In what has swiftly become the world’s latest tragic humanitarian crisis, the truly hapless victims are the Rohingya people of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). Despite the Burmese government’s statements to the contrary, not for an instant has there been any question among human rights activists about what they were witnessing: vengeance, pure and simple, used as an excuse to undertake full-blown ethnic cleansing and, hence, genocidal actions. But a top UN human rights official this past week formalized that assessment, calling Myanmar’s persecution of minority Rohingya Muslims a case of “textbook ethnic cleansing”. More than 400,000 Rohingya have been forced to flee to Bangladesh. Addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the institution’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, referred to the Myanmar military’s attacks on the Rohingya community in Rakhine State as a “brutal security operation” that represented a “clearl...
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Author Roberto Vivo comments on wars past and present, on the world’s great peacemakers and on the pathway to global peace. His basic philosophy: In a world where 9 out of every 10 victims of armed conflict are civilians, war is no longer a viable political alternative. Indeed, it is the ultimate crime against humanity. If rising generations are to have a future, the key will lie in world peace. War is the pathway to oblivion.