TEHRAN – During a meeting with Myanmar’s Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin in Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi expressed concern about the conditions that the Rohingya Muslims are experiencing in Myanmar, it was reported on Monday.
Salehi said that Iran is ready to send humanitarian aid for the Muslims in Myanmar and will welcome a decision to use Iran’s influence to help defuse tensions in the country.
Myanmar’s foreign minister who has visited Iran to participate in the Non-Aligned Movement meeting briefed Salehi on the incidents that have taken place in his country and said that efforts are underway to restore peace.
He also assured Salehi that Myanmar is committed to respecting people of all religions and does not regard discrimination against Muslims as appropriate.
Sources Here:
The conference criticized the attitude of the so-called democracy leaders in Myanmar who through endorsement or silence thereof on-going extermination campaign against the Rohingya minorities have proven to be closet fascists. They were warned about the serious consequence of their actions and that if they did not correct their ways, they could face prosecution in the international courts (much like what has happened with Julius Streicher of the Nazi era in the Nuremburg Trial)."
Violence against the Rohingya people, who are overwhelmingly Muslim and comprise slightly less than half the total population in the Arakan (now Rakhine) state, located in the western part of Myanmar (formerly Burma), close to Bangladesh, is not new in the Buddhist-majority country. The government media suggested that it was a communal riot triggered by the alleged rape and murder of a Rakhine woman by a Rohingya youth.
As usual, the regime failed to provide any concrete evidence proving that such a crime was committed by the alleged rapist. In the past, racial riots were known to have been orchestrated by the regime when such crimes would be committed by its own forces and then the body of the unfortunate victim dumped in a sensitive area. The fact that the alleged rapist was later found dead by hanging himself in the closely monitored prison cell once again shows that this may probably be the case here as well. As expected, with deep-seated racism that the majority Rakhine Buddhists entertain against the Rohingya Muslims, within days of the rape crime, ten Tablighi Burmese Muslims (who were not even Rohingya) were lynched to death on June 3 by an organized Rakhine mob, while the police stood by and did nothing to stop such horrendous crimes.
Then on June 8 when a peaceful funeral gathering of the Rohingya people was fired upon by the police, a wholesale riot ensued. Since then dozens of Muslim villages and hundreds of mosques have also been totally burned down by the Buddhist mob, aided often by government riot police Lon Htin and NASAKA security forces. Hundreds of Muslim owned businesses, schools and madrasas have also been destroyed. The Rohingya people were even barred from attending the Eid prayer, the happiest of Muslim festivals celebrating the end of the fasting month of Ramadhan. Curfew has been imposed by the government, which does not allow the Rohingya people to move and buy essential life saving food and medicine, while the Rakhine mobs are allowed to rob and destroy Muslim owned homes and businesses. And what is worse, Buddhist monks, encouraged by racist Rakhine politicians have blocked the sale and movement of life-saving drugs and food materials from reaching the Rohingya people who now face starvation and serious dehydration.
In the absence of reliable estimates but based on internal evidences, gathered by international human rights monitoring groups, tens of thousands of Rohingya people may have perished in this latest pogrom. Nearly a hundred thousand Rohingyas are internally displaced and many have been pushed to seek refuge or asylum in any country willing to provide them shelter.
Since the days of hated dictator Ne Win who stepped down in 1988 in the midst of violent student protests, the regimes (military or a quasi-civil-military) have exploited racism and bigotry to divide and rule the Buddhist-majority country. The on-going violence against the Rohingya people show that it is part of a very sinister and calculated national project towards ethnically cleansing them that is orchestrated by the Myanmar government and widely supported and promoted at the central and local levels by the ultra-racist elements within the government and civilian population of the Rakhine state. So pervasive is this national project that even Daw Suu Kyi, previously deemed a voice of humanity and conscience within Myanmar, is accused of silently approving of this ethnic cleansing. Many of her NLD party members have openly encouraged violence against the Rohingya people.
In the midst of international outcry, the Thein Sein government has lately announced the formation of a 27-member internal inquiry commission to investigate the causes behind the latest riot. However, its inclusion of certain Rakhine and Burmese members who had openly encouraged violence against the targeted Rohingya shows that his government is not serious about dealing with the problem honestly but is doing everything as a face-saving measure to avoid an international independent inquiry requested by the world community.
To find probable solutions to the existing problems, Arakan Rohingya Organization - Japan (JARO) and Rohingya National Organization in Thailand (RNOT) jointly sponsored an International Rohingya Conference in Bangkok, Thailand. The theme of the conference was “Contemplating Burma’s Rohingya People’s Future in Reconciliation and (Democratic) Reform.”
The conference was held on August 15, 2012 at Thammasat University, Thaprachan, Bangkok, and was attended by nearly a hundred participants who came from Thailand, Japan, Canada, USA, Myanmar, Malaysia, Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Singapore. Several members from the local/international media, NGOs, ASEAN countries, and Thai-based foreign embassies also attended the conference.
The conference was moderated by Mrs. Chalida Tajaroensuk, Director of People’s Empowerment Foundation and started with an opening speech from Mr. Salim Ullah, President of JARO. I was invited as the keynote speaker. The other speakers included Professor Abid Bahar (author of the book - Burma's Missing Dots) from Canada, Mr. Muhammad Anwar Burmi of RNOT, Mr. Suja Uddin (a human rights activist) from Australia and Mr. Noor Alam (a human rights activist) from Thailand.
In my keynote speech I cited evidences proving that the Rohingyas are victims of an apartheid policy that has no parallel in our time. The 1982 Burma Citizenship Law has effectively rendered them stateless, thus denying all rights to them – including of movement, marriage, reproduction, education, health and employment. They are viewed as invaders or illegal immigrants from nearby Bangladesh since the British colonial period (post-1826).
In his speech, Prof. Abid Bahar challenged this false notion. With ample of historical evidences, he demonstrated that the Rohingya people were neither implanted by the British administration since 1826 nor did they intrude into Arakan from Bangladesh after the Union of Burma (Myanmar) had achieved her independence in 1948.
I noted that until and unless the 1982 Law, which violates every Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is amended, this on-again and off-again pogrom to exterminate the Rohingya people would continue; they would become an extinct community. As such the world community has a duty to stop this ethnic cleansing one way or another.
In his speech, Mr. Azmi Abdul Hamid, Secretary General of MAPIM, from Malaysia mentioned that his organization is organizing an aid flotilla to be sent next month to help alleviate the serious humanitarian crisis prevailing now in Arakan.
The conference called upon the Myanmar government to immediately amend or repeal the 1982 Burma Citizenship Law thereby removing the burdensome standard of proof for attaining citizenship, and thus granting the Rohingya and other minority entities full citizenship and accompanying rights. It asked the government to sign and ratify the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and fulfill its international obligation to prevent statelessness of all affected people.
The Myanmar government was called upon by the conference to address the other fundamental human rights problems which have caused the Rohingya and other minority communities to flee to Bangladesh and other countries, including abolishing the practice of forced labor in compliance with the 1930 International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention on Forced Labor, which the Burmese government signed in 1955. Towards this end, as recommended by the ILO, the government was called upon to amend or repeal the sections of the Village and Towns Acts that legally sanction the conscription of labor.
The conference also called upon Myanmar government to protect the rights of the children, in accordance with the government's commitment to children's rights through its ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991. In particular, it demanded that all children born of Rohingya parents (and other "stateless" minorities) should be granted Myanmar nationality, including those born in refugee camps in Bangladesh, Thailand and elsewhere. It asked the government to ensure that children are not forced to work under any circumstance, and that it does not discriminate against Muslim (and non-Buddhist) children in its provision of education benefits.
Since nearly half the Rohingya population is forced now to a life of refugee outside, the conference called upon the Myanmar government to ensure that all refugees are able to exercise their right to return and to guarantee their full reintegration with full respect for their human rights.
While Thein Sein’s gesture in releasing some political prisoners was appreciated, the conference called upon his government to release all its political prisoners and dropping all charges against them and their family members.
The conference called upon the Myanmar government to pay due compensation for the loss of lives and properties of the victims of the current pogrom, and to repatriate and rehabilitate each one of the fleeing refugees who had fled or sought refugee status outside. Furthermore, the conference called upon the government to allow international NGOs and aid agencies to provide material and medical aid to the suffering people, plus allowing the presence of international monitors, e.g., human rights groups and journalists, to continuously monitor the restive region so as to provide needed and accurate information on a timely manner.
In my talk, I also mentioned that the protection of minorities against injustice and intolerance was not a matter of compassion or sympathy of the majority. Human rights in a democracy are held to be inalienable – no human being could be deprived of those rights in a democracy by the will of the majority of the sovereign people. As such, I called upon the government to correct its age-old xenophobia, hatred and intolerance of the Rohingya people through all means necessary including education and media outlets, plus punishing the culprits – both the perpetrators and promoters of hatred.
The conference criticized the attitude of the so-called democracy leaders in Myanmar who through endorsement or silence thereof on-going extermination campaign against the Rohingya minorities have proven to be closet fascists. They were warned about the serious consequence of their actions and that if they did not correct their ways, they could face prosecution in the international courts (much like what has happened with Julius Streicher of the Nazi era in the Nuremburg Trial).
In my closing talk on finding solution, I discussed the problems with the ideology of new “Myanmarism”, which promotes ultra-nationalism of the dominant race and religious intolerance against the minority races, which are sure recipes for a failed state in our time. I also mentioned that citizenship based on ethnicity or race is a feudal concept that has no place in the 21st century. As such, if Myanmar were to avoid becoming a failed state, it must abandon this toxic ideology and promote a series of dialogues between the leaders of the Rohingya and Rakhine community immediately towards reconciliation, inclusion and integration within Myanmar without any prejudice.
The conference also warned the Myanmar government that its failure to resolve the crisis -- by amending or removing the Citizenship Law, which is at the heart of the Rohingya problem -- could result in its leaders being pursued in the International Criminal Court (similar to those faced by the likes of Slobodan Milosevic of former Yugoslavia) for serious violations of international humanitarian laws against the Rohingyas of Myanmar.
It further noted that if Myanmar were to survive as a Federal Union, enough trust-building provisions were necessary so that every minority community – religious, ethnic, or otherwise – could feel equal with other dominant races and groups. The true spirit of Republicanism, in clear distinction to 'Myanmarism', must be embraced as the only alternative for survival of a future democratic Myanmar.
As to the treatment of the refugees, the conference, called upon the member states of the United Nations to stop the ‘push back’ of fleeing refugees from Myanmar against their wishes, and instead, to ensure adequate provisions for food, education, job and healthcare. They should not be barred from seeking asylum in a third country.
The conference also noted the cat-and-mouse tactics of the Myanmar regime and as such called upon the UN member states, esp. the veto-wielding powers, to press the Myanmar government to immediately repeal its 1982 Citizenship Act that is highly discriminatory and in violations of several international laws and charters of the UN and its member agencies. It also asked the world body to press the Myanmar government to stop its inhuman and degrading treatment of all minorities, esp. the Rohingyas of the Rakhine State. It also called upon the UNSC to put a time limit of six months to amend the citizenship issue, thus, restoring citizenship rights of the Rohingya, failing which to prosecute the regime in the Hague for its horrible records of crimes against humanity, and to declare the Mayu Frontier Territories (in northern Arakan) a ‘safe’ territory for the Rohingyas of Myanmar so that they could live there with honor, dignity, safety and security.
In my concluding remarks I duly noted that unless Myanmar government corrects the Rohingya problem allowing them to live as equal citizens the agenda could be hijacked by extremists on both sides of the Muslim-Buddhist divide which could lead to war of secession of the troubled region.
How serious is the so-called reform minded government of Thein Sein to take his poverty-stricken country to the twenty first century which is increasingly becoming plural and open to possibilities? If he is serious, he ought to listen to the voices heard in the Bangkok international conference which while discussing the problem of current violence plaguing his western frontier territory did not shy away from offering needed recommendations that could help stabilize the country and attract much needed foreign investment.
Sources Here :
Muslim NGOs and one of the UK’s most high profile Muslim MP have urged the British Government to intervene in the growing humanitarian crises in Rakhine, Myanmar (Burma) where Muslim Rohingyas were massacred by Buddhists and Myanmar security forces. Meanwhile, Nobel Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, has refused to condemn the killings of Muslims.
Since May 29, large numbers of Muslim Rohingyas have been killed and the fate of thousands who have gone missing is unknown.
The Burmese Government does not consider Rohingya Muslims as citizens and instead regards them as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.
Eight Muslim pilgrims along with one escort – a Muslim lady – and one helper, were hauled off a bus and killed in Taungup on June 3 by a gang of hundreds of Buddhist Rakhines.
The murder of the Muslims was apparently in retaliation for the gang rape and murder of a Buddhist woman six days earlier, an attack they had no connection with.
Human Rights Watch said the state of emergency resulted in a concerted period of violence being used against Rohingya communities by state security forces causing many to seek safety in neighbouring Bangladesh.
At a recent visit to Myanmar, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, Tomás Ojea Quintana, said discrimination against Rohingya Muslims was the cause of the violence, stressing the need for the authorities to take steps to address “long-standing issues of deprivation of citizenship, freedom of movement, and other fundamental rights” for the Rohingyas.
Even Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been an icon of human rights in Myanmar and now an MP, does not consider Muslims as citizens. Speaking at London School of Economics meeting during her visit to the UK recently, she said Rohingya Muslims should be considered as permanent residents but not as citizens. During a press conference in Downing Street she did not condemn the killings of Rohingya Muslims, instead she said, “Ethnic conflict plaguing the country” should be investigated and “dealt with wisdom.” (see The Muslim News Issue No 278)
Sadiq Khan, MP for Tooting, has written to the High Commissioner for Bangladesh asking him to respond to reports that the refugees are being turned away by Bangladeshi authorities.
Khan has written to the UK Foreign Secretary twice, and also the Secretary of State for International Development to ask what the British Government will be doing to ensure that a humanitarian crisis does not develop.
Khan said: “It is important that the British Government uses all its influence to end this savage treatment of the Rohingya community by the Burmese authorities as a matter of urgency.”
In the letter released on August 14, charities have also urged Prime Minister, David Cameron, to “ensure that British NGOs active in the area have free access to assist the suffering Rohingya population.”
The UK’s Foreign Secretary, William Hague, called on the Myanmar Government to take “lawful steps to prevent any further violence, in accordance with international human rights law. We have also called upon the communities based there to act with restraint.”
On August 15, 57-nation group, Organization of Islamic Cooperation at a summit in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, condemned “the continued recourse to violence by the Myanmar authorities against the members of this minority and their refusal to recognize their right to citizenship.”
There are 3 million Muslim Rohingyas, half of them residing in Myanmar. While 500,000 of them have taken shelter in Bangladesh, nearly 1 million others have scattered to other surrounding countries.
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| Abul Kasim: Claims death toll higher than reported in mediaable |
ROHINGYAS in Malaysia are claiming that media reports on the death toll in the Arakan region of Myanmar are grossly inaccurate, saying thousands of Rohingya villagers have become casualties of the growing unrest.
Contractor Abul Kasim, 34. who has been staying in Malaysia for the past 10 years, said the reported numbers were played down by the Myanmar authorities.
"This (the violence) is nothing new. It has been going on for some time, many years, in fact. All these years, there has been only discrimination, but the mass murders only started recently," said Abul Kasim, who fled Myanmar about a decade ago to escaped the mistreatment of Rohingyas by the Myanmar junta.
"They (army personnel) raped my cousin in front of me. They were hunting me down after realising I witnessed the incident. I couldn't take it any longer and decided to come to Malaysia to start a new life.
"I later learned that my cousin committed suicide." Abul Kasim was one of 30 Rohingyas who volunteered to pack supplies provided by Kelab Putera 1Malaysia, bound for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh next week.
"This is the only way I can help my fellow Rohingyas," he said. Abul Kasim said his father still lived in Yangon but had been stripped off all his property and land.
"My uncle still lives in villages near Arakan. From my last conversation with him, their homes have been burned and they are homeless," he said.
"We don't want anything from the government of Myanmar. We just want our freedom and citizenship." Abul Kasim said the Rohingyas who left Myanmar were not refugees trying to escape poverty as thought by many.
"It's not about money. We have millions worth of properties in Myanmar but they have been burnt down," he said.
"We were forced to travel all over the world, yet our hearts were never at peace because of what is happening."
He said he was hopeful that pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu-Kyi would be able to address the issue.
"We still support her. We understand her difficult situation."
Sources Here:
European Commission (EC) has requested Myanmar to provide citizenship to Rohingya people and ensure their fundamental rights for a sustainable solution to the issue, an EC official said on Sunday.
European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection office’s Director General Esko Kentrschynskyj said EC as well as the international community have been maintaining contacts to solve the problems of the ethnic community of Myanmar.
He said this to Bangladesh’s Food and Disaster Management Minister Abdur Razzaque during a call on at the latter’s office on Sunday, says a food ministry press release.
Such remarks came following recent sectarian violence in Myanmar’s Rakhaine State that left dozens of Rohingyas dead. Many tried to enter Bangladesh, but Bangladesh border forces returned them in line with the government policy.
Bangladesh repeatedly and clearly said it could not accept the Rohingyas, saying that sheltering them in Bangladesh would not bring any solution. It said there are still some 25,000 Rohingyas who took shelters in two refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar two decades back, but are not returning. Besides, nearly 4 lakh unregistered Rohingyas are staying in Bangladesh.
Instead, Bangladesh urged the international community to put pressure on Myanmar for a sustainable solution to the longstanding Rohingya problem. However, some powerful countries and human rights bodies criticized Bangladesh for its stance.
While talking to Dr Razzaque, Esko Kentrschynskyj said they have already talked to Myanmar’s foreign and social welfare ministries, immigration and border forces on the Rohingya problem.
Esko said they want to make sure that the Rohingya refugees are provided with humanitarian aid including food, nutrition and social security and helped for a sustainable solution.
Food Minister Abdur Razzaque said though Bangladesh has huge population and 31 percent people live below poverty line, the government is trying its level best to ensure humanitarian assistance to the refugees.
However, continuing such help for long is very difficult for Bangladesh, he said, adding: “The only solution of the Rohingyas is their returning home.”
Razzaque asked the delegation led by Esko to deeply engage the international community for repatriation of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
Disaster Management Division Secretary Dr M Aslam Alam, European Commission for Humanitarian Aid Office’s Charge De Affaires Andrew Barnard, its Dhaka office’s technical expert Oliver Brouant and Regional Support Office Head Peter Burgess were also present.
source here
There is a violation still going on against the people called Rohingya whom were described as stateless in their own land by many. But today, they really have no homes and no foods and are living their lives under extreme sorrow due to lawlessness in their country. Besides, they are living chaotic, helpless, hopeless lives resulting from the killings and tortures of Thein Sein’s regime and its security forces in collaboration with Rakhine extremists.
Although Thein Sein’s regime has to organize an inquiry mission into the violence in an attempt to cover up their crimes of ethnic cleansing, yet in reality on the ground, they are letting more violence be occurred against Rohingyas and other ethnic Muslims in Arakan state. Sadly, the inquiry mission team is made up with the people who themselves have committed the crimes against Rohingyas. Therefore, it is nothing but an attempt to deceive the world in general and OIC in particular.
After all, what is this fraud inquiry mission is doing?
Why couldn’t Thein Sein government halt the violence yet?
In fact, what he has done so far is just beating around the bush by saying that the situation is being handled well and under control while he is neglecting what is happening on the ground. On daily basis, Rohingya elderly people and children are dying due to starvation, malnutrition and lack of medical access. Extreme weather is causing cold and floods in the places where displaced Rohingyas are living in fragile and vulnerable tents now full of mud. Rohingya youths have been being arrested by Burmese authority on lame reasons and sometimes they are abused in the custodies and prisons by Rakhine extremists.
Above all, how can one expect from this inquiry mission that they will carry out an impartial investigation when they themselves involved in the genocide? Therefore, we invite International and OIC Inquiry Missions to Arakan to do investigation on the violence.
Additionally, if we review why Thein Sein’s regime rejected International aids and media to the region and made Rakhine extremists protest against NGOs and INGOs etc, it is obvious that there is something they don’t want to expose or reveal. If they want justice and are not trying to cover up anything, why dare they not have such kinds of favorable international supports for the country?
Moreover, when Malaysian Foreign Minister proposed Myanmar to offer humanitarian aids to all displaced people regardless of religion, Thein Sein’s regime refused the proposal saying that they don’t need any foreign aids and can solve their problems on their own. Contrary to this statement, Thein Sein said in his interview to VOA “we need foreign helps as we can’t alone help all the displaced people.” This trick has come after OIC’s proposal to offer humanitarian helps and to send a fact finding team to Arakan. It is another attempt to melt down the anger of International community towards Thein Sein regime concerning what he said to UNHCR Chief Antonio Guterres to put all Rohingyas into refugee camps or to deport them to third countries.
Regarding the Rohingya issue, Thein Sein has always one-sidedly followed the desire of Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP). Like the members of RNDP, he, too, had accused Rohingyas as illegal Bengali immigrants from Bangladesh. Quite contrarily recently, he said “there are only a few Bengalis who migrated to Arakan and most of Bengalis have been living in Myanmar for decades. We need to see human as human. We need to follow human rights.” Why are there contradictions? Is not he an oxymoron? Why is he talking about human rights at this time and simultaneously continuing the genocide on the ground? Why is he so hypocritical? These are enough to prove their deception and hoax to the world. They fear that they will be punished for their crimes against humanity. That’s the reason why they are up to deceive the world again.
When some Myanmar Buddhist Volunteer Organizations, Film Stars and 88 Generation Students Group visited the affected and affecting areas in Arakan state, they have only given aids Rakhines and neglected Rohingyas and other ethnic Muslims totally as if they are not human beings. But when Turkish Foreign Minister helped the affected people in Arakan and Saudi Arabia raised funds for all of them irrespective to race and religions, all the Buddhist racists showed their hatred and jealousy towards them and condemned their kind helps. The world should wonder how racist and extremist people they are!
One more crucial point needs to be pointed out. On 17th August 2012, Thein Sein released an 18-paged statement in which he said “some political parties, monks and individuals incited extreme racial hatred and encouraged people to commit irrational racial attacks against Bengali Muslims (his own term for Rohingya Muslims).” But under the heading of religious affairs at point number 34, he said “Mosques, Islamic Schools and Religious scholars (Molvis) should be reduced within the boundary of law and legitimacy.” What is he trying to say? Is he indirectly saying that they will make every effort to eliminate Islam from Arakan gradually? So, at least taking this point into consideration, can we say Rohingyas are persecuted on account of their faith, Islam? Now, it has become very transparent why Rohingyas are persecuted. Besides, if one goes through this 18-paged statement, one can find many discriminatory and bigotry citations against Rohingyas.
To sum up, by now it has become crystal clear to anyone who has humane sense that Rohingyas and other ethnic Muslims in Arakan are being tortured by administration authority, military and security forces in cooperation with Rakhine Buddhist extremists. Hence, the government itself is involving in the crimes. Therefore, we request to UN, OIC and all other international communities to send investigation teams to Arakan to find out the criminals against humanity in general and Rohingyas in particular. Or else, justice will never be done and evil doers will escape forever. And they will ignite conflicts again and again. Now, it is the high time to combat such kinds of genocides and atrocities altogether as “Injustice somewhere is the threat to justice everywhere.”
Written by Snowy
Revised by Mohammed Sheikh Anwar
President Zillur Rahman addresses the 4th Extra-ordinary Session of the organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) held in Mekka on August 15, 2012 and says: "We must take a pro-active role towards a lasting solution to this long-standing (Rohingya) problem both bilaterally and multilaterally."
There has been a spate of commentaries in different news outlets on the happenings in the Rakhine state of Myanmar. The comments of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to British newspaper Sunday Express on July 28 during her visit to London to attend the inaugural ceremony of 30th Olympics Games and her interview to Al-Jazeera TV network on July 28 drew my particular attention. By and large, the Prime minister shrugged off her responsibility to take more Rohingya refugees because Bangladesh is an overpopulated country. She was warned of possible terrorist connections among thousands of Muslim refugees trying to enter Bangladesh. A new theme has been added to the most persecuted human beings by the military-backed civil government of General Thein Sein of Myanmar.
The comment by the Prime Minister has created a hue and cry in theinternational arena. Brad Adams, Director of the Asia chapter of New York-based Human Rights Watch, blamed the government of Bangladesh for "violating its international legal obligations by callously pushing asylum seekers in the rickety boats back into open sea putting them at grave risk of drowning or starvation at sea or persecution in Myanmar".
The fact of the matter is that the Bangladesh government has no legal obligation because it neither acceded to the 1951 United Nations convention relating to the status of refugees nor the 1967 protocol relating to the status of refugees.
From humanitarian point of view, the Bangladesh government should have behaved responsibly to take fleeing Rohingya refugees to save their lives temporarily and seek solution of the problem through the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Presently, Rohingya and other Muslim communities in Myanmar are spending nightmarish days because of ruthless ethnic cleansing allegedly by police, para-military forces and army in collaboration with Arakanese Buddhists. They are fleeing the country because of oppression. Many were arrested on flimsy grounds and are being tortured in jail. The ethnic cleansing operation was strengthened when President Thien Sien told Head of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees on July 12 that the only solution to the sectarian strife was to expel Rohingya to a third country or to camps to be looked after by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. This means the President is walking away from the real crisis in his own country and passing the buck on to someone else and he appears to be deviating from his commitment made to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina while she paid a visit to Myanmar in December, 2011 to take back the Rohingyas from Bangladesh who entered the country in 1990.
The 56-page report of the Asia chapter of Human Rights Watch released on July 31, 2012 gives a graphic picture of attack and counter-attack following the reported rape of a Buddhist woman by three Muslim Rohingyas at Rakhine state of western Myanmar. That incident led to the eruption of a sectarian riot on June 3. Rohingyas have been singled out for attacks by Rakhine Buddhists as a result of "inflammatory anti-Muslim news media accounts and local propaganda". News media in Myanmar has no independence and is controlled by the Myanmar authorities. Human Rights Watch reported that "the army, police, Nasaka border guard forces, and Lon Thien para-military have committed killings, mass arrests, and other abuses against the Rohingya. They have operated in concert with local Arakan (Rakhine) residents to loot food stocks and valuables from Rohingya homes. Nasaka and soldiers have fired upon crowds of Rohingya villagers as they attempted to escape the violence, leaving many dead and wounded".
The July 18 report of the Amnesty International corroborated the report of the Human Rights Watch by saying "six weeks after state of emergency was declared in Myanmar Rakhine state, targeted attacks and other violations by security forces against minority Rohingya and other Muslims have increased".
By now between 500,000 and 90,000 people are reportedly displaced because sectarian violence. Although officially Myanmar National Human Rights commission acknowledged death of 78 persons, the Human Rights Watch estimates the death toll must have been exceeded 100. Displaced persons are in dire need of food, shelter and medical assistance.
The Amnesty International further adds that "Myanmar has not only added to a long litany of human rights violation against Rohingya, but also has done an about-turn on the situation of political imprisonment". It means the government of Myanmar has backed out from their commitments of reform in political arena. Instead of releasing all political prisoners, the number of political prisoners are on the rise.
Western powers, particularly Great Britain and the US, should take note of the trend of persecution of ethnic minorities in Myanmar and consider not withdrawing economic sanctions immediately. The United Nations, on the other hand, should ensure that the Myanmar government should honour and respect ethnic minorities in Myanmar. A process of reconciliation with ethnic minorities like Rohingya, who are being tortured and persecuted ruthlessly for several decades, and Karen, against whom civil war has continued for 40 years, should begin in earnestness under the umbrella of the internationalcommunities. They should be rehabilitated in their country with roof on their heads and food and necessary paraphernalia to survive. Releasing pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and holding free and fair bye-election in 2011 is not enough to demonstrate sincerity of the army-backed civilian government in Myanmar in carrying out political reform and removing social injustices against its ethnic and religious minorities.
The horrible sectarian violence in Myanmar is the result of Myanmar's illogical 1982 amendment of the constitution depriving citizenship to Rohingya. Rohingyas have in fact has been living for centuries in Burma, now known as Myanmar. Rohingys have become stateless people. Burma's first democratic leader U Ne recognised Rohingya as ethnic citizens of Burma in 1951 immediately after Burma gained independence from the British colonial rule in 1948. Historically, Rohingya are the mixtures of Moguls, Turks and Persians and racially mixed with Bengalees, Hindus and Buddhists. Persian was the court language of Arakan state, now known as Rakhine state, till the 18th century. Until 1784 Arakan was an independent kingdom. Arakan and Tenasserim were annexed by the British after the first Anglo-Burmese war on 5 March, 1824 and became part of Burma. According to a legend as described by Jerome Taylor, religious affair correspondent of The Independent of London, and Oliver Wright, Whitehall editor of the same paper, Rohingya people are descendants of Arab traders whose ship wrecked on the coast of Burma in the 8th century.
It is heartening to note that the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) has taken a decision at its extraordinary session in Mecca on August 16 to bring the issue of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar to the notice of the UN General Assembly, highlighting crimes against humanity and the refusal of the Myanmar government to recognise the Rohingya their right to citizenship. Indonesia played a vital role to push the OIC to take a concrete action to stop violence in the Rakhine state in Myanmar. The governments of Indonesia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Iran have shown special commitments toward Rohingya Muslim while Saudi King Abdullah has announced $50 million on August 18 to assist Rohingya Muslims describing them "as victims of several right violations, including ethnic cleansing, murder, rape and forced displacement". The Society for threatened peoples welcomed the decision of the OIC.
President Zillur Rahman diluted the issue of the most persecuted Rohingya Muslim with that of other minority Muslims around the world at the extra-ordinary session of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) in Mecca on August 16. Bangladesh missed the opportunity to take up this vital humanitarian problem the country has been faced with since 1990. The government of Bangladesh should step up diplomatic manoeuvre to form international opinion against Myanmar government for mistreatment of their citizens and restore citizenship of Rohingya people in line with the call of the Amnesty International either to amend or repeal 1982 citizenship law of Mynamar.
Like many others, I am also disappointed by the silence of Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy icon of Myanmar, whom I received at Dhaka airport sometime in 1982 at the request of Bangladesh Ambassador to Burma Syed Najmuddin Hashim while she stopped over on way to London to join her husband.
The writer is a retired Bangladesh diplomat and former President of Nova Chapter of Toastmasters International Club
Reported by : Mohammad Amjad Hossain from Virginia, USA
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| A monk shows an anti-Rohingya slogan on his hand. |
The following is a report from one of our protected sources- a Journalist in Burma who is constantly receiving numerous verified reports.
It has become clear in recent weeks that the Monasteries play a vital role in distributing weapons to the Rakhine population. Muslims in Maungdaw are yet again in fear after watching bundles of long swords being unloaded from trucks this afternoon, and stored in a Buddhist Monastery under the control of U Kan Tun (local Rakhine). The Monastery is built near the Maungdaw creek and a small tributary and adjacent to the Muslim quarters of Shundaripara and Nafitdill. This is an isolated Monastery at the northeast end of the town and is well- known for illegal transport of goods from Bangladesh using the waterway, popular for anti-Muslim activities.
It is widely believed that all Buddhist Monasteries in Arakan are center of Rakhine Nationalistic and Communalistic activities. These centers are used for secret meetings for any emergencies. All illegal materials such as lethal weapons, arms and instigative materials are stored in these monasteries with local Rakhines in collaboration with local law enforcers (police, Lun Htin) and other authorities.
Recently, in Kyauktaw town, arms were recovered from Rakhines when Muslim villages were razed to the ground. Though some Rakhines were investigated and arrested, the authorities kept the situation shrouded from common knowledge. The Rohingya of Maungdaw are closely watching the development around the said Monastery but they cannot be prepared for all eventualities. It was said that during the riot, every Rakhine had a sword in his hand, a force and strength that the Rohingya cannot contend with.
Source here
Jacques Gallant
Staff Reporter
JACQUES GALLANT/TORONTO STARAbout 100 people attend a rally in Queen's Park Saturday that urged Ottawa to press Burma to end persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority in the Southeast Asian country.
Ottawa should be far more vocal in urging Burma to end the persecution of the Rohingya people in the Southeast Asian country, said demonstrators at Queen’s Park on Saturday.
In an article published Thursday in the Star, a group of Rohingyas resettled in Kitchener told of the harsh conditions faced by the Muslim minority in Burma, where they must request permission to marry, sign pledges to have no more than two children and are forced into labour projects.
Many Rohingyas have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh, where they live in refugee camps.
About 100 people took part in Saturday’s rally, sharing tales of rape, beatings and house-burnings at the hands of Burma’s Buddhist majority. They lamented the lack of western media coverage of their plight. One called the Star’s front-page story this week “an anomaly.”
Tabasum Hussain, a rally participant who learned of the plight of the Rohingyas only a few weeks ago, said the silence on the issue is frightening.
“This place, Burma, is it of no geopolitical interest to the major global parties that are involved in the Middle East? Why is it just the Middle East attracting attention?” Hussain asked. “Thousands of people are being massacred in Burma: where is the condemnation? Where are the sanctions? Where are the calls for NATO troops to be flown in? Don’t these lives have any value?”
The demonstrators want Canada to press Burma to repeal a 1982 law that stripped Rohingyas of citizenship rights. They also want an independent investigation into the violence, a call echoed earlier this month by Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN’s special envoy on human rights in Burma.
In a statement emailed to the Star this week, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird’s media secretary Rick Roth said Baird has expressed his concerns to his Burmese counterpart, and Canada continues to monitor the situation.
Source here
RIYADH: The World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) has asked Muslim and Arab countries to take further measures to help Muslims in Myanmar, insisting that Gulf states should assume a “pioneering role” in the drive.
“As the Muslims around the world cheerfully celebrated Eid Al-Fitr, the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar are being subjected to appalling atrocities, finding their life still in danger,” said Dr. Saleh Al-Wohaibi, WAMY’s secretary-general, here yesterday.
Al-Wohaibi, who launched a WAMY’s relief and rehabilitation program for the Muslims of Myanmar, applauded the efforts of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, who ordered $50 million in aid to the Rohingyas. “The Saudi assistance and the efforts made by the Saudi leaders in cooperation with the international community will go a long way in alleviating the suffering of Muslims in that country,” said the WAMY chief.
Referring to the relief efforts of the WAMY, he pointed out that this Islamic organization would spend $1.5 million in the first phase of its program. “The WAMY is coordinating with several aid organizations including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to extend all possible help to Muslims in Myanmar,” said Al-Wohaibi, adding that the Rohingya Muslims have recently been exposed to grave human rights abuses including ethnic cleansing, murder, rape and forced displacement.
He pointed out that the WAMY offices, as well as other Islamic NGOs around Mynamar, had been contacted for the relief and rehabilitation plan. Several volunteers will be sent to that country, if the Myanmar government allows them to enter into the country, he added. He said that the WAMY strongly condemns the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims as well as the brutal acts and flagrant violations of human rights against them with the aim of coercing them to leave their homeland.
Al-Wohaibi, while urging the international community to take immediate action to protect Muslims in that country, renewed his call to all Islamic and Arab countries to adopt a strong stance to put an end to the killing of Muslims in Myanmar. “If there is no strong stance against this tragedy afflicting Muslims in Myanmar, be sure that there will be a repeat of the same ugly episode again,” he added.
Al-Wohaibi expressed concerns that the international community has been by and large ominously quiet about the events in Myanmar. More than 2,000 Rohingya Muslims have been murdered thus far in the conflicts that broke out in the region. He also lamented that the mainstream media in the West have been largely silent about the massacre of Muslims in Myanmar.
Along with the media, Western governments have also blatantly turned a blind eye to the suffering of the Rohingya Muslims. Even renowned Burmese political activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was recently invited to Norway to collect her 21-year old Nobel Prize, preferred not to speak about the affliction of her fellow citizens. Al-Wohaibi, however, thanked the Myanmar government for inviting an OIC fact-finding delegation to visit the country rocked by sectarian violence.
For their part, Amnesty has also accused 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 bore 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 in a recent program.
Meanwhile, Myanmar has set up a 27-member commission to investigate the killings. The commission will be headed by a retired religious affairs ministry official and include former student activists, a former UN officer and representatives from political parties and Islamic as well as other religious organizations.
The commission is tasked with proposing solutions to the longstanding hatred between the two communities and is to submit its findings by Sept. 17.
source : Arab News
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We are informed through telephone that in Kyauk Pyu township of Arakan, since yesterday, Rakhine extremists along with Security Forces (Hlun Tin) have been coming together to attack PAIK THAY YWA (Fisherman Village) and its villagers. The village is currently under their attacks. The inhabitants at this PAIK THAY village in Kyauk Pyu are Rohingyas who live their lives by doing fishing and depending on other marine products. And it is a very ancient village. As soon as we get the latest information and the details about the situation, we will update you. So, stay tuned.
26th August 2012,Arakan, Burma
RB News Desk
Translated into English by M.S. Anwar
We are reported that three staffs of United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) arrested with no valid reason at an earlier time of violence in Arakan, Burma, were given imprisonments by Maung Daw District Court upon many criminal acts of law. Ma Cho Lay Maa, a UNHCR staff, was sentenced to six years imprisonment and other two staffs, Maung Khin Shwe and Maung Khin Zaw, from Buthidaung Township, were sentenced to 3 years and two years respectively.
“The intention behind this unjust arresting and imprisoning arbitrarily is nothing but making the things difficult for the local Rohingyas in getting employed in UN agencies in the future” said a local from Buthidaung on anonymity.
Recently, few staffs of NGOs and UNHCR were released from the prison. But till date, there is no information concerning other NGOs staffs arrested with wrong accusations from 8th June 2012 onward. The three UNHCR staffs, Ma Cho Lay Maa, Maung Khin Shwe and Maung Khin Zaw, penalised with imprisonments for no reasons and without any proper trial today, were arrested with the accusations of involving in the violence (which are nothing but lame accusations) started in Maung Daw on 8th June 2012.
26th August 2012, Arakan, Burma
RB News Desk
Translated into English by M.S. Anwar
In an article in the state-run New Light of Myanmar on Wednesday, August 22, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Myanmar, stated, “It is obvious that the violence in the Rakhine State are neither the conflict between two religious groups of different faith nor humanitarian issue.” “The incidents in the Rakhine State are sectarian conflicts which are purely internal affairs of a sovereign state. They are not relating to any kind of religious persecution or religious discrimination. Therefore, we will not accept, any attempt to politically regionalize or internationalize this conflict as a religious issue.” “The government of Myanmar has never practiced policy of violence against Muslims or any other faiths,” said the statement. “The government totally rejects accusations made by some organizations that the government is practicing such a policy of abuse.”
Well, I beg to differ with the Myanmar government. It is once again trying to whitewash its horrible record of racism and bigotry against the non-Buddhists (esp. the Rohingya) inside the country. When millions of inhabitants of the country are denied citizenship because of their race, ethnicity and faith, and such exclusion includes every Rohingya Muslim in spite of maintaining their existence in that country for hundreds of years, such claims are simply laughable. When a violent mob attacks a group of Burmese Tablighi Muslims (who were not even from the Rohingya community suspected in the death of a Rakhine woman) and lynches them to death in front of the members of the police forces, who do nothing to stop such horrendous crimes, it is difficult to sell such deep-seated hatred as anything but bigotry. How does the crime of a single individual (although no proof has yet been provided by the Myanmar government) become the justification for committing hate crimes against an entire ethnic group?
When the members of the state-run riot police (Lon Htin) selectively shoots to kill members of the Rohingya community when they had gathered for a funeral service and being provoked by a hostile rock-throwing, stick and knife-wielding Rakhine crowd, no one is fooled by such government explanation. When the members of the border security force NASAKA and Lon Htin are seen (and there are plenty of video tapes available in the Internet) to participate in burning Rohingya homes, businesses and villages, and killing them simply because they are different racially and religiously, if it is not a government sponsored persecution of a Muslim religious community, what is?
When Rakhine Buddhist mobs led by Buddhist monks attack and set fire to several Muslim shops, restaurants and mosques, and kill unarmed Rohingya men and children, while the local authorities (police and the Army) did nothing to intervene nor did the fire-fighters come to their aid, how can one deny or evade responsibility for such collusion?
When the political and military leadership within Myanmar and the Rakhine state promote hatred and xenophobia, and practice open discrimination while encouraging and providing material support to the Buddhist extremists to commit acts of violence including rape of Rohingya Muslim girls and women, it is ludicrous to hide such obvious signs of religious persecution or discrimination.
When the Rakhine Buddhist monks allow their monasteries to be used for hording lethal arms, and disallow the life-saving food items to be sold to and block humanitarian assistance from reaching the starving Rohingya people, it is criminal to ignore the ugly fact that racism and bigotry against the Rohingyas have become an acceptable national project towards their total elimination that is enthusiastically supported and participated by an overwhelming majority within the Buddhist population.
Even a Muslim Rohingya is denied his/her right to reproduction. They cannot get married without government approval, which usually does not happen unless the government official is bribed heftily. US photographer Greg Constantine has recently released a book of black and white photography titled “Exiled to Nowhere: Burma’s Rohingya.” He relates the story of 20-year-old Kashida who had to “flee to Bangladesh with her husband. The Burmese authorities had denied her permission to get married, but when they discovered she had married in secret and was pregnant they took away all her family’s money and cows and goats. They forced Kashida to have an abortion, telling her: “This is not your country; you don’t have the right to reproduce here.” In Mr. Constantine’s book there are plenty of such human stories for anyone to verify the truth of the suffering of the Rohingya people.
What excuse does the Myanmar government have to offer on such monumental crimes against a religious minority?
When the government forces not only allow the slaughter of the unarmed Rohingya but also participate in the gang rape of Rohingya women as a weapon of war so that they are pushed out of the country, and then the fleeing people are shot at — there is a name for such a crime – it is called ethnic cleansing, which has been going on for decades. For the information of the Myanmar government, the United Nations define ‘ethnic cleansing’ as “Purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.”
The Buddhist Myanmar has been practicing this crime for decades against many of the marginalized races and ethnic groups since the state got its independence from Britain in 1948. And of course, the Rohingyas have been the worst victims of this state policy. Per my count, there have been at least two dozen major campaigns to wipe out Muslim identity in Myanmar. As a result of such an on-again and off-again, slow but steady elimination strategy, nearly half the Rohingya population has been pushed out of the country and tens of thousands slaughtered, while the world almost forgot their sad plight. The ‘stubborn’ Rohingyas who continue to live inside this living hell are subjected to the worst forms of persecution and discrimination mankind has ever witnessed in the post-colonial era.
Towards transformational change of the multi-faith and multi-ethnic country to a unitary Burman dominated Buddhist country, there have been a systemic strategy since the days Ne Win (actually, one can go back to the time of Buddhist fanatic king Boddawpaya in 1784) to destroy religious monuments and insignia of other faiths. It is, therefore, not by chance that hardly a single historic mosque stands erect in Myanmar today. The state of Arakan whose shoreline once used to be dotted with Muslim shrines and mosques are now bereft of those Islamic symbolisms. The old Sandi Khan mosque (named after the very Muslim General who came to restore the throne of the fleeing Arakanese king Narameikhla in 1430 CE is long destroyed. Even the ancient Han Tha mosque did not survive Myanmarism. Along with the Taungoo Railway station mosque, this historical mosque was razed to the ground on May 18, 2001 by bulldozers owned by the previous SPDC military junta. How about Akyab’s historic Badr Makam mosque? [It is no accident either that Muslim sounding names of towns and places like Akyab (including that of Arakan state) have systematically been Burmanized to erase that Islamic connectivity.]
No religion can effectively survive or function without its places of worship. Every time a riot is initiated (often with full cooperation of the regime), the first targets are usually the mosques and madrasas because these are the only remaining institutions in Myanmar that are connected with the Islamic faith. [The Rohingya children are barred from government education beyond primary level, nor do they have freedom of movement.] And what is worse: mosques and Muslim graveyards are routinely closed down, destroyed or desecrated to make room for Buddhist model towns or expensive pagodas, where the Muslims must pay for such construction projects. [As I write, hundreds of Muslim mosques have been demolished or burned in the latest episode. All the mosques have been closed down without allowing Muslims to pray inside. So, no one could pray even on the Eid day, the happiest of Islamic festivals.]
As Dr. Shwe Lu Maung alias Shahnawaz Khan has noted in his book – The Price of Silence: Muslim-Buddhist War of Bangladesh and Myanmar – A Social Darwinist’s Analysis – the policy of the successive rulers in Myanmar for centuries has been to make “golden temple shiny shiny, stomach though empty empty.” Every Myanmar ruler that has come to power has always tried to outdo his predecessor by trying to build a bigger and more expensive pagoda so as to prove his unwavering ties with the Buddhist faith and people, most often however at the expense of other faiths and faithful followers.
Interested reader may like to read the reports from a multitude of human rights groups, plus the U.S. State Department’s annual report on Myanmar, or my books (esp., The Forgotten Rohingya: Their Struggle for Human Rights in Burma) to comprehend the colossal record of crime of the Myanmar government against the Rohingya Muslims.
The reports emerging from the Rakhine state, verified by several human rights groups, clearly show the regime’s dirty hands in targeted elimination of the Rohingya people. This was also obvious from the assessment made by Navi Pillay of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights who said, “We have been receiving a stream of reports from independent sources alleging discriminatory and arbitrary responses by security forces, and even their instigation of and involvement in clashes.” “Reports indicate that the initial swift response of the authorities to the communal violence may have turned into a crackdown targeting Muslims, in particular members of the Rohingya community,” she said (July 27, 2012).
Benjamin Zawacki of the Amnesty International told BBC, “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.” “While the restoration of order, security, and the protection of human rights is necessary, most arrests appear to have been arbitrary and discriminatory, violating the rights to liberty and to freedom from discrimination on grounds of religion,” Amnesty said in a statement.
Similarly, Phil Robertson, Deputy Director, Asia Division, Human Rights Watch, said “state security forces and local Arakan communities worked together to target Rohingya communities, committing killings, rapes, and mass arrests.” On June 23, in a village near the town of Maungdaw, security forces pursued and opened fire on two dozen Rohingya villagers who had been hiding from the violence in fields and forest areas. Witnesses in Maungdaw township described several instances in which Rakhine men wielding sticks and swords accompanied the security forces in raids on Rohingya villages.
Not too long ago, a coalition of human rights group, led by Refugees International, the Arakan Project, and the Equal Rights Trust, issued a joint statement saying: “In Myanmar, what began as inter-communal violence has evolved into large scale state-sponsored violence against the Rohingya.” “Many Rohingya continue to be victims of violence and cannot leave their homes for fear of persecution, and are thus deprived of their livelihood and most basic needs,” said the advocacy groups.
To, thus, say that the government of Myanmar has ‘never practiced policy of violence against Muslims or any other faiths’ or that there is ‘no religious persecution or discrimination’ is like saying that ‘violence is peace’ and ‘persecution is love’! With more than 100,000 internally displaced Rohingyas, it is also a grave humanitarian issue. With such hypocritical words, the Myanmar government can neither hope to hoodwink anyone nor evade its responsibility for being the author and executioner for its crimes against humanity.
Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director, Human Rights Watch, noted weeks ago, “Deadly violence in Arakan State is spiraling out of control under the government’s watch. Opening the area to independent international observers would put all sides on notice that they were being closely watched.” The UN and other human rights monitoring groups have also requested Myanmar government to allow international observers to be posted, but to no avail. Its reluctance points to the fact that the regime wants to hide its on-going crime against the Rohingya people.
Lately, President Thein Sein has announced the formation of a 27-member inquiry commission to submit a report on this latest pogrom. One may recall that soon after the pogrom had started in June, he promised a similar inquiry report by June 30, which, however, never saw the light. The inclusion of racists like Dr. Aye Maung, Khin Maung Swe, Aye Tha Aung, Zarganar, and Ko Ko Gyi, who had played an active role in the latest pogrom against the Rohingya people, once again shows that Thein Sein is not serious about fact-finding but only about international image. It is a face-saving measure to withstand international pressure. He is trying to buy time and hope that commotion would calm down so that he could rekindle the fire of extinction some time later.
As I have noted many times, at the heart of the on-going eliminationist project against Rohingyas and other persecuted minorities lies Burma’s notorious 1982 Citizenship Law, written during hateful dictator Ne Win era. It is sad to see that how such a blueprint for racial and religious discrimination and eventual elimination has now become an acceptable law even by the so-called democracy leaders. No one inside Myanmar is crying out foul for its violations of each of the 30 Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, not even Suu Kyi Aris, once touted as a voice of conscience for humanity. The recent tragedy has shown her real color and those of her NLD colleagues. They are basically neo-Fascists who are no better than the very regime that they want to unseat. That is what a national project for elimination would do to a nation!
If the Myanmar government is serious about bringing about a positive change towards inclusion, its 1982 Law needs to be amended or dumped altogether so that Rohingyas are not rendered stateless. Amnesty International says, “Under international human rights law and standards, no one may be left or rendered stateless.”
And this is also the recommendation from the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, Tomás Ojea Quintana. He 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. There is no better time to amend the 1982 Law than now.
Is Thein Sein government ready to truly reform its 1982 Law that violates international human rights law and standards? If not now, when? Without such steps, he can’t escape being labeled as an executioner of an apartheid policy that leads to exclusion, discrimination, persecution and elimination. That is war crime in my book!
Source : Eurasia Review
JAKARTA: The Indonesian Red Cross sent a team of aid workers on Saturday to western Myanmar, where deadly sectarian violence in June left dozens dead and thousands of mostly Muslim Rohingya displaced.
The eight-member team took off in a military jet from an airbase in the capital Jakarta in the morning with 500 hygiene kits, 3,000 blankets and 10,000 sarongs for the first phase of their mission.
"This is an agreement between the president of Myanmar and the Indonesian Red Cross," Indonesian Red Cross chief Jusuf Kalla told reporters.
"We expect the team to stay for around a year, but that will depend on coordination with the government and other Red Cross and Red Crescent teams."
Sectarian violence between Buddhists and Rohingya has flared in Rakhine state, where clashes in June left around 80 people dead, according to official estimates deemed low by rights groups.
Villages were razed and an estimated 70,000 people, the majority of them Rohingya, were left displaced in government-run camps and shelters.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch has accused Myanmar forces of opening fire on Rohingya, as well as committing rape and standing by as rival mobs attacked each other.
Myanmar has set up a commission to probe the clashes after facing heavy criticism from rights groups.
Decades of discrimination have left the Rohingya stateless and they are viewed by the United Nations as one of the world's most persecuted minorities.
Source : AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2012
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| The riots broke out in June after a Buddhist woman was allegedly raped and murdered by a group of Rohingya men (AFP/File, Str) |
SITTWE, Myanmar — Charred stumps and scattered rubbish are all that remain of a once-bustling community in strife-torn western Myanmar, just one of many razed to the ground in recent communal violence.
The clashes which broke out in June between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims have left dozens of people dead and torn apart communities, forcing tens of thousands on both sides to seek refuge in dusty camps and shelters.
Nawseema Har Tu Fa said she fled her village after it was torched during the wave of violence that turned longtime neighbours into bitter enemies.
"We had no problem with the Buddhist people before. We never quarrelled with them before. We lived together, we used to speak. We went to the market every day together," she recounted in a village near the Rakhine state capital Sittwe where many Rohingya have sought sanctuary.
"The main reason we came here is to protect our children, otherwise they might have died there."
An estimated 70,000 people -- 50,000 Rohingya and 20,000 Buddhists -- are in emergency accommodation in the Sittwe area, police told an AFP reporter who visited the remote region near the border with Bangladesh.
They languish in camps or cramped monasteries, dependent on food handouts.
"There are no houses or shelter in their own villages, they were all burned down, so that's why they are here," said Soe Myint, manager of the Kaung Dokar refugee camp, one of six Rohingya camps in Sittwe.
Almost 90 people, both Buddhists and Rohingya, were killed during the violence in June, according to official figures which rights groups fear grossly underestimate the real toll.
The riots broke out after a Buddhist woman was allegedly raped and murdered by a group of Rohingya men.
Access to affected areas is restricted by the authorities, which say that the situation has been relatively calm in recent weeks.
But officials reported that renewed clashes left several people dead earlier this month, underscoring the tinderbox atmosphere.
Rohingya driven from their homes are not allowed to leave the camps -- ostensibly for their own safety. But the restriction has left the Rohingya community out of work and reliant on World Food Programme supplies.
"We do not have enough food, as we do not have the possibility to go to Sittwe downtown to buy everything we need," said displaced Rohingya Abu Shukur.
Faced with heavy criticism from rights groups and outcry from the Muslim world after the unrest, Myanmar's government has denied accusations of abuse of Rohingya villagers by security forces in Rakhine.
New York-based Human Rights Watch has accused Myanmar forces of opening fire on Rohingya during the June outbreak of unrest, as well as committing rape and standing by as rival mobs attacked each other.
Speaking a dialect similar to one in neighbouring Bangladesh, the Rohingya are seen as illegal immigrants by the Myanmar government and many Burmese, who describe them as "Bengalis" or "kalar" -- a derogatory term for Muslims.
"Successive governments and regimes have taken in the Muslim kalar, illegally allowing them in" in return for bribes, said senior monk Oo Ku Maar Ka, the head of Gade Chay Monastery.
In a report sent to Myanmar's parliament earlier this month, the country's reformist President Thein Sein accused Buddhist monks, politicians and other ethnic Rakhine figures of kindling hatred towards the Rohingya.
"Rakhine people are continuously thinking to terrorise the Bengali Muslims living across the country," he said, adding that ethnic Rakhine could not envisage sharing their land with people they consider foreigners.
"They cannot consider a situation in which the Bengali Muslims can be citizens," the president said according to the report, which was seen by AFP.
Myanmar recently announced it had set up a new commission to establish the cause of the sectarian clashes and recommend measures to ease tensions and find "ways for peaceful coexistence".
For now that appears a distant goal as deep mistrust poisons relations between the segregated communities.
"We knew the ones who burned down our houses," said Saw Saw, one of thousands of displaced Rakhine Buddhists sheltering in local monasteries. "If Rohingya from outside come in then it will be even worse."
Source : By Anna O'Connor (AFP)
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Amartya Sen: Burma's "slow genocide" of Rohingyas
Watch Professor Amartya Sen speak on what he calls Burma's 'slow genocide' of Rohingya, Harvard, 4 Nov 2014
