A/HRC/39/CRP.2 709. On the same day, Eleven Media also published a statement of Dr. Aye Maung, the Chair of the RNDP, in which he drew parallels between the violence in Maungdaw on 8 June 2012 and the 1942 violence when more than 60,000 Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine are believed to have been killed in inter-communal violence during the Second World War. 1526 He referred to “attacks that seriously threaten the Arakanese people” and called for the establishment of paramilitary forces in Rakhine and Shan States. He went on to state that “the persons behind the curtain”, presumably alleging that Rohingya groups have instigated the violence, will be “responsible for the consequences”. 1527 710. The 88 Generation Students group made similar statements, with Ko Mya Aye, a prominent leader of the group and former political prisoner, quoted as describing the incident as a “terrorist attack”, referring to “infiltrations” by “illegal migrants”, and calling for a “firm and solid immigration law” in response. The article also quoted Ko Ko Gyi, another prominent member of the 88 Generation Students group and former political prisoner, as stating that the Rohingya were not a Myanmar ethnic race and that this incident might “threaten the sovereignty of the State”.1528 711. On 25 June 2012, Eleven Media published an op-ed by its editor-in-chief warning about the “risk and danger of ethnic cleansing or genocide”, as a result of the threat posed by the Rohingya. It claimed that swift action had save(d) “the lives of the Rakhine nationals from being attack of genocide”.1529 712. On 11 July 2012, President Thein Sein held a meeting in Naypyidaw with Mr. Antonio Guterres, then United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. During this meeting, the President referred to “illegal migrants” who “sneaked into” Myanmar and “later took the name Rohingya”. He stated that he could not take responsibility for them and that they should either be sent to IDP camps and be supported by UNHCR, or be sent to a third country. 1530 A depiction of this nature by Myanmar’s highest official further stigmatised the Rohingya in an already tense climate. 713. From mid-June 2012, various groups, including the RNDP, the All Rakhine Refugee Committee, the Wunthanu Rakhita Association and Buddhist monks’ associations, such as the Arakanese Youth Monk’s Association, stepped up activities that served to incite the population in Rakhine State against the Rohingya. They included increasingly extreme calls to the Rakhine population to act, and other provocative statements, with a common theme of the perceived threat represented by the Rohingya and the need to sever ties between communities.1531 For example, on 26 June 2012, the RNDP warned against the threat of the “present population of Bengali” and called for a “final solution”. One of the recommendations of the RNDP was to “relocate the non-Myanmar national Bengali to a third country”.1532 The RNDP also praised Hitler and argued that inhuman acts were sometimes necessary to maintain a race. In a November 2012 publication, it identified a collective need to take “a decisive stand on the issue of Bengali Muslims”. It went on, “if we do not courageously solve these problems, which we have inherited from several previous generations, and instead hand them over to the next generation, we will go down in history as irresponsible”: 1526 1527 1528 1529 1530 1531 1532 See for a study on the 1942 events: J. Leider, “Conflict and Mass violence in Arakan (Rakhine State) – The 1942 Events and Political Identity Formation”, in Citizenship in Myanmar, A. South, M. Lall (eds.), (Chiang Mai University Press, 2018), pp. 193-221, noting that “the waves of communal clashes of 1942 have been poorly documented, sparsely investigated and rarely studied” (p. 194) and that “the absence of a factual master narrative, which both Buddhists and Muslims could have agreed upon, barred the emergence of consensual interpretations of the events” (p. 211). Eleven Media, “Curfew imposed in Rakhine township amidst Rohingya terrorist attacks” (8 June 2012), available at: http://aboutarakaneng.blogspot.com/2012/06/curfew-imposed-in-rakhinetownship.html Ibid. Than Htut Aung, “I will tell the real truth” (Eleven, 25 June 2012). V-243. K-112. V-242. 169