Why did the genocide begin in Myanmar? What's really going on in Myanmar. Goal: creation of a Muslim state

Illustration copyright AFP Image caption Many villages where Rohingya Muslims live are set on fire.

On Monday, in the capital of Chechnya, in support of Rohingya Muslims living in Rakhine state in Myanmar (Burma), demonstrators came out with posters demanding to stop the “genocide of Muslims in Myanmar.”

To an unauthorized rally at the Myanmar Embassy in Moscow calling on the Russian authorities to respond to the situation in Myanmar.

We have attempted to answer a number of questions about who the Rohingya Muslims are, why they are oppressed, and the origins of the conflict in Myanmar.

What is happening to the Rohingya in Myanmar?

The predominantly Buddhist country, ruled for decades by a military dictatorship, has a long history of mutual mistrust and friction between its various ethnic and religious communities, which authorities have chosen to turn a blind eye to or exploit the infighting to their advantage.

In Rakhine State in the west of the country, in addition to the indigenous Buddhist population, there are also Rohingya Muslims, who originally came from the historical region of Bengal, now the territory of Bangladesh.

Myanmar authorities call Rohingya Muslims illegal immigrants and refuse to grant them citizenship.

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At least 400 Muslims killed in western Myanmar in a week

Rakhine State is home to about 1 million Rohingya Muslims. In towns bordering Bangladesh where recent unrest has erupted, the majority of the population is Muslim.

During an outbreak of sectarian violence in 2012 between the state's Buddhist population and what are believed to be Rohingya Muslims, more than 100,000 Muslims were left homeless. Tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims are still detained in temporary camps and are not allowed to leave.

The cause of the conflict that broke out with renewed vigor was the rape and murder of a young girl from a Buddhist family.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled Myanmar for years live in Bangladesh without documents.

Overseas rights groups for Rohingya Muslims say they are victims of violence, but Buddhists living in Rakhine say otherwise.

When did the current exacerbation begin?

The deterioration of the situation in Myanmar began after militants from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) carried out a coordinated attack on more than 30 police posts and a Myanmar army base on August 25, 2017, killing at least 12 security forces. In addition, the militants are accused of killing 14 civilians.

Myanmar's leadership claims that the Islamist insurgent group ARSA is linked to international terrorist organizations, receiving financial and other assistance from them. ARSA members themselves deny any connection with terrorism.

After this, the troops began an anti-terrorist operation.

Myanmar's military said about 400 people, almost all of them militants, were killed in clashes between government forces and Rohingya militants from Rakhine province.

Journalists' access to this province is extremely limited, making it difficult to confirm or deny specific figures.

Human Rights Watch, based on satellite photographs, said unrest had spread to at least 10 districts, with journalists on the ground reporting villages on fire along the border with Bangladesh.

Authorities say the fires are the work of Islamist militants deliberately setting fire to Muslim villages, but Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh say the fires were caused by the Myanmar military, and crowds of angry Buddhists are trashing Muslim homes.

Interactive Wa Peik (Kai Kan Pain) after the outbreak of violence in 2016

November 2016

2014

What is ARSA?

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (also known as the Arakan al-Yaqeen or faith movement) first made its presence known in October 2016, when its militants carried out a similar attack on police stations, killing nine officers.

The group says its goal is to protect the Rohingya ethnic minority from repression by Myanmar authorities.

Myanmar authorities say it is a terrorist group whose leaders received training in training camps abroad.

As the head of the investigative team that interrogated the arrested militants stated, ARSA’s goal is “to build a democratic Islamic state for the Rohingya people.”

According to the International Crisis Group, its leader is Ata Ullah, a Rohingya born in Pakistan but raised in Saudi Arabia, where he received his religious education in Mecca and still maintains close ties to that country.

However, a spokesman for the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army told Asia Times that it has no ties to jihadist groups and that its members are young Rohingya men upset by the way the situation has developed since the 2012 clashes.

Meanwhile, the International Crisis Group states in its report on the situation in Rakhine State dated December 15, 2016: “The emergence of this well-organized, and apparently well-funded group is a complete game changer for the Myanmar authorities’ attempts to cope with complex problems Rakhine State, which include long-standing discrimination against the Muslim population, denial of rights and citizenship."

Months before the violence broke out, ARSA envoys began recruiting hundreds of young men from Muslim villages who were then trained in Bangladesh, according to Myanmar authorities, citing information from local residents.

Interactive Kyet Yeo Pyin after the 2016 violence

November 2016

March 2016

What is the situation on the border with Bangladesh?

The number of Rohingya Muslims trying to flee to Bangladesh has been growing steadily since August 25 and became a continuous stream of people by early September.

Over the past 10 days, 87,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled their torched villages, more than in all of last year, according to the UN.

Most of them are women, children and old people; many arrive with injuries and wounds received during the confrontation.

Illustration copyright AFP Image caption According to the UN, the flow of refugees has doubled since the end of August.

There have also been many reports of people being prevented from crossing the border, despite a UN call for Bangladeshi authorities to allow refugees to do so.

The crossing is now permitted, but some 20,000 Rohingya Muslims are believed to be stranded without crossing on the Naf River, which marks the border between the two countries.

Humanitarian groups say people can drown while swimming, as happened to a group of 20 who drowned last week.

Illustration copyright Reuters Image caption Some Buddhist families from Rakhine state have also been forced to flee their homes for fear of militant attacks.

How are the Myanmar authorities reacting?

Officials say the country's security forces are conducting a legitimate operation against terrorists responsible for a string of attacks on police stations and army bases since October 2016.

A UN report on the situation in Rakhine state, based on the words of refugees, speaks of horrific brutality that reigns there against Rohingya women, men and children. Myanmar's military authorities deny the claims, calling them fabrications.

The UN has launched a full-scale investigation into the events. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said last week that the recent violence in the state could have been prevented.

Also, recently there has been increasing criticism and accusations of inaction against the famous human rights activist and de facto leader of the country, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who holds the post of Myanmar Foreign Minister and State Counselor.

However, observers point out that little has changed in the country since her party came to power in 2016. Moreover, according to the constitution, it does not have direct influence on the country’s military forces, which have a special status in Myanmar.

Alexander Gelovani

What do we know about Myanmar? Almost nothing, someone else has heard something about Burma, old rockers have heard about Bangladesh, thanks to Harrison’s “Concert,” but about Myanmar...

Let's start with the fact that Myanmar is not Bangladesh at all and very much Burma. That is, from the moment it gained independence from Great Britain in 1948 until very recently, namely until 1989, this country was called the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma, or simply Burma. The renaming itself has no meaning, well, you never know how and why they are renamed. Ultimately, maybe people like to be called Myanmar rather than Burma. But the thing is that all these renamings are the result of a long civil war and a whole series of military coups, painted in bright red colors. Bright red is socialist in the sense, although so much blood was shed that using a color analogy in this regard would also be quite appropriate.

It is clear that the people living in Myanmar can hardly be called calm. But you never know the places on the planet where people are violent and blood is shed. In order to get into the world media feeds, this is clearly not enough. That is, in order for the people of the planet to learn about the death of thousands of people, two conditions are necessary. Firstly, the scale of the disaster must be comparable, for example, with the tragedy of the Tutsi people in Uganda. Well, secondly, the leading world powers should be interested in ensuring that everyone knows about the tragedy. This is exactly what happened in Myanmar.

Recent history of Myanmar

But in order to understand what actually happened there and why, it is necessary to again turn to history, this time recent. So, Myanmar is a multinational and multi-religious country. Along with the Buddhists, who make up the vast majority of the population, there is also a Muslim minority, which is completely different from the majority, even different races.

Naturally, in conditions very far from the norms of a civilized society, this very minority, Muslims of various nationalities, were constantly oppressed, which led to excesses, those that are commonly called civil war. While the communists were in power in Burma, and then the generals in Myanmar, everything was clear and understandable. A dictatorship is a dictatorship for the purpose of suppressing any dissent and resistance, and not by velvet methods.

But in 2012, democracy came to Myanmar. Inspired by the slogan of then US President Barack Obama, “Yes, we can,” Myanmar democrats managed to participate in the elections. True, the parties led by the same generals won the elections with an overwhelming advantage, but it was not for nothing that the whole world was inspired by the slogan - yes, we can. So the generals were able to become democrats.

Democracy and illusions

In general, the matter turned out to be not tricky. The release from prison of the Burmese symbol of resistance to the dictatorship of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, and not just a symbol, but also a Nobel laureate, showed the whole world - Myanmar was able, Myanmar is changing. After only five years, during which Aung San Suu Kyi managed to go to Washington and hug not just anyone, but US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton herself, and, of course, visit the Oval Office, and her party “National League for Democracy” managed to win a landslide victory in the elections. If she did not have foreign citizenship, Aung San Suu Kyi would probably have become president. But bad luck, according to the laws in force in the country, the post of president cannot be held by a person who has or has had foreign citizenship. Aung San Suu Kyi had such citizenship; she, like her late husband, was a subject of the British Crown.

They did not change the law specifically for the Nobel laureate. It’s inconvenient, but it’s still a democracy. But they introduced a new position - State Counselor of Myanmar, which in fact is no lower, if not higher, than the presidential one. For our sad story about Burmese democracy, this would not matter fundamentally if this same democracy were for everyone. But, as the further course of events showed, democratic reforms are for the majority. Minorities are unlikely to be aware of the changes, and if any of them had any illusions about this, they have clearly already dissipated.

To be fair, it must be said that assessments of the events in Myanmar vary - from compassion for the representatives of the small Rohingya people and outrage at the actions of the Burmese authorities, to “understanding” of the harsh actions of the authorities on the part of the powers that be. After all, the Nobel laureate and symbol of democracy is fighting “Islamic terrorists,” and Europe and America know firsthand that Islamic terrorists are very bad. True, the fact that as a result of this very struggle, tens of thousands of people have already become refugees, and the army is conducting large-scale punitive operations in Rakhine State, which can no longer be concealed, is somehow not taken into account by sympathizers.

The Nobel laureate herself states that the figure of 140 thousand refugees is misinformation. Let's say, but then how much less? Twice? Three times? When the army of a democratic country carries out a military operation, as a result of which thousands of residents of the country, who, by the way, are denied citizenship, become refugees, questions about such a democracy cannot but arise.

Tragedy without intermission

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the same one who came up with the New Deal and entered the war with German Nazism and Japanese militarism, is credited with the phrase about the Nicaraguan dictator Somoza Anastasio (senior) - “Somoza, of course, is a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch.” It is quite possible that the great American president never said this, but the phrase is so plausible and reflects what is now commonly called the fashionable concept of realpolitik that it not only outlived its supposed author, but was included in many history and political science textbooks.

But he was a frostbitten Latin American dictator of the mid-twentieth century. Now there are completely different times and customs. It’s even somehow inconvenient to apply such an excuse to a Nobel laureate and symbol of democracy. So isn’t it better to just not notice what’s happening to the small Rohingya people? In total, some eight hundred thousand, well, at most, a million. The numbers certainly won’t reach a “full-fledged” genocide. However, what is genocide and what is not is decided not on the sites of the tragedy, but in the newsrooms of world news agencies and in the quiet offices of leading think-tanks. But it’s also somehow impossible to not react at all to what’s happening.

In the age of the Internet, information spreads almost instantly, because in democratic Myanmar, the use of the Internet is no longer limited. Gone are the days when a blogger was imprisoned for 59 years just for posting a video of the destruction after a cyclone online. And that blogger has been free for a long time.

Myanmar authorities often complain about the spread of fake information about the atrocities of their army against civilians. And here you need to believe them, because fakes are what accompanies any war today. But, to paraphrase the well-known expression “If you know for sure that you have a persecution mania, this does not mean at all that no one is chasing you,” let’s put it this way. The presence of fake materials about the atrocities of the Myanmar army against the Rohingya people does not at all prove that these atrocities do not exist.

And while politicians argue about what is fake and what is true, the tragedy of the Rohingya people continues. Tragedy without intermission.

Last Sunday, Muslim rallies against discrimination against the Islamic population of Myanmar were held in Moscow and other cities around the world. In August, members of the armed group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacked several dozen military targets. In response, Myanmar authorities launched an extensive anti-terrorist operation, during which dozens of Muslims were killed and which the international community calls genocide of the country's Islamic population. What are the reasons and why this conflict cannot be called religious - in the material of “Futurist”.

What's happening in Myanmar?

The Republic of the Union of Myanmar - this is how the country began to be called recently, having got rid of the military dictatorship that had been in power since 1962. It consists of seven provinces inhabited by Buddhist Burmese and seven national states that have never recognized a central government. There are more than one hundred ethnic groups in Myanmar. The diverse ethnic, religious, and criminal groups inhabiting these regions have been waging civil wars for decades—against the capital and against each other.

The conflict between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists has been going on for decades. The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar. They make up approximately 1 million of Myanmar's more than 52 million people and live in Arakan State, which borders Bangladesh. The Myanmar government denies them citizenship, calling them illegal Bengali immigrants, while the Rohingya claim to be indigenous to Arakan.

One of the bloodiest clashes occurred in 2012. The reason was the death of a 26-year-old Buddhist woman. Then dozens of people died, and tens of thousands of Muslims were forced to leave the country. The international community made no attempt to resolve the conflict.

Another escalation of the conflict occurred on October 9, 2016, when about 200 unidentified militants attacked three Myanmar border posts. And in August 2017, fighters from the local armed group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacked 30 army installations and police stations and killed 15 people. They declared this an act of revenge for the persecution of their compatriots.

The international community calls the retaliatory anti-terrorist operation a genocide of Muslims in the state of Arakan - not only the Rohingya, but also representatives of other ethnic groups. Hundreds of people have been arrested on suspicion of terrorism. According to Myanmar authorities, as of September 1, 400 “rebels” and 17 civilians had been killed. Fleeing refugee camp residents told Reuters the army and Buddhist volunteers were torching Muslim villages, forcing them to flee to Bangladesh. On the morning of September 1, Bangladeshi border guards found on the river bank the bodies of 15 refugees who drowned during the crossing, 11 of them were children. According to the UN, more than 120,000 refugees have crossed into Bangladesh over the past two weeks, creating a migration crisis.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov demanded that the UN intervene and stop the violence. In Moscow, near the Myanmar embassy, Muslims staged a spontaneous rally against genocide.

Why don't Buddhists like the Rohingya?

There are several theories about the origin of the Burmese Rohingya. Some scientists believe that the Rohingya migrated to Myanmar (then called Burma) from Bengal primarily during the period of British rule. The British annexed the aspiring state of Arakan in 1826 and facilitated the migration of Bengalis there as labor. Some of the Rohingya came to Burma after the country declared independence in 1948, as well as after the liberation war in Bangladesh in 1971. Traditionally, this people has a high birth rate, so the Muslim population has grown rapidly. The second theory (followed by the Rohingya themselves) suggests that the Rohingya are descendants of the Arabs who colonized the Indian Ocean coast in the Middle Ages and also lived in the state.

The first serious clash between the Rohingya and Arakanese Buddhists was the Rakhine massacre in 1942. During World War II, Burma, then a British dependency, was captured by Japan. The Rohingya Muslims remained on the side of the British, while the Buddhists supported the Japanese, who promised independence for the country. The Buddhist troops were led by General Aung San, the father of Aung San Suu Kyi, the current leader of Myanmar's Democratic Party. According to various estimates, tens of thousands of representatives of both sides were killed, but there is still no objective figure. After the Rakhine massacre, separatist sentiments in the region worsened.

The military dictatorship that ruled Burma for half a century relied heavily on a blend of Burmese nationalism and Theravada Buddhism to consolidate its power. Ethnic and religious minorities such as the Rohingya and Chinese were discriminated against. General Nain's government passed the Burmese Citizenship Law in 1982, which declared the Rohingya illegal. With the end of military rule and the rise to power of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's allies at the end of 2015, the Rohingya were expected to receive Myanmar citizenship. However, authorities continue to deny the Rohingya political and civil rights.

How does discrimination manifest itself?

The Rohingya are considered "one of the most persecuted minorities in the world." They cannot move freely throughout Myanmar, receive higher education, or have more than two children. The Rohingya are subjected to forced labor and their arable land is taken away from them. A February 2017 UN report said locals, the army and police beat, killed and raped Rohingya.

To escape violence, Rohingya are trafficked illegally to Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Thailand. In turn, these countries do not want to accept refugees - which is why they are subject to international pressure and condemnation. At the beginning of 2015, according to the UN, about 24 thousand Rohingya tried to leave Myanmar on smugglers' boats. The remains of more than 160 refugees have been discovered in abandoned camps in southern Thailand as smugglers held Rohingya hostage, beating them and demanding ransom for their lives. As Thai authorities tightened controls across the border, smugglers began throwing people into “boat camps” where they died of hunger and thirst.

The refugee problem has not yet been resolved. In particular, the government of Bangladesh in February 2017 announced a plan to resettle all Rohingya refugees on the Tengar Char island, which was formed 10 years ago in the Bay of Bengal - it is prone to floods and there is a complete lack of infrastructure. This caused outrage among human rights organizations.

Aren't Buddhists against violence?

“The world media talks exclusively about Muslims who suffered and says nothing about Buddhists,” says orientalist Pyotr Kozma, who lives in Myanmar. “Such one-sided coverage of the conflict has given Myanmar Buddhists a feeling of being under siege, and this is a direct path to radicalism.”

It is traditionally believed that Buddhism is one of the most peaceful religions. But despite the fact that Buddhists and Muslims are involved in this conflict, it is incorrect to view it as inter-religious. We are talking about the status of a certain ethnic group. Experts say that Buddhists have coexisted with Myanmar's Muslims for centuries: Hindus, Chinese, Malabari, Burmese and Bengalis. The Rohingya, being refugees according to one version of their origin, fall out of this “conglomerate of nationalities.”

The spontaneous rally was caused by the emotional reaction of Muslims to the brutal images that filled social networks, which demonstrated persecution by the indigenous population of Myanmar (Burma) against the Rohingya people, who profess Islam.

At the same time, the outraged people who came to the rally were convinced that the conflict had a religious basis, believing that Buddhists were oppressing Rohingya Muslims precisely because of their faith. The mood of the protesters was heated to the limit. Some even promised to “do jihad.”

Those gathered claimed that they came to the rally following a call on social networks and having read on the Internet about the situation with Muslims in Myanmar. Some showed posts on smartphones calling for a rally at the embassy in support of people of fellow religion in Myanmar. These recordings, according to them, were distributed both through social networks and in closed chats on Telegram and WhatsApp. None of the rally participants interviewed by the BBC said that the action had a certain organizer.

On the evening of September 3, Ramzan Kadyrov made a video statement in which he sharply condemned the persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar, and even warned that “if Russia supports the shaitans, then he will be against Russia’s position.”

On September 4, a mass rally was held in Grozny in support of the Rohingya. More than 1 million people gathered in Grozny for a rally in support of the Rohingya Muslims.

A post shared by Ilya Belous (@iliabelous) on Sep 3, 2017 at 11:53pm PDT

What's really happening in Myanmar

A detailed examination of the issue reveals the much deeper nature of the conflict in Myanmar. First of all, we are talking about Islamist extremism: the territorial claims of illegal Rohingya migrants to Burmese lands, as well as the clash of geopolitical interests of the United States and China around oil discovered 4 years ago in the state of Rakhine (Arakan).

Myanmar (Burma). Rakhine State is highlighted in red.

In 1826, the Anglo-Burmese War occurred, as a result of which Rakhine (Arakan) was annexed by the British. The British, who also ruled overpopulated Bengal, began to encourage the resettlement of the Rohingya to Rakhine (Arakan) as cheap labor. Thus, thanks to the colonial policy of Great Britain, the Rohingya began to settle in Burma (Myanmar). On March 23, 1942, during the Japanese Burma Operation during World War II, Akyab (the capital of Rakhine) was attacked by the Japanese Air Force. By the end of May 1942, British and Chinese troops left Burma, and the country was completely captured by the Japanese. The British provided the Rohingya with weapons to fight the Japanese fascists, but instead they turned them against the local indigenous Buddhist population. The Arakanese genocide of 1942 affected approximately 50,000 Arakanese Buddhists. From then on, relations between the Rohingya and the indigenous Arakanese became sharply polarized.

Currently, the Rohingya travel from overpopulated Bangladesh (168 million people) to Myanmar (Burma) (53 million people) by boat, which is why they are called “boat people,” and establish their settlements there. However, the Burmese view the Rohingya as illegal migrants and are not ready to give up an inch of their land. Conflicts arise between Arakanese and Rohingya migrants. In June 2012, after the murder and rape of Buddhist women, there were mass clashes between Muslims and Buddhists, which led to the death of 80 people (half of them were Muslims and half were Buddhists).

Interests of China and the USA

Since the middle of the 20th century, the United States has considered Burma as a zone of its interests. In 1951-1967, the United States carried out Operation PAPER, as a result of which Burma came under CIA control, and the opium plantations of the Golden Triangle became part of the CIA's heroin trading business, the profits from which went to covert operations. Today it is perhaps the largest business in the world, generating €590 million in cash annually.

China's main strategic interest in Myanmar is caused by its energy deposits and geographical location. The territory of Myanmar is one of the shortest routes for transporting goods (primarily hydrocarbons) from the Middle East to the southern regions of China, bypassing the narrow Strait of Malacca, where pirate activity is high, and the US naval presence has been actively increasing in recent years.

In addition, Myanmar is an important link in China's “string of pearls” strategy, which consists in establishing its permanent presence in the Indian Ocean. Myanmar's geographic position midway between India and Southeast Asia allows it to control the entire northeastern part of the Indian Ocean (Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea).

Infrastructure facilities being created in Myanmar include a pipeline connecting the coast of the Bay of Bengal with the city of Kunming (PRC), a network of roads and a number of hydraulic structures. The pipeline to Kunming will allow in the future not only to significantly shorten the route for transporting hydrocarbons, but also to avoid the risks associated with the passage of tankers through the Strait of Malacca. To realize the possibility of transporting petroleum products through the territory of Myanmar, China is also constructing the Kyaukpyu deep-water port on Yangbye Island (Ramree).

In addition to facilities that appear to have a civilian purpose, China has its own tracking stations on the territory of Myanmar on the islands of Big and Little Cocos in close proximity to the Andaman Islands belonging to India. At the same time, the United States aims to limit China's influence in a strategically important region. In 2011, the US administration announced a new strategy to shift its focus to the Asia-Pacific region.

Today, US policy is determined to prevent China from receiving additional oil. Over the past decades, the US share in world GDP has become smaller and smaller, and today China is already breathing down the US’s back. This threatens the collapse of the dollar as a world currency.

Comparative analysis of nominal GDP of the top 10 countries

However, China has practically no oil of its own. Without it, he cannot develop. With additional oil, China will be able to develop further, and the United States will be an outsider. They still have a national debt of almost 20 trillion dollars.

Exacerbation

In the early 2000s, a large oil and gas field, Than Shwe, was discovered in Rakhine (Arakan). By 2013, an oil pipeline to China was built. The total length of the two pipes reaches 7,676 km, of which 1,504 km are laid in Myanmar, 6,172 km in China. The throughput capacity of the oil and gas pipeline is 22 million tons of crude oil and 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. Seeing this, the US began to destabilize the region. In 2012, George Soros opened his first office in Myanmar, and soon the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army appeared there, funded by American para-government NGOs.

Sigil of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army is a paramilitary terrorist organization similar to ISIS.

On March 17, 2017, China, with the support of Russia, blocked a brief statement by the United Nations Security Council on the situation in Myanmar planned by the United Kingdom. Perhaps the West insisted on sending “peacekeepers” to Myanmar. It is obvious that Russia and China have a firm position on preventing the further implementation of US plans to destabilize Myanmar.

The Rohingya Salvation Army attacked 30 Burmese police stations at once. They used firearms, machetes and improvised explosive devices. As a result, 109 people died. The attacks were followed by a wave of repression, affecting a significant number of Rohingya living in Rakhine state and, according to Myanmar authorities, a social base for terrorists. To date, according to official data, people have died in the clashes. Of these, 370 are militants, 15 are police and 17 are civilians.

After these events, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement regarding Myanmar.

On August 25, militants from the so-called Rakhine Rohingya Salvation Army carried out a series of coordinated attacks on police stations and army units located in three districts of the Rakhine National Region (RNO) of Myanmar bordering Bangladesh. As a result of the clash, 11 Myanmar security forces were killed, and there were civilian casualties. We strongly condemn this armed attack aimed at undermining the efforts of the Myanmar authorities and the international community to stabilize the situation in the RNO. We believe that solving the problems existing in Rakhine, which are complex and complex in nature, is possible exclusively through political means, by establishing dialogue between representatives of all nationalities and religions for the purpose of socio-economic development of this area. We express support for the efforts of the Myanmar government undertaken to normalize the situation, including as part of the implementation of the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on RNO, headed by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan

________

In Myanmar, unfortunately, communal clashes between Muslims and Buddhists do occur. The perpetrators of these clashes are often Muslims themselves. As a result of these clashes, both Muslims and Buddhists suffer.

Unfortunately, Buddhists do not have their own Al-Jazeera or Al-Arabiya, as one Yangon resident rightly noted, and the world often perceives what is happening in Myanmar one-sidedly. In reality, the Buddhist population suffers just as much, but few people talk about it.

Against the backdrop of these sad events in Myanmar, online mujahideen are fueling anti-Buddhist hysteria with the help of banal lies. Why be surprised? After all, after all

Allah is the best of tricksters (Quran, 3:51-54)

But here are some warriors of Allah leading such propaganda jihad, are far from the best of cunning people. Their primitive methods only affect the orthodox gopota, who loves to shout “Allahu Akbar!” for any reason and for no reason! coupled with threats against infidels.

Let's look at several “masterpieces of Islamic propaganda” about the mass genocide of Muslims in Burma.

Bodies of murdered Muslims in Burma. But what do Tibetan monks have to do with it!

It turns out that Tibetan monks are helping earthquake victims in China.

We read: “ More than a thousand Muslims killed in Burma yesterday”.

In fact, this is Thailand, 2004.

The photo shows protesters being dispersed by police using tear gas near the Tai Bai police station in Bangkok.

In fact, the photo shows the detention of illegal Rohingya immigrants by Thai police. Photo taken from a website about protecting the rights of the Rohingya people.

We attach a screenshot just in case:

Another photo about the suffering of Muslims in Burma. The photo shows the suppression of the rebellion in Thailand in 2003.

Let the online Mujahideen first figure out for themselves in which country their coreligionists were allowed to sunbathe.

It’s good that there is such a country as, which is so rich in photographs of similar subjects. The police uniform is not at all the same as the Myanmar police.

Another masterpiece of Islamic propaganda. Under the photo there is an inscription that this poor Muslim guy was burned in Burma.

But in fact, a Tibetan monk set himself on fire to protest the arrival of former Chinese President Hu Jin Tao in Delhi.

On Russian-language sites, something like:

http://mirislama. com/news/1642 - genocid - musulman - birmy - foto - 18 . html

http://ru. turkiston. net/? p = 349

http://osmiev. livejournal. com/230595. html

and many others whose names are legion, we can also get acquainted with amazing photo galleries about the “Muslim genocide in Burma”. The same photos are published on many sites, and judging by the comments Islamic People Hawala all this information with pleasure.

Let's look at these masterpieces.

Any attentive person who has been to Myanmar will understand that this is not Myanmar. The people standing near the unfortunate people are not Burmese. These are black Africans. According to some sites, the picture shows the consequences of flagrant genocide, which was carried out by the Islamist group Boko Haram against Christians in Nigeria. Although there is another version of “230 dead due to truck explosion in Congo”, see here: http://news. tochka. net / 47990 - 230 - pogibshikh - iz - za - vzryva - fury - v - kongo - obnovleno - foto / . In any case, this photo has no relevance in Burma.

Cm. . The thief's hat is on fire!

Does this black guy look a lot like a Burmese Buddhist?

And this is not Burma. The police uniform in Myanmar is completely different.

Where does the information come from that this is Myanmar, and that this unfortunate woman is a Muslim? Does a yellow baseball cap give you away as a Myanmar citizen?

And these are really the events in Myanmar:

However, where does the information come from that the photo shows the beating of Muslims? There were many anti-government demonstrations in Burma that were dispersed by the police. Moreover, several women in the dispersed crowd are not dressed at all Islamically.

Are they lying? slaves of Allah deliberately, or out of stupidity, in the context of this topic does not matter. The main thing is that they are lying. What conclusion arises, let everyone decide for themselves.

Sources:

http://farazahmed. com/muslims - killing - in - burma - and - our - social - media - islamic - parties - 1010 . aspx