Two days later, on Aug. 27, the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar released a\u00a0report<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0based upon a year of investigations and interviews with survivors. \u00a0The report affirmed JWW\u2019s analysis: the UN experts found that Myanmar\u2019s army commander, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and other top generals should face trial for \u201cgenocide.\u201d Like the JWW analysis, the panel saw evidence of genocidal intent in the Myanmar military\u2019s operation against the Rohingya, citing the pervasive rhetoric of hate directed at the Rohingya by civilians and military commanders, as well as \u201cthe level of organization indicating a plan for destruction; and the extreme scale and brutality of the violence.\u201d<\/p>\n Aerial view of a burned Rohingya village in Rakhine state, Myanmar in Sept. 2017<\/p><\/div>\n Aug. 27 was also supposed to be the day that Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo faced sentencing before a court in Myanmar on fabricated charges of violating the colonial-era Official Secrets Act for \u201cpossessing important and secret government documents\u201d related to Rakhine state.\u00a0 Interestingly, the sentence did not come down that day.\u00a0 Sentencing was suspended until Sept. 3, apparently because Judge Ye Lwin had fallen ill.\u00a0 Human rights advocates worldwide hoped this was a stalling tactic by Myanmar\u2019s military and that they would eventually release the journalists as a sign of good faith \u2014 a willingness to cooperate a little and uphold at least one fundamental right: freedom of the press.<\/p>\n But, alas, that did not happen.\u00a0 The Reuters journalists were sentenced to 7 years<\/a> in prison for simply doing their jobs.\u00a0 They were arrested on Dec. 12, 2017 while investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in a village in western Rakhine state.\u00a0 Moments before their arrest, in a restaurant in Yangon, they met with two police officers who planted documents on them.\u00a0 One police witness even testified that the restaurant meeting was a set-up to entrap the journalists to block or punish them for their reporting of the mass killing.\u00a0 This was a landmark case seen as a test of progress towards democracy.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Myanmar failed.<\/p>\n The sentence sparked international condemnation and calls for the journalists\u2019 immediate release. One prominent voice on the issue was longtime JWW supporter and UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression David Kaye<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and co-sponsor of the Burma Act of 2018, also spoke out following the decision.<\/p>\n \u201cThis unjust verdict reaffirms that the Burmese government is complicit in the military\u2019s atrocities \u2026 The U.S. should respond with more sanctions and a formal determination of genocide. We must act before it is too late,\u201d said Rep. Royce.<\/p>\n Two weeks ago, JWW staff met with Rep. Royce\u2019s staff in his Brea office to update the Congressman on the situation in Myanmar, asked that he acknowledge the atrocities against the Rohingya as genocide, urged him to push for stronger sanctions and demand the release of the journalists.<\/p>\n So, if Myanmar wouldn\u2019t bend under the seriousness of the UN\u2019s genocide determination by exonerating the journalists, what was the reaction to the \u201cG\u201d word?\u00a0 Did civilian leader and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi finally voice her disapproval of the military\u2019s actions or express her sorrow over the gross violations suffered by the Rohingya?\u00a0 Not quite.<\/p>\n The UN report was largely ignored by the local news media and Internet users in Myanmar.\u00a0 Instead of expressing outrage over the military\u2019s genocidal acts, the primarily Buddhist civilian population of Myanmar exploded over Facebook\u2019s move to bar 20 individuals<\/a> and organizations linked to the military from its network for committing or enabling \u201cserious human rights abuses in the country.\u201d\u00a0 This move \u201ccatalyzed a frenzied, vociferous response in Myanmar, where the social media platform is so popular that it is synonymous with the internet,\u201d said the New York Times<\/a>. The platform\u2019s users in Myanmar hotly debated whether they should migrate to another platform to punish Facebook for denigrating their military and spiritual leaders.<\/p>\n Both the JWW analysis and the UN mission\u2019s report highlighted Facebook\u2019s role in turning the majority of the country\u2019s population against the Rohingya and fomenting violence.\u00a0 The platform\u2019s current efforts to curb vitriolic hate speech posted by the military, government officials, Buddhist leaders, and citizens came far too late.\u00a0 The damage has been done.\u00a0 And, despite the world\u2019s placing commander in chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing in a class of infamy alongside war criminals like Hitler and Milosevic, Myanmar\u2019s majority remains both stalwart in its support of its leaders and in denial of what really happened in Rakhine state.<\/p>\n Another incident on Aug. 30 highlighted the type of propaganda Myanmar military leaders resort to in order to maintain support.\u00a0 In a book aimed at illustrating the army\u2019s account of last year\u2019s events in the western state of Rakhine, the military used pictures that were, in fact, archive photos of different conflicts, Reuters<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n Myanmar’s military produced fake photos as part of a continued effort to deny Rohingya genocide<\/p><\/div>\n Myanmar has long claimed that the Rohingya are not an ethnic group of Myanmar, but Bengali illegal immigrants that have stolen the country\u2019s land and resources.\u00a0 So, it\u2019s telling that the military publication faded out a photo depicting the migration of Rwandan Hutu refugees in 1996 following the genocide in Rwanda, and captioned it \u201cBengalis intruded into the country after the British Colonialism occupied the lower part of Myanmar.\u201d\u00a0 Not only is this factually inaccurate, but the use of a photo of African migrants encapsulates Myanmar\u2019s efforts to emphasize the otherness of the Rohingya, in both appearance and religion.\u00a0 The only accurate element of the photo is that genocide occurred in both lands.<\/p>\n Despite the local solidarity, it may not matter what officials or civilians of Myanmar think. Last week, the International Criminal Court\u2019s (ICC) Pre-Trial Chamber 1 ruled that the Court may exercise jurisdiction<\/a> over the alleged mass deportation, (or forcible transfer) of the Rohingya people from Myanmar to Bangladesh.<\/p>\n Why?\u00a0 Because Bangladesh is a signatory of the Rome Statue establishing the ICC, even if Myanmar is not.\u00a0 Since an element of the alleged deportation took place in Bangladesh, the Court can prosecute Myanmar officials for their crimes.\u00a0 Notably, in a move few experts had foreseen, the Chamber found the Court\u2019s jurisdiction extends to any other crimes<\/em> set out in article 5 of the Rome Statute[1]<\/a>, such as the crimes against humanity of persecution and potentially genocide \u2014 even though they did not take place in Bangladesh.\u00a0 The decision opens the door for chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to gather enough evidence in a preliminary investigation to convince the Court to greenlight a full-blown probe into Myanmar\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, Myanmar rejected<\/a> the Court\u2019s unprecedented ruling.\u00a0 In a stinging response, the government said the decision was \u201cof dubious legal merit\u201d and that Myanmar was \u201cunder no obligation\u201d to respect its determination.<\/p>\n So where do we go from here?\u00a0 Despite the veritable witches\u2019 brew of egregious acts by Mynamar\u2019s civilian and military officials alike, the Trump Administration has remained relatively quiet on the subject.\u00a0 Though officials like Rep. Royce, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley have raised their voices, the Trump Administration as a whole has not.<\/p>\n Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley<\/p><\/div>\n Despite messages from the U.N. and ICC that there is something wrong going on here, the U.S. has not instated harsher sanctions; it has not brought the issue before the Security Council; it has not called this what it is \u2014 a genocide.<\/p>\n The U.S. must immediately and significantly increase its food and medical aid to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.\u00a0 It should also put forward a UN Security Council Resolution with targeted sanctions against everyone named in the U.N. fact-finding mission, including asset and visa freezes, plus banking and business bans on activities with military-controlled Myanmar banks and companies.\u00a0 It should also join the U.N. General Assembly in declaring the crisis a genocide.\u00a0 Even though the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the ICC can initiate an investigation proprio motu<\/em>\u00a0(\u201con one\u2019s own initiative\u201d in Latin) now that the Court has found a jurisdictional basis, the U.S. must show its support for the ICC process and push for cooperation with the OTP.<\/p>\n All of this MUST HAPPEN NOW!<\/strong>\u00a0 The longer we wait, the higher the likelihood that these types of atrocities will recur, both in Myanmar and throughout the world.\u00a0 Already, the Myanmar military has started to discriminate against and persecute religious and ethnic minorities in its other provinces, like Kachin<\/a> and Shan.<\/p>\n And, it\u2019s not just Myanmar we should worry about.\u00a0 Other governments attacking ethnic minorities will perceive inaction as a sign that they are free to continue perpetrating their crimes, with impunity.\u00a0 Both India and China are actively suppressing large Muslim minority populations, stripping them of their rights.\u00a0 China<\/a> has sent more than 3 million Uyghur Muslims to concentration camps, while India has showed signs of following Myanmar\u2019s model of robbing 4 million Muslims in Assam of citizenship.<\/p>\n Inaction now will create greater problems in the future.<\/p>\n The U.S. must step up to the plate, acknowledge the Rohingya crisis as genocide, and take a leadership role in ensuring that the abuses stop and those responsible are held to account.<\/p>\n [su_spacer]<\/p>\n The Burma Act was introduced to the House of Representatives by Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) earlier this year and currently has 80 co-sponsors. We ask that you urge your representatives to support the bill at this crucial time.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jww.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/20180912-myanmar-burned-village.jpg\")
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