The world media, which usually does not pay attention to third world countries, has focused on the events in Myanmar. Religious conflict in the country's western state has led to tens of thousands of refugees and several hundred deaths.
Muslim countries and organizations unanimously accuse the Myanmar authorities of ethnic cleansing. Rallies in support of Myanmar's followers of Islam - the Rohingyas - were held in many countries. For example, Muslims in Russia have already declared a "jihad" against the Buddhists of Myanmar, and the President of Turkey openly called what is happening a genocide.
Scene
The state of Rakhine (another name is Arakan) is located in the northwest of Myanmar. It is inhabited by two main ethnic groups - Arakanese and Rohingya. The first are Buddhists, the second are predominantly Muslims.
Difficult relations between the two religious communities began during the colonial rule of Great Britain. They reached their highest point in 1942, during the war with the Empire of Japan. Then the representatives of the Rohingya received weapons from the allies to fight the Japanese conquerors, but directed them at their Buddhist neighbors. More than 50 thousand people died.
Arakan state highlighted in red
After Myanmar (then the name of the country was Burma) gained independence from Great Britain in 1948, relations in the state did not improve. The chaos and civil war that followed independence eventually left Buddhists and Muslims on opposite sides of the barricades. The strong positions of the nationalists and the change of dictators in the post-war period did not give a chance to stabilize the inter-confessional situation.
In the second half of the 20th century, Burma, which was experiencing an economic upsurge, began to massively attract workers from neighboring India and Bangladesh, mostly Muslims, who settled in the state closest to their culture.
On this basis, the central authorities believe that the Muslim population of Rakhine-Arakan is a newcomer, which is not entirely true. A common religion, close cultural kinship quickly united the indigenous Rohingya Muslims and visiting "zarobitchans".
Official propaganda does not consider the Rohingya to be indigenous. Photo by Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters
It should also be said about the political situation in Myanmar itself. Now the country is undergoing a transition from dictatorship to democracy. In 2015, Thin Kyaw, the country's first non-military ruler in more than 50 years, became president. The post of prime minister (more precisely, state adviser) was taken by Aung San Suu Kyi, a cult figure for the Burmese public.
The daughter of the founder of the armed forces of Burma for a long time was deprived of the opportunity to live in her homeland. Aung San Suu Kyi defended the democratic path of development and opposed the junta, for which she even received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. For now, Myanmar's democrats have to find common ground with the military, whose position is still strong.
Aung San Suu Kyi is criticized for her lack of condemnation of the army's actions in Arakan, but it is with her that world leaders are negotiating to resolve the conflict.
How did it all start?
Small skirmishes at the household level have continued since independence. In the 21st century, the situation reached its apogee in 2012. The unrest began after the rape and murder of a young Buddhist girl. Muslims were blamed for her death, followed by pogroms of shops and mosques. At the same time, the radical "Rohingya Salvation Army of Arakan" (ARSA) was created. And in October 2016, an organization with the flashy name "Arakan Faith Movement" attacked police stations.
The attack of ARSA militants on 30 police stations on August 25, 2017 can be considered the beginning of the latest confrontation. After that, the Myanmar authorities launched an anti-terrorist operation. More than 400 militants have been killed in fighting in the state, according to military reports. A total of 12 military and 14 civilians were killed. Thousands of people fled to neighboring Bangladesh. It is not possible to check the data on those killed and detained, since access to Arakan is closed to journalists.
The authorities accuse ARSA in connection with international terrorism, although the militants themselves deny everything, motivating their actions by protecting the Muslim minority.
Who is guilty?
Definitely answer the question "who is to blame?" - impossible. What is undeniable is the presence of radical elements among the Rohingya, such as ARSA and the Arakan Faith Movement, flirting with radical Islam.
On the part of Buddhists, the figure of the leader of the radical organization "969" Ashina Viratu is significant. A Buddhist monk who served time in prison for hating Muslims calls for a "final solution to the Islamic question." Not embarrassed in terms, Viratu won support among the radical public.
For his statements, the monk was repeatedly criticized by prominent Buddhist figures. For example, the Dalai Lama called on the authorities of Myanmar to support Muslims, and even earlier the spiritual leader of Tibet spoke out condemning the policy of the authorities in Arakan.
However, is religion the main reason for the confrontation? Yes and no. Poverty, lack of education and affordable medicine create fertile ground for the radicalization of the religious population.
The reaction of the world
A new round of confrontation caused a violent reaction in the world. For example, Muslim countries condemned the actions of the Myanmar military, calling the fighting ethnic cleansing and even genocide. Neighboring Malaysia, Indonesia offered to shelter the Rohingya on their land. The United States also spoke out, calling for a stop to the forceful solution of the issue in Myanmar.
Action in support of the Rohingya in Bangladesh. ABC photo
A more cautious position was chosen by China, which is interested in Myanmar as an economic partner and ally in the region. It is likely that Beijing will not allow the UN to impose tangible sanctions on Naypyidaw.
If the army continues the operation in Arakan, the growth of discontent in the Islamic world will attract volunteers for the war with the Buddhists. In this scenario, the emergence of the Burmese cell of the "Islamic state" will not take long.
The aggravation of the situation in Myanmar could jeopardize not only the Rohingya, but also Buddhists in those countries where they neighbor Muslims - and these are the countries of Indochina and even Russia.
Kadyrov's statements on the Internet, Sunday's standing at the embassy of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar in Moscow and a mass rally in Grozny in defense of Muslims persecuted in a distant country suddenly forced Russians to pay attention to a problem little known to the general public.
In fact, the history of the standoff in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar with a persecuted Muslim minority has long been a concern in the world - both at the government level and in the human rights environment.
What is Myanmar? At one time, this country in Southeast Asia was known as Burma. But the locals do not like this name, considering it foreign. Therefore, after 1989, the country was renamed Myanmar (translated as "fast", "strong").
Since the country gained independence in 1948, a civil war has been waged in Burma, in which the Burmese authorities, communist guerrillas, and separatist rebels participated. And if we add to this explosive “cocktail” the drug dealers of the “Golden Triangle”, which, in addition to Myanmar, also included Thailand and Laos, it becomes obvious that the situation on Burmese soil did not symbolize peace and quiet.
From 1962 until 2011, the country was ruled by the military, and the head of the opposition Democratic League that won in 1989, the future Nobel Peace Prize winner, Do Aung San Suu Kyi, was placed under house arrest for a long time. The country found itself in a rather noticeable isolation from the outside world - including in connection with Western sanctions. But in recent years, noticeable changes have taken place in Myanmar, elections have been held. And last year, Aung San Suu Kyi became foreign minister and state adviser (de facto prime minister).
In a country with a population of 60 million people, there are more than a hundred nationalities: Burmese, Shan, Karen, Arakanese, Chinese, Indians, Mons, Kachins, etc. The vast majority of believers are Buddhists, there are Christians, Muslims, animists.
“Myanmar, as a multinational country, is experiencing a load of problems of this kind,” comments Viktor Sumsky, director of the ASEAN Center at MGIMO. - The new government of the country is making attempts to resolve conflict situations, but in fact it turns out that it was the problem of the Rohingya that came to the fore ...
So who are the Rohingyas? This is an ethnic group living compactly in the Myanmar state of Rakhine (Arakan). The Rohingya practice Islam. According to estimates, their number in Myanmar ranges from 800 thousand to 1.1 million people. It is believed that most of them moved to the territory of Burma during the British colonial rule.
The Myanmar authorities refer to the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh - and on this basis deny them citizenship. The law forbade them to have more than two children. The authorities tried to resettle them in Bangladesh, but no one expected them there either. It is no coincidence that the UN calls them one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Many Rohingyas flee to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand. But a number of countries in Southeast Asia - including Muslim ones - refuse to accept these refugees, and ships with migrants are deployed at sea.
During the Second World War, when Burma was occupied by Japan, in 1942 there was a so-called. "Arakan massacre" between Rohingya Muslims who received weapons from the British and local Buddhists who supported the Japanese. Tens of thousands of people died, many people became refugees. Of course, these events did not add trust to relations between the communities.
From time to time, serious tensions flared up in the places of compact residence of the Rohingya, often reaching bloodshed. While Buddhist Burmese are staging Muslim pogroms in Rakhine, the Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, has urged Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to support the Rohingya. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also spoke out in defense of the Burmese Muslims. The West, both in the European Union and the United States, were not silent on this issue (although, of course, it was not the problem of the Muslim minority that played the first role in the sanctions imposed against Myanmar at the time). On the other hand, the problem of Muslims in Burma in the past decades was actively used by various theorists of "global jihad" - from Abdullah Azzam to his student Osama bin Laden. So it cannot be ruled out that this region may become a new point of conflict, where supporters of the most radical jihadist groups will reach out - as happened, say, in the Philippines.
The situation became especially aggravated after dozens of people attacked three Myanmar border posts in October last year, as a result of which the border guards were killed. After that, troops were brought into Rakhine State. Over 20,000 people fled to Bangladesh. In February 2017, a UN report was published based on surveys of refugees: it provides shocking facts of extrajudicial killings of the Rohingya by local nationalists, as well as security forces, gang rapes, etc.
In recent days alone, about 90,000 Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh. This came after rebels from the Arakanese Rohingya Solidarity Army attacked dozens of police posts and an army base in Rakhine on August 25. The ensuing skirmishes and military counteroffensive claimed at least 400 lives. The authorities accuse the militants of burning houses and killing civilians, while human rights activists blame the army for the same. And even before Ramzan Kadyrov, Turkish President Erdogan spoke last week in defense of Burmese Muslims, calling what is happening a genocide, about which “everyone is silent” ...
Kadyrov, Sunday standing at the embassy of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar in Moscow and a mass rally in Grozny in defense of Muslims persecuted in a distant country suddenly forced Russians to pay attention to a problem little known to the general public.
In fact, the history of the standoff in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar with a persecuted Muslim minority has long been a concern in the world - both at the government level and in the human rights environment.
What is Myanmar? At one time, this country in Southeast Asia was known as Burma. But the locals do not like this name, considering it foreign. Therefore, after 1989, the country was renamed Myanmar (translated as "fast", "strong").
Since the country gained independence in 1948, a civil war has been waged in Burma, in which the Burmese authorities, communist guerrillas, and separatist rebels participated. And if we add to this explosive “cocktail” the drug dealers of the “Golden Triangle”, which, in addition to Myanmar, also included Thailand and Laos, it becomes obvious that the situation on Burmese soil did not symbolize peace and quiet.
From 1962 until 2011, the country was ruled by the military, and the head of the opposition Democratic League that won in 1989, the future Nobel Peace Prize winner, Do Aung San Suu Kyi, was placed under house arrest for a long time. The country found itself in a rather noticeable isolation from the outside world - including in connection with Western sanctions. But in recent years, noticeable changes have taken place in Myanmar, elections have been held. And last year, Aung San Suu Kyi became foreign minister and state adviser (de facto prime minister).
In a country with a population of 60 million people, there are more than a hundred nationalities: Burmese, Shan, Karen, Arakanese, Chinese, Indians, Mons, Kachins, etc. The vast majority of believers are Buddhists, there are Christians, Muslims, animists.
“Myanmar, as a multinational country, is experiencing a load of problems of this kind,” comments Viktor Sumsky, director of the ASEAN Center at MGIMO. - The new government of the country is making attempts to resolve conflict situations, but in fact it turns out that it was the problem of the Rohingya that came to the fore ...
So who are the Rohingyas? This is an ethnic group living compactly in the Myanmar state of Rakhine (Arakan). The Rohingya practice Islam. According to estimates, their number in Myanmar ranges from 800 thousand to 1.1 million people. It is believed that most of them moved to the territory of Burma during the British colonial rule.
The Myanmar authorities refer to the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh - and on this basis deny them citizenship. The law forbade them to have more than two children. The authorities tried to resettle them in Bangladesh, but no one expected them there either. It is no coincidence that the UN calls them one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Many Rohingyas flee to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand. But a number of countries in Southeast Asia - including Muslim ones - refuse to accept these refugees, and ships with migrants are deployed at sea.
During the Second World War, when Burma was occupied by Japan, in 1942 there was a so-called. "Arakan massacre" between Rohingya Muslims who received weapons from the British and local Buddhists who supported the Japanese. Tens of thousands of people died, many people became refugees. Of course, these events did not add trust to relations between the communities.
From time to time, serious tensions flared up in the places of compact residence of the Rohingya, often reaching bloodshed. While Buddhist Burmese are staging Muslim pogroms in Rakhine, the Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, has urged Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to support the Rohingya. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also spoke out in defense of the Burmese Muslims. The West, both in the European Union and the United States, were not silent on this issue (although, of course, it was not the problem of the Muslim minority that played the first role in the sanctions imposed against Myanmar at the time). On the other hand, the problem of Muslims in Burma in the past decades was actively used by various theorists of "global jihad" - from Abdullah Azzam to his student Osama bin Laden. So it cannot be ruled out that this region may become a new point of conflict, where supporters of the most radical jihadist groups will reach out - as happened, say, in the Philippines.
The situation has become especially aggravated after dozens of people attacked three Myanmar border posts in October last year, as a result of chewing border guards were killed. After that, troops were brought into Rakhine State. Over 20,000 people fled to Bangladesh. In February 2017, a UN report was published, created on the basis of surveys of refugees: it provides shocking facts of extrajudicial killings of the Rohingya by local nationalists, as well as security forces, gang rapes, etc.
In recent days alone, about 90,000 Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh. This came after rebels from the Arakanese Rohingya Solidarity Army attacked dozens of police posts and an army base in Rakhine on August 25. The ensuing skirmishes and military counteroffensive claimed at least 400 lives. The authorities accuse the militants of burning houses and killing civilians, while human rights activists blame the army for the same. And even before Ramzan Kadyrov, Turkish President Erdogan spoke last week in defense of Burmese Muslims, calling what is happening a genocide about which "everyone is silent"...
After a spontaneous Muslim rally at the Myanmar embassy in Moscow in defense of fellow believers, a rally was also held in Grozny - about a million people took part in it.
The photo showed an influential Buddhist monk of the Burmese community, Ashin Wirathu. His face is indeed not lit with a warm, wide smile and not full of meek detachment, as a Buddhist leader should be. Virathu's face is full of cold concentration and inner tension. What kind of person is this, and is the caption under his photo correct? Is it possible at all - Buddhist terror?
Ashin Wirathu was born in 1968 in Mandalay, the second largest city in Myanmar. At 14, he ran away from school and became a Theravada monk.
Viratu gained worldwide fame in the wake of clashes between Buddhists and Muslims that took place in Myanmar in the last year - since May 2012. These clashes shocked the world with their brutality. There were many casualties on both sides, villages burned to the ground. Never before have Buddhists been honored by international observers with such epithets as in these months: cruel pogromists, terrorists, murderers in monastic robes.
It is believed that the ideological inspirer of the rampant monks is Viratu. At the very least, it was his open anti-Islamic statements that were leaked to the world press and gave rise to calling him a Buddhist bin-Laden or a Nazi in a monastic cassock.
Movement "969"
In the 1990s, growing tensions between Muslims and Buddhists in Myanmar escalated into open hostility. Burmese radical nationalists then launched a civil boycott movement against Muslim goods and services. The movement was shortly named "969", which, according to its members, is the symbolic number of Buddhism.
The idea of the movement was to block the entrepreneurial initiatives of Muslim Bengalis in order to prevent them from gaining ground in traditionally Buddhist Myanmar. According to official government data, Sunni Muslims make up only 4% of the total population of the country, but US State Department experts believe that this figure is underestimated by at least a percentage.
Perhaps Myanmar's largest Muslim community is in Rakhine State. The Bengali ethnic group Rohingya has, according to some sources, up to 800,000 people.
Although there have been clashes between the Burmese and various Muslim groups in Myanmar since British colonization, the problems have escalated in recent years. It is difficult to say what triggers this kind of conflict. Perhaps these are echoes of the colonial past, which the Burmese associate with the influx of Indian Muslims into the country. In the future, this Burmese Islamophobia was skillfully used by various politicians.
Today, numerous socio-economic problems have been added to all this, which, and we in Russia are well aware of this, often transform into inter-ethnic and inter-religious strife. One way or another, the 969 movement received wide support in society, and the monk Viratu became his ardent follower.
Virat's support for the 969 movement, as well as his many anti-Islamic sermons, led to his being sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2003. In 2010, however, Virathu was released under an amnesty and quietly continued his political activities.
The prison seemed to strengthen his conviction in his ideas. In September 2012, he demanded that the government deport the Rohingya back to Bangladesh and India. A few weeks later, new unrest broke out in Rakhine between the Burmese and the Rohingya on the basis of mutual rejection.
Demonization of the image?
Immediately after the events, in an interview with The Times, Viratu allegedly stated: "You can be full of kindness and love, but you cannot sleep next to a rabid dog." He also noted that if Buddhists show weakness in their relationship with Muslims, the whole of Myanmar will soon become an Islamic country. Earlier in his other speeches, Virathu expressed his admiration for the far-right groups in Europe, in particular the English Defense League.
After the interview was released, Virathu accused The Times journalists of intentionally distorting his words and demonizing his image. He retracted most of his words and stated that he was fundamentally against violence and terrorism.
Burmese monks protest against the Rohingya
In particular, Viratu said the following: “I cannot be swayed by such attacks. That's what I want to say about comparing me to Bin Laden. Bin Laden had blood on his hands. My hands are clean. This is the same as calling a lion a fox. This comparison is completely inappropriate.
Right now we are just taking precautionary measures. We don't have offensive weapons. We propose laws that will protect our people and race. Does this mean that we are extremists? We call to love and respect our religion and people. Does this mean we are terrorists? I also have a video file of the interview so I can check if there is anything provocative. And I'm going to put that interview with The Times magazine on the Internet. After all, they did not publish their questions that they asked me, nor my answers to their questions. Yes, and in their photo I look intimidating.
Assassination attempt on "Buddhist terrorist"
However, it was too late. Viratu has already become the epitome of violence. After visiting the places where the pogroms took place, he suddenly changed his rhetoric. Ashin Viratu denounced the violent methods against Muslims and refused to admit that the 969 movement was behind them. Moreover, he took part in various meetings with the Muslim leaders of Myanmar, which developed measures to prevent violence.
However, in July of this year, there was an assassination attempt on Virata using a bomb. So the "Buddhist terrorist" himself almost became a victim of terror.
It remains only to guess what of everything known to us about Viratu is true, and what is fabrication. It must be said that the pro-Muslim media do not shy away from methods to denigrate the Buddhists of Myanmar and Buddhism in general. A lot of videos have circulated on the Internet in which Buddhist monks are served by cold-blooded butchers.
After the pogrom
The most egregious example of such propaganda was photographs of Buddhist monks against the backdrop of mountains of corpses. In reality, these photographs were of Tibetan monks who volunteered to help retrieve the victims of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
The photo caption is misleading, passing off the monks as murderers. This does not mean that Viratu is an innocent victim of the media. It only means that any dubious and thoughtless idea expressed by a clergyman can lead to the most terrible consequences.
