Genocide 'not helpful' to Rohingya say Rohingya

From our correspondent in Singapore

‎In an email today to the Straits Times, Rohingya community leaders today expressed concern that genocide against the Rohingya is 'not helpful' to the Rohingya.

The comments come in response to independent analysts who have worked for governments, the United Nations and several international organisations with political agendas in Burma‎, who have expressed concern about people expressing concern about possible genocide against the Rohingya.

The analysts, with no legal experience and qualifications, described a legal analysis by respected organisations specialising in international law and made up of experts in international law as ‘incendiary rhetoric’ and called instead for an ‘accurate diagnosis’. They instead used the well-known accepted legally defined terms of the situation of the Rohingya being ‘extreme discrimination’ and ‘heavily marginalised’, which doesn’t sound nearly as bad and certainly won’t upset the Burmese government as much.

Another former UN official, fresh from a glorious success working on the peace process and who doesn’t sound at all bitter, argued that calling genocide, genocide makes it harder to stop genocide. He also said that the reports that genocide may be taking place, which have been widely reported around the world, were ‘distracting attention’ from broader issues.