Maung Daw, Arakan - U Aung Kyaw Zin, an intelligence officer from Special Investigation Department (SaSaSa), has been extorting money from Rohingyas in Alay Than Kyaw, Southern Maung Daw, under the NaSaKa (Border Security Force) Commandment Area 7 on daily basis through various means.
"Every week, every shop in the village of Alay Than Kyaw has to pay Kyat 1000 to his office as extortion money. Rohingyas from the surrounding villages are also suffering from similar tortures" said a local villager.
Yesterday (i.e. on 24.05.2013), he arrested and detained Mv. Abdu Shukkor S/o Shafikur Rahman accusing that his younger brother, Hefzur Rahman, from the village of Udaung, under NaSaKa commandment area 8, stayed illegally at his (Hefzur Rahman's) own mother-in-law's house in Alay Than Kyaw.
"The accused was someone and the arrested person was someone else. Mv. Abdu Shukkor was arrested while he was working in his farm.
Even on half-way, he extorted Kyat 150,000 and released Mv. Abdu Shukkor on the guarantee of Mauzu Rahman, (ex-chairman of the village), the current license holder on Animal Slaughtering. These arbitrary arrests and extortion of money are going on everyday" he continued.
Besides, he went on search for U Rahimullah S/o U Nagu from the village of Zumma of Udaung village tract under the accusation of so-called Human Trafficking to Malaysia. He scolded and insulted the man's wife when he (the searched person) was not found at his home.
"U Aung Kyaw Zin takes information from U Maung Mya, the father-in-law of U Tin Maung, the administrator of Udaung village, regarding which Rohingya in the village is how rich. Then, he makes up false cases and extorts money from the people" the villager added.
The camps of the internally displaced Rohingyas at Thay Chaung in Sittwe got flooded due to the heavy rains. Although the government often say that they will send the displaced Rohingyas under shelters, they have not implemented anything yet. Now, the displaced people are finding extremely difficult to even sleep at night.
Thay Chaung Rohingya refugees Camp on May 24, 2013
Thay Chaung Rohingya refugees Camp on May 24, 2013
New measure, which applies to Muslim Rohingya families in western Rakhine state, does not affect Buddhists in the area.
Authorities in Myanmar's western Rakhine state have imposed a two-child limit for Muslim Rohingya families, a policy that does not apply to Buddhists in the area, and comes amid accusations of ethnic cleansing in the aftermath of sectarian violence.
Local officials said on Saturday that the new measure would be applied to two Rakhine townships that border Bangladesh and have the highest Muslim populations in the state.
The townships, Buthidaung and Maundaw, are about 95 percent Muslim.
The unusual order makes Myanmar perhaps the only country in the world to impose such a restriction on a religious group, and is likely to fuel further criticism that Muslims are being discriminated against in the Buddhist-majority country.
China has a one-child policy, but it is not based on religion and exceptions apply to minority ethnic groups.
India briefly practised forced sterilisation of men in a bid to control the population in the mid-1970s when civil liberties were suspended during a period of emergency rule, but a nationwide outcry quickly shut down the programme.
'Overpopulation causes tension'
Rakhine state spokesman Win Myaing said the new programme was meant to stem rapid population growth in the Muslim community, which a government-appointed commission identified as one of the causes of the sectarian violence.
Although Muslims are the majority in the two townships in which the new policy applies, they account for only about 4 percent of Myanmar's roughly 60 million people.
The measure was enacted a week ago after the commission recommended family planning programs to stem population growth among Muslims, Win Myaing said.
The commission also recommended doubling the number of security forces in the volatile region.
"The population growth of Rohingya Muslims is 10 times higher than that of the Rakhine (Buddhists)," Win Myaing said. "Overpopulation is one of the causes of tension."
Sectarian violence in Myanmar first flared nearly a year ago in Rakhine state between the region's Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya.
Mobs of Buddhists armed with machetes razed thousands of Muslim homes, leaving hundreds of people dead and forcing 125,000 to flee, mostly Muslims.
Witnesses and human rights groups said riot police stood by as crowds attacked Muslims and burned their villages.
New York-based Human Rights Watch has accused authorities in Rakhine of fomenting an organised campaign of "ethnic cleansing" against the Rohingya.
Myanmar has a newly registered Nazi party, the Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP), created ceremoniously in the wake of last year's anti-Muslim ethnic cleansing in western Rakhine State. Naypyidaw has incubated the party, while opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has wined and dined publicly with controversial RNDP leaders, including party chairman and member of parliament Dr Aye Maung.
Separate branches of the Myanmar state, including the executive office of President Thein Sein, the parliament, and the judiciary, have all tolerated or tacitly backed the neo-Nazi Buddhist movement known as "969". The Buddhist fundamentalist movement, led by fascist monks such as U Wirathu and RNDP leaders like Aung Maung, himself a Bangladesh-born Rakhine, has been pivotal and yet unpunished in recent violence against Muslims that have killed hundreds and displaced upwards of 120,000.
Underscoring the racist bias, the judiciary recently sentenced a Muslim customer who peeled a 969 sticker off the mirror of a street vendor with his motorcycle key to two years imprisonment for "insulting religion". At the same time, the Thein Sein administration in Naypyidaw has failed to bring anyone to justice for participating in the broad daylight slaughter of 10 Muslim pilgrims in a public space in the southern Rakhine town of Taung-gok in early June 2012. Nor has anyone been prosecuted for this and last year's widely videotaped pogroms against Muslim communities.
With this type of blatant impunity, it is little wonder that the RNDP openly subscribes to neo-Nazism in its quest to create a pure "Buddhist state". The RNDP's official journal, "Toe-Tet-Yay" (or Progress), regularly uses the Burmese word for "beasts" when referring to Myanmar's Muslims, including the ethnic Rohingya. In media interviews as well as parliamentary discussions, RNDP leaders have with discernible admiration publicly talked about how Rakhine patriots should look to Israel and its apartheid system vis-a-vis the Palestinians as a model for handling the Rohingya.
An editorial in Progress's November 2012 edition even endorsed the view that while former fascist leader Hitler may have been a monster to Jews, he was a nationalist hero to many Germans. This is a view that any German in his or her right mind would find extremely repulsive and impossible to sympathize with.
Myanmar's homegrown neo-Nazi party of the Rakhines also calls for national level authorities in Naypyidaw to hold firm against any international pressure, including US rights lobby Human Right Watch's recent characterization of state-linked violence against the Rohingya as "ethnic cleansing", in dealing with the Rohingya situation, including the recent massive displacement of the group along the Bangladesh border.
Instead, they advocate for the forceful implementation of the blatantly racist 1982 Citizenship Act, which was specifically designed to bar any citizenship rights or recognition for Rohingya who lacked the documentation to prove that their ancestry was based in Myanmar, then known as Burma, before the first British defeat of the Burmese feudal kingdom in 1824.
(Incidentally, printing machines arrived in the palm-leaf society of feudal, pre-colonial Burma only around the mid-19th century - and even then it was thanks to the Christian missionaries. By this standard, 99% of supposedly "pure-blooded" Burmese would be rendered ineligible for citizenship.)
The RNDP's racist views have top level support. Speaking recently in New York, Myanmar Immigration Minister and ex-police chief Khin Yi reaffirmed the government's commitment to applying the Citizenship Act of 1982 to the Rohingya who survived last year's pogroms. Khin Yi, who has no exposure to the liberal West or little in terms of critical education, may be forgiven for his bluntness.
However, Myanmar's intellectual elites, including Western-educated opinion makers with PhDs and other advanced credentials from Ivy League schools and Oxbridge, have echoed Khin Yi's official racist stance on recognizing Rohingya citizenship. During his trip this week to Washington, Thein Sein confirmed the government's commitment to enforcing the racist Citizenship Act.
Dr Yin Yin Nwe, a PhD in geology from Cambridge University, Thein Sein's gem stones adviser, a presidential Rakhine Inquiry Commissioner, and the older daughter of the late Burmese authors Mi Mi Khaing and Shan feudalist Sao Saimong Mangra, talked about Rohingya women with visible disdain and in effect endorsed eugenics for them in a May 12 interview with Voice of America.
Another essay in the RNDP's 20-page official publication talks broadly about why certain individuals should not be considered human and hence not entitled to universal human rights. The same article argues that ethnic Buddhist Rakhines are only original inhabitants, or tai-yin-thar, of Rakhine State and that the ethnic name "Rohingya" should not be officially recognized for reasons of "national security".
Insecure racists
This national security over human rights perspective has also been shared by certain George Soros-funded 88 Generation Peace and Open Society Group leaders, including Ko Ko Gyi, who has openly endorsed the anti-Rohingya view since his meeting last year with ruling United Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) chairman and presidential-hopeful ex-General Shwe Mann.
Ko Ko Gyi, of course, is not alone. From presidential spokespersons such as Zaw Htay and Ye Htut, to Myanmar's National Human Rights Commission, to Western donor-funded human rights educators such as Aung Myo Min of the Human Rights Education Institute and other self-styled "civil society" leaders and organizations, all find it "unacceptable" to characterize last year's mass violence against Rohingya and other Muslims of western Myanmar as "ethnic cleansing" or as "crimes against humanity".
As Rakhine State spokesperson Win Myaing recently put it to Reuters, "How can it be ethnic cleansing? They are not an ethnic group."
These expressions of racial hatred were not entirely unpredictable. As early as 2004 Rakhine dissidents in exile based along Thai-Myanmar border areas such as Mae Sot were found to be reading and discussing Hitler's infamous tract Mein Kampf, or "My Story". It thus would not be surprising if Myanmar's neo-Nazis among the Rakhine and multiethnic public may be inclined to learn German so that they may read Hitler's racist treatise in the original.
According to a retired German ambassador to Myanmar who recently wrote a commissioned analysis on the rise of what many have referred to as a "neo-Nazi Buddhist movement", the German Foreign Ministry was adamant against his use of the labels "Nazi" or "neo-Nazi" to describe what he viewed as just that. Apparently the word "Nazi" is too close to home for Berlin, which was actively engaged Thein Sein's quasi-civilian regime.
German officials are not alone in feeling squeamish about the overt labeling of recent genocidal and Nazi-like developments in Myanmar. Yangon-based Western diplomats charged with engaging Thein Sein's government are known to be hostile to any characterization of the clearly coordinated and Naypyidaw-backed mass violence against Rohingya and other Muslims as "ethnic cleansing", not to mention the use of the term "genocide".
But after advocating for human rights and democratization in Myanmar since the end of the Cold War, the West-led "international community" has lately come to play the lamentable role of "genocide enablers". From the United States to the European Union, from Britain to Japan, from the Paris Club to the Asian Development Bank, not to mention the "Burma-pernicious" International Crisis Group - as Australian economic adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi, Sean Turnell puts it - all have looked the other way in pursuit of their broader commercial and strategic interests.
Herewith is a shortlist of the concrete ways in which Western players have instilled a sense of invincibility in Thein Sein's fascist leadership and his proxy genocidal RNDP:
US President Barack Obama stops in Myanmar for six hours, claiming the visit as a foreign policy "success story" (Nov 2012);
The Paris Club cancels US$5.7 billion of Myanmar debt (Jan 2013);
Japan forgives $3.7 billion of Myanmar debt (Apr 2013);
The Brussels-based International Crisis Group awards Thein Sein its "In Pursuit of Peace Award" (Apr 2013);
The European Union lifts its long-held economic sanctions on Myanmar (Apr 2013);
Obama gives Thein Sein reciprocal red carpet treatment at the White House, while a senior US senator indicates he will let sanctions-related legislation lapse (May 2013).
With such international rewards and accolades coming in the direct aftermath of anti-Muslim ethnic cleansing, it is not surprising that Naypyidaw feels comfortable in ignoring its critics. Obama steered studiously clear of the term "ethnic cleansing" when stating his mild concern about the recent anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar. After all, who would want to refer to their budding business and diplomatic partners as genocidal perpetrators of crimes against humanity?
Maung Zarni is a Burmese activist blogger (www.maungzarni.com) and visiting fellow of Civil Society and Human Security Research at the London School of Economics. The above was adapted from a May 18 entry on his personal blog.
Muslims in Arakan have to bribe officials in order to bury their dead.
NEW YORK -- Director General of Arakan Rohingya Union, Wakar Uddin, said that Rohingya Muslims in Arakan still had sufferings, despite the messages during Myanmar's President Thein Sein's visit to US.
The sufferings of the Rohingya Muslims in Arakan (Rakhine) or those who have fled to neighboring countries, have not yet ended. The burnings and looting of their houses in the villages in a number of towns in Arakan are still ongoing. Many are forced to flee to neighboring countries, who are not well received.
During his visit in US, President Thein Sein was warned of the violence towards Rohingya Muslims. US President Barrack Obama called on Myanmar's President Thein Sein to stop ethnic killings of Rohingya Muslims in western Myanmar's Rakhine state.
Previously, it was stated clearly in US Annual Report on International Religious Freedom that Rohingya Muslims faced serious discrimination and violence.
According to the report Rohingya Muslims faced legal, economic, social and educational discrimination as well as violence and denial of their citizenship.
Wakar Uddin spoke to AA evaluating the recent developments in Arakan as well as the recent visit of President Thein Sein to US.
Claiming that Myanmar government was trying to balance between China and the western world, Uddin said it was clear that the government did not want to be dependent economically on China only.
"We are pleased to see that the warning of President Obama against violence towards Rohingya Muslims is serious enough," said Uddin, adding, "time will show how effective the messages of Obama will be."
Uddin pointed out Thein Sein and his government used 'Bengali' for Rohingya Muslims and said changing the terminology was a prerequisite to the solution of the existing problems in Arakan.
Stating some Myanmar security officials forced Rohingya Muslims to sign a document saying they were 'Bengali', Uddin added that if the Muslims did not allow the officials to write 'Bengali' in their forms, they were faced with violence, arrestment, and destruction of their properties.
"All the mosques are still closed in Arakan," said Uddin, adding, "they are not allowing us to perform prayers during the funerals. Muslims in Arakan have to bribe officials in order to bury their dead."
Moreover, Rohingya Muslims are also forced to sign another document saying they are coming from Bangladesh, which will pave the way for sending them to Bangladesh in the future.
Since the first wave of Rohingya genocide in Feb 1978 which expelled nearly 200,000 refugees from all across Western Burma in to the neighboring newly independent Bangladesh, Burma's military regimes have committed themselves to erasing that the Rohingya were a constitutive ethnic nationality group (or Tai-yin-thar), who 'are found on both sides of East Bengal (or now Bangladesh) and Burma. Their transboundaries community is not unlike the Shan or Tai of Burma and Northern Siam, the Jeng-hpaw of Northern Burma and Southern China, the Mons of southern Burma and Thailand, the Karens of Eastern Burma and Thailand. Myanmar authorities and scholars, as well as deeply ignorant Myanmar public have denied that these "Tai-yin-thar ever existed in Burma while insisting them to be nothing but 'illegal migrants' from Bangladesh - all despite available mountains of evidence to the contrary. On its part, the international media simply repeats Myanmar's official line - or lie - that the Rohingyas are state-less people, who have never been Tai-yin-thar or a constitutive ethnic group of Burma.
Transcript of Aung Gyi's speech
Brigadier General Aung Gyi, Vice Chief of Staff of the Burmese Armed Forces (Army) and 2nd in command under General Ne Win seen here addressing THE ROHINGYA, singing the latter's praise as a good, cooperative national people, 15 Nov 1960
Esteemed Malvis, ROHINGYA Leaders, etc. "Today will go down in history as the greatest (modern) milestone, after our country's independence in 1948, in the history of May Yu district which had not seen peace since 1942.
Prime Minister U Nu: "in the Bhu-thee-daung and Maung Daw areas adjacent to East Pakistan are found the Union nationalities called the ROHINGYA. They are Muslims". There are also Mujahaddins (across the borders in East Pakistan) who want to establish an independent Islamic state.
The front cover of the Union of the Socialist Republic of Burma High School Geography Textbook cover (1978)
In the High School Geography Textbook this illustration included ethnic distributions. On the northern most districts closest to Bangladesh in the coastal Arakan state are 'Rohingya", Thet, Khami,and Myo.
30 Years Anniversary Publication (book) of the Burmese Broadcasting Service, Government Printing Press
Lumyo or race: Rohingya Muslim
Issued by Board of Management of the Rangoon Post
29 July 1968
In order to enhance union spirit among all ethnic nationalities (Tai-yin-thar) several national language programs are added to the existing Shan, etc.
Head of Rohingya Taiyintar Language Program (U Ba Tun, BA, BL)
Rohingya ethnic nationality language (Taiyinthar) is scheduled to broadcast 3 times a week 10 minutes each slot.
The effective administration of the May Yu District of Northern Arakan State begins only in May 1961 for a variety of reasons although it was supposed to be administered directly by the Border Administration.
Burmese Official Government-issued Encyclopedia (1964)
May Yu districts has a total population of about 400,000 to 500,000. Seventy-five % of them are Rohingya and their religion is Islam. There are also Rakhine, Dai-net, Kha-mei, Myo, etc. Many of them are engaged in agriculture and fishing
The future of May Yu (District), second printing, 1960. Ministry of Defense
Two Rohingya children terrorized, half-starved and perceived as "viruses and threats to Burma's national security" by the pro-democracy dissidents, civil society, Buddhist Order and the military state
A Rohingya child's pictorial memory of life in Rakhine State
A street scene in the Third Reich, 1930's
As chillingly reminiscent of the Third Reich and its Nazism, un-Buddhist, un-factual and ethnocidal as some may sound, these select statements are an accurate reflection of the sub-consciously neo-Nazi world of the ethnically dominant Burmese ruling elite and counter-elite who are forging ahead one grand coalition with their former jailers to turn Burma into 'the last Asian tiger' and build 'discipline flourishing democracy', apparently at the expense of religious and ethnic minorities who make up 40% of the population.
Ironically, local Rakhines, generally widely disliked by both the Burmese public and the military, and the Rohingya Muslim, one of the world's 'most vulnerable' peoples, have been pitted against one another by the internally colonial State and Society in Burma, since 1940's.
1. Burma's Ambassador to the UN (Geneva)
Rohingya 'as ugly as ogres'
"In reality, Rohingya are neither Myanmar people nor Myanmar's ethnic group. It is quite different from what you have seen and read in the papers. (They are as ugly as ogres)."
- ex-Major Ye Myint Aung, then Consul General of Myanmar Consulate, Hong Kong and subsequent to sending his rather racist and derogatory written note to the UK-based diplomatic missions, was promoted to Ambassadorship in the UN, Geneva, 10 Feb 2009
2. President Thein Sein, the man and his office
2. A"According to our government, we don't have a policy of discriminating based on religion or race."
2. B “There is no Rohingya among our races. We have Bengalis who were brought to do farming during colonial days. Some of them settled.” He spoke approvingly of a 1982 law that has been used to deny them citizenship.
2. C "(I)t is impossible for Burma to accept people who are not ethnic to the country and who have entered illegally ... (and Myanmar is) “willing to send the Rohingyas to any third country that will accept them.”
Myanmar Government Official Statement out of President Thein Sein's office, 12 July 2012
2. D “The UN and other organizations have done what they should do. The [Rakhine-Rohingya] situation is moving in a positive direction. A report containing harsh accusations is un-constructive, and does not represent 60 million people.”
Sit Myaing, a former police colonel and a member of the Myanmar (official) Human Rights Commission
3. B "She believes, in Burma, there is no Rohingya ethnic group".
Nyan Win, Aung San Suu Kyi's official spokesperson
4."We, the 88 Generation, who fought for human rights for so many years, are unhappy about the HRW report. I feel that it is an insult to our nation. The main thing is that this is not an ethnic problem, it is the fact that the Rule of Law in Myanmar is so weak."
Min Zay Yar, a well-known former student leader from the 1988 student uprisings
5.Ko Ko Gyi, (considered by his peers as the "brain" of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society Group, a former international relations undergraduate student, Rangoon University, 1988)
5. A“Rohingya issue”—that is, the status of Arakan State’s Muslim minority — is essentially a matter of sovereignty.
Ko Ko Gyi - 88 Generation Peace and Open Society Group
5. B"I will resign from this commission if it uses the word 'human rights' in association with these Bengali".
Ko Ko Gyi
(Personal phone conversation with Zarganar, the fellow commissioner on the Rakhine Sectarian Violence Inquiry Commission set up by President Thein Sein, Fall 2012)
5. C "The job of UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar Professor Tomas Quintana is to investigate human rights abuses. This (violence between the Rohingya and the Rakhine) is ethnic conflict. So, it's not really his job to examine the inter-ethnic violence."
Again, Ko Ko Gyi, to a group of international visitors who research on human rights atrocities in Western Burmese state of Rakhine or Arakan, Rangoon, the weekend of 27-28 Apr 2013
6. Major Zaw Htay, Thein Sein's official spokesperson
"Although there are some who criticized [Myanmar] quoting the Human Rights Watch's report, [you can see] Myanmar has been praised recently for its human rights progress by the US which promotes human rights activities around the world."
Zaw Htay, the director for the President's Office on his Facebook page on April 22,
7. Former Mae Sot, Thailand-based exile and human rights educator
“In such a sensitive situation, the use of the phrase ‘ethnic cleansing’ is unacceptable. Ethnic Cleansing means eliminating other ethnic groups. This is not the case [in Rakhine State].”
Aung Myo Min, Human Rights Education Institute of Burma (HREIB)
Myanmar Presidential Inquiry Commission on the Rakhine Sectarian Violence at the Western donor-funded Myanmar Peace Center (29 Apr 2013)
From left to right (Aung Naing Oo, Dr Kyaw Yin Hlaing (Secretary and President Thein Sein's adviser), Dr Yin Yin Nwe (ex-daughter-in-law of the late despot General Ne Win), Ko Ko Gyi (88 Generation Peace and Open Society Group) and Zarganar
The following are the on-the-record statements/views of Presidential Inquiry Commission on the Sectarian Violence in Rakhine State.
"They (the "Bengalis" from across Bangladesh) are here already. We can't simply kick them out. What to do?"
Dr Myo Myint (PhD in History, Cornell), former lecturer of history at Mandalay University, retired Director-General, Religious Affairs Department (Ministry of Home Affairs), Chairman of the Rakhine Sectarian Violence Presidential Inquiry Commission, 17 Aug 2013 (YouTube)
8. B Dr Myo Myint
"You don't need to report to the President about the situation on a regular basis. The security and welfare of those people ("Bengali") are not our commission's responsibility".
Dr Myo Myint, a recorded phone conversation with one of the Muslim Commissioners who was fired, arrested and later released by the Special Branch, 2 days prior to his arrest in November 2012
{Compiler's note: I listened to the 10-minute recorded conversation earlier this month, and with absolute certainty I can verify that it was THE voice of Dr Myo Myint, my old history tutor at Mandalay University (1982)}
8. C Dr Yin Yin Nwe
"These un-educated Bengali women procreate like mad. On average one woman has about 10-12 children, and men are allowed to have more than 1 wife. I even told them I have only 1 child and even then the cost of education is quite expensive. Because of this population explosion, now 90-plus % of Buthidaung and Maung Daw population is made up of Bengali and only about 5-6 percent are Rakhine and Bama. So, think for yourself who is a majority here and who is minority. That's why, we proposed population control - albeit on a voluntary basis."
Dr Yin Yin Nwe, (PhD Geology, Cambridgae), ex-daughter in law of the late dictator Ne Win, Thein Sein's gem stones adviser, member of the Presidential Inquiry Commission on the Rakhine Sectarian Violence Commission, the Voice of America Burmese TV Interview, 12 May 2013
{Compiler's remark: With this single interview she has become an instant celebrity extremely popular with the Burmese YouTube viewers and social media virtual public, both inside Burma and in diaspora}
8. D Dr Kyaw Yin Hlaing, Secretary and Presidential Adviser
"It's untrue to say that our government is not doing anything. We are doing interfaith dialogues among Buddhist and Muslim leaders in Rakhine and Rangoon. We surveyed about 2,000 people in Western Burma. There is a lot of hatred there".
Dr Kyaw Yin Hlaing (PhD in Government, Cornell), former student of Commission Chairman Dr Myo Myint and himself, Secretary of the Presidential Inquiry Commission on sectarian violence in Rakhine
(It was in response to a question by a Burmese Muslim retiree U Win Aung from the Voice of America and the Burmese Broadcasting Service regarding the situation which Human Rights Watch characterizes as "ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity" of the Rohingya of Western Burmese state of Rakhine, the Voice of America Burmese service townhall meeting with President Thein Sein, Washington, DC, 19 May 2013).
8. E Zarganar (a.k.a Dr Thura), a key commissioner member who knew a lot of purposely and verifiably false statements were inserted into the government official inquiry commission report, but he chose to endorse it publicly.
"This is a made-up report (that is, the damning report of the Human Rights Watch on ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya in Burma)".
Dr Thura or better known as Zarganar is the country's best known political comedian and recipient of many human rights awards, film educator and 4-times political prisoner, a key member of the aforementioned inquiry commission and a member of the political prisoners verification committee - in reference to Human Rights Watch's damning report indicting the State, its leadership and institutions in the organized mass violence against the Rohingya in the two bouts of violence in June and Oct 2012. (see the report here: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2013/04/22/all-you-can-do-pray-0)
9. The Rakhine Voices
9. A“This is unfair. Our party does not accept the statement at all. All the local people in Rakhine State know the incidents from A to Z. The violence did not occur racially or religiously. It happened between those who want to seize the territory and those who want to defend that territory. Ethnic cleansing is not the matter of that issue.”
Aung Mya Kyaw, Rakhine State Parliament MP Aung Mya Kyaw of Rakhine Nationalities Development Party in reference to Human Rights Watch's report "All You can Do is Pray: Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes against Humanity against the Rohingya of Western Burma", 22 April 2013
9. B“I don’t know whether the HRW’s wording is linked to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. We will say that their use of term ‘Rohingya’ is wrong.”
"We don't have Rohingyas in our country. We can only say that they are Bangladeshi or foreign Bengalis. Now, the words used by this group have reached the level of hurting the country and its people. [They] often kept saying ethnic cleaning. Actually, it's not a racial or religious issue. It's called communal violence… Politically, it includes competition of groups living inside the country and abroad. We have been living together with Muslims since a long time ago and we didn't have any problems. The group will know if they come [to Myanmar]".
Dr U Maung, vice chairman of the Araken League for Democracy
9. C"We have to restore Rakhine villages (to the pre-Bengali period). We need to take inspiration from Israel and model our restoration (of Rakhine State only for the Rakhine) from Israel."
MP Aye Maung, Chairman of the Rakine National Development Party, in his interview with Burma's local news magazine - Venus News, Current Politics section, 14 Aug 2012
9. D "How can it be ethnic cleansing? They are not an ethnic group".
Mr Win Myaing, Rakhine State Government Spokesperson, quoted in Reuters, 15 May 2013
10. The Venerable Wirathu, New Ma-soe-yein Teaching Buddhist Monastery
"Whatever (the Muslims) do they do it with their 'national' Muslim interests in mind. They have designs against our country, our faith and our society. They now have monopoly over the construction sector in Rangoon. They have come to dominate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy. Even she is only riding the niggers' cars. All these national dissidents such as Aung San Suu Kyi and Min Ko Naing dare not speak a word about the Rakhine Crisis (during which our brethen Rakhine are suffering at the hands of the Bangali). Our national political emblem has been replaced by the Islam's symbol of beards! They are the worst violators of human rights and religious freedom. So, you Buddhist lay public must do everything with the (anti-Muslim) nationalist ethos. Only do business and socially interact with those who embrace 969 ethos of economic boycott and societal exclusion and ostracism against the (Muslim) enemy".
A Rohingya History seminar by Ko Htay Lwin Oo was held in Saudi Arabia in April 2013. Ko Htay Lwin Oo becomes popular as a Rohingya historian since the time he reportedly challenged Dr. Aye Chan; so-called Rakhine historian. The challenge was to prove that the most ancient indigenous race of Arakan is whether the Rohingya or the Rakhine based on historical facts and evidence. Recently Dr. Aye Chan has organized a conference at Mahidol University, Bangkok on the 9th of March 2013 with the help of some Rakhines living in Thailand. During the Q & A session, Ko Htay Lwin Oo has pointed out the fact that the first and foremost indigenous people of Arakan are Rohingyas by referring a primary source evidence of a book on Asian Research written in 17th century AD by a western scholar. Dr. Aye Chan was shocked and speechless to encounter with such concrete historical evidence. His deception and distortion of the true ancient Arakanese history was unmasked in front of many Asian history enthusiasts and international audience. It was a very shameful event for him that made him lost composure and at last concluded the conference abruptly.
Ko Htay Lwin Oo’s aims of holding the Rohingya History seminars in Saudi Arabia are:
a. Clarifying the existence of Rohingya in Arakanese history since 7th century AD with historical evidence.
b. Increasing awareness on authentic ancient Arakanese history to every Rohingya so that their origin, identity, indigenous ethnicity and motherland are clearly defined.
c. Revival of Rohingya true history worldwide so that it will eventually help every Rohingya from being exterminated.
d. Proof of Rohingya Ancestry and Etymology so that Rohingya can challenge the Burmese-Mogh racists and their fellows accomplices such as Dr. Aye Chan, 88 generation student leader Ko Ko Gyi, Bengali-Mogh RNDP vet. Aye Maung and so on.
Though Burmese historians claim that “Divide & Rule” was first introduced in Burma by the British Colonialism, it was actually exercised in Arakan in as early as 1784 when Burmese King Bodaw invaded and conquered Arakan. The Burmese intruder had instigated communal violence and religious hatred between Rohingya and Rakhine that resulted slaughtering many people from both ethnicities. King Bodaw Maung Waing had destroyed all cultural monuments which were erected since 7th century. When Burma was totally occupied by the British Empire 1885 the inter-communal violence was temporarily stopped until 1942. It was an unforgettable and horrific year for Rohingya as many thousands Rohingyas have lost their lives under the swords of Rakhines. The biggest blow to Rohingya has come in 1982 when Burmese dictator Ne Win drew the 1982 Citizenship Law. The sole purpose of the Citizenship Law is to strip the Rohingya off their fundamental and bona fide citizenship rights. It also imposed discriminatory policies in Education, Health Care, Job, Freedom of Movement and eventually made Rohingyas as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh on their own ancestral Land Arakan.
During the Seminars, Ko Htay Lwin Oo has used various historical references and evidence in explaining Rohingya History and here are some of the evidences that he has referred.
The language of Ananda Chandra stone inscription which was written at the end of 8th century has 70% similarity with Rohingya Language. It is not even closely similar to either Burmese or Rakhine languages.
Undoubtedly, it is the concrete evidence which indicates that the Ancient Arakan official language was Rohingya and they were the indigenous people of Arakan.
Some of the historians unfortunately overlooked the primary source “Stone Inscription” and falsely claimed that Rohingya are the descendents of Arab. They traced the term “Rohingya” back to a shipwreck in the 8th century AD. According to their assumptions, after the Arab traders’ ships wrecked near Ramree Island, The Arab traders were ordered to be executed by the Arakanese King. Then, Arabs shouted in their language, “Rahma” which means “please show mercy to us”. Hence, these people were later called as “Raham”. Gradually it changed from “Raham” to “Rhohang” and finally to Rohingyas. MA Chowdhury 1995, pp. 7–8.
“Brief observation throughout the evolution of world’s languages and their environment; if the Rohingya people were the generations of those shipwrecked Arabs, their language must be Arabic following their fathers’ roots or else, it is must be either Rakhine or Burmese following their mothers’ roots. In reality, the Rohingya language is much more distinct amongst these languages. Therefore, inarguably it further confirms that the Rohingya people were in Arakan before the advent of Arabs. Since that time in Arakanese Kingdoms and in their daily lives Rohingya language was used as official and mother tongue of Rohingya people.”
Another historical evidence came from the research of the renowned European traveler Dr. Francis Buchanan (1762-1829 AD). In his major work “A Comparative Vocabulary of Some of the Languages Spoken in the Burma Empire” published in 1799, in the fifth volume of Asiatic Researches, is the book which provides one of the first major Western surveys of the languages of Burma. In his book, Arakan was mentioned as “Reng, Roung, Rossawn, Russawn, Rung” .It also stated that, “the native Mugs of Arakan called themselves ‘Yakin’, which name is also commonly given to them by the Burmese. The people of Pegu are named ‘Taling’. By the Bengal Hindus, at least by such of them as have been settled in Arakan, the country is called Rossawn. The Mahammedans who have long settled at Arakan call the country ‘Rovingaw’ and called themselves ‘Rooinga’ or native of Arakan. The Persians called it ‘Rkon’.”
Some words from the book Asiatic Researches volume fifth by Dr. Francis Buchanan that was published in 1799 :
Hereby attached another dialectical chart of the difference of Rohingya and Bengalee dialects:
Chauvinistically, Burmese President Thein Sein accused of Rohingya as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh and his hostile term for Rohingya is "Bengalee”.
According to above dialectical chart, it is obvious that the Rohingya and the Bengalees are totally different in their languages.
Quoting from British census, Charney says that in 1891 there were 126,586 Muslims in Arakan (most of whom were concentrated in Danra-Waddy, wherein sat the capital), comprising roughly 19% of the total population. This figure should not come as a surprise given the fact that in the 1830s, at least 30% of Arakan’s general population was Muslim. For the original number to increase to the 1891 number, only a growth rate of 2.24% was necessary.
Recently, Burmese President Thein Sein has accused Rohingya for overpopulation in Arakan. The Rakhine Commission biased report which was released on 29th April 2013 has suggested the State to reduce the birth rate of Rohingya population. Following the commission’s report the Burmese government has immediately imposed a territorial Act “Two-Child” policy for Rohingyas in Maung Daw and Buthidaung on 17th May. The “Two-Child” policy is another strong evidence of gross human rights violation by Burmese government on Rohingyas. In fact today’s Rohingya population is merely 10 times more of 1891 census and government accusation of overpopulation is just a pretext to launch demographic warfare on Rohingya minority.
Meiktila, Myanmar -- Nineteen-year-old Hnin Ei Phyu is on her knees at home, whispering her prayers. It's a small sign of normality in a community where things have been anything but normal in recent months.
This young Muslim woman can't go inside her family's mosque because it was shut down after being vandalized. And for more than a month, she had to say her prayers from inside a shelter at a nearby sports stadium in Meiktila, a city in central Myanmar.
Fearing for their lives, Hnin Ei Phyu's family fled their home on March 20 during the first of three days of rioting that tore apart this city of 100,000 people.
During the clashes, reportedly set off by a dispute between a Muslim gold shop owner and two Buddhist sellers, rioters set fire to houses, schools and mosques, while people were also beaten, doused with gasoline and set on fire.
Many Muslims complain that the police stood by and did nothing during the violence. The rioting was only stopped after President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency and called in the military. By then thousands had fled their homes in terror.
Meiktila's Muslims were heavily outnumbered and suffered the bulk of the casualties. Few remained in their homes because they were either destroyed by rampaging mobs or it simply wasn't safe for them to stay there.
It wasn't until earlier this month that Muslims whose houses were not destroyed were able to leave the shelters and return home.
"Tears came out of my eyes when I got back home," said Hnin Ei Phyu's mother, Thidar Hla. "I'm extremely happy to be back home." But the 43-year old said that when she walks down the streets of this predominantly Buddhist city, it's clear things are not the way they were before the riots. "We (Muslims and Buddhists) don't interact with each other the way we used too," she said. "People are keeping a mental distance between each other."
Thidar Hla and her extended family share a collection of rickety houses along a side street in a modest neighborhood of Meiktila. A security post manned by police and soldiers has been set up just a short walk away.
Similar arrangements are in place in other parts of the city where Muslims live -- a sign of the times since March. "There are soldiers and security guards on each end of the street," Thidar Hla said, before adding that she hopes they can keep her family safe.
But in areas that bore the brunt of the rioting, little has been rebuilt more than two months on. The blackened frames of burned down homes are all that stand in some places.
Metal sheets that once served as roofs now lie in pieces on the ashen ground. The government says it will replace all of the approximately 1,600 homes that were destroyed -- an easier task than repairing the trust between Muslims and Buddhists.
"Right now we don't trust them and they don't trust us," said U Aung Khin, a 50-year-old Buddhist man. Aung Khin is married with five kids between the ages of five and 24. He says he has numerous Muslim friends, but things have been strained since the riots.
"After this we don't really have to talk. It isn't necessary for us to talk with each other at all," he said. "I'm afraid to trust them right now." He said he used to buy meat from a Muslim butcher but won't now because he's afraid his food might be poisoned.
Meanwhile, Thidar Hla's family says they're playing it safe by buying their food from other Muslims. She has also instructed her daughter to stay close to home. She's a student at a local university that has not reopened since the riots.
Hnin Ei Phyu says she has several Buddhist friends at school and is hoping her relationships with them go back to normal. But she hasn't contacted them since the violence and they haven't been in touch with her.
Though Myanmar is about 90% Buddhist, Muslims have generally coexisted peacefully with the Buddhist majority -- their children go to school together and their parents often work together. But as with Meiktila, ethnic fault lines have been exposed in some areas as the country emerges from decades of military repression.
Last year, at least 110 people were killed in attacks on Muslims in western Myanmar's Rakhine State. The Muslim Rohingya people are a stateless Muslim minority living in Rakhine -- thought to number between 800,000 and one million -- who claim they were persecuted by Myanmar's military during its decades of authoritarian rule.
Myanmar does not recognize them as citizens or as one of the 135 recognized ethnic groups living in the country. Much of this is rooted in their heritage in East Bengal, now called Bangladesh.
Though many Rohingya have only known life in Myanmar, they are viewed by the Buddhist majority as intruders from across the border.
Across the country, a budding movement known as "969" has been spreading anti-Muslim sentiment by encouraging Buddhists to avoid Muslim-run businesses. "969" stickers are increasingly found in businesses and taxis in Yangon, the country's largest and most ethnically diverse city.
Police recently stepped up patrols in Yangon following the Meiktila clashes, though serious fighting has yet to spread there. However, in several communities within 100 kilometers (62 miles) of Yangon, Buddhist mobs reportedly vandalized mosques as well as Muslim businesses and houses.
The wave of religious unrest has prompted the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) urge Burmese authorities to allow a delegation to visit Myanmar to discuss the issue -- a request the authorities in Naypyidaw have so far rebuffed.
Ms. Rushanara Ali, a British MP, visited Arakan from 27th April 2013 to 2nd May 2013. During her trip, she observed the situation being faced by the displaced Rohingyas, the displaced Kamans and the displaced Rakhines.
Ms. Rushanara Ali in cooperation with Mr. David Mepham, the UK director of Human Rights Watch, held a press conference at House of Lords on her experience during the trip to Arakan. British MPs, NGOs and the representatives from Rohingya organizations based in England attended the conference.
During her trip to Arakan, on top of observing the situation of the displaced people in the camps, she met with Political Activists, MPs, the repesentatives from ethnic and religious representatives and the representatives from social organizations in Myanmar.
During the press conference yesterday, she explained her experiences during her trip to Arakan in detail including the deaths of the pregnant women due to the denial of admission to the hospitals, the lack of clean and drinking water, the malnutrition and the shortages of foods in the IDP camps. Besides, she pointed out the challenges to the peaceful coexistence and necessity for the British government to pressure Myanmar government to rectify 1982 Citizenship Law and provide shelters to the displaced people in the coming moonsoon season.
Then, the UK director of Human Rights Watch, Mr. David Mepham, explained the facts and details included in the 153-paged report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on 22nd April 2013. Besides, Mr. David Mepham, explained the reports in details on how the Rohingyas were systematically displaced and how the security forces cooperated with the extremists to attack Rohingyas.
Muslim men shout following their trial at a township court in Meikhtila, central Myanmar, Tuesday, May 21, 2013. A court in Myanmar sentenced seven Muslims to terms ranging from life to two years in prison Tuesday for the killing of a Buddhist monk during sectarian violence that is posing a serious challenge to President Thein Sein's reformist government. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)
MEIKHTILA, Myanmar — A Myanmar court sentenced sevenMuslims to prison Tuesday — one of them to a life term — in the killing of a Buddhist monk amid deadly sectarian violence that was overwhelmingly directed against minority Muslims but has not led to any criminal trials against members of the country's Buddhist majority.
As the country tries to rebuild democracy after decades of military rule, the issue poses a dilemma for politicians who would lose support if they embraced justice for the unpopular Muslim minority. Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent years under house arrest under the former ruling junta but now hopes to bring her party to power, spoke of the law but not of sectarian tensions when asked about the verdict.
At least 44 people were killed and 12,000 displaced, most of them Muslim, in more than a week of conflicts with Buddhists that began March 20 in the central Myanmar city of Meikhtila. A dispute at a Muslim-owned gold shop triggered rioting by Buddhists and retaliation by their Muslim targets, and the lynching of the monk after the gold shop was sacked enflamed passions, leading to large-scale violence.
While the violence is now contained, questions are arising over whether minority Muslims can find justice in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar. Hundreds more Muslims have been killed, and tens of thousands have been made homeless, in violence across the country over the past year.
The sectarian strife has tarnished the image of Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate who has been criticized for failing to speak out strongly in defense of the country's Muslims despite her long commitment to human rights. Her supporters, especially abroad, fear she is afraid to take a politically unpopular stand now that her party will mount a bid for power in the next general election in 2015. Prejudice against Muslims is widespread in Myanmar, and it is hard to find public figures willing to speak in defense of the Muslim community.
In a press conference Tuesday in the capital, Naypyitaw, she did not directly address the plight of the Muslim minority. Instead, she spoke in familiar terms about the rule of law when asked about the verdict.
"There is no transparency in Myanmar's justice system and there is too much influence from the administrative branch," she said, echoing the opinions of many human rights groups. "The judicial system has to be independent to be credible."
Suu Kyi has been criticized for failing to take a strong stand on attacks last year against the Muslim Rohingya community in western Rakhine state. Mobs of Buddhists armed with machetes razed thousands of homes, leaving hundreds dead and forcing 125,000 people, mostly Muslims, to flee,
When asked whether she was concerned about her reputation over the issue, she said she wasn't worried. "If I had to be concerned about my image, I should not have become a politician right from the beginning," she said.
The issue of ethnic strife also marred this week's Washington trip by President Thein Sein, a trip otherwise filled with accolades for the first leader of Myanmar to visit the White House in 47 years.
President Barack Obama praised Thein Sein on Monday for his efforts to lead his country back on the path to democracy, but also said he expressed concern to his counterpart about violence against Muslims. "The displacement of people, the violence directed toward them needs to stop," he said.
Thein Than Oo, a lawyer defending the men sentenced Tuesday, said one of his clients, Myat Ko Ko, was given life in prison for murder. Myat Ko Ko was also sentenced to an additional two years for unlawful assembly and two for religious disrespect.
Of the remaining defendants, one received a two-year sentence while the others received terms ranging from six to 28 years. Four of them, including a minor tried in a separate court, were convicted of charges including abetting murder. Two were convicted only on lesser counts. Mandalay Advocate General Ye Aung Myint confirmed the sentences.
"It's not fair!" shouted one of the convicted men shouted from inside a prison van as they were being driven away after the trial.
But members of a crowd of about 30 people outside the court house expressed unhappiness over the verdict for a different reason: They said they wished the death penalty had been applied against those who were convicted of killing the monk. Myanmar has the death penalty for premeditated murder, but the defendants were charged under a different murder category.
Thein Than Oo said he would await his clients' instructions on whether to appeal the verdicts.
The lynching of the Buddhist monk enflamed passions in Meikhtila, especially after photos circulated widely on social media of what was purported to be his body after he was pulled off a motorbike, attacked and burned. Monks are highly respected both for their religious devotion and as community leaders.
Entire Muslim neighborhoods were engulfed in flames, and charred bodies piled in the roads. The government declared a state of emergency and deployed the army to restore order, but the unrest later spread to other parts of central Myanmar.
In parliament in Monday, Religious Affairs Minister Hsan Hsint gave the official figures for casualties and damage from March 20 to 28: 44 people killed, 90 injured, 1,818 houses, 27 mosques and 14 Islamic schools destroyed. He said 143 people were arrested in connection with the violence, out of which 47 have been formally charged. Parliament on Tuesday formally approved the state of emergency.
The gold shop owner and two employees, all Muslims, were sentenced in April to 14 years in prison each on charges of theft and causing grievous bodily harm.
Hsan Hsint did not break down arrests and charges by religion, but no major cases involving Buddhist suspects have been announced.
Asked why only Muslims have faced trial in Meikhtila, Ye Aung Myint, the advocate general, said the courts were starting with the initial incidents that triggered the violence, and those involved in later incidents would be tried subsequently.
"There is no discrimination in bringing justice. We dealt with the first two cases and 11 more cases involving Buddhists will be dealt with very soon," he said, adding that about 70 people will face charges for murder, arson and looting.
Thein Sein's administration, which came to power in 2011 after half a century of military rule, has been heavily criticized for not doing enough to protect Muslims or stop the violence from spreading since it began with clashes between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya last year.
In a speech Monday at a university in Washington, Thein Sein vowed to ensure an end to the violence and justice for the perpetrators. He also called for a new era in U.S.-Myanmar relations.
Rights groups have criticized Thein Sein's U.S. visit, saying human rights injustices are still rampant in Myanmar despite progress made in freeing political prisoners, and in granting more freedom to political opponents and the media, among other changes.
U.S.-based Physicians for Human Rights released a report Monday detailing a gruesome massacre carried out by Buddhist mobs who hunted down and killed at least 24 Muslim students and teachers from an Islamic school as Meikhtila descended into anarchy in March. The report, based on interviews with survivors, accuses state authorities and police of standing idly by while the killings were carried out.
Richard Sollom, the report's lead author, called for Thein Sein to support an independent investigation into the killings and speak out more forcefully against anti-Muslim violence.
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AP writers Aye Aye Win in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, and Matthew Pennington and Nedra Pickler in Washington contributed to this report.
