A ‘Rohingya’ reflection on ethnic cleansing

Sep 10, 2017 Countryman, Features / Columnists

By Dennis Nichols
Well, for the past two weeks it’s been all about Harvey and Irma – the guy and the gal who reminded

Dennis Nichols

us that the Caribbean is indeed, as seen by some, part of America’s backyard – the part that gets wind-and-water-devastated by Atlantic hurricanes before they slam the southern United States.
Nature can be terrifyingly nasty but that’s just an aspect of her, well – nature. However when humans get nasty, they can take the concept to a whole different level, and we’re not talking here about climate change or global warming due to our careless stewardship of Mother Earth; we’re talking inhumanity.
‘Atrocity’ is an ugly word, and it seems to be getting uglier by the day. Whether it’s the senseless crushing of a young life as happened recently in Sophia, or the annihilation of an ethnic group as is currently alleged in Myanmar, it stinks.
Race and class, religion and belief are words that in themselves have no harmful connotation, but tie them in with bigotry and notions of racial superiority, and the shaping of an atrocity may be just a glance away. A hint of disrespect or a word of self-assertion could bring to the surface the most destructive urges in those who feel slighted by someone they consider inferior or below their ‘status’.
History is replete with stories of unimaginable horror when humankind turns on its own; whether a single homicide, or genocide, but the latter is the one that stirs in us the most perverse interest and revulsion. I know there’s a specific definition of the word but I’ve also heard that some mass killings which look like genocide are classified as something else; maybe war casualties or collateral damage.
What about ethnic cleansing – the world’s worst euphemism? The notion of a group of humans so filthy that they need to be scrubbed off the face of the earth is one of the most revolting ideas conjured up by the human mind.

The face of Rohingya misery (freemalaysistoday.com)

And what about God’s will?
As a nominal Christian at least, I have wrestled for years with conflicting thoughts over the Old Testament killings including the annihilation of entire nations, and although I can’t bring myself to think of God as a malicious tyrant, I have often wondered about His omnipotence, His omniscience, and His love.
In the Book of Joshua my human mind balks at what I read; God commands the Israelites under the leadership of Joshua to slaughter the wicked Canaanite nations including women, children, and even livestock. But who questions or judges the creator of the universe?
A bible scholar puts it this way, “As the maker of all things and the ruler of all people, God has absolute rights of ownership over all people and places.” Maybe so, but we have human minds and hearts, and many of us are confused that God, whom the bible claims, is Love, would wipe out entire nations including seemingly innocent children and dumb animals?
Did the Israelites, God’s chosen people, see themselves as superior to the Canaanites? It is even suggested that Adolf Hitler, aided by the Church’s anti-Semitic beliefs, may have used this account to justify the Jewish Holocaust.
Now we come back to the Rohingya people of Myanmar. There is nothing extra special about their persecution; others have suffered worse. I’m just using theirs (because of its currency) to underscore this whole notion of genocide, and why some humans seem bent on getting rid of others who they perceive to be evil, weak, or expendable.
Child sacrifice, abandonment, and infanticide are said to have been practised since ancient times, in places like Carthage, Sparta, and Sardinia. Genocide is a more modern coinage, first used during the last century to describe an intentional act to destroy an ethnic, racial, national or religious group, following the Armenian annihilation and the Jewish Holocaust between 1915 and 1945.
The internet’s Wikipedia lists certain ‘preconditions’ for genocide. They include first ‘a national culture that does not place a high value on human life’ and a perception of ‘their potential victims as less than human’.
Sub-headed under these are eight stages beginning with Classification (The ‘them’ and ‘us’ thing) and ending with Extermination and Denial. In between there is Symbolization, Dehumanization, Organization, Polarization, and Preparation. What a clinical recipe! What it doesn’t mention though is how one heart hardened by pride and a mind unhinged by delusion can transfer their hatred to an entire people. Choose your favourite sadistic tyrant.
The Rohingya are a minority Muslim group living mainly in the state of Rakhine in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar (Burma) They have done so for centuries and have kept their language and culture, but remain stateless. They are said to be one of the most persecuted groups on Earth, and many are now fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh due to what is being described by some as potential genocide. A human rights journalist recently reported that the Rohingya’s lack of status ‘bleeds into all aspects of their lives’.
He adds that they face restrictions on freedom of movement; their rights to health, education, and religion; deprivation of their livelihoods; and constant harassment by security forces.
It is reported that about 400 Rohingyas have died in unrest over the past two weeks adding to the hundreds killed during the last three months of 2016 after armed individuals attacked police border posts, killing nine persons.
Myanmar security forces have since been accused of severe human rights violations including arbitrary arrests, gang rape of women, the torching of Rohingyan homes, schools, markets and mosques, and young children being thrown into burning buildings.
It was also reported that soldiers are burning bodies to hide evidence of the atrocities. Tens of thousands of refugees have since fled the country and into Bangladesh.
My mind goes back more than half a century to when our own Dear Land of Guyana was beset by ethnic unrest and violence, and I tremble to hear that some have used the words ‘ethnic cleansing’ to describe the early nineteen-sixties.
Yes, we may have experienced some ethnic bloodletting, division and marginalization, but E.C.? Yes, there were ethnic atrocities, notably in Wismar/Mackenzie, Georgetown, along the Demerara Coast, and on the Corentyne. Yes, an underlying fear still plays out in the minds of the two major races especially when stirred politically at certain times.
But few would deny that our people, comprising a bewildering mix of ethnicities, do generally get along fairly well. Hopefully it will get better.
My final thought, optimistically: Despite ethnic divisions across the world, despite what is happening in Myanmar and several other nations with ethnic problems, despite our own racially-divided history, there is a growing blending of races – a genetic exchange as one biologist put it, that promises to eventually make the word ‘genocide’ redundant. How soon and how purposefully that happens is something that each of us can help determine.