Spiritual leader of Myanmar Buddhists. The leader of the Buddhist monks of Burma addressed the whole world. The international community is concerned, but there is no solution

When Suu Kyi was 15, her mother, who played a prominent role in the political life of the country, was appointed ambassador to India. Suu Kyi spent four years in New Delhi. The New Yorker writes that there the girl acquired the accent of the Indian elite and the habit of always keeping her back straight. In 1964 she left to study philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford. There they met their future husband, Michael Aris. He later became a professor of Tibetology at Oxford, and Suu Kyi herself wrote many articles on Bhutan and Nepal.

But they got married only in 1971. Having received a diploma, in 1969 Suu Kyi went to New York to a family friend. For about two years she worked at the UN as Assistant Secretary of the Advisory Board for Administrative and Budgetary Affairs. Rebecca Frain, on whose script Besson directed the film, found 187 letters from Suu Kyi to her fiancé. “I didn’t expect to find such a great love story in our time,” Frain told The Telegraph.

In 1973, the couple had a son, Kim (in honor of the hero of the novel of the same name by Rudyard Kipling), in 1977, Alexander. The couple traveled a lot - Suu Kyi served as an assistant to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bhutan, was a graduate student at the IIAS Institute in Shimla (India). One of the most memorable was the work in 1985-1986. visiting lecturer at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University. The Japanese newspaper The Mainichi Shimbun writes that Suu Kyi devoted weekends to searching for information about her father's life, including meeting with former military men who knew him. In The New Yorker, Suu Kyi recalled how her father's former instructor told her how he was different from other soldiers. Firstly, I tried to read as much as possible (by the end of the day, the rest fell down from fatigue and thought about how to sleep). Secondly, I tried to thoroughly understand each issue and develop my own opinion, and not memorize the statements of mentors mechanically.

A trip for a quarter of a century

According to Aris, Suu Kyi warned at the beginning of their romance that one day she might leave for her homeland. But The New Yorker cites the memoirs of an acquaintance of Suu Kyi who visited her in 1986 in Oxford. She was well aware of the situation in Burma (Su Kyi collaborated with the government of Burma in exile - the national coalition government of the Union of Burma, which met in the American city of Rockville), but did not show any desire to return home: “She was a housewife, conducted historical research, sought scientific scholarships."

But in 1988, the bell rang in the Oxford apartment: Suu Kyi's mother suffered a stroke and was hospitalized. “Su Kyi hung up and immediately started packing,” Arisa was quoted as saying by the FT. “I had a premonition that our lives would change forever.” Two days later, Suu Kyi was already at Rangoon Central Hospital. Many protesters against the authorities were also brought here.

The main religion of Myanmar is Buddhism. But there are about a million Rohingya Muslims in the northwest of the country. Many consider them illegal migrants from Bangladesh and demand that the authorities drive them back. Historians believe that the Rohingya began to actively settle in Myanmar in the 19th century. after the conquest of the country by Great Britain. The current aggravation began on August 25. The Rohingya speak of military attacks on civilians, while the military accuse radical groups of provoking the conflict, which attacked first and killed more than 400 soldiers.

In September 1987, President Ne Win announced that the 100, 75, 35 and 25 kyat banknotes were being phased out. As a fan of numerology, he left only 45 and 90 kyats - they were divided by a lucky nine. A wave of protests arose, the driving force of which was the students. Despite tough crackdowns, the unrest continued. Another outbreak occurred on August 8, 1988 - the events were called the "uprising of 8888". They were caught by Suu Kyi. On an August morning, she gave her first long speech to a crowd gathered at the Shwedagon Pagoda, a 98-metre-high gilded stupa in Yangon.

Although there were, according to various estimates, from 300,000 to 1 million people on the square, Suu Kyi did not look shy at all, writes FT. Behind her hung a portrait of her father. She began her speech by asking for a moment of silence in memory of the 3,000 protesters who were shot and tortured. “As the daughter of my father, I cannot remain indifferent to what is happening,” she began her speech and called the events “the second battle for national independence.” Thus began the story of Suu Kyi's founding of the National League for Democracy (NLD).

In September 1988, General Ne Win was replaced by the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) under General So Maung. The junta tried to blow off steam by placing Suu Kyi under house arrest (she went on a hunger strike to send her to prison as her comrades-in-arms, but to no avail, FT writes: apparently, the authorities did not dare to take harsh measures against the daughter of a national hero) and held parliamentary elections. But the NLD unexpectedly received about 80% of the seats on them. The military elections were not recognized.

Suu Kyi sat at home under arrest until 1995. She was inspired by the peaceful protests of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi, BBC writes. Therefore, when she was released, she began to agitate for unarmed resistance, speaking about the need for peaceful democratic reforms and free elections. It cannot be said that she was answered in the same way. So, on November 10, 1996, about 200 people attacked a convoy in which NLD members were traveling. Everything cost damage to equipment, not a single person was injured, writes The New York Times. Suu Kyi stated that these were people paid by the junta. The official investigation produced no results.

The authorities tried to influence Suu Kyi in other ways as well. When she came under house arrest, her husband periodically visited her, but her sons, who were 11 and 15 years old at the time of her departure from Oxford, were not given visas. At Christmas 1995 they saw each other for the last time. A year later, my husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer - and the Burmese authorities immediately denied him a visa. However, they made it clear that Suu Kyi is free to leave the country at any time, but it is unlikely that she will be able to enter back. Suu Zhi refused. Aris died in the UK in 1999 without seeing his wife.

Second arrest

Suu Kyi's second house arrest followed in 2000 as punishment for trying to travel to the country's second largest city, Mandalay. After two years, she received limited freedom of movement, but not for long. In May 2003, Suu Kyi's convoy was attacked again. This time, wooden clubs, iron chains and bamboo sticks fell not only on motorcycles and cars, but also on people, writes The Guardian. The number of dead, according to various estimates, is from four to several dozen people. But the driver was able to take Suu Kyi away from the angry mob. True, after a few kilometers they were detained by authorities, Suu Kyi was arrested and sent to prison. She fell ill there, and when it became really bad, she had to undergo an operation, after which she was replaced in September with a prison cell for house arrest. The law allowed to limit freedom for five years, but the terms were extended under various pretexts. For example, in 2009, Suu Kyi's American supporter John Yetto entered her home and, despite being asked to leave, remained there for several days to draw public attention to her imprisonment. As a result, Suu Kyi was accused of violating the conditions of house arrest and sentenced to another 18 months at home. When in 2005 the junta offered Suu Kyi a trip to his father's grave (the family had a tradition of laying flowers on the grave on the day of his assassination), she herself refused.

But then Suu Kyi was allowed to receive guests, and she took advantage of this right. Foreign journalists and local high-ranking officials, sometimes even leaders of the NLD, visited her. Suu Kyi told the BBC that at home she learned to play the piano, studied Japanese, meditated, read. She discovered the work of the British poet Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892): “Maybe it’s because of my age, but I have become much more greedy for poetry than for prose.” For 5-6 hours a day, she listened to the radio, trying to understand what was happening in the country, writes Time.

Liberal reforms and the way up

In 2008, the regime in Myanmar began to soften. The junta proposed a new constitution - according to it, a quarter of the seats in parliament departed the military, the rest were to be filled through elections, writes The Independent. The following year, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was on a visit to Myanmar, discussing democratic reforms and the release of oppositionists. As he left, he publicly regretted that he was not allowed to visit Suu Kyi.

In November 2010, she was released from custody - a week after the parliamentary elections were held in the country, in which the NLD refused to take part in protest, the FT notes.

State in Southeast Asia
Population (2016) - 52.9 million people.
Economic indicators (2016):
GDP - $67.4 billion,
inflation - 9.3%,
unemployment (according to ILO methodology) - 0.8%,
export of goods - $11 billion,
import - $16.6 billion,
state debt
(IMF estimate) - 35.8% of GDP.

“There are a lot of things going on in the country that people in the outside world don't seem to notice,” Su Kyi told the FT. - The day after my release, I said that I intended to create a social network of people fighting for democratization, and things started to work. I discovered the existence of many small groups everywhere, each operating in its own way. And now they are starting to merge into a single whole. The junta had a majority in parliament, but Suu Kyi said: "We need to work outside of parliament, that's what our network will try to do."

In March 2011, General Thein Sein became President of Myanmar. He surprised everyone with a liberal agenda – political prisoners were released, censorship lifted, and elections became free. Suu Kyi began to travel a lot not only in her native country, but also abroad. She visited Oslo, where she received the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to her back in 1991, Washington, where Congress in 2008 awarded her the highest distinction - a gold medal, Rome, whose honorary citizen she was named back in 1994. In the UK she was received as if she were the head of state, the FT notes.

In 2015, her party won the parliamentary elections - but Suu Kyi did not become president: two of her sons have foreign citizenship. The first post was taken by her colleague Tkhin Zhuo. But Suu Kyi noted that she herself will be "over the president" and "make the right and important decisions," writes the FT. The post of state adviser was created especially for her, de facto she is the main face of the country. She has neither rivals in the party nor successors, the FT claims.

Damaged image

“We are just beginning to teach the world about Burmese democracy,” Su Kyi told the FT two years ago. And even earlier she noted: “People increasingly want to take part [in politics]. Good connections help. You feel extremely lonely if someone beats you and no one knows about it. But if the police beat you and you can immediately go to the media and people will start to widely discuss what is happening with you and talk about you, it supports.”

This is what is happening now with the Rohingya. The conflict has been smoldering, periodically flaring up, for 70 years. But the farther, the more information about him appears thanks to modern means of communication and the more closely the whole world follows what is happening.

No sooner had Suu Kyi gained freedom than the West began to criticize her for refusing to support the Rohingya, writes FT. The newspaper concludes that Suu Kyi is powerless to contain the military, which still has a lot of power in the country. But the main complaint against her is that she does not even make statements that human rights activists are waiting for. “She has a moral obligation to speak her mind,” Woo Kyaw Win of Burma's Human Rights Network insists to the FT. “Unfortunately, she not only sided with the military, she supports propaganda.”

Suu Kyi echoes the official position that the Rohingya are "Bengali nationalists" who are incited to riot by terrorists. She accuses the media of creating an "iceberg of disinformation" and publishing "fake photographs taken outside of Burma" in order to create tension in society and promote the interests of terrorists.

Her peace-loving statements are rather vague: "We must take care of our citizens, we must take care of everyone who is in our country, regardless of whether they are our citizens." But many Rohingyas are stateless. Suu Kyi said last Thursday that it was "a bit unreasonable" to expect her government to solve Rakhine's problems just 18 months after taking office.

A petition calling for Suu Kyi to be stripped of the Nobel Peace Prize has received more than 400,000 votes on change.org. True, the secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Olav Njolstad, told the AR that such a step was not provided for by the regulations.

Buddhist monks march in support of anti-Muslim pogroms in Myanmar

Islamic terrorism has become a global threat in recent decades. Islamists are most active in the Middle East - in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. But a wide variety of organizations operate throughout Asia, from Yemen to Xinjiang. Some, like the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, claim to create a worldwide caliphate, while others, like the Taliban or the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, use Islamic slogans as an excuse for terrorist activities. But there is religious terrorism in the region of a different kind, albeit not as noticeable as Islamic. Christians in the mountains of India, Buddhists in Sri Lanka and Burma are waging an uncompromising struggle for their faith, trying to eradicate someone else's.

"Burmese Bin Laden" vs. "Mad Dogs"

Traditionally, Buddhism is considered to be one of the most peaceful religions, whose followers profess non-violence. It is unlikely that the Muslims of Myanmar and Sri Lanka, who regularly become victims of pogroms organized by Buddhists, will agree with this statement.

In 2013, more than 50 people died as a result of anti-Muslim riots in Myanmar, and Buddhist monks also took part in the massacres. It got to the point that thousands of Muslims were forced to seek refuge in Buddhist monasteries.

Ashin Wirathu, a 47-year-old monk, the leader of the Islamophobic organization 969, who served seven years in prison for his views and was released under an amnesty, has become a symbol of Buddhist terror in Myanmar. He has already earned the nickname "Burmese bin Laden" - for his intransigence and willingness to destroy the Gentiles.

“You can be a model of kindness and love, but you can’t go to bed next to a rabid dog,” Virathu explained. “If we are weak, the Muslims will take over our entire land.”

In September 2014, Ashin Weerathu attended a conference in Colombo where he promised support for another Buddhist terrorist organization, the Bodu Bala Sena (Buddhist Force), or simply BBS.

All power to the Buddhists

BBS was created by the monks Kirama Vimalajoti and Galagoda Atte Gnanasara relatively recently - in 2012. One of the main goals was to protect the rights of Buddhist guest workers working in the Middle East and facing a ban on worship.

However, soon the BBS activists went all out: they demanded preferences for admission to a university for young people who attended Buddhist courses, the replacement of school teachers by monks, and the cessation of archaeological excavations in sacred places.

The first high-profile action of the BBS was the attack on the house of the Christian pastor Dinesh in 2012: they claimed that he was secretly proselytizing, converting Buddhists to Christianity. Three months later, a mob led by monks stormed a law school in Colombo where professors were said to give higher marks to Muslim applicants, and a few days later smashed an establishment called the Buddha Bar for blasphemy.

Sri Lankan authorities tried to calm the extremists. Following the results of the January talks between the president and ministers with the BBS, a statement was published in which the supporters of the organization were urged to refrain from conflicts with representatives of other religions. True, the statement was issued in English, and most of the BBS followers, who did not know a language other than Sinhala, simply did not understand it.

A month later, 16,000 people, including 1,300 monks, attended a rally organized by the BBS. From the podium, one of the creators of the BBS, Galagoda Atte Gnanasara, said:

“This country was created by Sinhalese Buddhists, and it must remain a country of Sinhalese Buddhists. Sinhala country - Sinhala power. So-called democracy and pluralism are destroying the Sinhalese people.”

Gnanasara and his supporters called on their followers to unite against Christian and Muslim extremism.

At the same time, the struggle against “so-called democracy” did not prevent Gnanasara and his confidants from visiting the United States on a friendship visit in April 2013 - in this way, Buddhist radicals tried to improve their image in the eyes of American politicians.

Any attempts by the government to even hint at limiting the activities of Gnanasary and his supporters immediately provoked active protests from the BBS, whose numbers were constantly growing. And the officials retreated over and over again.

It all ended with mass pogroms in June 2014. The mob, led by Buddhist priests, robbed Muslim shops and set cars on fire. Addressing the jubilant rioters, Gnanasara announced: “We have the Sinhalese police on our side. We should not forget about the army, also consisting of Sinhalese. If at least one Muslim or another stranger touches any Sinhalese with even a finger, we will finish them off.

At the moment, BBS is still very popular among the Sinhalese. Gnanasara managed to demand an apology from Pope Francis for the "atrocities of Christian colonialists in South Asia" and condemn the Dalai Lama for calling on the Buddhists of Sri Lanka and Myanmar to stop violence against Muslims and Christians, until finally the court issued a warrant for the arrest of the restless monk.

The paradox lies in the fact that, unlike other countries in the region, both in Myanmar and Sri Lanka, Muslims are peaceful and not numerous.

“Of course, Buddhist terror is a sad reality,” said Fallop Tayyari, Secretary General of the World Buddhist Community, in an interview with Lente.ru. “Unfortunately, every religion has its extremists, and Buddhism is no exception. But in both Burma and Sri Lanka, the surge of radicalism is primarily due to tribal differences and the difficult political situation in these countries. In Thailand, for example, the problem of Buddhist terrorism does not exist at all.”

Christian theocracy plus socialism

In the north-east of India, in the states of Tripura and Nagaland, hill tribes live, Christianized by the British in the 19th century. Numerous mountaineer separatist movements have long waged a bitter struggle for secession from India and the creation of independent states, and many of these groups include a religious component in their programs.

Thus, since 1989, the Tripura National Liberation Front (TPLF) has been operating in the state of Tripura, which is considered terrorist in India. The TPLF states its goals are the conversion to Christianity of all representatives of the Tripura tribes, the expulsion of immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh from the region and the transformation of Tripura into the "Land of the Lord Christ." According to Indian intelligence services, the militants are in alliance with local Protestant Baptists, who shelter militants in their homes, help them acquire weapons and launder money.

The TPLF practices mass conversions to Christianity. This happens as follows: a detachment of militants enters the village, after which the locals are forced to be baptized. Men - at gunpoint, women - under the threat of rape. According to the police, every year dozens of Hindus who do not want to renounce their faith die at the hands of militants.

In nearby Nagaland, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSSN) has been operating since 1980, aiming to create a sovereign Christian state of Nagalim, which should include all areas of India and Burma inhabited by the Naga people. The slogan of the organization is "Nagaland for Christ". In Nagalim, they plan to establish a Christian theocracy based on a socialist economy. Ethnic cleansing goes hand in hand with religious cleansing - for example, in 1992-1993, the NSSN expelled the Kiku tribe from their homes in the state of Manipur. Then about 900 Kiku were killed, 350 villages were deserted, 100 thousand Kiku became refugees.

Indian services claim that the basis of NSSN funding is the underground drug trade with Burma and the resale of weapons received from Beijing and Islamabad to other rebel groups. And although on August 3, 2015, NSSN leader Muiwah signed a peace agreement with the government of India in the presence of Prime Minister Modi, it is not clear how long it will last.

Attempts by the Indian media to draw the attention of the international community to the problem of Christian terrorism have not yet been successful: the fighters for socialist theocracy are well aware of the importance of image and are actively cooperating with international human rights organizations, including the UN Human Rights Council.

Indian security forces are much more successful than Indian journalists. In 2009, 15 Christian Khmar people from the state of Assam broke into a Hindu temple in the village of Bhuvan Pahar. They announced that they belonged to the Manmasi National Christian Army, and at gunpoint forced everyone in the temple, including the Indian priest, to be baptized. After that, the militants disappeared, leaving as a reminder crosses on the walls, inscribed with their own blood.

Two days later, the police managed to detain 12 attackers, including the head of the organization. After that, nothing was heard about the Manmasi National Christian Army, although crosses still appear on the walls of Hindu temples in Assam and the date May 29, 2009 is the day of the Bhuvan Pahar incident.

Problem with no solution

Of course, religious terrorism in Asia is not limited to the listed cases. Hindu extremists kill Muslims and attack Christians in India, numerous sects operate in Korea and Japan (just remember the Aum Shinrikyo attack on the Tokyo subway). Many hotbeds of religious extremism, such as the Sikh in India or the Christian-Maronite in Lebanon, are dormant, but can wake up under the right conditions.

How to deal with religious terrorism is still unclear. The use of the army and the police does not always give the desired result: in the ranks of the security forces, as a rule, there are many representatives of religions, against whose radical wing they must fight, and they often sympathize with extremists.

The forum “Religions Against Terrorism” was recently held in Kazakhstan. In his opening speech, the chairman of the Kazakh Senate, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, stated:

“We are witnessing the expansion of the arsenal of methods and forms of terrorist activity. Radical groups have found stable funding, effectively use modern technologies and openly claim the status of a quasi-state structure. The answer can only be an even greater consolidation of civilized humanity. Our societies, primarily the media, will have to develop and implement ethical standards to prevent the incitement of inter-religious hatred.”

Representatives of world religions who spoke after Tokayev spoke a lot about the fact that no religion approves of violence and extremism, and called for condemning the actions of terrorists.

However, practice shows that terrorists are not interested in the opinion of religious leaders about their actions. Sri Lankan Buddhists from the BBS have already stated that they do not consider the Dalai Lama their leader, and for Protestant Christians from the Nagaland mountains there is no other religious authority at all, except for Jesus Christ. The universal solution, according to Tokaev, is “the eradication of extreme poverty, hunger and epidemics, as well as the settlement of military conflicts,” but this is hardly worth counting on in the near future.

Ashin Virathu AP Photo

The famous Buddhist monk of the Burmese community Ashin Virathu was depicted on the cover of one of the issues of the influential British magazine Times. The photo was published with the caption: "The face of Buddhist terror. How militant monks incite anti-Islamic unrest."

Later, Viratu himself disputed this wording, but today he and the anti-Islamic "Movement 969" supported by him are perhaps the main instigators of the persecution against Rohingya Muslims in the state of Rokhine.

969. Buddha figures

The history of numbers, which later became a symbol of the radical movement, began in 1997. At that time, religious affairs official Wu Zhuo Lwin published a 40-page pamphlet with the concise title "969". In it, the official tried to introduce a numerological component into modern Buddhism, understandable to believers. Another goal was to organize some kind of "numerological" response to Muslims, who often used the number 768 in Myanmar, behind which the expression "In the name of Allah, the merciful and merciful" is hidden. In addition, the number 768 angered Buddhists, because they saw in it an ominous meaning: if you add 7 + 6 + 8, you get 21. Buddhists interpreted this number as the intention of Muslims in the 21st century to make Myanmar an Islamic country.

In June 2012, the above issue of the Times came out with the monk on the cover. Virathu himself then stressed that he is categorically against any violence.

Photos from open sources

"I can't be swayed by such attacks. That's what I want to say about comparing me with bin Laden. Bin Laden had blood on his hands. My hands are clean. It's the same as calling a lion a fox. This comparison is absolutely inappropriate, " he pointed out.

Virat Quotes

"If you come to a Muslim store and buy something," he says, "you left your money there, which will immediately be used against you, your nation and your religion."

"Muslims are the source of all problems in Myanmar society, they behave arrogantly and insulting to Buddhists, and their main goal is the destruction of Buddhism as a religion, the conversion of Myanmar people to Islam and the establishment of Muslim rule over Myanmar."

"They do not choose means to achieve this and act in the most dirty and cruel ways. That is why Buddhists cannot sleep peacefully, how can a person sleep peacefully if a rabid dog is running around."

Photos from open sources

It is important to note that Viratu and his followers continue to uphold the idea that their activities are exclusively peaceful. The monk himself claims that he does not call for violence, but the fact is that the persecution of Muslims in the country intensified every year. Now they have reached a peak, which has already resulted in rampant statements by human rights activists about "genocide" and accusations against the military and the current authorities.

Last Sunday, Muslims rallied against discrimination against the Islamic population of Myanmar in Moscow and other cities around the world. In August, members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacked dozens of military installations. In response, the Myanmar authorities launched an extensive anti-terrorist operation, during which dozens of Muslims were killed, and which the international community calls the genocide of the Islamic population of the country. What are the reasons and why this conflict cannot be called religious - in the material of "Futurist".

What's going on in Myanmar?

The Republic of the Union of Myanmar - this is how the country began to be called recently, having got rid of the military dictatorship that has been in power since 1962. It consists of seven Buddhist Burmese provinces and seven national states that have never recognized a central government. There are more than a hundred nationalities in Myanmar. Diverse ethnic, religious, criminal groups that inhabit these regions have been waging civil wars for decades - against the capital and against each other.

The conflict between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists has been going on for decades. The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar. They make up approximately 1 million of the more than 52 million people in Myanmar and live in the state of Arakan, which borders the state of Bangladesh. The Myanmar government denies them citizenship, calling them illegal Bengali immigrants, while the Rohingya claim to be the original inhabitants of Arakan.

One of the bloodiest clashes occurred in 2012. The reason was the death of a 26-year-old Buddhist woman. Dozens of people died then, and tens of thousands of Muslims were forced to leave the country. The international community did not try to resolve the conflict.

The next escalation of the conflict happened on October 9, 2016, when about 200 unidentified militants attacked three Myanmar border posts. And in August 2017, fighters from the local armed group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, attacked 30 army facilities and police stations and killed 15 people. They declared it an act of revenge for the persecution of their compatriots.

The international community calls the retaliatory anti-terrorist operation a genocide of the Muslims of the state of Arakan - not only the Rohingya, but also representatives of other ethnic groups. Hundreds of people have been arrested on suspicion of terrorism. According to the Myanmar authorities, as of September 1, 400 "rebels" and 17 civilians were killed. Fleeing residents of the refugee camp told Reuters that the army, along with Buddhist volunteers, is setting fire to Muslim villages, forcing them to flee to Bangladesh. On the morning of September 1, Bangladeshi border guards found the bodies of 15 drowned refugees on the river bank, 11 of them were children. More than 120,000 refugees have crossed into Bangladesh in the past two weeks, according to the UN, sparking a migration crisis.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov demanded that the UN intervene and stop the violence. In Moscow, near the Myanmar embassy, ​​Muslims staged a spontaneous rally against the genocide.

Why do Buddhists hate the Rohingya?

There are several theories about the origin of the Burmese Rohingya. Some scholars believe that the Rohingya migrated to Myanmar (then called Burma) from Bengal, primarily during the period of British rule. The British annexed the claim state of Arakan in 1826 and facilitated the resettlement of Bengalis there as laborers. Part of the Rohingya came to Burma after the country's independence in 1948, as well as after the liberation war in Bangladesh in 1971. Traditionally, this people has a high birth rate, so the Muslim population has grown rapidly. The second theory (it is adhered to by the Rohingya themselves) suggests that the Rohingya are the descendants of the Arabs who colonized the coast of the Indian Ocean in the Middle Ages, including those who lived in the state.

The first serious clash between the Rohingya and Arakanese Buddhists was the Rakhine massacre in 1942. During the Second World War, Burma, then still dependent on Britain, was invaded by Japan. The Rohingya Muslims remained on the side of the British, while the Buddhists supported the Japanese, who promised the country independence. The Buddhist troops were led by General Aung San, the father of Aung San Suu Kyi, the current leader of the Myanmar Democratic Party. According to various estimates, tens of thousands of representatives of both sides were killed, but there is still no objective figure. After the Rakhan massacre, separatist sentiment in the region escalated.

The military dictatorship that ruled Burma for half a century relied heavily on a mixture of Burmese nationalism and Theravada Buddhism to consolidate its power. Ethnic and religious minorities such as the Rohingya and the Chinese were discriminated against. General Nain's government passed the Burmese Citizenship Act in 1982, which made the Rohingya illegal. It was expected that with the end of the military rule and the coming to power of associates of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi at the end of 2015, the Rohingya would receive Myanmar citizenship. However, authorities continue to deny Rohingya political and civil rights.

What is discrimination?

The Rohingya are considered "one of the most persecuted minorities in the world". They cannot move freely within Myanmar and receive higher education, have more than two children. Rohingyas are subjected to forced labor, their arable land is taken from them. A UN report from February 2017 says that Rohingyas were beaten, killed and raped by locals, the army and police.

To avoid violence, the Rohingya are smuggled into Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Thailand. In turn, these countries do not want to accept refugees - because of which they are subjected to international pressure and condemnation. In early 2015, according to the UN, about 24,000 Rohingyas tried to leave Myanmar on smugglers' boats. The remains of more than 160 refugees have been found in abandoned camps in southern Thailand as smugglers held the Rohingya hostage, beating them and demanding a ransom for their lives. When the Thai authorities tightened control over the border, smugglers began to leave people in "boat camps" where they died of hunger and thirst.

The problem of refugees has not yet been resolved. In particular, the government of Bangladesh in February 2017 announced a plan to resettle all Rohingya refugees to the island of Tengar Char, which was formed 10 years ago in the Bay of Bengal - it is prone to floods and there is no infrastructure there. This caused indignation of human rights organizations.

Aren't Buddhists against violence?

“In the world media, the theme of exclusively affected Muslims is heard and nothing is said about Buddhists,” says orientalist Piotr Kozma, who lives in Myanmar. “Such one-sided coverage of the conflict gave Myanmar Buddhists a sense of a besieged fortress, and this is a direct path to radicalism.”

Traditionally, Buddhism is considered to be one of the most peaceful religions. But despite the fact that Buddhists and Muslims are involved in this conflict, it is incorrect to consider it as interreligious. It is about the status of a particular ethnic group. Experts say that Buddhists have coexisted for centuries with the Muslims of Myanmar: Hindus, Chinese, Malabars, Burmese and Bengalis. The Rohingya, being refugees according to one of the versions about their origin, fall out of this "conglomerate of nationalities."

Ashin Wirathu (Buddhist name Virasu) was born on July 10, 1968, in the town of Chyaukse, Mandalay province. Spiritual leader of the anti-Islamic movement in Burma. Viratu did not even get a complete secondary education - he stopped going to school when he was 14 years old. Since 2001, he has been one of the main promoters of the 969 campaign and one of its fiery speakers. His status as a monk allowed him to travel preaching throughout the country, and so he became famous in many parts of Myanmar.

Movement "969"

In 1997, a Myanmar Ministry of Religious Affairs official named Wu Zhuo Lwin published a 40-page pamphlet in Mawlamyine, the capital of the southeastern Mon state, with a short and concise title, "969." It was printed by the Hla Phet Hla publishing house, which can be translated as "beauty on both sides." In this book, Wu Zhuo Lwin tried to introduce a numerological component into modern Buddhism, which, on the one hand, would be understandable to ordinary Buddhists, and on the other hand, would come from the foundations of the Buddha's teachings.

Such a "digital code", with a high degree of inevitability, sooner or later had to appear in Myanmar Buddhism. Numbers (especially consonant and repeated ones - “co-chow-cow” - “969”) are easier to remember, and a whole philosophical concept can stand behind one number. And Myanmar, with its traditional reverence for numerology (even at the highest level, decisions are made based on a combination of “lucky” and “unlucky” numbers) was simply doomed to express concepts in numbers. There was another reason - many mosques, shops and houses of Muslims in Myanmar are decorated with the numbers 786 - behind them is the phrase "In the name of Allah, the merciful and merciful." According to Buddhist preachers, if the number 786 catches your eye and you mentally read it to yourself, you are already praising Allah. That is, you, a Buddhist, are forced to pray to a strange god.

At the same time, the Myanmarese, accustomed to numerological analysis, saw another ominous meaning in the numbers 786. The sum of 7+8+6 is equal to 21, which means that Muslims are going to make the 21st century the time of the establishment of the total domination of Islam on Earth. And mechanically reading the numbers on the gates of the mosque, or on the wall of the Muslim teahouse, the Buddhist is thereby programmed to accept this idea and humility before it.

That is, Buddhist theologians and many educated Buddhists saw their task in opposing the numerological programming of Muslims with something similar, but with the opposite sign. Myanmar has always been a country with a high degree of religious tolerance. There are many mosques, Hindu temples and Christian churches and sects in Yangon, and no one interferes with people in their religious rites and ceremonies - which sometimes, in the opinion of a European, look rather strange and wild (for example, bloody public self-torture among immigrants from India). Therefore, there was no question of knocking down the numbers 786 from the gates of mosques, or removing tablets with this number from the walls. It was necessary to give something in return, so that the Buddhist, who caught the eye of the “Muslim” number, compensated for it ten times with the Buddhist numerological symbol that he had previously encountered along the way. This is how the number 969 appeared.

The meaning of this number is very simple - as it should be. In Buddhism, there is the concept of "three jewels" ("triratna") - this is the Buddha himself, his teachings (dharma) and the monastic community (sangha). The Buddha has nine basic qualities, the dharma has six basic qualities, and the sangha has nine basic qualities. (You can read more on this topic in Russian on Wikipedia - here: Тhttps://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A2%D 1%80%D0%B8_%D0%B4%D1%80% D0%B0%D0%B3%D0%B E%D1%86%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%8 2%D0%B8). Although the monks say that the Buddha, dharma and sangha have countless qualities, but it is 9-6-9 that are the most basic of them.

In fact, 969 is a mnemonic sign, an abbreviation that carries information that a Buddhist must constantly remember. This number does not carry anything aggressive, and is intended to eliminate the imbalance created in Myanmar between Muslim and Buddhist numerology.

In his brochure, U Zhuo Lwin urged his fellow believers to promote the number 969 in every possible way and place it in the maximum possible number of places for public viewing - on the doors of houses, on the walls of cafes and shops, on vehicles belonging to Buddhists (starting from bicycles with strollers, which are in Myanmar are called "saika", up to large buses). According to Wu Zhuo Lwin and the monks who supported him, a Buddhist, each time repeating to himself the number 969 that caught his eye, thereby repeatedly expresses his reverence personally to the Buddha, his teachings and the Buddhist monastic community. Since Buddhist prayers are not prayers at all from a Christian point of view (they do not appeal to God with a request, and in fact they are a set of certain basic truths and behavioral norms, repeating which, a Buddhist thereby “programs” himself for good deeds) , it is clear that the number 969 may well be interpreted as the shortest Buddhist prayer (although there is still debate about the place of the number 969 in modern Myanmar Theravada Buddhism).

That is, Wu Zhuo Lwin's book was not directed against any other religion, but rather was an internal affair of Buddhism. But, as always happens, there were people who were engaged in a creative rethinking of the ideas expressed in the book.

A few years after the publication of Wu Zhuo Lwin’s book, around 2000, the text “The Threat of the Disappearance of Race” began to circulate in the sangha and among ordinary Buddhists. it sometimes has in the ordinary consciousness of a Russian, and even more so it should not be interpreted in the context of fascist ideas about racial superiority. The term "national races of Myanmar" in official propaganda has long and traditionally denoted all nations and nationalities living in the country, with their culture and religious affiliation. That is, the pamphlet was about protecting the national and religious identity of the Myanmar people - which in itself is quite normal and does not raise questions. It listed and commented on 17 points of worthy behavior of every Buddhist in the defense of their religion. Nevertheless, only a couple of paragraphs were out of the general abstract and edifying tone - they declared that, while defending Buddhism, it is necessary to specifically counter Islam.

It is precisely because of these passages that such a pamphlet could never be legally published in Myanmar, since the call to oppose Muslims directly fell under section 5 (j) of the 1950 law punishing religious extremism and inciting sectarian hatred. Under this law, if the pamphlet was published, the author and publisher would immediately receive seven years in prison. Nevertheless, the book circulated in the "samizdat" version, and, judging by the number of copies, it was quite popular.

The basic principle of countering the aggressive expansion of Islam, according to the anonymous author of the pamphlet, was the "three refusals."

• First of all, you need to break all business ties with Muslim businessmen (including not buying anything from Muslim merchants and not using the services of Muslim craftsmen).
• Secondly Buddhists were not supposed to marry Muslims.
• AND, third, it was recommended not to communicate with Muslims at all and to avoid even casual conversations.

After the circulation of this text, the “three refusals” turned out to be so connected with the “969” movement, which arose spontaneously as a reaction to Wu Zhuo Lwin’s book, that they began to be perceived as an integral part of it - with which not all monks agree. Those who believe that the "three refusals" should be put into practice point out that they are not aggressive in nature. Nobody calls to be rude to Muslims, to fight with them or organize pogroms. You just need to ignore their presence next to you and ignore their business. And if they don’t have buyers, sooner or later they will close their stores and leave somewhere far away from you. Supporters of these ideas refer to the fact that such a practice is a classic embodiment of the principles of Mahatma Gandhi, whom no one could accuse of aggressiveness or extremism.

They point out that the campaign "969" from the very beginning assumed a peaceful cultural and educational orientation. Within its framework, schools were created at the monasteries, where the monks explained the basics of Buddhism to children and talked about the rules of decent behavior in society. Lectures and sermons by monks were organized throughout the country as part of this campaign.

Although there have been clashes between the Burmese and various Muslim groups in Myanmar since British colonization, the problems have escalated in recent years. It is difficult to say what triggers this kind of conflict. Perhaps these are echoes of the colonial past, which the Burmese associate with the influx of Indian Muslims into the country. In the future, this Burmese Islamophobia was skillfully used by various politicians.

Today, numerous socio-economic problems have been added to all this, which, and we in Russia are well aware of this, often transform into inter-ethnic and inter-religious strife.

One way or another, the 969 movement received wide support in society, and the monk Viratu became his ardent follower.

His sermons were distinguished by boldness of views and were, as they say, "on the verge" - although they were entirely within the framework of the peaceful ideology of the "969" campaign. However, in 2003, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for inciting inter-religious hatred, which allowed him to become, in the eyes of international human rights activists, also a “prisoner of conscience” who suffered from a bloody dictatorship for his beliefs. Not surprisingly, after the elections and the beginning of democratic changes in the country, Viratu was included in the list of political prisoners who should be released. That is why in 2010 he was released from prison under an amnesty.

The prison seemed to strengthen his conviction in his ideas. In September 2012, he demanded that the government deport the Rohingya back to Bangladesh and India. A few weeks later, new unrest broke out in Rakhine between the Burmese and the Rohingya on the basis of mutual rejection.

Perhaps Myanmar's largest Muslim community is in Rakhine State. The Bengali ethnic group of the Rohingya has, according to some sources, up to 800,000 people.

The year 2012 was marked by bloody events in the state of Rakhine. This conflict has fundamentally changed the minds of the Myanmar people. As a result of this, from the rejection of the "come in large numbers" Rohingyas, the public consciousness of the Myanmar people began to evolve to a complete rejection of Islam as a religion in general. Radicalization of public consciousness is always dangerous. The psychology of the besieged fortress was gradually formed, conspiracy theories were widely spread (that's when they remembered that 7 + 8 + 6 = 21). And under these conditions, Ashina Viratu's finest hour came.

Viratu proved himself not only as a good orator, able to communicate with ordinary people in an accessible and understandable way. He is also a very charismatic person, youthful, thin and with an open, charming smile. It is difficult to stand out, being, like everyone else, shaved bald and dressed in a burgundy monastic tingan. However, Virat succeeded to the fullest.

By the way, among the modern monks of Myanmar, perhaps, another example of such charisma is the monk of the older generation, the sayado of the Sitagu Spiritual Academy, whose name is Ashin Nyanissara. But Nyanissara is already 76 years old, and Virat has just entered the age of monastic maturity. And in my opinion, the relationship between these two sayados now more and more fits into the classic scheme of an offensive by a young “non-systemist” against an established “according to custom” system (conditionally, Navalny and Putin, if that’s clearer).

Moreover, Viratu, not formally opposing himself to the older and less radical generation of monks, in the current conditions is gaining more and more supporters - this was demonstrated by the meeting of the 227 most influential Buddhist monks of Myanmar, which took place in mid-June at the Dhammaduta Chekinda Yama monastery near Yangon. In fact, Viratu's opponents were not there - even those who were dissatisfied with his style and methods of action admitted that the issues he raises do exist and are critical for today's Myanmar.

Two other events contributed to Virat's popularity. First, in the June issue of the American Time magazine, his portrait was placed on the cover with the provocative headline "The Face of Buddhist Terror". This caused massive demonstrations in support of Virat throughout the country, and as a result, the government decided to ban this issue of the magazine from sale in Myanmar (it was also banned in Sri Lanka). And on July 21, near the place where Viratu preached, an explosion thundered and five people were injured. Viratu was unharmed, but the very fact of the attempt on the life of a charismatic preacher further increased his popularity.

Virat's sermons can now be found on the Internet (such as YouTube) and are widely sold throughout Myanmar on DVD. Virathu has his own interesting way of preaching. In many frames, he sits with his eyes half closed and speaks in a slow, monotonous voice, giving the audience the impression that he is expounding some kind of mystical revelation. He finds simple words to explain his position.

• If you come to a Muslim store and buy something, he says, you left your money there, which will immediately be used against you, your nation and your religion.
• If a Muslim swears to a Buddhist woman that he loves her and wants to marry her - do not believe him, he does it for money: if he marries a non-Muslim woman and converts her to Islam, he will receive a reward from a special Muslim fund.
• Muslims are the source of all problems in Myanmar society, they behave arrogantly and insulting to Buddhists, and their main goal is the destruction of Buddhism as a religion, the conversion of Myanmar people to Islam and the establishment of Muslim rule over Myanmar. They do not choose the means to achieve this and act in the most dirty and cruel ways. That is why Buddhists cannot sleep peacefully, Viratu concludes – how can a person sleep peacefully if a rabid dog is running around?

Such passages of Virat led to the fact that on foreign sites he was immediately dubbed the "Buddhist Bin Laden" and compared to Hitler. However, despite all his anti-Muslim rhetoric, Virathu clearly emphasizes that he is categorically against any violence, extremism and terrorism against Muslims, and that his main goal is to achieve the strengthening of the Buddhist religion and the Myanmar nation exclusively by peaceful means. In particular, Viratu said the following:

“I can’t be swayed by such attacks. That's what I want to say about comparing me to Bin Laden. Bin Laden had blood on his hands. My hands are clean. This is the same as calling a lion a fox. This comparison is completely inappropriate.

Right now we are just taking precautionary measures. We don't have offensive weapons. We propose laws that will protect our people and race. Does this mean that we are extremists? We call to love and respect our religion and people. Does this mean we are terrorists? I also have a video file of the interview so I can check if there is anything provocative. And I'm going to put that interview with The Times magazine on the Internet. After all, they did not print either their questions that they asked me, or my answers to their questions. Yes, and in their photo I look intimidating.

However, it was too late. Viratu has already become the epitome of violence. After visiting the places where the pogroms took place, he suddenly changed his rhetoric. Ashin Viratu denounced the violent methods against Muslims and refused to admit that the 969 movement was behind them. Moreover, he took part in various meetings with the Muslim leaders of Myanmar, which developed measures to prevent violence.
The 969 campaign, like any unstructured movement, has its ups and downs. Now - a relatively "peaceful" period. Buddhists who put stickers with the number 969 on their taxis and bikes are slowly realizing that they can lose their Muslim customers - who are often richer than Buddhist Burmese and therefore willingly use taxis. Muslim store owners hire Buddhist salespeople - and Buddhist buyers come to these stores with a clear conscience.