U.S. Gifts to Burma's Dying Refugees: Silence, Indifference and the Marines

Photo from inside the killing zone shows a U.S. Marine Corps property sign.

Unless otherwise noted, never seen before photos depict refugees from the village of Pauktaw.

(SACRAMENTO, CA) - It is appalling that the U.S. government is acting with total indifference to the slaughter and nearly hopeless suffering and survival of Burma's routed Rohingya Muslims. The United Nations declared that they are among "the most persecuted people on earth" and yet that means nothing to the heartless American politicians.

I don't think this is what Jesus meant when he said, "Turn the other cheek".

But they play chess with the lives of human beings and for every family killed, every woman raped, every child cut to pieces with a machete by the swords of religious Buddhist superiority, I call "foul" and will not stop bringing forth the information on this horrendous mass murder that the U.S. media and the government in particular is totally complicit in by the virtue of its heartbreaking moral position and ridiculous silence.

This group of 'stateless people' have been stripped of national citizenship since 1982.

Yet Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi not only refuses to aid these suffering masses, but goes to far as to say she doesn't know about the 1982 law stripping their citizenship. Long story short, she is not who people thought she was.

I mean face it, we have entered a time where every person the U.S. befriends is probably nobody we should trust.

For many days, Pauktaw refugees have been languishing under the sun; alternately suffering from heat & cold. These new photographs that have never been released, show the camps that many are living in and not surprisingly, the conditions are deplorable.

Human rights activists from organizations worldwide are puzzled over the reluctance of the U.S. government to call Burma or 'Myanmar' onto the carpet for allowing the mass slaughter of Rohingya people.

A trio of experts on Iran were interviewed by Press TV last week, who pointed to U.S. President Barack Obama's effort to ratchet up tension against China, a country that owns large swaths of American real estate and business interests.

It seems clear from their analysis, that the U.S. wants to befriend Myanmar and support Tibetan separatists; groups that can be counted on later to be used against the Peoples’ Republic of China.

They explained that the U.S. ignores the Genocide in Burma for strategic reasons; once again, the U.S. is making friends with a country known for torturing and murdering its own citizens. This is an extremely important fact to note.

If you look at what Mr. [Barack] Obama has been doing, they’ve been ratcheting up tension against China so they want to be friends to Burma and they want to support Tibetan separatists; they want to support any group that can be counted on later to be used against the Peoples’ Republic of China.

And this issue of the Rohingya Muslims is a problem because they don’t want to help them. This undermines the greater geo-political game that they want to play. So, if these people are destroyed like the people... in Gaza or the people in the West Bank, if it suits a geo-strategic objective, who cares about these people^{2}.

It is cited that one of the R2P (Responsibility To Protect doctrine) founders was George Soros, who along with the US State Department, has been providing Aung San Suu Kyi with extensive political and financial backing and this because they want to target China.

They even stopped a dam project, from what I’m seeing over here, which was in joint cooperation with China. So, can be deduct that China is one of the goals that the US has? And of course along with that comes trying to establish a military base in Myanmar?

U.S. Marines and Burmese Commandos? The speed at which America and Myanmar have grown closer has a way of making predictions from just months ago look silly. Here's one from February on the subject of Cobra Gold, the world's largest American war games, held each year in Thailand. (Here's my report, with video, from the exercises: War Games in Paradise.) "But welcoming Burma's army to Cobra Gold, for the moment, is a huge long shot. Hillary (Clinton) sitting down with Burma's new reformist president is, for most, politically palatable. U.S. troops collaborating with an army known for forced labor, shelling ethnic villages and firing on protesters is not. In the minds of most international observers, Burma's army still evokes villainy." That prediction, written before a GlobalPost altered its house style to go with "Myanmar" instead of "Burma," was mine. It appears that I was wrong. As the BBC and many others are reporting, America is poised to allow Myanmar's army to join its massive military exercises in early 2013. Those highly dubious of the government's reform movement will find this move apalling. The U.S. generals who will (likely) approve the invite are keen to draw Myanmar's army away from Chinese influence. Here's one aspect of my prediction that I got right. What Burma may be angling for is a less controversial opportunity: sending military attaches to observe future war games. But American marines storming the hill with Burmese commandos? Even in a military exercise? That remains unthinkable. As Reuters reports, the Myanmar army contingent will probably involve a handful of officers to watch and learn from "humanitarian relief" and "medical programs." At this point, the U.S. would catch way too much grief for offering combat training to an army still engaged in active fighting against ethnic militias such as the Kachin on China's border. As long as this fighting is ongoing, that prediction should stand. But a lot can change between now and Cobra Gold 2014. - {3} Global Post

For those just joining this report, the ethnic cleansing period that is sweeping Burma began in the early summer when a Rakhine Buddhist woman was allegedly raped and murdered.

Many insiders say there was no rape or murder, but that the Buddhist woman was in love with a Muslim man, and that is why she was killed and her death used as a catapult for the mob and government offensive toward the long-persecuted Rohingya people.

The day following the highly publicized crime, ten Muslim men who had absolutely nothing to do with it, were dragged from a bus and murdered in public in cold blood and in fact their bludgeoned bodies are plastered all over the Internet.

Weeks ago, the number of people forced into refugee status because their villages were burned and destroyed topped 100,000.

Sign at Burmese base

Just last week, 90 people were killed in a single event and 20 Muslim women were dragged off by a violent Buddhist mob never to be seen again. There is no question that thousands of Rohingyas have died and yet media keeps placing the number slightly over 100 which is entirely inaccurate.

Indeed, according to images gathered by one of our contacts on the ground in Burma- who is risking his life to gather the photographic evidence of what is taking place, the push to build a wall against China by befriending Myanmar has already seen the U.S. Marines enter Burma.

This sign shows Marine Corps possession of property in the nation formerly known as Burma and the sign looks very similar to those I have seen on other Marine Corps facilities that are both closed and active status.

Military base where sign was viewed

With regard to Burmese and Marine Corps interactivity, as the sidebar shows, the connections between the former military junta of Myanmar known for so many years of unaddressed human rights abuse, is stronger than ever.

Searching the Internet for connections turns up nothing. When Myanmar was struck by natural disaster in 2008, the U.S. government offered to send in 4,000 Marines for disaster relief and Myanmar declined the outside help, instead preferring to let their people suffer longer and harder^{4}.

That is the new U.S. 'ally' Myanmar four years ago.

So it really does appear that the U.S. cares more about destroying its good relations with China so it can have a future conflict, than it does for saving the lives of innocent people caught in the crossfire of needless religious conflict.

Now I am not suggesting that China's politics are anything less than fully distressing and wrong. I have written so many times about the way China backed Pol Pot during the Khmer Rough Genocide in Cambodia, and it is just one small example, but the U.S. creates its friends based on opportunity and does not operate in the spirit of international fairness.

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References:

^{1} Nov-05-2012: West Does NOT Want to Help Rohingya Muslims: Analyst - Press TV

^{2} The experts cited in the interview are, Dr. Randy Short, with Dignity Human Rights and Peace Organization in Washington, Mike Billington with the Executive Intelligence Review from Leesburg, Virginia, and Adnan Rashid, historian and Islamic studies expert from London

^{3} Oct-22-2012: Myanmar's debut at America's biggest war games - Global Post

^{4} May-07-2008: Political Obstacles Slow Disaster Aid for Myanmar- US News & WOrld Report

Americans, write to your political reps:

Find Your Representative - U.S. House of Representatives

Contact US Senators - U.S. Senate

Tim King's past stories on Burma below:

Nov-03-2012: Aung San Shoot Thee?

Nov-01-2012: Myanmar: Rohingya Genocide Witness Blames People, Not Buddhism

Oct-31-2012: Oct-27-2012: Myanmar Refugees: Babies are Dying Aboard Boats that Can't Come Ashore