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It was reported on anonymity from Molwi village of Sittwe that yesterday at around 11:30 pm, a joint group of military, police and Rakhines in military uniforms went to Hashif village and raped many Rohingya girls. Subsequently, 14 Rohingya girls died.

“NaSaKa in Prampuru village of Maungdaw are demanding 500,000 Kyats per head to release the people arrested in these days. They are threatening that they will kill the people arrested if the remaining members of respective families cannot fulfill their demand” said by Aman from Prampuru. “Therefore, many people are in too difficult situation to fulfill their demands” he added.

On July 6, a Rohingya man from Quarter 2, known as Haarifara village in Maungdaw was arrested, beaten and tortured almost to death by police. Then police threw him at a place near to Hindu village Quarter 4 thinking that he already died. Fortunately, he remained alive and was founded by some people with severe wounds in his body. They picked him up and took to their place. It was reported that his situation was almost to death.

A report sent by A. Alam from Shikdar village that yesterday a Rohingya man was arrested from Bohmuu village in Maungdaw by police and taken to unknown location. His family members are extremely worried about what has been being happened with him.

“Three trucks loaded with police, military and security forces tried to raid Maung Ni village again. Since people had already known about the raid, people in the village could escape to the nearby villages” said by Rahim from Maung Ni village.

Military and NaSaKa in Bagonna and Nurulla villages are constantly threatening to kill the villagers if they don't fulfill their demands such as money, rations, cattle and so on. Many houses were looted. The people in the villages are living under continuous fear of being killed as most of them are facing difficulties to fulfill the demands of mililary and NaSaKa.

Today, Rohingyas are extremely harassed, severely tortured and ultimately being massacred by the evils in the military and some extremist Rakhines who are just manipulating the peaceful religion Buddhism to achieve their own purposes. The edict not to kill or inflict pains on others is integral to Buddhist thought. If they are really Buddhists, how can they commit the crimes against humanity being carried out against Rohingyas who are recognized as one of most persecuted people on the planet and a group of human beings who have high possibility of extermination as described by UN and HRW respectively. Therefore, international communities and peace-loving people in Myanmar, save Rohingyas and do a favor to humanity. Do not simply believe what you see and hear from the state and local media.

Compiled by M.S. Anwar (RB Correspondent)

Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu called on the Myanmar government to order an immediate probe into the slaughtering of Rohingya Muslims as well as to bring those responsible to justice. He also urged the government to take necessary steps to ensure the legitimate rights of the minority Muslims and put an end to the suffering they have been experiencing for years. Ihsanoglu’s appeal came in the midst of the pan-Islamic body’s hectic efforts in the global arena to find a quick solution to the crisis, according to an OIC spokesman.

He said: “The secretary-general is making intensive efforts at global level to exert pressure on Myanmar to take steps to end the ordeal of the Rohingya community. Efforts are under way through the offices of OIC in Geneva, New York, and Brussels to facilitate international intervention in the issue.”

The spokesman said the OIC is in touch with the United Nations, UN Human Rights Council, European Union and other international organizations to halt the worst humanitarian crisis in Myanmar.

(PRESS RELEASE)
Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) has welcomed the efforts of the Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Ekmeleddin Uhsanoglu “calling on the Myanmar government to order an immediate probe into the slaughtering of Rohingya Muslims as well as to bring those responsible to justice”, and “to ensure the legitimate rights of the minority Muslims and put an end to the suffering they have been experiencing for years”.

“The Secretary General is making intensive efforts at global level to exert pressure on Myanmar to take steps to end the ordeal of the Rohingya community. Efforts are underway through the offices of OIC in Geneva, New York, and Brussels to facilitate international intervention in the issue. The OIC is also in touch with the United Nations, UN Human Rights Council, European Union and other international organizations to halt the worst humanitarian crisis in Myanmar”. Recently the Secretary General Ishanoglu also sent a letter to Burma’s prodemocracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi urging her to help end the violence against the Rohingya community.

Burmese government has, so far, taken no positive step to end the sufferings of the Rohingyas. Yesterday, on 7th July 2012, a 34 member parliamentary team -- consisting of no local or Rohingya MPs who even belong to the ruling party -- headed by Speaker Thura Shwe Mann visited Maungdaw township, Arakan State, where 95% population is Rohingya. But they discriminately met with Buddhist community and their monks and distributed relief and succour to them. They neither met with the Muslim Rohingyas nor gave any help to them. Over the above, in order to prevent reaching help to the Rohingya victims the international NGOs are denied to distribute humanitarian aids in North Arakan.


Killing, arrest, rape, extortion, destruction and confiscation of properties by government’s army police, paramilitary, Buddhist Rakhine militias and goons are continuing unabated. There is serious humanitarian crisis and Rohingyas are daily dying of starvation. Those with bullet injuries and disease are in acute mental and physical pain without medical care and treatment. Drowning of Rohingyas fleeing persecution in Kaladan River, Naf River and Bay of Bengal has been reported.

Urgent international humanitarian intervention is the only option to prevent and alleviate the widespread suffering, death, arrest, rape, extortion and destruction of the defenceless Rohingya people.

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We the members of the Council of the Asian Muslim Action Network (AMAN),representing 15 countries in Asia express deep concern in the recent violent events taking place in Rakhine State, Myanmar which has resulted in deaths, missing persons, and the destruction of public and private property. We are also concerned that many internally displaced persons (IDPs) and those living in temporary shelters are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance including clean water, food, medicines and so on. Humanitarian agencies are unable to reach affected families with essential supplies due to government restrictions.We appeal to the Government of Myanmar:

1. To allow humanitarian agencies access to the affected families to provide emergency relief.

2. For an independent inquiry to establish the facts and identify the responsible persons to be brought to justice.Being fellow Asians, we ask leaders of the faith communities, the government authorities, civil society organizations and political leaders to initiate a dialogue toward building better understanding so that all communities can live in harmony. We also urge these communities to initiate a dialogue to evolve policies and mechanism which ensure equal participation, protection of human rights, and respect for plurality and diversity.

The AMAN Council
2nd July 2012

As per correspondence from Rangoon, people in Akyab are still severely suffering from food shortage. Once incident at Electric Generation Junction (Mee-Saak Kwak-Sung) that about 50 Monks and 100 Rakhine mobs attacked some military personals for selling cooking oil to Rohingya in the camps, and two military persons were seriously injured and treated the hospital in Akyab.

While the current rate of cooking oil is 1700 Kyats, military are selling cooking oil to the Rohingya at the rate of 4000 kyats as Rohingya are not able to move freely to buy the essential things. Rohingya have to buy the essentials through Rakhine by paying very high price.

In another incident, it was said that 30 lakh worth of Rohingya goods are taken away from the camps by military personals and kept in front of the Akyab Myudaw KengMa (the City Hall).

By HANNA HINDSTROM


An ethnic Rohingya from Burma and living in Malaysia, wearing a traditional Malay "songkok" prayer cap, recites prayers at a mosque in Kuala Lumpur on 17 June 2012 as sectarian riots engulf Burma’s Arakan state. (Reuters)


Burmese security forces have systematically abused the stateless Rohingya group after sectarian violence flared in northern Arakan state in early June, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Thursday.

Local police, military and the area’s paramilitary forces, known as the NaSaKa, have responded to the unrest with “biased” and “brutal force” against the Muslim minority group, according to the leading human rights watchdog.

Authorities have been implicated in mass arrests of Rohingya men, as well as direct complicity in killings and other abuses, such as razing and pillaging Rohingya townships.

“The Burmese government needs to put an immediate end to the abusive sweeps by the security forces against Rohingya communities,” said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Anyone being held should be promptly charged or released, and their relatives given access.”

HRW cited one incident on 23 June, when security forces opened fire on dozens of villagers near Maungdaw who had been hiding from the violence in a nearby forest.

“Everybody was so scared,” a survivor told HRW. “We saw them entering and we left, trying to get out of the village. There was a canal, but some people could not cross it and the army shot at them and killed them.”

Communal riots flared last month after the rape and murder of an ethnic Arakanese girl, allegedly by three Rohingya Muslims, prompted a revenge attack on ten Muslim pilgrims in the state’s Taungup township. President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency on 10 June, officially authorising the armed forces to arrest and detain individuals without due process.

While early reports have been difficult to verify, a growing number of eyewitness accounts suggest state complicity in the violence.

A recent report by the Equal Rights Trust (ERT) based on interviews with fifty refugees highlighted “serious questions of crimes against humanity” committed in Arakan state. It also accused the government of denying humanitarian assistance to many of the 90,000 people that have been displaced by the conflict.

Thousands of refugees fleeing the unrest have been turned away by the Bangladeshi authorities, which insist they do not have the capacity to accept them.

“Death by NaSaKa is waiting for us if we are pushed back to Burma,” one refugee told ERT. “NaSaKa will kill us just like a street dog. We prefer to die here, we will get the proper funeral that a Muslim should get.”

Last week, President Thein Sein delayed a state visit to Bangladesh, during which he was set to discuss the escalating crisis. He has come under growing pressure by both human rights groups and anti-Rohingya nationalists to clarify his position on the minority group.

Other senior Burmese political figures have responded to the violence by calling for further ostracism of the Rohingyas, which are denied citizenship and basics rights in Burma.

Immigration Minister Khin Yi renewed calls for a King Dragon operation – a notorious 1978 military crackdown on the minority group, which forced up to 250,000 refugees to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh.

“We are verifying whether the riots were instigated from outside of the country,” he said. “We are going to recheck all the relief camps. There was large-scale national verification programme in 1998 [Sic] named the King Dragon Operation – now we are looking to carry out something like it again.”

Meanwhile, the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP) released a statement last week effectively calling for apartheid against the Rohingya in northern Arakan state.

Even democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has framed the controversy surrounding Rohingya citizenship as an “immigration issue”, leading observers to speculate over her attitude towards the group. While in Ireland last month to receive an award from Amnesty International, the opposition leader was asked if the Rohingya should be considered Burmese and she replied “I don’t know”.

“The present crisis is only the eruption of a long unaddressed problem with several dimensions,” said ERT. “While immediate solutions are essential to protect those at risk of severe harm in the present crisis, concrete and sustained efforts are needed to ensure full respect for all Rohingya both within Myanmar [Burma] and beyond.”

HRW has called for UN observers to be given access to the conflict-torn region and for governments to apply pressure on the Burmese regime to respect human rights.

“The Burmese government should demonstrate that the political changes taking place in the country extend to the ethnic areas, and that abuses by local authorities will not be tolerated,” Pearson said. “This means stopping the violations, holding abusive officials to account, and promptly permitting an independent investigation.”

အဂၤလန္၊ ၾသစေၾတးလ်၊ ေနာ္ေ၀း၊ ဂ်ာမဏီ၊ ျပင္သစ္၊ ဂ်ပန္၊ ထုိင္းႏွင့္ ေဆာ္ဒီ အာေရဗ်ႏုိင္ငံ အေျခစုိက္ ရုိဟင္ဂ်ာအဖြဲ႔အစည္း ကုိးခုမွပူးတြဲေၾကညာခ်က္တရပ္ကုိဇူလုိင္လ (၂) ရက္ေန႔ ကထုတ္ျပန္ လုိက္သည္။