Hunted Down Like Dogs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But imagine that you stay...

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

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

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

A Look At The Murderers

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

(Propaganda Sparked A "Scorched Earth" Policy)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Rohingya Child Dehydrated And Starving To Death)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Slow Walk Into Hell

A Look At Burma's Forced Famine
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

(Blockades Hold Back Food, Water, and Medical Aid)

As Burma prepares the Rohingya for "citizenship" the order of the day appears to be starvation and police brutality. Thein Sein has publicly claimed that any Muslim who is a citizen of Myanmar will be treated as such under the newly formed democratic regime. Yet Rohingya and other Muslim ethnic groups in Burma have been subject to ethnic cleansing since June of 2012. This sort of violence occurred under the old Junta control and prior to Colonial power in the region. However this time around the threat of a total genocide against the Rohingya appears more plausible than ever before now that neighboring countries are developed enough to prevent escape. 

In the months that followed the massive influx of ethnic violence in the region the Junta style authorities reappeared in the Rakhine region of Burma. Police and military leaders immediately began rounding up Rohingya and in some incidents mass executions have taken place. Rohingya who were able to fight back were dealt with through systematic roundups and disarming by government and Buddhist militia like mobs. Those who survived were forced into camps that greatly resemble the small concentration camps used by the Japanese during World War Two. 

For those who were taken to police run camps and prisons the stories of torture became a very real situation. Boys as young as their early teens have been taken to these "safe houses" and prisons where they have been subjected to torture without ever once being convicted of any crime. Piles of bodies have been reported near or behind these facilities so as to leave the Muslim bodies out and unburied well past the time allotted for such ceremonies given by the Koran.

Yet now that the outside world has shown even the most minimal amount of interest the Burmese government has pulled back on outright slaughter of the Rohingya. Instead of the mass executions that immediately followed the outbreak of violence, the Myanmar authorities have turned to their Communist teachings for inspiration in implementing the Rohingyas' "final solution". Following in the footsteps of Stalin, Thein Sien's government has begun expanding upon their original goal of starving out the Rohingya who they claim hide in the "illegal refugee camps". This method is meant to recreate Stalin's infamous "forced famines". 

(Wasting Away As The Outside World Watches)

The goal of this barbaric method of warfare is to force submission or extermination of a selected group by withholding the basics all humans need to live. In the case of the Rohingya the Burmese have decided to blockade the camps and keep all sources of food, water, and medical aid out of Rohingya hands. Police and military have been recorded going into the camps to fetch any source of food or water that the Rohingya may scavenge. The blockades also serve as a way to keep the Rohingya in the camps so that they have no hope of escape. In affect, the refugee camps within Myanmar have become death camps. 

Starvation is the new reality for the Rohingya who hoped this wave of ethnic cleansing would pass like all the rest. Their children are dieing at an alarming rate as malnutrition claims the weakest members of their community first. Without some form of help soon the Rohingya within Burma may face total hell at the hands of their tormentors. 

There are stories leaking out of Burma that the government is growing tired of waiting. That the regime wants the "final solution" sooner than later. Military personnel have been reported to have been growing in number in regions further away from where Western media normally has access too. These soldiers, as usual, carry only more ammunition and absolutely no aid for the Rohingya they are now harassing. Even with starvation claiming more lives every day... it appears the Buddhists in charge are looking to cleanse their land of all other religions once and for all. 

This is the face of genocide in the modern age. This is the face of genocide in Myanmar. How long till we act? How many more times do we have to watch this before our hearts begin to beat?

Killing by Hunger

The Holodomor.

Joseph Stalin was the kind of dictator who saw enemies everywhere. From the rise of fascism in the west to the rise of imperialism in Japan, Stalin was surrounded by enemies. But his list of enemies in his mind didn't stop with just the outside forces. Stalin's most punished foes were those trapped in his Soviet Union.

During the forced famine, the Soviet Famine of 1932-1933, the Ukraine became one of Stalin's main targets. The commands that come down the line were orders that incited the 20Th century's first peacetime genocide.

To begin the genocide Stalin gave the order to punish the "peasant" class in the Ukraine. The order was evident from the very beginning seeing as how the famine suddenly stopped at the border between Russia and the Ukraine. Yet the leaders of the Ukraine SSR were still forced to refuse food aid and ship all food grown to their Russian leaders.

Starved Ukrainians were then often shot if they were found with food or attempting to steal food from the fields protected by Soviet soldiers. Others would by the end of the famine resort to cannibalism to survive. By the end of 1933 there would be millions dead from starvation and 2,500 people convicted for cannibalism.

Many historians have picked over the suspected reasons for the forced famine in the Ukraine. Some have even claimed that the Holodomor was not a genocide since other parts of the Soviet Union also suffered smaller famines (much smaller). As for Alder's Ledge, the famine in the Ukraine was nothing more than an attempt to subdue an imagined enemy... an enemy that Stalin had a long history of targeting, the Ukrainians themselves.

No major rebellions were yet recorded within the Soviet Union's Ukraine SSR state. The "peasant" class had done nothing to stop the "collectivization" in the Ukraine. They hadn't even impeded the tyranny that Stalin's Soviets used to bring the Ukraine in line with Russia's policies. Yet Stalin still saw his "enemy within" when he looked toward the large landmass to the west. This socialist republic after all was his "buffer" between Russia and the West.

However, despite any rational explanation for the famine... if there is any... the fact remains that it did happen. And during its nearly two year reign nearly 10 million ethnic Ukrainians would die. Their skeletal frames would simply be walking one moment and then stacked in heaps at the edge of their villages or towns the next. Men, women, and children were all the targets of Stalin's forced famine. Everything that needed food to survive were victims of the Soviets' master plan.

In the spring of 1932 the Soviets initiated their policy of starvation by beginning the exportation of all food substances from the Ukraine. The grains that had over wintered in the fields were now cut down and sent to Russia. Many fields that were now ready to plant were left barren while those planted out for the fall harvest were suddenly being patrolled by Soviet guards. The famine had begun.

As hunger sat in the Soviets began distributing Agitprop movies in the urban areas of the Ukraine to support the "cause"... to support collectivization. These movies all portrayed the peasants as greedy "rats" that were hiding wheat and potatoes while the urban workers were dieing. These videos did not however point out the fact that the rations from Moscow were now dwindling with each passing day. They were simply movies to incite class warfare and as the movies pointed out (due to a law passed in August of 1932 that stated all food was "state property") food was a weapon.

As rations in the cities suddenly came to an abrupt stop in the winter of 1932 the number of dead spiked. To force the numbers even higher the Soviets would also cut power and heat from time to time. The famine's own killing power never seemed to suffice Stalin's rage... or paranoia.

In the winter of 1932 and at the start of 1933 the Soviets began to print posters that read "To eat your own children is a barbarian act." The will to survive was now driving more and more people to unthinkable acts. This was the time period that the number of convictions for cannibalism rose the most.

To make things worse, from November of 1932 to the following December the Soviets had taken all forms of livestock to the Russian border. They had claimed that this was because the peasant class had not met their "grain quota" for the fall of 1932. In reality it was to hurry up the number of deaths by depriving the Ukrainians of any protein (it was clear that the Soviets would have taken the rats if they could).

By December of 1932 the peasants farms were put onto "blacklist" of the Soviets. This meant that if the farms could not meet their unrealistic quotas they would now be ordered to hand over 15 times the previous quota. In reality this meant that Russia wanted to take everything down to the last bread crumb.

The blacklisted farms would now become death zones. The peasants who had been portrayed as "greedy hoarders" were now the most punished. Blacklisted farms could no longer legally receive rations or trade in any manner with other farms or villagers. Blacklisting was a way to hand out death sentences.

As for the rest of the Ukraine, that same month they would all be required to hand over any grains or food sources they had on hand to meet the Russians' demands. They had been required in November to provide a third of all the Soviets grain harvest for 1932. Now they would be required to hand over anything they had left. To deny the Soviets their demands was considered treason and punishable by death.

As January approached it became clear to the Russians that the Ukrainian borders had to be sealed. Thousands of ethnic Ukrainians were fleeing all through the winter and the numbers were sure to rise as spring approached. So by the end of February 1933 an estimated 190,000 "peasants" were turned around at the borders and forced to return to their villages to die.

The main "enforcers" of the genocide however were not Soviet soldiers. Instead Stalin implemented his policy of "give me a child of 8 years old and I can make it into anything I wish". Taking the youth of the Ukraine, mainly the urban teenagers, under his wing Stalin formed his version of a Hitler Youth program.

These brainwashed enforcers were upholders of the Soviet law that stated that all food was property of the state. These youthful socialist thus fanned out across the country to find and "prosecute" all those who would dare to commit theft against their beloved "state". They did it with such enthusiasm so as to construct watch towers all around the country.

Like many gangs of young vigilantes these youth brigades didn't stop at just attacking peasants who happened to have their rations of food. Instead these brigades of rowdy teens were often known to force peasants to box one another for the children's entertainment. They would then make the peasants get on all fours and bark like dogs. Then if the peasants were lucky the youth brigades would simply kill them. Women who happened to outlive their male "comrades" were often the targets of rape by the same brigades of vigilantes.

For those who happened to survived the famine the lingering memory of hunger and cannibalism would stick for generations. In the years that have passed since the genocide's end many governments have recognized the event for what it was. Others, like Russia, still do not admit nor allow the event to be taught in their public schools. However for Ukrainians it will forever be remembered as Holodomor... killing by hunger.





Some historians claim that the death toll was only 5 million Ukrainians. The most accurate estimate puts the death toll of the Holodomor puts the number of deaths near 10 million.