Pakistani Taliban commander Hakimullah Mehsud is reported killed in a drone strike—days after drone attack survivors gave emotional testimony before the US Congress.
The contested region of Abyei voted in a “unilateral” referendum to leave Sudan and join South Sudan—raising fear of renewed conflict over the enclave.
French and allied African forces launched a new offensive against Islamist rebels in northern Mali after a suicide attack on a checkpoint killed two Chadian soldiers.
Girl collects water at a camp for displaced Rohingya in Burma’s Rakhine state. Amid all the celebration of Burma’s opening, the regime has increased pressure on minority peoples such as the Shan and Rohingya, with attacks on villages and many thousands… Read moreBurma’s Rohingya: refugees in their own land
by Burkely Hermann, World War 4 Report
“It’s not ethnic cleansing. The world needs to understand that the fear is not just on the side of the Muslims, but on the side of the Buddhists as well.”
No high-ranking US State Department official spoke these words. It was Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, in an interview with BBC, dismissing credible claims of the genocide of Burma’s Muslim Rohingya people, put forward by Genocide Watch, Foreign Policy in Focus, UN Dispatch, Der Spiegel writer Jürgen Kremb, the Kassandra Project, Ramzy Baroud of the Pakistani publication The Nation, and many others. Suu Kyi continued, saying that she condemns “any movement that is based on hatred and extremism,” that “the reaction of Buddhists is also based on fear,” that the government should deal with these extremists so it isn’t her responsibility, and finally that “Burma now needs real change…a democratic society.” These comments are deeply disturbing coming from someone given the Nobel prize in 1991 for “her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights.” Some have even asked if she should be stripped of her Peace Prize for statements such as this one.
The struggle of the two stateless peoples in Burma—the Rohingya and Shan—and broader geopolitical issues such as the race for dirty energy tie into one central question: is Burma really open for the business of exploitation and genocide?
Continue ReadingBURMA: OPEN FOR BUSINESS OF GENOCIDEThe Israel Air Force was reportedly responsible for an attack on a military base in the Syrian city of Latakia, targeting a Russian missile shipment bound for Hezbollah.
