Comment: The following article on the conflict in Rakhine state, Myanmar, was published earlier this year, and with the recent flare-up in the region, and the subsequent international protests against the wholesale slaughter of Muslims that are allegedly taking place there, its insights and perspective on this issue are timely.
Once a darling of Western liberals, Aung San Suu Kyi's star has fallen because she won't support international condemnation of the Burmese government.
Despite thousands of serious allegations of rape, pillage and mass murder committed by these Bengali immigrants in Myanmar, human rights groups and the 'international community' have blamed all the violence on the Burmese authorities. Who are the Rohingya and why have they now become the focus of international attention? Why has the position of the Burmese authorities been ignored or dismissed? What geopolitical objectives could be behind an attempt to destabilise the country, as Burmese authorities have alleged?
Who are the 'Rohingya'?
There is no ethnic group called 'Rohingya'. The term 'Rohingya' is a word of Bengali etymology which means Arakan. A 'Rohinga' is simply an Arakan Muslim, a Muslim of Rakhine State, the Western province of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Dr. Jacques P. Leider, director of the French School for Asian Studies in Thailand, and an expert on Rakhine State history, puts the oft-quoted name into context:
"Rohingya is a name, not an ethnic category, that has been revived in modern days to identify Muslims in Rakhine as a separate social group. One may eventually compare it with the name of the Chinese Muslims in Myanmar who are called 'Panthay'."In the 19th century, the British Raj brought in Bengalis to work for the predominantly Buddhist Rakhine State colony in Western Burma. The Muslim settlers were used in a similar way to the Presbyterian settlers in Ireland in the 17th century; Protestant and Presbyterian settlers were settled in Ireland by the British imperial state in order to create a local loyalist force against the native Irish. The consequences of that plantation are still being felt today in the British-occupied section of the ancient Irish province of Ulster.
The British used Bengali settlers in Burma to administer the Rakhine State on behalf of British interests. Since that time, they have been periodically committing massacres against the indigenous Buddhist population of Burma's Rakhine State region. The Muslims causing all the trouble are backed by the Saudis, Pakistanis, Turks, Bangladeshis and by the British and Americans who want to 'Kosovise' mineral-rich Myanmar. I should like to stress 'Muslims who are causing all the trouble'; for it is a minority of the Rakhine State's Muslims who are attempting to wage Jihad on behalf of Western geopolitical interests and the ongoing Zionist global war on terrorism, euphemistically and erroneously referred to as the 'clash of civilisations'.
Since independence, Myanmar's Rakhine State's Muslim population has become the majority and Buddhists have suffered persecution; temples are often attacked and burned. Rapes of local Buddhist women by Muslim men are regularly reported. Arakanese Buddhists live in fear. The Islamist violence against Buddhists in Rakhine State is often followed by brutal attacks on Muslims in areas of the country where they are a minority. An independent Rakhine State which, like Serbia's Kosovo, would depend entirely on the United States for its security, would be an enormous geopolitical prize for the US and a major tool of incremental destablisation against China, where the US is currently waging covert jihad through Uigur terrorists - many of whom are training in Syria and Iraq. The World Uighur Congress is backed by Washington.
The Myanmar authorities are currently fighting a war of national liberation against two terrorist organisations called the Rohingya Liberation Organisation (RLO), and the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO). The RLO is supported by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey and, ipso facto, NATO. Recent reports from Indian intelligence agencies have indicated that Daesh are now recruiting Rohingya in India and sending them to Saudi Arabia for training.
The Rohingya terrorists are most likely receiving arms and training from Bangladeshi military intelligence under the supervision of Turkey and the US, while the Saudis are providing the radicalisation and the cash. The Rohingya refugee story is a gigantic psyops which is intended to manipulate the emotions of ignorant mass media consumers, who do not understand the history and complex geopolitical context of Myanmar and the Bay of Bengal.
With a population of 160 million, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. The Bengali state is one of the world's great sweatshops - providing slave labour for powerful Western corporations. But the state cannot provide enough employment for the country's burgeoning youth. As a consequence, hundreds of thousands of Bengali youths take to the waters, heading mostly for Thailand and Malaysia. Exploited by a brutal mafia of traffickers who coordinate with Western intelligence agencies and NGOs, these economic migrants often end up on the shores of Rakhine State, where refugee camps are erected. They are then recruited by Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist groups for purposes of destabilising Rakhine State on behalf of Western interests. The Rohingya crisis is the most brutal and blatant example of what Kelly Greenhill calls 'Weapons of mass migration', whereby human beings are used by one state as geopolitical weapons against a target state.
Comment: See our interview with Michael Springmann for more on this strategy of 'enforced migration'.
In spite of extensive research carried out on the ground in Myanmar by independent researchers such as Rick Heizman - which extensively and exhaustively document ethnic cleansing by Rohingya Muslims against poor Buddhist peasants - the human rights organisations which are shaping the international media narrative have simply relayed accusations of genocide made by the very organisations committing atrocities, namely the organised terrorist gangs of the Rohingya insurgency.
Although the public is led to believe that organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are independent, they are in fact closely linked to the British and American governments and function as para-statal agencies of imperial war propaganda. Human rights organisations infiltrated by Western intelligence agents play a key role in creating the public consensus for US, NATO or UN military interventions in countries where a pretext is needed for a war of conquest, cynically disguised as a 'humanitarian intervention'.
Bangladesh/Myanmar border tension
The alleged training being provided by the Bangladeshi military to Rohingya terrorists is one of the factors fueling conflict between Myanmar and Bangladesh, where border tensions have escalated recently. In his book The Politics of Refugees in South Asia- Identity, Resistance and Manipulation, Narvine Murshid writes:
Does Bangladesh have any incentive to prevent an armed struggle in Myanmar? Recently, Myanmar-Bangladeshi relations have been contentious over gas exploration in the Bay of Bengal. According to Bangladesh, Myanmar infringed upon Bangladesh's territorial waters around St. Martin's Island, but following an investigation, the maritime tribunal declared that the area lay within Maynmar's maritime boundary."The Politics of Refugees in South Asia
In 2012, a Muslim mob attacked Buddhist labourers in Ramu, Bangladesh, destroying temples and many homes. Local politicians participated in the sectarian violence. Some tried to justify the hate crimes by claiming that the violence was due to the frustration felt by Rohingya who were unable to enter Rakhine State to 'protect' fellow Muslims from 'Buddhist repression' after the border was closed by the Bangladeshi military. There is sufficient reason to believe that the Rohingya terrorist groups are being armed and trained in Bangladesh. The above-mentioned author was told in Bangladesh, "It is an open secret that the Rohingya have access to small arms". The Western powers are supporting Bangladesh in this endeavour, through the human rights war industry which consists of completely ignoring the ethnic cleansing by Muslims of Buddhists in Rakhine State and ignoring the fact that many of these so-called victims of Burmese state repression are Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists.
It is possible that the CIA and MI6 are also backing some Buddhist terrorist organisations in order to discredit the Myanmar state. Violence has escalated in Rakhine State since the assassination of Muslim human rights lawyer U Ko Ni on the 29th of January by Buddhist terrorists. U Ko Ni was an advisor to Myanmar's leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The Burmese government said it was an attempt to 'destabilise the state'. Amnesty International told the New York Times that a proper independent investigation must be carried out into U Ko Ni's assassination. The clear implication is that government forces may have been involved. It is much more likely, however, that forces attempting to undermine the government were behind the killing.
By deception they wage war
Many of the organisations and media outlets who are reporting truthfully on the Syrian war have been completely deceived by the sophisticated and well-funded 'Rohingya' crisis in Myanmar. Iran's excellent news service Press TV have heretofore relayed disinformation and lies from Zionist organisations such as Human Rights Watch which blame the Myanmar state for the violence in the country. They have made no effort to objectively explain the geopolitical nature of the Rohingya crisis nor have the victims of Rohingya terrorism been given a voice. The Islamic Republic of Iran has made major foreign policy errors in the past. In the 1990s Iran supported the Bosnian Mujahedeen, collaborating with the USA in the funneling of arms to terrorists who were massacring Serbian civilians on behalf of NATO interests. Iran hoped to gain influence in Europe and had fallen for Western propaganda which demonised the Serbian government.
The Israelis played a key role in that deception by expressing support for the Serbs. Relations between the Serbs and Israel had been good. But disinformation agents such as journalist Robert Fisk made much of the Israeli support for Serbia in order to conjure up in the liberal leftist's do-gooder imagination comparisons between the Israeli regime's oppression of Palestinians and Serbian repression of Bosnian and Kosovan terrorists. In a 6th of January 2006 Independent newspaper column on former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Fisk wrote:
Largely forgotten amid Sharon's hatred for "terrorism" was his outspoken criticism of NATO's war against Serbia in 1999, when he was Israeli foreign minister. Eleven years earlier he had sympathised with the political objective of Slobodan Milosevic: to prevent the establishment of an Albanian state in Kosovo. This, he said, would lead to "Greater Albania" and provide a haven for - readers must here hold their breath - "Islamic terror". In a Belgrade newspaper interview, Sharon said that "we stand together with you against the Islamic terror".Although a war criminal and butcher, Sharon sometimes expressed views that were out of sync with mainstream Zionism. As I pointed out in my series on Zionism's war on Europe, Sharon may have been murdered due to his astonishing admission that Israel would have to end the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands. Robert Fisk is and always has been an agent of NATO disinformation and war propaganda.
In the above-cited article he wants the reader to believe that Sharon's objection to the NATO bombing of Serbia was a bad thing, simply because Sharon thought the West's support for Islamic Jihad would, in this case, threaten Israel's security. The reality is that the war on Serbia was the beginning of a series of of brutal wars of aggression against independent nation states as part of an attempt to create an Israeli-dominated world order. But you will not read that in the frantic, liberal leftist imperialism of Fisk's dishonest columns. In demonizing one side of a complex war, and providing justification for a bombing campaign that led to massive loss of innocent lives, in Bosnia, Libya, Syria, and beyond, Robert Fisk should be tried for complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity. Fisk is a deft writer and most people therefore fail to see how he constantly distorts the truth.
NATO has never backed the Palestinians or offered to intervene when they were being carpet bombed by the Zionist regime. But it did back the terrorists and drug dealers of the Kosovo Liberation Army. Iran made virtually no gains from its geopolitical adventure in Bosnia. The pro-US 'independent' Bosnian regime subsequently voted to maintain sanctions against them in the United Nations! Much of the demonisation of Serbs was carried out by Bernard Henri Levi, a fanatical Zionist and 'New World Order' agent of chaos. French Zionist Bernard Kouchner was another key player in the destruction of Yugoslavia.
Biased media reporting on Myanmar
Now, the same lies and distortions are being published on Press TV comparing the Burmese government's repression of the Rohingya terrorist insurgency to Israel's genocide of the Palestinians. The writers in Press TV who are publishing this nonsense ought to reflect on the fact that Iran is facing a major war with the United States. The same groups massacring Buddhist civilians in Myanmar have been bombing Mosques throughout Iran in recent years and will have no hesitation in cutting Iran's Shia Muslims to pieces when Zionist 'Babylon' marches into Persia!
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been unequivocal in his condemnation of Takfiri terrorism. But there is an important fifth column operating at the highest levels of the Islamic Republic of Iran on behalf of Zionism. If Ayatollah Ali Khamenei does not take steps to remove these people from positions of power and influence, the Islamic Republic of Iran could become the next Syria.
Buddhist militia are now emerging throughout Myanmar; they are warning citizens to arm and defend their race, religion and fatherland against the Bengali invasion. Religious and social tensions have been manipulated by the West in the past. In 2007, the CIA organised the 'Safron Revolution' - a colour revolution which used Buddhist monks as a battering ram against the state in order to advance Western geostrategic interests in the country.
As stated earlier, there may be terrorists among the Buddhist population on the CIA payroll. The Buddhist monk Ashin Wirathu has been accused of inciting racial hatred and mass murder against the Muslim population. Time magazine published a picture of him on their front page with the caption: 'The face of Buddhist terror'. I have seen many documentaries and media reports which simply dismiss his argument that he is defending his people from Islamist terrorism. Crimes alleged to have been committed by Buddhists against Muslims are reported as incontrovertibly confirmed, while crimes allegedly carried out by Muslims against Buddhists are simply dismissed, without any investigation. The allegations against Wirathu may be true but I have yet to see anything one could consider an objective and impartial investigation.
A 'violent criminal' Wirathu does seem to be 'by all accounts' writes a well-known alternative media commentator without independent corroboration of the accusations. The BBC published a report entitled 'Our World: Myanmar's Extremist Monk' where one was left in no doubt about who the good and bad guys are in Myanmar's escalating civil war. In this BBC documentary, horrific murders committed by Buddhists against Muslims are extensively investigated. Family members are interviewed etc, but no such respect is shown to the families of Buddhist victims. We are told that the authorities stopped the filming of the documentary and took the BBC team away for questioning in order to verify their accreditation. The implication is that the Myanmar government is trying to hide something. But it is clear that it is the BBC which is attempting to hide information. The BBC did not interview one single government official; their point of view is completely excluded.
We have no information on any Buddhist victims of Islamist aggression, in spite of the BBC's admission that the photos Monk Wirathu showed them were gruesome and too horrific to show. We are simply told that Wirathu is not concerned about Muslim victims. Wirathu could say the same thing about the BBC's lack of concern for Buddhists. We do see extensive evidence of Buddhist destruction of mosques in Meiktila but nothing about the Islamist destruction of Buddhist temples throughout Rakhine State. We are told that the government does nothing to stop Buddhist violence a few minutes after we are told that Wirathu was imprisoned for 9 years by the government precisely for his alleged political crimes.
BBC reporter Jonah Fisher shows the 'evil monk' footage of a Muslim man being beaten to death by Buddhist terrorists. The reporter asks him if his preaching is not contributing to this violence. After condemning the violence towards the Muslim, Wirathu replies:
"If the conflict had started because of my teachings in areas where I preach, then our side could have started it, but that is not what happened. They attacked us and we responded, that's how I see it."One faction of the Buddhist monks instrumentalised in the CIA's 'Safron Revolution' of 2007 want Wirathu's nationalist 969 Movement to be crushed as it is an obstacle to 'democratic reform'. Translated into geopolitical language, Wirathu's nationalism is an obstacle to the West's plan to balkanise the country. The country's former President Thein Sein was less supportive of regional autonomy for the Rakhine State than Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Thein Sein is a supporter of Wirathu.
Wirathu has proposed legislation that would make it illegal for Muslim men to marry Buddhist women. He managed to find two million signatures for the petition to be presented to parliament. The legislation is ethno-relious and Western critics call it racist but it is a perfectly rational proposal from a Buddhist nationalist point of view. Many Buddhist women are being converted to Islam and the Islamic population is rising rapidly. In fact, leaflets are circulating in the country offering money to anyone who can convert the daughters of powerful officials.The indigenous population feels under threat and are taking steps to preserve their culture and identity. Similar rules exist in many Islamic countries but no one talks about that. For example, in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Muslim men are permitted to marry non-Muslim women but the women must convert to Islam, thus ensuring the continuity of Islam as the state religion.
We are told that Wirathu has a 'hateful' and 'intolerant' message. Wirathu does seem to hate the Islamisation of Myanmar and he is intolerant of the many crimes against humanity committed by Takfiri terrorists. He wants the Muslims to remain a minority and condemns acts of violence against them. He is hateful and intolerant indeed! A Press TV documentary entitled: 'The Racist Monk of Myanmar' could have been produced by the BBC, CNN or Israel's Channel 1! Wirathu is referred to as a 'fascist' and demonised from start to finish.
In recent years the United States has been redeploying forces to the South Pacific in what is increasingly looking like an emerging military confrontation with the People's Republic of China. Support for Islamist and Lamaist terrorism are two important poles of Washington's military strategy against China. One actor who has been on the CIA payroll for many years, namely, the Dalai Lama, has publicly condemned the Myanmar government for its 'repression' of the Rohingya Muslims.
The CIA have funded terrorist insurgencies in Tibet since the Chinese communists liberated the country in 1950, ending centuries of brutal slavery and serfdom. The Dalai Lama, who is hated by many genuine Buddhists, will no doubt rely on a strong supply of Takfiri terrorists to keep the People's Liberation Army busy in Xinyang while Lamaist terrorism is fomented in Tibet. The conditions are ripe for civil war. The 'international community', that is to say, the United States, clearly supports Bangladesh's covert war on Myanmar as they want to block Chinese influence in the Bay of Bengal and use Rakhine State as a base of operations for the coming US-backed jihad in China's Western province of Xinyang, as well as the destabilisation of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Although the election of President Donald Trump portends the possibility of a US change of course, with the CIA in clear conflict with the US president on foreign policy, the likelihood is that it will be business as usual for the US military-industrial war machine.
In 1942, more than 50,000 Buddhists were massacred by 'Rohingya' Muslims in Maungdaw, Rakhine State. Massacres against Buddhist civilians have been occurring on a massive scale in recent years. The Rohingya modus operandi is to blame the victim. Rick Heizman is one of the few researchers who has documented the ongoing genocide of poor Buddhist peasants by Western-backed Rohingya terrorists. His work has been ignored by the two biggest global crime syndicates of human rights terrorism, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Heizman's work for the Arakan Human Rights and Development Organisation is thoroughly researched. The above-cited Dr Leider is one of the few experts who has approached the Rohingya problem scientifically. He has denounced the emotional and biased analysis of the international media and human rights groups. He told Burmese media that, "Journalists have to focus more on diversifying their sources of documentation."
About the author
Gearóid Ó Colmáin is an Irish journalist and political analyst based in Paris. His work focuses on globalisation, geopolitics and class struggle. His investigative reports and interviews can be found on his website: gearoidocolmain.org
Comment: See also:
Propaganda Alert! Innocent Bangladesh Rohingya Muslim refugees fleeing Evil Burma Regime