What No Genocide? No Crimes Against Humanity?

7/28/2019 What No Genocide? No Crimes Against Humanity?

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What? No Genocide, No Crimes Against Humanity?

By Saneitha Nagani

Now I can understand why the Burmese saying that, "without telling lies, a portery

can neither be smooth nor good" (hmutha mapa linga machaw) is a valid proposition. In my

experiences I have met many Burmese who, despite their claims that they observed the

Buddhist virtues (Sila) of which the five precepts is the minimum and not to tell lies is one of the

precepts, neither have difficulty nor would hesitate in telling lies, sometimes even at point blank

and with bold faces.

Take the speech the Commander-in-Chief General Min Aung Hlaing gave on the recent

Tatmadaw's Day as an example. In commemorating 68th anniversary on the 27 of March as the

Tatmadaw's Day in itself is a lie. It was 'the Resistance Day' when the people from all walks of

life in Burma and not just the soldiers resisted against the Japanese occupation. Not only that he

now acknowledged that Bogyoke Aung San (Daw Suu's father) as the founding father of the

military but he also said that the military has never committed 'war crimes' , 'crimes againsthumanity' or 'genocide'. May be true if our late Bogyoke Aung San were in charge of the military.

Since New Win took over the military it has been used by him as the Godfather of the Mafia

used his 'cosca' or clans in consolidating his power. One should note that those who served with

him under the Fourth Burma Rifles (tatmaha-lei) were the ones most likely to be given 'crucial'

positions in his regime.

In my opinion, instead of Min Aung Hlaing being regarded as the Commander-in-Chief he should

be rather be known as the 'Liar-in-Chief'. In this year's speech, not only that he was giving it in

front of the usual armed forces but also in front of their unexpected but specially invited guest -

Daw Suu. Whether it was intentional or not it was hard to tell but by saying that the Burmese

military has never committed any crimes against humanity or committed genocide he seems to

be telling her that there is no way that the military would admit to its past atrocities against its

own people even if there was to be a 'Truth Commission' set up as in South Africa.

He also said that those who have committed crimes were punished in accordance with the law

and military regulations. This admission in itself is a contradiction to his own assertion that the

military has never committed crimes. If that is the case, then both Hitler and Stalin must be

saints for getting only a few millions of people killed and Raphael Lemkin must have wasted his

life for nothing, trying to get the crime without a name a name now known as 'genocide'. The

military bloodletting began even way before Burma regain her independence. All over Burma, the

Burma Independence Army (BIA) went on a rampage. It was said that the young Burmannationalists had a fervent hate for many other ethnic groups, especially the Indians, whom they

saw as intruders on their sacred soil. Have things changed much? I guess not. He must be quite

young to really know or remember how the Military Intelligence was used by U Ne Win as his

personal hitmen for getting rid of political rivals.

During the so-called Parliamentary democratic government of U Nu people like U Aung Tha (a

Pao Parliamentary in Southern Shan States) and his colleagues were gunned down just outside


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my town, Taunggyi. They were on their way back to Ho Pong. Those soldiers who did the hit

were serving under Major Bo Ni (who later became Chief of National Intelligence Bureau (NIB),

and then Minister for Home Affairs until he was sacked for corruption). They admitted to the

crime but there never was an inquiry set up to investigate nor for any other crimes such as the

disappearance of a Shan Prince from the state of Hsenwi when Ne Win took over power in

1962.There were those who died in custody and those who died a short time after they havebeen released. If the military in Burma was Lady MacBeth in Shakespeares play, like her the

military would not be able to wash away the blood on their hands.

I cannot imagine how uncomfortable Daw Aung San Suu Kyi must felt when she heard those

words. Maybe she felt that it was because of political necessity that she had to sit and put up

with a blatant lie. It was against the grain of her not to say anything about it but one can never tell

how people can change in this dirty business of politics. Niccolo Machiavelli may have been dead

for years but when it comes to politics the advice that he gave in his book 'The Prince' are still

relevant today. For those whose lives and rights have been trampled upon by the military

throughout the years, it must be hard to swallow those words. For example, the parents of the

girl who was shot and during the 1988 uprisings (the girl and those medical students who carried

her were on the cover of Time magazine) were yet to perform the usual religious ritual of offering

'dana' to the monks when someone died are their late daughter's request.

As for Daw Suu, so far she is silent on the whole affair. It does reminded me of a joke my father

told me. Once there was a Burmese fugitive hiding in a Shan village pretending to be a monk.

One day a person who knew him before came for a visit and saw the fugitive pretending to be a

monk. Not wanting the visitor to reveal his secret the bogus monk gave a sermon in which he

said, "bamauk tayar (bamar ta yauk) tei-tei neik (teik teik nei) wa-sei (weisa) me. " Then all the

Shan villagers utter out aloud, "sadu, sadu, sadu." Those in the democratic forces, including the

veteran of in the National League for Democracy (NLD), are like the Shans in the villagecommenting on the event as, "Oh! It's good to see that Daw Suu and the military are working

together." I doubted that was the message the military was sending out, it is rather more about

telling the public who is still in charge and no nonsense about the military committing war

crimes. No crimes have been committed therefore no need for truth commissions.

Maybe Min Aung Hlaing did not have a clue that Burma being a signatory to the 1949 Geneva

Conventions on the laws of war, which are now incorporated into 'The Rome Statute of the

International Criminal Court as the elements of crimes', breaches of those laws will have to be

accounted for either in domestic courts or in the international criminal courts. While murder,

extermination, enslavement, forcible transfer of population, imprisonment or other severe

deprivation of physical liberty (their special guest this year herself was the victim who has been

inflicted with this crime for more than a decade until her release in 2010), torture, rape, enforced

disappearances of persons are just a few to mention the crimes against humanity committed by

the Burmese military. The militarys strategy of conducting 'the Four Cuts'( cutting the enemy off

from sources of food, funds, intelligence and recruits) in the ethnic regions are surely in the

purview of war crimes.Attacking civilians, attacking undefended places, treacherously killing or

wounding and so on are also 'war crimes' to put them on top of all other crimes. I hope he has a


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good lawyer to defend himself if he were to face the courts.

Whether events taking place are in accordance with their 'master plan' or not is for us to wait

and see but looking at the situation that Burma is in since the 2010 elections, since the release

of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, since the U Thein Sein quasi civilian government

took over, since U Thein Sein and Daw Suu met and posed for a photo-shoot with the picture ofher father Bogyoke Aung San as a backdrop and many other changes, looks like their master

plan is working. They broke themselves free of Chinas choking or suffocating embrace. The

United States and President Obamas administration have unclenched their hands and shook

the blood-soaked hands of the Burmas military. Particularly, the military's success in bringing

Daw Ski onto their side must be the jewel in their crown. They can now rest assured that the

things they have set out to achieved in their master plan are almost (I have to emphasised

almost) in the bag. No wonder that the Commander-in-Chief make no qualms about the military

having a continued role in Burmese politics.

For those who believe in the 21st Century as being the Era of Responsibility that war crimes,

crimes against humanity and genocide should not be left unpunished. So far as things arepanning out in Burma those people are sure to be disappointed. To me, it is like the story I that

had as an English text when I was at school. It was a story from Russia called, 'God sees the

truth, but wait.' It was a story about wrongly convicted of a crime he had not committed but when

he was about to die truth was revealed and he died an innocent man. It seems he had a closure

and an peaceful end. I was not though. Where was justice and why did God too long to deliver

justice?

Getting closure one from or another seems to be important to achieve 'social catharis'. South

Africa's 'Truth Commission' must have been a few months or years of public testimony and

revelations which was said to help begin the process of collective healing that psychoanalysisand confession are supposed to provide individuals. If the parents of the girl who was shot and

killed in 1988 and the family of the Shan prince from Hsenwi who disappeared in 1962 were to be

told of the truth, they might have a chance to closure and move on. Revenge is never sweet.

They would have wanted the truth for them to 'face the past and close the door.'

If we were to believe the the science of signs was the science of sequences then the fate of the

military is not good at all. War crimes tribunals or the international criminal court at the Hague or

not its fate, according to the signs, is very bleak. Vultures perching on the Shwedagon pagoda

must be worst than a tiger entering the court of the so-called Golden Coconut king symbolising

the arrival of death itself. Besides a so-called prophecy (tabaung) that reads: 'wa leilone hsone,

pyaung bo-kyone neint-thu myint-bo hpyit-latant nga-kaung hsin-phyu taing-pyi hsu hsei-lunauk-tet hnyin-latant thidingyut yei-tet taing-pyi yet kaung aung nyi-bo lo-latant.'(translated

literally as when the two wa symbols meet change will come the chance for the ones at the

bottom to rise over those at the top when you have five white elephants its time for turmoil in the

country If there are floods in the month of Thadingyut the country will be in chaos through unity

they shall be overcome.) As for the law of Karma, 'killing or maiming the monks and splitting the

order of Sangha' the resultants have to be in this life they will not necessarily be carried over to


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the next life. If I were one of them I would seek redemption now instead of 'defending the

indefensible'. END

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What No Genocide? No Crimes Against Humanity?