All language subtitles for VICE.S06E05

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This week on Vice:

escaping an ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.

The signs in front are asking
all Rohingya to come in,

give their personal
information to receive aid.

The concern, though, is that that
information is actually being used

to repatriate families back to Myanmar.

And then, the cost of
keeping the peace in Africa.

What is the biggest
misunderstanding about the UN?

Most of the peace-keeping
operations today

are taking place where
there is no peace to keep.

They're saying that right
now, it's time for change.

This past summer, the plight

of a little-known Muslim
minority group in Myanmar

made headlines around the world.

Reports of government orchestrated

torture, rape, and ethnic cleansing

against a minority group
in the country of Myanmar.

These people, the
Rohingya, have been subject

to decades of
government-led persecution,

and with the rise of Buddhist
nationalism across the country,

this crisis has reached a boiling point.

A recent wave of brutal violence

has forced nearly 700,000 Rohingya

to flee into neighboring Bangladesh.

So, we sent Gianna
Toboni to the epicenter

of the world's
fastest-growing refugee crisis

to investigate the
future of the Rohingya.

This is the waterway that
the Rohingya have used,

in order to escape Myanmar

and get to Bangladesh.

We're out here with the
Bangladeshi border patrol.

Lieutenant Colonel Arif
is gonna give us an idea

of what the last few months
have been like for them.

Bangladesh's border guard
was on the front lines

as Rohingya refugees
began fleeing Myanmar

following the latest round
of fighting in Rakhine State.

After decades of persecution,
a group of Rohingyan insurgents

formed the Arakan Rohingya
Salvation Army, or ARSA.

They say they're fighting for
citizenship and basic rights.

On August 25th, they
launched a coordinated attack

on multiple security
outposts, killing 12 officers.

Within hours, the military
responded with a brutal crackdown.

In so-called clearance operations,

the military is accused of
killing thousands of Rohingya,

committing widespread rape, and
burning down entire villages.

We have seen the villages

burning very, very clearly.

All these places were
totally covered with smoke.

At the height of this crisis,

how many people were crossing per day?

In one wave, there'll
be 10,000 to 15,000.

- In a day?
- Yeah, in a day.

They have to cross this river,

but there were too many
persons in one boat,

so they was capsizing of the boats.

We have to recover lots of dead bodies.

As hundreds of thousands
of Rohingya flee,

Bangladesh have left their
borders completely open.

Many of those Rohingya are living
in Kutupalong Extension Site,

now the world's largest refugee camp.

This is one of the most densely
populated places in the world,

and just in the last few months,

more than 650,000 Rohingya
refugees have landed here.

The Rohingya have lived
in Myanmar for centuries,

and they're not officially recognized

as one of the country's
135 ethnic groups.

The government denies them citizenship

and claims they're illegal immigrants

that have crossed over from Bangladesh,

making them, essentially,
a stateless people.

Nearly everybody we spoke to

had photos and videos on their phones

documenting the atrocities
that they say were committed

against them by the military.

Oh my God.

Who filmed this?

Since the violence broke out,

the government has imposed a near
media blackout in Rakhine State.

But a network of Rohingya bloggers
are determined to find ways

to get information out of Rakhine,

though they face detention and arrest

if they're caught inside Myanmar.

We're walking to meet a
citizen journalist, or blogger.

He's one of the people who's been
sneaking out videos and photos

of what's happening, which
is incredibly important

for human rights organizations,

but also for journalists like
us who can't get access there.

How is information...

how are these videos
and photos getting out?

- So you have a WhatsApp group of...
- Yeah.

... of different
bloggers and journalists,

and that's how you're
getting the information.

What do you think happened to them?

What kinds of crimes
are the Burmese military

committing against the Rohingya people?

While some Buddhist monks,

like the infamous Ashin
Wirathu, are notorious

for perpetuating hate
speech against the Rohingya,

it's the military that
encourages those sentiments,

in some cases denying
Rohingya even exist.

Even Aung San Suu Kyi,

a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize,

has repeatedly defended
the security forces

from international criticism.

I don't think there's
ethnic cleansing going on.

It's a matter of people on
different sides of a divide.

Pressure continues to
mount against Suu Kyi,

especially when stories
of survivors are released,

like that of 26-year-old
Jamalida, who fled Myanmar

in an earlier wave of violence in 2016.

Jamalida tried to come forward

with her story in Myanmar.

She gave an interview to both the media

and the government, who claimed there

were discrepancies in her account.

On the Facebook page
for Suu Kyi's office,

a post claimed her story was
an example of "fake rape."

Within days of her interview
with the journalists,

locals warned Jamalida that the
military was searching for her.

As hundreds of thousands of Rohingya

flee persecution in Myanmar,

they're now met with
resistance in Bangladesh.

Local authorities are cutting off

all Rohingya access to
the rest of the country,

essentially trapping them in the camps.

All these Bangladeshi
police officers down here

are pulling over these tuk-tuks.

They're trying to
make sure that Rohingya

don't leave the camps
and go into Cox's Bazar.

Who are these people?

Rohingya. And so where
are you sending them?

How have the Rohingya
people affected your economy,

affected your day-to-day?

The Rohingya now
outnumber the locals here,

and Bangladeshi community leaders
are increasingly frustrated

by the impact this has
had on their economy.

While these anti-Rohingya
sentiments intensify,

the Bangladeshi government
is registering the Rohingya,

which could lead to what they all fear:

being sent back to the country

where they've been
hunted by the military

and still have no
citizenship or basic rights.

This center right here is being
run by the Bangladeshi military.

All the signs in front
are asking all Rohingya

to come in, give their
personal information,

and all their biometrics,
in order to receive aid.

The concern, though,
is that that information

is actually being used to register

and repatriate families back to Myanmar.

What are you doing here today?

Does it concern you that the
information you're giving them

is gonna be used to
repatriate your family?

Government officials running
the registration center

denied our request for
an official interview

but confirmed what we suspected.

Will this information be used
to repatriate these people?

- Yes?
- Okay. Yes.

Do you feel like it's misleading them,

telling them to register
so they can receive aid

when in fact the information's
gonna be used to repatriate them?

No?

Because they think that they're here

to receive aid, and that's
why they're registering.

They don't think this information
is being used to repatriate them.

- It doesn't matter what they're thinking?
- What they're thinking.

But this is their lives, right?

If they're repatriated,
their lives could be at risk.

In February, Bangladesh
turned over a list

of more than 8,000 Rohingya,

the first group meant to
be sent back to Myanmar

under the repatriation agreement.

As people begin to
talk about repatriation,

what's the fear?

Concentration camp?

These fears are not unfounded.

Myanmar recently announced the
construction of so-called transit camps,

where repatriated Rohingya
could be held against their will.

The continued threat of repatriation has

only exasperated tensions among ARSA,

the militant group whose attack

reportedly first sparked
this wave of violence.

This 20-year-old soldier
says he joined ARSA

after he was tortured by the military

and he was there on
the night of the 25th.

Plans for repatriation are in the works.

It was supposed to start today.

Does ARSA have any plans to attack

in protest of this?

The future of the Rohingya
remains more uncertain than ever.

With the start of monsoon season,

landslides, flooding,
and waterborne diseases

threaten to worsen the already
dire conditions in the camps.

Thousands of lives may be at risk,

and pressure is building on
the international community

to step in and help.

But so far, the US and
EU have done little more

than donate funds to Bangladesh

and issue statements condemning Myanmar.

And China and Russia
have repeatedly blocked

the UN Security Council
from taking action.

Vice cofounder Suroosh Alvi sat down

with UN Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres

to understand the role that
the global community should play

in protecting the Rohingya
from a potential genocide.

How bad is the Rohingya crisis right now

in Myanmar and Bangladesh?

It's absolutely terrible.

I have never seen a population
so discriminated in the world.

There were tens and tens of
villages burned to the ground,

violations of human rights
that are absolutely intolerable,

rape in horrible numbers,

and this is the worst crisis
we are facing in today's world.

It is essential that the
international community is able

to tell the authorities in Myanmar,
especially the military authorities,

that violence needs to stop
and that the people that fled

have the right to return and
the right to return in safety,

in dignity, voluntarily,
and that conditions

need to be created for
them to be well-received.

But is anyone listening you?

Well, there is people listening,

but there is not yet a unanimous
approach to this crisis,

allowing international
community to speak with one voice

and to tell the authorities
in Myanmar, "Stop."

What the Rohingya are asking for

are basic human rights,
recognition, and security

before they agree to be repatriated.

Now, this would require the
international community to step in

and for the United Nations
to oversee these efforts.

However, if we look at past and
current UN missions worldwide,

we can see that this
will not be an easy task.

To understand the myriad of complex
problems facing these UN forces,

also known as Blue Helmets,
you have no further to look

than their most dangerous
active mission, Mali.

I read something that you
said. "The world is in trouble."

I think I said, "World is a mess."

So, is the world in more of a mess today

than it was when you were
prime minister of Portugal?

Yes, I mean, we have a
multiplication of new conflicts.

When I was young, we
lived in a bipolar world.

You have the Cold War. On
one side, the United States,

on the other side, the Soviet Union.

And when things might
risk to be out of control,

the two superpowers
would normally find a way.

Today, we live in a world
that is no longer bipolar,

and you no longer have
wars between countries.

You have situations in which

in one country there are
plenty of different actors.

You have government troops,
sometimes international troops,

ethnic groups, religious
groups, political groups,

and those conflicts are becoming
more and more interlinked.

If you look for instance at Iraq,

Syria, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan,

you have fighters that go
from one place to another.

So there is a link
between all these conflicts

and this new, global
threat of terrorism.

This global terrorism
is best embodied by ISIS,

who have largely been
defeated in Syria and Iraq,

but is gaining momentum in
destabilized nations around the world,

most notably the Sahel
region of Northern Africa.

What does that mean in the
context of the mission in Mali,

what's being called the most
dangerous place in the world right now?

What you have in Mali is a situation

in which you have
terrorists groups operating,

but the Peacekeepers were sent to Mali

because of a peace agreement
with several of the movements

that did not include terrorist
groups that are operating there.

And so, in Mali, we
have a peacekeeping force

that has had more casualties
than anywhere else.

Correct me if I'm wrong, UN
forces, they can't fire their guns

unless they're shot upon, but in Mali,

they're actually getting
into counterterrorism

- and fighting a war on terror.
- That is the problem.

Mali is exactly the example

where the peacekeeping force by itself

will never be able to solve the problem.

The operations in Mali could be the key

to stopping terrorism as
it spreads across Africa.

And Secretary-General
Guterres gave one of our crews,

led by correspondent Aris Roussinos,

exclusive access to join UN
Peacekeepers on the ground

on their most dangerous
active operation.

We're about to head off

with a Bangladeshi
battalion based here in Gao,

all the way up to Anéfis,
about two days' drive north,

across terrible roads
and hostile territory.

The UN sources Peacekeepers

from all around the world,

offering $1,300 a month

to recruits drawn mostly

from countries like Ethiopia,

Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

Tell us about the convoy
and what we're doing.

What happened on 24th of September?

Since 2013, more than 100 Peacekeepers

have been killed.

That IED was one of at least seven
other attacks in less than a year,

along the same route our
convoy was now planning to take.

- Good luck.
- Thank you.

Mali became a hot spot for instability

after the collapse of the Libyan regime,

flooding the region with weapons.

Jihadist groups and multiple Malian
rebel factions vying for power

left Mali in disarray.

Today, the UN mission
here, called MINUSMA

is responsible for maintaining
a tenuous peace agreement

that only half of the warring
factions actually support.

Five years into the international
intervention in Mali,

and the security
situation is still so bad

that the only way to
bring vitally needed goods

up to the north of the country
is in convoys like this,

escorted by heavily
armed UN Peacekeepers,

like these Bangladeshi troops.

Some of the groups fighting here...

Al Qaeda, the Islamic State...

they've been fighting
the best-equipped,

most powerful militaries in the world

for nearly two decades now.

Do you think the UN Peacekeeping force

is capable of taking on
such a powerful enemy?

This policy cedes the
initiative to jihadist groups

like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State,

ensuring that they will always determine

when and where an attack occurs.

This leaves the Peacekeepers
operating on the front lines

in a precarious position

when unplanned stops occur.

One of the civilian
trucks, been escorting us,

had a mechanical failure,

so we stopped at this village
in the middle of the desert.

The UN Peacekeepers here,
they're handing out supplies.

These supplies are part of the UN's

hearts-and-mind strategy
to win over villagers

and limit the insurgents' influence.

Winning the hearts and
minds of these villagers

is a crucial part of the
peacekeeping missions.

The most complex perception about
peacekeeping is the following:

Peacekeeping was conceived,
as the name indicates,

to keep the peace.

And so the idea is, let's
have a force of the world,

Blue Helmets, that is
not supposed to fight.

The Peacekeepers were
supposed to preserve

the stability of a country
that has reached peace.

The truth is that most of the
Peacekeeping operations today

are taking place where
there is no peace to keep.

For outsiders,

entering these unfamiliar
areas can prove fatal.

In October of last year,

four US soldiers were ambushed

in a local village on
Mali's border with Niger.

US officials describe
a scene of confusion

during that October 4th attack,

involving some 50 ISIS-affiliated
fighters near the Mali border.

The Islamic State showed
off footage of the ambush,

which some speculate occurred
after local village elders

tipped off a jihadist group
to the Americans' presence.

Who is in control of this
area, this area of the desert?

You can see just above us is a
German Tiger attack helicopter

giving us air cover as we go through
what is an Arab-populated town

that's hostile to the
international presence here.

We've stopped here, waiting
for a civilian vehicle,

one of the trucks that's broken down.

That mechanical failure

placed us in a region
controlled by the MAA,

an ethnic Arab militia accused

of maintaining relationships
with jihadist groups.

Okay.

Last year, despite millions in aid,

reported jihadist attacks in Mali

were up 500 percent from 2014.

There's still a couple
of hours of daylight left,

but the Bangladeshi UN Peacekeepers here

are already setting
up camp for the night.

They're moving the civilian
supply trucks into the middle

and putting the armored
vehicles around them

for defense during the night.

The next section of the road,
all the way up to Anéfis,

that's the most dangerous
part of the journey,

the most hostile local population,

where the UN faced the most attacks.

We've reached the end of
this leg of the journey.

We're in the oasis
settlement of Anéfis.

We're going to be handed
over to next UN contingent,

but we're not entirely sure
which nationality they'll be.

That's the nature of working
the multinational force.

We joined Senegalese Peacekeepers

on their routine intelligence-gathering
mission in local villages.

The village is entirely
empty. There's no one here.

It's kind of weird.

What we saw in these contested areas

was a sense of distrust

between the UN and the locals.

And that distrust is driven in part

because the locals
often don't understand

what the UN's role in the
region is supposed to be.

As the attacks continue in Mali

and across the Sahel,

the deteriorating security situation

is leading some to call for
the UN mandate to be expanded

in an effort to stabilize the region.

What are the implications if
the international community

can't gain control of
what's happening in Mali?

It's not only Mali. It's
Libya that's not far away.

Nigeria, the Boko Haram,
is also not far away.

If these area fails,

this will have tragic
consequences for the people there.

But the instability and
the insecurity will spread,

migrant movements will
increase exponentially,

and this will be a serious
threat for all the region,

with very clear implications for Europe.

We need to understand the
challenges we face are global,

that no country can do it alone.

If we fail to do so,

I'm afraid the mess will get worse.

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- www.addic7ed.com -