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Rohingya Muslim refugees along with Indian supporters shout slogans against human rights violations in Myanmar, during a march to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in New Delhi on December 19, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

August 14, 2017

A senior Indian official has described thousands of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya Muslims living in India as illegal refugees, saying the New Delhi government aims to deport them.

Kiren Rijiju, a high-profile minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, said in an interview on the weekend that all of an estimated 40,000 Rohingya Muslims are illegal refugees even those registered with the UN refugee agency.

The junior interior minister stressed that a registration process by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was irrelevant.

"They are doing it, we can't stop them from registering. But we are not signatory to the accord on refugees," the Indian official said, adding, "As far as we are concerned they are all illegal immigrants. They have no basis to live here. Anybody who is illegal migrant will be deported."

Rijiju, however, declined to comment on the deportation process.

"There's a procedure, there is a rule of law," Rijiju pointed out, stressing, "We can't throw them out just like that. We can't dump them in the Bay of Bengal."

The UNHCR has issued identity cards to about 16,500 Rohingya Muslims in India that it says help them "prevent harassment, arbitrary arrests, detention and deportation."

Reacting to the remarks, the UNHCR's India office said on Monday that the principle of non-refoulement – or not sending back refugees to a place where they face danger – was considered binding on all states whether they had signed the Refugee Convention or not.

The office said it had not received any official word about a plan to deport Rohingya refugees, and had not got any reports deportations were taking place.

Human rights activists have also questioned the practicality of rounding up and expelling thousands of people scattered across the country.

The file photo shows a Rohingya family eating their breakfast at a makeshift shelter in a camp in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Reuters)

Rijiju told parliament last week that the central government in New Delhi had directed state authorities to identify and deport illegal refugees as well as Rohingya Muslims.

India said on Friday it was in talks with Bangladesh and Myanmar about the deportation plan.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled from Myanmar, with many taking refuge in Bangladesh, and some then crossing a porous border into Hindu-majority India.

Many have also headed to Southeast Asia, often on rickety boats run by people-smuggling gangs.

Some 75,000 people have fled from the Muslim-majority northern part of Rakhine state to Bangladesh since Myanmar’s military launched the crackdown, according to a UN report.

Numerous accounts have already been provided by eyewitnesses of summary executions, rapes and arson attacks against Muslims since the crackdown began. The military has blocked access to Rakhine and banned journalists and aid workers from entering the zone.

The treatment of the roughly one million Rohingya in Myanmar has emerged as the country’s most contentious human rights issue.

Myanmar has long faced international criticism for its treatment of Rohingya Muslims, who are denied citizenship and live in conditions rights groups have compared to those of the Blacks under the former apartheid regime in South Africa.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif


January 7, 2017

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has written to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres to demand international action to stop rights violations against the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

In a letter addressed to Guterres on Friday, Zarif said the plight of the Rohingya has caused international concern.

The ethnic Muslims have not only been deprived of their most basic right — i.e. the right to belong to a country and a government that would protect them — they are also being exposed to killings and violent and inhumane treatment on a daily basis, he wrote.

The Iranian foreign minister referred to an upcoming ad hoc meeting by the foreign ministers of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on January 19 to address the situation of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and said the meeting reflects the depth of concern on the part of Islamic governments about the ethnic Muslims’ conditions.

The Rohingya have been subjected to persecution in Myanmar since 2012. Extremist Buddhists have attacked the Muslims, mainly in the northern Rakhine State, recurrently, torching their houses and causing them bodily harm.

Since October last year, however, the Muslims have faced increased violence. Back then, the Myanmarese military imposed a siege on Rakhine, and the government of Myanmar has blocked humanitarian and media access to the Muslims in the state ever since. There have been numerous reports of killings, rapes, and other forms of abuse being carried out against the besieged Muslims.

Tens of thousands of the members of the minority group have been forced to flee to neighboring regions, in Kachin State or across the border to Bangladesh.

Zarif said the “the systematic violation of the Rohingya Muslims’ basic rights and denying them citizenship… and forcing them to leave their homes” would have adverse consequences on peace and stability in Myanmar as well as in neighboring and regional countries.

He said it was expected of Myanmar’s government to take immediate and effective action to protect the rights of the Rohingya and not allow extremist groups to tarnish the peaceful image of Buddhism.

The top Iranian diplomat said it is also expected of Guterres and his special envoy for Myanmar to communicate to the Myanmarese government the demand of the international community and the Islamic world concerning immediate humanitarian access to affected areas.

He also expressed hope that the UN, through the mechanisms available to it, would take the necessary measures to address the situation of the Rohingya in Myanmar.

The UN said on Friday that a special rapporteur would be visiting Myanmar on Monday to investigate reports of abuse against the ethnic Muslims in Rakhine. Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Yanghee Lee will start a 12-day visit to Rakhine and Kachin states on Monday, the UN said.

The Myanmarese army denies the allegations of mistreatment against the Rohingya. A committee set up by the government recently concluded that law was not being violated in the state, an assertion widely derided by international rights organisations.



By Press TV
November 25, 2015

Press TV has conducted an interview with Liaqat Ali Khan, a professor at the Washburn University from Kansas, to ask for his insight into the impact of political change in Myanmar on the fate of the country's Rohingya Muslims.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: It’s quite clear that Myanmar’s path towards democracy isn’t as democratic as many would like it to be.

Khan: That’s very true. I think the National League for Democracy, which is the political party of the Nobel laureate has won landslide more than 70 percent of the seats in both houses; so, one would hope that the situation of Rohingyas will change, but I would suggest that there should be two international pressures that should be brought on the government of Myanmar.

One is through the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the other is through the Human Rights Council. Now, we know that in the Human Rights Council, there’s a special rapporteur, who is monitoring the situation in Myanmar, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and many other Islamic countries around their council.

And they should push the rapporteur to find what exactly is the persecution in Myanmar and then do something about it.

And I think the other is the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, 56 Muslim states, and does feel like they’re helpless and they can’t take care of 1.3 million fellow Muslims who are the most persecuted minority on this planet.

Press TV: Will any of this works specifically considering that even Aung San Suu Kyi herself has failed to address the plight of the Rohingyas when asked and prodded about it, she even went on to say that the situation is being grossly exaggerated by media outlets?

Khan: Well, let in she’s not in power and she was not in a position to say something very strongly, because the elections were under way.

And now that her political party has won, hopefully she would change her stands and she would be more sympathetic to the situation of Rohingyas.

After all she has a Nobel Peace Prize and it is obligatory that she takes care of the rights of Rohingya people.

I hope she would change, but if she doesn’t change, I still would ask that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, 56 Muslim states, they should do something to pressurize the new government that they recognize the rights of Rohingya people.

Press TV: How much would Aung San Suu Kyi’s party in the form of a government have power to bring about change, so to speak, because, let’s not forget that the military junta still retains much of the power in one way or another.

Khan: That’s very true. I think right now the military is still in power and the power will change in February next year.

That’s been the new political party would take power and you’re right that previously the military did not allow the same party, who won the elections, to take power. 

So, it remains to be seen whether the National League for Democracy would actually be able to take power and we don’t know. I think the military records are seriously anti-democratic in Myanmar.




By Press TV
December 9, 2014

In this investigative documentary, Johnny Miller takes us to Myanmar. In 2012 violence erupted in Myanmar’s eastern province of Rakhine between Muslims Rohingyas and Rakhines Buddhist, two ethnic groups that used to live in peace for generations. 

This “Community Violence” has led to ethnic cleansing of the entire Rohingya population, referred to by the United Nations as one of the world's most persecuted communities. 

Johnny sits with both conflicting sides in an attempt to peel back causes of the bloodshed as well as stances adopted by Myanmar’s government and the international communities on this brutality.





 By Press TV
December 2, 2014

Thousands of Myanmar's displaced Rohingya Muslims, who are camping across several states in India, are grappling with a dire situation there, Press TV reports. 

We have crossed borders to “reach India to save our lives. Thank God, we have life. But, we are facing acute shortage of food, medicine and clothing,” a Rohingya Muslim told Press TV at a camp on the outskirts of New Delhi. 

“We don’t even have toilet, which is most disgraceful,” he added.

The United Nations says the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. The Muslims have been displaced by violence, which has forced them to flee to neighboring countries.

“We belong to nowhere. Our children are not at schools,” another refugee said, adding, “If someone gets sick, hospitals are not willing to admit.”

Myanmar denies citizenship to most of the 1.3 million Rohingyas, placing restrictions on their movement, marriages and economic opportunities.

Thailand and Malaysia have come under fire by human rights groups for mistreating the Rohingya refugees.

The UN recently approved a resolution calling on the government in Myanmar to grant full citizenship to the persecuted Muslim minority, piling up pressure on the country to cancel a controversial identity plan.


August 27, 2014

Displaced Rohingya Muslims living in New Delhi are facing extereme conditions, Press TV reports.

Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims displaced from Myanmar are now living in the Indian capital, New Delhi. Most of the refugees in a camp in New Delhi are facing acute health and nutrition crises.

“We don’t get any help from anyone. We’re facing extreme hardship. My father died recently and we couldn’t afford medicine for him. We are in desperate need of food and medicine for our children. If the conditions like this continue for a long time, our families will die of hunger,” said Sakuara Begam.

The Rohingya families camping in New Delhi are dragged into extreme poverty and neglect and their children are having health problems, which require immediate medical attention. Unhygienic living conditions, exposure to extreme weather, and pollution makes them physically vulnerable.

Most of these Rohingya muslims have menial jobs and do not earn enough money. Some of them live on charity because it is very difficult for them to find a job.

The UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, is carrying out a program for the refugees in India, but they say the UN agency is of little or no help.

“I’m extremely worried about my kids. They usually get sick due to harsh weather and I have no money to get them to hospital or to buy medicine. What can I tell you? Our lives are full of miseries,” said one man.

Social Activists in India have called on the UN to immediately provide humanitarian relief to the Rohingya refugees, who are stateless and are left into destitution. They say Myanmar must stop the massacre and persecution of the Muslims.

Rohingya Muslims account for about five percent of Myanmar’s population of nearly 60 million.

The Myanmar government has been repeatedly criticized by human rights groups for failing to protect the Rohingya Muslims.

According to the UN, the Rohingyas are one of the world’s most persecuted communities.

Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims have been killed and wounded in months of increased sectarian violence in Myanmar. Thousands of others have been forced to flee their homes.




By Shahana Butt
July 7, 2014

Sectarian violence in Myanmar has forced thousands of displaced Rohingya Muslim refugees to leave their homeland and come to Jammu region of the Indian controlled Kashmir.

The refugees mostly fled the Buddhist majority State of Rakhein after authourities failed to stop attacks by extrimist Buddhists. Security forces in Myanmar were at some points accused of involvement in the attacks. The Rohyngya refugees in Indian controlled Kashmir are now living in make-shift tents on government land and fear possible evacuation. India is not a signatory to the United Nations convention on the status of refugees.

There is therefore no law that deals with foreign refugees, and the government decides whether or not to grant the Rohingyas refugee status on a case-by-case basis. And as the fasting month of Ramadan has started in hot summer, this Muslim community is dealing with tougher challenges. It’s not just the umployment, the refugees are denied access to health-care and education even in India. According to the United Nations, the Rohingya are one of the world's most persecuted minorities. They have long been grappling with similar problems, yet international humanitarian organizations have not done much for them and their living conditions are deteriorating. 




May 8, 2014

Nizamudin is lawyer by profession but he has been denied credentials back in Myanmar because of being a Muslim. But he, like many others, expresses gratitude to India for giving shelter to people with no identity.


At the same time, he urges the Indian government to get involved in their plight. This poor man, himself, is out on the streets to protest against the suffering of Muslims back home. It was a hot summer day as usual but Hundreds of Rohingiya Muslims made their way to India’s protest hub - the Jantar Mantar - where they staged a day long protest against the innocent killings of Muslims back in Myanmar. 

Most of them see the unrest as an ethnic cleaning backed by the Myanmar government. Many Rohingya Muslims have been killed since clashes began in the western state of Rakhine in Myanmar, and many others are missing or have displaced due to ongoing conflict. Bibi Marium is mother of two children and she calls herself most unfortunate. With tears in her eyes, she shares her experience back in Myanmar. 

The hardship faced by Rohingya refugees seems to be so severe that even the aid programs by the U-N refugee agency are failing. While the world community remains a mute spectator, Rohingyas are being forced to leave their homeland, Myanmar.



By Munawar Zaman
Press TV
May 5, 2014

It’s been three years since Mohamad Haroon has fled his home country, Myanmar, fearing for his life. He’s among several thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have made their way to India. But, their voices remain unheard as they continue to suffer from extreme poverty, amid an ongoing silence by the international community.



Haroon along with a number of Rohingya families are camping on the outskirts of the capital Delhi. Most of them are taking menial jobs for living. Others depend on charity, as it’s difficult for them to find a job. The hardship faced by the Rohingya refugees seems to be so severe that even the aid program by the U-N refugee agency can not alleviate. The refugees have been forced to leave their home land, Myanmar to flee an ongoing violence against Muslims there. Many see the unrest as an ethnic cleaning backed by the Myanmar government. Social Activists in India are urging the United Nations to immediately provide humanitarian relief for these Rohingya refugees who are stateless and plagued with extreme destitution. They say Myanmar's government must help stop the massacres and persecution of Muslims.



May 5, 2014

A new Press TV report criticizes the international community’s silence over the massacre of Muslims in many countries, including Myanmar, Sri Lanka and the Central African Republic.

The Sunday report highlighted the recent barbaric massacre of Muslims across the violence-wracked northeastern state of Assam in India, where members of a faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland killed tens of Muslims.
“They made everyone stand on the riverside and shot at them, they were around thirty to forty people, the attackers held guns in their hands and their faces were covered in black fabric,” a Muslim Indian woman, who was injured during the attack, said.

The report also emphasized on the long persecution of Muslims in Myanmar by Buddhist extremists. The Rohingya Muslim community in Myanmar has faced torture and repression since Myanmar’s independence in 1948.

Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims have been killed and wounded in months of violence in the country. Thousands of others have been forced to flee their homes.



Buddhist extremists are also committing atrocities against Muslims in Sri Lanka, the report said. It also showed footage of Muslims fleeing violence in the Central African Republic.

The report underlined the United Nations’ failure to make any tangible measures to stop attacks against Muslims. It also urged the UN Security Council to issue a binding resolution to stop crimes against Muslims.


January 2, 2014

A US congressional advisor has slammed Nobel Peace laureates American President Barack Obama and Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi for endorsing the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar through their silence, Press TV reports.

“Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and President Obama, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, both are ignoring or endorsing, aiding and abetting one of the worst most racist brutal regimes on the face of the Earth,” said Congressional Defense Policy Advisor Frederick Peterson in a Monday interview.

Peterson described the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims as “a major world atrocity” and said, “It is an outrage that the world community is not rising up to say no.”

The US congressional official also pointed out that the majority of the world countries, particularly in the West, have turned a blind eye to the tragedy due to their “economic interests” in Myanmar.

The United Nations recognizes the Rohingya Muslims living in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine as one of the world’s most persecuted communities.

Dozens of Muslims have been killed in attacks by extremists in Myanmar over the past few months as a new wave of ethnic and sectarian violence targeted Rohingya Muslims in the troubled state.

Last year, Rakhine saw a wave of violence against the Muslim community that left hundreds of people dead.

Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar account for about five percent of the country’s population of nearly 60 million. They have been persecuted and faced torture, neglect, and repression since the country’s independence in 1948.

US president Barack Obama meets opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during his historic Burma trip (Photo: Reuters)




By Press TV
December 30, 2013
The United States is complicit in the ongoing persecution of the Rohingya Muslim community in Myanmar for easing sanctions against the Asian country, a political analyst tells Press TV.

“As far as who is responsible for this, I think we have to assign some responsibility not only to the government in Myanmar and to the Noble Laureate Aung San Suu kyi, … but also, we have to blame the American government and world community,” Kevin Barrett, a political commentator from Madison said in a Monday interview with Press TV. The analyst noted that the US has been rewarding the Myanmar regime with ever-closer political and economic ties despite the genocide of the minority Rohingya Muslims.
“Now, if we look back at when this latest wave of extreme persecution and genocide started, it was May of 2012 and less than two months later the US rewarded the Myanmar government for its genocide by sending its first ambassador in decades to Myanmar and opening up relations and less than a month after that, I believe August 2012, Myanmar’s government was rewarded for the genocide by an opening up US trade with Myanmar and pouring investments in the oil industry,” he added.
Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar account for about five percent of the country’s population of nearly 60 million. They have been persecuted and faced torture, neglect, and repression since the country's independence in 1948.

The Buddhist-majority government of Myanmar refuses to recognize Rohingyas and classifies them as illegal migrants, although the Rohingyas are said to be Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origin, who migrated to Myanmar as early as the 8th century.



December 29, 2013

Latest media reports show Rohingya women are forced into prostitution and sexual slavery at military bases across the Southeast Asian country. 

The reports say Myanmar's security forces kidnap Rohingya women and girls and put them to forced labor and prostitution in military bases. 
“The women have been beaten, drugged, and sexually assaulted by men wearing army fatigues,” media outlets quoted witnesses as saying.
The Muslim minority in Myanmar continues to face increasing persecution and hardship. They have no social status in Myanmar as the government denies them citizenship rights. 

Those who flee Myanmar to neighboring countries, including Thailand, in hope of a better future face similar risks. 

International bodies and human rights organizations accuse the government of turning a blind eye to the violence against Rohingya women.

The United Nations recognizes the Rohingya Muslims living in Myanmar’s Rakhine state as one of the world’s most persecuted communities.

The developments come after dozens of Muslims were killed in recent attacks by Buddhist extremists in Myanmar as a new wave of ethnic and sectarian violence targeted Rohingya Muslims in the troubled State. 

Last year, Rakhine saw a wave of violence against the Muslim community that left hundreds of people dead. 

Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar account for about five percent of the country’s population of nearly 60 million. They have been persecuted and faced torture, neglect, and repression since the country's independence in 1948. 

Myanmar government has been repeatedly criticized for failing to protect the Rohingya Muslims.

(Photo: AP)
Buddhist monk U Wirathu

By Tim King
December 28, 2013

Hundreds of Rohingya people have been killed; tens of thousands were forced from their homes and live as suffering refugees in Internal Displacement Camps (IDP's) where disease is rampant and food and shelter are scarce.

"Terrorist" groups are frequently the banter of network news anchors and analysts; yet few in America devote time to the terrorists of Burma who have behaved treacherously toward the Muslim population for a year and a half now, due to old simmering hatreds and a desire among the majority population to live in a Buddhist only country. The Buddhist answer toward their frustration with having to live with Muslims, is most vividly expressed in the "969" movement led by a Buddhist monk named U Wirathu; which propagates false information that in turn damages the fragile existence of Muslims in this country that was locked down under a military junta for so many years. While all Muslims are threatened, the Rohingya Muslim people are at the center of the Buddhist's gun sites.

Wirathu is now an abbot in Mandalay's Masoeyein Monastery, an expansive complex where he leads about 60 monks and has influence over more than 2,500 residing there. Free from a prison sentence and back in a place of influential power, he is again preaching hatred and intolerance. "Many monks are highly influenced by his hateful messages, and are directly involved in genocidal campaigns against the minority Muslim population in Myanmar. They are also supported by government agencies at all levels - from local to central," noted Rohingya Muslim political leader, Dr. Habib Siddiqui.

The nightmare for Burmese Muslims started a year ago last July, when Buddhists claimed that one of their women was raped and murdered by Muslim men. Her ravaged and damaged body was posted online and in Buddhist press and only a day after this was reported, ten Muslim men in a completely different part of the country were pulled from a bus and murdered in broad daylight by a Buddhist mob. 

Three young men were arrested for the woman's murder and they all died in custody. There was no trial, their role in the woman's death was never proven. There is wide speculation that the woman's death had nothing to do with any Muslim man, and that it was a set up to spark the Genocide that has been sweeping Burma, now called Myanmar, ever since.

Hundreds of Rohingya people have been killed; tens of thousands were forced from their homes and live as suffering refugees in Internal Displacement Camps (IDP's) where disease is rampant and food and shelter are scarce.

As these acts of barbarity and government terrorism have plagued the Rohingyas, Hillary Clinton and Aung San Suu Kyi have signed business deals and planned the corporation exploitation of this virgin country in Asia. Neither have raised their voice to end the violence. Suu Kyi was viewed as a world peace leader prior to this current saga where she sides with the Buddhist majority, members of which continue their campaign of terror to eliminate the Rohingya people.

Castaways

The stories about the boat people are horrendous. Those fortunate enough to reach Bangladesh are given a bag of rice and a bottle of water and turned around... literally sent back to the sea, and their deaths in many if not most cases.

In October 2012 Salem-News.com reported: "After floating for 3 consecutive days with limited to no supplies, Rohingya boat people from Arakan finally attempted to land near Shamapura Island of Bangladesh this afternoon.

"But misfortune is following after them and the Bangladeshi border security forces blocked them from landing on their soil. After having a long and keen request with tears, when they failed approaching to the Bangladeshi, they at last drove their boats out toward Maungdaw where brutal Burmese forces are in standby to prevent the landing and drive out them.

"All the boats are sighted at the middle of Naf River yet as they are unable to land on either side, not in Burma nor Bangladesh."

In the article "Are Rohingyas and Kamans Less (Than) Human Beings?", M.S. Anwar wrote: "Had Bangladesh wanted it, they could have solved the problems of Rohingyas long ago and repatriated the thousands of Rohingyas living in the country by taking the sociopathic Burmese leaders to international dialogues or international courts for denying the history of Rohingyas and true history of Arakan. If Bangladesh can do it, it will be the win-win situation for both Bangladesh and Rohingyas. But Bangladesh doesn’t do it for the lame hopes of more profits to be gained from maintaining a good relationship with Burma. So Rohingyas have no choice but to take perilous sea voyages for wherever they feel and believe they will be given refuges and breathing spaces. However, all of their hopes of respites and refuges are but all over soon after their journeys start."
The Rohingya people are also rejected from other countries with no regard for their humanity. The bottom line is that they are a stateless people, and their situation is getting worse. Burma is a country that has lived under military government for a very long time, and this has impacted educational and social understandings in ways that western people can not begin to imagine. Persecution is nothing new in Asia, but the Rohingya story is off the charts in terms of international Human Rights law violations and Crimes Against Humanity. The lucrative potential of today's Myanmar is too much for those with an eye on exploitation to ignore. 
Unwanted, punished for being who they are, the Rohingya people are dreading the politics of Myanan Sayadaw U Thaddhamma. He is leading a movement to build hatred toward the Rohingya in a blatant and sickening way that Buddhist people all over the world should stand against. So much for meditation and incense, the Buddhists of Burma have become a Nazi like commodity and there is little outcry from within the Buddhist community, likely because of the associated danger that could become a knife in the back of Muslim sympathizers.

I have personally reported the torture death of a Rohingya man. This happened inside of a government jail. An expert Human Rights physician confirmed that the man had literally been tortured to death:

"We do not know his name but we can imagine how difficult the last weeks of his life were. We do know that this man was from Anaung Pyin Village, in Ra Tha Taung Township. The government arrested him after the outbreak of violence. From what we have been told, he was held for the last part of his life, in Sittwe jai. Here, we are told, the man had been tortured since his arrest by police and Rakhines; pulled away from whatever family and friends he may have had, and his life has been something akin to a horror movie ever since. Through consistent torture and a lack of medication he passed away on 13th October 2012."

In October of last year, we reported that Dr. Nora Rowley, a Human Rights Physician who lived in Burma for years, observed that the violence, "is looking more like Bosnia and true Genocide every day rather than ethnic cleansing."

In an article just published by The Irrawaddy, Lawi Weng writes that the 969 movement, led by the Mandalay-based monk U Wirathu, has become extremely controversial in the past year after launching a nationwide campaign claiming that Burma’s minority Muslim population is threatening the Buddhist majority. 

"The monks, who are deeply revered in Burma, have called on Buddhists to shun Muslim communities and buy only goods from Buddhist-owned shops. The sermons are considered hate speech and have been linked to outbreaks of Buddhist mob violence against Muslim communities throughout Burma."

The most recent outbreak of deadly inter-communal Buddhist mob attacks happened in Thandwe Township last October. That violence was preceded by sermons organized by the 969 movement. While it seems hard to deny the connection between the 969 monks and the ethnic tension, the 969 movement's U Thaddhamma, says the movement’s activities in the region are not contributing to escalating tensions, adding that the monks were allowed to travel and spread their message by local authorities.

"We did not hold talks to create any problem," he said, before claiming that the Muslims had initiated the inter-communal violence in Burma in the past year. "They were first people who started the violence. Then, when they were suffered, they blamed our 969 monks," Thaddhamma added.

Often described as Myanmar's Neo-Nazi group, organizers of 969 claim that the three digits "symbolize the virtues of the Buddha, Buddhist practices and the Buddhist community."

In an Asian Tribune article, Dr. Habib Siddiqui explains that the 969 movement was launched by Wirathu, known in Asia as "The Burmese bin Laden," in 2001, "It draws its inspiration from fascism and Nazism and is racist, bigotry-ridden and apartheid to the core calling for boycott of anything Muslim the same way Jews of Germany were depicted and treated in the 1930s and 1940s until the fall of Hitler."

Wirathu is apparently wising up to the image he is creating for himself, his movement and all Buddhists, as he conducts his hatred under that banner. Here are some of the incidents that define this man:

- He launched a campaign to pass legislation on marriages between Buddhist women and Muslim men that would require the women to receive prior permission from their parents and authorities and the men to convert to Buddhism. This is a stark violation of international law.

- As a result of Wirathu's actions in 2001, several mosques were destroyed by Buddhist monks. The sporadic violence which included killing of several Muslims and destruction of Muslim properties and mosques would continue until 2003 when he was arrested.

- Wirathu distributed anti-Muslim pamphlets that incited communal riots in his birthplace of Kyaukse, a town near Meikhtila. At least 10 Muslims were killed in Kyaukse by a Buddhist mob, according to a U.S. State Department report.

- In 2003, the Mandalay-based monk received a 25 year sentence for inciting anti-Muslim hatred, but was released last year under a general amnesty, far before his release date.

- "We have a slogan: When you eat, eat 969; when you go, go 969; when you buy, buy 969," Wirathu declared at his monastery in Mandalay. (Translation: If you're eating, traveling or buying anything, do it with a Buddhist.) This apartheid 969 creed led to sharp increase in anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar, especially after the Bamiyan statues were destroyed by Taliban in March of 2001.

Dr. Siddiqui says it is widely believed by Dr. Maung Zarni and many other independent researchers that the government of Thein Sein, "is using Wirathu and his terrorist monks, with wide support within the Buddhist society, to do what it could not do officially. Thus, the crimes of Wirathu cannot be separated from those of Thein Sein. They are in collusion."

The odds of Rohingya people finding justice in Myanmar seems dismal at best. When leaders like Aung San Suu Kyi fail to raise their voice, the process becomes daunting. 

Wirathu's Buddhist peers in Saffron Revolution

U Gambira, aka Nyi Nyi Lwin, led the "Saffron Revolution" democracy uprising in 2007 that was crushed by the Burmese military. He told Reuters that if the government was serious to stop anti-Muslim pogroms, it could do it. 

"In the past, they prevented monks from giving speeches about democracy and politics. This time they don't stop these incendiary speeches. They are supporting them," he said. "Because Wirathu is an abbot at a big monastery of about 2,500 monks, no one dares to speak back to him. The government needs to take action against him."

Dr. Siddiqui said, "Last year in May-October when Rohingya Muslims were killed in the Arakan state, the Buddhist monks played major roles not only in inciting violence against them, they allowed their monasteries to be used as arms depot and also participated themselves in the slaughter. Government security forces and ultra-racist Rakhine politicians also participated in such raids. The anti-Muslim pogroms last year led to the death of hundreds of Muslims and homelessness of nearly 140,000 Muslims in the Rakhine state."






 By Press TV
December 14, 2013

A political analyst tells Press TV that the issue about the Rohingyas is one of the most gravest problems that we see in the world today and these people are in need of protection and help. 

This is while Thailand says it has intercepted a boat carrying 200 Myanmarese Rohingyas near the southwestern island of Phuket and has detained the refugees. 

Press TV has conducted an interview with James Jennings, president of Conscience International, to further discuss the issue. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview. 

Press TV: Why is it that the international community is not doing literally anything to stop the violence going on in Myanmar for over a year now? 

Jennings: The fact is that the Rohingyas are among the most persecuted group of people in the world and also they are largely a stateless group because of the status of citizenship that not been awarded by Myanmar. 

You must understand that there are several wars going on within Myanmar now including the Kachins in the north and the Karens in the south and of course the Rohingyas in the west. 

I was in Myanmar in October and traveled the length of that country. The issue about the Rohingyas should be among the first issues in the world attention right now. 

However it is certainly not the only place where there are people who are excluded from citizenship or statehood and of course the Palestinians would be among the most prominent of those groups and certainly among the most long-lasting issues. 
But in Central Africa there are population groups that are excluded from one state or another. In Myanmar we have a particular problem that needs to be addressed as a problem for the citizenship of the Rohingyas who have been there for a very long time and the central government in Rangoon certainly should deal with that issue.
Press TV: What role can Myanmar's neighbors play in relieving the pain of these refugees because literally we see some of the neighbors such as Thailand literally rejecting those people fleeing the violence? 

Jennings: It is true that in Bangladesh and also in Thailand and other places there have been rejections of the people and many of them have become “boat people” as we saw during the Vietnam War some thirty five, forty years ago and this is really an intolerable situation for the world community and the world conscious and the United Nations has weighed in on the issue but needs to do more. 

It is one of the most gravest problems that we see in the world today and throughout Southeast Asia that has known many of these problems. These people are in need of protection and help, it does not look like that Rangoon is very interested although I did interview members of the commission who were studying that from Rangoon but the action has not been commensurate with the obvious concern that they have as well.


Muslim Rohingyas are shown at a camp of internally displaced persons (IDP), located on the outskirts of Sittwe, capital of Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine. (File photo)

December 12, 2013

Myanmar has freed 44 political detainees as foreign dignitaries have gathered in the capital Yangon for the opening ceremony of the Southeast Asian Games, a presidential adviser says.

"In total, 44 political prisoners have been released around the country today," AFP quoted Hla Maung Shwe as saying. 

President Thein Sein has pledged to release all political prisoners in the country by the end of the year. 

This comes as the opening ceremony for the South East Asian Games in Myanmar will take place on Wednesday. It is the first time in more than 40 years that the biggest sporting event in the region will be hosted by Myanmar. 

Despite violations of human rights by Myanmar’s government, Washington has eased sanctions on the Asian country and many US companies are looking at starting operations in Myanmar with its abundant resources and low-cost labor. 

There are ongoing violence against the Rohingya Muslims in the western state of Rakhine. 

Myanmar has recently rejected a UN resolution urging the government to grant citizenship to the country’s Rohingya Muslims and to put an end to Buddhist violence against the highly-persecuted minority. 

Presidential spokesman, Ye Htut, said on November 21 that the United Nations could not pressure Myanmar into changing its stance over the citizenship issue. 

The Southeast Asian country passed a citizenship law in 1982, under which minorities must prove they had lived in Myanmar prior to 1823 to obtain nationality. The law recognizes eight races and 130 minority groups, but effectively denies some 800,000 Rohingya Muslims the right to citizenship. 

Rohingya Muslims have been suffering torture, discrimination, and repression for many years. Hundreds of them are believed to have been killed and thousands displaced in attacks by Buddhist extremists. 

The extremists frequently attack the Rohingya Muslims and set fire to their homes in several villages in Rakhine. Myanmar Army forces allegedly provide them with petrol for torching the houses of Muslim villagers, who are then forced to flee. 

Violence against Muslims in Myanmar has been spearheaded by radical Buddhist monks who see the presence of a Muslim population as a threat. This is while the government is also accused of failing to protect the Muslims. 

The deadly violence against the Rohingya has raised international concern and drawn condemnation of the government's handling of the minority, which the UN describes as among the world's most persecuted.

(Photo: Reuters)

 By Press TV
December 8, 2013

Press TV has conducted an interview with Christopher Walker, political commentator, London about Rohingyas persecution in Myanmar and accusations that Thai officials sell the Rohingya to human traffickers.

The following is an approximate transcript of the interview. 

Press TV: If this story (of Thai officials selling Rohingya Muslim refugees to human trafficking rings) turns out to be true, what do you think reactions would be? 

Walker: Well, I don’t think there’s much doubt it will turn out to be true. It’s been thoroughly investigated by numerous different people. 

I think the first reaction will be particular anger against Thailand at a time when the Thai government is under great pressure from demonstrations in the street that we’ve all seen on our television screens. 
Also it’s going to really rather blacken the reputation of the supposedly newly-democratic regime in Myanmar, which is obviously accused of driving out these Muslims - the minority there by bad treatment.
Press TV: How do you think this story will damage Thailand’s image in the long run? 

Walker: Seriously I think because when it’s investigated it seems that it’s not just some fringe Thai gangsters that have been involved, but it’s been going out to the very highest level. 

And of course it’s a sign really that these Muslim Myanmar people are an embarrassment to many regimes in the region who find them difficult and try to, sort of, pass them on elsewhere. 

The fact that they’re passing them on from camps to traffickers if ransoms aren’t paid makes the entire regime look extremely unsavory. 

Press TV: Is there any hope for accountability if at all? 

Walker: It depends how far this goes. As your story emphasized quite rightly at the beginning, the United Nations has stepped in. If that report adds to press reports and others to back this story up, yes, I can see it moving further.


(Photo: Andrew Marshall/Reuters)

 By Press TV
December 7, 2013

 A human rights campaigner has called for legal action against Thai officials suspected of selling Rohingya Muslims fleeing from persecution in Myanmar to human traffickers, Press TV reports.

“This is a very serious thing, selling people, selling human beings to another country for their own benefit; and therefore, there has to be some kind of accountability and justice” in favor of “these people who are sold,” Myra Dahgaypaw told Press TV in a Friday interview. 

She said that the immigration officials of Thailand have “committed these crimes by selling the Rohingya people to Malaysia.” 

Reuters news agency has conducted an investigation into the issue in three countries, saying in a report on Thursday that Rohingya refugees were removed from Thai immigration centers and handed over to human traffickers waiting at sea. 

The refugees were secretly transported across southern Thailand and held hostage in heavily-guarded camps near Thailand’s border with Malaysia until relatives pay for their release. 

Dahgaypaw warned that if nobody is held accountable, Thai officials “will keep doing what they are doing and they will keep doing so because they do not get punished.” 
“This is a big concern for us. They are human beings like us and they do not deserve to be treated like animals or slaves, where they can be sold easily this way. So it is really a big concern and they need safety,” she stated.
Myanmar’s government refuses to recognize Rohingya Muslims as citizens and labels them as “illegal” immigrants. 

They have faced torture, neglect, and repression in Myanmar since it achieved independence in 1948. 

Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims are believed to have been killed and thousands displaced in attacks by the Buddhist extremists. The assaults have been mainly carried out in the western state of Rakhine.




By Press TV
December 7, 2013

Press TV has conducted an interview with Dr. Randy Short, human rights activist, Washington about the United Nations probe into reports of human trafficking of Rohingya Muslims by Thailand officials.

The following is an approximate transcript of the interview. 

Press TV: Regarding the UN probe of human trafficking of Rohingya Muslims... Why should such a thing happen first of all?

Short: Let’s be honest, it’s a marginalized Muslim population. We understand now that Western countries can go into Burma and cut deals - This happens in other countries that open themselves up to economic exploitation by the West, people willing to look the other way as people are exterminated or pushed off the land. 

After all, this is what made America, America; and Australia, Australia; New Zealand, New Zealand; and Canada, Canada; and Argentina... we can go on and on. 

It is disgusting, but it’s showing that these people who are being made stateless don’t have anyone to fight for them. And this is what you can see. 
It’s even more tragic that the UN, that‘s speaking about this, is turning its head the other way when in Bangladesh they’re using deadly Depo Provera to eliminate the Rohingyas in a more quiet and silent way.
So it’s as if they are a population that they want to get rid of. And there are eugenicists and other people who feel that they are expendable - black, brown, yellow, Muslim, African people; and the Rohingyas seem to be on a list that’s unworthy of mercy or human rights in spite of the existing Declaration of Human Rights. 

Thus far, you have rich societies like Saudi Arabia and Qatar that have money for Takfiris to murder people in Syria, or to look the other way when people are murdered in Bahrain and yet there are no resources for these Muslims in Burma. 
And eugenics and exploitation just as what happens with my African-American people here or the Palestinians in Gaza, this is another population that seems to be used or thrown away by a world that’s forgotten God, love, justice and mercy - and it’s a human right and a birth right for all people.
And particularly people like the Rohingya or else religion, morality and international human rights law has no value if it doesn’t apply to people like the Rohingyas. 

Press TV: Speaking of human rights, will there be accountability for such human rights violations? 

Short: We have to make people accountable. We need to have sanctions and boycotts against companies that deal with Burma. We need to go after Thailand. These countries it’s amazing... 

Sanctions seem to only be applied to countries that want to only do the right thing, like yours [Iran]. And the other rogue countries, as long as they’re willing to be slaves that kiss ... of the West, they’re allowed to do things like what’s being done to our brothers and sisters that are known as Rohingyas in South East Asia.




By Press TV
November 24, 2013

Press TV has conducted an interview with Sarnata Reynolds, Statelessness Refugees International, Maryland about the issue of the dramatic depravation of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar camps; them being violently persecuted by the majority Buddhist community assisted by the government, which has rejected a UN resolution.

The following is an approximate transcript of the interview. 

Press TV: When we want to take a look at the situation of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar it’s nothing new at this point, but this development of how the UN has pretty much urged the country, in this case to grant citizenship to the Rohingyas; but highlighting the case should invoke some kind of aid translating down. 

Why is that not happening? Such as what we’re seeing in these camps in terms of the ones that have been displaced now living in these camps. 

Reynolds: That’s a good question and the UN resolution I should say is such a positive and important step both for the Rohingya people who have the right to nationality; the right to citizenship, but also to the international community to take seriously that the right to nationally needs to be conferred and that it should be condemned when countries decide not to permit people to have citizenship. 
The aid is actually there to a great extent. The problem is that it can’t get in because the government of Myanmar whether at the state level or at the central government level or at the local level is just not permitting humanitarians to get in.
So at the state level there are whole section of Rakhine state where the Rohingya live - where the vast majority of Rohingya live - who simply are not being permitted to get aid. 
And the IDP camps that you talked about - the displacement camps - there are humanitarian workers who are being threatened everyday that if they go in and if they provide assistance they may be harmed. And people are being harmed and they are being arrested.
Press TV: When we look at the reports, in many cases it is said that what is happening to the Rohingyas is pretty much something that is state-backed and it is part of a culture there - it has been like this for quite some time. 

The cruel and inhumane ways that they get treated and of course the extremes of what we have witnessed particularly in Rakhine State. 

Hasn’t the state promised that it’s not going to keep backing the extreme violence that is incurred mainly by the Buddhists on the Rohingyas or is that just for public consumption not really translating into action? 

Reynolds: Unfortunately, I’m not even sure I would say that the government has made that promise. 

There is no national champion for the Rohingya. There is no national champion for their rights. There is no one in the government right now that is saying this has to stop, no more. The Rohingya have to be treated with dignity, with respect for their human rights. 

Until the central government makes clear that this is unacceptable that they are not going to allow the government of Rakhine or the local townships to mistreat, to abuse and to persecute the Rohingya they have no reason to change. 

There is impunity and there is no accountability.



    • Rohingya Exodus