Dear Rohingya Activists, Friends and Supporters of Rohingya's right to
life and to belonging in Myanmar:


Today, the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Irish Parliament will  be
discussing the request to hold a formal hearing on the plight of the
Rohingya and the question as to what Ireland can do.
Eric, policy adviser to the Sein Feinn MP from one of the Dublin
constituencies, will let me know the outcome of today's meeting.

Ireland has been a strong supporter of Rohingya refugees.   It can do
a lot more in the international arena on ending the genocide in Burma.

There are some of us who are looking at different accountability
mechanisms and possibilities as an integral component of the wide
movement building with the aim of securing the protected return of
Rohingya survivors of the genocide to their birthplace inside Myanmar
where they can live in safety and full citizenship rights, as part of
Myanmar society.

Because of its revolutionary and progressive tradition in terms of
freedom struggles, Ireland can punch above its weight, within the EU
countries.

Here is the written response from the Foreign and Trade Minister Simon
Coveney's office  (http://simoncoveney.ie/) to MP Sean Crowe's
office.  Please note that the Rohingya Remembrance Day is on the
policy radar.

Such local, provincial and national level statements can enable us to
build support circles in Ireland - and other national contexts.

In N. Ireland, the two councils of the main cities - Derry where
German U Boats were brought for surrender! - and Belfast - will be
tabling the adoption of the Remembrance Day.   Mairead Maguire's Peace
People House has taken up the Rohingya cause and localising it.

I would like to encourage you all to consider replicating this type of
no-cost, high-yield  activist initiative, that will allow us to build
the grassroots movement loosely connected as "Free Rohingya Coalition"
whereby we can pool our heads and networks together for coordinated
initiatives.


Yes, ending genocide will require STATES to step in and act.  They
have the REAL POLITICAL POWER AND RESOURCES and they are part of the
UN System and beyond.

But without the mobilization at the grassroots,  States are NOT going
to act or act in ways that are needed to effectively end the genocidal
process - still on-going  - and give the survivors a chance - and
safety - to rebuild their communities.

It is crucial to remind ourselves that ending genocide profits no
State and virtually all States have played By-standers in all
genocidal cases - until thousands lost their lives, livelihoods and
communities, from their very foundations.

No state behaves MORALLY and WITH COMPASSION - voluntarily - as these
words and concepts are understood by us, individual humans.

In solidarity,

zarni


==================

//begin text//

Is mise le meas,
Eric Scanlon

Political Advisor to Seán Crowe TD (Dublin South West)
Sinn Féin Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs & Trade with special
responsibility for International Affairs & Outreach

P: 00353 1 618 3941

For Written Answer on : 25/04/2018
Question Number(s): 78 Question Reference(s): 18144/18
Department: Foreign Affairs and Trade
______________________________________________


QUESTION


REPLY

Question No. 78
Parliamentary Question - Oireachtas

To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his
views on a series of matters (details supplied) in relation to the
plight of the Rohingya; and his plans to recognise 25 August as
Rohingya remembrance day..
- Seán Crowe.
* For WRITTEN answer on Wednesday, 25th April, 2018.
Ref No: 18144/18 Proof: 88


Details supplied: if he recognises Myanmar’s decades-long persecution
of Rohingya as genocide; if he supports the calls for international
accountability and justice for Myanmar’s crimes against humanity in
the form of systematic and pre-planned and violent deportation of
about 800,000 Rohingya women, men, children and elderly people from
their original homeland, since October 2016, across Myanmar’s western
border to Bangladesh

REPLY

Since the most recent escalation of violence in Rakhine State,
Myanmar, last year, Ireland has been actively engaged with our
international partners with the aim of easing the crisis, promoting a
political solution and ascertaining the facts on the ground to ensure
accountability for crimes and other violations of human rights that
have occurred. This has been done both through bilateral contacts in
Myanmar and via participation in the EU and UN responses.

Ireland has consistently called for an independent and impartial
investigation into the serious and credible allegations of human
rights violations by the Myanmar security forces. These include
reports of widespread killing of civilians, sexual and gender based
violence, arbitrary arrests, and the burning of Rohingya villages
which have led to the mass exodus of refugees the Deputy has referred
to.

In that regard, we have strongly supported the extension of the
mandates of the UN Fact Finding Mission and UN Special Rapporteur to
Myanmar Yanghee Lee, and have asked the Government of Myanmar to
cooperate with them and allow them access to the country. Their work
in investigating and recording victim testimony, so that it can be
preserved for further criminal proceedings, is crucial to ensuring
full accountability.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has referred to some of the
reported actions committed by the Myanmar Security Forces as a “text
book example of ethnic cleansing” while Special Rapporteur Lee has
expressed concerns that these actions“bear the hallmarks of genocide”.
Ireland shares these concerns which absolutely reinforce the urgent
need for the Government of Myanmar to provide access to the UN Fact
Finding Mission so that these human rights violations can be fully
investigated.

Ireland has also actively engaged in the formation of the EU’s
position including in the most recent EU Foreign Affairs Council’s
Council Conclusions on Myanmar, which were adopted on 26 February
last. These conclusions condemn the human rights violations in
Myanmar, support the mandates of the Fact Finding Mission and Special
Rapporteur and call for targeted restrictive measures against senior
military officers of the Myanmar armed forces responsible for these
acts. I would like to express my support of these conclusions and hope
that they will send a clear message to those in military control in
Myanmar.

I am aware that there are plans currently underway to designate 25
August as Rohingya Remembrance Day in Ireland. Successful efforts by
civil society to ensure that the plight of the Rohingya remains in the
public eye are helpful and I have been encouraged by the strong public
response there has been in Ireland to events in Myanmar.

My Department will continue to keep in touch with representatives of
the Rohingya Community in Ireland and will also liaise closely with EU
and other international partners to press for progress in resolving
this crisis including through our Embassy in Thailand who are closely
monitoring the situation.


//end text//
===================



Harn Yawnghwe (EuroBurma Office/ADDB Inc.) and leading dissident from Myanmar

Mike Becker, (legal scholar, (visiting) Trinity College, Dublin , PhD
candidate in international law at Cambridge U., UK and formerly of
International Court of Justice)

Professor John Packer (U of Ottawa)

Professor Jude (Trinity College, Dublin)

Denis Halliday (former Assistant Sec.General of UN)

Dr Aidan Keneny (Assistant General Sec. of Teachers Union of Ireland
and Free Rohingya Coalition Ireland)

Dr Helen Maher (Carlow College)

Nurul Islam (Arakan Rohingya National Organization, or ARNO and Free
Rohingya Coalition)

Hla Kyaw (European Rohingya Council & Free Rohingya Coalition)

Razia Sultana (ARNO and Free Rohingya Coalition)

Tun Khin (Burmese Rohingya Organization UK and Free Rohingya Coalition)

Nay San Lwin (Rohingya Blogger and Free Rohingya Coalition)

U Ba Sein (Rohingya Blogger and Free Rohingya Coalition)

Dr Haikal (Carlow, Ireland)

Rafique (Carlow, Ireland)

Mofidal Hoque (founding trustee of the National Liberation War Museum,
Dhaka, Bangladesh)

Daniel Taylor (Plaintiff and Immigration Solicitor in the case against
Aung San Suu Kyi in Australia)

Prof. John Hubbel Weiss, (Cornell, Ithaca, New York)

Ma Khin Mai Aung (civil rights lawyer, New York State)

Professor Nacira Guenif (Paris 8, France)

Hon.  David Kilgour, former Sec of State for Asia, Canada

Ahmad Ramadan (Toronton, Burma Task Force, Canada)

Imam Malik Mujahid (Chair, Burma Task Force, USA)

Kristyn Wong-Tan (Councillor, Toronto City Council)

Kyle Matthews (Montreal Institute of Genocide and Human Rights Studies, Canada)

Stacey May, Washington DC

David Angeles, American Jewish World Services, USA

Yvonne Ridlley (journalist and activist, Scotland)

Professor David Palumbo-Liu (Stanford, Palo Alto, California, USA)

Aye Aye (Brown U.)

Tapan Kumar Bose (New Delhi, India)

Shabnam Mayet (Jo-berg, S. Africa)

Matthew Gindin (Vancouver, Canada)

Dr Chowdhury R Abrar ( Dhaka)

Margaret Coombs (Oxford, UK)

Dr Sabina Alkire (Oxford, UK)

Affnafee Raman (Oxford, UK)

Azeem Ibrahim (Chicago, USA)

Ko Aung (London, UK)

Zaw Min Htut (Tokyo, UK)

Professor Michimi Muranushi (Tokyo, UK)

Professor Pavin Chachavalpongpun (Kyoto, UK)

Adem Carroll (Burma Task Force, New York)

Nursyahbani Katjasungkana (National Women's Legal Association,
Jakarta, Indonesia)

Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, JUST (KL, Malaysia)

Azril Mohd Amin (KL, Malaysia)

Oskar Butcher (London, UK)

Seema Mustafa (Calcutta, India)

Sangar Gopalapillai (Berlin, Germany)

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (USA and India)

Ann Patterson (Peace People Centre, Belfast, N. Ireland)

Clara Grehan-Toland (Peace People Centre, Belfast, N. Ireland)

Professor Paul Arthur (Civil Rights Movement, U of Ulster, N. Ireland)

Vierula Johannes (Helsinki, Finland)

Kevin Malseed (Canada)

Paul Copeland (Canada)

Professor Irwin Cotler (Canada)

Antonio Rosa (TRANSCEND Peace Journalism Network)

Jan Wihlborg (Stockholm, Sweden)

Ayesha Kabir (Dhaka, Bangladesh)

Shahanara Monica (Dhaka, Bangladesh)

Syed Zainul Abedin Eiffel (Dhaka, Bangladesh)

Abul Kalam (Stockholm, Sweden)

Sophie Ansel (Paris, France)

Professor Kyaw Win (Boulder, Colorado, USA)

Dr Gianni Tognoni (Rome, Italy)

Professor Sami Al-Arian (Istanbul, Turkey)

LIZ BERNSTEIN (New York, USA)

Rachel Vincent (New York, USA)

Nadeem Haque (Toronto, Canada)

Natalie Brinham (UK)

Maggie Leahy (New York, USA)

Professor Rainer Schulze (Essex, UK and Germany)

Professor Michael Charney (SOAS, UK)

Demir Mahmutcehajir (Bosnia)

Mohammed Sheikh Anwar (KL, Malaysia)