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Comments on remarks by Secretary Blinken

Derek Tonkin - 26 April 2022 Full PDF Version

In this further commentary Derek Tonkin examines in detail some of the events adduced by Secretary Blinken as creating Burma's path to genocide, and shows that some of these steps are not especially relevant, or have been misconstrued, or are simply not convincing. He concludes that both Secretary Blinken's statement and the special exhibition will do little to promote reconciliation between Muslim and Buddhist communities in Rakhine State.

Further Thoughts on the Special Exhibition

Derek Tonkin - 6 April 2022 Full PDF Version

On Saturday 25 September 1954 Burmese Prime Minister U Nu gave what we in Britain would call a “fire-side” chat on the Burmese radio. U Nu was a devout Buddhist, and his homily that Saturday was on religious tolerance, though it had a political message as well. At one point he said:

“In the southwest of the country is Arakan Division. In Akyab District [today’s Sittwe, Mrauk-U and Maungdaw Districts combined], there are the two townships Buthidaung and Maungdaw. These two townships are on the border with Pakistan. In these townships of Buthidaung and Maungdaw, the nationals [natives] who live there are ethnic Ruhingya in the majority and they are Muslims. There is also a gang of rebels called the Mujahid. The main aim of this group is nothing less than to detach Buthidaung and Maungdaw from the Union and set up a separate Muslim state.”

U Nu continues by saying that the plans of the rebels have not yet materialized and that it is the duty of everyone in the country to defend the 2,000 miles-border. He praises the leaders of the Muslim community in Buthidaung and Maungdaw who have pledged their unshakeable loyalty to the Government. The moral lesson then follows:

“This region would have been very unruly indeed, were it not for our policy of religious tolerance.”

Burma’s Path to Genocide

Derek Tonkin - 29 March 2022 PDF Version

In his determination of genocide by the Myanmar Armed Forces delivered in the US Holocaust Memorial Museum on 21 March 2022, US Secretary of State Anthony J Blinken drew significantly on materials in the special exhibition “Burma’s Path to Genocide” set up in 2021. In a series of tweets between 20 and 26 March 2022 I drew attention to what seemed to me to be inaccuracies and distortions in the Exhibition’s presentation. Indeed, of the five Chapters in the online presentation, many of the captions do not in my view reflect historical fact, and this is particularly true of Chapters 1 and 2.

The main problem is that the Exhibition reflects not an independent analysis of who the Rohingya are, their origins and identity, but an idealised, ideology-based narrative which ignores the reality that they are mainly descendants of British-era (1824-1948) agricultural migrants from the Chittagong Region of Bengal. Jacques Leider has presented a seminal paper on “Chittagonians in Colonial Arakan”.

Determination by US Secretary of State Blinken on Genocide

Derek Tonkin - 24 March 2022 PDF Version

On 21 March 2022 US Secretary of State Anthony J Blinken issued a formal determination that the Myanmar Armed Forces, known as the Tatmadaw, were responsible for genocide against the Rohingya minority population in Rakhine State. The determination is a political statement and has no international legal authority. The evidence adduced in the determination (unless a fuller formal statement is intended) is open to discussion. Its timing may well have been influenced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and allegations of genocide made in this context.

The pages on this website concerning Citizenship and the Exodus in 1978 and 1991-92 provide a more nuanced and detailed explanation of these events than appears in Secretary Blinken’s statement. Some of the evidence presented by Secretary Blinken, seemingly taken from exhibits at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, is factually incorrect, for example, the statement that: “In 1962, when the military staged its first coup, it canceled all Rohingya-language programming on the state-run broadcasting service”. A Rohingya-language programme of ten minutes only twice a week existed between 15 May 1961 and 30 October 1965 when it was terminated, along with other broadcasts in such minority languages as Lahu and Pa-O, on the closure of the Frontier Areas Administration Programme set up by General Ne Win during his 1958 caretaker administration, with the support of the Rohingya community in the Mayu Frontier District which existed from 1960-64 - see Footnote 65 at this link.

The reference by Secretary Blinken to remarks by C-in-C Min Aung Hlaing about an "unfinished job" needs to be considered in the context of the “Alethankyaw” incident of 1942. See especially in this context paragraph 1336 of the Final Report on the UN Fact-Finding Mission and Page 16 of the treatise “Killing Fields of Alethankyaw” by the (Rohingya) Kaladan Press. I am personally doubtful that this evidence is conclusive of genocidal intent, any more than are the excerpts from social media accounts presented by Secretary Blinken, but I would welcome this evidence being subject to detailed examination in a properly appointed national or international court of law. There is unfortunately little prospect that the US would be successful in persuading the UN Security Council to refer the matter to the International Criminal Court. However Secretary Blinken noted that the US has been sharing information with The Gambia in the context of their case at the International Court of Justice.