Myanmar’s Unfolding Genocide Under Aung San Suu Kyi’s Watch: The Rohingya and Human Rights
Monday 5th December 2016, 3.30 - 5.00pm
Lecture Theatre 718, Adam Smith Building, University of Glasgow
Despite the hyped-up transition to “democracy” in Myanmar under the new government of Nobel peace prize winner Aung san Suu Kyi, the country is still mired in seven decades of civil war, widespread human rights abuses and a “slow burning genocide” of the Rohingya Muslim population. Land confiscations, forced labour and child soldiers persist in Burma with Buddhist nationalist monks and the National League for Democracy (NLD) led government condoning many of the human rights abuses. This seminar is presented by two prominent Burmese human rights activists about the current situation in Burma and the government’s treatment of the Rohingya.
Maung Zarni
Burmese activist in exile, non-resident fellow at the genocide Documentation Centre of Cambodia and an adviser to the newly established European Centre for the Study of Extremism, Cambridge, UK. In 1995 he founded the Free Burma Coalition and served at its director until 2004. He also served as Associate Professor of Asian studies at the university of Darussalam in Brunei from 2012 until his resignation in 2013. In his resignation letter he wrote, "I simply could not countenance allowing my employer to intimidate me into professional silence on unfolding human rights atrocities." Zarni has written extensively on his native country and continued to be a dissident voice. His forthcoming book on Burma will be published by Yale University Press.
Ko Aung Ko
Aung studied human rights law at the BPP university law school and is currently a visiting scholar at London South Bank University. Ko Aung was involved in the 1988 student uprising that saw Aung San Suu Kyi rise to prominence in Burmese politics. He served several years in prison for his role in the uprising, and later fled to London where he remains an activist and outspoken political dissident.
