Propaganda unit’s 117-page book contains
pictures purportedly taken in Rakhine state that are really from Tanzania and
Bangladesh
Reuters
in Yangon
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Violence
has forced more than 720,000 Rohingya to flee Myanmar to areas like
Kutupalong
camp in Bangladesh. Photograph: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
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A new book on the Rohingya crisis written by
Myanmar military propagandists uses fake photographs and a chilling rewriting
of history in what appears to be an attempt to justify the killing of thousands
of Rohingya over the last year in attacks by the army that the UN has condemned
as genocide.
The 117-page book, published in July by the
army’s department of public relations and psychological warfare, includes what it
calls “documentary photos”. A Reuters investigation reveals that the provenance
of three of the eight historical photographs contained in the book were faked.
The book purports they were taken in the
western state of Rakhine, when in fact one was taken in Bangladesh, one in
Tanzania and a third is falsely labelled as depicting Rohingya entering Myanmar
from Bangladesh, when in reality it shows them attempting to leave.
One of the photographs shows a man standing
over two bodies, wielding a farming tool. The text says the image shows
Buddhists murdered by Rohingya during ethnic riots in the 1940s. But a Reuters
examination of the photograph shows it was actually taken during Bangladesh’s
1971 independence war when hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis were killed by
Pakistani troops.
Another image shows a crowd of men who appear
to be on a long march with their backs bent over. “Bengalis intruded into the
country after the British Colonialism occupied the lower part of Myanmar,” the
caption reads.
The photo is apparently intended to depict
Rohingya arriving in Myanmar during the colonial era, which ended in 1948.
Reuters determined the picture is in fact a distorted version of a colour image
taken in 1996 of refugees fleeing the genocide in Rwanda.
The photograph was taken by Martha Rial for
the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The newspaper did not immediately respond to a
request for comment on the use of its photo.
Another picture, also printed in black and
white, shows men aboard a rickety boat. “Bengalis entered Myanmar via the
watercourse,” the caption reads.
Actually, the original photo depicts Rohingya
and Bangladeshi migrants leaving Myanmar in 2015, when tens of thousands fled
for Thailand and Malaysia. The original has been rotated and blurred so the
photo looks grainy. It was sourced from Myanmar’s own Ministry of Information.
Government spokesman Zaw Htay and a military
spokesman could not be reached for comment on the authenticity of the images. U
Myo Myint Maung, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Information, declined
to comment, saying he had not read the book.
The 117-page “Myanmar Politics and the
Tatmadaw: Part I” relates the army’s narrative of August last year when some
700,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine to Bangladesh, according to United Nations
agencies, reporting mass killings, rape, and arson.
The book is on sale at bookstores across the
commercial capital of Yangon.
Much of the content is sourced to the
military’s True News information unit, which has distributed news giving the
army’s perspective since the start of the crisis, mostly via Facebook.
On Monday, Facebook banned the army chief and
other military officials accused of using the platform to “inflame ethnic and
religious tensions”. The same day, UN investigators accused Senior General Min
Aung Hlaing of overseeing a campaign with “genocidal intent” and recommended he
and other senior officials be prosecuted for crimes against humanity.
In its new book the military denies the
allegations of abuses, blaming the violence on “Bengali terrorists” it says
were intent on carving out a Rohingya state named Arkistan.
Attacks by Rohingya militants calling
themselves the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army preceded the military’s crackdown
in August 2017 in Rakhine state, in which the UN investigators say 10,000
people may have been killed. The group denies it has separatist aims.
The book also seeks to trace the history of
the Rohingya – who regard themselves as native to western Myanmar – casting
them as interlopers from Bangladesh.