Burma Campaign Japan

[postlink] https://burmacampaignjapanteam.blogspot.com/2013/07/egypt-security-forces-abandon-coptic.html [/postlink]

On 5 July 2013, four Coptic Christian men were killed by local residents in the Nagah Hassan district of Dab’iya village, some 18 kilometres west of Luxor.

Security forces stood by and failed to intervene during a brutal attack on Coptic Christians in Luxor, Amnesty International said in a briefing published today. During the sectarian violence, security forces left six besieged men –four of whom were then killed and one hospitalized – to the mercy of an angry crowd.

In an attack lasting 18 hours on 5 July, four Coptic Christian men were killed and four others were seriously injured. An angry mob armed with metal bars, knives, tree branches and hammers attacked Christian homes and businesses in Nagah Hassan, 18 km west of Luxor, after the dead body of a Muslim man was discovered near the homes of Christian families. Despite local residents’ and religious leaders’ repeated calls for help, security forces on the scene made only half-hearted attempts to end the violence and sufficient reinforcements failed to arrive.

“It is outrageous that this attack was left to escalate unhindered in this way. Amnesty International has documented a series of cases in the past where Egypt’s security forces used unnecessary force or live fire during demonstrations, yet in this case they held back even though people’s lives were threatened,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

“A thorough, impartial and independent investigation must be conducted into the events in Luxor and the grossly inadequate response of the security forces to the attack.”

The violence began at 3am, shortly after the Muslim man was found dead in the vicinity of Christian homes. His family blamed the death on a local Coptic Christian. By mid-day more than 100 Christian homes had been attacked, with scores of them looted or torched. Local residents reported calling the police and army’s hotlines throughout the day in vain. Local religious leaders also approached other security officials.

“The attack went on for 18 hours, and there was not a door on which I did not knock: police, army, local leaders, the Central Security Forces, the Governorate. Nothing was done,” said Father Barsilious, a local priest from Dab’iya.

In one incident, security forces evacuated women and children trapped inside a house surrounded by an angry mob but left six men behind, apparently following demands from the crowd that the men remain. Four of the abandoned men were later stabbed and/or beaten to death and another required hospital treatment. Three other Christian men were hospitalized in separate violent incidents. One woman said she had begged police officers to save her sons who were left behind, but they ignored her pleas:

“I kissed the police officer’s hands and legs and begged him to protect my two sons and take them out… he completely ignored me and said he would only take women and children…. I buried my two sons in one day,” she said.

Other female relatives said they had given men their abayas (gowns) to try to disguise them as women so that they could escape.

Discrimination against Coptic Christians has been prevalent in Egypt for decades. Under President Hosni Mubarak at least 15 major attacks on Copts were documented. Sectarian violence continued under the Supreme Council of Armed Forces and following the election of President Mohamed Morsi. At least six attacks on Coptic churches or buildings took place in 2013 during the final months of deposed President Mohamed Morsi’s administration.

Investigations by the Luxor prosecution are ongoing. At least 18 men remain detained on charges of murder, attempted murder, destruction of property and ‘thuggery’, amid reports that some were beaten by security forces upon arrest.

“The continued sectarian violence in Egypt is an irremovable stain on the record of successive governments which have repeatedly failed to end attacks on minorities. Immediate steps must be taken to ensure the safety of Coptic Christians and other minorities,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

“The latest attacks will test the new Egyptian authorities’ political will and their ability to break the pattern of inaction and injustice once and for all.”

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[postlink] https://burmacampaignjapanteam.blogspot.com/2013/07/meet-american-supporting-myanmar.html [/postlink]

He's a self-proclaimed "white American national" who has no family connections to Myanmar and has never visited the country. He's not an expert on its politics either, he tells me -- which becomes clear later in our conversation when he draws a blank on the name of Aung San Suu Kyi, likely the most famous Burmese person alive today, whom he calls a "prime minister candidate" (she's actually planning on staging a run for the presidency).

But something about the 969 movement -- the controversial pro-Buddhist campaign that many hold responsible for the violence that has racked Myanmar in recent months -- has captured the imagination of this man. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, working his day job in the "technology sector," he has taken it upon himself in his spare time to set up both a website -- 969Movement.org -- and a Twitter account devoted to defending the movement in the face of what he says is widespread misinformation.

In a Skype interview with Foreign Policy on Wednesday, he declined to give his name, saying "I still have some safety concerns about being involved in all this."

"Where I see myself ... is promoting the values and the intention of the 969 movement to the English-speaking world," he says. "To a more globalized audience."

The 969 movement is often described in news coverage as a nationalist, anti-Muslim organization. It encourages Burmese Buddhists to patronize Buddhist shops -- specifically shops bearing 969-distributed stickers -- and to shun interfaith marriage. It's also well known for the vehemence of its leaders' rhetoric: "You can be full of kindness and love, but you cannot sleep next to a mad dog," U Wirathu, the charismatic monk often described as the face of the movement, has reportedly said about Muslims. It's the kind of divisive rhetoric that many argue has contributed to the sectarian clashes and mob violence that has rocked Myanmar over the past year, killing hundreds, displacing thousandsm and destroying hundreds of acres of property. Some claim that the movement is receiving tacit backing from the state.

But the Californian is skeptical of the 969 movement's role in this violence. Those doing the translating for Western media organizations aren't neutral observers, he says, but rather people with an anti-969 agenda. What he sees in 969 are the seeds of a global pro-Buddhist movement that can give Buddhism and its values a collective voice.

"What Buddhists need today, in the 21st century is a united message and presence that exists in the public sphere," he says. Just as there have been efforts to build pan-Arabism, he says, "Buddhists should have a nation too."

The message that Buddhists are under threat and need to stand up for themselves has found resonance in other Buddhist countries in South and Southeast Asia, but it's unusual to find an American pushing for a movement toward a more political Buddhism and supporting a campaign that's been widely criticized outside of Myanmar. (His connections to the 969 movement, it should be noted, are only ideological -- at least so far. He's reached out to the leadership in Myanmar for their blessing, but has yet to hear back, he says.) In addition to supporting the 969 movement, he's also the founder of a website called BuddhistDefenseLeague.org.

The man says he was raised in a Christian family, but developed an interest in Buddhism as a teenager. He began practicing more seriously a few years ago, he says, and "the peace ... it's given me -- I take it very seriously." He found videos of Wirathu on YouTube, and found that the monk appealed to him. "Even as a small man, he appears to have a great deal of charisma.... I look forward to meeting him one day."

He says he was prompted to start his website and Twitter account in response to a controversialTime magazine issue that put Wirathu on the cover, above the headline, "The Face of Buddhist Terror."

"It was one-sided, disrespectful of my religious beliefs. I thought, I could do something about this."

His site includes a section that seeks to dispel 969 "myths" ("There have been many attacks against Buddhists in Myanmar that have gone unreported in the Western media. Myanmar, like many other countries in the world, has a long history of Islamic terrorists killing, raping, and destroying.") and short blog posts on why, for example, it's important to shop at Buddhist stores to support monks ("By displaying a sticker or poster, a business and home could indicate that it was owned by a Buddhist and that they supported the 969 values of Buddhism. For the first time Buddhists in Myanmar were able to recognize who their money was supporting"). His Twitter feed is a steady stream of debate with those who are offended by his backing of an organization they consider hateful, or who accuse him of making misleading characterizations of the movement.

"To re-frame '969' as a peaceful push for getting Buddhist voices heard ... is a complete distortion," Maung Zarni, a Burmese dissident in exile who is currently a fellow at the London School of Economics, said in an email to Foreign Policy. The creator of 969Movement.org "is not really in touch with the extremely troubling and ugly ideological and material impact of the 969 [movement] as it is understood and framed by its fast-growing adherents."

The website has only been up for about two weeks; the Twitter account has just a few dozen followers. But the creator says he's already received emails from supporters -- mainly in Southeast Asia, though also a few Buddhists in the United States. He's been in talks with another Buddhist website about producing a pro-969 magazine, and he hopes to win over more supporters in the United States by distributing the kinds of stickers that Buddhists in Myanmar place on their cars, motorcycles, and store windows. His plans eventually include founding a non-profit. Only then, he says, will he reveal his identity.

He doesn't expect that it will be easy to find support in the United States. "Most Western Buddhists believe what they read in the Western media, and will not be supportive of it," he says.

But the time has come, he says, for Buddhists around the world to take a stand on behalf of their religion and culture.

"I feel like we're at an important threshold right now," he says. "Either we stand up, as Buddhists, and accept these criticisms, of being divisive, and setting ourselves apart -- because it's true, we are not like other people, we have different values and different traditions" -- or Buddhism may "lose the fight."

"Bullies like to pick on an easy target," he said. "That might not be politically correct for the Dalai Lama to hear."