Punks Protest Genocidal 'Happy World'
The silence belongs to the majority of Yangon natives who believe the Myanmar government narrative: that the Rohingya burn their own homes and kill each other for sympathy from western journalists. Some share the fear of conservative Buddhist monks: that Rohingya Muslims will one day outnumber the ethnic Burmese and replace Buddhism with Islam. Many who oppose those points of view, and the military's documented atrocities, stay quiet for fear of going to jail like Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.
In August, one year after the Myanmar government crackdown in Rakhine state that flooded Facebook with photos of dead Rohingya children and burning villages, the United Nations labeled the bloody campaign to push the Rohingya out of Myanmar a genocide.
Despite the crackle of western news reports on the over-crowded Rohingya refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh, Yangon's spring water festival parties went off without a hitch. The shops bustle as usual. The swan boats at 'Happy World,' Yangon's surreal and ironic amusement park, meander the water with fresh coats of white paint.
Reports that government soldiers continue to burn Rohingya homes in the cordoned-off Rakhine state get little attention in Yangon. In this alternate genocide-is-just-a-label universe, westerners are routinely hushed by locals at the cafes for discussing the government's violent military tactics.
The only natives willing to speak out against Myanmar's war against the Rohingya and other minorities are Yangon's small but raucous gang of punk rockers.
http://www.playboy.com/read/peace-through-punk-rock?fbclid=IwAR2Ho1vQ8nWKDqjuBC-_4GIYhbSYKm6dx6IrCOZC7vuIRkTsHh-VhvNnfiI
"Fuck the War! Fuck Discrimination!"
Shine Htet, 23, performs a song called "Fuck the War! Fuck Descrimination" with his band, Pyit Tine Htuang, at a punk show in downtown Yangon on Sunday, April 8, 2018. Yangon's punk-rockers and folk singers are the only people in the city willing to publicly oppose the Myanmar government's military campaign against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state and its violence against the Kachin and Karen minority groups.
At this particular show at the Pirate Bar, musicians blasted the military government and government informants with protest songs and fist-pumping speeches.YangonpunkmyanmarwargenociderohingyaIslambuddhisttatmedawmilitary
Razan Begam, Genocide Survivor
Razan Begam, 35, poses for a photo on Wednesday, February 28, 2018 in the Kutupaloung refugee camp in Bangladesh. Begam survived atrocities now denied by Myanmar military officials. Begam was hacked repeatedly with a machete and left for dead by Myanmar government troops while trying to flee the government's assault on her village in August of 2017. Her male relatives found her barely breathing within the remains of her torched home. Hiding in the forest to survive, she healed without medical care. Begam's left eye and left hand were cut away. Her nose and palette were halved; her nasal passage permanently opened.
Happy World
A young girl beams while paddling around in a swan boat at the surreal Happy World amusement park in Yangon, Myanmar on March 24, 2018. Although the United Nations labeled Myanmar's military attacks on its Rohingya minority a genocide in September, life in Yangon appears blissfully unaffected by the government's military campaigns in the surrounding Rakhine, Kachin and Karen states.
"Cunt Authority!"
Native Myanmar punk Min Sid sings his anti-government song "Cunt Authority!" with his band, Outcast, at a punk show in downtown Yangon on Sunday, April 8, 2018. Yangon's punk-rockers and folk singers are the only people in the city willing to publicly oppose the Myanmar government's ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state and its wars on the Kachin and Karen minority groups.
At this particular show at the Pirate Bar, musicians blasted the military government and government informants with protest songs and fist-pumping speeches.YangonpunkmyanmarwargenociderohingyaIslambuddhisttatmedawmilitary
The Rohingya Exodus Continues
Hazara Katu, 60, in yellow, finds a place to sit in a crowd of new arrivals to the Musoni refugee camp located south of Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh on Thursday, March 1, 2018. Her husband, Hasan Ahmad, was arrested as he fled from Myanmar government troops' assault their home in Myanmar's Buthidoang Township earlier that week. Hazara was able to escape to Bangladesh on a ferry with their youngest child.
Bangladeshmyanmarrohingyaatrocityethnic cleansingmuslimbuddhistislamwar
Buddhist Dance Party
A man dances at a concert near Sule Pagoda on the second day of the annual Thingyan water festival in Yangon, Myanmar on Friday, April 13, 2018. Free concerts, free food, and an around-the-clock drunken water fight would culminate the next week with the ringing-in of Myanmar's New Year.
Myanmar's water festival occurred during a water shortage in Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh. A few months after the festival, the United Nations labeled the Myanmar government's violent military assaults on the Rohingya a genocide.
Buddhist Dance Party 2
Men dance at a concert near Sule Pagoda on the second day of the annual Thingyan water festival in Yangon, Myanmar on Friday, April 13, 2018. Free concerts, free food, and an around-the-clock drunken water fight would culminate the next week with the ringing-in of Myanmar's New Year.
Myanmar's water festival occurred during a water shortage in Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh. A few months after the festival, the United Nations labeled the Myanmar government's violent military assaults on the Rohingya a genocide.
Fatima
Fatima, 20, poses for a photo with her son, Fahet, in block D-2 of the Musoni refugee camp in Bangladesh, south of the city of Cox's Bazaar, on Saturday March 3, 2018. Her father Roshit-Ahmad, 50, and her brother, Mohammod Ayas Aminullah, 30, were arrested by Myanmar government forces without reason in August of 2017. She has not heard word of them in months, since her village, Borgozibil, in Myanmar's Mondoung Township, was laid to waste by soldiers and border police.
Unwarranted arrests by Myanmar military continued throughout the spring and summer of this year. Fatima is one of hundreds of women searching for their husbands, fathers and brothers.RohingyaBangladeshMyanmarethnic cleansinggenocideshortagefoodrefugee
Water Fight Fun 7
People navigate a water station using the buddy system at an outdoor concert in Yangon, Myanmar, on Monday, February 16, 2018, the last day of the Thingyin water festival. Thingyin is four days of drunken water fighting with hoses, squirt guns, and buckets to welcome Myanmar's New Year.
Myanmar's water festival occurred during a water shortage in Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh. A few months after the festival, the United Nations labeled the Myanmar government's violent military assaults on the Rohingya a genocide.MyanmarThingyinyangonbuddhismhindutraditionwaterfestivalnew year
Water Shortage; Water Festival Diptych 1
At left, Rohingya women place their empty water jugs near a dry well at Tulabagan, one of the newest settlements for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh on Thursday, March 8, 2018. Tulabagan was built hastily on land formerly used to farm salt. The 208 families placed there had little to no water in March and April.
At right, a pick-up truck full of people get doused by partiers celebrating Burmese New Year on Pyay Road in Yangon on Monday, April 16, 2018 -- the last day of the Thingyin water festival. Thingyin is four days of drunken water fighting with hoses, squirt guns, and buckets to welcome Myanmar's New Year.
Boats of Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar's Rakhine state continued to arrive in Bangladesh throughout spring and summer, straining already low food and water supplies. A few months after the festival, the United Nations labeled the Myanmar government's violent military assaults on the Rohingya a genocide.
Hossain Ali
Hossain Ali, 19, poses for a photo in the Musoni refugee camp in Bangladesh on Tuesday, March 6, 2018. Hossain witnessed his aunt, uncle and baby cousin die from Myanmar government rifle fire last August. His parents have emigrated to Buffalo, NY. They have begun the fight to get him removed from the camp and resettled in the United States. Although his family has already found a home in Western New York, Hossain, a military-age Muslim male, is still considered "highly undesirable" as a candidate for resettlement in the Trump era according to Kathy Spillman, Director of Special programs at the Journey's End, a refugee placement agency in Buffalo.
RohingyaMyanmarbuddhistbangladeshIslammuslimgenocideethnic cleansingrefugeeinternationalworldglobe
Rohingya Refugee Gathering News in BaluKhali
Rohingya men gather to watch a violent viral cell phone video in the Balukhali refugee camp in Bangladesh on Friday, March 9, 2018. Videos and pictures of the Myanmar Military performing beheadings, summary executions, and desecrating the dead bodies of Rohingya villagers in Rhakine state regularly travel to the refugee camps via text message or Facebook.
RohingyaBuddhistMyanmarburmaatrocitymilitarygenocideethnic cleansing
Yangon Punks Mosh
Native Myanmar punks rock out at a show in downtown Yangon on Sunday, April 8, 2018. Yangon's punk-rockers and folk singers are the only people in the city willing to publicly oppose the Myanmar government's ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state; and it's wars on the Kachin and Karen minority groups.
At this particular show at the Pirate Bar, musicians blasted the military government and government informants with protest songs and speeches.YangonpunkmyanmarwargenociderohingyaIslambuddhisttatmedawmilitary
My Buddha is Punk
At left, punk musician Kyaw Thu Win straightens his mohawk with a prayer-like gesture and the help of a blow-dryer in his Yangon apartment on Saturday, April 21, 2018. The outspoken rocker has called for a less conservative interpretation of Buddhism in Myanmar, one that peacefully coexists with the Muslim and Christian minorities. "My Buddha is Punk," a documentary about Kyaw Thu Win and his band, Rebel Riot, was released on Vimeo this year.
At left, Buddhist devotees pray at Schwedagon Pagoda in Yangon on Sunday, April 22, 2018.
Elephant Rampage Survivor
Mohomod Amin,16, rests his broken leg on Friday, February 23, 2018 at the Kutupaloung hospital next to his grandmother, Noor Nahar. The night before, Amin found himself in the path of a migrating elephant crossing the Kutupaloung refugee camp in southern Bangladesh, where he resides. The elephant grabbed him by the ankle with its trunk and tossed Amin over its back. Migrating elephants, food shortages and little electricity are part of life in the camps. That elephant destoryed a dozen homes, killed a young boy and a woman, and broke another man's leg before finding his way out of the camps.
Mass executions and gang rapes by the Myanmar military have pushed thousands of Rohingya refugees to neighboring Bangladesh since August last year.rohingyamyanmarethnic cleansingbangladeshpovertyrefugeeelephantbuddhistIslam
Shafi-Alam and His Two Daughters in Kutupaloung
Shafi-Alam, 22, in blue, poses for a photo in a blue 'Merica t-shirt on Friday, February 23, 2018. He stands in the place where a migrating elephant entered his bamboo shelter in the Balukhali refugee camp located south of the city of Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Migrating elephants, food shortages and little electricity are part of life in the camps. Mass executions and gang rapes by the Myanmar military have pushed 700,000 Rohingya Muslims into neighboring Bangladesh since August last year.
Myanmar citizens remain in the dark regarding their government's violent tactics. Many insist the Rohingya have killed each other and burned their own houses down in Myanmar's Rakhine state to gain sympathy from the Western media.
Kunsuma's Elephant Trampled Home 2
Kunsuma, 60, sits in the shade of her broken bamboo shelter on Friday, February 23, 2018. A migrating elephant trampled her shelter and 9 others in the Kutupaloung refugee camp, located south of the city of Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Migrating elephants, food shortages and little electricity are part of life in the camps. Mass executions and gang rapes by the Myanmar military have pushed thousands of Rohingya refugees to neighboring Bangladesh since August last year.
Man With Rice Rations
A Rohingya man carries a bag of rice through the crowd gathered around the World Food Program distribution center near the Musoni refugee camp located in Bangladesh, south of the city of Cox's Bazaar, on Saturday March 3, 2018. Musoni residents said rice rations have been stretched thin with the arrival of thousands of new Rohingya refugees fleeing the violence in Myanmar that began last October.
Yangon Punk's Next Generation
Punk rockers gather in Maha Badula Park in Yangon on Thursday, April 12, 2018. At right, Kyaw Zin Htwe, 23, and young Kaung Kaung represented two generations of the scene. Punk-rockers routinely perform at elementary schools to expose children to art and music outside traditional Burmese works.
Yangon's punks are the only Myanmar natives publicly critical of the military government's ethnic cleansing campaign targeting Rohingya Muslims in the northwestern Rakhine state.
Momasufite
Momasufite, 5, poses for a photo in the Balukhali refugee camp in Bangladesh on Friday, March 9, 2018. Momasufite's head was badly burned when Myanmar government soldiers set fire to his home in the village of Dargwahar in Myanmar's Moangdaw township.
RohingyaBuddhistMyanmarburmaatrocitymilitarygenocideethnic cleansing
Kyaw Thu Win
Kyaw Thu Win, the founding father of the Yangon punk scene, performs at the Pirate bar in downtown Yangon on Sunday, April 8, 2018. Yangon's punk rockers and folk singers are the only people in the city willing to publicly oppose the Myanmar government's ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state; and its wars on the Kachin and Karen minority groups.
YangonpunkmyanmarwargenociderohingyaIslambuddhisttatmedawmilitary
Water Shortage; Water Festival Diptych 2
At left, A man gets soaked at an outdoor concert in Yangon, Myanmar on Monday, April 16, 2018, the last day of the Thingyin water festival. Thingyin is four days of drunken water fighting with hoses, squirt guns, and buckets to welcome Myanmar's New Year.
At right, Ahmad Rovick, 20, pumps the last drops of water from a failing well in the Tulabagan refugee camp in Bangladesh on Tuesday, March 6, 2018. Three dozen families have lined up their jerry cans near the parched water source. Myanmar government violence has pushed over 700,000 refugees from Myanmar's Rakhine state to camps in Bangladesh since last August. All of them experience regular shortages in food, water, medicine and electricity.
Potable water is particularly rare in Tulabagan, which was constructed with haste for 208 displaced families six months ago on top of land previously used to farm salt.
Hapsa
Hapsa Bibi, a mentally ill 25-year-old, lies with her hands and feet bound on the floor of her mother's bamboo shelter in the Balukhali refugee camp in Bangladesh on Friday, March 9, 2018. Unable to cope with her erratic and violent behavior, Hapsa's mother has restrained her nearly every day since she arrived in Bangladesh three months ago. Hapsa's mother ties her up because she attacks people in the camp's bazaar. While fleeing her village in Rakhine state, Hapsa was beaten severely for several hours by a group of Myanmar soldiers. The physical scars from that beating have healed. The psychological scars have not.
RohingyaBuddhistMyanmarburmaatrocitymilitarygenocideethnic cleansingPTSDimmigrationdoctors without borders
Yangon Punks at the Pirate Bar, April 2018
Native Myanmar punks rock out at a show in downtown Yangon on Sunday, April 4, 2018. Yangon's punk-rockers and folk singers are the only people in the city willing to publicly oppose the Myanmar government's ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state; and its wars on the Kachin and Karen minority groups.
At this particular show at the Pirate Bar, musicians blasted the military government and government informants with protest songs and fist-pumping speeches.YangonpunkmyanmarwargenociderohingyaIslambuddhisttatmedawmilitary
Rohingya Man Looks Away from his X-ray
Amin Ullah looks away while x-rays of his injured spine are reviewed by his family in this bamboo shelter in the Musoni refugee camp in Bangladesh on Wednesday, March 7, 2018. He was beaten with rifle butts by Myanmar soldiers while fleeing violence in Rakhine state in August of 2017.
New Construction in Musoni Refugee Camp
Men sit in the shade on a ridge in the Musoni refugee camp in Bangladesh on Wednesday, March 7, 2018. With the influx of 800,000 new refugees since last August, all of the camps in southeastern Bangladesh have undergone new upward construction and seen shortages in food, medicine and electricity.
The new shelters, cut into the region's dusty hills, are in danger of collapsing with sliding mud during the monsoon season, residents said.RohingyaMyanmarbuddhistbangladeshIslammuslimgenocideethnic cleansingrefugeeinternationalworldglobe
Yangon Youth Diptych
At left, a group of young monks, discussing the meaning of a fallen leaf, stroll through Schwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar on Sunday, April 22, 2018. Myanmar's conservative Buddhists have been criticized by the international community for supporting policies that limited education and medical care for the Rohingya Muslim minority.
At right, Yangon punk rocker Min Sid breaks the pagoda rules of conduct by taking a smoke break while devotees circle statues of Buddha at Schwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar on Sunday, April 22, 2018. Schwedagon is Myanmar's most sacred Buddhist temple. Some monks have used their platform to warn that intermarriage between Buddhists and Muslims will degrade Myanmar's culture. Min Sid and Yangon's punk rockers are one of the few groups willing to publicly protest religious stereotypes and government sanctioned violence against the Rohingya and other Myanmar minorities.
Boys at Myanmar's Thingyin Water Festival
A pick-up truck full of boys get doused at a water station on Pyay road in Yangon, Myanmar on Monday, February 16, 2018, the last day of the Thingyin water festival. Thingyin is four days of drunken water fighting with hoses, squirt guns, and buckets to welcome Myanmar's New Year.
Boats of Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar's Rakhine state continued to arrive in Bangladesh throughout spring and summer, straining already low food and water supplies in the refugee camps. A few months after the festival, the United Nations labeled the Myanmar government's violent military assaults on the Rohingya a genocide.MyanmarThingyinyangonbuddhismhindutraditionwaterfestivalnew year
Lost Families
Rohingya men and women who have fled the village of Borgozabil, in Myanmar's Moangdaw township, show photos of missing familiy members in the Lehda refugee camp in Bangladesh on Friday, March 2, 2018. Hundreds of Rohingya were arrested last August and October when the Myanmar government's military crackdown was at its worst. These refugees and many others have not heard from their relatives in over eight months.
Punks Gather at Pirate Bar in Yangon to Stop the War
Native Myanmar punks gather outside a music performance at the Pirate bar in downtown Yangon on Sunday, April 8, 2018. Yangon's punk-rockers and folk singers are the only people in the city willing to publicly oppose the Myanmar government's ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state, and its decades-long wars against the Kachin and Karen minority groups.
Musicians blasted the military government and government informants with protest songs and fist-pumping rally-cries for unity against them.YangonpunkmyanmarwargenociderohingyaIslambuddhisttatmedawmilitary
Young Couple in Yangon During Thingyan
A young couple gets soaked in the back of a pickup truck in Yangon, Myanmar, on Monday, April 16, 2018, the last day of the Thingyin water festival. Thingyin is four days of drunken water fighting with hoses, squirt guns, and buckets to welcome Myanmar's New Year.
Boats of Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar's Rakhine state continued to arrive in Bangladesh throughout the month of April, straining already low food and water supplies. A few months after the festival, the United Nations labeled the Myanmar government's violent military assaults on the Rohingya in Rakhine a genocide.MyanmarThingyinyangonbuddhismhindutraditionwaterfestivalnew year
Spoils of War
Cattle gather, waiting to be sold, at Bangladesh's Shah Porir Dwip port area on Friday, March 2, 2018. Bangladeshi buyers said the livestock was shipped in from Sittwe, Myanmar. Rohingya refugees in the area said these cattle were the spoils of war. The Rohingya claimed they were stolen en masse recently by the Myanmar military when soldiers burned Rohingya homes in Myanmar's Buthidong and Moangdaw townships earlier in the year.
RohingyaBuddhistMyanmarburmaatrocitymilitarygenocideethnic cleansingPTSDimmigrationdoctors without borderscattle theft
Montas
Montas Begam, 30, poses for a photo with her daughter Rosie, 7, in the Balukhali refugee camp in Bangladesh on Friday, March 9, 2018. Montas was raped and then burned with hot sticks on her thighs, chest and face while fleeing a military assault on her village, Tulatulee, in Myanmar's Maungdaw Township last August. Life in the camps hasn't been easy on Rosie, who is often plagued with skin parasites that make her itch.
Burmese Woody Guthrie
Yangon Folk Singer and protest song writer Zin Linn, 22, poses for a photo at People's Park in Yangon on Wednesday, April 11, 2018. According to Linn, protests of government militarism have gone down since Aung San Suu Kyi was elected in 2015, but violence has risen. With songs like "Free IDPs (internally displaced persons) Now!" Linn and a small group of local punk rockers are the only natives in Yangon who publicly criticize the Myanmar government's military campaign against its Rohingya Muslim and Kachin Christian populations.
Listen to some of Zin Linn's recordings here: https://www.facebook.com/zinlinnangryfolks/?eid=ARAyqhfITIY0E84DglRa7vK6HVuHqFT52o2JbKeSSQuuXDdarqTey4-S9vo9CO3jXIrwJmgDmsIkN-h8&timeline_context_item_type=intro_card_work&timeline_context_item_source=100004909750013&fref=tagRohingyaIslamMyanmarBuddist. terrorwargenocideethnic cleansing
Myanmar Devotees Wash Buddha
Devotees wash statues of Buddha at Schwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar, on Sunday, April 22, 2018. Schwedagon in Myanmar's most sacred Buddhist temple. Some monks have used their platform to warn that intermarriage between Buddhists and Muslims will lead to a Muslim takeover of Myanmar culture.
RohingyaBuddhistMyanmarBangladeshethnic cleansinggenocidewarhumanitarian
Golden Buddhist Swastika
Men walk passed a golden Buddhist swastika while praying at the Botataung Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar, on Sunday, March 18, 2018. An ancient symbol of the pacifist path of the Buddha, the Buddhist swastika has this year been compared to the Nazi swastika after the United Nations called Myanmar's Buddhist government's attacks on its Rohingya Muslim minorities a genocide.
Myanmar's violent scorched-earth campaign in Rakhine State has pushed nearly 700,000 Rohingya men, women and children from their villages to refugee camps in Bangladesh. It has been compared to the way the German Nazi party targeted European Jews in the 1930s and 40s.RohingyaMyanmarBuddhismgenocideethnic cleansingnaziswartatmedawatrocityhuman rights