(BRAJ) Urgent Appeal to the UN to End the Humanitarian crisis in Arakan State of Myanmar.

Sir,

We, the Burmese Rohingya Association in Japan would like to express our deep and great concern over the ongoing situation in Arakan of Myanmar. We are sending this request to you to immediately intervene and protect the lives of Rohingya people of Arakan from a planned genocide.

As you know the present situation deteriorated following a young lady's death in Akyab. The lone incident turned into racial turmoil with by the Rakhines killing a group of pilgrim Muslims traveling by bus in Taungup. This event was followed by targeting of Rohingya villagers by Rakhine vigilantes and the Rakhine forces in Maungdaw Township. It quickly spread in all the townships in the Rakhine state. The situation is more fluid these days, the victims are women, children and elderly people. Over a1000 people are feared dead and perhaps more disappeared in the sea. We cannot estimate the exact number of death yet the information we are receiving directly from our relatives and friends in Arakan tells us that Arakan is still burning. Our contacts also tell us that there were organized efforts under government supervision to kill and cleanse all Muslin from Rakhine state. This is also the belief of some UN angencies and NGOs working in the Rakhine State. Under the circumstances if there is no immediate intervention by the UN it is believed that Muslim in Arakan will eventually disappear from Rakhine State. Killing and burning the houses is still going on every day and night. The situation is turning from bad to worse. There is no time to stay silent and to watch people dying. The para military and Rakhine extremists are burning Rohingya houses and shot at the people that tries to come out. Pictures coming out to the media also shows some Rohingyas were being burnt alive. Rohingya youths are running to hide in the forest. Some are crossing to Bangladesh. All the death bodies and wounded are reported to have been taken away by the government forces no traces to be found.

In the recent ethnic violence, the Buddhist Rakhine extremists in collaboration with army, Lon Htin, Nasaka, well equipped local Rakhine militia or police had killed and injured many hundreds of Rohingya, devastated numerous villages with mosques, burned down thousands of their homes, and looted immeasurable properties and valuables, while forcing scores of starving Rohingya men, women and children fleeing the carnage to drift in the Naf river and Bay of Bengal as Bangladesh has closed its border for them despite international outcries.

It has been well documented that, since 1942, about 1.5 million Rohingyas have fled their homeland of Arakan for various destinations for their lives. On the contrary, thousands of Rakhines known as Maghs from Bangladesh have been regularly settled in Arakan under state programme particularly from Ne Win’s BSPP (Burma Socialist Party Programme) regime. Some of those Bangladeshi Maghs are in the helm of affairs of the state. Thus the alleged illegal immigration of Rohingyas from Bangladesh is unfounded, politically motivated and preoccupation of Islamophobia. It is a racist and xenophobic design of Rakhines to scapegoat the native Rohingyas enwrapping the infiltration of the Bengali Rakhine Maghs into Arakan. Their ultimate objective is to create an independent ‘Rakhine Prey” or Rakhine Country in which the Rohingya remain a stumbling block.

The ethnic flare up was preceded by series of malicious smear campaigns of Rakhine National Development Party which is a registered political party with MPs in the Myanmar parliament and its stalwarts inside and outside Burma preaching hatred while inciting violence against the Rohingya people. Rakhine National Development Party’s official statement dated 26 June 2012, has dubbed the entire ethnic Rohingyas ‘illegal Bengali intruders’ and urged the people and Government of Burma, inter alia, “to segregate Rohingyas from the Buddhist Rakhines in every town and village of Arakan by relocating them in separate areas away from Buddhist Rakhines’ localities”. It has further demanded “to resettle the non-national illegal Bengalis in third countries within a fixed short period of time through negotiation with the United Nations and international cooperation.”

It has been increasingly evident that the barbarous aggression was masterminded by RNDP and xenophobic Rakhine academics in connivance with the military hardliners. The RNDP’s policy of ‘forced relocation’ and ‘forced deportation’ of Rohingya with intention of maintaining the hegemony of the Buddhist Rakhine race in Arakan affirm the crime against humanity of ‘Rohingya extermination’. Its statement constitutes a breach of the anti-discrimination clause of every human rights convention and as such perpetrators should be held responsible. Their activities are, without doubt, a great hindrance -- for which the Rohingyas are in no way responsible-- in Burma’s fragile democratization process and promotion of human rights.

1. We urge the UN to take immediate action to stop ethnic cleaning by sending UN peace
    keeping forces to Arakan so as to protect innocent lives.
2. We also urge the UN to send UN mission to control the serious situation in Arakan State
    and take immediate steps to save the remaining Rohingyas as quickly as possible.
3. It is a very grave situation changing ever and we urge the UN to take measures for
    international intervention to save peoples life.
4. We appeal to the UN to demand the Myanmar government allow the International
    media to help monitor the deteriorating situation in Arakan.
5. We ask the UN to demand the Myanmar government allow International humanitarian
   groups to have their presence in Arakan State to carry out humanitarian work.