In 1871, following a year-long resistance to French occupation by Algerian resistance fighters led by Sheikhs Al Mokrani and Al Haddad, a forgotten tragedy ensued. More than 2,000 Algerians labelled as ‘rebels’ by the French, were deported to New Caledonia, a dependent territory of France located in the western Pacific Ocean, in the Coral Sea, east of Australia. At the time, New Caledonia was a penal colony. It was a long and treacherous sea journey for the deported Algerians; a number of which died of starvation when they no longer had dates to eat. Their other option was to eat pork. The survivors were imprisoned. Many of their descendants yearn to return to their ancestral homeland, and they still regard themselves as Algerian Arabs and not French or New Caledonians. The New Caledonia Algerians make up roughly 27,000 or 10 percent of the island population of 270,000.
"We know where we come from ... We reclaim our Algerian identity or Arab as they call it here. It's always here inside us,” said Bernard Salem, a descendant of an Algerian deportee. (September 14, 2015; aljazeera.com: Exile in New Caledonia)
According to numerous news outlets and many victims, ISIS (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) has held girls and women for sale, punishment, rape, marriage, and forced conversions to their philosophy. Many of the women are Yazidis. Yazidis are situated in Northern Iraq their religion has aspects of Zoroastrianism, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Yazidis have been a persecuted minority for many generations. Even if the victims are able to return home, rape victims will face a society that is likely, unsympathetic. For these victims, finding a prospective future husband will be extremely difficult if not impossible, husbands will likely divorce them, and their families may shun them, despite the fact that the victims were unable to defend themselves and obviously did not want to be, violated. Other Yazidi women are, forced into slave-like servitude. Some women opt for suicide, unable to face or endure what has happened to them.
Pakhshan Zangana, head of the High Council of Women’s Affairs for The Kurdish Regional Government, is desperately asking the world community for help, but unfortunately, the overall circumstances are getting worse. “[ISIS] went so far as to force the local beauticians to come in and dress them up, putting makeup on them. Then telling them to instruct the women to be submissive to their new husbands {some of the females are in their early teens}." (By Elise Hilton, September 2, 2014; blogacton.org: ISIS: Genocide by Rape and Torture).
Some women and girls are, publicly sold off as potential brides for ISIS members. Supposedly, there are cases of infants snatched away from their mother’s arms, never to be, seen again. ISIS demands the women convert to their version of Islam, otherwise they may be repeatedly raped or tortured (note that many of ISIS’ victims are Muslims; the vast majority of Muslims reject ISIS; the leadership is cult-like). If a Muslim rejects ISIS he or she will, likely be punished by them for being a supposed ‘apostate’. This fact is, conveniently not reported in the western media.
Zangana believes that this is an international calamity, not a regional one; she is right. Many escaped or released victims of ISIS are unwavering in their testimonies declaring that many ISIS members are foreign nationals; they speak various languages that are not of those in the region, as well as their physical characteristics (Chechen, British, Dutch, and elsewhere).
Kurdish news outlet Rudaw interviewed one Yazidi mother who wanted her identity hidden, she claimed that all three of her daughters had been raped by ISIS combatants as 'brides'; they committed suicide, other women were raped and tortured in Iraq and then sent back to their families. Her three daughters pleaded with others to kill them, no one would do it, and so they leaped off a mountain, plunging to their deaths.
In August 2014, following ISIS's open declaration of war against the Yazidi minority in Iraq, tens of thousands of Yazidis, terrified at the prospect of their potential fate under ISIS, fled to the Sinjar Mountains (Shengar Mountains; located in north-western Iraq), hundreds of men were executed, others died from starvation, exhaustion, and/or the elements of the high mountain region. Hundreds of Yazidi women were, abducted and believed to, have been, taken to ISIS camps in Syria. The victims’ families have no idea what happened to their loved ones.
In September 2014, one Yazidi woman who was, victimized by ISIS conveyed her story to La Republican, an Italian newspaper, saying that during her victimization, she did not know where she was, geographically, but she knew that she was in a large house that was, guarded by armed ISIS fighters. Forty other women were in the large house, some as young as thirteen years-old. The captors ridiculed the victims; the captors believed they were invincible. In early February 2015, a report released by the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child indicated that it has received reports of a number of cases of large-scale killings of boys, along with details of beheadings, crucifixions of children, and children buried alive.
As conveyed to Reuter by Renate Winter, an expert with the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, "We have had reports of children, especially children who are mentally challenged, who have been used as suicide bombers, most probably without them even understanding ... There was a video placed (online) that showed children at a very young age, approximately eight years of age and younger, to be trained already to become child soldiers." (By Stephanie Nebehay, February 4, 2015; in.reuters.com: Islamic State selling, crucifying, burying children alive in Iraq – UN)
As reported by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on November 4, 2014, “Kurdish children from Kobani {Arabic: ‘Ain Al-Arab; is a city in the Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria}, were tortured and abused by ISIS. Four children (Aged 14 - 16) gave thorough accounts of the suffering they underwent, along with 100 other children, during their 4 months of detainment by ISIS. The children were among a group of more than 150 boys forcefully taken by ISIS on May 29, 2014.
As indicated by, Kurdish officials and media outlets in the area the remaining twenty-five children were, released on October 29, 2014. Each of, the four boys was separately interviewed in Turkey, the country they had fled to. The boys claim that they were subjected to beatings with a hose and electric cable (especially, on their hands, back, and soles of their feet. On occasion, a misbehaving child would be placed in a tire and then beaten sometimes the beatings occurred for no apparent reason; and the children were forced to watch horrifying videos of ISIS beheadings and military assaults.
According to Fred Abrahams, special advisor for children’s rights at HRW, “Since the beginning of the Syrian uprising, children have suffered the horrors of detention and torture, first by the Assad government and now by ISIS ... This evidence of torture and abuse of children by ISIS underlines why no one should support their criminal enterprise ... Governments in the Middle East and the West should swiftly implement the UN Security Council resolutions aimed at curbing support for ISIS ... To stem ISIS abuses, governments need to tackle its fundraising and recruitment.” (November 4, 2014; hrw.org: Syria: ISIS Tortured Kobani Child Hostages)
This particular problem that was initiated by ISIS began when they intercepted around 250 Kurdish students from Kobani, while in the midst of returning home following their middle school exams in Aleppo (a city in Syria, the capital of Aleppo Governate), on May 29, 2014. ISIS released around 100 girls a few hours later, but detained the boys in a school in Manbij (a city in Aleppo Governate), between June and September, nearly fifty of the boys were able to escape or were released.
As conveyed by the four boys, ISIS guards stationed at the Manbij school beat any boy who tried to escape, did poorly in mandatory religious lessons (they were forced to learn verses from the Noble Quran), or behaved inappropriately as perceived by their captors. The worst abuses were, inflicted upon boys who had one or more relatives in the YPG (The People’s Protection Unit, a Kurdish militia located in Syria). Their captors asked them to give the names and addresses of their families, saying that when they entered Kobani they were going to butcher them.
In June 2015, ISIS members publicly executed nineteen women by burning them alive in iron cages, in Mosul, Iraq. What was their crime? They rejected the idea of having sex with ISIS fighters, as reported by ARA News (an independent press agency reporting on local news throughout Rojava, Kurdistan Region, Syria, Iraq and Turkey). As conveyed by a witness to ARA News, “The 19 girls were burned to death, while hundreds of people were watching ... Nobody could do anything to save them from the brutal punishment." (June 6, 2016; independent.co.uk: Isis burns 19 Yazidi women to death in Mosul for 'refusing to have sex with fighters')
Kayla Mueller (August 14, 1988 - February 6, 2015) was an American human rights activist and humanitarian aid worker abducted by ISIS in August 2013 in Aleppo, Syria. Sadly, according to U.S. officials while held as a hostage Kayla was, repeatedly raped by Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi (birth name: Ibrahim Awad, Ibrahim al-Badri; July 28, 1971 - ), the leader of ISIS. U.S. officials told Carl and Marsha Mueller that Al-Baghdadi had married Kayla, this was clearly, understood by her family, she was forced to marry him, and he had his way with her, repeatedly.
ISIS members, Abu Sayyaf and his wife Umm Sayyaf had initially held Kayla hostage. Umm Sayyaf admitted to U.S. interrogators that Al-Baghdadi 'owned' Kayla, Abu Sayyaf was, killed in a U.S. Delta Force raid in May 2015, leading to an incredible array of important intelligence about ISIS. When a fourteen year-old Yazidi girl along with her sister escaped the clutches of her ISIS captors, she asked Kayla to accompany her. Kayla decided not to, fearing that her noticeable western appearance would draw too much attention on them, leading to their capture. According to ISIS, Kayla was, killed in a Jordanian air strike in Raqqah (Rakka, Syria; located about 160 km = 99 mi. east of Aleppo), the so-called ISIS capital city in Syria.
According to a UN report issued in early 2017, babies and children have been, butchered with knives in the course of a military operation conducted by Burmese security forces against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar (formerly Burma). Victimized in this onslaught were, an eight-month old baby a five year-old, and a six year-old child, reported to have been, stabbed to death while in their own homes. It is, believed that the security forces continue to kill scores of people and commit crimes against humanity with impunity, in, a Rohingya populated area in northwest Rakhine State (previously Arakan; a state in Myanmar located on the western coast).
The horrifying accounts have been called 'revolting' by the UN, cited in, a report from the United Nations Human Rights office. The report was, released early due to its highly distressing nature and was, derived from interviews with more than 200 Rohingya Muslim refugees who had recently crossed over into Bangladesh, escaping the horrors of the Rakhine atrocities. One mother explained that her five year-old daughter tried to protect her from being raped, during which time a man pulled out a knife and then slit her throat. Another harrowing story involves an eight-month old baby believed to have been, killed while his mother was being gang-raped. A fourteen year-old girl was, raped by soldiers and was, then forced to watch her mother be beaten to death; her eight and ten year-old sisters were butchered with knives.
Despite the countless testimonies of victim accounts, witnesses, and documentation concerning crimes against humanity against the Rohingya people, the Rohingya Government is still in a state of denial, refusing to believe any of the evidence or documentation, claiming that it is propaganda, saying that police beatings are common in many countries. During one particular operation in Rakhine, well-armed Myanmar security forces rounded up men (many Rohingya men and women have disappeared), placed them in vehicles, and then went house-to- house raping, gang-raping, or sexually harassing women and girls, and in some instances, children who were crying or, attempted to stop the security forces from harming their mothers were killed. Another case involves a group of militant villagers locking up an entire family in a house, not sparing the elderly or disabled, and then setting it ablaze; not surprisingly, all of the occupants died, many accounts by victims describe being mocked during attacks, and had to endure insulting and hostile remarks about ALLAH; Muslims worship HIM.
As conveyed to the Independent by Linnea Arvidsson, one of the four UN workers who interviewed Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and drew up the report, “It’s shocking. I’ve never encountered a situation like this, where you do 204 interviews and every single person you speak with has a traumatic story, whether their house was burnt, they’ve been raped or a relative was killed or taken away ... In many cases we were the first people, other than their close family, who these people had spoken to. They would break down. Women and even grown men would be crying ... The women cried when they spoke of being, raped, or seeing their children, being, killed. Men cried when they related how their houses had been burnt, and their concerns over how they would now be able to support their families." (By May Bulman, February 3, 2017; independent.co.uk: Burma: Rohingya Muslim babies and children 'being slaughtered with knives', UN warns)
This particular wave of attacks on, Rohingya Muslims was supposedly, triggered in October 2016, during which time nine Myanmar police officers, were, killed during an attack on posts near the Bangladesh border. However, the truth is, the crimes against humanity inflicted upon the Rohingya had preceded the attack on the police. Furthermore, the vast majority of the victims are defenceless and clearly, no sane person could imagine they posed a danger to anyone. Rohingya have had to endure many years of brutality, abuse, persecution, and discrimination by the Myanmar authorities, and now militant, hardliner, Buddhist monks.
“The Government of Myanmar must immediately halt these grave human rights violations against its own people, instead of continuing to deny they have occurred, and accept the responsibility to ensure that victims have access to justice, reparations and safety," said Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, The UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights. (ibid)
Shockingly, in 2015 the U.S. led a pull back of economic sanctions against Myanmar. Internationally supported national elections took place in November 2015. Nevertheless, according to a harrowing study conducted by International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) at the Queen Mary University of London (ISCI), the Rohingya are facing the final stages of state-sponsored genocide. Powerful interest groups, hardliners from Myanmar's Buddhist majority, and government authorities are instigating atrocities against the Rohingya people.
The ICSI utilizes the blueprint of Daniel Feierstein, who holds a holds a PhD, in Social Sciences by the University of Buenos Aires, and is the Director of Genocide Studies at the National University of Tres de Febrero in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The blueprint of the six stages of genocide is, outlined in his 2014 book, ‘Genocide as Social Practice’. Derived from interviews from important members of both sides of the ethnic cleansing campaigning, along with media reports and exposed government documents, the report spells out how the Rohingya have already experienced the first four stages of genocide including, stigmatization and dehumanization; harassment, violence, and terror; isolation and segregation; systemic weakening, and are on the fringe of ‘mass annihilation’. Furthermore, the ICSI believes that the sixth stage of genocide - the elimination of the victimized group from collective history has already begun.
The Rohingya Muslims have endured decades of discrimination, persecution, and disenfranchisement; the current situation, which began in Myanmar Rakhine State, is by far the worst it has ever been. The official Myanmar Government Policy and attitude towards the Rohingya is that they are ‘Bengalis’, foreigners-intruders-unwanted trespassers.
“The Rohingya of (Myanmar) are one of the world’s persecuted and vulnerable minorities. Due to their racial and religious differences with the (Myanmar) Buddhist majority, they have been officially declared by Myanmar’s ruling military regime as non-citizens of (Myanmar), making them legally stateless people. They are treated not only as aliens, but also modern-day slaves in their ancestral homelands of Arakhan.” (Chief Researcher Razia Sultana, February 2017; Kaladan Press Network: www.kaladanpress.com: Witness to Horror via rohingyasgenocide: Witness to Horror)
For Fatima, a thirteen year-old Rohingya Muslim from Myanmar’s western marshlands, the beginning of 2017 began with a wearying escape, trudging through ice fields in the dark. She could feel bitter cold with each step taken, a weak illumination from the moon, and many dots in the sky (stars). The dark turned out to be a blessing from GOD, she saw no armed border guards on the horizon. She had to keep going, intent on not dying; her final destination would be a dingy refugee camp in Bangladesh, a better fate than staying in Myanmar.
Although Fatima was, in a literal sense, trudging for her life, the deep and horrifying memory of what had happened to her a week earlier kept flashing back; she was unable to erase it from her mind. On December 25, 2016, a military unit stormed into her village, burning down homes and rounding up Muslims. Fatima made an unsuccessful attempt at an escape. Apparently, this enraged the soldiers. She was, tracked down, captured and then repeatedly, raped in front of her weeping mother. Fatima understands that her mother could not intervene.
The event was so traumatizing she lost consciousness. Upon regaining consciousness, she noticed that her burned down village was unnaturally silent. All of the villagers and soldiers were gone; perhaps the rapists thought she had died. She was anxious, alone and bleeding profusely. Fatima thanks GOD for the Rohingya strangers who discovered her. Other villages in the region were also, attacked and besieged. Fatima joined a small group of adults on their trek to the border, following several days of trudging on ice; they finally reached Kutupalong Refugee Camp (government-run camp located in South-eastern Bangladesh).
Fatima describes the camp as a harsh colony, full of grief, suffering, and illness. Fatima was just another refugee amongst many thousands. Fresh arrivals are, sent to the camp’s perimeter, a horrid place where they must carve and fashion their own plot of mud and plastic sheeting. Worse yet, the camp’s population is increasing on a daily basis, newcomers come with their own horror stories. Men tell of burned down villages, women convey stories of rape and other forms of cruelty. Buddhist monks are oftentimes at the helm of the injustices against the Rohingya Muslims. They incite hatred, and are sometimes involved in carrying out attacks. In part of one horrible episode, a Buddhist monk grabbed hold of a young Rohingya girl, putting a knife to her neck. The monk threatened the police, telling them that if they trailed him he would kill her. On March 23, 2013, in a span of hours, as many as twenty- five Rohingya Muslims were, killed. A band of Buddhist thugs armed with machetes and swords dragged the bloodied bodies of their victims up a hill in the Mingalarzay Yone district and then burned the corpses. Some of the bodies appeared to have been, butchered; a Reuter’s camera operator saw the scorched remains of two children, estimated at ten years of age or younger.
The United Nations human rights sector stated that the prevalent human rights violations against the Rohingya people by the Myanmar security forces in Rakhine State point to the very likely commission of crimes against humanity. The quick snapshot report was, released by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on February 3, 2017. The report relied on interviews with Rohingya who fled Myanmar following attacks on border guards in early October 2016. The so-called military counter measures and a lockdown in north Maungdaw (a town in Rakhine State, located in western Myanmar), records very large- scale gang-rapes, killings (babies and young children were not spared), brutal beatings, disappearances, and other major human rights violations, committed by Myanmar security forces.
“The devastating cruelty to which these Rohingya children have been subjected is unbearable – what kind of hatred could make a man stab a baby crying out for his mother's milk. In addition, for the mother to witness this murder while she is being gang-raped by the very security forces who should be protecting her ... What kind of 'clearance operation' is this? What national security goals could possibly be served by this," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein. (February 3, 2017; un.org: UN report details 'devastating cruelty' against Rohingya population in Myanmar's Rakhine province)
The report discloses other horrible crimes including the burning of hundreds of houses, schools, markets, stores, religious schools and mosques, by the military, police, and occasionally by civilian mobs. In addition, food and food sources are, also destroyed, along with paddy fields, and the seizure of livestock, no doubt to induce widespread starvation and famine. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has expressed serious concern regarding the brutality of the violations of children's rights as indicated in the February 3, 2017 report, and calling for in-depth investigations into the allegations and prosecution of the violators.
“Such violations of children's rights are totally unacceptable ... Every child has the right to protection, irrespective of their gender, ethnicity, religion or nationality, in every circumstance ... child victims need and deserve support,” statement made by UNICEF. (ibid)
The Myanmar Government has continued to deny grave human rights violations against the Rohingya. In December 2015, a so- called investigation commission developed by the Myanmar Government lacked trustworthiness and integrity it was, overseen by a former, army general and its members included the Chief of Police. Nevertheless, better sources speak out and convey their opinions, drowning out the official government line.
Aung San Suu Kyi (June 19, 1945 - ) is a Myanmar politician, diplomat, and writer. She is the first State Counsellor of Myanmar. She was, placed under house arrest for a total of fifteen years during a twenty-one year period (1989 – 2010), and was, known worldwide as a powerful, non-violent voice for democracy and human rights in what was then Burma. Aung was the foremost modern symbol of freedom for Burma, a repressive, police state. She is a Nobel Peace Prize Winner.
Nevertheless, Aung's views regarding the Rohingya are quite hypocritical, adamantly denying that there is any ethnic cleansing of this religious-ethnic group, in spite of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary stated during a BBC interview conducted in April 2017. Although she admitted that there were 'problems' in Rakhine State, she said that the term ethnic cleansing was too strong. Shockingly, and what appears to be a total state of denial, the de-facto leader of Myanmar said that the country would welcome a return of the Rohingya with 'OPEN ARMS’ (she admits that they had left their homeland, but lied about the welcome). To divert attention from the Buddhist onslaught, she said that there is a lot of Muslim on Muslim killing as well.
Aung discounted the idea that the Myanmar Military had a green light to do as they please, saying, "They are not free to rape, pillage and torture ... They are free to go in and fight {unarmed, defenceless civilians}. That is in the constitution. Military matters are to be left to the army." (April 6, 2017; bbc.com: Aung San Suu Kyi: No ethnic cleansing of Myanmar Muslim minority)
BELOW IS A LIST OF RIGHTS VS. PROHIBITIONS FOR ROHINGYA MUSLIMS AND BUDDHISTS. THE LETTER 'R' WILL DESIGNATE THE ROHINGYA; THE LETTER 'B' WILL DESIGNATE BUDDHISTS. KEEP IN MIND THAT AS DE-FACTO LEADER OF MYANMAR, AUNG IS CERTAINLY AWARE