Open Your Eyes

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

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

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

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

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

(Rohingya IDP Camp Outside Sittwe, 2012)

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

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

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

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

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

Lebensraum And Burma

Living Space for the Kalar
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

In Buddhism the Swastika might be a symbol of luck and peace, the Nazi flag however...

Across the world societies have often turned to an ethnocentric version of their collective history by isolating a portion of their community from the rest. This willingness to segregate shows the weaknesses of the society in which they occur. To the outsider it is easy to identify how these chinks in the armor create a fatal flaw. However for those who are bound by the facade of morality these societies uphold this need to hate is almost unrecognizable. 

In many cases these flaws in the makeup of the society can go on for decades without incident. Both the isolated community and the rest of society can almost learn to accept their roles in the overall scheme of things. Little digs at the targeted community can even be tolerated for some time without much friction. Words such as "nigger, kike, and faggot" might even become popular amongst the majority. And given the frequency of the abuse both majority and minority might even become accustom to a situation that outsiders would find intolerable.


Then comes a group of antagonist.

With some effort a group or individual can exploit the rift that floats just beneath the surface. This occurred in Germany with the rise of the Nazis and in Rwanda with daily antagonism on the airwaves. Their persistence in pushing the minute differences between the majority and minority pushed their society to the edge of the abyss. And in the case of genocide... over the edge and into the depths.

Once the ball gets rolling it is nearly impossible to stop the tide.

In the case of the Germans the antagonist started the flow of hatred with the theory of lebensraum. This method exacerbated the differences of both race and religion that cracked the German society. It helped to give purpose to the rise of hatred in ways that even the pogroms had not managed. It justified a sense of hatred that not only isolated the targeted community but dehumanized them.

With Burma the antagonist have long implemented Hitler's old methods in their targeting and attacking of the Rohingya minority. Their use of ghettos mimics the SS in Poland. Their exploitation of "unruly mobs" recreates (over a much longer time scale) the SA's kristallnacht. But it was their pushing of lebensraum that made all that possible.

To understand how Burma pushes the theory of lebensraum we should first look at how it was created in the first place.

Lebensraum was first thought up long before Hitler's hijacking of it. Many historians accredit the social theory of lebensraum to the medieval Ostsiedlung or the spread of German settlements into Eastern Europe. Thus this recreation of past sins was of course founded on the same ideas the first spawned the spread of "German peoples" into foreign lands. These being that the German people were growing faster than their own territory could sustain. Therefore both the medieval and modern fascist came to the same conclusion... attack weaker societies and take from them what you need.

According to Hitler the German people needed "living space" to continue their inevitable growth. However unlike past expansions, Hitler did not believe that the "pure Aryan" should be diluted in his expansion by living with or mixing with the societies already living on the soon to be conquered lands. Slavs, Jews, Roma, and Poles all needed to be cleared along with the Russians and political dissenters. These were all of course threats to the confiscation of much needed territories.

In Burma today it is obvious that the map has already been drawn up. It is inconceivable that Myanmar could or would invade neighboring lands to acquire more territory upon which to build and expand. Yet the government of Burma has a portion within it that believes that the "pure" Burmese need more "living space".

Yet in Burma "pure" doesn't just mean a particular race, though that does play its role. Instead religion and language also play a role that race alone could not fill. With the Rohingya the fact that they are Muslims fills this role almost to its conclusion... forcible removal and extermination.

For decades the word "kalar" has long highlighted the fracture in Rakhine society. It's racial sting not only identifies the Rohingya as darker skinned but "unclean" as well. Unclean for the fact that they are not Buddhist like the Rakhine majority. Unclean because they do not speak, mostly amongst themselves, the same dialect of Burmese as the Rakhine.

In this sense the word "kalar" cracks Burmese society in ways that no other word can. After all, "kalar" is almost a legal definition of the Rohingya withing the Arakan. "Kalar" individuals are often denied standard documentation such as birth certificates and marriage licenses. "Kalar" people can be forced to do labor for the government and military without pay or any compensation. "Kalar" people do not have to be treated with dignity or respect while they are always expected to show it to the rest of society.

During the massive pogroms that occurred in the summer and fall of 2012 the "kalar" were openly targeted while the government offered military protection to the Buddhist majority. This showed the Rohingya that once again they were being targeted for removal from not only their land but the society as a whole. The one word that had separated the Muslims from the Buddhists was now being plastered everywhere like the old "Whites Only" signs in America's dirty south. All the while the Rohingya were being killed and driven out of their homes and villages.

Like Hitler, the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP) has used the differences between the two groups to further split up the Arakan community. Over emphasizing slurs such as "kalar" helps to further ingrain radical philosophies such as lebensraum. And once the ideals of the party become the default argument of the majority the start of the genocide begins.

There are already signs that the RNDP has succeeded at fully implanting their ideology into the majority of Rakhine society. With support of the religious leaders of the Arakan Buddhist community the RNDP has managed to bring in Rakhine settlers to "resettle" Rohingya villages. The monks have openly supported efforts by the RNDP to tighten the strangling grip of the barricades blocking aid to Rohingya villages and camps. And with support of government authorities the RNDP has been able to arrange launching points for Rohingya ships leaving Burma in an effort to ethnically cleanse the Arakan.

Had the cracks not already been present it is arguable that antagonist like the RNDP could not have pushed such radical beliefs such as the current genocide of the Rohingya. Yet no argument can bring back the dead already lost to this horrific tragedy. No what if this or that sort of debate can end the slaughter.

If the Rohingya are to be saved and the genocide is to be stopped the outside world must first take action and wait to talk after the bleeding has stopped. We can not talk or trade our way to a scenario where Rohingya aren't starving to death or drowning at sea. If Burma is to be stopped the world community has to find more meaningful ways to force Myanmar to a standstill.

Unfortunately that means that the world media must give up its narrative of a "democratic Myanmar" heading for reform and an open society. We all have seen just how much the media has enjoyed this love affair with Burmese leaders such as Suu Kyi and Thein Sein. But if we are going to live with ourselves after this genocide is ended then we must hold both responsible for their actions in this tragedy.

As for economics... well that is the portion of this struggle that is almost like hitting a brick wall. When dealing with genocide it seems that facing the reality of politics and ideology are nothing in comparison to getting governments to back away from easy profit. In the modern age it is nearly impossible to imagine a situation in which China, Russia, the EU, or USA ever back away from profit over stopping a genocidal regime.

How many more Rohingya have to die so that the West can profit off of Burma's need for "living space"?











Source Documents
(note not all sources are listed)

http://myohmyanmar.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/no-dogs-no-blacks-no-irish/
(image and content)

Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/07/31/burma-government-forces-targeting-rohingya-muslims-0

The Nation
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/columns/04-Feb-2013/no-willing-hosts-for-rohingyas

The Factory System And Burma

History Stuck In Replay Mode
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

(Rohingya In Aung Mingalar Ghetto)

From the very beginning of the implementation of the factory system in what would become known as the United States the intention was well established. Both the British and American forces used the system of slanted trade and dishonest treaties to grab land and decrease the native populations' numbers. Through the spread of disease, both intentional and indirect, the white settlers were able to increase the dependency of their "allied" Native American tribes and decrease the strength of their native foes. Economics, disease, and forced famine all became tools used to complement the system set in place by the English and perfected by the Americans.

In Burma a less prevalent system of forced dependency and rampant lies has been established when dealing with the native Rohingya peoples of the Arakan state. For well over 40 years now the government of Myanmar has been employing drastically slanted economic standards upon the Rohingya within its borders. To achieve this the Burmese have denied citizenship to the Rohingya to limit what economic opportunities the Rohingya have available to them. Burma has also used punitive taxes to keep the Rohingya permanently impoverished. And to add to what already appeared as an unfair playing field, Myanmar's government allows for the state to utilize Rohingya people as slave labor.

This method of applying an economic slant when dealing with the Rohingya follows the same patterns laid out by the Americans when conquering the old Indian Territory of Indiana. The only major difference in this situation is the fact that Burma does not recognize the Rohingya as an independent nation as did the Americans when dealing with native tribes. But with that distinction made, it is still hard to miss the abuses of basic economic principles by both the American government in the late 18th century - early 19th and the same abuses carried out by Burma.

Today in Burma actual trade of goods and food items is banned by the Arakan authorities when dealing with Rakhine and Rohingya groups. The only access to food, water, and basic living supplies (such as medicine and house hold items) is dictated by the local authorities at the advisement of the Burmese government. The intention behind this policy is to both assure that starvation and disease increase amongst the Rohingya and that economic liberties of the Rohingya are stifled.

As for the Native Americans, the same economic policies were carried out by baiting the tribes into first establishing trade and then skewing the rates at which trade was carried out. To further increase dependency the American government encouraged citizens to avoid trade with the natives and instead focusing trade at the forts (factories) and trade post. This meant that if Native American tribes wanted to trade they would have to come to the American government to do so. And by doing so the natives were trapped in unfair and often unjust trade agreements.

When the area in which the tribes of the old Indian Territory were decreased by simply redrawing the maps the Native Americans within the territory found themselves not only locked into trade deals they could not understand, but also competing with settlers to whom the deals did not apply. This meant that competition for food supplies and land became more desperate than ever before. Access to food was intentionally decreased as American officials "purchased" hunting grounds and redistributed them to white settlers. In essence, the food they needed was handed over to people who hated them.

For the Rohingya of the Arakan the access to food is often achieved through the good will of the few human rights groups (exp: Partners Relief and Development) willing to operate under Myanmar's miserable conditions. Food that is just sent into the country by outside sources on the other hand it more often than not unfairly distributed by the government. Most of this food is given to the Rakhine communities while some is sent to camps ahead of human rights groups to give the illusion of some effort being made by the Burmese.

In both cases the forced famine is the worst killer the two governments could produce. It is meant to win the war over the long haul while the enemy at the time starves slowly. For the Native Americans in Indiana this led to the rise of great leaders like Tecumseh and Blue Jacket (Weyapiersenwah). These brave warriors led their people in a seemingly apocalyptic battle to save what little they had left. For the Rohingya there have not been these such figures thus far. Instead the Rohingya have been expected to accept extinction while the world watches them march off to the grave.

In the aspect of battles the Native Americans in Indiana had Tippecanoe and Fallen Timbers. The Rohingya of Burma on the other hand have forty years of struggle pot marked with cases of ethnic cleansing and genocidal efforts to wipe them out. In June of 2012 the latest inferno of ethnic violence broke out as the Rakhine were whipped into a fury by Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP) propaganda. There has been little opportunity for the Rohingya to fight back. For the most part the Rohingya can only take to the sea as a form of fighting back... in other words... fight or flight.

(Native American Women in Canoe in Indiana)

When Illinois became a state the Native peoples of Indiana had nowhere left to run. The Indiana Indian Territory was their grave or prison given the disposition of the American government toward their tribe. Many would flee westward or be marched there forcibly. Others would take to the great white north.

Rohingya who flee to Thailand face an ironic twist in the fact that they are forced back out to sea.

The system used to drive the natives of coveted territory is often the same regardless of the era in which it is used.The government that uses these tactics does so knowing that the outcome will be the devastation of the community which stands in the way. With the Native Americans the trade off was the destruction of the natives for more land than America knew what to do with. With the Rohingya the trade off is an ethnically pure state with land and resources to exploit for the over development of Burma's coast. It also means that the Buddhist Rakhine no longer would have to tolerate the Muslim Rohingya.

The comparison between the Native American tribes in Indiana and the Rohingya of Burma ends with the fact that the Native Americans of Indiana are all but gone today. The Rohingya still exist in numbers that still resemble their original populations. The Rohingya are dieing in numbers that they have not seen in almost a generation. The Rohingya that are not accepting starvation are taking to the sea to escape. Either way they are almost guaranteed death.

As of now however, the Rohingya still live. No matter how miserable life may be, they are still alive. This will only remain so however if the outside world intervenes and puts and end to the heartless massacre of the Rohingya by the Burmese Arakan state and the government. It must be made clear that we as a world community will not tolerate this crime against humanity.

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.

Smugglers Replace Cattle Cars

More Proof Of Illegal Deportations
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

(Sixty-two Under The Age of Fifteen Including Three Babies)

As the genocide continues to drive the Rohingya population of Burma to desperate measures the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party continues to exploit their helpless victims. In recent months the RNDP has been taking money and other bribes from the Rohingya in exchange for an apparent way out of the genocide the RNDP is perpetrating. However in most cases the RNDP never truly gets the Rohingya to the safety of a host country. In most cases the Rohingya who pay for a way out are turned over to Myanmar police or dumped into the waiting arms of human traffickers. 

On Thursday (January 10th) the Thai government raided a hidden transit camp for human trafficking on the Thai border with Burma. Upon entering the camp the Thai officials found that the traffickers where holding captive 366 Rohingya refugees. Like many other camps of the such the traffickers were only interested in treating the refugees as human cargo. There was little food and little water for the hundreds of victims. 

Among the Rohingya were 62 children under the age of 15. This group of children out of the original 366 also included three babies under the age of one years old. Among them were also 11 women. Yet the human traffickers had refused to offer any assistance to their victims. 

The raid began after two Rohingya "boat people" were purchased from the traffickers for for 95,000 baht (3,138.94 USD). This led to the Thai military arriving some time over night. However the raid has not ended. The Rohingya captives are still being held at the camp as the Thai officials record their names. 

Thai Public Health medical teams arrived to give assistance to the captives once the camp was secured. This gives those of us on the outside the impression that the Thai officials do not intend to deport the Rohingya back to Myanmar. However there is no guarantee due to the long history Thailand has with its handling of Rohingya in the past. 

(Women And Children Deported By Thai Police)

In the past the Rohingya have been deported regardless of their age and gender. Children and women are more likely to be dropped off in Thailand by their traffickers since the demand for Rohingya slave labor mainly applies to able bodied young men. This makes younger Rohingya and women more apt to be turned over to police or worse. In other cases the children and women are turned over to sex traffickers. 

At best the Rohingya in these camps can hope for an opportunity to make their way to boats and wish to be sent adrift. For many the chance to get out to sea offers the hope that they might make it to safety. In reality the dream of making their way to Malaysia (a country that barely treats them better than Thailand) is as far from reality as they are from freedom. The boats they are often put aboard are more than likely broken, under stocked with water and food, and will often sink at sea. The fact is that nearly half of all the "boat people" of Southeast Asia die at sea before ever coming in sight of their "promised land". 

For those of you on Twitter this "rescue" by Thai officials offers you the chance to take action and scream on behalf of the Rohingya. By sending relentless tweets to the accounts listed below we can raise our voices so that those in a position of power can affect change for these 366 Rohingya. We can unite as one to tell those in power that this is their opportunity to offer hope instead of damning these Rohingya to death. 

Please do your part and scream. 

@USEmbassyBKK - US Embassy in Thailand 

@PM_Abhisit - Former PM of Thailand: Abhisit Vejjajiva 

@UN - United Nations 

@Refugees - United Nations Refugee Agency 

@SybellaWilkes - Senior Communications Officer UNHCR: Sybella Wilkes 

@UN_Spokesperson - UN Spokesperson 

@hrw - Human Rights Watch

@UNrightswire - United Nations Human Rights Office 

@KenRoth - Executive Director, Human Rights Watch: Kenneth Roth

@ukinthailand - British Embassy in Thailand 

The Burmese Gestapo

The Rakhine Nationalities Development Party
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

(RNDP Flag)

It has always made me uncomfortable comparing any group of modern murderers to the fascist Nazis of the 30's and 40's. Having ancestors who fled from the spread of Nazism into Yugoslavia I have a deep grudge towards those who encouraged genocide in Croatia. And all be it that my family that died at the hands of fascist most likely did so at the hands of the Ustase I still found it hard to compare the RNDP to the German Gestapo. Yet over the past few months the comparison continued to nag at my conscience. 

In the 1930's the Gestapo took off as a branch of the already established Nazi SS (Schutzstaffel). It's goals were clear from the very beginning. The Gestapo was meant to enforce the Nazi theology by enforcing its social code amongst the German people. This meant that the Gestapo had to act like sheepdogs by separating the "pure" German population from the "undesirables". It's main target was of course the Jewish population within Germany. 

The Rakhine Nationalities Development Party began officially on May 6th, 2010 as an extremist group with very clear ethnocentric goals. From the start the RNDP was meant to force the racial ideology of racially driven politicians who were forced out of the majority part the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) due to their extremist views. This meant that upon founding the RNDP had to begin acting like pit bulls in their relentless attacks upon any political opponents and all portions of the population they deemed to be "foreign" to the "pure" Rakhine nationalities. Their main target has been shown to be the Rohingya minority within the Arakan region. 

At first glance one could say that the RNDP was just another political party in Burma looking to advance their ethnic group's political ambitions. After all, there are currently nearly a half dozen parties dedicated to a given ethnic group or another within the Amyotha Hluttaw (House of Nationalities) and just as many in the Pyithu Hluttaw (House of Representatives). Yet it is hard to find a party within either of these houses of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Assembly of Union) that is so violently dedicated to the destruction of an entire ethnicity. And that is where the RNDP stands out amongst the many corrupt parties that make up Burma's government. 

In the Rakhine state the RNDP is the controlling party. It is in this area of Burma that the government is defined by the RNDP. It is here that the modern day Gestapo has the ability to begin enforcing their radical ideology upon the citizens of the Rakhine. 

Much like the original Gestapo, the RNDP does not need to be present in every village to achieve its goal of the complete destruction of the Rohingya people. With only 11 township offices the RNDP has been able to spread its propaganda across the Rakhine region by infiltrating the religion of its people. By making their goal of an ethnically pure Rakhine state and a religiously run state appealing to the monks of the Arakan region the RNDP was able to feed the flames of hate over the summer of 2012. In Nazi Germany the Gestapo achieved the same success by lifting community leaders in areas it controlled up through the ranks of the Nazi party. This method allowed the Gestapo to gain control of the religion, politics, and police of an occupied area with as little presence as possible. 

Once the religion, the backbone of Burmese society, was under control of the RNDP the fascist only had to feed the flames of hatred they had already sparked. Turning a little known murder in the Rakhine state into a propaganda campaign, the RNDP had the fuel they needed to turn the Arakan into an inferno. Now the RNDP could simply point the Rakhine people at their target and watch as the mobs acted as stormtroopers. 

When the killings began during the summer of 2012 the RNDP highlighted Rohingya neighborhoods that were meant to be torched to the ground and those meant to be left standing. In what now appears to be a systematic assault, the RNDP made certain to leave select villages standing so as to act as per-assembled concentration camps. Much like the Gestapo the RNDP is now active in the said camps and the villages acting as concentration camps. 

In October of 2012 the RNDP attempted to whip the Rakhine people into yet another outburst of ethnic violence. This attempt resulted in the deaths of a known 89 people. More importantly it led to the complete blockade of all aid that had started to flow towards the Arakan state since the summer riots. The RNDP had completed its aim of forming modern concentration camps by blocking the Rohingya from leaving and keeping the aid from arriving. 

Today the RNDP has begun performing the role the Gestapo played during the final years of the Nazi rule in Europe. Today the RNDP is attempting to perform ethnic cleansing throughout the Rakhine state. Through using the blockades and deportations the RNDP fulfills their aims of killing off and destroying the Burmese Rohingya population. 

During the fall of the Nazis the Gestapo joined in the effort to carryout the "final solution". By increasing the number of deportations and executions the SS and Gestapo were able to drastically decrease the populations of "undesirables" in Western Europe in the last few years of the war alone. The methods of dehumanization that they had formed early in the war only further degraded as the war continued to drag on. The Gestapo was not immune to the increase of barbarism as it too relaxed code of conduct and increased its activities throughout occupied Europe. 

In Burma the RNDP has begun to notice moves by other parties as threatening to their genocidal efforts. For this reason it appears that the RNDP has decided to increase its efforts to deport Rohingya whom they consider to be taking longer to die of starvation than time will allow. Young men and children are being led out to waiting boats where they are often forced out to sea. This tactic appears to be believed will work since the outside world now views the "waves of boat people" fleeing Burma as normal. On the other hand the RNDP bribes Rohingya families and girls to leave their villages, an act that is illegal for all Rohingya throughout Burma, so that they can be sent off into human trafficking rings. Other Rohingya who see the RNDP as helping them flee Burma are often turned over to Burmese police and military so as to be detained seemingly indefinitely. All of these methods are obviously intended to either drastically decrease the Rohingya population or more directly lead to the completion of the RNDP's genocidal goal of a complete Rohingya extermination. 

For me personally the realization that there is in fact a group of radical fascist active today was not hard at all. The realization that they were using the same tactics that led to the deaths of my ancestors was the hard part. Not because I think there is anything unique about how genocide plays out over time but rather because it was hard to imagine this happening in my time. It is never easy to believe that such an evil endeavor as this one is taking place. Often when faced with such atrocities it is easier to look away. And with the distance between us it is often the path most Americans take.

Once again Alder's Ledge would like to take the opportunity to offer you the reader to change that, to help end this. If you have been reading this blog very long at all you know by now what a screamer is (if not follow the links below). We here at Alder's Ledge would like to ask you to scream on behalf of all the Rohingya people. We ask that you never remain silent. That you lift your voice and join with us as we demand our government and world leaders end this senseless slaughter.

Do your part. Wake up, Stand up, and Scream.

http://aldersledge.blogspot.com/2013/01/till-our-eyes-bleed-and-our-throats-dry.html

http://aldersledge.blogspot.com/2012/08/screamers-wanted.html