Great. Welcome. This is Chaumtoli Huq.
I'm the Editor of Law at the Margins.
Law@theMargins is a creative law and media platform.
The goal of Law@theMargins is to
lift up social justice around the world.
It is to lift up stories and narratives that
oftentimes ignored in mainstream media as well as mainstream advocacy.
Tonight, we're really excited to be able to host and facilitate a conversation and an
important one around the Rohingya crisis and some will say ruling it genocide the
issues that we're going to hear about are from activists from different parts
of the United States based in Canada regarding the Rohingya issue both in
Myanmar are firmly Burma as well as issues regarding the refugees we welcome
everyone that's participating the what we see this conversation as starting is
to facilitate and to coordinate all of our support work for the community so
that we can lift that up both at multiple levels whether it's United
Nations local advocacy work support humanitarian efforts so that we can
really work together I'm really excited to have our three sort of panelists
today and the goal is really to get us involved and activated on to support the
community I'm going to introduce our panelists they're going to speak for 15
minutes I'll be chatting with our participants those of you who are
registered if you are actively working around this issue let us know tell us in
the chat box we're also thankful to have our associate editor Shahana Hanif we'll
be tweeting with the hashtag remain just solidarity so follow the conversation
there as well so first we're I'm going to have a Myra dog a pal who is a Korean
human right activist herself formerly an internally
displaced person as well as a refugee for 17 years and now the executive
director of the u.s. campaign for Burma and DC she's been active as a Korean
women's organization she has also been active around multiple fronts in terms
of foreign policy advocacy for all communities in in Myanmar and she's
going to give us a little bit about the history of this conflict as well as how
it impacts other communities next we're really excited to have Ahmed Musa ruin
Jay activist who was born in the refugee camp in Bangladesh and is now a
community advocate in Canada he's residing there with his mother and
sister and as a an activist based in in Canada he's been doing some amazing work
around theater and arts and I hope that he will share with us about his theatre
production I am I am and finally but not least we have Adam Carroll he's
currently in New York and the United Nations program director for the Burma
task force USA with the background in human rights and advocacy adam has
worked for five years in Islamic circle in North America after the 9/11 attacks
and he's been a exclusively working around Burma support work and will share
with us some action that we can take in United States to support the ring Joe so
with that I welcome each of our guests I welcome all of those who are listening
in please joining me and on the chat box on the side as we listen to each of our
activists after the panel we're going to hear a take your question and answer and
think about what we can do to really bring about what the title of this
webinar is global solidarity for the Ranger community with that I'd like to
invite Myra to start us off welcome Myra hi everyone thank you
please let me know if I run out of time I don't want to take up and take away
anybody's time so so firstly I wanted to making sure that everyone I'm talking
about today so basically the whole idea the hope that my main purpose for the
talk tonight is firstly to making sure that you understand where the problem
comes from and how maybe how we can collectively help out little ways so the
Burma you know now is not the Burma that actually has been why the reason I say
that is that perhaps many people don't know that Burma has having that
institutionalized discrimination policy ever since 1948 as soon as they gained
independence from the British and the copmi the Burmese military came up with
the policy that is we call it that is known as Burman ization basically well
set up the whole idea is to assimilate non Burmese ethnic groups into the
Burman ethnic group so basically to turn everyone into Burman including me Quran
or the brother who love their religion as we don't accept those and that is
what we become their enemy and we've been persecuted ever since and the
persecution has been going on ever since 1948 where they started implementing
this piece of policy but many of you will be asking in the back of your head
why it has to be this the minute the very understanding quite to were power
and greed because for as long as they have the power then they can control
everybody and for as long as they can control land which are their region
and natural resources not just natural resources but human resources then they
owns everything and so with that I create the divide and rule policy where
we don't even know each other let alone have I known for hinge on 30 years ago
know what didn't all is because of the divided and rule policy that keeps us
away from each other we don't even know each other I mean I knew but like 15 15
to 17 years ago when I started doing an advocacy work and so the persecution on
the ethnic minority has been going on ever since like you heard the the
introduction of and in turn led person I was born in as an internally displaced
person and then a refugee so I had never had an dean card I've never been a
Burmese person in my own country let alone
I call myself and so people a lot of people like me are in many other ethnic
states the only difference is that the Burmese government cannot really ignore
the fact that cannot lie to the world the fact that we are not the people of
Burma all is because our leaders they trying to maintain control and fight
back whether they get it or not they are trying to fight back for our own
self-determination and that is why the control of the area and then we can
still maintain part of our life and our culture our language and all these stuff
why I'm giving you all these stuff when we're talking about religion is we're
supposed to I supposed to talk about Indian issues is yet to give you between
our situation and the way the religion is somewhat
very different they have never had a chance to establish themselves though
because 1962 and the military dictator came into power they have their own
leadership to govern to organize their own people but all a certain the night
the military dictator came into power and literally trying to wipe them out
and that is why you many of you who follow the issues back in late mid to
late 70s you have like hundreds of thousands of her hidden people pouring
into Bangladesh because of the pushed out and then coming 1982 literally the
Burmese military dictators came out with the citizenship law that does not even
allow the rehidden people to become the citizens and it's not just that I'm
pretty sure you all follow my freedom of mobilization freedom to education to
health to anything that everybody can have access to they don't have those
excess but how other ethnic is also helped yes listen you don't have get to
hear much about it is because to a certain extent because of our own area
our own places where we run our own school our own spaces and that is why we
have the opportunity to educate people in our own community
although the Burmese government is not allowed and that is why here it creates
the zones between us so the places where I live it's literally called black zone
meaning that that that is a war zone and that is why a lot of times pretty much
even until now the international community will come in and do
humanitarian work or any other work but they will be warned you don't go to the
black zone because that's where fighting is going on and that
while you can get into trouble and you can get killed and so that's how we
bring ourselves although even we cannot catch up with the world but to a certain
extent we still have access to some part of Education some part of health but of
course the people are still need a lot of health but at the same time when you
look at the reunions situation they don't have those XS and that is why they
are literally where sometimes when I talk I couldn't even I'm up to speed but
right now we don't even talk about bringing them up to speed we just talk
about their basic rights in their safety which is still in a big question and how
many people pay attention to it is very important and that is what we were
trying to bring the attention to our audience tonight but some of you also
will be asking so why religion well why not
other Muslims well the other Muslims in Burma and the region they are still
somewhat different you have a lot of Muslims Burmese Muslims who come from
many other countries immigrant and then of course leaving the country generation
after another so they are migrated are Muslims whereas the religion they came
in they settled down like every other ethnic groups they settled down they
have their own little location they have their own structure where they they run
their people they do their thing and that is located at the northern part of
our Rakhine State and so they own their lands they all they have natural
resources they have everything that we have to but because the Burmese
government wanted all the stuff that they have that is why they kick them out
they're trying to throw them out of their own homes their own places where
they live and it's not just that not even allowing
them to be called the people of Burma and so if that is the case then where
this leads to of course it's totally finally leaders
to the word we always use with the case of rohan john is stateless people
because they cannot live in Burma although they have homes but at the same
time they've been perceive as they are the the people who migrated from
Bangladesh okay I'm not saying that there is no body from Bangladesh coming
into Burma and migrated there even the religion community prehension leaders
that I have had contact with worked with they did there are some migrated
Bangladesh is Bangladesh population but it's not really to the point where what
the Burmese government said the number is so if that is the case then this is
not really true because these people are the the native people there and they're
supposed to have the rights like every so but then well I also wanted to bring
us to another piece of information is that you heard about Burma has hundred
and thirty-five sub ethnic groups well which country that have has 135 as five
ethnic groups but at the same time you have hundred and thirty-five ethnic
groups and why you can even add religion onto one of one of those hundred and
thirty-five that just doesn't make sense to me if that makes sense to out anybody
please explain to me because I just don't get it but nowadays I also learned
that it's not just random that is not on the list very recently just last week
lahu people who have been living in shan state ever since they are not also
included in the list and they are also restricted from moving around
while going from place to place and now it's even becoming worse in the northern
part of Shan State the white population they cannot even go from one city to
another so my point is that okay sorry let me take you back for another point
before I make the point but at the same time pathetically speaking two to three
weeks ago there was another piece of information where they wanted to
recognize another new sub ethnic groups which is the mix of the mix race of
Korean and Hmong so the reason why I'm saying it is pathetic is that you cannot
even include religion to be one of ethnic groups you cannot even include
love to be one of the ethnic groups but you wanted to add on another ethnic
group which is Korean and Mon so it just doesn't make sense at all it shows you
very clear that the military wanted to do what they wanted to do whatever that
affect other people's lives it is not the case for them so if that is the case
I don't know how much time I have left but before I go further I just wanted to
inform all the audience that my my aim for today is also to to to inform all of
us about what I see is important is it is what I call inclusive advocacy so
basically when we do advocacy on religion issues please continue doing
what you're doing which is very important they need our help at this
point but at the same time to make our case
stronger I think it is also important to bring in other ethnic situation in order
to tell the world that this is not their their thing is that the military what
they are trying to do is that they are trying to do persecute not just
brahim yet but also every other ethnic groups in innocence that they wanted to
run the whole country by themselves so either you become a Burman or you don't
have a space here because right now what also worries me to a certain extent is
that I start seeing some people not a lot but it could become a more in the
near future which I don't want to see is that like division some people creates
hate some people already suffer enough I don't want to see other ethnic groups to
have that resilient sentiment just because oh people are advocating on
their behalf but what about us nobody talked about is our issues when the bomb
the Burmese military dropped bombs at the the Cochin State the kitchen IDP
area almost on regular basis and then people in Shan state are running for
lives and now in last show one of the biggest the the biggest city in Shan
State also was under very strict security watch so I just wanted to give
us the idea of the people in Burma many of them wanted to do more for
regional issues but at the same time they trying to craft the space where
they don't have that much and they don't get that much support and that is what
they're still in the process of working on it trying to teach people about how
to ignore hate speech that is why
they're trying to create their educational tools and then reaching out
to the community so I think to a certain extent we have to also while we beefed
up the coalition outside of Burma I think it is also very important to help
support the coalition that trying to speak on behalf of the resilient people
inside Burma and and I think that's one thing that I wanted to remind us but at
the same time go back to the repatriation I'm sorry I'm
jumping all over but we have time for Q&A and I'm willing to answer any
question you may have going back to repatriation I just wanted
to tell you the Burmese military as well as the Burmese government right now they
don't have any political will and if that is the case there is no safety for
these brazilian population so basically to me repatriation is not an option at
all at this point because they're going to go back and they're going to put into
a place where it's like concentration camp literally they don't have access to
anything unless somebody if people come in and give them a humanitarian
assistant but at the same time the military doesn't allow the current
assistant to the point where the population needs and it can have enough
if that is the case then I don't really know how these people can leave safely
if they are returned because they're not going to get to go and live in their
homes and do they do this to only the religion population they also do this to
the current refugees to the Xiang refugees to the Cochin refugees the only
difference is that as I said earlier because the Quran the other ethnic
groups have the opportunity to build up their leadership their strong leadership
foundation and that is why they can still do some of the stuff for the
people although the Burmese government in the Burmese military don't have the
political will but for the in the case of religion they don't have this
foundation so I just don't see the point to to to push them back into Burma right
now unless we want to kill them and so everyone who does the advocacy I think
we have to make this very clear to the international community to the Indian
HCR which a lot of him janeshia are also trying to want to
think that yes it's okay to take them back and that is why breaking the
repatriation the last last batch they were a part of it but after all they
didn't really look out for it so now look where the religion people are are
they better off they are not they are still in the same situation and even
becoming worse so all in all I wanted to say that thank you very much for whoever
who are on the webinar right now that you pay attention to the need for the
people and keep doing what you're doing and if you need resources if you need
something you want to know more please feel free to reach out to me my email is
my RA da h @ gmail.com so that you can remember it it much easier and I'm going
to leave it here and I'm willing to answer any questions you may have
towards the end so thank you so much wait Thank You Myra for giving us a
little bit of context I think that what I took away from what you said is that
we need to pay particular attention to the Ranger issue at the moment but also
keep in mind that the Burmese military has been persecuting and attacking other
communities throughout Berner including your own and so that any kind of
advocacy really has to work on both fronts so I appreciate that perspective
next I'd like to invite Ahmed to who's a regular activist born in the refugee
camp to talk about his own experiences and then also thoughts around the
current issue a little bit about the repatriation agreements that my brought
up and then just the work that you're doing in in Canada for Refugees and for
those who are listening please any contact we will provide for those
including Mira's email please introduce yourself and if you have any questions
or thoughts at the end we'll have a Q&A so Amin thank you so much for the
opportunity and thank you everyone for joining them
and the webinar so I will share a little bit about my life in the refugee camp I
lost my father at the age of 2 after losing my father my mother was
traumatized what mental illness so it was a very hard situation for my family
as me and my sister were very young and my mommy mentally traumatized
we had no support and at the time there was no government or any Warfel program
supporting us at the time in the refugee camp and they approximately Bangladesh
where all this recent crisis is happening where the people are coming in
so having that as a kid and as a kid without proper guidance and proper
health care proper education proper nutrition I
I have lost hope in life that I might make it somewhere in life someday so we
struggle through every single hardship and at the age of seven I thought to
myself that I wanted to be educated someday be educated you speak about my
people and about what happened so I went to an institute and I have shared this
out of my me it might be twice for Adam to hear this story
but when I was in the refugee camp I wanted to go to the schools that
government built after many years later and I was told that I cannot be
registered in the Institute because I did not have proper guidance and proper
parent to guide me to a school so I was rejected they told me that people like
me are worthless and shouldn't be educated that's what I was told I was
asked what a broken heart her child who lost hope and I got a job at a coffee
shop working seven days a week 16 hours a day
enough I made enough just to provide one mail per day for my family worked every
single day worked like a slave worked there for many years
then after someone saw that my family needed help and my mom needed medical
treatment and someone from Windsor Ontario Canada saw my mom and they said
they wanted to sponsor my family privately to Canada and have a better
life in Canada after coming here we've been displaced we've been put in
separate home because my mom was unfit to be a parent in Canadian society so we
were bounced around in foster homes that sorry I'm going off and things that I
shouldn't be really discussing bye yeah after being in foster care for so long I
gathered I was finally reconnected with my community in Canada there is a based
in Kitchener we're about 250 250 were Inga's live so I gathered with the
rangas and there's a Muslim organization called Muslim social services of kW
Waterloo they got some funding from the city of Kitchener to do some trauma
program and programs or not to do drugs and drug addiction programs and so with
program coordinator saw us he said you guys don't need none of these things so
we don't have to come doing the session anymore about the drugs because you guys
don't look like the kids who were there drugs so he asked us his name the
coordinator and his name is use of zayn he asked us what we wanted to do with
the money and what the fashion bare spaces do gap all the kids said let's do
a play let's do a theoretical plate and the director of asked what do you want
to do a play about all the kids said let's do a play about the plight of the
Rohingya people let's do a pay based on the based on our parents lies based on
our lives and none of these kids had T Turk
experience none of them went to theater school nobody had any form of theater
training but the coordinator he was in a Disney show and he had some other
technical background and he did his master's also based on TV programs so we
started writing the play everybody would the play contribute a little bit of
everything and we came up with the play about a year we rehearsed for a whole
year then we had a sold-out show of 400 people first show and second show we
have 450 people to show what we did for Islamic Relief Canada what many had son
as a keynote speaker where we had 920 plus people and we raised over $500,000
in one night so that gave us hope that we had a voice we had a story to tell
that people wanted to hear and people should hear so we thought maybe put into
a documentary because we can't have that all the cast traveling everywhere to do
a show because it cost theater space cost a lot of money we didn't have much
money to do that shows everywhere so we came up with the documentary that will
be released in April and we're going to be having a premiere in the United
Nations headquarter inshallah soon somewhere in April and after getting
into the play I realized how much impact we had on the people on the issue and
how much people are wanting to hear that's when I thought I've been through
this and I need to do something about it because I have people calling me from
back home I have people calling my mom from back home so that pushes me to
amplify their voice our voice to higher level so that's when I gather what about
40 youth from the hinga community in Canada to come up with organization
called Canadian hanger development initiative where we founded the
organization to focus on to speak about the plight of
the Rohingya people and to come up with some form of educational scholarship by
getting help from the government and also speaking about the Hindi people at
higher level at the federal level knocking on every single door every
politician's door whether was helpful or not we still did Drive in some time live
in a school behind leaving work behind and we still go to meetings where we had
to drive for 10 hours just to attend just to amplify the voice group of youth
who were highly dedicated just to see something to be done about their people
now we're mainly focused on because let me talk about the reputation a little my
recovered you're very good I was there recently in Miami in in the people where
the people are coming in the camp in Bangladesh from my mark I was there
recently Bangladesh two weeks where I have witnessed many things that I
haven't witnessed myself when I was in that camp
things that I have never realized that it was happening things people need the
help how badly these people have been hurt how badly these people who ended
how badly the woman are being raped and how the kids over forty thousand miners
been orphaned when you look at those and and you see all this government relation
mama are talking about repatriation it it seems to me like none of this had
ever happened none of this Rohini should ever happen
because they made it look like that they could just cover up and bring these
people back and forth this been going on for 40 years happening for 40 years I
was born in the refugee camp I'm 24 years old and my mom she was very young
when she moved to the refugee camp and the people are just going back and
forward and many people are dying and even the
phillipa Gandhi he said that situation is not getting any better
it is not safe for the fingers to go back but yeah Bangladesh and marma is
talking about repatriation we did not my organization and I we do not try to
focus on the repatriation work because we want to we want to try to look out
for the people because we know they will be there for very very long time we're
trying to gather as Burma task force Canada we've been working with my my
task force here to to come up with solution to push the government to make
sure they stop this and try to bring something trying to get the answer shift
for the ringgit people trying to get some scholarship for English students we
launched a campaign recently on lunch good to get some blanket because we have
people calling us saying it is very cold and people need some sort of things to
warm them but we just recently launched a campaign and the campaign didn't do
much didn't do really good and we still have the campaign running and lunch good
for the blanket appeal but everybody in the organization we contributed together
from our own personal pocket there will be a blanket distribution happening in
Cox bazaar today from our organization upper about 400 families whatever we can
because we all are students and is very hard it is very very hard for us to
support them any financial weight because we we have to leave our work
behind because we used to work before all these crises god intact we stopped
work we stopped working because it's needed more attention than that we can
we could give with the work time so end of the day what we come to I'm sorry I
don't know if I'm running I'm running all over the place and I'm taking lots
of time end of the day we have to look at this as what if it
was our crisis if what if it was happening in our own room what if he was
happening in America what if it's happening in Canada wherever your family
is just imagine what if he's happening there imagine as if your family's going
through all that you know we don't have to wait for it all to happen here we can
reach out to our government okay reach out to our senators our president
Prime Minister reach out to anybody write a letter because these people
needs us today's us tomorrow with it'll be
someone else today is happening tomorrow it might happen in anywhere else another
day because as great Martin Luther King said to write to justice any sorry I'm
really bad with cool injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere we
have to look at that because Rwanda happened
lunch things are happening around the world we have to look at all those
little kids that are dying every single day and all those women that are being
raped we could make it all stop we just have to focus on how important it is
because lots of people their life is in danger
nobody chose this nobody chose us to be attacked nobody chose us to be raped
nobody chose us to be illegal nobody should be illegal they were from there
they've been there they had a perfect normal life until someone decided that
they shouldn't have it I suffer that as a child that I should not have to go
through all that live in a rich you can knowing that I'm not safe no
child deserves that no child in Bangladesh right now standing for food
I know hundreds of kids are standing on line right now to get some food
we don't we don't have to watch them suffer we could all work together we
could all do something for these people thank you so much Hey
thank you so much and I think the personal experience to your activism is
really powerful and will hopefully move folks to to get involved there is one
question from Shahana before I invite Adam maybe if you wanted to address it
which is is there any youth activism in the United States are you connecting
with youth or enjoy activists in the United States
so if you wanted to answer that question and then I'm next we'll invite Adam to
share about a Burma task forces work any other issues maybe we need to cover and
then specific campaigns that you can get involved in so amid other youth
activists in the United States also might be in contact with lots of them
because they're having a rally on on Wednesday where they invited you know
Burma TAS was invited lots of people to come down and I was also supposed to
come unfortunately I have some other things going on it was very nice of
Burma task force to even invite a few of us here from Canada to amplifies the
voice and they're having a wonderful legislation day and in the wash in
Washington DC so there is there is lots of youth and in America who are also
fighting for the plight of the Rohingya people and I will leave my email address
on the comment please do reach out to me and also Adam will also share more
about that because Burma Tazawa has contact with most of those youth and so
do I all right excellent so Adam just wanted drink you've been working on this
issue for many years maybe before you sort of jump to the lobby advocacy day
are there other themes that you want to address around the Ranger issue I think
one of the questions that come up for me is why this why this crisis or genocide
sort of now in 2017 there's been such an exodus out of Myanmar Burma and and
maybe later maybe Maira can jump in is that we understand that the Burmese
military has always been persecuting ethnic minorities and so but why is this
sort of taking on this more public acute crisis I read a statistic that said
about 90 percent of Linda have left Myanmar as of now with only about maybe
seventy thousand or so remaining so maybe if you can I think that piece I
think is not clear we understand that there's always been persecution that the
community's been particularly vulnerable because of the lack of internal systems
that Mayra mentioned about other communities but why Rohingya and well
it's it feels particularly targeted and why now why is this coming up in such a
you know really ethnic cleansing genocide I mean these are very strong
war crimes if you could really give us some context of that and then anything
else you'd like to share
yeah thank you totally for including me and I think it
is really important that we have this this this group of speakers speaking
from experience and also for the need for more solidarity between ethnic
groups that have been targeted by the Myanmar military over so many decades
the situation is getting worse but certainly the erasure of the rural India
from northern Rockland State I make profit motive hate yes we can
talk about Islamophobia institutionalized and promoted by
extremist Buddhist supremacists and that their allied with the military and the
military is behind everything pulling strings and they've been puppet masters
for generations from now in Burma Myanmar the the profit motive could be
seen in some satellite photos that came to light just a couple of days ago I was
just at an amnesty international conference yesterday and Michael from
Amnesty
showed some slides though I've seen them from Human Rights Watch as well and you
could just google Human Rights Watch and you'll see them because they're very new
their pictures not only about the rural India neighborhood being burned but then
a later picture of the rojan geo neighborhood being bulldozed and then a
later picture of a row hinge on a bur hood having a road built right over had
never been and meanwhile the non-royal Engine neighborhood with its swimming
pools is untouched and it's just yards away just meters away and so it's all
being done the you know very methodically atrocities and those don't
seem methodical except that there seems to be a method there to and the madness
the military comes in and as people flee the evidence shows that they shoot at
their backs and a lot of people were were also killed that way but injured
and the wounds are very much agreeing with with those testimonies so that
there's so many testimonies of atrocities and now pictures of the mass
graves and no doubt there are many more acid being used to dissolve the dead
body bodies Riddle appendix things that could take our attention and should this
is groups are still arguing about whether this is genocide or not but
whatever wants to call this this har the Internet community has been somewhat
stuck again why because of the profit motive because she is on the Security
Council China is a protector of Myanmar's government and military is
investing in in Rakhine State there are grandiose plans for gas
pipelines going from the various gas fields off the coast and all of this has
just been discovered just being developed what's happened now is not the
democratization of Burma but it's the opening of markets so again into this
fusion of capitalism with democracy that's not what we're seeing we're
seeing an authority government using some of the tools of democracy for
command control there is hope eventually for a softening of to say there are good
civil society people who are also under a cloud there's Intel there is there is
threat recent arrests of the Reuters reporters for reporting mass graves is
just another reminder of many but they keep civil society quiet yeah and
certainly there's a lot of Islamophobia my task force does look at that we're
based originally as a muslim-american organization but we work in partnership
as much as we can with all human rights support and so instead of making this a
Muslim issue it's really a human rights issue that should concern all we need to
build those alliances and empower the impacted community in New York there's a
few role India in in Chicago there are more Wisconsin they're scattered around
maybe 4,000 maybe 4,500 at most many of them just working several jobs just to
survive many who have not had it much of a chance for education so it's it going
to be a very long challenge to empower the community but you know as we speak
there's going to be there there's a Berlin conference going on with many
activists arriving today there is also an increasing of opportunities to talk
about this this crisis but what I don't see is solutions and we were just
talking about the repatriation farce and you know obviously that was promoted by
China also as a bilateral agreement between Burma and Bangladesh and it's
just about putting a few Roja back into IDP camps with barbed wire going around
the concentration camp and utterly excluding Burma
this is what what happened after 2012 and people are still there in those
camps this is what's happened to other ethnic groups as well on the margins and
in the other states and so Burma itself viable nation is really very fragile and
the peace process nons also roadmap to coexistence all
this seems more and more elusive but it is the these are signs of possibility of
future hope will we need peacekeepers and safe zones will we need some
autonomy in in the RAC Hines what would that even mean the here is
questions and they're not being asked seriously if you end because of the
block blocking of China they need to be also asked here in the US and on
Wednesday the February 28th were a permit task force with its allies is
organizing Lobby day will hinge at sea day on the hill and everyone is invited
wait 8:30 in the morning we're meeting at in in the home worth Senate building
the details are on our website view Borg there's also a separate link if you go
to our campaigns link which gives you a lot of materials not only to go to the
advocacy day but to contact you and you know the has been a bipartisan issue in
the past some of the Republicans are slower to take action on human rights
but when you talk about religious freedom some talk about China some of
them get it for whatever reason you know you you we trying to really convince a
number of law take a very rare bipartisan step to do something
meaningful and the so we're going to we have some Jewish rabbis you know coming
we have a couple Buddhists who have signed up you know we really want to try
to build this movement and it's really important that that it builds and so you
know we have about we don't have as many row hinges we had hoped joining us and I
wish we had had brother Antony hopefully the next time but the we have about I
think a coming with us and who will be visiting and speaking from and know just
recently I met with a French mission at the UN and brought a couple it's a a
Burmese Buddhist actually a rock I'm Buddhist wife and a Roja husband and
they're just arrived here in New York and
and there's and they were willing to take tell their story about all the
suffering they've gone through as an interfaith couple you know people don't
realize that this is actually illegal to have an interfaith marriage and they've
really you know suffered jail and the threats and beliefs here hopefully it
will work out u.s. does not take many refugees as everyone knows and so there
are alliances to be made between you know Roy hinge kits and also the refugee
rights movement and I hope that we can build this with all the people who care
about daca we need to also link and support each other so there are a lot of
people who need the the policies to to really improve much more to speak about
but I think that the main thing is that if there's a way to support our out of
kasi pushing sanctions bills would believe that without sanctions there
will be no improvement in policies in Burma I know we actually think the
sanctions need to be a lot stronger than they are in these current bills but we
are supporting them and you know hopefully all more steps we take in the
right day if we're if we're going together hopefully we'll get to our
destination to get wait no that's great so I'm going to invite those who are
listening to post their questions on the Twitter chat before we get to the
questions I thought I would just open it up it seems like their work happening at
multi-levels Adam talked about the advocacy day that's on the 28th I posted
a link and I'll post that to everyone who registered there's the refugee work
with that Ahmed was talking about and then sort of the inclusive advocacy that
Myra was also mentioning there also seems to be a lot of work also just with
refugees in the in the camps in Bangladesh with
vision of just basic you know human needs of a blanket food
are there other other other efforts that we should be aware of is there a way
that all of these efforts are being connected one of the reasons why I
wanted to have this webinar it's it seemed like there was amazing work
happening in multiple fronts and that's okay it needs to happen you know as in
in the work in Burma Myanmar in Bangladesh around the repatriation
refugee issues humanitarian and then more sort of policy is there a way that
all of these are being brought together in some fashion so to two questions one
is is there other things that are happening that we should be plugged into
and are there efforts to kind of coordinate all of this effort which
feels like needs to happen in some way so and maybe start with Myra and and who
else wants to answer that and in the meantime guest post your questions and
we're gonna go about heart stop until 9:30 and maybe a little bit we can log
off but Myra like are there other campaigns we need to be aware of are
there coordination is happening um thank you well before I go there I wanted to
go back to you first your question early yes well um the only reason why now is
because we have more access to media we have access to more information and all
those stuff as well as now everyone has the phone so if something happened they
get to take picture they get a posted out but the struggle the persecution has
been there ever since and I mean if you go back to late 70s they were pushed out
like hundreds of thousands of them conflict for nice oh do we know anything
about those because the the the spins are off the information that
is why nobody have access to any of those nobody's dare to put anything out
because a lot of times you also have to save your own life but at the same time
it's not just hidden issues it's also the other ethnic issues like when I 1995
when I fled overnight and about another over a hundred thousand
Coran refugees that will literally have to cross the river on overnight him
refugee nobody knows about it nobody heard about it all is because we don't
have access to information at Beck fan and then international community also
didn't pay attention to us at the level we were having now so but then is that
enough no it is not enough that is why we all who are on the webinar tonight I
just wanted to relay the message that it is our responsibility because they need
us it doesn't mean that we have to your engine and then we have to talk about
them or we have to be Burmese and then we're to advocate on their behalf but we
are human beings and we are interrelated and therefore I take it as my
responsibility so do you do I have anything um I don't really have anything
specific but I rather most mostly coordinate with an admin all those stuff
aside from my money I shouldn't say my free time whenever I
can but I also have my site my stuff over here so that's why I are you I work
with and mine enough so I at this point follow his lead instead of me having
something specific so um others on ahmud are there's other campaigns or
fundraisers or other efforts that you want to share my question that there are
different things happening yeah but you know I've been invited to two
fundraisers in New York by separate organizations right and which is great
but it almost feels like a need for a little bit more coordination of
all of our advocacy daeun so that's partly why I was asking that there's
kind of a need for that hmm so because I my team here we don't think of the
wrinkles going back because ooh when hasn't been highly involved in this
matter and we haven't seen any action being taken by the United Nation so
that's why because since it's been going on for 40 years we do work very closely
with a migration minister in Canada Canadian immigration minister and I
shared this in the in my panel in the United Nation last month where we're
trying to get Canada to sponsor about twenty five thousand three hinges
because that's what they did for the Syrians so we believe Canada is capable
of doing that and the Trudeau administration is looking into getting
the ring guests to come over here and when Canada does things like this and
other country is very very much look into that so if Canada could lead to
open up the doors and when I met with the minister the minister said the
Bangladesh is not providing an exit pass for the ringgit people to leave and when
I made the ambassador of Bangladesh I heard a different story now I'm trying
to get bottom off the both side of the story to see who was telling me the
truth and who was not or to see what is the real story is because that's because
I've been here in two different stories and I really think that I really hope
that the project becomes successful of migrating somewhere Hingis and I believe
that everybody and their home country should be looking into that pushing
their government into again in summer English context they could deserve a
life they don't deserve freedom of movement they deserve every single
freedom that we we have in our countries now so I believe these people
deserves the light so we should really look into that and the other campaign is
that I mentioned earlier the winter blanket up here that we launched at
lunch good it'll be very very nice if people can't help out because we're
doing whatever we came from I own our own personal pocket very nice to have
people to donate just a little bit of money because we might not feel the cold
because we have a very perfect home we have blankets in our own home when we
have heaters whenever we feel cold we turn on our heaters whenever we feel hot
we turn on our a/c so these people really needs our help
maybe if I share the link with you it spread it to the people to the viewers
to maybe help out any way possible thank you and brother yeah yeah
definitely if there are links please share that too with me and I can post
them on our page to encourage folks even folks who are not maybe on live tonight
this is being recorded so folks can share there is a question comment from
around a minister summarize it is figuring out a solution so willing to
people can go back home safely and how do we raise our voices to start this
initiative now we need to step up instead of building camps and
organizations what I heard from Amma there's actually that maybe that he
doesn't see that as being a viability at all but maybe others can talk about is
there any pathway or policy or effort to have we're gonna go back to their what
is their rightful home essentially right I guess that's a question that's up
there and others please post your questions and then we're what these
questions will serve wine down the webinar but
do you want to take that up sure yeah I mean I also think short-term these
repatriation deals are empty and the question is is there political will to
do the right thing for the people or will this be another black spot you
right now of course one could be gloomy but one should not give the Palestinians
are still displaced many other groups are still displaced but every situation
is is different
baris as you know what needs to happen I mean a public education program
seriously done in Myanmar could erode the anti religious sentiment this is in
the u.s. you know has been challenged in the courts but the courts in Myanmar are
weak and not independent but over time they will they should improve but
they've also the racism has been technology in popularity in the United
States and continues to be just as other liberation movements find a place for
example and in sewing in the discourse and so we have culture wars in the u.s.
the cultural wars in Myanmar are harsh much more harsh and but and yes it's
about pluralism it's about tolerance and all those things that make people yawn
but you find a way to make it real and if you look at younger Americans younger
North Americans you see we are able to get along across many of the boundaries
that used to exist not perfectly but it's it's a work in progress so I'd like
to be education tried but this is and then resistance to the military myanmar
used to be not a great supporter of the military
but the military is very clever about getting certain monks over to their size
other influencers as an output Hamza II on some surgery in a very delicate
political position and now she's basically complicit but she's in a very
powerless moment not to make any kind of excuse but I think there is hope in the
Solidarity potential solidarity that could arise among the Myanmar people and
part of that needs to come the Diaspora there are so many refugees in the Unites
not immobilized yet or that kind of a level of solidarity so that will be a
really important challenge for all of us and in something the romantic force
needs to get more involved with we need that we need to listen to people and
then in the Baptist churches the Quran you know churches here we need to go to
Utica we need to go to Atlanta and then all the places where there are Burmese
communities and figure out how we can encourage them to find their own way
because peace depends on the Burmese people themselves you know the
conference there was a lot of energy around this issue and actually tomorrow
they're doing their own bloppy day and one of their three issues is is the
sanctions bill for Burma's so there's interest growing there's opportunities
now that didn't just a while ago and I think that all the people listening if
you could just figure out what you're going to do and really don't let us just
talk about it but what were you willing to do I think
you all need and feel the need for action great thank you so much I think
that there is a very ask for advocacy day on the 28th there's an appeal for
humanitarian appeal for blankets I think these are common right in the cam
in Bangladesh I'm not mistaken so there are really um sort of individual to
advocacy different levels of folks can get involved maybe we can just end
unless I'm seeing other questions with the theme of today's webinar which is
solidarity does Margaret did you want to add something yeah yes I just wanted to
chip in a little bit I just wanted to chip in a little bit it's a very good
question but I just wanted to let our audience know that yes the work has been
done at a very many different levels but at the same time we are meeting with
very hard-headed people or sometimes I use my blank language they turn their
blind eyes on the situation and so are we not talking
yes government I mean we'll do based in the year so we're talking about yes we
do but at the same time they also want their piece of pie they also have their
own interests a lot of times they put their interests before the lives on the
maple and that is where the problem the bigger problem is but at the same time
we are the constituents we have the voice just keep puttering that is
something that is something that you can do just keep doing what you're doing be
consistent and perseverance we are we're not doing anything hit the UN Adams know
the best and giving you example backing when I would I did the advocacy yet the
UN probably almost 10 years ago we had massive killing going on in current
state and I went to meet with Frances dang back then he was the head of the
genocide prevention and he was like oh are you sure I don't see genocide going
on in your country and I got to the point where I was really heat up and I
was like sir whether you see it or not whether you call it genocide or not
there is the symptom if you don't care about it you're going to regret and
think about it for the rest of your life because you're going to feel guilty for
not doing anything if something happened because than that and I'm I'm not a
prophet but now you see random situation where
hundreds of thousands are pouring out in a few days so I hope Fran sees them
quick wake up a little bit but I just wanted to say that the UN also has to do
their part they talk a lot but they didn't what could walk that that walk
and so the only piece of where I should say the only piece but one of the pieces
the the the tool that we have at the UN is the Burma specific resolution their
resolution last year was nothing the Burmese government didn't even give a
crap about it they didn't even respond so it tells us
that the UN doesn't have the political will so as many other countries so but
right now I just wanted to encourage everybody who comes on the call if you
are from those Southeast Asian Asian countries maybe it will be very helpful
to put your government as well to look into their religion situations and take
it very seriously the problem is that I usually used to meet with several
countries before I moved to a DC when I was still in New York and then that
they'll be like oh they are the sovereign country I really hate this
awful me word when I was up there because if you are talking about the
sovereignty of that people then what about the lights and that's where I get
upset so I think in terms of the international community if we can start
off with the neighboring countries if they can build up their political wheels
and trying to push the Burmese Authority that could be helpful in a certain a
certain point I know many people have done it but which is I keep I would have
to keep doing it Thanks why we call it advocacy wait No thank you so much there
is one question and we'll end with that it seems maybe a quick word for Ahmed
which is Naz me and asked she's interested in building a youth group in
her college and do you have any advice on how she can connect with you know how
she could do that too raise humanitarian voices so if you want
to answer that and then we're gonna wind down this webinar so just for others to
think about is this idea is solidarity and so think about sort of your last
words of like you know how should we be thinking sort of moving forward but I
mean if you can answer the question about the youth group yeah so there's
many ways you could gather groups because today's generation there's lots
of good good kids because even like I know this is not relevant even after the
Florida shooting you seen how many youth has been gathering together gather human
values and and trying to implement their voice how what they want and you know to
start off by gathering things maybe you can have a maybe little event where we
could talk about the ringgit people because lots of universities and
colleges they have that here and if you're new york you can even have
brother Adam come down to your university or anybody from the burma
task force because people need to know about the issue because if someone needs
to educate them before they can really get into it because they need to know
why they are doing it why are they getting involved in something that they
don't know about so first of all have an event about about the reinga issue it
was very very good and I know for sure that your administrator school
administration they will help you with the Student Union you know if you talk
to the student union they were happy with it
organize a small very small event have someone to talk about the ring issue
that will help a lot of people to be aware and to learn about the ring issue
and from there you can come come up with lots of other events because one thing
leads to another and lead but I think that's a very good place to start
okay yeah so um we do want to wind down because we um but for if there are
resources so a lot the margins as media platform is committed to making these
connections happen so but everyone who is registered I will you know make the
information of our speakers available so you can contact them directly also
you're welcome to use this webinar it's recorded it's going to you can use this
as a way to do education as well you can share it and that's part of the reasons
why we host these conversations is that it becomes really information resource
use I think to get people excited they need to feel like why should I get
involved in this issue um so with that let's have some closing remarks about
how do we there seems to be two kinds of solidarity building solidary
amongst the dot burmese diaspora and communities and taking their lead I
think that was something that Adam mentioned and then those of us who are
interested in in kind of helping showing support as sort of a I guess maybe
external solidarity so maybe you can speak to both or one or what's needed
moving forward and with that we'll close for tonight but that doesn't mean that
we won't continue our efforts and focus on India just for those you know lots of
margins has been focused around indigenous communities around the world
and also focused around Native American issues and we have a number of webinars
on that so we do see this as part of a larger effort where we do see indigenous
communities lands and economic resources being grabbed and that there are
connections here and so we will continue to highlight and lift up
those issues and so subscribe to us so that you can kind of keep in touch of
what's going on so maybe we'll start in the order of
what we began Myra solidarity what's next closing thoughts maybe things that
are kind of pressing that you feel like we need to get on to this webinar and
then all men and then Adam I don't have much quickly so after I speak I probably
have to get up because of another call is waiting for me 15 minutes ago I don't
have much to say I think continue what we're continuing today what we're doing
now but also be persistent be perseverance and add on more because the
thing is that one person we cannot be that law but the number is bigger the
louder our voice is going to be but going back to the question earlier about
the student thing I really wanted to have the one-on-one conversation and see
if we can brainstorm and then create something so I was just asking in my my
text where the person is based if the person is based in u.s. perhaps we can
do conference call with and figure out something that we can talk about it
maybe I don't know we can create some some kind of chain yeah oh you're in
Michigan so that's not too far we can figure something yeah so we have a
contact of everybody who registered it right I would do is connect all of our
speakers so we can do that offline don't worry about that yeah so next Ahmed in
terms of last thoughts solidarity maybe one thing you want people to take away
today I think I have covered everything but like I said earlier you know all of
these people are suffering in many ways you know many ways things haven't
happened elsewhere when I when I seen when I saw those woman and
those children I really thought to myself sometimes we
treat and love our animals that we have in Canada in North America much much
better than those people are being treated as an animal died here who would
give a proper burial proper funeral there will be people crying for it
but those people there they have no one you know if we don't push our government
nobody would speak up because under the day you know they says when people
become politicians they lose their heart but we have to show them we have to them
show them politicians that that this issue matters to us this is personal and
it has gone beyond the limit and people shouldn't be suffering like this we
should all keep pushing our government to do more because everybody deserves
freedom everybody deserves safety everybody deserve a life knowing that
they will survive till tomorrow these people don't have that so we need to
keep our voice up and we gotta keep pushing our government that's that's
what I want to say thank you great Thank You Ahmed and Adam any final thoughts we
encourage everyone who can to join burma task force on the 28th for the advocacy
day so definitely if you can please join their support them with other last
thoughts before we close for tonight thanks yeah if you could check out org
page there's a lot of stuff there and you know you if you go to our web
you can you can explore the different links and the news articles and so forth
you know to try to figure out what you can do to help you know the the
disasters of war affect a lot of places and you know eat with Yemen and Syria
and others other places but you know if they're all also connected and to
advocate for one really should be to speak for the other and and so I think
that a life of human rights education and activism is needed we've got to
scale this up given facing we you know meaning many of them that so I think
that you know this is a good opportunity to raise some issues and raised some
questions but everyone needs to figure out how to take responsibility these are
not you know these others that we're talking about
they've been other for decades by hostile government policies and like you
know native cultural trip by specific people by their former friends and
neighbors they've been other dand this kind of a horrible trend needs to stop
it seems though to be in the u.s. even in Europe and so let's not think of the
Rohingya as others or as victims they are us we are them and we should be
using our privileges and our resource and other resources and other powers to
take action so this is a big challenge and I know that we need your help
wait thank you to our guest today Mayra Ahmed and Adam lotta margins looks
forward to continuing to work with you larger margins as a nonprofit
organization has signed on to Human Rights Watch's or call for sanctions
and so beyond the media work here and the webinars we hope to also support the
advocacy work those that's happening with the United Nations on our
respective governments and also at the very human level that Ahmed mentioned
sometimes we forget around policy is a humanitarian efforts and so the impact
on young people having to live with minimal economic resources live
oftentimes in a foreign country mental health services so let's also not forget
the importance of just the day-to-day dignity of living and so that whatever
as myra said you can do just involved and get involved and stay involved and
with that i also want to thank Shahana Hanif associate editor for tweeting you
can follow at linga solidarity stay in touch with us if you have any thoughts
at lot the margins you can email us at editors at lotta margins comm and also a
final shout out to person behind our webinars Albert Garcia who's our
interactive producer and helps on behind the scenes to make these going and then
the last I wanted to give a shout out to Jeanne Hallisey she has given us a
permission to use her powerful photographs documenting Rohingyas in the
Bangladesh camps and we'll be sharing some of those throughout as well I'm so
with that good night and let's continue to join and this campaign not just also
as was mentioned for Mia but other communities around the world that are
directly impacted that's the mission of lot the margins and we're really happy
to facilitate this good night thank you
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