QUESTION 1: WHY DOES REUTERS MALIGN, DENIGRATE,

AND DEMONIZE BUDDHISTS SO MUCH?

QUESTION 2: WHY DOES REUTERS CONSISTENTLY
FOMENT HATRED TOWARDS BUDDHISTS?
By Rick Heizman, May 24, 2019

Reuters (believe it or not) has a ‘code of ethics’ called the ‘The Trust Principles’. However, it
seems very far-fetched to even pessimistically think that Reuters actually follows them.
Of the 5 Principles I am most concerned with numbers 2 and 3: (Bold is mine)

• 2 - That the integrity, independence, and freedom from bias of Thomson Reuters shall
at all times be fully preserved;

• 3 - That Reuters shall supply unbiased and reliable news services to newspapers, news
agencies, broadcasters, and other media subscribers and to businesses, governments,
institutions, individuals, and others with whom Reuters has or may have contracts;

On May 7, 2019, a Reuters article by Poppy McPherson and Simon Lewis, titled: ‘In exile in
Bangladesh, a bittersweet revival of Rohingya culture’ was published. It is intended to be
a tear-jerker bittersweet article, aimed at Westerns who know very few facts about the
conflict in Rakhine State, Myanmar, and what little they know is manipulated propaganda,
mis-information, and a false history of a people with a false identity. In addition, they are
bombarded with the denigration and demonization of the Burmese and Rakhine Buddhists
propagated by the fake news of Reuters and others.

• Realize that Reuters has NEVER said even one half of a sentence that is positive - in any
way - about the Buddhists in this conflict.

• Reuters has said NOTHING about the tens of thousands of

Buddhist, Hindu, and ethnic minority victims of the massive
attacks by the Bengali Muslim / 'Rohingya’ people on August
25, 2017, when in the predawn darkness Buddhist, Hindu,
and ethnic minority villages were suddenly attacked, burned,
and overrun, victims were hacked and slashed with swords,
slaughtered and executed. Terrified villagers had to flee,
many villagers were trapped for days and weeks, and the
overwhelmed and outnumbered army had to rescue villagers,
escort them to safely on roads that the Muslims had laid
landmines on, bring supplies of food and necessities to
villages (including Muslim villages which did NOT participate
in the attacks), evacuate the wounded, and fight the ARSA militants / terrorists.

1
 •Reuters NEVER even mentions the ethnic tribal minorities; the Thet, Diagnet,
Mro, Khami - who are in great danger as they are murdered again and again by
the Bengali Muslims. After a few killings of their fellow villagers the terrorized
and frightened villagers abandon their mountain villages, and the Muslims steal
their land. These minority peoples have no other homeland, and the Muslims -
whose homeland it is not - are very aggressive to these mild-mannered tribal
peoples.

• Reuters NEVER mentions ANYTHING about the

historical homeland of the Rakhine Buddhists, and
the legacy of the Buddhist Kingdom of Arakan, and
the deeply rooted Buddhism. And certainly
NOTHING about the colorful Buddhist culture of the
Rakhine.

FROM THE ARTICLE BY POPPY MCPHERSON AND SIMON LEWIS

Reuters:
In recent years Myanmar imposed debilitating restrictions on the Rohingya, a Muslim minority
demonized as immigrants from Bangladesh. They were prevented from traveling, gathering in
groups, and expressing their ethnicity. Getting permission to perform was nearly impossible,
refugees said.
“Back in Myanmar, we couldn’t gather more than 10 people, so how could we sing?” said Amir
Ali, idly strumming the violin and cradling his baby nephew.
It had been a long time since the band’s last wedding when, in August 2017, soldiers arrived
in their quiet village in northern Rakhine State and burned it to the ground. The sweeping
crackdown, which the United Nations has said was executed with genocidal intent, drove
730,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh.

Reality:
There is a stunning amount of manipulated, exaggerated, and false info in the 3 paragraphs
above. Addressing the first sentence: I’ll deal with the ‘restrictions’ in a moment, but to say
‘Rohingya, a Muslim minority demonized as immigrants from Bangladesh.’ is VERY devious
and manipulative.
• First, the term ‘Rohingya’ is a term invented in the 1950s - but only embraced by the
Bengali Muslims in the last couple of decades - as a political construct to foist upon the
international community in order to bolster a fake narrative by a people with a false identity
supported by a fake history. That Reuters and others consistently do not research or
investigate this subject is appalling, as there is so much evidence from so many angles.
• ‘Immigrants from Bangladesh.’ is absolutely true! They speak the same dialect of the same
language, observe the same religion with the same supremacism, wear the same cloths,
eat the same food, etc. It doesn’t matter which side of the Naf River they live, or had lived -
2
 their ancestral homeland, their cultural homeland, the place that Bengali language speaking
people around the world can claim as their mother culture is historic Bengal - now known as
Bangladesh. Likewise, there are Arakanese Buddhists living in Chittagong and other parts
of Bangladesh whose ancestral homeland, cultural homeland, and mother culture (or
fatherland) is the historic Buddhist Arakan Kingdom - now (more or less) Rakhine State,
Myanmar.
• About restrictions: First, there are NO restrictions
upon the Bengali Hindus - because they do not burn
villages and towns, and make so much trouble. The
Bengali Muslims are generally not citizens, don’t
speak Arakanese or Burmese, and generally do
NOT WANT to integrate, live in harmony with non-
Muslims, and respect other religions - and that is
why there are travel restrictions. HOWEVER,
Reuters tries to imply that they could not even travel
to a neighboring village or gather in groups of 10 or
more people. Look at the photos of Muslims
traveling and gathering, which I took in 2017 and
2018 in Muslim dominant areas of Buthidaung and
Maungdaw, and read the 50+ statements from
captured ARSA militants who describe, again and
again and again, traveling around Maungdaw,
Buthidaung, and Rathedaung and gathering in large
groups as they systematically planned and trained
for the surprise launch of a jihad - a planned wanton
genocidal ethnic cleansing.

• ‘in August 2017, soldiers arrived in their quiet village

in northern Rakhine State and burned it to the
ground.’ This half of a sentence is despicable in its
dishonesty, and clearly shows Poppy McPherson
and Simon Lewis as grotesque supporters of the
killings, executions, village invasion and burnings,
and human rights violations in abundance,
perpetrated upon the tens of thousands of Buddhist,
Hindu, and ethnic minority people that were
savagely attacked - by the Bengali Muslims on
August 25, 2017. In deconstructing the sentence and
the word play, they make it sound like, ‘one happy
day, soldiers arrived in our quiet, innocent, wonderful, weapons free, violence free, militants
free, supremacism free village - for no reason at all - and slaughtered, raped, terrified and
evicted all of our %100 innocent villagers and mercilessly burned the village to the ground.’
Disgusting.
3
• Read my prisoner statements to see how they admit, again and again and again, how they
were commanded and threatened by the ARSA militants, and the Mawlawis (Imams) to burn
their own home and villages and flee to Bangladesh, and if they didn’t they would have their
heads cut off under Islamic law.

The Reuters article goes on and on like this, pulling at the heartstrings of naive Western
readers, and reinforcing the denigration and demonization of the Buddhists.

While I can break down virtually every sentence in the article I think this is enough. You can
understand the point now.

IF conditions were really so incredibly horrible in Rakhine State, and SO MUCH better in
Bangladesh - as the article says again and again - why would ANY of them want to go back?
Now, they are in their mother culture, their ancestral homeland, their cultural homeland, and
for a lot of them it is even their birth homeland! They must feel relieved that they don’t have
contemplate learning Burmese language, and seeing Buddhist people, pagodas, and Buddha
statues. As well, nobody will be eating pork around them, nor offering flowers to Buddhist or
Hindu idols.

And, you and I can wonder what ever happened to the Reuters ‘Trust Principles’, particularly
these two:

• 2 - That the integrity, independence, and freedom from bias of Thomson Reuters shall
at all times be fully preserved;

• 3 - That Reuters shall supply unbiased and reliable news services to newspapers, news
agencies, broadcasters, and other media subscribers and to businesses, governments,
institutions, individuals, and others with whom Reuters has or may have contracts.

By Rick Heizman, May 29, 2019

SEE MY FILM:
THE BEST AND MOST ACCURATE FILM ABOUT THE CONFLICT IN RAKHINE STATE, MYANMAR:

ARAKAN - ANCIENT BUDDHIST KINGDOM, ENDANGERED BY JIHAD

4 Parts:

https://arakan-reality.smugmug.com/ARAKAN-the-CONFLICT-VIDEOS/MY-EXCELLENT-MOVIE/i-9PF8GTp/A
https://arakan-reality.smugmug.com/ARAKAN-the-CONFLICT-VIDEOS/MY-EXCELLENT-MOVIE/i-dg8SfKc/A

https://arakan-reality.smugmug.com/ARAKAN-the-CONFLICT-VIDEOS/MY-EXCELLENT-MOVIE/i-M2pkg2V/A

https://arakan-reality.smugmug.com/ARAKAN-the-CONFLICT-VIDEOS/MY-EXCELLENT-MOVIE/i-pbVdXqx/A

Photos and Videos of Arakan at: arakan-reality.smugmug.com - go to Conflict videos

Papers at scribd.com/rheizman
Email: rickmusic4@gmail.com
burmafriend88@gmail.com