[liberationtech] Satellite phones for Rohingya in Burma

[ttscanada]

Hi Gregory,

How ... nauseating? Rohingya had their citizenship (vote and right to be 
recognized as human) stripped in 1982 even though they have been in 
Burma for generations. ASSK and her supporters democratically decided 
that the majority do not like Rohingya so they will exterminate them. 
She calls the Rohingya 'an international problem', ie they belong 
somewhere other than Burma. Yay, ASSK and democracy.

http://www.arabnews.com/suu-kyi-calls-rohingya-massacre-%E2%80%98international-tragedy%E2%80%99
http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/WOR-TOP-dalai-lama-asks----hitherto-silent----suu-kyi-to-intervene-in-rohingya-issue-4004768-NOR.html
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,USCIS,,MMR,,3ae6a6a41c,0.html

Here's something you might like to look at: 
http://www.scribd.com/doc/129534164/Buddhist-Nationalism-in-Burma-How-Institutionalized-Racism-led-to-the-Genocide-of-Rohingya-Muslims-Tricycle-Spring-2013

All the best,

Heather Marsh
@GeorgieBC on Twitter


On 13-03-17 1:07 PM, Gregory Foster wrote:
> I've been learning about the recent history of Burma through a 
> collection of Aung San Suu Kyi's writings and speeches.  A quotation 
> from her essay "In Quest of Democracy" written before her house arrest 
> in 1989:
>
>> Revolutions generally reflect the irresistible impulse for necessary 
>> changes which have been held back by official policies or retarded by 
>> social apathy.  The institutions and practices of democracy provide 
>> ways and means by which such changes could be effected without 
>> recourse to violence.  But change is anathema to authoritarianism, 
>> which will tolerate no deviation from rigid policies.  Democracy 
>> acknowledges the right to differ as well as the duty to settle 
>> differences peacefully.  Authoritarian governments see criticism of 
>> their actions and doctrines as a challenge to combat. Opposition is 
>> equated with 'confrontation', which is interpreted as violent 
>> conflict.  Regimented minds cannot grasp the concept of confrontation 
>> as an open exchange of major differences with a view to settlement 
>> through genuine dialogue.  The insecurity of power based on coercion 
>> translates into a need to crush all dissent. Within the framework of 
>> liberal democracy, protest and dissent can exist in healthy 
>> counterpart with orthodoxy and conservatism, contained by a general 
>> recognition of the need to balance respect for individual rights with 
>> respect for law and order.
>>
>> The words 'law and order' have so frequently been misused as an 
>> excuse for oppression that the very phrase has become suspect in 
>> countries which have known authoritarian rule.  Some years ago, a 
>> prominent Burmese author wrote an article on the notion of law and 
>> order as expressed by the official term /nyein-wut-pi-pyar/.  One by 
>> one he analysed the words, which literally mean 
>> 'silent-crouched-crushed-flattened', and concluded that the whole 
>> made for an undesirable state of affairs, one which militated against 
>> the emergence of an articulate, energetic, progressive citizenry.  
>> There is no intrinsic virtue to law and order unless 'law' is equated 
>> with justice and 'order' with the discipline of a people satisfied 
>> that justice has been done.  Law as an instrument of state oppression 
>> is a familiar feature of totalitarianism. Without a properly elected 
>> legislature and an independent judiciary to ensure due process, the 
>> authorities can enforce as 'law' arbitrary decrees that are in fact 
>> flagrant negations of all acceptable norms of justice.  There can be 
>> no security for citizens in a state where new 'laws' can be made and 
>> old ones changed to suit the convenience of the powers that be.  The 
>> iniquity of such practices is traditionally recognized by the precept 
>> that existing laws should not be set aside at will.  The Buddhist 
>> concept of law is based on /dhamma/, righteousness or virtue, not on 
>> the power to impose harsh and inflexible rules on a defenceless 
>> people.  The true measure of the justice of a system is the amount of 
>> protection it guarantees to the weakest.
>
>
> gf
>
>
> On 3/17/13 2:29 PM, Jacob Appelbaum wrote:
>> Dear Heather,
>>
>> ttscanada:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> For those that aren't aware, 800,000 Rohingya people in Burma are being
>>> cut off from communication as the military and government try to drive
>>> them out of the country. Over 100,000 are being starved to death in
>>> concentration camps, the rest are driven into boats which neighbouring
>>> countries are refusing to allow to land. There have been two large 
>>> scale
>>> massacres as well, one in June, one in October. Our contacts have been
>>> saying for weeks there is another massacre planned for the end of 
>>> March,
>>> but even if there weren't, they are living in houses made of straw and
>>> plastic bags with no food or medical aid and the rains are coming. This
>>> is a full scale genocide supported by the current Burma/Myanmar
>>> government. Media and aid groups are blocked and the people are jailed
>>> just for having a TV, they have no phones.
>>>
>> I'm well aware and having just been in Burma, I'm sad to say that most
>> people in the world are unaware; those in Burma that know seem afraid to
>> speak out.
>>
>>> More information, check out over 100 pages of links here
>>> http://topsy.com/s/georgiebc+Rohingya?window=a the #Rohingya tag on
>>> Twitter or google.
>>>
>>> We have a way to hopefully get some journalists in to document war
>>> crimes. We need satellite phones for the Rohingya people as well, as
>>> many as possible, donated would be great. If anyone has any ideas for a
>>> good phone source it would be appreciated.
>> Please be very careful - the communications systems in Burma are all
>> highly monitored and heavily controlled. During my recent trip to Burma,
>> I was part of a team that worked on a report about the communications
>> systems in county. Please feel free to pass it on to people:
>>
>> http://www.opentechfund.org/article/access-and-openness-myanmar-2012
>>
>> Satellite phones are extremely privacy invasive (interception, location
>> tracking, etc) and short of the Cryptophone Satellite phone (
>> http://www.cryptophone.de/en/products/satellite/ ) used in a very
>> specific way, I wouldn't even touch one of those devices if I thought
>> that the Burmese military was possibly targeting me.
>>
>> All the best,
>> Jacob
>

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