A and B were having a walk. They were passing by a cemetery when A decided to stop.
A: Oh look! There is a cemetery!
B: So what? Is this the first time you have seen a cemetery?
A: No. But let’s contemplate it!
B: What is there in a cemetery that you want to contemplate? Stone? Or perhaps grass and some dead leaves?
A: Neither!
B: Wonderful. Let’s keep going.
A: No. Let’s stop here and contemplate… hum… death!
B froze at the word of “death”.
A: What?
B: Why do you want to do that?
A: I don’t know. It seems interesting.
B: You want to reflect on … death?
A: Yes!
B: Fine.
A and B silently stared at the desolate landscape before them.
B: Now, do you have anything to say?
A: Who are those people?
B: I thought you wanted to reflect on death, not ask for dead people’s biographies.
A: I asked a question.
B: My dear friend, your question is silly. These people are ordinary people just like you who had an ordinary life like yours and then ultimately died. This is why they’re buried here. Right. In. Front. OF. YOU.
A: You repeated “ordinary” several times but I haven’t heard you describing their death as ordinary.
B: Alright. I will do that for you. These people ALSO had an ordinary death.
A: Is being murdered an ordinary death?
B: Somehow yes obviously…
A: I don’t think so. It’s not a very common way of dying.
B: And what is it in that which might be out of ordinary?
A: How many people in your family were murdered?
B: eerrr… none.
A: Then do you still think it’s an ordinary matter?
B: hum, well… Fine!
B was surprised at A’s witty reasoning, and feeling very frustrated for losing his initial ability to lead the conversation.
B: (cont) I am quite surprised to see you being… partially on point for the FIRST time.
A did not pay attention to B, as he was vacantly gazing at the horizon.
A: Or… innocents who died at war…
B: That might … also… be … somehow true … although… OH NO it’s NOT true! Hum! I mean considering war is in human nature, these deaths might be viewed as ordinary as well…Oh!!! AND THE SAME APPLIES FOR MURDER
A was still not listening to B and was muttering things to himself.
A: Genocide …
A said, turning his head towards B and finally coming back to the conversation.
B: Well, you got the Holocaust, Armenia and I think the most recent one must have happened in Rwanda in the nineties.
A: What about today?
B: Ugh my friend! I absolutely haven’t heard of any genocide going on right now.
A: Does that mean there isn’t?
B: Most probably.
A walked away from the cemetery and B followed.
Alas! “Most probably” is not the right answer. The Rohingya people, a minor Muslim community in Burma, is currently facing the last phase of genocide. Starting from being denied work and citizenship, stateless Rohingya people today know an “ethnic cleansing” according to the United Nations which also consider them to be one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. The Government denies these atrocities, and labels Rohingya as a terrorist group. But as they are a powerless minority in Burma, how could they terrorise the country, let alone the world, when satellite images show total arson in the Rohingya’s own villages? Did they decide to burn their own villages? That’s what the government suggests as an explanation to such data.
Burma’s society subjects Rohingya to segregation, ethnic and religious bigotry while the military is the executioner body of their persecution. The military invades Rohingyas’ villages, shoots anyone on the street, rapes Rohingya women in front of their families before cutting off their breasts and shooting the rest. Dead bodies and houses are later on burned. Very few Rohingya people managed to flee and those who did are threatened by deportation in some countries. Today thousands of refugees are facing closed border, which is forcing them to take more difficult routes, risking their lives over water.
Unfortunately, the international community has not yet exercised any pressure upon the Burmese government. Democratic governments, signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are watching another government allowing genocide to happen within its country.
But why is it that we expect things to be done on our behalf? Don’t we – people living in democracies – have the powerful democratic ability to govern our governments? Why isn’t this ability being used to make peace? I have noticed that many governments are today more interested in making money rather than making peace.
Sadly, the mainstream media has made ISIS, and so called “Muslim terrorist groups”, well-known all over the world. But how many know and care about, what I would call, “Muslim oppressed groups”? In contrast to the number of people who have heard about ISIS, very few indeed know about Muslim Rohingya people and the ethnic cleansing they are suffering.
