This story is tragic,of course, and as to my
own political leanings I would consider something
along the conservative libertarian lines reminds
me of the difficulties I have when reading the
NYT and finding something that is written from
my own political and philosophical point of
view.
While it won't help these brave reporters wrongfully jailed, Ms. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi ought to be forced give up her Nobel Peace Prize. She clearly has lost any sense of human decency and compassion, and certainly is no longer worthy of this great honor. Choosing to forget the terror of the military state that at one time kept her under house arrest, she, instead, rationalizes and is complicit in their genocidal war of mass murder, rape and torture of the Rohingya people. The final irony ---her words rather than saving these journalists, send them to jail. She has now joined the ranks of tyrants worldwide who punish truth tellers and who excuse atrocities in order to retain the power of the state.
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It was clarified some time ago that the Nobel Committee has no way of recalling a Peace Prize previously awarded. That's unfortunate, because Suu Kyi would undoubtedly be one of the primary candidates for such a procedure. The jig with her is up - has been since the whole refugee episode broke out, and only becomes more outrageous as her blatant disregard for democratic principles becomes more and more obvious. Of course the issue is far deeper than the fate of those two reporters, unfortunate victims of that country's unending autocratic culture.
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There is a Nobel Peace Prize dangling around Suu Kyi that needs to be reclaimed.
When will the world’s leaders take a stand against this type of savagery? And the UN? Don’t they have a force that has the purported purpose of preventing this type of cruelty?
Power not used for good is certainly as vile an evil as those who perpetrated these actions against the Rohingya.
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In Burma a couple of years ago, the Buddhists we met felt Aung San Suu Kyi would be true to them, though she had just sidestepped an issue. One person we spent time with said she was like her father. He jumped to the Japanese during World War 2, but was assassinated while seeming to take power on Freedom's said. He was not a saint. Besides, it was 'all politics' according to some.
Not so for her, sadly enough.
Mr. Adler omits the fact that the soldiers involved in the shooting of the Muslims in question were court martialed and imprisoned. He also omits the fact that the reporters came into possession of state secrets which is against the law in Myanmar and is why the Reuters reporters were tried and imprisoned.
Adler also ignores the fact that the Muslims in Rakhine are illegal immigrants from Bengali who are in the area conducting jihad consistent with the doctrines of Islam. They are attacking and killing local Hindu and Buddhist residents, razing their temples and even kidnapping their women. Yet not word one from Reuters about these facts. Until and unless his news outlet starts getting serious about journalism he is doing nothing more than blowing smoke in the wind.
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Yes, of course, Mr. Adler. People are not entitled to their own facts. Presumably that includes journalists, UN Rapporteurs, Fact Finding Missions FFM, advocates, advocacy groups, lawyers, and watchdogs.
For instance, the "right to self-identify". There is a right, in an ILO document governing labor laws: the right of an indigenous people to identify either as indigenous or as part of the nation-state when seeking a job. Otherwise, the claim is that the right is "customary international law."
But customary international law requires agreement of nation-states, by opinio juris, or practiced custom. If you try to find the opinio juris for this right, you will find some very recent papers that in some cases source each other round-robin, all on the subject of one group's right -- the Rohingya.
Meanwhile, over at NATO, there is a 3 year old fight over what the Macedonians may call themselves, on which all of Europe has so far sided with Greece, not the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. So neither an agreement by nation-states, nor established custom exist.
'Rohingya' is a Bengali-language pronunciation of 'Rakhine'. In the latter, the kh is pronounced like a Russian 'X' and the 'ine' is pronounced like 'aing', and short 'a' becomes 'o' in Bengali. The Rohingya 'language' is Bengali dialect, less different from what is spoken in Chittagong than Mexican and Castilian Spanish. Perhaps the real solution is for the two sides to agree that it is the same word.
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It’s still shocking, despite the many examples, to realize our heros are hero’s only as long as they are not in circumstances where they will lose their power unless they abdicate their principles. This certainly doesn’t apply to me and you ... does it?
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It is sad and shocking and reminiscent of the worst practices by dictatorial regimes.
What do people expect from the UN, since it is merely a club for hypocrites and autocrats. The Statements of Rights won't be righteous as long as the scarlet signatures remain grave scarcely.
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I have been following this story for sometime and I have no doubts about the validity of your reporters report. I hope the tremendous pressure being put on the Burmese government will indeed bear fruit and result in the release of your reporters.
The one thing I don't understand about this conflict is why the Buddhist majority wants so much to get rid of the Rohingya. Of course these Buddhists are not really followers of Buddha -the great peace religion. They are just a nationalist Burma party. Still I don't understand their nefarious intentions.
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@Gwen Vilen, how much do you know about Buddhists and Muslims? Enough to know that the fighting and war between the two as the Muslims sought to invade and convert Asia, was just as brutal, vicious, and far longer than the fighting between Christians and Muslims in the Crusades afterward.
The "this is not real Buddhism" argument mirrors the "this is not real Islam" arguments about Muslim militancy and caliphate movements nowadays. It's not really true.
Just as there are those in Poland and Hungary who view themselves as the bulwark protecting Christendom -- meaning Europe, really -- there are Buddhists in Myanmar who believe they are doing the same.
There have been genocides. If the Buddhist world were to "never forget" the Dzungar genocide with the fervor that we adopt it for the Holocaust, then maybe none of the reporters who never knew about this age old conflict would have ever "forgotten" it. If Mr. Adler's singularity of facts applied to the Fact Finding Mission, it would not have asserted that the concept of races and Buddhism's special place came from Ne Win, when they were in the country's Constitution in 1947.
Nobody really bothers to delve into this conflict. The international press has not remained neutral, which is part of why these reporters are in jail. The military has committed predictable crimes and should be punished. So should ARSA. And the press should be as concerned with their own alternative facts as Mr. Adler wants the government to be.
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The Joan of Arc, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, turns out to be an Imelda.
The poor Burmese, once again without hope in the return to more of the 50 years of military rule.
Such a betrayal.
BTW, "Myanmar" is the militarists' name for the country. One imagines that she also uses it.
We shouldn't: Burma.
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So Aung San Suu Kyi defends the "trial". It is worth reading the Times article by Amanda Taub and Max Fisher on October 31, 2017. Leaders grow up in a certain environment and probably cannot avoid the pitfalls of that environment. Among the list of leaders who turned out not to be the "democrats" the West thought they might be when they were out of power, an older name Mao Tzetung was missing. He too was thought to be the democrat that China needed against the dictatorship of Chiang Kaishek. Little that we know Mao turned out to be a much bigger, yes and much more effective, dictator than Chiang. So when will the western leader wake up when they judge the dictators of the world?
Yes, Mandela was an exception. But he was an example of one!
Where’s the Nobel Prize committee on this. Revoke Aung San Suu Kyi’s “peace prize” immediately. She should be facing war crimes charges, not holding onto a peace prize. Shame on her. Shame on the committee for allowing her to keep it.
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I just opened the comment section to write exactly the same comment as stu freeman's.
Aung San Suu Kyi should be stripped of her Nobel Prize.
Shameful. Now, what are we going to do about it? Look the other way? Ms Suu Kyi, are you there, enjoying yourself?
What remains most disgusting about the Rohingya Genocide, short of the widespread murder of course, is Ms. Above The President's outright grahamification[1] from national hero of democracy to vile denialist mouthpiece of the military regime.
PC Moe Yan Naing is indeed a hero, as are these journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. I stand with them in helping the Myanmar regime show us who they are.[2] We all should.
[1] grahamification, n., a transformation of an opponent of a government leader to their full lackey, despite atrocious acts by the leader and their government against that opponent, cf. Sen. Lindsey Graham even after "covfefe" showed everyone his phone number for daring to oppose him.
[2] "My dear, when people show you who they are, why don't you believe them? Why must you be shown 29 times before you can see who they really are? Why can't you get it the first time?" —Maya Angelou
If it was not already clear to the world, it should be crystal clear now: Aung San Suu Kyi has transformed from a brave Nobel Prize winner to a borderline despot and war criminal, guilty of ignoring and perhaps even facilitating human rights abuses in Myanmar.
Shame on the Nobel Prize Committee for not revoking her award immediately.
Welcome to the U.S., assuming Donald Trump gets another few years to tamper with the Fourth Estate.
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