Over 80 academics and activists say they are \u201cdisturbed\u201d at plans by Oxford University Press to publish a paper about the Rohingya by an author who they allege is \u201cbiased\u201d and has \u201cclose links\u201d to Myanmar\u2019s brutal military.<\/p>\n
The prestigious publishing house has commissioned a Luxembourg academic, Dr Jacques Leider, to write a reference article about Rohingya identity for its Oxford Research Encyclopedias series.<\/p>\n
Dr Leider is regarded as an expert on Myanmar and was \u201csenior consultant\u201d to the UN\u2019s resident co-ordinator.<\/p>\n
However, that official later suppressed a report criticising the UN\u2019s handling of the Rohingya crisis, sparking outcry.<\/p>\n
Now, in a letter to Oxford University Press, senior figures in academia say they are \u201cdisturbed\u201d by Dr Leider\u2019s own scholarship on the Rohingya and are urging the publisher not to run his paper.<\/p>\n
Signatories include two Oxford Emeritus Professors, Barbara Harrell-Bond OBE and Barbara Harriss-White, as well as Professor Richard Falk from Princeton University.<\/p>\n
Rainer Schulze, founding General Editor of the journal \u201cThe Holocaust in History and Memory\u201d is another signatory.<\/p>\n
The critics claim that Dr Leider, who is head of the Bangkok-based Ecole Fran\u00e7aise de l\u2019 Extr\u00eame-Orient, is a \u201cwell-known advisor to the Myanmar military\u2019s Armed Forces Historical Museum\u201d.<\/p>\n
Well-documented pattern of denials<\/strong><\/p>\n They say that Dr Leider was the only foreign expert to speak at a conference on the Rohingya alongside former military officials in September 2017, when Myanmar\u2019s army was reportedly killing thousands of Rohingya.<\/p>\n Dr Leider\u2019s co-panelist claimed Bangladeshi men had set fire to Rohingya villages, rather than the Myanmar military. The claim went unchallenged by Dr Leider.<\/p>\n Dr Leider\u2019s critics claim that he has a \u201cwell-documented pattern of denials\u201d about the Myanmar military\u2019s \u201cmass violence and scorched-earth military operations against the Rohingya community\u201d.<\/p>\n The critics warned: \u201cAnything published by OUP about the Rohingya and Myanmar will be given a great deal of credibility.\u201d Dr Leider declined to comment.<\/p>\n But an Oxford University Press spokesperson said it took issues of \u201cpossible scholarly bias very seriously\u201d. It added that the article was undergoing its \u201creview processes\u201d and a final decision on whether to publish it has not yet been made.<\/p>\n