IMMEDIATE RELEASE
1 March 2018
A group of Germany-based Myanmar protestors had vandalized a van which contained boxes of posters and banners calling for the end to Myanmar Genocide against Rohingyas on 26 February, reported the van’s owner Sangar Gopal, a Berlin resident and a well-respected Tamil community leader who helped organize the Berlin Conference on Myanmar Genocide at the Jewish Museum.
The protestors who were holding a protest rally outside the W.M. Blumenthal Academy/Jewish Museum where the conference was being held spotted Mr Sangar and his Peugeot 9-seater van, transporting banners, posters and participants to the venue of the day-long conference. At the end of the conference, Mr Sangar found that the car registration number plates had been removed from his van, and since reported the incident to the Berlin Police.
“This seems to have been an act of racially motivated vandalism committed by members of the Myanmar diaspora in Germany. I am seriously concerned about this incident. That would be the first of its kind, by the Burmese community here. We cannot tolerate racism against the Rohingyas. We are concerned about the denial of the genocide in their country of birth, the focus of the conference,” Professor Dr. María do Mar Castro Varela of Alice Salomon University and the host and convenor observed.
She added, “Dr Aung Tun Thet, Aung San Suu Kyi’s adviser on Rakhine affairs, was also telling the world press outrageous lies that the Berlin Conference on Myanmar Genocide ‘disinvited’ a Myanmar delegation. That is such an Alternative Fact! We would have created a special panel for them had Myanmar government either through its Embassy in Berlin or directly from Yangon approached the conference organizers of their intent or wish to come and present their version of the persecution and plight of the Rohingya. But no one had ever contacted me or any co-organizers – including Columbia University Professor Gayatri Spivak, Dr Maung Zarni or Sangar Gopal.”
She was referring to the 26-Feb press conference held in Yangon at the Myanmar Institute of Strategic and International Studies in Yangon, the official think tank attached to Aung San Suu Kyi’s Foreign Ministry during which Suu Kyi’s adviser falsely accused the Conference organizers of “disinvit(ing)” Myanmar delegation.
According to Dr Maung Zarni, the Burmese co-organizer and fellow with the Genocide Documentation Centre of Cambodia, said that the conference de-registered about 12 Burmese who registered at the Eventbrite, checked against a list of Germany-based Myanmar residents and citizens who have sent financial donations to anti-Rohingya organizations inside Myanmar that promote racial hatred and condone forced expulsion and violence against Rohingya people.
“There is a new development among the Burmese diaspora whereby anti-Rohingya refugees, prodemocracy activists and expatriates including doctors, engineers, academics, retirees, etc. team up with anti-Muslim local White supremacists to sabotage, disrupt and otherwise prevent public events. This has happened in Canada, USA, and now Germany,” said Zarni, the Burmese co-organizer.
As a matter of fact, senior Myanmar diplomats from Myanmar Embassy in Berlin and the regime-friendly western academics including Dr Jacques Leider who is an adviser to Myanmar military, were involved in attempting to dissuade organizations and governments such as the Germany Federal Foreign Office and the Jewish Museum from hosting the event.
“Precisely because the sole intention of these individuals is to deny, dismiss and disrupt global civil society groups’ efforts to raise awareness about Myanmar’s on-going genocide, we decided to de-register them,” said Zarni, adding “this incident of intimidation is very worrying for Rohingyas and human rights activists who support Rohingyas.”
Contact:
Professor Dr. María do Mar Castro Varela of Alice Salomon University at [email protected]
Sangar Gopal at [email protected]
Dr Maung Zarni at [email protected]
Notes to Editors:
For the incident report (dated 26 February 2018) by the organizer Sangar Gopal to the Berlin Police, see https://maungzarni.net/en/news/anti-rohingya-myanmar-protestors-berlin-vandalized-van-belonging-berlin-conference-myanmar
Regarding Myanmar “delegation” to the conference and its blatant lies the Irrawaddy News Group, an influential anti-Rohingya hate-peddling outlet with 10-million Facebook readership ran the story on the same day the Berlin Conference on Myanmar Genocide was held: https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmar-delegation-barred-genocide-conference-berlin.html
For western academics who are involved in the denials and dismissals of Myanmar’s genocide of the Rohingya see http://nationalpost.com/news/york-university-human-rights-professor-denies-ethnic-cleansing-of-rohingya-questions-rape-reports and https://inews.co.uk/news/world/academics-protest-plans-publish-biased-myanmar-scholar/
