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| (Photo: The Hindu) |
By Shahana Butt
November 11, 2013
Ahmad Irshad along with his family fled Myanmar at the age of 14, because they feared being killed by extremist Buddhists.
Living in Jammu region of Indian-controlled Kashmir, he believes the life they live now is no less than a punishment for them.
Working in a walnut packaging factory is the only chance of survival for thousands of refugees -- young and old.
India is not a signatory to the United Nations convention relating to the status of refugees. Since there is no law that deals with foreign refugees, the government will decide whether or not to grant the Rohingyas, refugee status on a case-by-case basis.
Asylum seekers can be given the UN refugee cards instead, which the agency says could also take time.
Rohingyas are believed to be the most persecuted community of the world. Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees living across the Indian sub-continent hope their lives will one day change for the better.
By Press TV
October 24, 2013
Aung San Suu Kyi is lauded as an international champion of human rights, welcomed at the home of the British Prime minister but for Rohinghya campaigners, her attention to abuses being suffered closer to home has been absent. They say it’s not too late for the country’s most prominent opposition leader to speak up on their behalf.
Myanmar’s military junta is desperately trying to be reintegrated in the international community. Activists say the visit of prominent opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to London could be critical in helping to raise the issue of the human rights abuses being suffered by the Rohingya people. Whether she chooses to do so is another matter entirely.
The UN refers it to ‘as one of the most persecuted groups in the world and the hope is global attention will bring a halt to the rights abuses being suffered where scores have been killed and injured with thousands displaced.
Over 1.5 million Rohingyas live outside Myanmar having escaped a country that does not even accept them as legitimate citizens. Now, rights groups say figures like Aung San Suu Kyi have a moral obligation to press the issue with the international community to help the remaining Rohingya Muslims inside Myanmar before more blood is spilt.
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| (Photo: AP) |
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| Rohingyas are seen at a camp for displaced people in Myanmar's western Rakhine State |
July 10, 2013
Several human rights groups and activists have strongly criticized the Myanmar government for its silence over growing violence against the Rohingya Muslims across the Southeast Asian country.
Several international rights groups and activists warned in a joint statement on Monday that impunity for the Buddhist assailants will further embolden them to commit more crimes against the Muslim minority, and will turn Myanmar into a breeding ground for extremism.
The statement comes more than three months after authorities failed to charge any suspect in connection with an attack on an Islamic school that claimed dozens of lives in central Myanmar.
The school on the outskirts of Meiktila town was razed during the bloodshed in March that triggered an outbreak of violence against the Muslim across the southeast Asian country. Hundreds of thugs used steel chains, sticks and knives to attack the students and teachers.
According to official figures, nearly 50 people were killed and thousands were left homeless across the troubled region.
The rights group, Physicians for Human Rights, has put together information and eyewitness testimonies to show the scale of violence and horrors at the massacre site.
Last year western Myanmar's Rakhine State saw a wave of violence against the Muslim community that left more than 200 people dead.
Scores of Rohingya Muslims have been killed and thousands of others displaced as a result of attacks by Buddhist extremists in Myanmar in recent months.
International bodies accuse the government of turning a blind eye to the attacks.
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’s government has been repeatedly criticized for failing to protect the Rohingya Muslims.
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| A Muslim Rohingya woman (C) breastfeeds her baby at a school sheltering Internally Displaced Persons in the village of Theik Kayk Pyim, Myanmar, on October 11, 2012. |
July 4, 2013
Iran deputy foreign minister says the Islamic Republic is prepared to dispatch humanitarian aid consignments to Myanmar in order to help with the relief of the Rohingya Muslims in the Southeast Asian country.
In a meeting with Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister Zin Yaw in Naypyidaw on Wednesday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia and Pacific Affairs Seyyed Abbas Araqchi elaborated on Tehran’s principled policies towards the developments in the Muslim World.
He also voiced the deep concern of the Iranian authorities, scholars and nation over the ongoing sectarian clashes between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, urging the Myanmar government to adopt effective measures to properly resolve the issue.
Araqchi further noted that Iran is ready to send aid shipments to Myanmar, and help to improve the miserable living conditions of Rohingyas.
Thousands of Rohingyas are deprived of citizenship rights due to the policy of discrimination that has denied them the right of citizenship and made them vulnerable to acts of violence and persecution, expulsion, and displacement.
The Myanmar government has so far refused to extricate the stateless Rohingyas in Rakhine state from their citizenship limbo, despite international pressure to give them a legal status.
The extremists frequently attack Rohingyas and have set fire to their homes in several villages in Rakhine. Myanmar Army forces have allegedly provided the fanatics with containers of petrol for torching the houses of Muslim villagers, who are then forced to flee.
Hundreds of Rohingyas are believed to have been killed and thousands displaced in attacks by extremists, who call themselves Buddhists.
Rohingyas are said to be Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origin, who migrated to Myanmar as early as the 8th century.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have issued separate statements, calling on Myanmar to take action to protect the Rohingya Muslim population against extremists.
July 3, 2013
These families are a few of the estimated 1500 Muslims who have fled to Malaysia from the violence in Myanmar over the past few months.
The Rohingya ethnic group has taken the brunt of the attacks by members of that country’s Buddhist majority.
There are already tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Malaysia. And the recent influx is causing a huge strain on the community’s limited resources.
And with violence still sporadically breaking out in Myanmar, there is no reason to think the flow of refugees to Malaysia will stop anytime soon.
Malaysia has seen another spillover effect. Recent violent clashes between Buddhists and Muslims from Myanmar left several people dead, prompting the Malaysian government to round up and detain at least a thousand people.
And in a break with the non-interference policy practiced by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN, Malaysia has urged Myanmar to take stronger action to prevent the persecution of Muslims.
But given its history, analysts say it seems unlikely that ASEAN will go beyond mere words to ease the suffering of the Rohingya people.
June 7, 2013
Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has rejected criticism leveled at her over her silence about the persecution of the Rohingya Muslim community, while announcing her desire to run for president.
The Muslim minority of Rohingyas in Myanmar accounts for about five percent of the country’s population of nearly 60 million. The persecuted minority has faced torture, neglect, and repression since the country achieved independence in 1948.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called on Myanmar’s government to address the plight of the Rohingya Muslim population and to protect the community against Buddhist extremists.
“At the moment nobody seems to be very satisfied with me because I’m not taking sides,” Suu Kyi said. “I have not been silent. It’s just that they are not hearing what they want to hear from me.”
“I do not want to aggravate the situation by saying that one community is wrong or the other community is wrong,” she added.
Suu Kyi made the remarks during a meeting with foreign business executives in the city of Naypyidaw on Thursday.
She also expressed her political ambitions and said, “If I pretended that I didn’t want to be president I wouldn’t be honest. And I would rather be honest with my people than otherwise… I want to run for president.”
Under the current law, her marriage to a foreigner disqualifies her for Myanmar presidency.
May 30, 2013
Press TV has talked with Myra Dahgaypaw, with the US Campaign for Burma from Washington D.C., to comment on the ongoing systematic persecution of Muslim Rohingyas by the extremist Buddhists in the country.
Press TV has talked with Myra Dahgaypaw, with the US Campaign for Burma from Washington D.C., to comment on the ongoing systematic persecution of Muslim Rohingyas by the extremist Buddhists in the country.
What follows is a rough transcript of the interview.
Press TV: Myra Dahgaypaw, let us look at the political developments.
We had the president of Myanmar who visited Washington recently and we also had Aung San Suu Kyi, who came out and made some statements.
Can you tell us if any of those two figures have addressed what is going on in Myanmar regarding what many are calling ethnic cleansing, when you see these types of violence erupt there.
Dahgaypaw: Well, at this point only the words are out there but no action has been taken.
Those who have to suffer, they are still suffering and those who persecute people are still persecuting.
There is no justice and accountability, nobody gets punished for it. All the abuses happen with impunity.
Press TV: We had President Thein Sein visiting Washington and that reinforces, obviously the ties that the US has in this.
Don't you think that the US should uphold what it preaches in terms of democracy and in this case apply it by pressuring the government there and not only that but pressuring Aung San Suu Kyi to come up more in defense of what is going on there, of these Muslims who are being persecuted.
Dahgaypaw: Indeed I totally agree with you that the US government as well as the international community including the UN, should pressure the Burmese authorities to do more for these people.
It is not okay to keep allowing the abuses to happen to these group of people, I mean the Rohingyas are human beings like us.
So if we are talking about the genuine reform, if we are talking about the reform for all the people, for the better lives for the people of Burma, these Rohingya people are also the people of Burma and these reforms have to also benefit them but at this point we haven't seen anything..., anybody that will be pushing the Burmese authorities and Aung San Suu Kyi to do more than what they are doing now.
Instead they keep giving them and that is why I am saying, the invitation for Thein Sein to come to the White House is like a slap on the face to the ethnic minorities, to those people who have to suffer at the hands of these Burmese military.
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| Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Mohammad Khazaei |
May 18, 2013
Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations Mohammad Khazaei has urged a swift end to the violence and the breach of human rights against the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
In a meeting with the ambassadors of the member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Khazaei said suppression and violence against Muslims are taking place despite Myanmar’s claims of democratization and reform.
He criticized a lack of consensus and coordination among Muslim countries to adopt a resolution in condemnation of the atrocities against the Muslims in Myanmar, stressing the importance for Myanmar’s government to take effective measures to stop the violence.
“At a time when Muslim countries are concerned about the situation in Myanmar, the political whim of certain Western states to establish better relations with Myanmar’s government has weakened the process of looking into the situation of Muslims in the country, and Muslim countries, unfortunately, are not using all their means [to push for an end to the violence],” Khazaei said.
The Iranian envoy further stated that the silence and inaction of the international community have resulted in the further violation of the Muslims’ rights in the Southeast Asian country.
He urged the UN General Assembly to hold a special meeting on Myanmar and pass a resolution to stop the brutalities against the Muslims.
He also called on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to dispatch an independent fact-finding mission to Myanmar to probe human rights abuses and identify the perpetrators behind the acts of violence there.
The OIC countries should urge Myanmar’s government to arrest and punish the violators of human rights and the perpetrators of violence against the Muslims, he pointed out.
Rohingya Muslims have faced torture, neglect, and repression in Myanmar for many years.
About 800,000 Rohingyas in the western state of Rakhine are deprived of citizenship rights due to the policy of discrimination that has denied them the right of citizenship and made them vulnerable to acts of violence, persecution, expulsion, and displacement.
Hundreds of Rohingyas are believed to have been killed and thousands of others displaced in recent attacks by extremist Buddhists.
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| This picture shows a mosque destroyed after hundreds of extremist Buddhists armed with bricks stormed a group of Muslim villages in Okkan in Myanmar on Wednesday, May 1, 2013. |
May 2, 2013
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has denounced the recent attack by extremists on Muslims in the city of Okkan in Myanmar that led to the destruction of the community’s houses and holy sites.
Hundreds of extremist Buddhists armed with bricks stormed a group of Muslim villages in Okkan, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Yangon, on Wednesday. The Buddhist mob targeted Muslim shops and destroyed at least two mosques that left one man dead and ten others injured.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the clashes in Myanmar would lacerate the feelings of the people in the Islamic world and put at stake the achievements made through political and economic reforms in the country.
He lamented the destruction of the holy sites as well as threats against Muslims’ lives, and expressed deep concern over the continuation of such inhumane acts in Myanmar.
The Iranian official underlined the need to take firm action against the perpetrators of the incident.
He also expressed hope that Myanmar’s government would cooperate with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and its Contact Group to prevent the repetition of extremist acts and systematic clashes in the country.
Rohingya Muslims are facing torture, neglect, and repression in Myanmar.
Hundreds of Rohingyas are believed to have been killed and thousands displaced in recent attacks by extremist Buddhists.
Myanmar’s government has been accused of failing to protect the Muslim minority.
May 1, 2013
Press TV has conducted an interview with James Jennings, the president of the Conscience International from Atlanta to shed more light on the issue of Muslims in Myanmar.
What follows is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Mr. Jennings, why is the international community silent on the issue of Muslims in Myanmar? What makes this most persecuted Muslim minority left defend for themselves?
Even we see the police force there standing idly and watching in cold blood how bad these people are being treated by others?
Jennings: This is a major problem, it is a long-term problem, it is one that Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations has said is one of the greatest humanitarian problems if not the greatest one in the world and the reason is this, that the Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine province of Myanmar are people who are stateless, not only are they stateless but they are really unwanted in the country and as far as Bangladesh is concerned they also do not want them to return back to Bangladesh.
Many of them have been there for hundreds of years.
Now the situation is hardening, the people who are the majority group in the country are very determined to suppress the Rohingya Muslims and this, I think, is a very ominous turn of affairs.
Press TV: Of course, I mean the ultimate question that comes to mind is that what can be done to address this issue? I mean is there any practical solution to this?
Jennings: There is a very practical solution and that is that the international community can act in concert.
Of course the United Nations has a role but just today I saw, in the most recent Foreign Affairs Magazine, a long advertising section touting the benefits of doing business with Myanmar.
Myanmar is emerging as one of the most important countries in Asia, it will be as important politically as Vietnam was in the 60s and 70s.
There are great business opportunities there but there are also great conflicts in the country and the North for example, their war with the Kachins is ongoing and there have been other conflicts with the Chins and the Karens and other tribal groups but this particular problem, I think, even though the number of people killed and the increasing pressure on the Rohingya community is terrible.
There is something that is even worse than that and that is that there are people in the majority community, who are asking for the suppression of the birthright among the Rohingyas.
Now that is something that we saw in the World War II and have seen it maybe in a few places since then.
I can think of places in Central Asia where tribal groups are attempted to be suppressed in their birthright.
This is very close to a genocidal attempt and must not be countenanced. Fortunately the government has not taken that stance yet but they have recommended stronger military means.
So I think that this conflict deserves the attention of the world and it can be alleviated, I think in part, if there is a determined and concerted effort on the part of the international community.
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| (Photo Credit: 7Day News) |
May 1, 2013
Mobs of Buddhist extremists in Myanmar have attacked at least two mosques and set hundreds of Muslims’ houses on fire injuring at least 10 people.
The assaults took place in Okkan, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Yangon, the country’s former capital, on Tuesday afternoon.
Muslim families escaped and hid in forests as their homes burned.
According to some of the residents, as many as 400 Buddhists extremists armed with bricks and sticks attacked Okkan, targeting Muslim shops and ransacking two mosques.
Twenty riot police were later dispatched to guard one of the mosques.
Three outlying villages were hit the worst in the attacks, with at least 60 houses torched in each village.
There were no immediate reports of any deaths, but regional police chief Win Naing said at least 10 people, mostly rescued from fires, were injured.
The violence that originally targeted Rohingya Muslims in western Myanmar is beginning to spread to other parts of the country, where Muslims who have been granted citizenship are now being attacked, according to the website burmamuslims.org.
About 800,000 Rohingyas in the western state of Rakhine are deprived of citizenship rights due to the policy of discrimination that has denied them the right of citizenship and made them vulnerable to acts of violence and persecution, expulsion, and displacement.
The Myanmar government has so far refused to extricate the stateless Rohingyas from their citizenship limbo, despite international pressure to give them a legal status.
Rohingya Muslims have faced torture, neglect, and repression in Myanmar for many years.
Hundreds of Rohingyas are believed to have been killed and thousands displaced in recent attacks by extremists who call themselves Buddhists.
The extremists frequently attack Rohingyas and have set fire to their homes in several villages in Rakhine. Myanmar army forces allegedly provided the fanatics containers of petrol for torching the houses of Muslim villagers, who are then forced to flee.
Myanmar’s government has been accused of failing to protect the Muslim minority.
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has also come under fire for her stance on the violence. The Nobel Peace laureate has refused to censure the Myanmar military for its persecution of the Rohingyas.
Rohingyas are said to be Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origin, who migrated to Myanmar as early as the 8th century.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have issued separate statements, calling on Myanmar to take action to protect the Rohingya Muslim population against extremists.
Press TV
April 21, 2013
A political analyst says the international community and particularly the West has not pressured the government in Myanmar to stop the violence and to stop this genocide or ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people.
The comments came after the UN refugee agency warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Myanmar as the country’s displaced Rohingya Muslims face the threat of monsoon floods. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday said it is “seriously concerned about the risks facing over 60,000 displaced people in flood-prone areas and in makeshift shelters.” 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.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Kevin Barrett, from the Muslim-Christian-Jewish Alliance, to further discuss the issue. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Kevin Barrett, I would hate to see this monsoon season obviously pretty much have an effect on the lives of these already most persecuted minority being the Rohingyas but it seems like that maybe their fate.
What has not occurred when we look at this really disaster that’s been going on for the past six months in terms of the persecution, the government involvement and etc.?
Barrett: Well what hasn’t happened is that the international community and particularly the West has not pressured the government in Myanmar to stop the violence and to stop this genocide or ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people.
Why is that? Quite often we do hear the West making loud noises about human rights and sometimes in situations where the violations of human rights are a lot, less extreme than they are in Myanmar.
And I think the answer is in this particular situation, the West and particularly the USA has opened up good relations with the Myanmar government just at the moment that the Myanmar government has started to commit and countenance genocide on its territory.
And the US is basically playing a geo-strategic game, is trying to take Myanmar out of the orbit of China and place it more firmly into the Western orbit. The US is deluging Myanmar with representatives trying to establish more trade ties, more business relationships, the money is flowing more than ever and rather than use the pressure and the leverage that they certainly do have to stop these very, very large scale abuses and this horrible suffering of the Rohingya ethnic cleansing victims.
The US and to some extent even the international human rights community have tended to downplay it and ignore it. So this is just another example of the hypocrisy of the way Western countries especially the US use human rights more as a tool of their foreign policy in their geo-strategic objectives rather than out of concern for humanity.
Press TV: So quickly, when you say they want to pull Myanmar out of this fear of China, of influence of China, I mean so that that border is an area that they will probably going to, if they had not already placed the military power whether it is soldiers, equipments etc. Is that another aim that the US has obviously to counter China militarily?
Barrett: Absolutely. US is ringing China with military bases. There is a containment of China strategy going on, Obama has called it the shift to Asia . They are winding down the Middle Eastern war on terror, although you would know that from what is going on in Syria and they are ramping up the future war on China to prevent China from continuing to rise and taking its place as the world’s biggest economy and most powerful technological country.
So it is a big geo-strategic game and the Rohingya Muslims are caught in the middle.
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| A man stands in the courtyard of a partially-destroyed mosque after violence spread through central Myanmar, March 28, 2013. |
Press TV
April 12, 2013
A court in Myanmar sentences three Muslims to 14 years in prison with hard labor for beating a Buddhist customer in a gold shop in the central town of Meiktila.
The gold shop owner, his wife and an employee, were given the jail terms for hitting the customer in an argument over a gold hairpin in Meiktila on March 20.
The argument sparked several days of violence against Muslims across the country. Over 40 people were killed and more than a thousand others injured. A number of mosques and homes of Muslims were also burned down in several towns in central Myanmar.
Myanmar’s Islamic Religious Affairs Council and the Myanmar Muslim National Affairs Organisation later appealed to the government of President Thein Sein to take swift action to stop the ‘violent attacks.’
On March 28, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, said he had received reports that Myanmar’s soldiers and police sometimes stood by “while atrocities have been committed before their very eyes” by well-organized Buddhist mobs in the central city of Meiktila.
The Muslim minority of Rohingyas in Myanmar accounts for about five percent of the country’s population of nearly 60 million. The persecuted minority has faced torture, neglect, and repression since the country achieved independence in 1948.
Last year, scores of Rohingyas were killed when Buddhist extremists carried out atrocities against Muslims in the western state of Rakhine. Thousands of Rohingyas were also displaced.
Myanmar’s government has been repeatedly criticized for failing to protect the Rohingya Muslims.
Press TV
April 4, 2013
A political analyst says the Islamic Republic of Iran has had a much stronger position in support of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar compared to that of nearly all Arab countries.
The comment comes as the Human Rights Watch has called on Myanmar’s government to adopt effective measures aimed at putting an end to attacks against the Rohingya Muslims in the Asian country.
In a statement released on Monday, the New York-based human rights group said security forces stood by and allowed deadly violence and arson attacks against Muslims to continue for days. The New York-based rights group then called on Naypyidaw to investigate the issue and bring to justice those responsible for violence in the central city of Meiktila between March 20 and 22.
More than 40 people were killed in the chaos and 12,000 others were driven from their homes in the spate of violence.
Press TV has conducted an interview with political analyst Intifad Qanbar in Beirut to further discuss the issue. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Mr. Qanbar thanks a lot for joining us. I wanted to ask you about the fact that we continue seeing Myanmar’s authorities being complacent in these attacks on Muslim communities. Why is the international community silent on that?
Qanbar: Well before we talk about the international community we must talk about the Arab League most recent meeting and also the Muslim League which basically put the priority of Muslim lives situation in Myanmar not second but third or tenth or hundredth maybe.
It is very embarrassing that a country such as Burma which is weak politically and economically and Arab Muslim countries and Muslim countries generally speaking could practice immense power and pressure on Myanmar, Burma formally to protect the Muslims from killing.
It is very clear that the government of Myanmar is basically as you mentioned correctly in your report complacent about these attacks. I think we saw that countries like Qatar for example pressured to expel Syria from the Arab League and put in place the Syrian opposition and made absent the issue of the Bahraini people and so put up the life stake of Muslims in Myanmar of no importance in such meetings which is I think very important.
I think the Arab League and the Muslim League should lead the world, the international community to pressure Myanmar. The Islamic Republic in Iran and Turkey had better stance and actions in terms of protecting the Muslims in Myanmar better than most of the Arab countries if not all.
Press TV: the question Mr. Qanbar the ever present question is why, why is there this silence? Why is Myanmar giving these countries that they are so silent on this issue of attacks against Muslims?
Qanbar: Well because there is a bias in the international arena and specifically in the West.
But as I said the ball is in the court of the Arab League and the Muslim League which is not acting appropriately to protect those historically oppressed minorities in Myanmar and I think we know that the West is not going to take action to protect Muslims.
I think the actions should start from here and the West will probably lead by practicing immense power through economical means and political means.
Press TV
April 3, 2013
An analyst says the sufferings of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims who are forced into slave labor and subject to horrendous human rights violation is reminiscent of the Palestinian plight.
The comment comes as the Human Rights Watch has called on Myanmar’s government to adopt effective measures aimed at putting an end to attacks against the Rohingya Muslims in the Asian country.
In a statement released on Monday, the New York-based human rights group said security forces stood by and allowed deadly violence and arson attacks against Muslims to continue for days. The New York-based rights group then called on Naypyidaw to investigate the issue and bring to justice those responsible for violence in the central city of Meiktila between March 20 and 22.
More than 40 people were killed in the chaos and 12,000 others were driven from their homes in the spate of violence.
Press TV has conducted an interview with political commentator, Mark Mason, in San Francisco to further discuss the issue. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.
Press TV Mr. Mason first of all there is a lot of questions now on how involved the Myanmarese government is in the violence?
Mason Well, they’re directly involved, the military junta and the military security forces are directly involved in citing conflicts between the Burmese, I will refer to the country as Burma if you will allow me in South Western Burma between Burmese Buddhists and the ethnic group called Rohingya Muslims. They are about 800,000 population in South Western Burma.
About 125,000 of them have been driven off of their land; their villages burned; individuals have been murdered by state military troops, rapes, horrible crimes against humanity have been committed against the Rohingya Muslims in South- Western Burma.
And all this connects back in again with gas and oil, natural gas and oil, they’re being driven off of their lands because of the coming state of Burma will be releasing off-shore oil and gas leases next month that will be used for the construction of a Shwe pipeline that will funnel oil and gas from the Bengal offshore Western Burma into Yunnan [province], China providing about six percent of Chinese oil and gas needs.
So here we have people who are effectively very much, the Rohingya Muslims are very much like the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. They are a stateless people. Burma has refused to acknowledge that they are citizens. They are a stateless people. People who don’t have citizenship. They are driven into slave labor working on roads, railways and pipelines. So this is a horrendous human rights violation here in South Western Burma.
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| Rohingya Muslims standing outside their tents at a camp located on the outskirts of Sittwe. |
Press TV
February 18, 2013
An Iranian lawmaker has denounced the Western countries’ inaction vis-à-vis the ongoing violation of human rights in Myanmar, saying the West’s silence ahs intensified the killing of Muslims in the Southeast Asian country.
“The West’s double standards in its alleged struggle against violation of human rights and defense for human dignity make it react to the execution of a criminal and press charges against an independent country, but when such crimes are committed by Western-backed governments on a large scale, no reaction - even from international bodies - is seen,” a member of Iran Majlis Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy Hossein Sobhani-Nia said on Monday.
The lawmaker added that the death of innocent Muslims in Myanmar is a clear example of the violation of minorities’ rights, stressing that a firm international determination is required to counter crimes against humanity.
On Saturday, the United Nations expressed concern over rights abuses by the government of Myanmar, calling for an end to discrimination against ethnic and religious groups in the country.
Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on rights in Myanmar, said in a press conference that the use of excessive force by Myanmar’s government against local communities and ethnic groups worried the UN.
The persecuted Muslim minority has faced torture, neglect, and repression in Myanmar since the country achieved independence in 1948.
The Iranian legislator further said that the West’s dual policies have also given rise to a tragedy in the Middle East.
Any time terrorists, backed by Western powers, commit crimes in Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the West stays put in an implicit endorsement of the crimes.
Press TV
January 20, 2013
An Iranian MP says the Islamic Republic plans to set up a camp in Myanmar to help the efforts to provide relief to the country’s Rohingya Muslims.
On Saturday, Majlis (parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Deputy Chairman Mansour Haqiqatpour said agreements have been reached with senior Myanmar officials to set up a camp in Rakhine state that can accommodate thousands of Rohingya refugees and where food can be provided for them.
He stated that Tehran will soon put forward its own plan for the cessation of violence against Rohingya Muslims and the restoration of the social rights of the Muslim community.
Earlier this month, an Iranian parliamentary delegation visited Myanmar to examine the situation of the Rohingya Muslims and find ways to help them.
Officials of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, the country’s Red Crescent Society (IRCS), and the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee accompanied the Iranian lawmakers during their visit to Myanmar.
Some 800,000 Rohingyas are deprived of citizenship rights due to the policy of discrimination that has denied them the right of citizenship and made them vulnerable to acts of violence and persecution, expulsion, and displacement.
The Myanmar government has so far refused to extricate the stateless Rohingyas in the western state of Rakhine from their citizenship limbo, despite international pressure to give them a legal status.
Rohingya Muslims have faced torture, neglect, and repression in Myanmar since it achieved independence in 1948.
Hundreds of Rohingyas are believed to have been killed and thousands displaced in recent attacks by extremists who call themselves Buddhists.
The extremists frequently attack Rohingyas and have set fire to their homes in several villages in Rakhine. Myanmar Army forces allegedly provided the fanatics containers of petrol for torching the houses of Muslim villagers, who are then forced to flee.
Myanmar’s government has been accused of failing to protect the Muslim minority.
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has also come under fire for her stance on the violence. The Nobel Peace laureate has refused to censure the Myanmarese military for its persecution of the Rohingyas.
Rohingyas are said to be Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origin, who migrated to Myanmar as early as the 8th century.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have issued separate statements, calling on Myanmar to take action to protect the Rohingya Muslim population against extremists.
Press TV
January 5, 2013
An analyst says that the US and its Western allies are not concerned about the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
In the background of this a UN report says some 13,000 people have fled Burma now known as Myanmar chased out by racist Buddhists wanting an all-Buddhist country. Hundreds have been killed escaping and massacres have been committed by the Buddhist group. The government of Myanmar is complicit in the ethnic cleansing as is Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi by her silence in this matter. The mainstream international community are not only permitting this act to go ahead, but their media intentionally keeps this story well in the background.
Press TV has interviewed Mr. Jahangir Mohammed, Director of the Center for Muslim Affairs, Manchester about this issue. The following is an approximate transcription of the interview.
Press TV: We are still looking at the plight of these Rohingya Muslims, but it’s very interesting that the media in one respect has sited this to be the result of sectarian violence.
At the same time what is being done about this? We’ve had Navi Pillay (United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights) making statements, the UNHCR report etc, but it seems like they’re still stuck in this persecution state.
Mohammed: Absolutely. The United Nations issues these reports and gives us statistics, but the world community doesn’t seem to be interested in doing anything about the plight of the Rohingya Muslims.
They seem to be, just like in the Bosnia conflict in the 1990s, portraying this as a sectarian conflict, an ethnic conflict whereas we know this conflict is religiously based with the Burma Buddhists who want to create a pure Buddhist state, wanting to cleanse Burma of the Muslim population.
And all the time really the West, the US in particular and the European states at the UN still won’t do anything because they are keen to bring Burma into the economic fold of capitalism so they can exploit its resources just as they did with South Africa and portray Aung San Suu Kyu as the next Nelson Mandela.
So this is the issue we have, the West’s economic interests far outweigh the value of the lives of Rohingya Muslims unfortunately. And the world doesn’t seem to care, the media in the West hardly ever shows anything about the plight of the Muslims.
You can get information from Press TV and Muslim sources, but hardly anything in the Western media about the roots of this conflict and what’s happening there.
And it’s a real tragedy that in the 20th century such blatant cleansing of people on the lines of religion can take place.
Press TV
January 6, 2012
Iran has sent a consignment of humanitarian aid to ethnic Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar amid deafening silence of world bodies on atrocities being perpetrated against the community in the East Asian state, Press TV reports.
Head of the Rescue and Relief Organization of Iran's Red Crescent Society (IRCS), Mahmoud Mozaffar, said on Saturday that the 30-ton shipment includes foodstuff, tens, blankets and other basic commodities.
He noted that he will fly to Myanmar aboard the cargo plane bound for Naypyidaw to supervise the distribution of humanitarian aid among Rohingya Muslims and study their situation.
Mozaffar said an Iranian team will examine the need for setting up relief camps in the Rakhine state of Myanmar, and sending medical supplies to the Rohingya community.
Some 800,000 Rohingyas are deprived of citizenship rights due to the policy of discrimination that has denied them the right of citizenship and made them vulnerable to acts of violence and persecution, expulsion, and displacement.
The Myanmar government has so far refused to extricate the stateless Rohingyas in the western state of Rakhine from their citizenship limbo, despite international pressure to give them a legal status.
Rohingya Muslims have faced torture, neglect, and repression in Myanmar since it achieved independence in 1948.
Hundreds of Rohingyas are believed to have been killed and thousands displaced in recent attacks by Buddhist extremists.
Buddhist extremists frequently attack Rohingyas and have set fire to their homes in several villages in Rakhine. Myanmar Army forces allegedly provided the extremist Buddhists containers of petrol for torching the houses of Muslim villagers, who are then forced to flee.
Myanmar’s government has been accused of failing to protect the Muslim minority.
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has also come under fire for her stance on the violence. The Nobel Peace laureate has refused to censure the Myanmarese military for its persecution of the Rohingyas.
Rohingyas are said to be Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origin, who migrated to Myanmar as early as the 8th century.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have issued separate statements, calling on Myanmar to take action to protect the Rohingya Muslim population against extremist Buddhists.
Press TV
December 31, 2012
Thousands of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar have fled the country, with many taking incredible risks to reach Australia, to avoid religious persecution, Press TV reports.
Myanmar’s government refuses to recognize Rohingya Muslims as citizens and labels the minority of about 800,000 as “illegal” immigrants.
The persecuted minority have faced torture, neglect, and repression in Myanmar since it achieved independence in 1948.
Saeed Kazim, a Rohingya Muslim who fled to Australia, told Press TV on Monday, “The Burmese military came and arrested me. They took me to a military camp. They really tortured me. They beat me.”
On December 25, the United Nations General Assembly issued a resolution expressing concern over the persecution of Muslims in Myanmar. The resolution called on Myanmar’s government to “protect all their (Muslims) human rights, including their right to a nationality.”
The UN resolution also stated that there are “systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms” in Myanmar.
Hundreds of Rohingyas 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.
Myanmar’s army forces have reportedly provided the extremists with containers of petrol for torching the houses of Muslim villagers.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader in Myanmar, has come under fire for her stance on the ethnic violence. The Nobel Peace laureate has refused to censure Myanmar’s military for its persecution of the Rohingyas.
Rohingya Muslims are said to be descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origins, who immigrated to Myanmar as early as the 8th century.
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