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“Conspiracy Of Silence” Happening Around The Rohingya Muslims

By Fatima Moosa Last updated May 14, 2019

After last year’s condemnation around the violence which was being committed against the Rohingya Muslims,
the world seems to have gone silent once more around the issue. A pair of activists are doing something to make
sure their plight isn’t forgotten. Nay San Lwin is a activist and blogger who runs a blog site, Rohingya Blogger
which narrates the on the ground experiences of the Rohingya Muslims who have been facing persecution in
Myanmar. Sha ur Rahman is a journalist and documentary maker who has made a doccie about the Rohingya.
The pair are currently in South Africa on a tour speaking about the genocide and international solidarity. The
Daily Vox team spoke to them about the need for awareness of the plight of the Rohingya.

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The Rohingya crisis: a humanitarian disaster in
Myanmar
Myanmar is home to an estimated 1.1 million Rohingya, a
persecuted Muslim minority. Numerous sources both inside
and outside the country have reported horrific human
rights violations. Shabnam Mayet explores the enduring
discrimination against the marginalised group.  The
Rohingya crisis is a humanitarian disaster created over
decades by the institutionalisation of a slow-burning genocide against … Continue
reading

The Daily Vox 3

Lwin has been running the blog, which was started by his father, since 2012. He leads a local network of activists
based in Rakhine state in Myanmar who report on what is happening. Some of them are now in Bangladesh.

Lwin was recently in Bangladesh: “I was there organising education projects because the students there don’t have
any education. Even when they were in Myanmar they didn’t have the education aspects so I am trying to create
something and in South Africa as well. With students and teachers to go and teach there.”

His blog has been widely recognised by the international community and diplomats who read the updates. Lwin
says the local authority is responsive whenever he posts updates. On the blog there is an English and Burmese
section because Lwin says they have to write everything in Burmese for the local people and authority.

On why he thinks it is important for people to know about the persecution, Lwin says people are not just facing
normal persecution and it is a genocide.

“It is going on for the past 40 years. Since 1978, and the people at the time there was no internet, there was no
telephone line. That’s why people didn’t know but nowadays we have the internet and mobile phones and people
have access to social media so we came to know more about the Rohingya situation. It is very important that these
people are facing the genocide and it has to be stopped. The people who are now more than a billion in Bangladesh,
they have lost everything and have to rebuild their lives so the global citizen must support the end of their
sufferings. They also want to live as a digni ed person. So the awareness is very much important,” adds Lwin.

While the bloggers are doing very important work on the ground, Lwin says it is very dangerous because the media
and the journalists are not allowed to report on the area so the people who are reporting on the violence are
considered the enemy of the state. “They cannot reveal the identity, they cannot even say anything about the
violence in public. They will be arrested. There are some people who got arrested because they were discovered
they are sending the updated information to the media and to me. They are still some people who are in jail.”
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Rahman made Sign

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in 2016. He spoke to 20 victims of sexual violence.

“[They were] extremely eager to speak to me. [They] removed their veils saying they took away our dignity so
when we’re confronting our violators and attackers, we’re not going to speak behind our veils.”

Rahman says those were dif cult testimonies to hear but that documentary led him to follow these women for
about six months.

“And that showed up the dangers they had to face. Within one month, one of the girls had been traf cked. Refugee
camps are dangerous. People fall prey to malnutrition and traf cking and environmental issues like landslides. [It’s
a] dif cult place to be.” Rahman says.

With regards to the response to his work, Rahman says the documentary, Tula Toli, showed the pre-planning that
took place from the testimonies of the villagers and one could see this was very much planned massacre.

“The response has been great. People were shocked at the brutality and horror of it all. That the military can
commit such atrocities with impunity, throwing babies into a re. Mass killings and mass burnings of villages.
People were shocked that this was going on and the international community not doing anything commensurately
in response.”

He says as a journalist and a documentary-maker, he’d been in dif cult situations and dif cult places but this was
so overwhelming and was truly emotionally impactful.

Regarding the South Africa tour, Lwin and Rahman are here to spread awareness on the plight of the Rohingya
people. They also want the South African government and organisations to revoke two awards from Aung San Suu
Kyi. The awards are the Gandhi Memorial Award and an honorary doctorate from the University of Johannesburg.

Lwin says she doesn’t deserve it because she is complicit with the genocide and taken side with the military and has
helped cover up the crime.

With regards to South Africa’s role, Lwin says South Africa has abstained from voting on the issue in the United
Nations and that needs to be changed in the future.

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SA needs a stronger stance on the Rohingya Crisis
Over three hundred thousand Rohingya have been
displaced since August 25, and there have been reports of
indiscriminate killing and the burning of their villages. The
United Nations (UN) has strongly condemned the
violence, but the South African response has been
lukewarm, writes Fatima Moosa. The Rohingya are a group
which has for centuries lived in what … Continue reading

The Daily Vox 1

“South Africa as a country needs to pressure the UN to take strong action against military and government in
Myanmar. The United Nations has been failing since 1992 and have never taken any action,” says Lwin. He also says
the UN needs to start labeling the situation in the Rakhine state as a genocide.

Pretoria protest for Rohingya rights gets messy

About 500 people gathered outside the Myanmar Embassy
in Pretoria on Friday to protest the ongoing violence
against the Rohingya Muslims. But the protest was marred
by altercations between protesters and police. The
advocacy group Protect The Rohingya, which had
organised a Rohingya solidarity march to the Myanmar
embassy, were unable to hand over a … Continue reading

The Daily Vox 0

In South Africa, Rahman wants to get through to people that there is a conspiracy of silence. He also wants to
inform people that what is going on isn’t just a Muslim issue – it’s a genocide.

“What’s required is investigations on the ground which Myanmar will not allow. People need to be informed and
take whatever action they can take. And concretely bring attention that SA has given two awards which need to be
revoked. What is happening is genocide. [It’s] said never again but it’s happening all over again. People need to step
up and act,” Rahman says about what South Africans and the international community needs to do.

To nd out more about Lwin and Rahman’s tour, follow @ProtectRohingya on Twitter.

 Aung San Suu Kyi Burma conspiracy gandhi memorial award honorary doctorate Protect the Rohingya sha ur rahman
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silence
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Fatima Moosa - 367 Posts - 0

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Fatima still hasn't gured out her beat. However, she loves writing about everything from women in sport,
international politics and pop culture.

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