevent people from escaping what they might rightfully perceive as a slow form of death. It also frees up land and property that was owned or occupied by the targeted group.

Once the ghettos are created the state can take an inventory of their victims. The Germans used tattooing to identify victims as they were deported to death camps outside the view of the rest of society. The Ottomans used decapitations and kill houses to count off the dead so as to keep track of how many Armenians they had removed from the empire. Yet in every case the use of some form of confinement has offered the state an opportunity to commit even more atrocities then before.

For the Rohingya the inhumane confinement of Burmese concentration camps and ghettoized villages has offered the state the chance to extort money, carry out sexualized violence, and other depravities. These crimes have all been forms of torment that have kept the Rohingya under living conditions that are meant to kill. And yet these forms of torture are not the endgame for the Rohingya as far as the Burmese regime is concerned.

In the camps there is a stalwart that the government of Myanmar cannot kill through starvation, with bullets, or through disease. It is the most basic refuge of what makes a human a human. It is the deeply planted seed of hope. It is the basic desire for life that keeps even the most anguish ridden soul alive beyond the point of rationality. In the camps there is this clinging to life that Burma's leaders have not yet been able to trample.

For this reason the government has turned to deportations. If they cannot outright kill the entire population with impunity, and death has not yet set in through mass neglect, the final solution comes in the form of removal. That is why Thein Sein, the puppet with whom the world is met, turns to propositioning the world to take the Rohingya away.

In the words of this tyrannical government rest a message that the world will be fullish to so passively overlook. In the offers to deport the Rohingya lay the warning of what awaits those who remain. Though there is no date given in those few words, there is the intent to end this slow genocide once and for all. If the Rohingya are not allowed to be removed they will face death one way or another.

This is an ultimatum that cannot be ignored. And yet it is the rational of an unsound mind that cannot be reasoned with. We cannot accept the deportations of a people and thus end a genocide through a slightly better means then death itself. Yet the leaders of Myanmar are hinting that they will find a way to force the worlds' hand.

Deportations are already underway. Rohingya are pushed out to sea every day. They are bought and sold like cattle and sent off to lives that barely can be called living. These small scale deportations are Burma's way of testing the waters (so to speak). Our tolerance of them only emboldens the perpetrators of these crimes. Our silence helps drive the nail into their coffins.

A Plea... A Scream.

I will close this post in a way that many of Alder's Ledge's contributors have heard time and time again. It is a story that has tainted post after post here on this blog. And though I don't talk about it near as often as some might want... it is a story that best sums up why Alder's Ledge has kept it's voice raised for so long.

I have said before that I can see the faces of my ancestors in the stories that come out of Burma. Time and time again I have faced a part of my own past in a land I knew nothing about just a couple years ago. It has bonded me to a people that I may never get the chance to meet in person. It has connected me to a struggle that many have never heard about. For this reason I scream.

When the Germans entered Croatia they stole from me something that I hadn't even been given yet, my heritage. The holocaust of my ancestors took from my family the will to identify with their past. It stole from them their name, their lineage, their history. For that reason I lost entire portions of a history that I have fought to restore my entire life. It is a battle that led to Alder's Ledge's creation in the first place. It is the heart and soul of why this blog exist. And it is the blood in our cracked voices as we scream for those suffering that same fate. 

I know that many who read this blog don't have that scar to keep them entangled in what can be easily written off as "someone else's fight". It isn't easy to deal with genocide no matter what you own history with it might be. And it certainly isn't a topic that we often think about bringing up, let alone as often as this blog does. 

But I would like to make this plea once again. 

When I look at Burma I see entire masses of people being forced into the struggle I have faced since my eyes were first opened. What is being stolen from them isn't something that they will ever be able to restore to the way it was prior to all this. Many of them are already a generation or two into this battle to hold onto their heritage. Their mothers, their fathers, and for some their grandparents... all watch as their children are robbed of their culture, their history, their family. 

There is no good way to describe the suffering that comes along with this. Anger, hatred... both taint the soul as a person fights to take back what they were denied so violently. For some, those emotions never succumb to the love for life that they feel was crushed beneath the heels of their assailants. 

For me this is just a little of why I fight. It is what motivates these post. And hopefully, the heart of this has been seen in every word. 

Now I would like to ask that those reading this put these post into their own words... with your own heart. Take everything you can from these articles and utilize them to get the message out. Don't let your voice be silent as the Rohingya people are robbed of their humanity. Scream with us. Join us. Fight with us.

Want to learn how you can help? 

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Some Sources Used:

AFP
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/myanmar-moots-camps-deportation-rohingya-solution-093554931.html

Bangkok Post
http://www.bangkokpost.com/lite/topstories/365525/human-rights-watch-opposes-border-camps-for-rohingya

HRW
http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/08/20/thailand-release-and-protect-rohingya-boat-people

These Violent Delights Have Violent Ends

"And In Their Triumph Die, Like Fire And Powder

Which, As They Kiss, Consume."

Innocent Blood

China has taken to a policy of exploitation and dehumanization of it's Uyghur Muslim population in the troubled Xinjiang province. Through the oppressive tactics of exploiting Uyghur as a supply of cheap labor through legislative processes the Chinese have locked the Uyghur people into the role of a permanent underclass. The government routinely looks the other ways as members of the Han majority ethnic group use mob violence to put Uyghur back beneath the heel of People's Republic. When Uyghur dare to fight back against savage attacks they are quickly put down by Chinese security forces.

This is exactly what happened as Uyghur Muslims gathered at the Peyshenbe Bazaar Mosque in Aykol, Xinjiang. According to the official state report the police were supposedly unarmed and simply attempting to arrest a couple worshipers who had been reported to have violated the strict religious laws of China. However if this is to be believed one would have to wonder how the incident quickly spiraled out of control leaving at least four dead and around 20 more wounded. Not a single security officer was injured.

Upon arrival at the Mosque the Chinese police did in fact begin their roundups of Uyghur men they claimed had violated laws restricting religious practices within China. But the security personnel were far from unarmed and simply acting out of legal precedent. The moment the Uyghur showed any resistance to the police officers' displays of force the Chinese security radioed in for backup and commenced to firing live ammunition in amongst the gathered Uyghur civilians. As the bullets began to fly the police's violent tendencies led to a violent tragedy.

Several reports vary on where and how severely Subhinur Memet, a four year old girl, was injured after being struck by police bullets. Some indicate that the little girl took a bullet to the chest while others say that she had been struck in the leg. On any account the young girl collapsed as the police continued to pour bullets into the area where she had fell. As of now the young girl is believed to be alive at least.

Everyone who has reported on the barbaric actions of the police in Aykol agree that tensions between the Uyghur and Chinese authorities flared immensely when the four year old girl was struck down. The Uyghur worshipers apparently ceased from fleeing the fight and turned to attack the police with sticks and stones. With this the police showed more force and more barbarism in their attack by firing even more rounds at closer range.

The result was devastating in a town where relations between the Uyghur population and the Chinese authorities were already strained. With four confirmed dead civilians (some indicate the casualties could be much higher) and a low estimate of at least 20 wounded the town was turned into a miniature police state. After the blood bath was over the Chinese flooded Aykol with every type of police unit they could find.

In response to the resistance that the Uyghur had shown at the Mosque the Chinese officials ordered raids upon Uyghur homes. List of Uyghurs who had been at the Mosque were checked off almost in order as Chinese police took to busting in doors and arresting any Uyghur man or boy who had been present earlier that day. At least three Uyghur women were also arrested by Chinese police as they cast a wide net over Aykol on the night of the Eid massacre. 

Officially only 90 people have been arrested in connection to the violence instigated by Chinese police. However some estimate that the arrest could be well over one to two hundred people as Chinese police raided neighboring villages and towns from where some worshipers had traveled from. On the following day these suspicions were only stoked even more as Aykol citizens reported gunshots from Chinese police positions around the city.

So Why This Attack? Why On Eid? 

China has long restricted the rights of it's Muslim minorities across the country. For the Uyghur this had been a sore spot in the relationship Xinjiang has had with Beijing. It was further stressed as Chinese authorities began to crackdown on prayer violations and religious gatherings amongst Uyghur Muslims. Local mosque have often been kept under police surveillance as the state continues to impose restrictions on prayer times and the length of religious observances. Ramadan has thus turned into a time of tribulation for the Uyghur as they struggle to observe the holy month under increased state sponsored oppression. 

With increased violence, often instigated by Chinese Han and/or police, the Uyghur have found themselves facing travel restrictions that keep them confined in smaller and smaller areas. Farmers are often kept from selling their goods as they wish so that the state's low offer is the only income they can find. Workers are restricted to certain levels of employment and kept from any entrepreneurial ventures. Religious clothing and hair styles are treated as a threat by the state, thus Uyghurs are forced to dress and look like Han Chinese. 

All of this state sponsored repression has led to an Uyghur population that is growing ever desperate for some small taste of freedom and the right to enjoy their own culture. Where they have sought compromise they have been told they must accept the Chinese customs and practices. Where they have attempted to make peace the state has only offered them suffering. 

Uyghur youth who take advantage of educational opportunities often denied to their fellow Uyghur students are turned back once they are done with academia. As their Han classmates move onto careers that fit their level of education, the Uyghur are returned to manual labor for below sustainable incomes. This desire to keep the Uyghur below the Han majority has added yet more stress on the ethnic relations between the two groups. 

So it is no surprise that with all this repression that harsh prayer restrictions and restrictions on religious gatherings would bring relations between Xinjiang and Beijing to a crashing halt. There is no more room for compromise on the Uyghur peoples' part. When it comes to the basic human rights (religion being one) they Uyghur cannot surrender to the will of the atheist state. And that is why incidents like this Eid massacre have taken place and will continue to occur.

These Are Not Polite Suggestions

If China is to maintain it's oppressive presence, at the very least, in Xinjiang it will have to either spill more and more blood or it will have to compromise it's communist and racial ideology. Xenophobic Beijing must learn to accept the ethnic diversity that comprises the rest of China. It will have to stop the importation of Han peasantry into Xinjiang and simply permit the wealth of China's economic growth to be granted to the Uyghurs as well. The ethnic cleansing taking place must be ended and the Uyghurs must be allowed to hold onto their homeland and their way of life. 

Senseless slaughter of any ethnic minority in China must be stopped for China to avoid genocide. Uyghurs cannot be targeted due to their ethnicity to be "destroyed in part or in whole" so that China can benefit in any way from their demise. Their memory will live on, there are always survivors. 

Therefore for China to move forward it must ease tensions by allowing religious observances to occur without police brutality, without police surveillance, and without a police presence. State dogs (officials) must be called off as Muslims, Hindus, Christians, and Jews observe their given holy days. Religious dress must be tolerated for a society to live in peace and pursue economic, social, and national progress. It is not a platitude for a state to tolerate religion but a necessity for the survival of the state itself. 

Ethnic tolerance must be pursued and the bigotry that has been tolerated must be corroded through state and social policies. An education system based upon the ethnic background of the individual must be rejected and replaced with an educational system that seeks out the natural talents of each individual student. Talents and gifts are not distributed by nature, G-d, or what ever you believe in based upon ethnic heritage. China should ask itself where the world would be today if Hitler had been successful in killing off Albert Einstein and his legacy.

If China does not manage to move away from it's current policies of repression and ethnic cleansing it will face far more than stones down the road. A people who are oppressed in this manner have always shown throughout history that violence... the threat of extinction... is never sufficient at keeping them down forever. The Armenians rose up to meet the Young Turks and fought valiantly even as the Ottomans threatened to kill off every Armenian as a result. The Jewish partisans in Yugoslavia, Russia, Poland, and across Europe took to violent resistance as the threat of Nazism engulfed the world around them. Native Americans time and time again stood between death and the United States and yet they fought more fiercely than anyone could had imagined. 

In the end China will have to remember the words of JFK as they continue to repress the Uyghur people.

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." 

~John F. Kennedy

This is not a "jihad" for the unlawful control of their country. This is not a war to take from China land, material wealth, or even souls. This isn't even a war at all in the aspect that one side has nothing with which to fight back. This is a struggle by the Uyghur people to keep their heritage alive, to keep their religious rights from being wiped away. This is the struggle of a people to maintain their cultural identity as the Chinese government attempts to take from them the last hallmarks of their culture... their religion. 

Want to learn more about this issue or others covered by Alder's Ledge?

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Source Documents
(Note: not all sources listed)

Radio Free Asia
www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/clashes-08102013000244.html
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/shooting-08122013193025.html

The Epoch Times
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/242294-china-police-break-up-uyghur-celebration-shooting-four-dead/

China's Hidden Jihad

The Atheist State's Unholy War On Uyghur Muslims

Repression is not defined by strict measurements. If a state is able to deny the basic rights of a people in any way it is crossing over into the realm of repression. If it attempts to limit the access of a people to their faith it is a repressive regime. If it blocks a people from the same rights that it assures to others within it's population the state is repressive by nature. It is an act of tyranny that though it may be hard to put to words it is always identifiable when you see it.

In a country where the state has no prescribed religion and recognizes only the rights of the majority the line between normality and repression is often blurred. But it is there. And for the Uyghur people it is a reality that threatens to deny them their heritage, their faith, and their future. For in a state where the perverted desires of the few are put above the needs of the many it is always those left on the fringe that pay the most. In China's unstable Xingiang region the Uyghur people are the ones left on the fringe of society. They are the ones that bear the weight of a country's greed.

The weight of a nation can break the will of a people to fight... to resist. Yet when pushed too far that weight can create unity. A certain bond is formed in a people that are oppressed by brutal tyrants. It is a link to that once formed it is hard to break. All the degradation, all the humiliation, all the pain and suffering; they become reasons to push back. The tears that mothers have shed over children taken away by jackbooted thugs become the water that nurtures bitter seeds. The blood and sweat that fathers sacrifice for their families' sake only serve to feed the hunger for change. All of which are planted in the minds of the youth who watch as their parents backs' break under the heavy hands of authoritarian beasts.

Change that comes from this form is not something that waits patiently for the right time and place. Change that comes from this form is that which comes like fire. It razes the structure of society and puts siege to the cornerstone of a government that has held it down for far too long.

This is what China is struggling to contain as it tucks it's iron fists in a velvet glove. All the while the regime finds new ways to keep prying eyes out of the troubled region. For this reason the national propaganda is the only form of press allowed into areas where the security forces heighten their presence. China is once again attempting to blackout the region so that the rest of the world can't see what dirty deeds are being done behind closed doors.

The rage that China created in the hearts and minds of the Uyghur community has flared up time and time again. With each new riot came an opportunity to round up the men and boys. With each new stabbing or alleged attack came a new chance for China to open fire on Uyghur protesters. The most notable incident in recent memory was the July 5th 2009 violence in Urumqi. It was a riot in which the Han majority was rewarded for turning a peaceful protest violent. Their reward has been the persistent repression of their Uyghur neighbors every July since.

This past Ramadan the anniversary of the July violence was celebrated by the fascist state by placing hundreds of Uyghur students in detention centers where they were not allowed to observe the holy month. Uyghur children were bussed to state run schools where they were forced to hand over all electronic devices that could be used to contact the outside world. Once under arrest the children were daily subjected to state propaganda that was intended to help the reeducation process take root in the Uyghur community.

"Due to Ramadan, places of worship will be forbidden from holding all sorts of religious teaching activity. If there are violations, the places will be sealed."

~ Posted Chinese Order in Karamay

In addition the state supported increased police presence in Uyghur neighborhoods across the Xinjiang region. In Karamay the security forces were meant to enforce restrictions on Uyghur travel and to prevent visits to mosque and religious facilities. Those allowed to visit the mosque were ordered when they could be present in the mosque and for how long. A police officer was present at all times to assure the order was carried out to the letter of the law. Not a minute longer was allowed in the heavily restricted prayer times.

Then comes the French style ban on headscarves. Chinese authorities in many parts of Xinjiang have put out orders to prevent Uyghur women from wearing hijabs and other traditional head coverings. Most notably the area of Hotan has seen (mostly peaceful) demonstrations against such restrictive ordinances that violate the Uyghur peoples' religious rights.

"We have a policy of going and checking bearded and strangely clothed people, according to orders from the top,” Uchturpan public security department’s intelligence unit.

This restriction on religious attire was highlighted on August 5th when a Uyghur man was stopped by two police officers and ordered to shave his beard. When the man refused the altercation became violent. As a result the police pulled their weapons and opened fire. In the end the Uyghur man was gunned down while using his knife to defend what dignity the state had left him with.

All of these are just examples of the barbarism with which the Uyghurs are forced to live. When local concerns are brought through the proper channels the state responds with vast sweeps of the community and even harsher laws. This sort of discrimination against the Uyghurs, who watch as the state ships in Han settlers, is the food for revolution. It cannot be ignored as China attempts to force economic advancement while segregating the minority population from the economic windfall.

With every exploitation that the Uyghur people suffer comes a new seed cast in a bitter field. And while only time will tell what will grow from this maltreatment it is only reasonable to assume that it will not be beneficial to the state. A government cannot sow the worst forms of abuse and expect to reap the best of a neglected population's efforts.

So what exactly are the seeds that China is planting? 

Displacement and Replacement

Let's start with the displacement of Uyghur people and the replacement by the state with ethnic Han Chinese.

The outbreak of violence in July of 2009 drastically changed the way that China approached the issue of "assimilation" and "economic adjustments" in the Xinjiang region. Where the government had been attempting to stifle religious practices gradually while simultaneously increasing manufacturing activity in Uyghur villages and cities they suddenly ramped up their approach.

By the end of July 2009 the capitol of Urumqi was blanketed with 20,000 new Chinese military personnel. Uyghur citizens were forced out of large sections of the city while the government bussed in Han citizens. Homes where Uyghur families had just recently raised their children were now being occupied by Chinese transported in from Eastern China. The jobs these displaced Uyghurs had held in local factories were then handed over by the state to the Han immigrants. Any Uyghur who dared to speak out was caught up in the dragnet that the security forces had cast over the city.

Official and unofficial detainment centers were created for the Uyghur citizens of Urumqi. Countless civilians who were detained after the riots were not heard from again. This helped China's official campaign of uprooting the Uyghur people. It allowed the Han immigrants to be left in place since nobody would be coming back to claim the "abandoned" homes in which the state had placed them.

If we fast forward a couple years the campaign of displacing Uyghurs has not stopped. It has instead grown and been added onto as China continues to "develop" the region by removing the native population. With one way the Uyghur population is being displaced is through the forcible relocation of young Uyghur girls.

In official propaganda the state tells Uyghur women that the process of moving to Eastern China to work in factories is both "enjoyable" and "rewarding". In reality the Uyghur women face absolutely no security as they are placed in areas without social networks to help them adjust to the abrupt deportation from their homeland. Girls who are relocated are given little to no education about where they are being sent to. Religious, social, and cultural concerns are not addressed once the Uyghur girls are shipped to factory jobs that pay them less than their Han counterparts.

Wage Disparity

While income in the West is dictated by the relationship between the employer and the employee the income for the Uyghur is dictated by the relationship between the ethnic group and the state. This is most painfully obvious when we look at the Uyghur people who are subjected to inhumane working conditions in Chinese factories. While employment is relative to their ethnicity in areas more directly state controlled economic regions those who do find employment are restricted to jobs the state finds suitable for their "ethnic class". 

In studies done in 2008 researchers found that the "informal economy" of Xinjiang was segmented not by what a person could achieve or their level of education in a field but rather their given ethnicity. This showed that ethnic Han were given the highest paying jobs while Uyghur workers were only permitted to perform menial task and lower levels of employment. There was not one single career field shown that could prove this given rule of employment in Xinjiang wrong. Across the board Uyghur workers were being forced to work beneath Han (who at times had less education and/or training). 

These economic studies showed that despite any apparent equality that China claimed existed in their schools that Uyghur were limited in their own "autonomous region". No matter how hard a Uyghur student tried they would not be permitted by the current economic system to advance to the top of their career field simply due to their ethnicity. 

For the Uyghur who worked at the top level permitted to them in this bias system there was the added reality that income was slanted in favor of Han workers. The same studies showed that Uyghur who held the same job and did the same work as a Han citizen earned considerably less. This once again served the Chinese goal of repression in both economic and social standings for the Uyghur community. 

Social Inequality

Religious and ethnic prejudice against the Uyghur people in China is both an institutionalized and social mechanism.

Religious 

While the state officially recognizes the Uyghur as "racially and culturally distinct" (thus making them a recognized minority) they do little to respect the culture of the Uyghur people. This is based in the constitution of China in the aspect that the official religious status of the state is that it is atheist. However, religious tolerance is achieved (minutely) through the lose wording which states that China has the right to regulate "normal religious activities". The wording is measured in such that it permits the state the right to dictate to a given faith what is "normal" and what is not. Therefore giving China permission to deny religious observances, practices, and organizations at any time for any reason.

The willingness on China's part to accept Islam as a "normal" part of Muslim culture has broadened over the past couple decades as China has grown in both its economy and materialistic needs. With exploitative relationships with Middle Eastern countries came the desire on China's part to show that it can tolerate Islam... to an extent. This allows China the ability to play it's hand with trading partners while at the same time telling Western nations that it is becoming more religiously tolerant.

In reality the religious tolerance that China shows toward Muslim minorities is limited only to what it views is beneficial to the state. When political pressure is mounted by the outside the Chinese either give a token of goodwill or simply block access to regions like Xinjiang all together. In the end the religious rights of the repressed minority never truly grow but are simply loaned for a time before being taken away again.

As for the cultural aspect of religious discrimination the nature of the problem arises through long held prejudices against Muslims in Western China. From the very moment that Islam arrived there have been distinctions made between the faith and its followers and the rest of Chinese society. One of the main reasons has been the fact that Islam first arrived by traveling up the "silk road".

The fact that Islam arrived in China through the mouths and books of merchants has damaged the relationship between Muslim minorities and the Han majority every since. This is in part due to the class system found in China at the time of Islam's arrival. It was a class system that placed merchants at the bottom of the totem pole for the fact that they were seen as "leeches". This meant that Chinese society viewed merchants as contributing the least to society while benefiting the most from it. Thus when Islam arrived in China through the economic trade with the West it was immediately viewed as barbaric.

The stigma that Muslim minorities face can still be traced back to the class system of the Han Dynasty. Today Muslim minorities are still traditionally portrayed as greedy, underhanded, manipulative, and as liars. These prejudices are often applied by the less educated masses of Western China and have shown no signs of leaving the society as education levels rise amongst the citizens of Xinjiang province. The fact that they are so interwoven with the social fabric of China's Han majority has proven to make these prejudices hard to displace.

Ethnic

Ethnic differences in China are difficult to navigate around. While it is at times seen as beneficial to be classified as an ethnic minority it has proven more often than not damning for the Uyghur people. From the moment they are born the Uyghur people are subjected to discrimination due to the given ethnicity they were born as. It is not a far leap for us to suggest that large portions of the opportunities in their lives are shut out by the state simply based upon ethnic classification.

The government of China is structured so rigidly on ethnic lines that Uyghur children face their first encounter with ethnic discrimination from their first day of school. Even in schools that flaunt their "mixed" ethnic student body the Uyghur children can face both physical and mental abuse by their Han classmates and teachers. This is only amplified as Uyghur children work their way from lower levels of education to higher levels. 

Once out of the government's schools the Uyghur youth are barraged by social standards that reiterate the supposed superiority of the Han ethnicity to that of their own. Employment, communal participation, and social standings are all regulated by one form of ethnic discrimination or another. Even in an "autonomous" region, where government is supposed to reflect the given ethnic group, those in charge are chosen by their loyalty to the Han majority. 

This persistent reminder of a person's lack of supposed value shows the willingness of the Chinese state to subjugate it's own citizens. Of course after a certain point it would be arguable that given the perception of the state, and the way it views it's own people, that China does not see the Uyghur people as Chinese citizens. 

For this reason the Chinese government can look forward to the harvest of these vile seeds it has sown. No people should have to live with this sort of barbaric heathenism shown by the Beijing. No people, if history is the best indicator of future behavior, will forever bear this sort of abuse.

(Note: The use of "jihad" in the title is in response to China's misuse of the word when reporting on ethnic violence committed in Xinjiang. We here at Alder's Ledge would like to clarify that jihad is a word that, though misunderstood due to misuse, has a rather beautiful meaning. The word jihad can best be defined as to strive to live a life pleasing to G-d (Allah). This means that it is a term which encourages the believer to strive for a life or morality and greater understanding of their duty to serve the L-rd. However, through it's misuse and misunderstanding over time the term has been associated with "holy war". This misuse of the word was not intended by Alder's Ledge in the aspect that it would further perpetrate this misunderstanding.)

Want to learn more about the Uyghur people and their plight? 

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Source Documents
(note: not all sources listed)

Radio Free Asia
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/attack-07292013171133.html
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/uchturpan-08052013173737.html
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/scholar-07312013173204.html

The Diplomat
http://thediplomat.com/2013/08/04/xinjiang-reassessing-the-recent-violence/2/

Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/07/07/DI2009070701491.html

Forced Migration

http://www.forcedmigration.org/podcasts-videos-photos/podcasts/uyghur-women

University of Washington Tacoma 

http://digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=ppe_prize

Other Sources

http://www.tonyjhowell.com/papers/Minority_income_disparity_in_Xinjiange.pdf

Don't Drink The Tea

China's Response To Uyghur Dissidents

(Image via The Diplomat)

In a nation that represses even the most basic of human rights what can we honestly define an activist as? Is it not somebody who seeks the liberties that social media and television flaunt before them every day? Is it not a person who asks of his/her government why they cannot say or write what they wish to express to the world at large? Is it not a person who seeks the freedom to pursue their own happiness over that of the “greater good”… especially in a nation that dictates just what the greater good is?

For the supporters from both the Uyghur community in China and those from the outside the definition is unclear. It isn’t until a government official ask them to “drink tea” that they realize that they are considered activist by Chinese standards. But by that time it is too late. The government has already cast its judgment. False charges are already being drawn up and indefinite detention is already a reality. For the supporters of the Uyghur in China the mere appearance of activism is a crime.

After the ethnic violence in Xinjiang over the past two months the government of China has been increasing it’s military presence in the region. Paramilitary units meant to reinforce the police state have been deployed in Uyghur neighborhoods to create a permanent police presence. Curfews are imposed in areas where China’s police have deployed riot vehicles and stockpiled tear gas. This drastic response to 35 deaths in June would indicate at very least a tinge of fear on China’s part. It most certainly would instill fear on the targeted community, the Uyghurs of Western China.

This response is the largest such response in four years since the 2009 riots in Urumqi. It was in that massive riot that 200 plus citizens were killed, hundreds were arrested, and an untold number were found to be missing after China deployed it’s dragnet approach to policing it’s citizens. After the Urumqi tragedy the state cut off Internet for an entire year. In addition the Uyghur, blamed by the state for the violence imposed against them, were left with a police state where constant surveillance and police harassment became the new normal.

This latest round of ethnic violence in the region shows that at least on some level the Uyghur people have grown tired of being forced to work for China’s “greater good”. While the Eastern portion of China has prospered off the sweat of Uyghur youths’ brows the Uyghur people themselves have been left out of the economic growth. Their villages, their cities, and their “autonomous region” has watched as the natural resources they posses have been shipped eastward. Uyghur parents have watched as their children have been forcibly stripped of their culture and ethnic heritage. All that has been left for the Uyghur community living in China’s shadows is resentment.

Now as the youth of the Uyghur community show an interest in advancing their own prosperity the state has shown it’s willingness to utilize it’s iron fist. Students who have spoken out in the most moderate of fashions have been told by Beijing’s agents in Xinjiang to go with them to “drink tea”. This is an informal way of arresting the student and forcing them to go along with the state agent. What happens next can vary in many ways. At times the student arrested can end up in official jails to be detained for crimes they clearly did not commit. At other times the state can make these “dissidents” disappear by taking arrested Uyghur “activist” to black prisons. All connection to the outside world is cut off and the student is not heard from again till the state decides to release it’s victim. For Mutellip Imin this is exactly what happened on July 15^th. Imin, 24 years of age, has not been heard from yet. His cellphone has been shut off and the last message received from him was “SOS”.

This strategy is just one more way China has followed the West in an unholy war on terror. For the past decade China has been labeling Uyghur groups and individuals as “jihadist” to excuse the excesses of government officials and police agents. When China overreaches and, if for a moment, the media begins to pick up on the state’s abuses the magic word “terrorism” appears. It is China’s new method of spreading Beijing’s authority further westward as economic growth fuels ethnic cleansing.

In the past four years China’s iron fist has shown the Uyghur that if they will not work as slaves for the greater good they will be expected to leave the country all together. Any that stay in their homeland are expected to accept the religious and ethnic discrimination imposed by Beijing. Those who stay are expected to work themselves to death for a country that views them as permanent outsiders.

As for the West, the reality of what the Uyghur community in China faces has been covered up by the obsession with a romanticized “Arab Spring”. In our attempts to view the Middle East as “coming over to our side” or “becoming more secular” we have ignored the plight of ethnic minorities across the globe. While Egypt fights to determine it’s own fate the Uyghur people struggle to throw off a fate imposed upon them by a nation that has rejected them. While Iran toys with the notion of moderating the role of religion over the state the Uyghur have their religion banned by a state that touts it’s authority over them. And yet for the past four years we have heard little to nothing about the Uyghur people who are fighting for their dignity, their culture, and their heritage.

Want to learn more about this subject or others covered by Alder's Ledge?

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Source Documents 

(note: not all sources listed)

The Diplomat 

http://thediplomat.com/2013/07/15/chinas-wild-west/

Epoch Times

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/199116-chinese-police-detain-uyghur-student-at-airport/

Alder's Ledge

http://aldersledge.blogspot.com/2013/06/beneath-heel-peoples-republic.html

Where Civil Blood Makes Civil Hands Unclean

Death Toll Rising In Guinea

Religion. Politics. Tribal Vengeance. Old Mutiny.

Any of these things can be blamed for the latest spat between the Guerze and Konianke peoples. More poetic writers might be more apt to exaggerating the events to make it sound more dramatic than it really was. Yet what happened Monday in Nzerekore, Guinea was far from poetic. It was barbarism, at best.

A simple spat over supposed theft was all it took to drag a city of nearly 300,000 people into the chaos of ethnic violence. The brutal beating and murder of a Konianke youth by Guerze gas station guards was a spark. It lit a fire in the city that took two days to exhaust as police presence on the streets began to resemble military might. Law enforcement, dressed in battle gear, rode out the violence since they could not quell it through brute force.

By Wednesday morning the streets in Nzerekore resembled a war zone. Around 80 people had been wounded, including a Guerze tribal chief, and at least 54 had been killed. According to a doctor that refused to identify himself there were many more who had been either burnt beyond recognition or hacked to pieces. Leaving the official death toll limited to those that could be readily identified through ID papers or by relatives and friends.

In addition to the sudden influx of wounded and dead in Nzerekore there had been cars and homes destroyed by arson attacks and vandalism. For many these very places had been the only safe refuge they had as the rival mobs had carried out rolling battles across the city.

So what lay at the root of this latest outbreak of ethnic violence in Guinea?

Politics and Old Mutiny

In recent years the West, and Americans in particular, have come to realize that diamonds and precious metals originating in West Africa are often products of war and genocide. The term "blood diamonds" was coined and led to countless books and even an award winning movie produced in Hollywood. But the reality of what these conflict minerals actually leave behind has eluded many in Western culture. We tend not to think of the crimes these materials help fund or how many lives they cost. We really only tend to think of how we can obtain said materials without the guilt of purchasing "blood diamonds" while still affording such luxuries.

For the citizens of Sierra Leone these diamonds helped directly fund the horrific crimes of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the RUF/Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC). These barbarians mutilated civilians, massacred their victims, and forcibly conscripted children into their ranks to serve as child soldiers. One of their most prominent purchasers was the then acting president of Liberia, Charles Taylor.

It was this bankrolling of crimes against humanity that ended up having Charles Taylor becoming the first head of state to be formally charged with such crimes in an international court since Nuremberg. This was the first case in which a tyrannical savage (former state leader) was brought to justice in decades. And yet the legacy his time in power had left upon the region would not be so easily forgotten.

During Charles Taylor's run for presidency in Liberia a savage civil war broke out. What was supposed to be a civil election process had turned into a barbaric battle for total power over the country and it's resources. Charles Taylor only "won" the election by threatening to restart the war if he was not elected. Thus the savage took power under threat of more blood shed.

So what does this have to do with the ethnic violence in Guinea?

Every since Charles Taylor's insurgency against the setting president of Liberia in December of 1989 the war criminal has drawn upon support from the Guerze tribes, known as Kpelle in Liberia. Taylor exploited the animosity that the Guerze tribal leaders had instilled in their people against the "newcomers", the Konianke people. Using this tribal divide, Taylor was able to build upon the hatred that already existed and work the tribal groups into ready-to-fight militias. This was a tactic that Taylor would again utilize during the rebellion against him in 1999 (later called The Second Liberian Civil War).

In successive struggles to maintain power the war criminal would continue to feed the hatred and distrust that fomented between the Guerze and Konianke people. In 1999's rebellious days Taylor would tell his loyalist that the Mandingo (considered to be Liberia's Konianke community) were the cause for the countries problems. Scapegoating the Konianke, Taylor then added to the accusations that Guinea was behind the rebellion in his country.

This legacy of mistrust and political hatred for one another has been left behind by corrupt politicians like Charles Taylor. It is one of the reasons that such ethnic tensions become strained to the point of violence in Guinea (and the region for that matter) during times of political elections. Any spark during these times leaves the communities of these two tribes susceptible to ethnic violence.

It is a reality in Guinea that the government has become far to aware of. In May there were more than 50 people were killed in violence resulting from ethnic and political protest ahead of the expected electoral process in Guinea. These deaths, not related to the incident above, were results of clashes between the Peuhl tribe and Malinke tribe. Yet both cases of ethic violence are heralds of the upcoming elections across the country.

Religion and Tribal Vengeance

When you talk about the "holy war" between Christians and Muslims in Africa you most often end up in Nigeria. The bitter struggle for control over the religious aspect of African society has nearly drawn a line between the Northern half of sub-Saharan Africa and the Southern half. With Arabic influences in the north and black African Muslims spreading their faith southward the battle for souls has turned into a bloody stalemate. Animist and people of local religions have been the bait for the two hungry armies as they bite at the bit in deadly head-on charges against their opposing faith. Nigeria is just the apex of this struggle.

For Guinea the clash between Islam and Christendom has left the country in a constant state of potential war. Christians in Guinea to this day hold deep prejudices against Muslims they view as "new comers" or interlopers. While Muslims in Guinea continue to find themselves as pawns in political struggles in Guinea and the surrounding area. The religious fervor on both sides however leaves the two communities far to willing and ready to fight one another at the drop of a hat.

When looking at Guinea it may not seem fair to compare it to the hellish state of affairs that is Nigeria at the moment. But it is completely understandable that the rolling battles of Guinea are just a short distance away from the entrenched wars of Nigeria. If the religious aspect of the feuds between Guerze and Konianke peoples is not formally addressed by both government and religious leaders the situation the two communities face is quite possibly more similar to Rwanda than Nigeria.

This religious divide that for the moment seems to act as an impasse is only further exacerbated by the ethnic divide. With the Guerze people compiling around 40 percent of the population in Guinea they act as the ethnic majority. And nearly since the initial independence of Guinea from France the Guerze people have been the political backbone of the country. This changed however with the succession of coups and deaths of one corrupt politician after the other. In 1984 when Lansana Conte (a member of the Susu people) took power the Christian population of Guinea found themselves under a Muslim ruler. For the Guerze community leaders the divide on religion took the forefront of the disputes between their community and the Konianke every since.

In the coming election this divide between religion and politics has narrowed even more. With the Konianke people backing Alpha Conde and the Guerze people backing the opposition the religious views of Conde are at the forefront of the political struggle. The Konianke only comprise somewhere around 30 percent of the population, so it is clear as to why they would back Conde. After all, Alpha Conde is a Mulsim from their own ethnic group. So it is seen that he would assure their community some stability in this long standing war between the two religious parties involved.

For the Guerze community leaders the presidency of Alpha Conde would be yet another Islamic leader who could reinstate a junta style government. The fears of living under Islam are palpable in the way these community leaders address the issue. Hate and vitriol spill from both sides, yet it is more prevalent in a community that seems to believe they have more to lose than their opponent.

Endless Misery

It is impossible for somebody in my position to adequately address the issues these two ethnic groups face in this upcoming election. It would be arrogant to say that I fully understand the nature to the conflict that exist between them. Yet at the same time I can honestly say that if neither side makes drastic changes in the way they view the other then the misery that has been Guinea's past will continue to be its future. Without compromise and some form of strong leadership, whether that be political or religious, an accusation of theft will always risk countless days of senseless violence and bloodshed.

As for the government of Guinea, there are serious steps ahead in the path to social and political reforms that are desperately needed. There is a clear hunger for democratic reforms amongst the people of this country. Yet whenever they show up to make their voices heard they have been met with religious and racial violence. It is a problem that everyone is watching yet no one seems willing to address.

If social and political reforms are not carried out immediately under the next president the country of Guinea should face more stringent criticism and economic reprisals from the UN and Western world. A government that would tolerate the senseless violence that has become the hallmarks of its electoral process cannot be treated with kid gloves. If we would not tolerate it within our own borders we must not make excuses for it when such atrocities are imposed upon other people.

In Guinea the endless misery of religious, ethnic, and political violence has been rewarded by a world that remains silent.

Want to learn more about this issue and others covered by Alder's Ledge? 

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Source Documents
(note not all sources are listed)

Al Jazeera
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/07/201371711358547118.html
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/05/2013531131553623253.html

Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/17/guinea-violence-toll-idUSL6N0FN41520130717
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/17/guinea-violence-idUSL6N0FN3ZR20130717

All Africa
http://allafrica.com/stories/201307170237.html

Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/07/17/death-toll-in-guinea-ethnic-violence-rises-above-50-medic/

Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org/topic/international-justice/charles-taylor
http://www.hrw.org/node/106418
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/guinea1209web_0.pdf

Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/2010/0119/What-s-behind-Christian-Muslim-fighting-in-Nigeria

BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23335719