A/HRC/39/CRP.2
Myanmar Buddhists have been accused of committing genocide against the Bengali,
of making them go extinct. Actually, try collecting the number of people who died. In
total, it was only 200. That race (the Rohingya) will never go extinct. Oh how they
breed! (laughs) They are not going extinct, not in Myanmar. They breed so much here.
[Sitagu Sayadaw]2915
1317. A third narrative represents Muslims, and Rohingya in particular, as a threat to
Buddhist religious sanctity. It is often spread through generally disparaging comments on
Muslim traditions. Such messages frequently revolve around the idea that Muslim traditions
and values are incompatible with, or offensive to, Buddhism. A major example is the vitriol
against the slaughtering of cows, suggesting that Muslims are inherently violent because they
kill and eat cows. In 2015, the MaBaTha released a statement calling on the government to
ban Muslims from slaughtering animals at religious events. 2916 Other examples include
disparaging comments about Muslim traditions. About veils worn by women, Wirathu has
said that: “Muslims use the robes in suicide bombings, helping men to pretend they are
women… It is a security concern and a threat to the sovereignty of the country. We will make
that tradition stop.”2917 Below is an example of imagery widely circulated on Facebook with
graphic images of cows being slaughtered.
1318. Many such messages or posts under all three narratives elicit profuse reactions and
commentary online from sympathizers, often approving them in unambiguous language,
including death threats and explicit calls for violence. For example, a 29 September 2017
post from Shwewiki.com featuring a Twitter statement from ARSA elicited the following
comments: “Accusations of genocide are unfounded, because those that the Myanmar army
is killing are not people, but animals. We won’t go to hell for killing these creatures that are
not worth to be humans”; “If the (Myanmar) army is killing them, we Myanmar people can
accept that… current killing of the Kalar is not enough, we need to kill more!”; “If we can’t
clear them now, we will eradicate them with a world war.”
1319. A vast amount of these messages constitute forms of hate speech that either require
prohibition and punishment under international law (because they amount to “advocacy of
national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or
violence”) or may be prohibited (as necessary in a democratic society to protect the
2915
2916
2917
Video available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDk4CST48PQ (accessed August
2018).
Myanmar Now, “Special Report - With official help, Myanmar’s radical Buddhists target Muslimowned businesses”, 17 September 2015.
Hnin Yadana Zaw, A. Slodkowski, “Myanmar radical monk endorses ruling party in election, raps
opposition” (Reuters, 4 October 2015).
329
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