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Israel arming Myanmar amid ongoing Rohingya crackdown

Banglar Bir

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Mar 19, 2006
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Israel arming Myanmar amid ongoing Rohingya crackdown
SAM Report, September 9, 2017
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Satellite images showed Rohingya villages in the Rakhine state burned to the ground (AFP)
Israel has continued to sell weapons to Myanmar as thousands of Rohingya refugees flee the military’s violent crackdown in the Rakhine state.

The weapons sold to Myanmar include over 100 tanks, weapons and boats used to police the country’s border, according to human rights groups and Burmese officials.

Israeli arms companies such as TAR Ideal Concepts have also been involved in training Burmese special forces who are currently in the Rakhine state where most of the violence has taken place. Images previously posted on the arms company’s website showed its staff instructing members of the Burmese special forces on combat tactics and how to use specific weapons.

Petition to ban arms exports to Myanmar
In September, the Israeli High Court of Justice is expected to hear a petition, launched by activists, urging the Israeli government to stop arms exports to Myanmar.

The US and EU have an arms embargo against Myanmar.

Eitay Mack, the lawyer presenting the petition, told Middle East Eye that Israel has “no control” over its arms exports once they are sent overseas.

“Israel has no control of what’s happening with its weapons once it sends its weapons to Burma,” said Mack, an Israeli human rights lawyer based in Tel Aviv.
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“But from TAR Ideal’s website, we know that they are arming and training Burmese special forces who are operating in the Rakhine state right now.”

The petition was submitted in January, following visits by Israeli officials to Myanmar to discuss arms deals, and vice versa.

After the petition was submitted, the Israeli defence ministry in March said the court had no jurisdiction over the issue and claimed that arms sales to Myanmar were “clearly diplomatic”.

Israel has shared a strong relationship with Myanmar and maintained trade relations over the years. These relations existed before the military junta stepped down.

Weapons used against the Palestinians are being sold as ‘field-tested’ to some of the worst regimes on the planet
– Ofer Neiman, human rights activist


Ofer Neiman, an Israeli human rights activist, said Israel’s relationship with Myanmar is linked to its ongoing occupation of Palestinian territory in the West Bank.

“Successive Israeli governments have been selling arms to the military dictatorship in Burma for years,” Neiman told MEE.

“This policy is strongly related to Israel’s oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian people. Weapons used against the Palestinians are being sold as ‘field-tested’ to some of the worst regimes on the planet.”

Myanmar’s military chief on Friday defended the clearing of villages, attempting to justify it as “unfinished business” dating back to World War Two.

‘Supporting genocide’
Penny Green, an academic who has documented alleged war crimes perpetrated against the Rohingya people, told MEE that many governments “have lent their support to the current genocide”.

“Its own record of violence and terror against the Palestinian people of Gaza is clear enough evidence that the Israeli government is unmoved by ethical concerns and human rights.”It’s not at all surprising that the latest escalation in Myanmar’s genocide of the Rohingya has not moved the Israeli state to cease its supply of weapons to Myanmar’s military,” said Green, director of the International State Crime Initiative at Queen Mary University.

“Last year the British government spent over £300,000 of taxpayers’ money in training the Myanmar military and commander in chief General Min Aung Hlaing was welcomed by EU heads of military eager to engage in arms sales and training,” she added, citing figures from the Burma Campaign organisation.

More than 60,000 Rohingya refugees have fled their homes to seek refuge in Bangladesh as violence escalates in the Rakhine state.

Satellite images show dozens of Rohingya villages burned to the ground by the Myanmar army.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday accused Myanmar of perpetrating a genocide against the Rohingya.

Neither the Israeli defence ministry or the Israeli embassy in the UK have replied to a request for comment.
SOURCE MIDDLE EAST EYE
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/09/09/israel-arming-myanmar-amid-ongoing-rohingya-crackdown/
 
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রোহিঙ্গ্যা নিধনের আড়ালে লুকিয়ে আছে ভারত আর ইসরায়েল এর
আলটিমেট গোল


বামিয়ান, আফগানিস্তানে যখন তালিবানরা মহামতি গৌতম বুদ্ধের মূর্তি ভেঙে ফেলে, তখন মাত্র ৯৬৯ জন অনুসারীদের নিয়ে BUDDHIST MONK WIRATHU এর প্রতিবাদ করে। সাথে সাথে মায়ানমার এর সামরিকজান্তা রোহিঙ্গ্যাদের দেশ থেকে বিতরণের সুযোগটি কাজে লাগায়। মায়ানমার এর সামরিকজান্তারা BUDDHIST MONK WIRATHU কে ডেকে রোহিঙ্গ্যা নিধনের সমগ্র ক্ষমতা প্রদান করে । সাথে সাথে BUDDHIST MONK WIRATHU কে রোহিঙ্গ্যা নিধনে সাহায্য করার জন্য মায়ানমার এর সামরিক এবং আধা সামরিক বাহিনীকে নির্দেশ দেয়া হয়।

এ সময় ভারত তার কাশ্মীর এবং উলফা সমস্যা নিয়ে মহা ব্যস্ত। শত ব্যস্ততার মধ্যেও ভুলে যায়নি তাদের পুরানো খেলা।তারা সাফল্যের ১৯৭১ সালে পাকিস্তানকে ভেঙে দিয়েছে।তাদের বন্ধু ইসরায়েল মার্কিন তৈরী অস্ত্র এবং গোলাবারুদ তাদেরকে সরবরাহ করেছে। মার্কিনিরা ১৯৭১ সালে ইসরায়েল এর চাপেই পাকিস্তানকে সাহায্য না করে দূরে থেকেছে।ইসরায়েল এর প্রতি ভারত তার কৃতজ্ঞতা দেখাতে নিম্নোক্ত সিদ্ধান্তগুলো গ্রহণ করে:

১. ইসরায়েলকে মুসলিম বিশ্বে কিছুটা হলেও গ্রহণযোগ্য করা। (ইন্ডিয়া সৌদি ওয়াহাবী রাজাকে ইসরায়েল এর সাথে সু-সম্পর্ক তৈরী করতে সাহায্য করেছে।
২. ইসরায়েলী পণ্য সামগ্রী রফতানীর ক্ষেত্রে সাহায্য করা।
৩. প্যালেস্টাইনীদের পক্ষে কোনো কথা না বলা।
৪. ইহুদী এবং হিন্দুদের বানোয়াট ডক্ট্রিন মুসলিম নিধনে একে অপরকে সাহায্য করা।
৫. দুই দেশের প্রতিরক্ষা এবং পররাষ্ট্রনীতিতে একে অপরকে সাহায্য করা।
৬. অন্যান্য

১৯৪৭ সাল থেকে ভারতের স্বপ্ন তৎকালীন পূর্ব পাকিস্তান আর আজকের বাংলাদেশকে তাদের দেশভুক্ত করা।কাশ্মীরের হিন্দু রাজা আর সিকিম এর লেন্দুপ দর্জিকে দিয়ে কাশ্মীর এবং সিকিম অতি সহজেই হজম করা গেলেও বাংলাদেশ নিয়ে তারা বিপাকে পরে।বাংলাদেশের মহান জাতীয়তাবাদী নেতা শেখ মুজিবর রহমানকে তারা লেন্দুপ দর্জি বানাতে পারেনি। কিন্তু তারা সক্ষম হয়েছিল তার চারপাশের ৯৫% আওয়ামী লীগ নেতা এবং ছাত্র নেতাদেরকে ক্রয় করতে। মহান নেতা শেখ মুজিবকে সরিয়ে দেয়ার পর তারা মনে করেছিল তাদের রাস্তা খোলা। কিন্তু শেখ মুজিবের মতো আরেক মহান জাতীয়তাবাদী নেতা জিয়াউর রহমান এসে দেশের হাল ধরলেন। বাংলাদেশকে সত্যিকার অর্থে একটা স্বাধীন দেশ হিসেবে গড়ে তুললেন। তাকেও সরিয়ে দেয়া হলো। এর পরের ইতিহাস সকলেরই জানা।বাংলাদেশ তার সার্বোভৌমত্তকে কোনো রকম টিকিয়ে রাখলেও ২০০৯ সালে হাসিনা শেখের বদান্যতায় ভারত তাদের ১৯৪৭ সালের স্বপ্ন পূরণের প্রকৃত সুযোগ পেয়ে যায়। আজ আমরা সেখানেই দাড়িয়ে।

আমাদের ভুলে গেলে চলবে না যে বাংলাদেশের পার্বত্য এলাকার জঙ্গীরা ভারত এবং মায়ানমার এর তৈরী। যারা শান্তিবাহিনী নাম পরিচিত। আমরা কতবড় গরু হলে মনে করি যে স্বাধীনতার যুদ্ধে ভারত আমাদেরকে সাহায্য করেছে অথচ কেউই মুখ খুলে বলি না যে বাংলাদেশে বিচ্ছিন্নতাবাদী সশস্ত্র সন্ত্রাসী শান্তিবাহিনী ভারতেরই দেয়া প্রথম উপহার।

মিয়ানমারের বাৎসরিক বাজেট এর এক তৃতীয়াংশ ভারতের বিনিয়োগ । মিয়ানমারের বৈদেশিক বিনিয়োগের অর্ধেকের বেশি আসে ইন্ডিয়ার কাছ থেকে। গত দুই যুগেরও বেশী সময় ধরে মায়ানমার পৃথিবী থেকে বিচ্ছিন্ন থাকলেও ভারত এবং ইসরায়েল এর কাছ থেকে বিচ্ছিন্ন ছিল না।আর এজন্যই মায়ানমার এর শাসক গোষ্ঠীর উপর ভারতের প্রভাব পৃথিবীর সকলের চেয়ে বেশী। আবার ভারতের বদৌলতে ইসরায়েল এর ও রয়েছে বিশেষ প্রভাব।

গত দুইযুগের ও বেশী সময় ধরে ভারতের পরিকল্পনা নিম্নরূপ:

১. বাংলাদেশকে পৃথিবীর কাছ থেকে বিচ্ছিন্ন করা
২. বাংলাদেশে তাবেদার সরকার প্রতিষ্ঠা করা।
৩. বাংলাদেশের প্রতিটি সেক্টরকে ভারতের কন্ট্রোলে নেয়া।
৪. বাংলাদেশে নিযুক্ত তাবেদার সরকার ভারতের সবকিছুতে হ্যা না বললে নিম্নোক্ত কার্যক্রম দ্বারা চাপ প্রয়োগ করা

** ফারাক্কার পানি নিয়ে টালবাহানা করা অথবা পানিতে ডুবিয়ে অথবা পানি ছাড়া বাংলাদেশের মানুষকে অসহায় করা।
** সীমান্তে বাংলাদেশীদের নির্বিচারে হত্যা করা
** RAW এখানে সেখানে মানুষ মেরে বা দুর্ঘটনা ঘটিয়ে জঙ্গী হামলা বলে চালিয়ে দেয়া।
** বাংলাদেশে সংখ্যালঘুদের উপর অত্যাচার হচ্ছে বলে পৃথিবী ব্যাপী অপপ্রচার চালানো
** বাংলাদেশের সশস্ত্র বাহিনীকে কাগুজে বাঘে পরিণত করা
** বাংলাদেশের ব্যাঙ্কিং সেক্টরকে দেউলিয়া করা
** বাংলাদেশের পুলিশ এবং RABকে পুরোপুরি জনগণের শত্রুতে রূপান্তরিত করা
** বাংলাদেশের সংখ্যাগরিষ্ঠ মুসলমানদেরকে জঙ্গী বানিয়ে ধীরে ধীরে তাদেরকে সমাজচ্যুত করা।
** শান্তিবাহিনীর সন্তু লারমাকে দিয়ে পার্বত্য এলাকায় সহিংস কার্যকলাপ চালিয়ে যাওয়া।
** মিয়ানমারকে দিয়ে রোহিঙ্গ্যাদের মেরে বাংলাদেশ রিফিউজী সমস্যা তৈরী করা।
উপরোক্ত কাজগুলো সম্পন্ন হলে ভারত লাভবান হবে নিম্নোক্ত বিষয়গুলোতে:
** বাংলাদেশের স্থল, জল এবং আকাশসীমা ব্যবহার করে ভারত তাদের প্রতিরক্ষা এবং যাতায়াত খাতের খরচ অর্ধেক এ নিয়ে এসেছে।
** বাণিজ্যে ভারতীয়দের সামগ্রীর সরবরাহ বেশী হওয়ায় বাংলাদেশী সামগ্রীগুলো বিক্রী হচ্ছে না বিধায় তাদের তৈরী প্রতিষ্ঠানগুলোকে দেউলিয়া হয়ে যাচ্ছে।
** বাংলাদেশের অর্থনীতি, বাণিজ্যনীতি,প্রতিরক্ষা নীতি,পররাষ্ট্রনীতি ভারতের দ্বারা চালিত।
** বাংলাদেশের ভূখণ্ড ব্যবহার করে আসামের বিচ্ছিন্নতাবাদীদেরকে কঠিন হস্তে দমন করা হয়েছে।
** কাশ্মীরে দাঙ্গা শুরু হলেই মিয়ানমারকে দিয়ে রোহিঙ্গ্যাদের মেরে ফেলে বিশ্বের দৃষ্টি ঘুরিয়ে দেয়া হয়।

আমি বহুদিন ধরে বলে আসছি যে দক্ষিণ এশিয়ায় ইস্রায়েল এর উপস্থিতির বেনেফিশারী ভারত। ইসরায়েল দক্ষিণ এশিয়ায় ভারতের স্বার্থ রক্ষা করে তাদের বাণিজ্য এবং মুসলিম নিধন চালিয়ে যাচ্ছে।হাসিনা শেখ যখন মোসাদের কথা বলে বিএনপি'র আসলাম চৌধুরীকে ধরেছিলো তখনি বলেছিলাম যে মোসাদ এবং RAW লাইক ব্লাড ব্রাদার।

রোহিঙ্গ্যা সমস্যা ভারত এবং ইস্রায়েলীদের দ্বারা তৈরী একটি কৃত্তিম সমস্যা।বাংলাদেশের সাথে মায়ানমার এর ভালো সম্পর্ক ভারতের স্বার্থের পরিপন্থী। বাংলাদেশের তিনদিক ঘিরে রেখেছে ভারত। এশিয়ান ট্রান্স হাইওয়ে বাংলাদেশের সাথে সংযুক্ত হলে ভারত অনেক কিছু হারাবে যা তারা কোনোদিনই হতে দেবে না। সুতরাং মিয়ানমারের বৌদ্ধ জঙ্গীরা যখন নিরপরাধ রোহিঙ্গ্যাদের ভারতীয়দের সহায়তায় এবং ইসরায়েল এর তৈরী অস্ত্রের দ্বারা নির্বিচারে হত্যা করে তখন AUNG SAN SUU KYI'র যে খুব একটা কিছু করার আছে আমি তা মনে করি না।

ভারতের এক কথায় রোহিঙ্গ্যা নিধন বন্ধ হবে যা ভারত কখনোই বলবে না। ভারত হাসিনা শেখকেও মিয়ানমারের বিরুদ্ধে কিছু বলতে বা করতে দিবে না। এমনকি মিয়ানমার সরকারের সাথেও হাসিনা শেখকে একা কথা বলতে দেয়া হবে না।

অথচ, হাসিনা শেখ চাইলেই হতে পারে তার বাবার মতো যোগ্য নেতা। সঠিক সিদ্ধান্ত নিলে ইন্ডিয়াকে ওভারকাম করা খুব একটা কঠিন হবে না। তার ক্ষমতাও থাকবে, রোহিঙ্গ্যারাও তাদের দেশে ভালো থাকবে। এই মুহূর্তে নিরপেক্ষ নির্বাচনে হাসিনা শেখ গোপালগঞ্জে ও হেরে যাবে। কিন্তু সঠিক সিদ্ধান্ত নিলে হাসিনা শেখ শুধু ক্ষমতায় থাকবে না, পাঁচ আসনের সব কোটি আসনেই সে জিতবে।

কিন্তু হাসিনা শেখ কখন সঠিক সিদ্ধান্ত নিয়েছে ?

Jacob Milton
We Are The People

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.810390
http://www.refworld.org/docid/46a75e132.html
 
Crimes against Rohingya, organized Israeli plot: Velayati
Sat Sep 9, 2017 6:17PM
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Ali Akbar Velayati, the secretary general of the World Assembly of Islamic Awakening


A senior Iranian official has slammed the ongoing brutal crackdown on the Rohingya in Myanmar, saying the Muslim community is suffering from organized crime at the hands of the Israeli regime.

“The Zionist regime’s plot to cleanse its cruel and child-killing image and promote the culture of cruelty and oppression against children, the elderly and innocent people in coordination with the government of Myanmar shows a horrible and organized crime against the deprived Rohingya Muslims,” Ali Akbar Velayati, the secretary general of the World Assembly of Islamic Awakening, said in a statement on Saturday.

He warned that such an “ominous and organized plot by international Zionism” would result in genocide against the Muslims, oppression and forced displacement, ethnic and racial cleansing, massacre and regional instability.

He said all international bodies, including the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), as well as world countries shoulder a heavy responsibility to have a correct understanding of such a calculated plot.

Velayati, who is the senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on international affairs, urged “swift and effective” measures to prevent the recurrence of such tragedies and bring the perpetrators to justice.

He called on all dignitaries, groups, parties, movements, Muslim world countries, the OIC and the Human Rights Watch as well as the UN Secretary General António Guterres to utilize all their capabilities and diplomatic means to exert more pressure on the government of Myanmar in order to prevent further crimes against the Rohingya Muslims.

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Rohingya Muslims, newly arrived from Myanmar, scuffle for puffed rice food rations donated by local volunteers in Kutupalong, Bangladesh, on September 9, 2017. (Photo by AP)
They must ease the pain of the oppressed people in this region by dispatching fact-finding teams to immediately investigate the situation, sending humanitarian assistance and properly organizing the refugees, the senior Iranian official said.

Velayati further emphasized that if the government of Myanmar refuses to cooperate, its crimes must be addressed at the UN Security Council.

In such a scenario, he also called on the OIC to hold an emergency session and Muslim countries to cut their diplomatic and trade ties with Myanmar to express their firm support for the oppressed and defenseless Rohingya Muslims.

A new wave of violence broke out on August 25 after dozens of police and border outposts in the state of Rakhine came under attack purportedly by a group claiming to be the defenders of the Rohingya. The alleged assaults were launched in response to a government clampdown in the area, where over a million Rohingya are based.

Since then, counteroffensives by Myanmar’s army have killed at least 400 people, burned thousands of houses, razed a large number of villages and depopulated vast swathes of land in Rakhine. However, Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi has dismissed the Rohingya crisis as a misinformation campaign, rejecting the occurrence of any clampdown on the minority.

According to a recent report, Israel continues to sell weapons to Myanmar’s military junta despite the ongoing persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority.


PressTV-'Israel selling arms to Myanmar's military junta'
Israel has reportedly sold Myanmar's military junta over 100 tanks and boats as well as other sorts of weapon.

Human Rights Watch has warned that violence by Myanmar's army against the Rohingya had all the hallmarks of a campaign of “ethnic cleansing,” calling on the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on the issue.

The volatile Rakhine, located northwest of Myanmar, has been the scene of communal violence since 2012. Many of the Muslims have lost their lives while tens of thousands have been displaced as a result of attacks by Buddhists. The refugees largely live in camps in dire conditions.

Rakhine has also been under a military siege since October 2016, when the government used a purported deadly militant attack on border guards back then as a pretext to enforce the siege. There have been numerous eyewitness accounts of summary executions, rapes, and arson attacks by security forces against the Muslims since the crackdown began.

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/...ayati-World-Assembly-Islamic-Awakening-Israel
 
its mere speculation at this point. .. nothing is materialized. It over year old news.
there was quite a lot of buzz around it on this forum.. don't think the Chinese and Pak govt would drop that contract over this issue anyway.
 
Top Secret Israel's Top Court Just Ruled About Arms Sales to Myanmar.
But We're Not Allowed to Tell You the Verdict

Israeli court decision must remain secret after judges issued a gag order on the case at the request of the state
Chaim Levinson Sep 27, 2017 4:56 PM

A Myanmar soldier stands near Maungdaw, north of Rakhine state, Myanmar September 27, 2017. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun SOE ZEYA TUN/REUTERS

As violence intensifies, Israel continues to arm Myanmar’s military junta Myanmar faces pressure over Rohingya exodus: 'Textbook example of ethnic cleansing'
Evidence of rape among Rohingya women fleeing Myanmar military, UN medics say

Israel’s High Court ruled Wednesday on a petition against Israel's weapons sales to Myanmar. However, the court decision must remain secret because the judges hearing the case – Yoram Danziger, Anat Baron and David Mintz – issued a gag order on it at the request of the state.

The UN has declared that the government of Myanmar is engaging in “textbook ethnic cleansing” of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority.

Israel Is Arming War Criminals | Haaretz Editorial

At a Monday hearing, state representatives reiterated their position that the court shouldn’t interfere with Israel's foreign relations and not tell it which countries it is permitted to sell arms to.

Every Israeli company that wants to sell weapons to foreign countries must receive approval from the state. However, the state has not confirmed or denied whether there is a permit to sell arms to Myanmar.

The state attorney explained Israel’s relations with Myanmar to the justices in a closed-door session after Monday's hearing. In the part of the session open to the public, the state representative, attorney Shosh Shmueli, refused to comment on the issue or state whether Israel would stop arming Myanmar’s military.

In response to a question from the floor by lawmaker Tamar Zandberg of Meretz about arms exports to Myanmar, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said: “Generally speaking we subordinate ourselves to the entire enlightened world.”

Attorney Itay Mack, who filed the petition in the name of human rights activists, said at the hearing that the EU and the United States had banned arms trade with Myanmar. He added that Israel is the only Western country supplying it arms.

The violence directed at the Rohingya has intensified recently. Some 421,000 members of the Muslim minority have fled to neighboring Bangladesh in the past month, as the UN and others raise allegations of ethnic cleansing.

Mack originally petitioned the court in January. Israel is keeping its weapons trade with Myanmar under wraps, but the heads of the junta boast of its ties with Israel on their Facebook pages.

Mack’s petition notes that in September 2015, Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the commander of Myanmar’s military, visited Israel and met with Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot. Hlaing noted on his Facebook page that he had visited various defense industries and placed an order for patrol boats.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
read more: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.814626
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.814626
 
Israeli arms and oil fuel Rohingya massacre
www.thestateless.com/2017/09/israeli-arms-and-oil-fuel-rohingya-massacre.html
Image-Credit-Luis-Vazque.jpg

By Ramzy Baroud / Gulf News
The horrible fate of the ethnic minority community in Myanmar is not new, but what makes it particularity pressing is that the West is in full support of the very government that is carrying out these atrocious acts

There is an active genocide underway in Myanmar, targeting the Rohingya, considered as the “most persecuted people on earth”. Although this tragedy has finally achieved a reasonable degree of media attention, the Myanmarese army and police, along with organised gangs of Buddhist nationalists in the western Rakhine state continue their rampage of murder and ethnic cleansing.

Stories of murder, genocide and mayhem recall the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people during the Nakba — the ‘Catastrophe’ of 1948. Hence, it should come as no surprise that Israel is one of the biggest suppliers of weapons to the Myanmarese military.

Despite an extended arms embargo on Myanmar by many countries, Israel’s Defence Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, insists that his country has no intentions of halting its weapons shipments to the despicable regime in Yangon, which is actively using these weapons against its own minorities, not only Muslims in Rakhine, but also Christians in the north.

One of the Israeli shipments was announced in August 2016 by the Israeli company TAR Ideal Concepts. The company proudly featured that its Corner Shot rifles are already in ‘operational use’ by the Myanmarese military.

Israel’s history is rife with examples of support for brutal juntas and authoritarian regimes, but why are those who have positioned themselves as the guardians of democracy still silent about the bloodbath in Myanmar?

These false humanitarians, who spent years criticising the Myanmarese junta are now turning a blind eye to the crimes against the Rohingya.

Leading among them is Aung San Suu Kyi. Glorified by the West for many years, she was made a ‘democracy icon’ because she opposed the same forces in her country, Myanmar, at the time that the US-led Western coalition isolated Yangon for its alliance with China.

Suu Kyi played her role as expected, winning the approval of the Right and the admiration of the Left. And for that, she won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1991; she joined the elevated group of ‘The Elders’ and was promoted by many in the media and various governments as an heroic figure to be emulated.

Hillary Clinton once described her as “this extraordinary woman”. The ‘Lady’ of Myanmar’s journey from being a political pariah in her own country, where she was placed under house arrest for 15 years, finally ended in triumph when she became the county’s leader, following a multi-party election in 2015. Her first task was rebranding the very brutal military that she had opposed throughout the years.

But the great ‘humanitarian’ seemed to have run out of integrity as her government, military and police began conducting a widespread ethnic cleansing operation that targeted the Rohingya. This so-called “Cleansing Operations” have killed hundreds, if not thousands of Rohingya in recent months, driving more than 250,000 crying, frightened, desperate and hungry people to escape for their lives in any way possible. Many more have perished at sea, or were hunted down and killed in jungles. Nearly a quarter of the Rohingya population has already been driven out of their homes since October last year. Yet, Aung San Suu Kyi lacked the most basic of moral courage, being unable to pronounce a few words of sympathy for the victims.

Instead, she could only express an uncommitted statement: “We have to take care of everybody who is in our country”. Meanwhile, her spokesperson and other mouthpieces launched a campaign of vilification against Rohingya, accusing them of burning their own villages, fabricating their own rape stories, while referring to Rohingya who dare to resist as ‘Jihadists’.

But well-documented reports give us more than a glimpse of the harrowing reality experienced by the Rohingya. A recent United Nations report details the account of one woman, whose husband had been killed by soldiers in what the UN described as “widespread as well as systematic” attacks that “very likely commission of crimes against humanity”.

“Five of them took off my clothes and raped me,” said the bereaved woman. “My eight-month-old son was crying of hunger when they were in my house because he wanted breast feed, so to silence him they killed him with a knife.”

Refugees who fled to Bangladesh, following a nightmarish journey, spoke of the murder of children, the rape of women and the burning of villages. Some of these accounts have been verified through satellite images provided by Human Rights Watch, showing wiped-out villages throughout the state.

Unfortunately, the horrible fate of the Rohingya is not entirely new. But what makes it particularity pressing is that the West is in full support of the very government that is carrying out these atrocious acts.
And there is a reason for that: Oil.
Massive deposits of oil that have remained untapped due to decades of western boycott of the junta government are now available to the highest bidder. It is a big oil bonanza, and all are invited. Shell, ENI, Total, Chevron and many others are investing large sums to exploit the country’s natural resources, while the Chinese — who dominated Myanmar’s economy for many years — are being slowly pushed out.

Indeed, the rivalry over Myanmar’s unexploited wealth is at its peak. It is this wealth — and the need to undermine China’s superpower status in Asia — that has brought the West back and installed Suu Kyi as a leader in a country that has never fundamentally changed, but only rebranded itself to pave the road for the return of ‘Big Oil’.
The Rohingya are paying the price.
One should not be misled by Myanmarese official propaganda. The Rohingya are not foreigners, intruders or immigrants in Burma [now Myanmar]. Their kingdom of Arakan dates back to the eighth Century. In the centuries that followed, the inhabitants of that kingdom learned about Islam from Arab traders and, with time, it became a Muslim-majority region. Arakan is Myanmar’s modern-day Rakhine state, where most of the country’s estimated 1.2 million Rohingya still live.

The false notion that the Rohingya are outsiders started in 1784 when the Myanmarese King conquered Arakan and forced hundreds of thousands to flee. Many of those who were forced out of their homes to Bengal, eventually returned.

Attacks on Rohingya, and constant attempts at driving them out of Rakhine, have been renewed over several periods of history.

In 1982, the military government passed the Citizenship Law that stripped most Rohingya of their citizenship, declaring them illegal in their own country. The war on the Rohingya began again in 2012. Every single episode, since then, has followed a typical narrative: ‘Communal clashes’ between Buddhist nationals and Rohingya, often leading to tens of thousands of the latter group being chased out to the Bay of Bengal, to the jungles and, those who survive, to refugee camps.

Amid international silence, only a few respected figures like Pope Francis spoke out in support of the Rohingya in a deeply moving prayer last February. The Rohingya are “good people”, the Pope said. “They are peaceful people, and they are our brothers and sisters.” His call for justice was, however, never heeded.

The violence in Myanmar is likely to escalate and reach other member-states of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), simply because the two main ethnic and religious groups in these countries are dominated and almost evenly split between Buddhists and Muslims.

The triumphant return of the US-West to exploit Myanmar’s wealth and the US-Chinese rivalries are likely to complicate the situation even further, if Asean does not end its appalling silence and move with a determined strategy to pressure Burma to end its genocide of the Rohingya. Respected South African Bishop Desmond Tutu has strongly admonished Suu Kyi for turning a blind eye to the ongoing genocide.

It is the least we expect from the man who stood up to Apartheid in his own country, and penned the famous words: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

Dr Ramzy Baroud is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author of several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story.
 
Israel sold military gear to Myanmar at height of Rohingya crackdown
#ArmsTrade
Myanmar's navy proudly showcased Israeli-made gunboats as hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees fled the country
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The Israel-manufactured Super Dvora operating off the coast of Myanmar (Myanmar Navy)
Areeb Ullah
Monday 23 October 2017 12:05 UTC
Last update:
Monday 23 October 2017 23:36 UTC
ArmsTrade
Israel, Arms trade, Rohingya, arms exports, Myanmar
Israeli arms manufacturers continued to sell millions of dollars worth of military equipment to Myanmar as thousands fled the Asian country's violent campaign in the Rakhine state, it has emerged.

The equipment was sold to the Myanmar military as the international community condemned the army's campaign in the Rakhine state and accused it of committing war crimes, including ethnic cleansing.

The extent of Israeli sales emerged after images posted on social media showed the Myanmar Navy showcasing two Israeli-made gunboats.
The post "welcomes" the addition of the Israeli-made Super Dvora MK III gunboats to the Myanmar military's fleet.
The high-speed gunboats, which can operate off the coast and on in-land waterways, are fitted with remote weapons stations designed to allow the Myanmar military to mount heavy machines guns and 30mm cannons on the vessels.

The Israeli High Court in September blocked the publication of Israeli arms sales to Myanmar after an appeal by the country's defence ministry.

According to Israeli media reports on the arms deal, the Ramta division of Israeli Aerospace Industries, which manufactures the Super Dvora, has agreed a deal to sell as many as four of the boats to the Myanmar military.
The remote weapons stations are produced by Elbit Systems, and Haaretz reported that the two remaining vessels on order will be built in Myanmar with Israeli assistance.
Eitay Mack, an Israeli lawyer who submitted a petition to the Israeli High Court to block arms sales to Myanmar, told Middle East Eye that the gunboats could be used to attack Rohingya refugees fleeing the ongoing military campaign.

"These images have confirmed what activists have been saying for a number of years," said Mack who has lodged other petitions against Israeli arms sales to Sri Lanka and South Sudan.

"While Israel has a gag order against details on its arms deals with the Junta, Myanmar proudly showcases its purchases as it defies existing EU and US arms embargos on the country.

"This shows how a gag order means nothing in 2017 as the Myanmar government and Junta love to publish everything they have bought from the Israelis on Facebook, which is giving us more evidence and helping fuel a public campaign against Israeli arms sales to Burma."

The military of Sri Lanka, which has been accused of war crimes during its conflict with the Tamil Tigers, has also purchased the Israel-made gunboats.

"Just like in Myanmar, Sri Lanka bombed refugee camps and the villages on the coast using Israeli gunboats," said Mack.
"This is history repeating itself."

Israeli arms companies, including Tar Ideal Concepts, have also been involved in training Burmese special forces, including those reportedly deployed to the Rakhine state.

Images previously posted on the arms company's website showed its staff instructing members of the Burmese special forces on combat tactics and how to use specialist weapons.

Mack's petition against Israeli arms sales to Myanmar was submitted in January, following visits by Israeli officials to Yangon to discuss further arms sales.

But the Israeli defence ministry argued the court had no jurisdiction over the issue and claimed that arms sales to Myanmar were "clearly diplomatic".
Nearly a million refugees have since fled into neighbouring Bangladesh, according to the United Nations, as the exodus of Rohingyas continues to take place from Myanmar's Rakhine state.

Bangladeshi officials told a UN-backed conference on Monday that the situation was "untenable" and that it was working with Myanmar to find a solution to address the world's fastest-growing humanitarian crisis.
Israeli Aerospace Industries refused to give a comment to Haaretz.
Read more:
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Attack on Myanmar embassy was retaliation for Rohingya crackdown#EgyptTurmoil
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Israel arming Myanmar amid ongoing Rohingya crackdown #ArmsTrade
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Israeli court issues gag order over Myanmar arms sales petition #ArmsTrade
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/m...s-myanmar-during-rohingya-crackdown-613292003
 
Israel's badly kept secret: Selling arms to regimes at war
#ArmsTrade



From Myanmar to South Sudan, and more recently the Gulf Arab states, Israel has tried to keep secret its weapons sales to regimes engaged in brutal conflicts
burma-solders.jpg

Yossi Melman
Wednesday 1 November 2017 9:38 UTC
ArmsTrade
Myanmar, South Sudan, Eritrea, Abu Dhabi, Arms trade, Censorship
Israel prides itself as being a free, democratic society, part of the Western world. Well not exactly. At least when it comes to two significant areas.
One
, towering above all, is the occupation of the West Bank under the iron fist of the Israeli military and depriving its Palestinian residents of basic civil and democratic rights.
Military exports are somewhat of a sacred cow in Israel.
They are in the Israeli DNA

The second area
in which the lack of transparency is evident and the government has tried to quash information is military-security exports. Here, too, the censor is omnipresent and suppresses any information that can potentially embarrass the government and security establishment for its weapon sales to dictators, rogue regimes, violators of human rights and other dubious governments.
Myanmar
Myanmar is a case in point. In September, a group of Israeli human rights activists petitioned the High Court of Justice to stop weapon sales to that country military’s junta, which, essentially, is still in power despite elections in 2015.

According to human rights groups and UN reports, the Myanmar army is involved in systemic ethnical cleansing and war crimes against the Rohingya (a Muslim minority). It has been reported that almost half a million people escaped to neighbouring Bangladesh after thousands were killed and raped and villages were set on fire.

For years, Israel sold weapons to Myanmar, including listening equipment, communications gear and patrol boats manufactured by Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI).
Also, Tar Ideals Concepts, an Israeli company, trained Myanmar Special Forces.
Asked for its response, the company didn't answer.

Successive Israeli governments were ashamed of these deals but encouraged arms dealers and state-owned industries to continue making them. At the same time, they used the military censor to suppress the information.
burma-general.jpg

Myanmar's army chief senior general Min Aung Hlaing speaks during the second anniversary of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) ceremony in Naypyidaw on
15 October 2017 ( AFP)

So how do we know about all these deals? Because the Myanmar junta proudly boasted about them on its official websites and posted photos of its chiefs visiting Israel.

These included meetings in September 2015 between Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the commander-in-chief of the Myanmar Armed Forces, which acts independently of the civilian government, along with other senior officers of the military junta, and President Reuven Rivlin, the Israeli army chief Gadi Eisenkot and the heads of Israel’s security services and senior officials in its arms industry.

Hlaing even wrote on his Facebook page that he and his colleagues had visited Israel Aerospace Industries near Tel Aviv and other defence firms.
China ties
Recently, I learned that Commtac, an Israeli manufacturer of communication gear for drones, has sold equipment installed on Chinese-made drones operated by the Myanmar army via Elul (an Israeli arms broker).
Commtac is a subsidiary of the Israeli drone manufacturer Aeronautics Defense Systems.
The Israeli government has been particularly sensitive about this deal, not because it opposes sales to Myanmar, but because it feared the link to Chinese drones would anger the US.

Beginning in the late 1970s, long before the establishment of diplomatic ties between Israel and China, Israeli defence contractors secretly equipped China's army, with government approval.
In the last decade, however, Israel stopped military sales to China under pressure from consecutive US administrations.

It can only be assumed that the suspension of Israeli sales is temporary, resulting from public pressure at home, especially by civil rights groups

Elul didn't return calls for comment, but a spokesman for Commatc and Aeronautics confirmed that the company had sold equipment to Myanmar "according to Defence Ministry regulations and with its approval." He added, however, that the Defence Ministry had recently changed its policy and suspended all licenses to all Israeli companies, including Commtac, that permit dealings with Myanmar.

It's worth noting that the ministry didn't issue any statement in this regard and hoped to keep the move under wraps. The ministry refused to elaborate, saying only: "We don't comment on export issues." The secrecy is aimed at not angering Myanmar, with the hope that sooner or later the ban will be lifted and business resumed.

It can only be assumed that the suspension of Israeli sales is temporary, resulting from public pressure at home, especially by civil rights groups. Some of them, in September, appealed to the Supreme Court to order the Defence Ministry to stop its sales to Myanmar and thus follow US and EU policies that have imposed an arms embargo on the Southeast Asian country. The state opposed, and the court rejected the appeal.

All of the deliberations were behind closed doors, indicating that, in Israel, it's not only the censor, but also the courts, that are closing ranks with the security establishment when it comes to arms sales.
Arms to dictators
Military exports are somewhat of a sacred cow in Israel
.
They are in the Israeli DNA, and the public generally supports the government’s policy and prefers not to hear about it even if it stands in sharp contrast to universal morality, human rights and ethics.

Israeli arms exports to more than 100 countries on five continents totaled $6 billion in 2016. This represents only 6-7 percent of the total Israeli exports of goods and services, but the contribution of security contractors is not limited to exports. They are the primary suppliers of weapons to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and employ some 100,000 workers, making them a significant factor in allowing Israel’s economy to prosper.

The customers can be divided into three groups.
The first
and the biggest market are countries with which Israel has diplomatic relations such as the US, the EU, India, Singapore, and Azerbaijan.
south-sudan-RPG.jpg

Sudan People Liberation Army (SPLA) soldiers carry heavy weapons near Alole, northern South Sudan, on 16 October 2016. (AFP)
The second group
consists of countries with which Israel has diplomatic relations but are ruled by dictators or are involved in civil wars or engage in abuses of human rights, such as Myanmar or, in the past, countries in South and Central America as well as Africa.

Israeli arms dealers sold weapons to both sides during the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. But the most worrisome case in the Israeli exports to Africa was in South Sudan. Israel continued to supply arms to that nation even after the bloody civil war erupted there. Only recently under strong local media and foreign human rights groups the MoD announced that it had ceased all military sales to South Sudan.
Arms sales as diplomacy
Here, in this second category, too, the censor has stepped in to prevent publication of defence deals, as is the case with Azerbaijan, which, because of its border with Iran, is considered strategically important.

The taboo on this topic was broken in February when Azeri President Ilham Aliyev publicly acknowledged that his country had clinched deals with Israel valued at $5bn over the last two decades. In so doing, Aliyev surprised Netanyahu, who was visiting Azerbaijan at the time. Alongside the US, India and the EU, the Caucasian nation is one of the biggest markets for Israeli military toys.

The third category of countries
benefiting from advanced Israeli weapons and technologies ‒ "battle proven" after being used by the IDF ‒ are those that don't have diplomatic relations with Israel.
These are mainly Arab and Muslim nations.

Here, the deals are aimed not only at financial rewards but also to gain a foothold in the Arab world and to receive payment with intelligence information or other favours.

In the 1980s, Israel sold US-made Skyhawk jets that had been put out of service by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) to Indonesia, the biggest Muslim country in the world.
The sale was approved by the US. In return, Indonesia gave Israel favours, including allowing Israeli experts to learn about sophisticated Soviet-made weapons being used by its Arab enemies.

In past years, Israeli weapons and technologies have been used to help Jordan (Israeli helicopters and drones on loan) and Egypt (intelligence information and Israeli drones occasionally attacking Islamic State positions in Sinai).

Because Jordan and Egypt have diplomatic relations with Israel, on the surface, reports about the special security-military ties shouldn't be a problem. But, once again, the censor is allowing information to be reported locally, only if foreign news media already have reported about it.
Gulf deals
Another important market for Israeli military technologies is the United Arab Emirates, led by Abu Dhabi and, according to reports which never been confirmed, Saudi Arabia.


The reports claim that Israeli high-tech companies have clinched deals to supply the kingdom with intelligence equipment and that Saudi Arabia is considering buying Israel's anti-missile system called "Iron Dome". It is worth noting that social media in the Arab world have persistently spread rumours that Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman recently visited Israel.
Saudi spokespersons denied it.
iron-dome_0.jpg

Reports claim that Israeli high-tech companies have clinched deals to supply the Saudi kingdom with intelligence equipment and that Saudi Arabia is considering buying Israel's anti-missile system called "Iron Dome" (AFP)

For several years, the censor has used its iron fist to prevent any reports in the Israeli media about sales to the Arab world. This attitude proved to be absurd and ridiculous because the main broker in the "secret" deals, an Israeli arms dealer called Mati Kochavi, revealed the deals with Abu Dhabi in a public seminar in Singapore out of sheer self-importance and ego.

The English writer, Samuel Johnson, wrote that "patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
" It can be said that Israel’s Defence Ministry is quick to use “security reasons” as a pretext to justify every evil possible that is carried out by unscrupulous arms dealers, corrupt defence contractors and ruthless dictators.
In the first two decades after gaining its independence in 1948 Israel hoped to be a light unto the nations, but unfortunately has become a weapons supplier to dubious regimes.
- Yossi Melman is an Israeli security and intelligence commentator and co-author of Spies Against Armageddon.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Photo: In this photograph taken on 21 October 2016, Myanmar army soldiers patrol a village in Maungdaw located in Rakhine State as security operation continue following the 9 October 2016 attacks by armed militants. (AFP)

http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/israels-badly-kept-secret-selling-arms-regimes-war-875322890
 
what about China-Pak selling the JF-17 to the junta there ?

silence...
JF-17s won't be used against the Rohingya. The best option Pakistan has is to gain influence in Myanmar and use that influence to impact their policies in the best interests of the Rohingya people. It's similar to what Pakistan did in regards to the Uyghurs.
 
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