Carlos Sardiña Galache

In 2012 I began to cover the tragedy of the #Rohingya in #Burma, and for the next years I became obsessed with trying to understand it. I'm not quite sure if I've succeded, but the result of those efforts is this book, published today by @VersoBooks versobooks.com/books/3152-the…

@DerekTonkinUK @mabecker17 @FrontierMM Thanks for the effort.

@CSGalache @mabecker17 @FrontierMM Sardina undermines my perfectionism. It has to be Sardiña (MS Word paste), but I know I should do better.

I spoke with @CSGalache at @FrontierMM last week to discuss the hearing in #TheGambia v #Myanmar at the #ICJ about #genocide and the #Rohingya, which concluded last week. The full piece is here: mailchi.mp/frontiermyanma…

@DerekTonkinUK @mabecker17 @FrontierMM I guess Sardina is fine then.

@CSGalache @mabecker17 @FrontierMM Gosh, Carlos, that tilde looks really daunting. None of the shortcuts suggested like Alt + 0241 seem to work. Need to brush up my digital skills and Spanish.

@DerekTonkinUK @mabecker17 @FrontierMM Carlos *Sardiña* Galache, please @DerekTonkinUK.

An excellent, balanced commentary on the recent hearings at the ICJ. My only concern relates to Carlos Galache’s observation that: “During the latest round of hearings, the Myanmar team consistently called the Rohingya ‘Bengalis’, implying the Rohingya are not indigenous to Rakhine, but rather foreign interlopers from Bangladesh.” This implication in not supported by the facts. In their Counter-Memorial dated 24 August 2023, Myanmar stated: “2.107 - The Gambia makes much of the fact that the Government of Myanmar has never officially used the name ‘Rohingya’, and has instead referred to all Bengali-speakers in Rakhine State as ‘Bengalis’. The Gambia contends that the Government thereby somehow denies their right to exist, or to live in Myanmar. “2.108 - This is not so. The Government does not deny that certain Bengali migrants (referred to as Arakan-Mahomedans in the 1921 and 1931 censuses) settled in Arakan even before the British colonial period. It is a fact that large numbers of Chittagonian Muslims then migrated from Bengal to Arakan during the British colonial period. As explained above, further illegal migrations from Bengal then continued after Myanmar’s independence. There is no evidence that all of the communities resulting from these successive migrations from Bengal historically constituted one single group, and indeed, there is evidence that the pre-colonial and colonial-era migrants in fact regarded themselves as separate groups.” This was the basis on which the Myanmar delegation, which included Counsel of international reputation from the UK, France and Germany who were very mindful of their personal independence, honesty and integrity, decided to use “Bengali” throughout the recent proceedings. So while I would agree with Carlos Galache that the term “Bengali” used outside the ICJ frequently has the implications he sees, inside the ICJ courtroom, set against the flat denial given in the Myanmar Counter-Memorial that Muslims resident in Rakhine do not have the right to live there (apart from illegal post-Independence migrants), I do not for a moment believe that the ICJ judges would suppose that Myanmar considers Rakhine's Muslims to be “interlopers”, although as overwhelmingly migrants from Bengal over the centuries they can hardly be seen as seriously “indigenous”. Even so, their place of birth ought not to deny the right of those who are born in Myanmar and who are descendants of legal pre-Independence migrants to call themselves “Arakaners”, which is precisely what “Rohingya” means. I agree in any case with the concluding comment by Carlos Galache on this matter that “it is doubtful if the use of the word ‘Bengalis’ will affect how the judges apprise Myanmar’s arguments”.

@jfmoriche Cuidado con Gala y su antisemitismo, que poco beneficiaba a la causa palestina. elmundo.es/opinion/2014/0…

Qué distinta tonalidad adquieren una vida cultural y una esfera pública cuando su literato popular por antonomasia es un escritor formidable, ciudadano ejemplar y ser humano fascinante, como era Antonio Gala, o cuando no es ninguna de las tres cosas, como es Arturo Pérez-Reverte.

@gerclouds Curiosamente, hay quién dice que Trump es hipócrita a la inversa: un tipo relativamente amable en persona que hace el papel de hijo de puta en público. lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/…

La hipocresía es civilización. Y una bondad sincera generalizada sería más civilización aún, pero se empieza por alguna parte. Mientras haya hipócritas, habrá esperanza. Cuando solo haya honrados y transparentes hijos de puta, que Dios nos coja confesaos.

Se oye decir que al menos hay que agradecerle a Trump la transparencia. Nunca estoy de acuerdo. Yo muero en esta colina: la violencia hipócrita siempre es mejor que la violencia honesta. Si el vicio tiene que rendirle homenajes a la virtud, es que hay virtud en alguna parte.

Pressure from China has forced ethnic armies in Shan State to stop supplying arms to resistance groups in Myanmar’s central Dry Zone, leading to scarcity of guns and ammunition among PDFs struggling to hold ground against the military. Read story here: frontiermyanmar.net/en/hard-to-fig…

Muere la reina Sirikit de Tailandia. Ésta es la necrológica que escribí en 2019, cuando trabajaba en la delegación de EFE en Bangkok, y que ha estado seis años guardada en la "nevera". efe.com/cultura/2025-1…

Nobel Peace Prize for the far-right this year. No two ways about it. / Premio Nobel de la Paz para la extrema derecha este año. No tiene vuelta de hoja.

Conflict and a transportation blockade by the junta have led to widespread hunger in Rakhine State, leading residents to take desperate measures, from selling their own blood to killing themselves. #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar Read here: frontiermyanmar.net/en/nothing-you…

@jfmoriche Creo que quiere usted decir Asia del este (u oriental),no sudeste asiático, que es otra region, don Moriche.

La opción menos mala es que la interdependencia económica entre Japón, China y Corea del Sur atempere las pulsiones fascistas de Takaichi. La opción peor es que Takaichi se enardezca y dinamite el equilibrio regional del sudeste asiático. En cualquier caso bastante pavoroso todo.

@DerekTonkinUK @assesskaiser1 The US representative did use the word "genocide" (quite hypocritically, IMHO, as I don't think you can argue the "clearance operations" in 2017 are genocide and what Israel is doing in Gaza isn't, but that'd another matter) usun.usmission.gov/remarks-at-a-h…

Int'l community has failed its responsibility to Rohingya.UN needs to adopt resolution to form machnism body to expose hidden truth of ROGenocide & Wider recognition of RO-genocide is essential part of process to ensure justice & safety-dignify repatriation under int'l protection

Happy Birthday Shostakovich. Tea for Two - Fantastic! You won the bet.

OPINION | The regime is taking advantage of an international order in decline to claim a legitimacy it doesn’t deserve – with authoritarian states in the Global South increasingly opening their doors to Min Aung Hlaing, argues David Mathieson. Read here: frontiermyanmar.net/en/the-junta-p…

@EdgarStraehle Intuyo que hay muchos ejemplos como ese en todo el mundo. Claro que es mucho más difícil studiar lo que no fue que lo que fue, pero podría ser interestante estudiar diferentes casos como este.

@CSGalache Muy interesante. Gracias!!!

Este tema me interesa mucho y me gustaría debatirlo. Corregidme si me equivoco. Mi sensación es que se puede remontar la nación a antes (pero no mucho antes) del siglo XIX. Y también que entonces se difuminan sus contornos (en especial, pero no solamente, en el político). Sigue

@EdgarStraehle El norte de Tailandia, donde yo vivo. El reino de Lanna fue independiente por siglos, tenía su propio dialecto y rasgos culturales únicos, de hecho no fue parte de Siam hasta finales del XIX. Pese a su historia y rasgos culturales distintivos, no existe un "nacionalismo lanna".

También hay un tema más difícil que quizá no sé explicar. Hasta qué punto se pueden encontrar "fragmentos de nación", con ciertas formas de identidad anteriore a la Modernidad, que con otros hechos posteriores hubieran sido candidatas a ser naciones y se perdieron por el camino?

The March 28 earthquake in central Myanmar killed hundreds of Muslims and damaged many mosques, and survivors are forced to pray in makeshift shelters while waiting for permits to rebuild their houses of worship. #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar Read here: frontiermyanmar.net/en/shattered-s…

As Rakhine – one of Myanmar’s poorest states – comes under nearly complete control by the Arakan Army, residents are getting squeezed from all sides by the region’s worsening economic crisis. Read here: frontiermyanmar.net/en/the-price-o…

A deadly turf war between Chin resistance armies has raged despite Indian attempts to mediate, and comes as broader efforts to bridge Chin divides are stagnating. #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar Read here: frontiermyanmar.net/en/a-brotherly…

The AA’s offensives into neighbouring regions together with its resistance allies have brought Myanmar’s civil war to new corners of the country – and put the group within striking distance of key munitions factories. Read here: frontiermyanmar.net/en/beyond-rakh…

EDITORIAL | ASEAN is sliding into irrelevance on Myanmar The regional bloc is confronting Myanmar with a mixture of immobilism and wishful thinking, while other actors intervene more effectively – to the regime’s benefit. Read here: frontiermyanmar.net/en/asean-is-sl…