A/HRC/39/CRP.2 together with Islamists Kamans for years. The government is responsible for solving any problems of offending the country’s sovereignty, threatening its populace’s lives and property, violating rule of law and causing instability. In other words, the thorn has to be removed as it pierces. [Op-Ed column published in the Global New Light of Myanmar, a government newspaper, on 31 October 2016]2939 • Wirathu’s sermons are about promoting love and understanding between religions. It is impossible he is inciting religious violence. [Sann Sint, USDP Religious Affairs Minister, in an interview with Reuters in June 2013]2940 • How can it be ethnic cleansing? They are not an ethnic group. [Win Myaing, Rakhine State Government Spokesman, in his interview with Reuters in May 2013] 2941 1329. A systematic analysis of statements and communications from government and security sector officials and of those in official settings indicates that – while mostly using less inflammatory language – they mirror and promote the same narratives espoused by MaBaTha and others. The Mission has undertaken an in-depth examination of the communications issued by key government institutions in the months following the August 2017 events in Rakhine State. These include the official Facebook page of the Office of the Commander-in-Chief, Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing (2.9 million followers); the official State Counsellor’s Information Committee Facebook page (almost 400,000 followers); the Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing’s official Facebook page (1.4 million followers); and the official Ministry of Information Facebook page (1.3 million followers). 2942 1330. The Mission’s first finding is that the Government goes to great lengths to avoid using the term “Rohingya”. The narrative that there are no Rohingya in Myanmar is actively fed and repeated continuously. For example, on 1 September 2017, the Commander-in-Chief Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing stated: “so we openly declare that ‘absolutely, our country has no Rohingya race’”.2943 While the Mission is aware that the history of the Rohingya in Rakhine State is contested, simplistic statements such as these, without providing a nuanced historical perspective, feeds the narrative that the Rohingya do not belong in Myanmar. It denies their right to self-identification and contributes to their stigmatisation and marginalisation. Moreover, Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing draws a direct, and deeply erroneous, consequence from his own statement: that the Tatmadaw does not need to protect the Rohingya, as it would other communities in the country. The related consequence is that the Tatmadaw must protect other parts of the Myanmar population, including from the Rohingya. For example, this is demonstrated in a post from 16 October 2017: “The Senior General said he would like to note at first that those Bengali are not Myanmar ethnics. […] Therefore, the Tatmadaw needs to take security measures for local people” and “Bengali are not ethnic of Myanmar. Rohingya is not included on the list of Myanmar’s ethnics. […] The Tatmadaw on its part will give priority to safeguarding the security and interest of the ethnics while protecting the citizens residing in Myanmar”. 2944 Such statements reveal a disturbingly discriminatory understanding of the role of the Myanmar security forces and a flagrant disregard for one of the core principles of international human rights law, non-discrimination and equal protection. 2939 2940 2941 2942 2943 2944 334 Khin Maung Oo, “The Thorn Needs Removing If It Pierces!” (The Global New Light of Myanmar, 31 October 2016). A. Marshall, “Special Report: Myanmar gives official blessing to anti-Muslim monks” (Reuters, 27 June 2013). J. Szep, “Special Report: In Myanmar, apartheid tactics against minority Muslims” (Reuters, 15 May 2013). The pages of the Office of the Commander-in-Chief, Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing and of SeniorGeneral Min Aung Hlaing himself were deactivated by Facebook on 27 August 2018 (see Facebook Newsroom, “Removing Myanmar Military Officials From Facebook”, https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/08/removing-myanmar-officials/). All posts relied on in this report are on file with the Mission. Post on file with the Mission. Note that Rohingya are not “citizens of Myanmar”. Post on file with the Mission.