Rohingya refugee Rehana Begum holds her child as she hides in a house in Teknaf, Bangladesh, on June 17, 2012. She said her family fled mass burning of houses and violence in Burma, setting out in a wooden boat for neighbouring Bangladesh. They were pushed back three times by border guards, but finally made it on their fourth attempt and are now hiding with local villagers to avoid being arrested. (PHOTO: Reuters)

WASHINGTON—The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has written to Burmese President Thein Sein, urging him to address the plight of the Rohingya minority community in accordance with the accepted practices of international human rights.

In the letter, OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu sought assurances from the Burmese president for the safety and security of the Rohingyas as citizens of the country, and called for an end to all intimidation and oppression against them. Ihsanoglu also called on Thein Sein to take appropriate steps to carry out prompt and effective investigations of the atrocities committed against Rohingya Muslims since June 3, and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Ihsanoglu assured Then Sein of the OIC’s readiness to cooperate with the Burmese government to advise and assist in the repatriation process of Muslim ethnic minority in the country and to help create a climate of trust and confidence.

OIC letters were also sent to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, urging them to use their good offices and influence with the Burmese government to bring about an immediate resolution of the issue.

Earlier this month, Ihsanoglu had strongly condemned the alleged repression and violation of human rights of Rohingya Muslims in Arakan State, resulting in the deaths of innocent civilians, and the burning of their homes and mosques.

Ihsanoglu made no mention of the allegations that Rohingyas had carried out reciprocal acts against Arakanese Buddhists.

Noting that the recent restoration of democracy in the country had raised hopes in the international community that oppression against Rohingya Muslims citizens would end and that they would be able to enjoy equal rights and opportunities, the OIC secretary-general, however, said that the recent violence against them had caused great alarm and concern to the international Muslim community.

The OIC said it was “shocked by the unfortunate remarks” of President Thein Sein disowning Rohingya Muslims as citizens of Burma.

The 57-member OIC includes all the nations of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia and other countries with strong Muslim populations, encompassing some 1.6 billion people worldwide.

In its mandate, the OIC says it seeks to safeguard the well-being of Muslims around the world. It has been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, and has criticized Israel for its continuous use of state terrorism over the years. It has accused Thailand of committing human rights abuses against its Muslim minority in the southern states of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani. And India’s membership is blocked, vetoed by Pakistan, due to its occupation of parts of Kashmir.

In 1999, the bloc adopted the OIC Convention on Combating International Terrorism. It does not recognize groups such as al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but does allow observer status to the Moro National Liberation Front, thereby blocking the membership of the Philippines.

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Now, the US, the European Union (EU) and others close their eyes to the plight of Rohingyas with the excuse that any intervention may thwart the process of democratization 

The latest spate of ethnic violence against the Rohingya Muslim minority perpetrated by Buddhist majority in the Rakhine state of Myanmar has largely been ignored by international media and therefore, very few people around the world are aware of it.

Many of us, living in neighbouring countries to Myanmar, don’t even have a clear idea of what exactly happened to the Rohingya people after ethnic violence broke out in Rakhine state on June 8. The scanty media coverage has mainly shed light on Rohingyas fleeing in large numbers by rickety boat, and pleading for entry into Bangladesh. Due to the heavy blockade by the Bangladesh authorities, these boatloads of haggard Rohingyas failed to land ashore in Bangladesh and were forced to turn their boats back to Myanmar with hunger, thirst and possible death ahead of them. 

One heart-breaking picture shared hundreds of times on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media shows a Rohingya man pleading with officers of the Bangladesh Border Guards with folded hands and a weeping face for shelter in Bangladesh. It clearly invokes the suffering of those targeted in the recent week of sectarian violence in Myanmar. However, this is not the first time that Rohingya people have fled across the border to neighbouring Bangladesh to escape the violence in Rakhine state. 

In 1978, over two million Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh when the Myanmar government launched an operation under the code name of ‘Naga Min' (DragonKing) to expel illegal immigrants from its territory. The operation particularly targeted the Rohingya Muslims through killing, widespread rape, looting, forced labour, arbitrary arrest, burning homes and religious sites. Again in 1991-1992, nearly a quarter of a million Rohingyas took shelter in Bangladesh, following a dramatic increase of forced labour, torture, rape and summary executions committed by both Myanmar military and local Rakhine Buddhists. The ultimate purpose of these heinous crimes against Rohingyas was to make them invisible in their motherland.

Although the Rohingya Muslim people have been living in Myanmar since the 8th century, they are seen as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh by the Myanmar government and have been denied citizenship for decades. It is an unfortunate fact that the local Rakhine Buddhist population is heavily mis-led by their military government into considering the Rohingyas as aliens and treating them with hostility. There is, in fact, well-documented evidence that Rohingyas were once legitimate citizens of the Union of Burma under Article 3 of the Aung San-Attle Treaty (1947) and the First Schedule to the Burma Independence Act, 1947. They even had their own political parties and representation in the parliament, cabinet and peoples’ councils of different levels during the democratic period from 1948 to 1962. But in 1982, twenty years after the coup d'état, General Ne Win’s military regime redefined the citizenship law which has made the Rohingyas effectively stateless. 

Apart from being stateless, they are subject to ongoing restrictions on their fundamental rights. The United Nations has described the Rohingyas as the most oppressed ethnic minority group in the world. The question is, what role does the international community play in stopping the systematic repression of the Rohingya population? The simple answer is none! In the past, the US, the European Union (EU) and others have kept their mouths shut, letting the military regime do what they want. Now, they close their eyes to the plight of Rohingyas with the excuse that any intervention may thwart the process of democratization.

As the current president Thein Sein is pro-reformist, now is surely the right time to apply international pressure to his regime to ensure recognition of the rights of the Rohingya people. Analysts say the international community will not intervene now because they are afraid of losing their possible investment in Myanmar’s oil and gas sectors. Thre is only one recourse: to raise global awareness of the citizenship rights and other basic human rights of the Rohingyas.

This may in some way influence the international community to do something about the Rohingya issue. The Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi can play a very effective role in this regard by speaking up for the rights of Rohingyas in different international forums. However, it is disappointing that Suu Kyi has not expressed a very clear position on the stateless Rohingyas. She didn't even address the issue in her recent 40-minute Nobel oration at Oslo. 

The Rohingyas, along with many others, hoped that the democracy icon would raise the issue of their plight during her two-week tour of Europe. But Suu Kyi’s Oslo press conference on June 18, 2012 offered a balancing act on the Rohingya issue. She herself is not sure about the nationality status of Rohingya Muslims. She said: ‎"Bangladesh says that they are not ours and Burma says that they are not ours and these poor people get shuffled around. So we have to have rule of law, we have to know what the law is and we have to make sure that it is properly implemented.” 

This is, of course, a statement by Suu Kyi trying not to offend the military government and also the majority Buddhist community. She is in fact fully aware that the current law does not recognize the Rohingyas as citizens of Myanmar. Nicholas Farrelly, a research fellow at Australian National University, says that if she fails to tackle the subject she will risk disappointing those who "crave her leadership". Yet support for the Rohingya, "risks alienating some Burmese Buddhists". But as a veteran human rights defender, can she remain silent on the sufferings of her own people? She must act now to curb the long-running sectarian violence against Rohingyas and also to find a rational solution to the complex citizenship issue, by involving the local Rakhine Buddhists, different ethnic groups, the military government as well as the international community in seeking a solution. 

Sources Here:

ရခိုင္ျပည္နယ္တြင္ ျဖစ္ပြါးခဲ့ေသာ လူမ်ဳိးေရး အၾကမ္းဖက္ တိုက္ခိုက္မႈမ်ားသည္ ယခုအခါ လူအခြင့္အေရးႏွင့္ လူသားဆိုင္ရာ အၾကပ္အတည္းတခု ျဖစ္လာခဲ့ေသာ္လည္း ထိုက္သင့္ေသာ ႏိုင္ငံတကာ၏ အာ႐ုံစိုက္မႈကို မရရွိခဲ့ေၾကာင္း Burma Campaign (UK) ၏ အဂၤါေန႔က ေၾကညာခ်က္ ထုတ္ျပန္လိုက္သည္။

လက္ရွိ အၾကပ္အတည္းသည္ ျမန္မာအစိုးရ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ျပဳလုပ္ေနသည့္ ႐ိုဟင္ဂ်ာမ်ားအေပၚ ဖိႏွိပ္သည့္အျဖစ္သို႔ေျပာင္းလဲသြားခဲ့ေၾကာင္း ဤေၾကညာခ်က္တြင္ ေရးသားထားသည္။

ရဲတပ္ဖြဲ႔ဝင္မ်ား၊ လံုၿခံဳေရးတပ္ဖြဲ႔ဝင္မ်ားႏွင့္ စစ္သားမ်ားက ႐ိုဟင္ဂ်ာ အရပ္သားမ်ားကို အဓမၼျပဳက်င့္ျခင္း၊ လုယက္ျခင္း၊ ႐ိုက္ႏွက္ညွဥ္းပန္းျခင္းႏွင့္ အရမ္းကာေရာ သတ္ျဖတ္ျခင္းမ်ားကို က်ဴးလြန္ခဲ့ေၾကာင္း
လြန္ခဲ့ေသာ ရက္သတၱပတ္မ်ား အတြင္း သတင္းမ်ား ရရွိထားသည္ဟု BC (UK) က ေျပာသည္။

ဒုကၡသည္ စခန္းမ်ားတြင္လည္း လံုေလာက္ေသာ စားနပ္ရိကၡာႏွင့္ေဆးဝါးကုသေပးမႈမ်ား မရွိေၾကာင္းလည္း သတင္းမ်ား ရရွိထားသည္ဟု သူတို႔က ဆိုသည္။

“အေရအတြက္ မသိရသည့္ ေထာင္ေပါင္းမ်ားစြာေသာ လူမ်ားသည္ ဘဂၤလားေဒ့ရွ္ႏိုင္ငံသို႔ ထြက္ေျပး ဝင္ေရာက္ခဲ့ၾကၿပီး သူတုိ႔သည္ အကာအကြယ္ေပးမႈ ေသာ္လည္းေကာင္း၊ အကူအညီ အေထာက္အပံ့
ေသာ္လည္းေကာင္း မရရွိခဲ့ၾကဘဲ ေထာင္ေပါင္းမ်ားစြာသည္ ဘဂၤလာေဒ့ရွ္ အာဏာပိုင္မ်ားက ႏိုင္ငံတကာ ဥပေဒႏွင့္ ဆန္႔က်င္ကာေသနတ္ႏွင့္ခ်ိန္၍ ျပန္လည္ ႏွင္ထုတ္ျခင္းကို ခံခဲ့ရသည္” ဟု ေၾကညာခ်က္တြင္ ေရးသားထားသည္။

ေဒသႏၲရ အာဏာပိုင္မ်ားသည္ ႐ုိဟင္ဂ်ာ အမ်ားအျပားကို သူတို႔၏ ေက်းရြာမ်ား၊ ေစ်းဆိုင္မ်ား၊ အိမ္မ်ားသို႔ ျပန္လည္ ဝင္ေရာက္ခြင့္ မျပဳခဲ့ဘဲ ယင္းသည္ ေဒသအတြင္း ႐ိုဟင္ဂ်ာလူမ်ဳိးသန္႔စင္ေရးရည္ရြယ္ျပဳလုပ္သည့္ မူဝါဒတရပ္ လည္း ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း BC (UK) က ေျပာဆိုထားသည္။

သမၼတ ဦးသိန္းစိန္ က လူမ်ဳိးသန္႔စင္ေရး ျပဳလုပ္ရာေရာက္သည့္ မူဝါဒတရပ္ကို တင္ျပခဲ့ၿပီး ယင္းမူဝါဒအရ ႐ုိဟင္ဂ်ာ မ်ားကို ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံမွ ရွင္းလင္းဖယ္ရွားၿပီး တတိယႏိုင္ငံသို႔ ပို႔ေဆာင္ေပးေရး စီစဥ္ေပးရန္ ကုလသမဂၢကို ေတာင္းဆိုခဲ့ သည္။

“ယင္းသည္္ မယံုၾကည္ႏိုင္စရာ ေကာင္းေလာက္ေအာင္ အလြန္စိုးရိ္မ္ဖြယ္ရာ ေကာင္းသည့္ အေျခအေနတရပ္ ျဖစ္ၿပီး အေျခအေနမွာ အလြန္လွ်င္ျမန္စြာပင္ ယိုယြင္းလာေနသည္” ဟု BC (UK) ၏ အမႈေဆာင္ညႊန္ၾကားေရးမႉး အန္နာေရာဘတ္ က ေျပာသည္။

“ဤသို႔ေသာ အတိုင္းအတာျဖင့္ ျဖစ္ပြါးေနေသာ အၾကပ္အတည္းတြင္ ေမွ်ာ္လင့္ထားအပ္သည့္ ႏိုင္ငံတကာ၏ တံု႔ျပန္မႈ မ်ဳိးကို မရရွိခဲ့ပါ။ အကူအညီ အေထာက္အပံ့မ်ား ေပးအပ္ႏိုင္ေရး၊ ဖမ္းဆီးျခင္းမ်ားႏွင့္ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး ခ်ဳိးေဖာက္မႈမ်ား ကို ရပ္တန္႔ႏိုင္ေရး၊ လူမ်ားကို သူတို႔ေနအိမ္မ်ားသို႔ လံုၿခံဳစြာ ျပန္ခြင့္ျပဳႏိုင္ေရးတို႔အတြက္ လုိအပ္ေသာ အေရးယူ
ေဆာင္ရြက္မႈမ်ားကို ျပဳလုပ္ရန္လို အပ္ပါသည္” ဟု ေရးသားထားသည္။

ရခိုင္ျပည္နယ္တြင္ လက္ရွိျဖစ္ေပၚလ်က္ရွိေသာ အေျခအေနမ်ားကို ျပည္တြင္းတြင္ သိရွိကာ အေရးတယူ ရွိလာေရး အတြက္ ၿဗိတိန္ႏိုင္ငံအေနျဖင့္ သမၼတ ဦးသိန္းစိန္ကို ၿဗိတိန္ႏိုင္ငံသို႔ လာေရာက္လည္ပတ္ရန္ ဖိတ္ၾကားထားခ်က္အားျပန္လည္ ႐ုတ္သိမ္းသင့္ေၾကာင္း ေရာဘတ္ က ေျပာသည္။

ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံတြင္ ျဖစ္ေပၚေနေသာ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရးႏွင့္ လူသားခ်င္းစာနာမႈဆိုင္ရာ အၾကပ္အတည္းကို ႏိုင္ငံတကာ အသိုင္းအဝိုင္းက အေရးတယူရွိလာေရး လႈပ္ရွားေဆာင္ရြက္ရာတြင္ ၿဗိတိန္ႏိုင္ငံအေနျဖင့္ ဦးေဆာင္ ပါဝင္သင့္ေၾကာင္း လည္း သူကေျပာသည္။ သို႔ေသာ္ အစိုးရသည္ အျပဳသေဘာ ေဆာင္သည့္ သတင္းမ်ားအေပၚတြင္သာ ပိုမိုအာ႐ုံစိုက္ေနပံုရၿပီး ဝန္ၾကီးမ်ား အေနျဖင့္လည္း လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး ခ်ဳိးေဖာက္မႈမ်ားအေပၚ ေဝဖန္ေျပာၾကားမႈမ်ားမွာလည္း ရွားရွားပါးပါးသာ ရွိသည္ဟု သူက ဆိုသည္။

“ဤသို႔ ျပဳလုပ္ျခင္းျဖင့္ ႐ုိဟင္ဂ်ာမ်ားကို ဝိုင္းဝန္းဖမ္းဆီးၿပီး တိုင္းျပည္တြင္းမွ ႏွင္ထုတ္ေရး ေဆာင္ရြက္ေနသည့္ သမၼတ ဦးသိန္းစိန္ကို ပိုအားရွိသြားေအာင္ လုပ္ေပးလိုက္သလို ျဖစ္မည္မွာ သံသယျဖစ္စရာ မလုိပါ။ ႏိုင္ငံတကာ အသိုင္းအဝိုင္း ၏ ခ်က္ခ်င္း အေရးယူ ေဆာင္ရြက္ျခင္း မရွိပါက အေျခအေနသည္ ဆက္လက္ဆိုးရြားေနမည္သာ ျဖစ္သည္” ဟု အဆိုပါ ေၾကညာခ်က္တြင္ ေရးသားထားသည္။

ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ ဆိုင္ရာ ကုလသမဂၢ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး အထူးကိုယ္စားလွယ္ မစၥတာ ေသာမတ္ ကင္တားနား ဟာ အစိုးရရဲ့ ဖိတ္ၾကားခ်က္အရ ဇူလိုင္လ ၃ဝ ရက္ေန႔ ကေန ၾသဂုတ္လ ၄ ရက္ေန႔အထိ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံကို သြားမယ္လို႔ ဒီေန႔ ေၾကညာလိုက္ပါတယ္။

Source : RFA

Al-Azhar called Tuesday on the international community to intervene to stop ethnic cleansing targeting Muslims in Myanmar.

Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb said in a statement that the Islamic world should offer all kinds of support for Rohingya Muslims in South Asia.

Tayyeb said that the Muslim minority in Myanmar is suffering from collective punishment orchestrated by the Buddhist majority for no reason.

“Racist massacres occurred on a large scale against the Muslims in Burma... but these horrific events have been ignored,” Tayyeb said.

The sheikh addressed all Islamic nations, saying, “Your brothers in Burma are in great need of your moral support against the assault of the unjust majority; also they need relief assistance.”

Violence flared in the Western Rakhine region in June. Egyptians protested several times at the Myanmar Embassy in Cairo over the massacre of the Rohingya Muslims in Burma.

The Rohingya, a Muslim people of South Asian descent, were subject to what has been called one of the worst instances of sectarian violence in the recent history of Burma, a Buddhist majority country.

Myanmar’s National Human Rights Commission said on 11 July that at least 78 people have been killed since the violence began, but unofficial estimates exceed 100.

Between 50,000 and 90,000 people — with lower figures coming from the government and higher ones from UN agencies — are estimated to have been displaced.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

Sources News :

Hundreds of Iranians have staged a rally to express solidarity with the ethnic Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and protest against mass slaughter of the community in the southeastern Asian state.

During the rally held in front of the UN office in Tehran on Tuesday, the Iranian demonstrators chanted slogans in condemnation of atrocities committed against Rohingya Muslims, and demanded an immediate halt to the ongoing carnage in Myanmar. 

Iran has called on UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay to take immediate action and urge the Myanmar regime to put an end to the ongoing genocide and systematic violation of human rights of the Muslim people in the country. 

In a letter to addressed Pillay, Iran's permanent representative at UN's European Office in Geneva, Seyyed Mohammad Reza Sajjadi, has called for immediate and effective action by all concerned international organizations, including the High Commissioner for Human Rights, to condemn and call on the Myanmar regime to rapidly stop the “genocide and widespread and systematic violation of human rights of the innocent Muslim people of Myanmar.” 

He has also expressed deep concern over the continuation of rampant violence and pogrom of the Muslim people of Myanmar, including a remarkable number of women and children. 

Sajjadi stressed that the new wave of violence against Muslims in Myanmar, which has led to mass killing of hundreds of innocent civilians, destruction and burning of mosques and houses, and forceful expulsion of people from their homes has hurt the humane sentiments and caused deep concern among the international community and the world people. 

The government of Myanmar refuses to recognize the Rohingya Muslims, who it claims are not natives and classifies them as illegal migrants. This comes while the Rohingya are said to be Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origin, who migrated to Myanmar as early as the 8th century.

Myanmar’s President Thein Sein said on July 19 that the "only solution" to the plight of Rohingya Muslims is to send the country’s nearly one million Muslims -- which is one of the world's most persecuted minorities -- to refugee camps run by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). 

However, the UN refugee agency has snubbed the idea of setting up refugee camps to accommodate the Rohingyas. 

"We will send them away if any third country would accept them," Sein added. "This is what we are thinking is the solution to the issue." 

Even Myanmar’s Western-sponsored democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has kept silent on atrocities perpetrated against the Rohingya Muslims.

Over the past two years, waves of ethnic Muslims have attempted to flee by boats in the face of systematic oppression by the Myanmar government. 

MP/PKH/IS

Source : Press TV

ဘဂၤလီလုိ ့ကင္မြန္းတပ္လုိက္ျပီးေနာက္ အမုန္းတံခါးက်ဳိးသြားပါတယ္။ အေနာက္ တံခါး က်ဳိး တယ္ဆုိတာထက္ အမုန္းတံခါးက်ဳိး သြား တယ္လုိ ့ေျပာရင္ ပုိျပီးမွန္ကန္ပါ လိမ့္မယ္။ ဘဂၤလီ လုိ ့ေခၚျခင္းအားျဖင့္ ဘဂၤလားေဒရွ္ ့ ႏုိင္ငံမွ ခုိးဝင္ လာသူအျဖစ္ ထင္ေယာင္ ထင္မွား ျဖစ္ေစပါတယ္။ မ်က္စိ၊ နား၊ တံခါး ပိတ္ထားျခင္းခံရတဲ့ ျမန္မာ ျပည္သူလူထု ့က အမွားအမွန္ကုိ ခြဲျခားေဝဖန္ဖုိ ့ခက္ခဲသြားသျဖင့္ ေဘးထြက္ဆုိးက်ဳိးေတြ ျဖစ္လာ ပါတယ္။ အမုန္းတရားေတြ တုိးပြား လာပါတယ္။ ရခုိင္ျပည္အတြင္း မွီတင္းေန ထုိင္ၾက တဲ့ ရခုိင္ ႏွင့္ မြတ္စလင္မ္ ေတြဟာ ႏွစ္ေပါင္း မ်ားစြာ ကထဲက ကုိင္းကြ်န္းမွီ၊ ကြ်န္းကုိင္းမွီ ဆုိသကဲ့သုိ ့အတူယွဥ္တြဲေနထုိင္လာခဲ့ၾကပါတယ္။

သုိ ့ေသာ္ မလုိလားအပ္တဲ့ အမုန္းတရားေၾကာင့္ ရခုိင္ျပည္အတြင္း ဆူပူမႈ ့ေတြ အၾကမ္းဖက္မႈ ့ေတြဟာ ယေန ့ အထိ အဆုံးမသတ္ႏုိင္ေသးပါ။ အသက္ အုိးအိမ္ေတြ ဆုံးရႈံးပ်က္စီးသြားျပီး ဒုကၡသည္ ဘဝကုိ ေရာက္သြားၾကပါ တယ္။

အေနာက္ဖက္တံခါးမွာ အေနာက္တံခါး ဘီးလူး၊ မ်ဳိးေစာင့္ ဘီးလူးေတြ ရွိပါတယ္။ အမ်ဳိးမတူ ဘာသာမတူ သာသနာ မတူတဲ့ ဘဂၤလီလူမ်ဳိးမ်ား အလြယ္တကူဝင္လာဖုိ ့ဆုိတာ မျဖစ္ႏုိင္ပါ။ အေနာက္တံခါးက ဝင္လာသူ ေတြမွာ ဘဂၤလီရခုိင္ (အဝကြ်န္းသား အေနာက္သား) ေတြပဲျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ဘဂၤလီ မြတ္စ္လင္မ္ေတြ အစုလုိက္ အျပံဳလုိက္ ဝင္လာတယ္ဆုိျပီး ပုံမွားရုိက္ကာ အေရးအခင္းကုိ ဖန္းတီးၾကတယ္။ ဒီမုိကေရစီ ႏုိင္ငံမွာ ရုိဟင္ဂ်ာ မရွိေစရဆုိတဲ့ ေရွ ့ေျပးစကားနဲ ့အညီ ရုိဟင္ဂ်ာေတြကို ဘဂၤလီ အျဖစ္ေျပာင္းလဲ ေခၚဆုိကာ ဒုကၡသည္ ဘဝကုိ တြန္းပုိ ့ၾကတယ္။ ျမန္မာျပည္သူလူထုတရပ္ လုံးအား ရုိဟင္ဂ်ာေတြကုိ အေနာက္တံခါးမွ က်ဴးေက်ာ္လာသူမ်ား အျဖစ္ ဘုံရန္သူဟုသတ္မွတ္ကာ တုိင္းရင္းသားရခုိင္ေတြကုိကာကြယ္ရမယ္၊ အခ်ဳပ္အခ်ာအာဏာကုိထိပါးသူ ေတြအား တုိက္ခုိက္ေခ်မႈန္းရမယ္ ဆုိတဲ့ မုိးလုံးျပည့္မုသားဝါဒ ကုိသုံးျပီး မ်ဳိးခ်စ္စိတ္ေတြကုိ ႏုိးဆြေပးတယ္။ ဘဂၤလီေတြကုိ သတ္ပါ ေမာင္းထုတ္ပါ ဟုဆုိျပီး ေၾကြးေၾကာ္ၾကတယ္။ အရွင္ထြက္ရင္ထြက္ မထြက္ရင္ အေသ ထြက္ရမယ္ဆုိတဲ့ ျခိမ္းေျခာက္သံေတြကလဲ တုန္လွဳပ္ေျခာက္ျခားဖြယ္ရာေကာင္းပါတယ္။ သတင္းအမွားႏွင့္ ေကာလာဟာလတုိ ့ေၾကာင့္ မုန္းတီးမႈ ့ႏွင့္ သံသယမကင္းမႈ မ်ားကုိပုိမိုတုိးပြားေစပါတယ္။ ရခုိင္တုိးတက္ေရး ပါတီကလဲ ရခုိင္လူမ်ဳိးတုိးတက္ေရးကုိ အဓိကေပး ေဆာင္ရြက္ေနသလုိ ရုိဟင္ဂ်ာမုန္းတီးေရးကုိပါ ပူးတြဲေဆာင္ ရြက္ေနပါတယ္။ အမုန္းေတြကုိ ခ်ယ္သျပီး ရခုိင္ျပည္ကုိ အလွဆင္ေနၾကပါတယ္။

ရုိဟင္ဂ်ာဆုိတာ သီးျခား(အသစ္) လူမ်ဳိးတစ္စုေတာ့မဟုတ္ပါ။ ရခုိင္ျပည္နယ္မွာ ေဆြစဥ္မ်ဳိးဆက္ေနထုိင္လာခဲ့ တဲ့ မူလလက္ေဟာင္း လူမ်ဳိးတစ္စုပါ။ ဘဂၤလီဆုိတာ ဘဂၤလားေဒရွ့္ႏုိင္ငံမွ လူမ်ဳိးစုေတြကုိေခၚပါတယ္။ ဘဂၤလားေဒရွ္ ့ႏုိင္ငံဟာ ဒီမုိကေရစီႏုိင္ငံ တစ္ခုျဖစ္ျပီး ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံကေတာ့ အာဏာရွင္ႏုိင္ငံပါ။ ရုိဟင္ဂ်ာ ေတြဟာ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံအေပၚအစဥ္အျမဲ သစၥာရွိစြာျဖင့္ ေနထုိင္လာခဲ့ၾကတာျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ဇာတိေျမျဖစ္ေသာ ရခုိင္ ေျမကုိလဲ ခ်စ္ျမတ္ႏုိးျပီး ေအးခ်မ္းသာယာမႈကုိ အျမဲလုိလားၾကပါတယ္။ အမုန္းေတြေၾကာင့္ စည္းလုံးမူ ့ေတြမျပိဳ ကြဲေစျခင္းပါ၊ အမုန္းေတြကုိ ရုတ္သိမ္းျပီး ျငိမ္းခ်မ္းမႈ ့ထာဝရ ရွင္သန္ဖုိ ့အားလုံး အတူလက္တြဲ ၾကိဳးစားၾကပါစုိ ့ လာ။ 

Face Book စာမ်က္နွာမွကူးယူေဖၚၿပသည္။ (၁၆-၀၇-၂၀၁၂)

ေဒၚေမယုခင္

The plight of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar is beginning to attract more attention from Indonesian lawmakers, activists and religious hard-liners.

Reports have been flowing out of Myanmar describing killings and arbitrary violence targeting the Rohingya minority in northern Rakhine state. Dozens of Rohingya refugees have also been intercepted by Indonesian security officials in the past few weeks.

“I condemn and demand that the massacre stop, especially because it is taking place during the holy month of Ramadan,” Nurhayati Ali Assegaf, the Democrat Party chairwoman at the House of Representatives, said on Tuesday.

Nurhayati said she was corresponding with the Inter-Parliamentary Union to send a letter of protest to the government of Myanmar.

Amnesty International has reported that hundreds of Muslim Rohingya are being killed, raped, beaten and arbitrarily arrested while between 50,000 and 90,000 people have been displaced since the Myanmar government declared a state of emergency in Rakhine state, on the border with Bangladesh.

Neither Myanmar nor Bangladesh considers the Rohingya as citizens.

Eva Kusuma Sundari, from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), called for political pressure from the international community, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nation and the United Nations.

“The US recently lifted economic sanctions, but in return the military junta responded this way,” said Eva, who is also the president of the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus.

The lawmaker said President Thein Sein’s response so far had not reflected his promises of “national reconciliation” during his campaign.

She was referring to Sein’s statement to the United Nations earlier this month that it was “impossible to accept the illegally entered Rohingyas, who are not our ethnicity,” and that they should be sent to refugee camps or be deported.

“Indonesia should not stand still. As a country that ratified the UN Convention on Human Rights and the initiator of the Asean charter, the government should condemn this as a crime against humanity and push for a human rights-oriented solution,” Eva continued.

Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Michael Tene said, “We hope that the commitment from the Myanmar government for national reconciliation continues.”

But House Deputy Speaker Pramono Anung, from PDI-P, criticized Indonesia’s late response to the situation.

“Our international diplomacy is often late and shows indecisiveness, even though we are one of the largest democratic countries as well as being the largest Muslim country,” he said.

Ulil Abshar Abdalla, founder of the Liberal Islam Network and a politician from the Democrat Party, suggested that the government exercise caution before issuing any statements, considering its position as the world’s largest Muslim majority country.

“The Rohingya have a long, complicated history as a Muslim minority living in an undemocratic country that discriminates against all its citizens,” Ulil said.

Hariyadi Wirawan, an international relations expert from the University of Indonesia, said the Indonesian government should meet with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to discuss the Rohingya.

“One of the most urgent things to discuss is the terms of repatriation, because both Myanmar and Bangladesh are reluctant to take the Rohingyas back,” he said. “Therefore the UNHCR needs to facilitate special shelters for Rohingyas in a third country, either Indonesia and Malaysia.”

Asean secretary general Surin Pitsuwan has taken a personal interest in the Rohingya. During a summit earlier this month in Cambodia, Pitsuwan raised the issue with the foreign affairs ministers of Myanmar and Bangladesh, who promised to cooperate and keep Asean informed.

“We will keep our eyes and ears on the plight of these unfortunate people,” Pitsuwan said in a statement. He also expressed appreciation for the concern shown by the Asean people for the suffering of the Rohingyas, who are migrant workers in many of the Asean member states.

Two Indonesian hard-line Islamic organizations, the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT), protested in front of Myanmar’s embassy in Jakarta last week over the issue, and Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia has called for Indonesian Muslims to help the Rohingyas.

“What are the Muslim armies in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia waiting for?” the organization said in a statement. “Can’t they see the massacre and expulsion of their brothers?”

ANILA, Philippines — The dire situation of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar (Burma) have caught the attention of their Moro brethren in the Philippines, who seek resolution to their suffering.

Moro leaders have also called on Burmese democracy icon Ang San Suu Kyi to strive for an inclusive democracy, justice, and harmony in her country, to include the Rohingya, said to be "the world's most forgotten people."

Maulana A. Balangi, ambassador at-large of the International Human Rights Commission (IHRC) to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), issued a statement yesterday, calling attention to the Rohingya people's massacre, rapes, and other oppression by Myanmar's extremist Buddhist groups.

He said for the past weeks the Rohingya, who live in Myanmar's Arakan Valley, "have been under siege by local (Buddhist) Rhakine community."

Balangi cited reports, which are also on the internet, even on Facebook, about the massacre of "650 Rohingyas as of June 28" this year, "1,200 others are missing, and 90,000 more have been displaced."

Speaking as IHRC envoy to the ASEAN, he asked the Myanmar government to act the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas, allow the international community access to the Arakan Valley, to bring the mass killings to the International Criminal Court (ICC), and ensure equal protection for the ethnic Burmese Muslims.

The Myanmar government does not recognize the Rohingyas, about 800,000, as citizens, nor Bangladesh where some 200,000 have escaped the Buddhist persecution, with involvement of state security forces.

ွSources Here :

Burney told The News: “The embassy has told me that they are not allowing journalists and human rights activists in the country. I am completely gutted. This action proves that Burma has something to hide from the world. 

This action shows that reports of Muslims massacre in western Myanmar and Muslim Rohingyas are correct. I wanted to go there only to find facts about this case.”Burney had applied for visa last week and was told to collect it on Tuesday.

Sources Here :

Islam, mainly of the Sunni sect, is practiced by 4% of the population of Burma according to the government census. However, according to the US State Departments 2006 International religious freedom report official statistics underestimate the non-Buddhist population which could be as high as 30%, the country’s non-Buddhist populations were underestimated in the census.

Muslim leaders estimate that as much as 20% of the population may be Muslims. Muslims are spread across the country in small communities. The last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah II and his family members and some followers were exiled to Yangon, Myanmar. He died during his imprisonment in Yangon and was buried on 7.11.1862. After the British took over Burma all sub groups of Burmese-Muslims formed numerous organizations, active in social welfare and religious affairs. The Indian-descended Muslims live mainly in Rangoon. The Rohingya are a minority Muslim ethnic group in Northern Rakhine State, Western Burma.

The Rohingya population is mostly concentrated in five northern townships of Rakhine State: Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Rathedaung, Akyab, Sandway, Tongo, Shokepro, Rashong Island and Kyauktaw. The stated official policy of the government of Burma is that all all ethnic, religious, and language groups in Burma are equal.

Under the British rule, economic pressures and xenophobia contributed to the rise of anti-Indian, and later anti-Muslim sentiment. Following an anti-Indian riot in 1930, racial tensions flared between the ethnic Burmese, Indian immigrants, and British rulers. Burmese sentiment turned against those viewed as foreigners, including Muslims of all ethnic groups. Following this, an anti-Muslim riot occurred in 1938, strongly influenced by newspapers.

These events led to the creation of the Burma for Burmese only Campaign, which staged a march to a Muslim Bazaar. While the Indian police broke the violent demonstration, three monks were hurt. Burmese newspapers used the pictures of Indian police attacking the Buddhist monks to further incite the spread of riots. Muslim shops, houses, and mosques were looted, destroyed, or burnt to ashes. Muslims were also assaulted and killed. The violence spread throughout Burma, with a total of 113 mosques damaged.

On 22 September 1938, the British Governor set up the Inquiry Committee. This committee determined that the real cause of the discontent toward the government was deterioration of socio-political and economic conditions in Burma. This report was also used by Burmese newspapers to incite hatred against the British, Indians, and Muslims. The Simon Commission which had been established to inquire into the effects of the Dyarchy system of ruling India and Burma in 1927, recommended that special places be assigned to the Burmese Muslims in the Legislative Council. It also recommended that full rights of citizenship should be guaranteed to all minorities: the right of free worship, the right to follow their own customs, the right to own property and to receive a share of the public revenues for the maintenance of their own educational and charitable institutions. It further recommended Home Rule or independent government separate from India or the status of dominion.

The BMC, Burma Muslim Congress was founded almost at the same time as the AFPFL, Anti-Fascist Peoples Freedom League of General Aung San and U Nu before World War Two. U Nu became the first Prime Minister of Burma in 1948, following Burmese independence. Shortly after, he requested that the Burma Muslim Congress resign its membership from AFPFL. In response, U Khin Maung Lat, the new President of BMC, decided to discontinue the religious practices of the BMC and rejoin the AFPFL. U Nu asked the BMC to dissolve in 1955, and removed it from AFPFL on 30 September 1956. Later U Nu decreed Buddhism as the state religion of Burma, angering religious minorities.

After the coup d’état of General Ne Win in 1962, the status of Muslims changed for the worse. Muslims were expelled from the army and were rapidly marginalized. The generic racist slur of “kala” (black) used against perceived “foreigners” gained especially negative connotations when referring to Burmese Muslims during this time. Accusations of “terrorism” were made against Muslim organizations such as the All Burma Muslim Union, causing Muslims to join armed resistance groups to fight for greater freedoms.

On 16 March 1997 beginning at about 3:30 p.m., following reports of an attempted rape by Muslim men, a mob of about 1,000-1,500 Buddhist monks and others gathered in Mandalay. They targeted the mosques first for attack, followed by Muslim shop-houses and transportation vehicles in the vicinity of mosques. Looting, destruction of property, assault, and religious desecration all were reported. At least three people were killed and around 100 monks arrested.

Tension between Buddhists and Muslims was also high in Sittwe. The resentments are deeply rooted, and result from both communities feeling that they are under siege from the other. The violence in February 2001 flared up after an incident in which seven young monks refused to pay a Muslim stall holder for cakes they had just eaten. The Muslim seller, a woman, retaliated by beating one of the novices, according to a Muslim witness. He attested that several senior monks then came to protest and a brawl ensued. One of the monks was hit over the head by the Muslim seller’s husband and started to bleed. Riots then broke out. A full-scale riot erupted after dusk and carried on for several hours. Buddhists poured gasoline on Muslim homes and properties and set them alight. More than thirty homes and a Muslim guest house were burned down. Police and soldiers reportedly stood by and did nothing to stop the violence initially. There are no reliable estimates of the death toll or the number of injuries. More than twenty died according to some Muslim activists. The fighting took place in the predominantly Muslim part of town and so it was predominantly Muslim property that was damaged.

In 2001, Myo Pyauk Hmar Soe Kyauk Hla Tai , The Fear of Losing One’s Race, and many other anti-Muslim pamphlets were widely distributed by monks. Distribution of the pamphlets was also facilitated by the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), a civilian organization instituted by the ruling junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). Many Muslims feel that this exacerbated the anti-Muslim feelings that had been provoked by the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan in the Bamyan Province of Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch reports that there was mounting tension between the Buddhist and Muslim communities in Taungoo for weeks before it erupted into violence in the middle of May 2001. Buddhist monks demanded that the Hantha Mosque in Taungoo be destroyed in “retaliation” for the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Mobs of Buddhists, led by monks, vandalized Muslim-owned businesses and property and attacked and killed Muslims in Muslim communities. On May 15, 2001, anti-Muslim riots broke out in Taungoo, Bago division, resulting in the deaths of about 200 Muslims, in the destruction of 11 mosques, and setting ablaze of over 400 houses. On this day also, about 20 Muslims praying in the Han Tha mosque were beaten, some to death, by the pro-junta forces. On May 17, 2001, Lt. General Win Myint, Secretary No. 3 of the SPDC and deputy Home and Religious minister arrived and curfew was imposed there in Taungoo. All communication lines were disconnected. On May 18, the Han Tha mosque and Taungoo Railway station mosque were razed by bulldozers owned by the SPDC .The mosques in Taungoo remained closed until May 2002, with Muslims forced to worship in their homes. After two days of violence the military stepped in and the violence immediately ended. There also were reports that local government authorities alerted Muslim elders in advance of the attacks and warned them not to retaliate to avoid escalating the violence. While the details of how the attacks began and who carried them out were unclear by year’s end, the violence significantly heightened tensions between the Buddhist and Muslim communities.

Siddharta Gautama Buddha very rightly said “However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?”

But I don’t think Rakhine Buddhists are in a state anymore to ponder over it. Muslims in Burma’s western state of Rakhine have been subjected to attacks, arbitrary arrests and were abused in the weeks since ethnic clashes erupted, according to a report. According to a report by Amnesty International, hundreds of people were detained in the areas where Muslim Rohingya people live after an emergency was declared in Rakhine in June after deadly clashes between Buddhists and Muslims. Amnesty accused Burmese security forces as well as ethnic Rakhine Buddhist residents of assaults, unlawful killings of Muslims and the destruction of property. A state of emergency was declared in Rakhine in June after deadly clashes between Buddhists and Muslims. Since then, hundreds of people have been detained in the areas where Muslim Rohingya people live, a spokesman said. The government has dismissed the allegations as “groundless and biased”. Win Myaing, a government spokesman for Rakhine state, told the Associated Press news agency that the claims are “totally opposite of what is happening on the ground”, adding that the region was calm. But although communal violence has eased since the unrest in June, violations by the security forces appear to have increased, rights groups say.  “Most cases have meant targeted attacks on the minority Rohingya population and they were bearing the brunt of most of that communal violence in June and they continue to bear the lion”s share of the violations perpetrated by the state security forces,” Amnesty researcher Benjamin Zawacki said.

Buddhists started another genocide in Rakhine in June 2012, after Myanmar’s President Thein Sein has said Rohingya Muslims must be expelled from the country and sent to refugee camps run by the United Nations. It all started on 3rd June 2012 when 11 innocent Muslims were killed by the Burmese Army and the Buddhist mobs after bringing them down from a bus. A vehement protest was carried out in the Muslim majority province of Arakan, but the protestors fell victim to the tyranny of the mobs and the army. More than 50 people were reported killed and thousands of homes destroyed in fires as Muslim-ethnic Rohingya and Buddhist-ethnic Arakanese clashed in western Burma. While the idea of monks actually leading rioters may seem unusual, certain details make it less so.

Burma’s large and much feared military intelligence service, the Directorate of Defense Security Intelligence, is commonly believed to have agents working within the monk-hood. Human Rights Watch also reported that monks in the 2001 riots were carrying mobile phones, a luxury not readily available to the Burmese population, as very few without government connections can afford them. It is also reported that there was a clear split between monks who provoked violence and those who did not. It has been suggested by Human Rights Watch and others that these facts may reflect the presence of agents provocateur among the monks.

Amidst spreading anger among Muslims in India over the killings of Muslims in Myanmar, the Embassy of Myanmar in New Delhi has come up with first official and detailed explanation about the violent clashes, its origin and the measures the Government of Myanmar has adopted to control the situation and provide relief to the victims. According to Myanmar Ambassador Zin Yaw, what has happened recently in the Rakhine State of Myanmar was violent clashes and riots between Buddhists and Muslims in the state – it was not one-sided killing of Muslims by another group with the support of the state. According to Yaw, only 79 persons comprising members of both communities have been killed in the riots that started on 30th May 2012. He termed the photos of mass killings of Muslims as fake and described the reports as baseless accusations.

According to the BBC, the group also said that authorities allowed Rakhine youth to assault Rohingyas in custody. The group also alleged that Burmese authorities took part in looting of shops and homes belonging to Rohingya. The government has, however, dismissed the allegations as ‘groundless and biased’. Win Myaing, a government spokesman for Rakhine state, said the claims are ‘totally opposite of what is happening on the ground’. Amnesty accuses Burmese security forces as well as ethnic Rakhine Buddhist residents of assaults, unlawful killings of Muslims and the destruction of property. “Most cases have meant targeted attacks on the minority Rohingya population and they were bearing the brunt of most of that communal violence in June and they continue to bear the lion’s share of the violations perpetrated by the state security forces,” Amnesty researcher Benjamin Zawacki told the BBC’s Viv Marsh. Chris Lewa, director of The Arakan Project, which focuses on Rohingyas in the region, also told our correspondent that hundreds of Rohingya Muslims had been arrested, with allegations that some had been beaten and even tortured. “Shortly after the main violence… then we start seeing a new phase of, I would say, state-sanctioned abuses, where especially in Maung Daw… we heard on a daily basis about mass arrests of Rohingya,” Ms Lewa told the BBC.  The Arakan Project also says that some Rakhine, particularly those found with weapons, were arrested. It is difficult to verify any of the information provided by such sources, as journalists cannot access the area.

Violence between Buddhists and Muslims flared after the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman in May, followed by an attack on a bus carrying Muslims. Communal unrest continued in parts of Maung Daw as Muslims attacked Buddhist homes. Reprisal attacks then targeted Muslim homes and communities. The attacks left many dead and forced thousands of people on both sides to flee their homes. There have been long-standing tensions between Rakhine people, who are Buddhist and make up the majority of the state’s population, and Muslims, many of whom are Rohingya. Many Rakhine Buddhists have said that much of the violence in June was carried out against them by Rohingya groups. Rohingyas say they have been forced to flee because of the violence.  Earlier this month, Burma’s President Thein Sein said the “solution” for the Rohingya was deportation or refugee camps.

There’s never any justification for killing people anywhere in the world. In this case, yeah Muslims are being wronged and killed, but killing of even an atheist or a non-Muslim would be wrong. And keeping mum about this injustice is a shame. Anyhow, you can’t expect much when the Burmese President Thein Sein had himself stated that deportation or refugee camps were the only solutions to the Rohingya crisis. What kind of solution is this? He sounds more of a chicken. Why is he scared of his own people? Up to 90,000 people have been displaced so far & that’s a huge number. Anyhow, Amnesty International has called on Myanmar’s parliament to amend or repeal the 1982 Citizenship Law to ensure that Rohingyas are no longer stateless. I just hope this mad killing, raping & torturing come to an end. Moreover, laws need to be amended in the state of Burma. I believe it’s high time. But I’m amazed to read some of the comments on pages & sites. People love to act smart & that’s about it. I wonder do they really care or they just scribble insensitive comments to prove they are smart to themselves cause I don’t think anyone else is interested.

Since they are all so damn unreadable that one can’t even continue to read what they are babbling. Anyway, this is the case anywhere check out any status on FB particularly of fake creatures, people just love to prove something. And the only question that pops up in my mind is that: are you really all that good or you trying to pretend you care about humanity?

This is very strange fact and It’s a paradox for world to know that the Buddhists who were historically so peaceful people, they were non-violent, most of their history they were non-violent, and now certainly this is a huge shock. It is a catastrophe!  Not owning them, that is the government and even this Nobel prize winner, the lady Aung San Suu Kyi is so Calmly silent about the problems of this minority in Myanmar.  In the end after a long gap the Nobel Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, addressed the issue some weeks ago at a press conference in London, saying, “ethnic conflict plaguing the country” should be investigated and “dealt with wisdom.”This is not acceptable for a Person of such Reputation. Of course, there are internal problems, other problems which contribute, that the system is antiquated, it is very old, including the banking system, the labor community, the economic isolation. All those aided to the miseries of the [different] communities in Myanmar including Buddhists and the Muslims. These incidents have a very bad and negative impression on Buddhism especially the Theravada Buddhism, when Buddhism is considered to be the most compassionate religions of the world. How are the followers of Lord Buddha, Burmese Buddhist in general, and Rakhine Buddhist in particular, practice their compassion to the other human being not similar to them, when in face. Lord Buddha has showed several ways to curb their own passion and desires.

Burma is under populated of less than 60 million while all our immediate neighbours Thailand in the East and Bangladesh in the West have far more population, even though their land area is much more smaller than Burma. This does not count our giant neighbours of India and China. Naturally all our neighbours want to dump their excess population into Burma with rich natural resources. The immediate problem where both legal and illegal immigration is concerned is the Chinese in the east and so much Bengalis in the West. The immediate problem where both legal and illegal immigration is concerned is the Chinese in the east and not so much Bengalis (Muslims) in the West. A rough estimate put that there are more than 4 million Chinese immigrants in Burma so much so that Mandalay, the second capital of Burma is called 2nd Beijing as most of the business area and the city has been taken over by the Chinese while the locals have moved to the suburbs. This does not included the illegal Chinese coming across the border areas posing as ethnic nationalities. So why did the Tatmadaw did create this Mujahid problem when it tried its level best to placate the local outburst against the Chinese? The Burmese saying of not being able to conquer Kalar beat up the Rakhine was skillfully turned into being unable to tackle the Chinese turned on to Kalar. Will the Thein Sein Administration ever challenge the illegal Chinese as many of them have become local quarters and township chairman? The Burmese army is too afraid to tackle on the Chinese, as it has to depend on them not only arms and ammunition but also the diplomatic support without which all of them would now be standing trial in Hague. The Generals security came first then the security of Burma. But at the same time they know the real situation and to tackle this Chinese problem it must get the Western support and this is the main reason of letting Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD to come back to the political field. Naturally, the resource hungry West falls into this trap. The country is heading for democracy, equality, free trade and probably federal type with the 2nd Panglong Conference and all its citizens can chose to reside anywhere else in the country provided they respect the local laws and authority. But not the aliens. Since there is much influx of Chinese, the government can confine them to Western Burma where now the majority of the Mujahid resides, this is feasible as China is constructing a fast railroad with the gas pipe line schedule to complete in 2013-14. Confined these China-men to that area of the Rohingya. Then send all these so call Mujahid/Rohingyas to the eastern part of Burma where there are lots of land with a favourable weather and they can take out their lives there. (Burma: Killing Two Birds With A Stone Or A Win, Win Situation by Kanbawza Win)

Myanmar’s President Thein Sein has said Rohingya Muslims must be expelled from the country and sent to refugee camps run by the United Nations.The former army general said on Thursday that the “only solution” was to send nearly a million Rohingya Muslims — one of the world’s most persecuted minorities — to refugee camps run by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The UN says decades of discrimination have left the Rohingyas stateless, with Myanmar implementing restrictions on their movement and withholding land rights, education and public services. Now the problem is that the government says that these people do not belong to Myanmar. This is something which is not acceptable. It is an international tragedy. It is something that those people belong to Myanmar and Bangladesh. Now they stand as such, as you see, they are being eliminated. This ethnic cleansing is absolutely an international tragedy. Fighting in Mynamar’s Kachin and Rakhine provinces has reignited the threat facing the Rohingya after a nearly two- decade ceasefire between Myanmar’s armed forces and Rohingyan insurgents. The fallout has displaced at least 70,000 people and as many as 90,000 according to reports from human rights agencies.This has been going on for the last 30 years but nobody knew about it. The persecution was there but it was not of such a huge scale as it is now. This is absolutely incorrect that they are outsiders, that they must be thrown out. This is ethnic cleansing and the Myanmar government is lucky in the sense that the Muslim world, the majority of the Muslim peoples around the world do not know about this tragedy. Now the government of Myanmar does not recognize Rohingya Muslims as citizens, despite their claims to the land in Myanmar’s Rakhine province that dates hundreds of years. They have been accused of being ethnically tied to neighbouring Bangladesh and are diminutively called “Kalar,” a slur against their darker skin. However, Bangladesh does not recognize them, largely crowding them into camps like the one at Shahburi Bib, where the Rohingya are largely left stateless.

Solving the situation would take time, effort, education, discussions and compromise. Addressing the Citizenship Law, improving the overall economic and social situation of Rakhine State and tackling demographic issues would be some of the steps crucial to diffusing the tension. As both sides argue incessantly on the basis of history, clarifying the region’s history might also help to some extent. Separating the two communities, as the government has currently done for short-term security reasons, would temporarily alleviate the violence but will only reinforce mutual distrust in the long run. Involvement by uninformed external parties galvanized by embellished statements would only serve to further complicate a delicate solution. The Burmese government, used to quelling such incidents through force, is only starting to figure out how to settle such matters without the gun and by properly addressing human security issues.

The president of India’s Jamiat Ulma-i-Hind has voiced concern about the massacre, calling for an end to the humanitarian crisis in the country. Maulana Syed Arshad Madani lashed out at the Myanmar government for being indifferent to the massacre of Muslims by extremist Buddhists. He also criticized the silence of the international community and human rights organizations across the world about this humanitarian tragedy. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has voiced its concern over the recent violence in the state of Rakhine and the varying reports which have leaked out as to the number of the Muslims killed. As reported by the Time Turk News Agency, over 1,000 Rohingya Muslims have been murdered thus far in the conflicts that broke out in the region. The Rohingyas are currently undergoing one of the most violent episodes of their history, and their suffering is one of the most pressing issues anywhere in the world. Yet their plight is suspiciously absent from regional and international priorities, or is undercut by giddiness over the country’s “ample resources of hydro-carbons, minerals, gems and timber. The Muslim world bears a historic moral responsibility in choosing to ignore the continuous ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas. Some Muslim Organisations want the Dalai Lama to speak out against those atrocities to show the entire world in general, and the Muslim world in particular that Buddhism condemns these grave human rights violations against Muslims. As said we need Dalai Lama in the spirit of this blessed month of Ramadan to send a message of love, peace, and comfort to the victims of those horrible incidents in Burma, their families and loved ones but the authority and following of Dalai Lama among Burmese Monks is not very popular because they have different religious sect. UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, Tomás Ojea Quintana, has stressed the need for the authorities to take steps to address the “long-standing issues of deprivation of citizenship, freedom of movement, and other fundamental rights” that plague the welfare of the Rohingya people. Amnesty International has called on Myanmar’s parliament to amend or repeal the 1982 Citizenship Law to ensure that Rohingyas are no longer stateless. “Under international human rights law and standards, no one may be left or rendered stateless. For too long Myanmar’s human rights record has been marred by the continued denial of citizenship for Rohingyas and a host of discriminatory practices against them.

Source here 

“They (the Muslim Myanmarese) must have civil rights, therefore the Islamic Republic immediately adopted a stance and called on the Myanmar government to respect the rights of a number of its people who are Muslim,” Mehmanparast said. 

The Iranian official made the remarks during his weekly press conference on Tuesday. 

Reports say 650 Rohingya Muslims were killed as of June 28 during clashes in the western region of Rakhine. This is while 1,200 others are missing and 80,000 more have been displaced. 

The UN says decades of discrimination have left the Rohingyas stateless, with Myanmar implementing restrictions on their movement and withholding land rights, education and public services. 

They are deprived of basic rights including education and employment and are subject to forced labor, extortion and other coercive measures. 

The government of Myanmar refuses to recognize Rohingyas, who it claims are not natives, and classifies them as illegal migrants, although they have lived in the country for generations.

Sources Here:

TEHRAN – A number of people held a demonstration outside the United Nations office in Tehran on Tuesday, which was declared the International Day of Solidarity with the Rohingya, to condemn the killing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. 

At the end of the event, the demonstrators issued a statement, in which they called on the relevant international organizations to take serious measures to stop the killings and restore the rights of Muslims in Myanmar. 

In addition, the Iranian ambassador to the Human Rights Council has written a letter to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay calling on the United Nations to take the measures necessary to stop the killing of Muslims in Myanmar. 

In his letter, Ambassador Mohammad Reza Sajjadi expressed regret over the fact that the UN has not take any measure in response to the massive and systematic violation of the rights of Muslims in Myanmar. 

He added that the Islamic Republic of Iran has repeatedly expressed deep concern over the situation in Myanmar and has even written a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in this regard.

Sources Here:

PETALING JAYA (July 24, 2012: The Stop the Ethnic Cleansing Rohingya in Myanmar International Action Committee urged the United Nations (UN) to intervene in the situation in Myanmar through a petition handed today.

The eight-point petition was handed by committee coordinator Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid to UN security advisor for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, Devendra Patel and UN coordination specialist Dr Lin Mui Kiang.

Mohd Azmi said the petition was in tandem with the International Day of Solidarity for Rohingya, observed for the first time today.

“This day is an initiative taken by the committee to voice our strong concern on the brutal treatment and persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority, and it is being observed by about 50 organisations in 15 countries.

“We call on international agencies to convene for a special emergency session to resolve the plight of the Rohingya, and demand that the Myanmar government restore to the Rohingya their place as rightful citizens in the country,” he said.

Patel promised the petition would be handed to relevant persons in the UN.

Mohd Azmi said a special delegation comprising representatives from Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia and Malaysia will be going to Yangon next week to seek an audience with Myanmar president Thein Sein and parliamentarian Aung San Suu Kyi.

After handing over the petition, about 50 Rohingya demonstrated outside the building.

They waved placards, gave speeches and burned printed pictures of brutality on their people before dispersing peacefully half an hour later.

Sources Here:

Muslims have been victims of discrimination and human rights violations in Burma for many decades. General Aung San, father of modern Burma, envisioned a more open nation with respect for differences. Aung Son, head of the Burma Independence Army and father of Aung San Suu Kyi, managed to maneuver the British into agreeing to Burmese independence, but he and much of his cabinet were murdered in 1947 in a coup d’état before independence.

Aung San was reaching out to Burmese minorities to grant them minority rights, satisfying many but not all. For example, the Karens, with a sizeable Christian (Methodist) minority, undertook an armed revolt. However, with the coup all recognition of minority rights was off, and many armed revolts erupted. 

Roughly a third of the Burmese population is made up of a large number of ethnic minorities. Muslim Rohingyas make up around 4% of the population. Unlike other minority groups, they are not seen as Burmese citizens but as illegal immigrants. This in spite of a very long history of Muslims in the Rakhine (Arakan) sector of what is now Burma (or Myanmar). 

Burma’s first Prime Minister, U Nu, was responsible for making Buddhism the state religion. He was overthrown in 1962 by General Ne Win, who expelled Muslims from the army. Turning to more recent times, Burma was the scene of an anti-Muslim riot in reaction to the Taliban destruction of the world-famous Buddha sculptures in Afghanistan. Bigotry begets bigotry. Another riot occurred because of damage by unknown persons to a statue of Buddha in Mandalay. 

The most recent major outburst against the Rohingyas specifically began in June of last year. It started in reaction to the rape and murder of a Rakhine (Arakan) Buddhist woman by three Muslim men. Ten Muslims were hauled off a bus and killed by a Buddhist mob and Burmese troops. Following this atrocity, there have been killings and property destruction on the part of both Buddhist and Muslim mobs, with people of good will on both sides condemning the mayhem. 

Homes and businesses have been destroyed. Muslims have been tortured, raped, and murdered. Displaced Rohingyas have been placed in concentration camps. Aid workers warn of malnutrition, if not starvation. Buddhist monks have blocked food transports, and aid workers have been driven out and arrested.

Looking at the situation from a longer perspective, since 1978, Amnesty International reported on the Rohingya situation:

“The Rohingyas’ freedom of movement is severely restricted and the vast majority of them have effectively been denied Burma citizenship. They are also subjected to various forms of extortion and arbitrary taxation; land confiscation; forced eviction and house destruction; and financial restrictions on marriage. Rohingyas continue to be used as forced labourers on roads and at military camps, although the amount of forced labour in northern Rakhine State has decreased over the last decade.

“In 1978 over 200,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh, following the ‘Nagamin’ (‘Dragon King’) operation of the Myanmar army. Officially this campaign aimed at ‘scrutinizing each individual living in the state, designating citizens and foreigners in accordance with the law and taking action against foreigners who had filtered into the country illegally.’ This military campaign directly targeted civilians, and resulted in widespread killings, rape and destruction of mosques and further religious persecution.

“During 1991-92 a new wave of over a quarter of a million Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh. They reported widespread forced labour, as well as summary executions, torture, and rape.”

Over the years, Rohingyas have fled to neighboring countries, some to Bangladesh which borders with their section of Burma, some to Thailand. Neither country is receptive. Bangladesh is negotiating with Burma to return Rohingyas. There have been instances where boats of Rohingyas reaching Thailand have been towed out to sea and allowed to sink. 

Faisal, the late Saudi King, welcomed Rohingya refugees, but with his passing the attitude has shifted. Syed Neaz Ahmad, a British academic who found himself in a Saudi prison for some unknown reason, reported in an article in the Guardian in 2009 that some 3000 Rohingya families were in Saudi prisons awaiting deportation. At the time, it was unclear who would accept them. 

]Who will help the desperate Rohingyas? Who will demand that the new “reformist” government of Burma allow aid workers back into the camps, give Rohingyas citizenship, and protect their rights?

Sources Here: