In giving my testimony, I would like to thank the Canadian government for playing a huge role in ending the Rohingya crisis. As you know, the Rohingya crisis is a global crisis. On behalf of the Rohingya community, I would like to thank the Canadian government and the Canadian people for playing a proactive role in ending the Rohingya crisis.
As my fellow journalist mentioned, after Burma gained independence from Britain in 1948, there were only a few years of civilian rule. When dictator General Ne Win took over in 1962, the country was very isolated. There was no freedom of speech. A lot of journalists were imprisoned. The Official Secrets Act of 1923 was used to convict the Reuters journalists.
Journalists have been jailed, I believe for more than 15 years. The authorities used that law. The law was actually made by General Ne Win, so that law has been around. There are so many other journalists who are missing, so this is nothing new. The Reuters journalists were just recently, but prior to that, a lot of journalists went missing.
I don't know whether you are familiar with Burma VJ. It was made by Norwegian and Burmese citizens. They were in exile in Norway. They went during the Saffron Revolution, I believe in 2006, to show what democracy is in Burma. I watched the documentary, Burma VJ, and it shows how the Burmese government used informants to jail innocent citizens. A lot of innocent citizens have been jailed and randomly questioned just for going against the government. There's a large online movement, but still there's no improvement for journalists. There's no freedom of the press in Burma at all.
There are many Rohingya citizen journalists in exile overseas, in neighbouring countries like Thailand, Malaysia and the U.S. I am a citizen journalist. I report whatever news I get. I get news from the underground, from Rakhine State, from my network. We have managed to get some news about the Rohingya crisis that is going on in Rakhine State. Those citizen journalists are in a very risky position. Some of them have been arrested in Rakhine State and have not been released. To my knowledge, two of my contacts have been arrested and have not been released yet.
There are numerous Rohingya citizen journalists around the world, because we are trying to highlight the crisis. There's no freedom of speech in Burma. At this time in Burma, if you go in the street to do a protest, you can be arrested at any time. The government is using the democracy to fool the world.
Unfortunately, we all advocated for Aung San Suu Kyi to be a democratic leader for all, but she has shown her true colours. She's not speaking up for the Rohingya or about ethnic minorities. She's with the Burmese government. The Burmese government has been notoriously known to carry out genocidal acts, not just on the Rohingya community, but on various other communities like the Karen, Shan and other minorities. Many innocent citizens have been killed, and the Burmese government uses propaganda to spread fake news and brainwash the Burmese public.
The term “Rohingya” is a very taboo term in Burma. If anyone is caught using that term, they could be subject to arrest. Even the local news media avoids it. In public, if anyone uses the word, an informant will hear it and you will be arrested. They want the public to use the word “Bengali”, for illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. They'll use that word. A lot of defamation weapons have been used by the Burmese government to arrest random citizens.
There is no guarantee of a fair trial. The judiciary is not independent of the central government, and the government can arrest anyone at any time. The current Burmese government is notoriously known to have a newspaper called The Global New Light of Myanmar. That newspaper spreads fake news about the Rohingya crisis, calling the Rohingya “terrorists”. They've been using that to spread fake news.
Social media, especially Facebook, plays a huge role. Facebook is also very responsible for the Rohingya genocide, the Rohingya crisis. The Burmese government and the Burmese public use that tool to spread hate speech and propaganda to wipe out the Rohingya and to justify the killing of the Rohingya in Rakhine and other states too. As you guys know, Reuters journalists were recently jailed and convicted because of their reporting on the massacre of innocent Rohingya in 2017. This is one example of how the Burmese government has used the Official Secrets Act of 1923 to arrest innocent journalists just for reporting the truth.
There are also laws restricting the use of the Internet. Burmese citizens are not allowed to speak against or criticize the Burmese government or talk about the Rohingya crisis at all. If any citizen in Burma got caught reporting the news about the Rohingya or being against the government, they would be subject to arrest and be subject to a fine. They might also be isolated. As I mentioned earlier, to my knowledge, two of my contacts have been arrested in Rakhine state. As of now, I have no news about them. I used to receive news from sources on the ground in Rakhine state about the Rohingya crisis. They were arrested two years ago, and ever since I have not received any contact from them.
The Burmese government also uses a lot of undercover government informants in public places, particularly in tea shops and restaurants, to spy on its citizens. Anyone caught talking about the Rohingya crisis or talking against the Burmese government will be arrested. A lot of activists have been banned from going into Burma. There's a blacklist and visa ban on international journalists and activists just for reporting on the Rohingya crisis or for criticizing the government. There's absolutely no freedom of speech and freedom of the press at all in Burma. Sadly, even after Burma's rocky path to democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi is not doing anything to restore freedom of the press in Burma, or even giving journalists access to Rakhine on the Rohingya crisis.
I would say that the Burmese government is trying to lie to the world. They are trying to cover up the killing of innocent Rohingya citizens. We have to get a lot of news from our trusted contacts on the ground. Some of the contacts had no choice but to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. Their lives were at risk for reporting the news about the Rohingya crisis.
There's a lot of hate speech and fake news going on in social media, these days on Facebook, especially sponsored by the Burmese government. There's also the “969” nationalist movement, which is also sponsored by the Burmese government. They have been trying to spread ongoing hate speech against the Rohingya. Their ultimate goal is to wipe out the Rohingya entirely from Burma—you know, a “Make Burma Buddhist” nationalist movement. It's kind of like a repeat of the Holocaust in 1942, when Hitler attempted to wipe out the Jews. We Rohingya have been displaced all over the world because of this crisis. There is no freedom of the press. The truth is that a lot of citizen journalists report on what's going on, and thank God for that, because we manage to know what the Burmese government is doing—notoriously imprisoning innocent citizens and isolating their citizens just for speaking the truth.
On that note, the Canadian government and western nations have to play a huge role, and not just by sanctioning the government. Maybe they should try isolating Burma further by not giving them any rewards. There's absolutely no freedom of the press in Burma. There's no freedom of expression. Anyone can get arrested at any time, for no reason.
Thank you.