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Myanmar Buddhist monks set fire to a mosque in Sittwe town, the capital of Rakhine state and desecrate copies of the holy Qur'an, Press TV reports.

Press TV has learned that the 800-year-old ancient mosque called “Sawduro Bor Masjid” in the western town was burnt down by extrimist Buddhist monks, with the help of military personnel on Sunday.

The fire, which continued for two hours, also damaged several houses around the Mosque, owned by Rohingyas Muslims.

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

The silence of the human rights organizations towards abuses against the Rohingya Muslims has emboldened the extremist Buddhists and Myanmar’s government forces.

According to reports, thousands of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims are living in dire conditions in refugee camps after government forces and Buddhist extremists started burning down their villages on August 10.

Reports say some 650 Rohingyas have been killed in the Rakhine state in the west of the country in recent months. This is while 1,200 others are missing and 80,000 more have been displaced.

The UN human rights authorities blame Myanmar’s security forces for the violence, who are believed to have been targeting the Muslims rather than bringing the ethnic violence to an end in the country.

Sources Here :
(A) Continuation of Extortion by Nasaka upon Rohingya Community

On 3rd October, 2012, a Rohingya, U Farooq (F) U Kasim from Nayr Bil, Maungdaw North, was invited for a dinner by one of his relatives very near to his own home. After dinner, when he was having a conversation with the family of the relative, a group of Nasaka personnel, sent by Nasaka Sector (5) Commander Win Hlaing, entered the house mentioned above. The visitor was immediately arrested showing no reason and taken outside the compound. Eventually, the victim had to give Two Hundred Thousand Kyats to the Nasaka for release. This is a normal phenomenon applied by the Nasaka to extort money from Rohingya community.

(B) Arbitrary Accusation on Rohingya

On 7th October, 2012, at 01:00am, Sit Oo Zi, Htun Htun Naing and 8 more Nasaka personnel from Nasaka Sector (5)-Nga Khu Yah, raided a house owned by U Noor Mohammed (F) U Zahid Husson from Oo Kyein Kya (Bura Shiddah Fara), Maungdaw north, in search of mobile. Till 02:30am, they searched the house ins and outs and even they excavated the house compound. Finally, they found a cable of MP3 charger. Listening to MP3 and such other entertaining apparatuses are the only way of recreation for discriminated Rohingyas in Myanmar. Moreover, all sorts of chargers and cables are officially legal and widely sold in all most every electronic shop. Awful to hear that, one of the brothers of the raided house owner was arrested for this legal charger. The arrestee was identified as: Shorit Ullah (F) U Zahid Hussain. The Nasaka personnel brought him to Sector (5) Base and the arrestee is still under arrest. The Sector Commander is demanding Five Hundred Thousand Kyats from the arrestee for release. The family is so poor that they are not in a position to enable the demand.

Similar cases occurred in the same village on the same night by the same Nasaka Personnel with different villagers with fabricated reasons. At around 2:45am, a house owned by Shofi Ullah (F) ? was raided. The house owner is a fisherman. During the raid, other two fishermen from nearby were found at his house sleeping overnight by informing the Village Administrator. Unfortunate to them was that the Village Administrator did not give them the official document for the overnight sleeping. When the victims could not provide the Nasaka the documents for overnight sleeping, they were arrested and brought to Sector (5) Base. Still the arrestees are under arrest. The Sector Commander is demanding Five Hundred Thousand Kyats from each miserable arrestee. So far, nobody knows about their fate if they cannot fulfill the demand.

(C) Even No Burial Right for Rohingya killed by Nasaka

On 5th October, 2012, at 05:00pm, Arman Ullah (F) U Abdu Roshid from Gawdu Tha Yah, Maungdaw south, was arrested on the way back to his village from Ka Nyin Tan market, by the Nasaka Camp of Pan Daw Pyin (Nawl Bawn Nya) bridge near Maungdaw downtown. The arrestee was murdered and the corpse was thrown in the creek near the camp. The corpse has been floating in the stream till 7th October, 2012. Although some villagers have seen the corpse, no one dares to bring and bury the corpse since the murder case was committed by the Nasaka.

(D) Gold Robbery by Military

On 4th October, 2012, a local car with passengers going from Bagone Nah to Alel Than Kyaw was robbed by military temporarily camping in Threy Kone Baung. The car Registered No. is 1-Ka/709 and that of the owner is U Mustaque from Myo Thu Gyi village. It is a JEEP car and the driver is Zahid Hussain (F) U Abdu Lawti from Ka Nyin Tan (Myoma), Maungdaw. A woman Shom Jidah (F) U Mohammed Alom, 20 years, from Bagone Nah was one of the passengers who was going back to her husband, Zynul (F) U Abdul Hakim, in Byu Har Gone hamlet, Alel Than Kyaw, Maungdaw south. On the way, the military made the car stopped at the camp at 3:30pm and inhumanly tortured the passengers. When the military saw some jewelry worn by the abovementioned woman, they robbed all the gold. The weight of the robbed gold was about 1.5 tical, current estimated value in Kyat is 1.1 million.

(E) Daily Cruelty upon Rohingya

On 5th October, 2012, at 09:00am, a Rohingya, Solimul Kalam (F) U Abul Kalam from Nyaung Chaung (Kadir Bil), Maungdaw south, who mongers clothes in Alel Than Kyaw market, was arrested by Sa Ra Pha (Military Intelligence Department) in Alel Than Kyaw. The arrestee regularly stays overnight at the house of Abdu Munaf (F) U Shom Shu, a medicine shopkeeper in Alel Than Kyaw market. The arrestee was released at 11:30am after extorting one hundred and fifty Thousand Kyats via the agent and informer Abdullah. 

Complied by Rohingya Youth
RB News Desk.



In our time there is no denying of the enormous influence of the social media employing web- and mobile-based technologies to support interactive dialogue and communication between organizations, communities and individuals. Thus, mass communication which was once a very expensive avenue to propagate one’s views is now almost a free item. Social media are also unregulated in most parts of our world, thus, allowing every John or Jane Doe to express and share his or her views on any matter big or small whether or not he or she is qualified or knowledgeable on such matters. It is, therefore, possible that while expressing one’s unfiltered views others can feel abused, demeaned and hurt. And consequently, those feeling hurt, demeaned or abused can react either proportionately or disproportionately, which can turn into violence.
Consider, e.g., the latest case involving the posting of highly inflammatory and offensive pictures in the Facebook by someone named Uttam Barua, a Buddhist in Bangladesh. Consequently, angry mob have ransacked some monasteries. There are rumors that Barua may have been a foreign agent working for the Myanmar regime to incite such violence.

In repressive and authoritarian societies where the government controls most outlets of social media, its views define the narratives on most matters. For years, thus, in places like Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Syria it was always those governments that had a tight control on what needed to be fed and consumed for their public. But with the social media like the Internet and Facebook, which could not be controlled by the governments, the general public was no longer willing to digest government narratives on any matter of importance unquestioning. By offering an alternative source of communication, the social media have triggered something like a revolution of the mind, thus, freeing hundreds of millions of people around our globe. Thus, one after another yesterday’s despots were overthrown yielding place to the newly elected democratic leaders. Probably, one of the days not too far from today, other despots like Syria’s Bashar al-Assad would also be removed.

Social media can, however, as already hinted above, be abused spreading lies and deceptions, promoting hatred and intolerance. And we have been witnessing many such abuses of freedom of expression in many western liberal democracies, especially in its treatment of Islam and Muslims in the post-9/11 era.

According to the U.S. government accounts, the tragic event of 9/11 was brought about by terrorists that were linked with OBL’s al-Qaeda. [Note: there are many credible engineering experts who doubt the government narrative on this tragedy.] In spite of Bush Jr.’s announcement that the religion of Islam had nothing to do with this tragedy, it was no less of a person than his own attorney general who would later go on to say that ‘Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for Him. Christianity is a faith in which God sends His son to die for you.’ John Ashcroft is an evangelical Christian and his bias is understandable, although he later indicated that his remarks to Christian columnist Cal Thomas did not “accurately reflect what I believe I said.”

Sadly, Ashcroft was not the lone Republican politician in this media campaign against Islam and its adherents. Others like Giuliani, Gingrich, Palin, King and Bachmann joined the hate campaign. Many of these promoters of hatred are individuals with very flawed moral fiber and their views on Islam revealed far more about their own evil selves than anything else. And then there were others — intimately tied up with the Zionists on the contentious Palestine-Israel debate — who for their own religious or political beliefs or inclinations jumped on the wagon of intolerance. They became the mouthpieces for the land-grabbing Zionists in Israel. Nine-Eleven for them was a Reichstag Fire moment to launch an all out war against the Muslim world so that not only could Israel’s illegal annexation of Palestine with settlements and dehumanization of the Palestinian people be sanctified the entire Muslim world would be brought down to their knees as a subjugated people. They even planned for redrawing the map of the Muslim world. However, with the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq going wrong, dragging valuable American resources and killing thousands of soldiers, their evil plan had to be shelved.

The intellectual leadership for Islamophobia and intolerance of anything Islamic was provided by some pen-pushing frauds and charlatans who mastered the art of cherry-picking Qur’anic verses out of context to suit their ludicrous theories about Islam. Thus, came disingenuous and greedy guys like Ibn Warraq and others, who basically repackaged the centuries-old missionary polemical writings against Islam to justify Islamophobia and bigotry against Islam. With material support provided by powerful pro-Israeli Americans and Europeans, virtually anyone (or so it seemed) who could ridicule Islam soon became a media celebrity. In the post-9/11 era of Islamophobia, they were to become the new faces of ‘experts’ on Islam. 

Interestingly, many of these ‘experts’ (including some with Arabic sounding names like Irshad Manji and Ibn Warraq, and other Christian and Jewish zealots like Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller, respectively) hardly know the language of the Qur’an. But who dare question their expertise on Qur’an and Islam or the Muslim world when they are promoted as experts in media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s TV channels, tabloids, newspapers and magazines, and have powerful advocates like Daniel Pipes and Ann Coulter!

But probably nothing was more sinister in this scheme of things Islamophobic than the Jerusalem Summit, a think tank that was sponsored by Michael Cherney Foundation, which provided the first venue for anti-Muslim zealots (including Hindu and other extremists from countries with records of deep intolerance against their Muslim minorities) around the world to unite on a common agenda in Jerusalem in 2003. The ideology of the Summit was summed up by its four-point declaration: radical Islam is a threat to civilization, the United Nations is a failure, Israel is in need of defense and the war on terrorism is a righteous cause.

Lost in that mendacious campaign are the facts that it is Israel which with its racist Likudnik Zionist leaders is a threat to every Arab neighbor and the entire region, and it is the Palestinians, Iranians and other Arabs who live in the Middle East that need protection against Israeli terrorism, and that when it comes to extremism – no religion has a monopoly there. All the extremists – religious and non-religious alike – are a threat to civilization, and they are the ones who need to be defeated. That is, secular fundamentalists in France and other parts of Europe and the Americas are no better than the Muslim Talibans of Afghanistan and Pakistan, or the Hindu extremists in India, or the Buddhist extremists in Myanmar and Cambodia, or the Christian extremists in the Philippines, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Serbia, or the Christian/Jewish Zionist extremists in much of the western world. As a matter of fact because of the support that many of these non-Muslim extremists (e.g., the likes of Narendra Modi and L.K. Advani of India; Gingrich and Bachmann in the USA, and so on and so forth) enjoy from the government apparatus in their respective countries they are seemingly more dangerous than most Muslim extremists who don’t enjoy such support.

In essence, the neoconservative organizers and participants of the Jerusalem Summit wanted nothing short of a civilization war with the world of Islam. Fear of Islam and its people was exploited as one of the most surreptitious and invisible powers to denigrate the religion of nearly a quarter of humanity and encourage open promotion of intolerance and hatred against Muslims.

It is because of such a common agenda that the limit of freedom of expression to insult Islam is ever pushed to its newer heights where anything and everything to do with Islam is a fair game. Thus, the Danish Cartoons and the recently filmed ‘Innocence of Muslim’ are only part of this long list of hatred and intolerances hurled against the Muslim world. These are meant to provoke Muslims and ultimately bring about a clash of civilizations. They also have powerful backers with links to the citadels of power from Jerusalem/Tel Aviv to Washington D.C. Many of these provocateurs are also criminals who should have been locked up in the prison for the good of the society.

These hatemongering provocateurs ought to know that like anything in our world there is always a limit to freedom. With freedom comes responsibility. When their fists hit someone’s nose it is an abuse of that freedom to stretch arms. Freedom cannot be a tool to promote hatred and intolerance against anyone, and much less against a religious community. Government cannot shy away from its responsibility to punish the abusers of such freedom that breed hatred and lead to violence, which can result in the deaths of innocent human beings.

In recent months, we have witnessed quite a few of such demonstrations of hatred against Muslims in the Internet, the Facebook and the YouTube. What is interesting is that some of these social media sites had clear guidelines against promoting intolerance. However, when it came to insulting Islam and Muslims, none of those guidelines seemed to matter, and those sites did not feel obligated to remove such offensive postings. What a double standard!

During the early days of latest extinction campaign against the Rohingyas of Myanmar, I was simply shocked to see an overabundance of highly inflammatory and offensive pictures and racist remarks posted by Rakhine and Burmese Buddhists that were sure to pain most Muslims. I pondered how could any person live with so much hatred against a fellow human being? After all, hatred is taught and no one is born hating anyone. Who have been teaching the Buddhist Rakhines and Burmese to hate non-Buddhists? As I know better, in societies where such evils are promoted, it is no longer an individual act but rather a national project in which others are willing partners in such crimes.

As I hinted earlier, authoritarian regimes use government controlled media to manufacture and spread their lies. They can act as the ultimate architect of genocide or crimes against humanity. For years, within what was Burma, and known these days by the name Myanmar, propagation of hatred against the Rohingyas, who are ethnically and religiously different than the majority Buddhists, has been part of the government campaign. Falsely depicted as outsiders, land- and job-stealers, the Rohingyas have been robbed of their citizenship in the land of their forefathers, and they have been dehumanized to such an extent that no one dare say anything to restore their legitimate rights in this Buddhist majority country. An open display of racism and bigotry thus became a norm rather than an exception.

The rape and grisly murder of a Buddhist woman was exploited as what had triggered the ‘race riot.’ However, as Dr. Maung Zarni, an expert on Myanmar, has recently mentioned there was no trace of rape on that murdered Rakhine woman – Thida Htwe; and that one of the so-called perpetrators of the crime Htet Htet (who was later declared dead in his prison cell) was a Buddhist. And yet, Myanmar’s Ministry of Information which micro-manages all official publications and broadcasts went on to characterize incorrectly the three perpetrators as ‘Muslims.’

The military regime has often been the greatest perpetrator of such hateful crimes and then blamed others to incite race riots. I won’t be surprised if we, one day, learn that the local government officials and security forces in the Rakhine state were the architects of this gruesome murder to incite Rakhine violence against unarmed Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar.

As a result of this targeted pogrom, thousands of Muslim owned homes, businesses, shops, schools and mosques have been burned down and destroyed; nearly a hundred thousand of the Rohingyas continue to live without a shelter. No Muslims are now noticeable in places like Akyab, the capital city. As I write their historic Jam-e Mosque is torched by a Rakhine mob; and this, in spite of the government imposition of the Section 144, which bans all movements of 5 or more people in groups. While the Rakhines are allowed to roam around and burn Rohingya homes, all the homeless Rohingyas are caged in camps with no freedom to go out. Denied adequate food, many are starving to death as a result of this extinction campaign. As to the casualty, we may never know the number of deaths. Myanmar regime won’t share that information. None of the perpetrators of the ten Tablighi Muslims has yet been arrested while it is widely known that some 300 or so of the armed Rakhines attacked them in front of police and security forces. It is no accident that human rights activists have called the latest campaign as part of a wider ethnic cleansing campaign that started since the time of Ne Win in 1962.

Can the provocateurs of hatred and intolerance be taught to love their targets or objects of hatred? Nelson Mandela wrote in his autobiography “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” I wish Mandela is right.

Hatred and intolerance are unacceptable. They are like cancers and need to be routed out one way or another. If unbridled freedom promotes such cancers, a society is probably better off controlling its deadly spread through painful radiation therapy before it is too late.

Source here

Sunday, 7th October 2012

Sittwe, Arakan- On 7th October 2012 (i.e. today), an 800-year-old ancient mosque called “Sawduro Bor Masjid” near to the National Museum and U Uttama Park was torched and burnt down by the Rakhine Extremists with the help of 500 military personnels. This historical mosque is also recorded by the United Nation as one of the many historical heritages in Burma. At the same time, many of Rohingyas’s houses and guest houses around the area were also torched by the Rakhine extremists.

“Around 3PM Myanmar standard time, many Rakhine extremists gathered around the mosque and started torching the mosque. When Rohingyas around the area came out to put off fire, around 500 Military blocked Rohingyas and protecting and helping Rakhines in burning down the historical mosque. At the same time, Rohingyas’ houses and guest houses were put on fire, too” said Maung Maung Oo, a Rohingya from Sittwe.


According to local Rohingyas in Sittwe, Rakhine Extremists in cooperation with Military burnt down the mosque in retaliation to the recent violence against Buddhist minority in Bangladesh. Bangladesh government irresponsibly bucked up the blames on Rohingyas for the incidence. Bangladesh government is just taking advantage of already victimized Rohingyas who have no legal status either in Burma or in Bgladesh and hence can’t move around freely. Besides, it is known to the world that Bangladesh has pushed back Rohingya victims to the sea. Now, the violence against Rohingyas in Arakan has been renewed in cooperation again with the country’s military. Now, only God knows what their future and destiny hold.

Elsewhere, “Military raided the village, Baggona in Maung Daw on 6th October 2012. While Rohingya men in the village were on hinding, they gathered a few Rohingya women and thretened them not to or let their men meet any foreign investigation teams or observers coming to the region. Or else, they would take strong actions against Rohingyas” reported by A. Faiz from Maung Daw. The raid was carried out subsequently after the departure of British Ambassador to Burma, Andrew Heyn, who visited the region in the earlier days.

Compiled by M.S. Anwar
Now, About 3:00pm, Rakhine peoples fired recently attacks to the ancient big mosque compound including many houses on the main road in Sittwe. Rakhine peoples and authorities are trying to kill Rohingya Muslim and fire Aung Mingala village. Now they are surrounding Muslim village in Sittwe but military and security forces are trying to control the crowd.
At first the caretaker house and Imam houses were set fired by the mob of racist Maugh. Rohingya in Mawlek ,Koshai para are at tense. Now the whole compound of Mosque is burning.

Now, About 3:00pm, Rakhine peoples fired recently attacks to the ancient big mosque compound including many houses on the main road in Sittwe. Rakhine peoples and authorities are trying to kill Rohingya Muslim and fire Aung Mingala village. Now they are surrounding Muslim village in Sittwe but military and security forces are trying to control the crowd.


On Phone



 Update News From

BURMESE ROHINGYA ORGANISATION UK (BROUK)

7th October Update Situation
 
Soldiers patrol through a neighborhood that was burnt during recent violence in Sittwe on June 14, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is looking to continue its assistance to the Rohingya Muslim population in Myanmar who has been facing widespread threats to their security after violence erupted last summer in the country’s Western state.

1Malaysia Putera Club’s main Humanitarian Mission team, led by President Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim, left for Myanmar on Saturday.

The 35-member team, which included volunteers and media personnel, departed from the Low Cost Carrier Terminal here and was sent off by Melaka chief minister, Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam.

Speaking before his departure, Abdul Azeez said they were assisted by Prime Minister Najib Razak to gain permission to enter the country based on Malaysia’s close ties with Myanmar.

An estimated 500 tons of food, medicine and other items had been sent ahead by ship earlier followed by 14 volunteers on surveillance mission on September 29.

The team was expected to return on October 11 and the Club’s next mission was scheduled for October 19, to Syria, he added.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian mission included singer Irwan Shah Abdullah, better known as DJ Dave, as the representative of the 1Malaysia Artistes Foundation.

Since mid-June, Bangladesh authorities have admitted to forcing back at least 1,300 Rohingya trying to flee to Bangladesh, though the actual number is likely substantially higher, Human Rights Watch said. Rohingya are escaping killings, looting, and other sectarian violence in Arakan State, as well as abuses by the Burmese authorities, including ethnically motivated attacks and mass arrests.

A United Nations senior official expressed serious concern about reports of human rights violations committed by security forces in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, after clashes between its Buddhist and Muslim communities reportedly killed at least 78 people and displaced thousands in July.

“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,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said in a news release.

“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 [Muslim] community,” she added.

According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the violence between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in the state, located in the country’s west, was triggered when an ethnic Rakhine woman was raped and murdered on May 28. This was followed by the killing of 10 Muslims by an unidentified mob on June 3.

Pillay called for a prompt, independent investigation, noting that the crisis reflects the long-standing and systemic discrimination against the Rohingya Muslim community, who are not recognized by the Government and remain stateless.

“The government has a responsibility to prevent and punish violent acts, irrespective of which ethnic or religious group is responsible, without discrimination and in accordance with the rule of law,” Pillay said.

She also called on national leaders to speak out against discrimination, the exclusion of minorities and racist attitudes, and in support of equal rights for all in Myanmar. She also stressed that the UN was making an effort to assist and protect all communities in Rakhine state.

“Prejudice and violence against members of ethnic and religious minorities run the risk of dividing the country in its commendable national reconciliation efforts, undermine national solidarity, and upset prospects of peace-building,” Pillay said.

Meanwhile, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it is delivering aid to the more than 30,000 people that were affected by the violence.

“As we speak, additional tents are being airlifted from the Republic of Korea to meet urgent shelter needs on the ground,” a UNHCR spokesperson, Andrej Mahecic, told reporters in Geneva.
 
Sources Here:


Tim King Salem-News.com

As the U.S. cuts deals, Suu Kyi accepts rewards and President Thein Sein is pardoned for his past crimes; the conflict continues to burn homes and claim lives and now it has crossed an international border.

Rakhines holding weapons during declaring of Act Of Law 144 inside the Sittwe town, Burma

(SACRAMENTO, CA) - Ethnic tension has consumed Burma in recent weeks and now the problems are spilling over in a retaliatory fashion, into Bangladesh.

It all began over the reported rape of a Buddhist woman in Burma, a long closed pariah state which the Buddhist government renamed Myanmar. Almost immediately after that happened, a bus carrying Muslim men in Burma was pulled over, and the passengers murdered in open daylight.

Since then things have only become worse, much worse. We have published photographs of Rakhine Buddhists roving around with weapons including machetes which offer a haunting reflection of past genocides. People have been laid to waste; cut into pieces in some cases.

These murders have accelerated as Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Secretary of State, has worked hard to help the leaders of this country in their "transition to democracy". This means forgiving decades of human rights abuse by Burma's military junta.

As political leaders in Burma hold their hand out to America for economic prosperity, mobs of Rakhine Buddhists are killing their fellow citizens, the Rohingya Muslim and leaving their villages in ashes. The U.S. State Dept and even the famous Burmese political leader An Aan Suu Kyi remains silent over the suffering of the Rohingya.

One of the regular chants of the anti-Muslim protesters here, is that the Rohingya people are "illegal immigrants from Bangladesh". However the Rohingya community according to historical accounts, has been in Burma for hundreds of years.

Regardless of that, the violence that has been plaguing the Muslims of Burma, has now extended to Bangladesh where innocent Buddhists are being attacked in retaliation to the violence plaguing Rohingya Muslims.

The Chinese news agency Xinhua reported today, that dozens of Myanmar Buddhist monks gathered in front of the Bangladeshi Embassy today staging protests against recent attacks on Buddhist institutions in Bangladesh.

Buddhist monk in Bangladesh tries to salvage what he can.

The interesting thing is that the Buddhists in Bangladesh are calling for and demanding the exact things that the Rohingya Muslims are begging for, for weeks, now months... in Burma. The cries of this Muslim population facing annihilation fall on deaf ears as the government of 'Myanmar' is Buddhist and therefore fails to protect the Muslim minority population.

They are asking for peace, yet their counterparts in Burma have been totally unwilling to grant that peace. So now the violence is visiting the otherwise peaceful Bangladeshi Buddhists in return and they do not deserve it.

As the United States cuts its deals and Suu Kyi accepts her rewards and President Thein Sein is pardoned for his past crimes, the conflict continues to burn homes and claim lives and now it has crossed an international border, this is the reward for the mighty western powers' decision to ignore this genocidal bout of ethnic cleansing.
early 75,000 people living in temporary camps and shelters following inter-communal conflict in Burma’s Rakhine State in June face deteriorating living conditions, say local aid workers and residents.

This file picture taken on June 12, 2012, shows a resident riding her bicycle past burned houses amid ongoing violence in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in Burma.
As of 25 September, the government estimated some 72,000 from the (mainly Muslim) Rohingya ethnic group and almost 3,000 people from the (mainly Buddhist) Rakhine ethnic group are displaced in the region, IRIN, a UN humanitarian news service, said in an article on its website on Thursday.

They are staying in 40 camps and temporary sites in Sittwe and Kyauktaw townships, from where they are still able to access schools and work, IRIN said.

Immediately after the outbreak of violence in June, aid agencies visited areas in four affected townships and identified sanitation and clean water as major needs. At the time, only about 30 per cent of the surveyed displaced persons had access to clean water, while six out of 10 people did not have any way to store it even if they secured some, said IRIN.

A number of camps had only one latrine serving 100 persons. Little has changed in recent months, said Mohammad Nawsim, the secretary of the Rohingya Human Rights Association (RHRA) based in Bangkok.

Nawsim said that many young and elderly Rohingya in the temporary camps along the road leading west out of Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, are falling ill due to poor living conditions.

Phil Robertson, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division based in Bangkok, told IRIN the displaced are “effectively restricted to camps by both the security forces and by the violent attacks they fear from the Rakhine [community].”

Most Muslims have shuttered their former businesses and left Sittwe after the authorities ordered their departure, said Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, an advocacy organization for the Rohingya.

While supplies and relief are getting into the camps, delivery is still hampered, she said.

Based on her visits to the displaced in Sittwe with the NGO Refugees International at the end of September, she said: “Many of the staff of the NGOs are local workers and are afraid to go to the Muslim camps – not so much that they are afraid to be attacked by Muslims in the camps, but they are mostly afraid that if the Rakhine Buddhists see that they are assisting the Muslims, they will be attacked by their own community.”

According to a September 4 report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “humanitarian partners remain concerned that access is still limited to some affected areas and townships outside of Sittwe,” which includes aid groups working with Rohingya before the most recent bloodshed, which have now been forced to discontinue their services.

International aid workers report being unable to get travel authorization to work in affected northern townships in Rakhine State, including Maungdaw, which borders on Bangladesh and where almost 500 homes were burnt down in the violence, IRIN said.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled persecution in Burma over the past three decades, the vast majority to Bangladesh in the 1990s.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Burma’s President Thein Sein discussed how to address the root causes of inter-communal tensions in Rakhine State, including through development efforts, on 29 September at the recent UN General Assembly meeting in New York. The president said the government would address the needs.

The Burmese government signed a memorandum of understanding with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in mid-August to facilitate OIC partner organizations’ humanitarian assistance to displaced Rohingya. The head of international relief and development of Qatar Red Crescent Society, Khaled Diab, told IRIN his chapter will carry out relief work estimated at US$ 1.5 million among displaced Rohingya over the next six months – and possibly longer depending on funding – in health, shelter, water and sanitation.

A multi-agency Rakhine Response Plan estimated it will take some $32.5 million to cover basic emergency needs until the end of the year for an estimated 80,000 displaced.

“Most people in the camps believe they will never be able to go back to the town, even though the government says the camps are only temporary,” Arakan Project's Lewa said.

According to the UN database, which records international humanitarian aid, the Financial Tracking Service, and not-yet-recorded recent donor announcements, some $11 million has been pledged or contributed to humanitarian assistance in Rakhine State this year. 
 
Sources Here:
One Rohingya youth, Amanullah (16 years old) son of U Abdu Rashid who lives in West Gaudusara Village, Maungdaw South was killed by Border Security Forces (NaSaKa) on 3rdOctober, 2012.

Amanullah and his friend of Pandaw Pyin Village were severely tortured by the Border Security Forces whose camps is stationed two miles far from the Maungdaw Downtown, beside the Maungdaw- Alay Than Kyaw road.

The two youths were returning from the Maungdaw (Kayindan Quarter) to Pandaw Pyin, after their shopping. They were called by NaSaKa at 5:30 PM on that day while on the road. The friend of Amanullah from Pandaw Pyin was released alone after he was severely tortured.

But Amanullah was killed by the NaSaKa’s torturing and floated his dead body into the Magyi Myaing River. The dead body was founded today by villagers.

RB News Desk
Complied by Nyi Nyi Aung.


M.S. Anwar
RB News
October 5, 2012

Rohingyas in Pauk Taw Facing Starvation and Threats to their Lives 
Pauk Taw, Arakan - On 4th October 2012 night, Rakhine extremists and Police (made up of Rakhines) raided the houses of Rohingyas in Ywa Haung, Pauk Taw Township and confiscated their household knives, rods and telephones. Similar case had happened in Sittwe before the beginning of the violence against Rohingyas there. Rakhine Police and Extremists seized household knives and rods etc giving many excuses. The small Rohingya minority in Pauk Taw fear whether doing so to them are the preliminary steps to begin a fresh attack against them.

Indeed, the small minority in the region have been oppressed through various means by the authorities and Rakhine extremists. As a matter of fact, four Rohingyas were killed by Rakhine extremists led by RNDP members at Quarter 3 in Pauktaw Tsp. Besides, Ngat Wa Chaung, a Rohingya village in Pauk Taw Tsp, was burnt down and about 50 Rohingyas were killed in cold blood in the recent violence.

By the same token, of about 300 displaced Rohingyas (from Pauk Taw) who took refuge in Thekkay Pyin Refugee Camps in Sittwe, about 60 Rohingyas died due to malnutrition and starvation. More 300 displaced Rohingyas taken refuge in a partially destroyed in Pauk Taw mysteriously disappeared now. Nothing had been known about them since their disappearances. Rohingyas are living in fear and worried of their future due to different propaganda being carried out against them by Rakhine extremists in recent days, whearas they are facing great starvation” said Nyi Nyi Aung, a Rohingya activist.

Financial Blocks to Rohingyas in MinBya

MinBya, Arakan- Myanmar Agricultural Bank in MinBya Township has stopped giving out agricultural loans to Rohingyas in the area. Besides, the bank refused to give back the savings of Rohingya farmers in the banks, too.

“The Bank Manager U Thar Aye, a strong supporter of Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP), said upon the requests of Rohingya farmers that Bank officials would go to their villages and disburse the loans to the farmers. But no official from the bank has gone to Rohingyas’ villages to give out the loans. Besides, Rohingyas are unable to withdraw their savings from the bank” said a Rohingya on phone from MinBya.

Myanmar government provides an amount of Kyat 50,000 loans and Kyat 10,000 loans for the monsoon agriculture (such as Paddy crops) and other seasonal crops respectively to the farmers through the agricultural banks in Myanmar. The interest rate of the loan is 1.25% a month. The farmers need to settle the old loans before taking out a new one. Like others, Rohingya farmers in MinBya had received the loans till February 2012.

Even though Rohingya farmers have settled their old loans, the new loans are not given out to them. Sadly, they can’t go the main branch of the bank situated in the downtown of MinBya for the fear of being attacked by Rakhine extremists. For the worse, Rohingyas farmers are unable to get back their 7-year savings in the banks. As a result, they are struggling to survive and having great difficulty in their agriculture of paddy crops which their life-line. And Rohingya farmers are afraid of going to their farms because many farmers are being inhumanely killed by Rakhine extremists in Pauk Taw and MinBya.

Bristish Ambassador Left Maung Daw Yesterday

Maung Daw, Arakan- British Ambassador to Burma, Mr. Andrew Heyn, has successfully finished his observation trip to Maung Daw. He has visited many violence hit Rohingya and Rakhine villages and interviewed many of them.

A local Rohingya from Maung Daw said “he, Mr. Andrew Heyn, has visited the villages such as Baggona, Nurualla, Rammawady near to Alay Than Kyaw, Tharay Kunbaung, Quarter 2 and Thaung Painya in Maung Daw. He has successfully met up Rohingyas in the villages mentioned except Tharay Kunbaung where he faced NaSaKa’s interruptions and disturbances.

He listened to the tragedies of Rohingyas in Baggona and Nurualla with patience where even raped Rohingya women came forward to tell him how they are inhumanely treated. His trip to Maung Daw started on 5th October 2012 and ended on 6th October 2012. But we don’t know how his trip to Rakhine villages proceeded. And we are immensely thankful to him and British government for caring about our sufferings. We hope they will do their best for us.”

Policemen carry their weapons during fighting between Arakanese and Rohingya communities in Sittwe, Arakan state. (Photo: Reuters)


 By Maung Zarni
Democratic Voice of Burma
October 5, 2012

Following this summer’s rioting in western Burma, all eyes have been fixed on the government’s handling of the unrest in Rakhine state. With external pressure mounting, most specifically from the Islamic world, Burmese officials – from President Thein Sein in Naypyidaw to local security troops in western Burma – have been playing ostensibly the “humanist and humanitarian” card with the Rohingya.

If the findings from various investigative missions turn out to be little more than public relations white-wash for Naypyidaw, more than a few Rohingya have expressed their concerns to me that their communities – the bulk of whom are barely surviving under the recently imposed martial law – will explode again.

When an oppressed and downtrodden people feel they have absolutely nothing more to lose but their captive lives in the iron cage of refugee camps set up by the predatory and repressive state, radicalism and violence are just a step away. After all, the Rohingyas are surrounded and outnumbered by exceedingly hostile Rakhines [Arakanese], who reportedly and repeatedly told the touring US Ambassador Derek Mitchell and his inquiry team that the Rakhines are not at all prepared to live on the same land which they in fact share with the Rohingya. Worse still, neighbouring Bangladesh has consistently slammed its gates each time there is a wave of Rohingya refugees fleeing from Burma.

Seen from the Rohingya’s perspective, the fact-finding missions – including Naypyidaw’s own team – represent more than investigative tours. They are, ultimately, the last straw for a people who feel they are drowning in the sea of Burma’s popular “Buddhist” racist nationalism.

So, naturally, the Rohingya are pinning their collective hopes on the inquiries and that the findings by the independent investigation will mark the beginning of the end of their plight as the most persecuted minority in the country and a first step towards securing humane living conditions and legal rights as citizens in Burma, where they were born and have lived for generations.

Understandably, deep anxieties over the situation remain. Already some Rohingya are expressing their concerns that Burma’s government may not be coming clean. They point to the generals’ well-documented pattern of lying, distorting facts and manipulating domestic and international opinions during previous foreign relations crises – from the use of jailed dissidents as political bargaining chips to blocking emergency and humanitarian aid to two million cyclone victims to the slaughter of Buddhist monks during the “Loving Kindness” uprising in 2007.

For any politically and historically informed local, Rohingya victims or Burmese dissidents, Naypyidaw’s real intent behind its international cooperation with UN aid agencies, the OIC and US inquiry teams is to absolve itself of the ultimate “responsibility to protect” the most vulnerable community in the country and to reinforce its latest official spin that the plight of the Rohingya is the result of popular Buddhist racism and racial violence instigated by Rakhine nationalist extremists.

However, many locals suspect President Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government was the real culprit behind the racial violence and the resurgence of the country’s popular xenophobic racist nationalism.

Independent Burmese researchers on the ground who have been engaged in below-the-radar investigations, who have spoken with local security troops made up of Rakhine and Burmese Buddhists, police officials, local eyewitnesses and Rakhine and Rohingya victims of violence, have recently uncovered fresh evidence lending credence to the Rohingya’s collective suspicion.

Their hitherto unpublicised evidence pokes gaping holes in the Thein Sein government’s official narrative that claims the racial violence was the result of simmering sectarian hostilities. Most troublingly during Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s trip to the US, she, who along with her senior NLD colleagues was the target of the regime-orchestrated mob violence at Depayin in May 2003, repeated with shocking naivety Naypyidaw’s deceptive narrative – that the latest wave of state-sponsored violence against the Rohingya was “sectarian”. She should know better. In fact, the findings by the team of my in-country research collaborators point to a very real possibility that Naypyidaw manufactured the trigger for the worst ethno-religious violence in Burma since the military came to power in 1962.

To start off with, what these local researchers have uncovered calls into question Naypyidaw’s official narrative about how and why the Rakhine-Rohingya ethnic conflict started. For instance, according to the official state newspaper the New Light of Myanmar (dated 4 June) and the government’s official report entitled: “Situation in Rakhine State in Myanmar” issued by the Ministry of Border affairs, the news of the unspeakable rape and murder of a Buddhist Rakhine woman, named Ms Thida Htwe, on 28 May by three Muslim men, triggered the initial mob violence in Rakhine state five days later.

What followed was the violent murder of ten out-of-state Muslim pilgrims who were dragged onto a busy town street from an inter-state bus and slaughtered by a mob in broad day light in the predominantly Rakhine Buddhist state in western Burma.

In sharp contrast, the government doctor, a civil servant by definition, who under duress signed the official post mortem report on Ms Thida Htwe said, in no uncertain terms, to one of the in-country Burmese researchers that there was no trace of rape on her murdered body.

Why then did Myanmar’s Ministry of Information which micro-manages all official publications and broadcasts went on to characterise incorrectly the three perpetrators as ‘Muslims’ whereas in fact one of them, Mr Htet Htet, was a Buddhist?

Additionally, why did the Ministry go with the fabricated medical report about Ma Thida Htwe, which made the patently false claim that she suffered violent sexual assault before being looted and murdered?

Rape as a violent crime may be prevalent in all societies. In Burmese society, of all the crimes, rape is considered the absolute worst. Rapists are reviled. Once in jail, they are taunted and physically attacked even by other inmates.

So what was the rationale behind the Ministry of Information amplifying, without verifying, the fabricated local notice reportedly put out by local anti-Rohingya Rakhine extremists, that “Muslim men intentionally raped a Rakhine Buddhist woman”, when it published the fabricated story approvingly in the Burmese and English language official mouth pieces on 4 June?

Even more curiously, the authorities declared that Htet Htet committed suicide in police custody, awaiting his trial. Burmese jails and police interrogation centres are infamous for the torture and deaths that occur in their halls, not inmates’ successful suicide attempts. Thousands of the country’s former political prisoners will attest to the impossibility of taking one’s own life behind bars.

Something even more mysterious seems afoot.

Three days after President Thein Sein authorised the formation of a Rohingya-Rakhine Riot Inquiry Commission made up of prominent public figures including dissidents and academics, Htet Htet’s widowed wife was found dead in a well. Did she accidentally fall into the well and drown? Or was there something dodgy going on?

Furthermore, according to the official narrative, the Buddhist Rakhine mob killing on 3 June of ten Muslim pilgrims during the former’s return bus trip from Rakhine state to Rangoon was in response to and as a retaliation against one Rakhine woman being gang-raped by “three Muslims” on 28 May.

According to local eyewitnesses interviewed by Burmese researchers, there were altogether six buses travelling on the same route at about the same time on 3 June. And yet, the mob – about 300 men, according to the estimate by the official Myanmar News Agency (New Light of Myanmar, 4 Jun) – seemed to have known exactly which bus to attack.

Recently, I pressed an official from Burma as to why no one has been arrested, tried or charged by the authorities for the slaughter of the ten Muslim men. According to the local official, the Rakhine refused to collaborate with any police investigation. No one would come forward to share any information about who might be involved in actual killings of the ten innocent Muslim men.

But successive military regimes in Myanmar have never needed eyewitnesses to arrest and jail political dissidents. For they spend an inordinate amount of resources, in monitoring, photographing and videoing any mob formation or mob action. In 2005 and 2006, I spent a little over one month in total as a “guest of the military government” in officers’ guesthouses in military intelligence depots in Rangoon and Mandalay. Every morning I saw young intelligence agents leaving various units, carrying point-and-shoot digital cameras in small shoulder bags in order to record the day’s events – especially in public spaces such as markets, bus and train stations and other surveillance spots.

Why have the authorities not tried to access photographic evidence or video records of the 3rd June slaughter of Muslims on the streets in broad day light, which they must certainly have in their police and intelligence archives? Perpetrators who would have been most certainly caught on either intelligence digital cameras or video cameras could easily be identified.

Judging from Naypyidaw’s official inaction, the regime doesn’t want to see justice carried out, insofar as the slaughter of the Muslims is concerned. There is then little wonder that President Thein Sein’s government is said to be stonewalling any and all attempts even by its own Riot Inquiry Commission to conduct proper investigation into the racial violence. Deceptively, during his speech at the UN General Assembly in New York, Thein Sein showcased the multi-faith, multi-ethnic make-up of his Inquiry team, emphasing how esteemed the bulk of the presidential commissioners are.

According to the sources close to the Commission, the Ministry of Border Affairs in charge of Rohingya matters has so far failed to grant the Commission’s request to allow unfettered access to security forces stationed in western Burma. They have also failed to provide immunity for any Rohingya and Rakhine interviewees and have blocked access to the two remaining Muslim men behind bars who were convicted of the alleged rape and murder of the Rakhine woman.

Instead, Naypyidaw has transferred many key commanders and officers in charge of various security units from western Burma to remote areas such as Hpa’an in Karen state, thereby making it more difficult for the Commission to do a thorough job before its November deadline.

It seems as if Thein Sein’s government has decided that a serious investigation led by Burmese nationals on its own official commission has greater potential to get to the bottom of the racial violence that erupted in western Burma. Local Commissioners are certainly best positioned to excavate not only the mass graves, if there are any, but also to uncover the ugly truths about how President Thein Sein’s government may have manufactured the triggers that prompted the sectarian violence.

More specifically, the government wouldn’t want its direct involvement exposed, domestically and internationally, in terms not only of the security forces opening fire on the Rohingya, slaughtering them in the hundreds, but also in its central role in lighting the fire of sectarian violence that targeted the Rohingya.

One regime official recently told me, “the bottom-line is we don’t want any more ‘Mus’ (a coded reference to the Muslims amongst military officers) in our country. But we can’t possibly kill them all”. So, did the reformist government in Naypyidaw decide to outsource the job of cleansing the Golden Land of Burma of the unwanted Muslim Rohingyas to the extremist Rakhines?

Whatever the findings by various independent investigative missions concludes concerning how and why the worst racial violence in the country’s modern political history kicked off, the OIC’s fact-finding mission and Burma’s own Presidential Riot Inquiry Commission should demand that Burma government cooperates fully with both its own national fact-finders and all independent international investigators.

Further, they should press President Thein Sein’s government to guarantee the physical safety of fact-finders, especially the Burmese locals; provide unfettered access to security troops for interviews; offer the local Rakhine and Rohingya eyewitnesses unequivocal and official safeguards; and make available all relevant intelligence reports.

It is in the all-around interest of Burmese society and the government, as well as the international community to prevent any political and international scenario where Rohingyas feel, quite rightly, the world has abandoned them at the hands of the racist majority and their militarist government now wearing civilian garb.

Truthful reports by various inquiry commissions and missions can and will go a long way towards restoring a glimmer of hope in the world’s most persecuted minority community, if the investigators are able to get to the bottom of the recent large-scale racial violence, which left nearly 100,000 both homeless and hopeless.

Dr. Maung Zarni is one of the veteran founders of the Free Burma Coalition and a Visiting Fellow (2011-13) with Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit at the London School of Economics.

UNHCR has distributed relief supplies to tens of thousands of people in communities affected by the unrest in Rakhine state. Photo: UNHCR Myanmar
5 October 2012 – Four months after inter-communal violence erupted in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) continues to rise, the United Nations refugee agency said today, adding that some 75,000 people are currently living in camps and many more are in need of humanitarian assistance.

“Movement is still restricted in parts of Rakhine state, preventing some villagers from going to work, accessing markets, food supplies, health services and education,” a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Adrian Edwards, told reporters in Geneva. “Out of desperation, people are leaving villages to seek food and medical assistance at the IDP camps.”

In June, violence between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in the state of Rakhine, located in western Myanmar, led to the country’s Government declaring a state of emergency there.

The figure of 75,000 people in need of humanitarian aid, provided by local authorities, is an increase on initial Government estimates of some 50,000 people displaced shortly after the unrest broke out in early June, according to UNHCR. It added that a resurgence of violence in early August resulted in more than 4,000 people having their homes burned down, affecting thousands more.

The refugee agency, along with its humanitarian partners, has been advocating for greater humanitarian access and support for the most affected villages, including the towns of Sittwe, Kyauk Taw and Maungdaw.

“We hope that by delivering aid in places of origin, humanitarian agencies can help to prevent further displacement and make interventions that can facilitate the eventual return of IDPs,” Mr. Edwards said.

UNHCR is distributing relief supplies for some 54,000 people in IDP sites. The supplies include plastic sheets, sleeping mats, blankets, mosquito nets and kitchen sets.

The agency is also supporting the construction of emergency temporary shelters that can house about 10,500 people, and continues to support delivery of basic assistance such as food, water and sanitation to Government-run IDP camps until the situation stabilizes sufficiently for them to return home.

Mr. Edwards added that despite the rising numbers of IDPs, some people whose houses were not damaged have returned to the town of Sittwe. He added that a “fragile calm” has returned, but the situation remains tense.
Sources Here:




The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has collected around US$25 million in funds during the second consultative meeting on humanitarian aid in Doha, Qatar on Friday for victims of the Rohingya-Rakhine conflict in Myanmar. The funds will be used for rehabilitation and reconstruction in the areas affected by the conflict.

Leaders of the humanitarian institution collected about $15 million, while the remaining $10 million was obtained from other OIC members who had committed their financial help before the meeting.

OIC deputy secretary-general Atta El-Manan Bakhit said he believed the funds would increase. “The large, rich countries haven't donated yet,” he said.

OIC members, including Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and United Arab Emirates pledged to give between $50 million and $100 million during the first consultative meeting in Malaysia last August.

Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) chairman Jusuf Kalla, who attended the second meeting, said in his presentation that the OIC members needed to focus and take a definite step to resolve the conflict and avoid long discussions over data and action plans.

“The longer we delay, the greater our challenge will be. The Rohingya and Rakhine people will also suffer for longer,” he said.

Kalla asked the forum to decide three things in resolving the conflict: finalizing the action plan, collecting funds and establishing the system and organization to execute the plan.

Members at the second consultative meeting eventually agreed to form a consortium to speed up the rehabilitation of areas affected by the conflict.

The OIC will also collaborate with the PMI to open a representative office in Myanmar after both organizations signed an agreement letter with the Myanmar government and Myanmar Red Cross to pave the way for volunteers in the mission.

According to the Myanmar government, victims need at least 8,000 homes -- each one costing $5,000. A further $50 million to $100 million in funds will also be needed to rebuild houses, educational and health facilities, sanitation and other infrastructure in areas such as Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Sittwe in Rakhine province.

Recent tensions between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine left at least a dozen civilians dead and hundreds of homes destroyed. Around 70 thousand people are still living in refugee camps. (cor)
Sources Here:

    • Rohingya Exodus