(Opinion) – Burma Campaign UK (BCUK) supports human rights for the
Rohingya people. For Burma Campaign UK to make such a statement
shouldn’t be surprising or controversial.
We are a human rights organization working on Burma. How could anyone
disagree that the Rohingya people are entitled to full human rights and
the normal rights and protections under international law?
But some people see that statement as such an outrage that Burma
Campaign UK staff deserve to be raped and killed. We need to be
“punished,” “taught a lesson” and “hung.” All these views and many more –
many vicious and obscene – have been emailed to us or posted on YouTube
and Facebook.
The level of abuse, hatred and anger directed against Burma Campaign UK
and other organizations who say that Rohingya should have human rights,
and which work with Rohingya to defend their human rights, has been
astonishing.
There has even been a demonstration in Rangoon, outside the British
Embassy, which, as well as attacking exiled media in almost exactly the
same way the dictatorship used to, accused Burma Campaign UK of
“propaganding” for the Rohingya. I doubt anyone in that protest could
cite an example of us “propaganding,” whatever that means, but in the
current hysteria some people seem willing to believe anything they hear
as long as it is anti-Rohingya.
That they were allowed to protest at all was a good sign, but have those
people also used their new freedoms to protest for the release of
hundreds of political prisoners still in jail, or to protest against the
Burmese Army raping women in Kachin State?
The hysteria has gone to such levels that some people from Burma are
claiming, and, incredibly, others are believing, that Burma Campaign UK
somehow stirred up the violence which broke out in Arakan State. They
claim that we are responsible for the violence that has taken place
Burma Campaign UK has long faced criticism for supporting human rights
for the Rohingya, and for a variety of sometimes bizarre reasons, as
well as what may be genuine misunderstandings.
One lie being spread around on blogs, emails and sites like Facebook is
that we are making money out of working for Rohingya. Burma Campaign UK
has never received a grant for working on Rohingya issues. In any case,
all of Burma Campaign UK’s income is spent on campaigning for human
rights and democracy in Burma. We are a nonprofit organization.
Another lie in a similar vein is that Middle East countries fund us.
Sometimes it is implied we are funded as part of a Middle East plot to
take over Burma and turn it into a Muslim country. It is even claimed
that there is evidence for this. When Rohingya activists attended an
Organisation of Islamic Conference meeting and set up the Arakan
Rohingya Union, pictures were posted on Arakan blogs of the delegation,
with captions and an article saying I was in the picture, and this was
proof that I and Burma Campaign UK were taking Middle East money.
The only problem was, I wasn’t in the picture. I didn’t even know the
event was taking place. The person in the picture was Harn Yawnghwe from
the Euro Burma Office. At the time we thought it funny that people
making these attacks could not even tell the difference between a Shan
Prince and myself, we never expected it to be taken so seriously, but
this lie took hold. It was spread on email and more blogs, on Facebook,
and people actually believed it. On my recent trip to Burma, even very
senior democracy leaders in Rangoon talked about it.
One common lie is that we support the Rohingya having a state of their
own. We have never said that, and although some Rohingya organizations
talked about this decades ago, we have never even heard any Rohingya
organization saying they want their own state. There seems to be some
great misunderstanding that if the Rohingya are recognized as an ethnic
group, somehow that will entitle them to land or their own state. This
simply isn’t true, and Burma Campaign UK has never said we support
that.
Another reason we are attacked over Rohingya issues is that we have a
Muslim staff member. From the moment Wai Hnin Pwint Thon joined Burma
Campaign UK, messages started to be left on our Facebook Page by people
from Burma, attacking her because she is a Muslim.
It was not until years later when she was pictured at a demonstration
protesting against the dictatorship’s abuses of the Rohingya that it
became Rohingya linked abuse posted on our Page. But now Wai Hnin Pwint
Thon is subject to torrents of abuse, much more than our non-Muslim
staff and volunteers who were on the same demonstration as she was, and
have been on other protests with Rohingya as well.
Lies posted and spread about Wai Hnin Pwint Thon include that she is
secretly Rohingya (she isn’t), she has been accused of working with
Rohingya Solidarity Organization (she doesn’t), of wanting to create a
Caliphate in Burma (she doesn’t), of taking money from Rohingya (she
hasn’t), and even that she has had several children with different
Rohingya men (she hasn’t). She has faced not just lies but abuse, much
of it sexual in nature.
Many people seem to think that any lie or story they hear about someone
with any connection to supporting Rohingya human rights is justification
for personal attacks, abuse and even threats. Given that this is the
way their leaders behave, perhaps that is not surprising.
Around a year ago, I tried to engage Dr. Aye Chan in a conversation on
why he and his followers spent much more time criticising Rohingya than
they did the dictatorship. Aye Chan was incapable of having the
discussion without repeatedly making personal attacks. The email
conversation was forwarded to various email groups, and my in-box was
flooded with abusive emails. When I asked Aye Chan to ask his supporters
not to use personal abuse and threats, and to condemn those who do, he
repeatedly refused to do so. When leaders not only fail to condemn
abusive and personal attacks, but even make personal attacks themselves,
their followers will copy their behaviour.
More recently we have been accused of being pro-Rohingya. I am still not
exactly sure what that means. Certainly we are pro-human rights for the
Rohingya, how could we or anyone else who believes in democracy and
human rights not be?
But the implication is that we are pro-Rohingya, and therefore somehow
anti-Rakhine. It is worrying how so many people now see the two as
automatically going together. Burma Campaign UK supports the human
rights of everyone in Burma, and that includes Rohingya and Rakhine. To
talk about Rohingya having human rights does not make us anti-Rakhine.
We have campaigned on many Rakhine related issues, including Shwe gas,
Rakhine political prisoners, and were one of the few campaign groups
actively campaigning for the 34 Rakhine and Karen prisoners in jail in
India.
Burma Campaign UK has been criticised for not doing enough on Rakhine
issues, and this is also cited as evidence of some kind of pro-Rohingya
bias. But we have never refused any request when we have been asked to
work on any Rakhine related issue by any Rakhine community or human
rights group. We would do more on Arakan issues, but some members of the
Arakan community in the UK will not work with us because we support
human rights for the Rohingya. When we tried to meet with Arakan
community leaders, it took months to arrange, and only one person turned
up. In the past we made repeated offers of all kinds of training and
support to the Arakan community in UK, and to groups in exile, and none
have been taken up.
Burma Campaign UK was also fiercely criticized for circulating
information from the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK about the recent
violence. Circulating information on behalf of human rights groups is a
major part of our work. Every year we circulate media releases,
briefings and reports from dozens of organisations from Burma, and from
international NGOs.
If any organization working on Arakan human rights had also provide a
briefing with information not being reported, we would have circulated
that as well. But they didn’t.
I have tried to have some conversations with some of the people
criticizing myself and Burma Campaign UK for bias, asking them for
examples. So far no one has been able to provide a single one. Yet the
perception remains.
It seems impossible to dispel the belief by some that working for
Rohingya human rights means bias against Rakhine. From our perspective,
it seems that this is a deliberate tactic of extremists to polarize the
debate and incite more hatred and intolerance.
Any public comment or photograph relating to the Rohingya seems to act
as a lightning rod for more abuse and threats, and this article will
probably result in the same.
But I hope some people may take the time to consider the truth. What
possible reason or interest could Burma Campaign UK have in being
biased?
Our agenda is solely human rights and democracy. We have been working
relentlessly for this for more than 20 years. Why have people been so
ready to believe lies and bad things about people who have worked so
hard to support their cause? And why do people not simply ask what the
truth is before passing on lies and gossip?
Even for those who disagree with Burma Campaign UK, is it right that we
should receive threats and abuse just for having a different opinion
than them? That is the approach and mind set of the dictatorship. It
shouldn’t be the way things are done in a democracy. People do need to
ask themselves why they are so ready to believe these lies.
The terrible events in Arakan State in the past month and the reaction
of many people to those events, casts a long shadow over Burma. Violence
and intolerance took hold. Is this the kind of Burma people want to see
in the future?
Isn’t one of the main reasons for having a democracy that disagreements
can be debated and settled politically, not through violence and
threats?
Burma’s democracy movement is an anti-dictatorship movement, but it must
also be a movement for human rights, for tolerance and for equality.
