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Transcript/ScriptUSAGM SHARE
((PLAYBOOK SLUG: Rohingya Genocide Exhibit
HEADLINE: Rohingya Exhibit Tracks Myanmar's Dark Escalation to Genocide
TEASER: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum tells the story of the country's violent repression of the Muslim ethnic minority
PUBLISHED: Tuesday, 04/12 /2022 at: 7:46 am
BYLINE: Penelope Poulou
DATELINE: Washington
PRODUCER: Penelope Poulou, Mary Cieslak
SCRIPT EDITORS: Reifenrath, Steve Hirsch, MPage
VIDEO SOURCES: Holocaust Museum, Reuters, VOA Original
PLATFORMS: WEB __ TV X RADIO __
TRT: 4:00
VID APPROVED BY: pcd
TYPE: TVPKG
EDITOR NOTES: ))
((INTRO))
[[During a recent visit at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called massacres against the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar — a country also known as Burma — genocide. The museum’s exhibition “Burma’s Path to Genocide” throws light on how the Rohingya, once citizens of the country, have been systematically targeted and eradicated. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.]]
((NAT SOUND)) ((Mandatory Courtesy: Burma’s Path to Genocide/USHMM))
((Mandatory Courtesy: USHMM)) ((b-roll))
((NARRATOR))
In 2017, in western Myanmar, a country also known as Burma, the military attacked the largely Muslim Rohingya communities in Rakhine state. Soldiers burned homes, schools, stores and mosques. More than 9,000 Rohingya were killed.
"Burma’s Path to Genocide," an exhibition at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, describes the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar through videos, pictures, personal accounts and historic documentation.
During a recent speech at the museum, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the Myanmar military’s “widespread” and “systematic mass atrocities” against the Rohingya “genocide.”
((Mandatory Courtesy: Reuters))
((Antony Blinken, Secretary of State))
“Today, March the 8th, as I have determined, members of the Burmese military committed genocide and crimes against humanity against Rohingya.”
((Andrea Gittleman, Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide))
“I think that the determination by the U.S. helps guard against genocide denial and sets the record. I think Secretary of State Blinken was very clear in his remarks and his explanation of why the determination was made, to show all of the evidence — evidence not only collected here in the Holocaust Museum’s exhibition, but evidence collected by the State Department and by independent investigators, by the Rohingya communities themselves, to show that yes, a genocide did happen.”
((Mandatory Courtesy: USHMM))
((NARRATOR))
According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, since 2017 about 900,000 Rohingya have fled their homes in Myanmar’s
Rakhine state and found refuge in Bangladesh. In their testimonies, Rohingya survivors describe losing their children, husbands, and parents. Their displacement is a dire consequence of decadeslong systematic elimination, first through paperwork, then by brute force, says Andrea Gittleman.
((Mandatory Courtesy: USHMM))
((Andrea Gittleman, Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide))
“The Rohingya people who we’ve spoken with said there was a time when they belonged in Burma, in Myanmar. They worked as civil servants. They worked as teachers. They were allowed to go to university. They were allowed to access rights and opportunities within the country just as other people would. And, yes, they were a minority in terms of their ethnicity and religion, but they were not treated the way that they were later on, in the 20th century. …
((Mandatory Courtesy: USHMM))
((NARRATOR))
Gradually, Gittleman says, Myanmar's military regime chipped away at the identity of the Rohingya. Authorities in Myanmar confiscated their national ID cards. By 1982 the Rohingya, a Muslim minority within a largely Buddhist country, were no longer recognized.
((Mandatory Courtesy: USHMM))
((Andrea Gittleman, Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide))
“The 1982 citizenship law has been highlighted as one of the key moments that resulted in most Rohingya losing their citizenship and, as now a stateless group in the country, they said that formed the foundation for then more acts of discrimination, of persecution.”
((NARRATOR))
The Rohingya who fled the persecution now live in cramped refugee camps in Bangladesh, unable to move on, many falling victims to traffickers.
Noor Muhammed is one of the refugees hoping to escape the camp for a better life.
((Noor Muhammad, Rohingya Refugee)) ((in English, panned left))
“Living in this camp, the situation is very bad. We are living in one 90-square-foot room with eight family members: my wife, my parents and also my children. So it is not enough. At least in another country we are going to get basic human rights.”
((NARRATOR))
Gittleman says the Holocaust museum's Rohingya exhibition serves as a reminder that genocides must be prevented long before they happen.
((Andrea Gittleman, Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide))
“There are always warning signs, and there are things that can be done if policymakers were to prioritize the protection of the civilians, the protection of minority groups who might be at risk for mass atrocities …
((Mandatory Courtesy: USHMM)) ((b-roll))
…When we see genocide against the Rohingya, when we see attacks against civilians in Ukraine, it is so late.”
((Penelope Poulou VOANEWS))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Embargo DateApril 12, 2022 08:10 EDT
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
