Maung Zarni
Asia Times

April 9, 2013

Burma/Myanmar's radical "969 movement" has been central in the recent brutal pogroms against minority Muslims that have left at least 40 dead and 12,000 displaced. The Buddhist monk-led group, however, cannot be understood outside of the interface between President Thein Sein's government and the country's racist society at large. 

Nor can it be explained without examining the respective roles of a) the State, which in effect offers the country's neo-Nazi Buddhists impunity, b) Thein Sein's inaction, even amid indications of ethnic cleansing against minority Muslims, and c) the Aung San Suu Kyi-led opposition's moral bankruptcy throughout the crisis. The orgy of violence has raised several important questions about the country's direction and hopes for reform. 

How popular and widespread is the 969 movement and how likely is it to spread throughout the country? 

As a new nationalist movement with a clear message of ''racial and religious purity'', a false sense of Buddhist victimhood, and cultural and economic nationalism - not dissimilar to Germany's Nazism in the 1930s - 969 is gaining popularity for three main reasons. 

First, some of the militant Buddhist preachers from nationally well-connected Buddhist teaching colleges (such as 969 leader Wirathu) effectively scapegoat the country's Muslims for the general economic hardships and cultural decay in society, portraying the ethnic Burmese as victims at the hands of organized Muslim commercial leeches and parasites. Second, 969 preys on the historical and popular anti-Muslim racism among the majority Buddhists. Last but not least, virtually all state institutions at all levels - including the police, intelligence agencies, the army, local civil administration and even fire departments - under Thein Sein's management have offered this Buddhist neo-Nazi movement both impunity and passive cooperation. 

What is the Naypyidaw government doing to crack down on the radical movement? 

Thein Sein's official report to parliament on the anti-Muslim violence against ethnic Rohingyas last year in western Burma/Myanmar's Rakhine State blamed political parties and Buddhist monks for spreading ''ethnic hatred''. Yet his administration has not taken a single action against anyone who openly incited anti-Muslim hatred or ethnic hatred towards the Rohingyas. Nor has his government detained or even deterred a single Buddhist preacher of hate for acts of spreading anti-Muslim hatred in society and inciting blatant calls for phase-by-phase elimination of Muslims and their influence in society. 

"Political parties, some monks and some individuals are increasing the ethnic hatred. They even approach and lobby both the domestic and overseas [Arakan] community," Thein Sein's report, submitted to parliament last August, said. There is thus an unbridgeable gap between Thein Sein's messages of coexistence and tolerance, to which the Western mainstream media has given wide coverage, and his government's inaction, which the same media has failed to report beyond the observation that local police have stood by idly when organized mob violence unfolded before them. 

All over Burma/Myanmar one can easily find numerous publications, DVDs, CDs and other anti-Muslim propaganda materials. It is not illegal to spread anti-Muslim misinformation and hateful views in the country's more open environment. Instead, the government sued the Voice Weekly newspaper for printing a single article about corruption at the ministry of mines. 

But it has left untouched various publications that have printed rumors, slander and misinformation about the country's Muslims. Thein Sein's government is thus evidently more concerned about being correctly described as highly corrupt than stopping the sustained and open calls in various media to turn the country into a ''graveyard of Muslim leeches''. 

Unless Thein Sein's government systematically cracks down on those who promote and organize Islamophobic violence and hate speech and effectively ends its long-standing policy of impunity for those who commit crimes against Muslims (and other ethnic minorities), it will run the risk of 969 morphing into a full-blown genocidal movement. Despite its pretensions towards democracy, Thein Sein's military-propped regime has over 50 years of proven experience in suppressing organized opposition movements. For decades, the military was effectively able to censor and stop any news or messages it didn't want disseminated in society. 

In his article "Challenging the Authoritarian State: Buddhist Monks and Peaceful Protests in Burma, Issues and Policy", published in the Fletcher Forum of World Affairs in 2008, Kyaw Yin Hlaing, a Burmese academic from the City University of Hong Kong and now a top Thein Sein adviser who directs the government's Myanmar Peace Center (MPC), observed the military's central role in inciting anti-Muslim riots in the past: 

As recently as March 30, Professor Donald Seekin, the author of The Disorder in Order: the Army-State in Burma since 1962, wrote, in a response to a New York Times op-ed on March 29 entitled "Kristallnacht in Myanmar": 

In light of the fact that Burma/Myanmar's military rulers have a well-documented history of exploiting religious and ethnic prejudices in the multi-ethnic society for their own political and strategic ends, it is not necessarily conspiratorial to suggest that Thein Sein's government may want such anti-Muslim sentiment spread in society for its own political ends, including the notion that the public is unsafe without the steady dictatorial hand of top generals and their military in politics. 

In spite of Thein Sein's softly-softly official messages of religious harmony and coexistence in society, he has so far done virtually noting to nip the neo-Nazi Buddhist movement of 969. Nor has the military suddenly embraced unconditional free speech after overseeing decades of harsh media censorship. Rather, the impunity and inaction are more likely anchored in Naypyidaw's strategic calculation to create a general climate of fear and uncertainty, consistent with the divide-and-rule tactics it has always used to exert unrivaled control and influence over the state and economy. 

What is Aung San Suu Kyi, the global icon of non-violence, doing to stem the tide of violent racism among her main Buddhist supporters? 

Incomprehensibly, Suu Kyi herself is complicit in the spread of Islamophobic hatred and fear, both by her silence over the violence perpetuated against Muslims and by spreading moral responsibility for the death and destruction across both Muslim and Buddhist communities. For whatever reason, she has ignored blatant facts, including: 1) the violence and hate campaigns are one-directional in that they target only Muslims and are organized by Buddhist mobs which are made up of both out-of-towners and local community members; 2) the Muslims (and other minorities such as the Kachins) bear the brunt of the violence, death and devastation; and 3) the military and security forces have 50 years of experience in crowd control. 

To be sure, Suu Kyi has not been entirely quiet on the anti-Muslim violence. After the three days of attacks against Muslims in the central town of Meikhtila, she spoke out in defense of the way the local security forces handled the situation, despite widespread evidence security forces sat on their hands while organized mobs went on sprees of slaughter and arson. For three days, security forces let roaming gangs of armed Buddhists burn down nearly 1,000 buildings, including mosques, Muslim-owned businesses and houses. In her Burmese language press interviews, Suu Kyi defended the deliberate inaction of the local security forces, offering the excuse that they weren't experienced in riot control in the country's new democratic context. 

Despite serving as chairwoman of an inquiry of commission into protests and violence at a Chinese and Myanmar military-invested copper mine in central Burma/Myanmar, Suu Kyi's comment overlooked security forces' recent use of firebombs laden white phosphorous to crack down on protesters who lost their land and Buddhist monks who lent their demonstration moral support. Rather than visiting Muslim victims of the recent violence in Meikhtila, Suu Kyi instead attended the annual military parade on March 27, where she shared intimate moments with highly decorated generals. 

Will recent rumors and violence persuade more people to participate in anti-Muslim actions? And from where do these rumors claiming expansionary designs of Islam in Burma/Myanmar originate? 

Rumors have been the lifeblood of cultural and political life in Burma/Myanmar for the past half-century, ever since the generals came to power in the absence of elections and without a free and professional press. The Burmese/Myanmar public soaks up rumors, slander and racist narratives perpetuated by the military like a sponge. Even in the new ''reformist'' age, the free media is often jingoistic and has played a key role in fomenting anti-Muslim hatred and nationalist fears. 

Frighteningly for the country's Muslims - who make up about 4% of the total 60 million population - one of President Thein Sein's own spokespersons, ex-Major Zaw Htay, or Hmu Zaw, has served as a major source of anti-Muslim rumors and slanders since the first wave of violence against the Rohingya last June. On his Facebook page, the spokesman for the President's Office has posted several one-liners designed to stoke popular anti-Muslim hatred and fear. One example: "We have just received information about a group of armed Muslim terrorists who are crossing the Burmese-Bangladesh borders. Stay tune." 

The state media, meanwhile, has published several articles with anti-Muslim slants and used the word ''kalar'', the Burmese language equivalent of "nigger", in referring to Muslims and people of Indian subcontinental origin. With state security and propaganda agencies, as well as culturally and ideologically influential figures, working in unison to stoke anti-Muslim hatred and fear, public opinion naturally follows. 

Culturally, Buddhist monks are very influential in Burmese society - more so than dissidents and generals. Ideologically, the racist public tends to swallow the government's anti-Muslim rumors and narratives, in spite of the fact that in most other cases they distrust government-issued news and narratives. 

It is extremely difficult to draw a line between the government's anti-Muslim activities and propaganda and those carried out by influential skinhead monks. Anti-Muslim postings on Facebook, including those with images of the recent deaths and destruction in Meikhtila, have been "liked" by thousands and solicit approving howls from Burmese netizens who show no restraint in expressing their neo-Nazi views in public on-line domains. 

In recent interviews, Buddhist monk and 969 movement leader Wirathu has seemed to condemn the violence and even claimed in cases he had stopped rampaging, anti-Muslim rioters. Does this indicate he is toning down his movement's rhetoric, or is the 969 movement still calling for the elimination of Muslim influence in Burma/Myanmar? 

In his Burmese language Facebook pages, Wirathu has posted several irreconcilable messages. On certain mornings he has posted messages of religious tolerance and compassion, while in the afternoon of the same day he has written provocatively anti-Muslim statements, including warnings against the "forced conversion of Burmese women who marry into Muslim families" and are coerced into changing their names from Burmese to Muslim and Indian ones. 

It seems unlikely that a preacher like Wirathu, who was jailed for his public incitement which resulted in the death of an entire Muslim family in an arson attack in the small town called Kyauk Hse in 2003, would suddenly feel repentance for his inflammatory rhetoric. To date he has shown no sign of remorse or regret about his role in recent anti-Muslim violence. 

Ten years ago, Wirathu was a fringe figure, perceived as having fringe anti-Muslim views. Now, with the rise of state-tolerated neo-Nazism, he has emerged as a cultist hate-monger, and a must-meet for visiting international media. The popularity of this neo-Nazi Buddhist preacher does not augur well for the country's "democratic" future, and most certainly not for its minority Muslims and Rohingyas. 

Critical-minded locals have long been suspicious of Wirathu's reputed close association with some of the previous regime's dodgiest officials and ex-officials, including ex-chief of military intelligence Khin Nyunt and the current leader of the ruling, military-linked Union Solidarity and Development Party, ex-Brigadier General Aung Thaung. Those personal ties would go a long way in explaining why Thein Sein's government has failed to act while Buddhists lay waste to the country's minority Muslims. 

Maung Zarni is a Burmese activist blogger (www.maungzarni.com) and visiting fellow of Civil Society and Human Security Research at the London School of Economics.

This analysis report firstly published by Asia Times.

MS Anwar 

RB Analysis 

April 8, 2013

The news of the clash between illegal Burmese fisherman and Rohingya Refugees in an Indonesian detention centre last week is drawing the concerns of many people from all the concerned quarters. The clash left 8 Burmese dead and 21 injured, whereas three Burmese escaped alive. They used sticks, stones, knives and whatever they found in their front to attack one another. 

According to the report of Associated Press (AP) on 5th April 2013, the brawl started between a Rohingya Muslim cleric and Burmese fishermen over a heated debate on the violence against Muslims in Meikhtila as they saw the photos of destruction caused by the violence. And in accordance with a report of The Jakarta Post quoting the police investigations, Rohingya refugees were angered when a Female Refugee was sexually harassed by the fishermen. 

Regarding the deadly incident, Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister, U Than Kyaw, called on Indonesian Ambassador to Myanmar, Mr. Sebastianus Sumarsono, to investigate the matter and reveal the truth, to punish those who committed crimes and to give protection to Myanmar citizens in Indonesia in his Aide Memoire to the ambassador during the meeting on 6th April 2013. Indonesian authorities are, too, reported to be on their way to investigate the matter and taking proper actions. However, still, there are abusive languages used, comments posted and hatred shown against the innocent Muslims in Myanmar on social networking sites. Doing so will not solve the problems but will exaggerate them. 

Rohingyas, Kamans and other Muslims in central Myanmar have been subjected to mass murders, rapes, arbitrary arrests and tortures. Their properties are being looted and their religious properties vandalized. But hardly have we seen the sympathy from these so-called followers of Buddha or Buddhism even when 13 innocent Muslim children were burnt alive in cold blood. When the people of their own kind or from their own race were harmed, they are hurt and raging on social networking sites and abusing Muslims in general. We, hereby, are not, at all, trying to justify the killings and wrongdoings happened in the Indonesian prison but to make those racists realize that Minority Muslims in Burma, too, are the equal human beings with the same humane feelings and holds, within themselves, the same dignity as the other Burmese do. 

Hereby, we have to realize that the brawl or the fight took place within the premise of a detention centre. We have to wonder how the people got the photos of the Meikhtila Violence to see and the knives to attack one another. There are responsible authorities in the detention centre. So, we have to expect an unbiased investigation and wait with patience for its final reports. Similarly, we call upon all the Indonesian authority to punish anyone who is proven guilty according to the Indonesian Laws irrespective to who he/she is.

RB News

April 8, 2013

Director General of Arakan Rohingya Union, Prof. Dr. Wakar Uddin, addressed the audience at the launching ceremony of Ambassador Dr. Akbar Ahmed’s new book at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The book, containing a wealth of information on the world’s tribes and ethnic minorities, was published in April 2013 by the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. A number of dignitaries and journalists from CNN, BBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, Al-Jazeera, Washington Post, New York Times, and others from international print and broadcast media were among the audience. Ambassador Dr. Ahmed’s book unveiled issues of modern day warfare and its impacts on tribes, ethnic minorities, and indigenous population in various regions of the world. There were a significant portion of Rohingya issues, which was detailed in the book. Further, the contemporary issues and the most recent violence against the Rohingya ethnic minority in Burma were presented by the author. During the ceremony in the National Press Club, Dr. Uddin was honored by Ambassador Dr. Ahmed with presentation of the book. 

In his speech, Dr. Uddin provided a brief historical perspective on Rohingya ethnicity in Arakan state in Burma, the contemporary Rohingya issues, and the on-going violence against Rohingya and Myanmar Muslim population by Burmese Buddhist radical elements and monks as a result of newly emerging radical Buddhist terror network in Burma. Dr. Uddin’s emphasis on the indigenity of Rohingya population in Arakan clearly resonated the narration of Rohingya issue by Dr. Ahmed in his book. Dr. Uddin explained the audience the deeply-rooted Rohingya culture and civilization in Rohang region of Arakan, dating as far back as 9th century. “All these evidences clearly lead to squarely invalidation of the current position of Burmese Government on Rohingya ethnicity and citizenship” Dr. Uddin stated. He further explained how the intensity and seriousness of the human rights violation and ethnic cleansing against Rohingya people in Arakan state has undeniably risen to the level of genocide. Dr. Uddin has also shed the lights on the emerging humanitarian crisis in Rohingya IDP camps and villages in Arakan as the monsoon season is approaching rapidly. “While the international community is trying so hard to avert a possible humanitarian disaster in IDP camps, the dire situations in many Rohingya villages has gone largely unnoticed – they have no food to eat in villages, particularly in Myohaung, Kyauktaw, Pauktaw, Rathaydaung, Sittwe, Rambre, and several other areas that are under constant threat from radical Rakhine terror network” Dr. Uddin added. About the recent spread of violence in Central Burma, he provided the detailed accounts of the gruesome killings of Myanmar Muslim families in Meiktila and destruction of mosques and properties of Myanmar Muslims in several other cities in Central Burma. Dr. Uddin again appealed the international community and the United Nations not to waste the valuable time and save the vulnerable victims in Burma. “The rapid growth and spread of radical Buddhist terror network ‘969’ in Burma is not just a threat to very existence of the Rohingya and Myanmar Muslims in Burma, but setting the stage for a new dimension to this terrorism that sure will also target the people of other faiths in Burma – it is just a matter of time” he concluded.

Jason Szep

Reuters

April 8, 2013

The Buddhist monk grabbed a young Muslim girl and put a knife to her neck. 

"If you follow us, I'll kill her," the monk taunted police, according to a witness, as a Buddhist mob armed with machetes and swords chased nearly 100 Muslims in this city in central Myanmar.

It was Thursday, March 21. Within hours, up to 25 Muslims had been killed. The Buddhist mob dragged their bloodied bodies up a hill in a neighborhood called Mingalarzay Yone and set the corpses on fire. Some were found butchered in a reedy swamp. A Reuters cameraman saw the charred remains of two children, aged 10 or younger.

Ethnic hatred has been unleashed in Myanmar since 49 years of military rule ended in March 2011. And it is spreading, threatening the country's historic democratic transition. Signs have emerged of ethnic cleansing, and of impunity for those inciting it.

Over four days, at least 43 people were killed in this dusty city of 100,000, just 80 miles north of the capital of Naypyitaw. Nearly 13,000 people, mostly Muslims, were driven from their homes and businesses. The bloodshed here was followed by Buddhist-led mob violence in at least 14 other villages in Myanmar's central heartlands and put the Muslim minority on edge across one of Asia's most ethnically diverse countries.

An examination of the riots, based on interviews with more than 30 witnesses, reveals the dawn massacre of 25 Muslims in Meikhtila was led by Buddhist monks - often held up as icons of democracy in Myanmar. The killings took place in plain view of police, with no intervention by the local or central government. Graffiti scrawled on one wall called for a "Muslim extermination."

Unrest that ensued in other towns, just a few hours' drive from the commercial capital of Yangon, was well-organized, abetted at times by police turning a blind eye. Even after the March 21 killings, the chief minister for the region did little to stop rioting that raged three more days. He effectively ceded control of the city to radical Buddhist monks who blocked fire trucks, intimidated rescue workers and led rampages that gutted whole neighborhoods.

Not all of the culprits were Buddhists. They may have started the riots, but the first man to die was a monk slain by Muslims.

Still, the Meikhtila massacre fits a pattern of Buddhist-organized violence and government inaction detailed by Reuters in western Myanmar last year. This time, the bloodshed struck a strategic city in the very heart of the country, raising questions over whether reformist President Thein Sein has full control over security forces as Myanmar undergoes its most dramatic changes since a coup in 1962.

In a majority-Buddhist country known as the "Golden Land" for its glittering pagodas, the unrest lays bare an often hidden truth: Monks have played a central role in anti-Muslim unrest over the past decade. Although 42 people have been arrested in connection to the violence, monks continue to preach a fast-growing Buddhist nationalist movement known as "969" that is fueling much of the trouble.

The examination also suggests motives that are as much economic as religious. In one of Asia's poorest countries, the Muslims of Meikhtila and other parts of central Myanmar are generally more prosperous than their Buddhist neighbors. In Myanmar as a whole, Muslims account for 5 percent of the populace. In Meikhtila, they comprise a third. They own prime real estate, electronics shops, clothing outlets, restaurants and motorbike dealerships, earning conspicuously more than the city's Buddhist majority, who toil mostly as laborers and street vendors.

As Myanmar, also known as Burma, emerges from nearly half a century of isolation and military misrule, powerful business interests are jockeying for position in one of Asia's last frontier markets. The recent violence threatens to knock long-established Muslim communities out of that equation, stoking speculation the unrest is part of a bigger struggle for influence in reform-era Myanmar.

The failure of Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi, now opposition leader in parliament, to defuse the tension further undermines her image as a unifying moral force. Suu Kyi, a devout Buddhist, has said little, beyond warning that the violence could spread if not dealt with by rule of law.

Suu Kyi declined to be interviewed for this story.

GOLD HAIR CLIP

The spark was simple enough.

Aye Aye Naing, a 45-year-old Buddhist woman, wanted to make an offering of food to local monks. But she needed money, she recalled, sitting in her home in Pyon Kout village. At about 9 a.m. on March 20, a day before the massacre, she brought a gold hair clip to town. She had it appraised at 140,000 kyat ($160). With her husband and sister, she entered New Waint Sein, a Muslim-owned gold shop, which offered her 108,000 kyat. She wanted at least 110,000.

Shop workers studied the gold, but the clip came back damaged, she said. The shop owner, a young woman in her 20s, now offered just 50,000. The stout mother of five protested, calling the owner unreasonable. The owner slapped her, witnesses said. Aye Aye Naing's husband shouted and was pulled outside, held down and beaten by three of the store's staff, according to the couple and two witnesses.

Onlookers gathered. Police arrived, detaining Aye Aye Naing and the owner. The mostly Buddhist mob turned violent, hurling stones, shouting anti-Muslim slurs and breaking down the shop's doors, according to several witnesses. No one was killed or injured, but the Muslim-owned building housing the gold shop and several others were nearly destroyed.

"This shop has a bad reputation in the neighborhood," said Khin San, who says she watched the violence from her general store across the street. "They don't let people park their cars in front. They are quarrelsome. They have some hatred from the crowd."

That hatred had been further stoked by a leaflet signed by a group calling itself "Buddhists who feel helpless" and handed out a few weeks before. It suggested Muslims in Meikhtila were conspiring against Buddhists, assisted by money from Saudi Arabia, and holding shady meetings in mosques. It was addressed to the area's monks.

Tensions escalated. By about 5:30 p.m., four Muslim men were waiting at an intersection. As a monk passed on the back of a motorbike, they attacked. One hit the driver with a sword, causing him to crash, witnesses said. A second blow sliced the back of the monk's head. One of the men doused him in fuel and set him on fire, said Soe Thein, a mechanic who saw the attack. The monk died in hospital.

Soe Thein, a Buddhist, ran to the market. "A monk has been killed! A monk has been killed!" he cried. As he ran back, a mob followed and the riots began. Muslim homes and shops went up in flames.

Soe Thein identified the attackers by name and said he saw several in the village days after the monk was murdered. Police declined to say whether they were among 13 people arrested and under investigation related to the Meikhtila violence.

"WE JUST WANT THE MUSLIMS"

That evening, flames devoured much of Mingalarzay Yone, a mostly Muslim ward in east Meikhtila. The fire razed a mosque, an orphanage and several homes. Hundreds fled. Some hid in Buddhist friends' houses, witnesses said. About 100 packed into the thatched wooden home of Maung Maung, a Muslim elder.

As the mob swelled in size, Win Htein, a lawmaker in Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, tried to restrain the crowd but was held back. "Someone took my arm and said be careful or you will become a victim," he said.

About 200 police officers watched the riots in the neighborhood before leaving around midnight, he said.

By about 4 a.m., the Muslim men inside Maung Maung's house were braced for battle, chanting in Arabic and then shouting in Burmese, "We'll wash our feet in Burman blood." (The Burmans, or Bamah, are Myanmar's ethnic majority.) Nearly a thousand Buddhists were outside.

When dawn broke, at about 6 a.m., the only police presence in the area was a detail of about 10 officers. They slowly backed away, allowing the mob to attack, said Hla Thein, 48, a neighborhood Buddhist elder.

The Muslims fled through the side of the house, chased by men with swords, sticks, iron rods and machetes. Some were butchered in a nearby swamp, said Hla Thein, who recounted the events along with four other witnesses, both Buddhist and Muslim.

Others were cut down as they ran toward a hilltop road. "They chased them like they were hunting rabbits," said NLD lawmaker Win Htein.

Police saved 47 of the Muslims, mostly women and children, by encircling them with their shields and firing warning shots in the air, Hla Thein said. "We don't want to attack you," one monk shouted at the police, according to a policeman. "We just want the Muslims."

Ye Myint, the chief minister of Mandalay region that includes Meikhtila, told reporters later that day that the situation was "stabilizing." In fact, it was getting worse. Armed monks and Buddhist mobs terrorized the streets for the next three days, witnesses said.

They threatened Thein Zaw, a fireman trying to douse a burning mosque. "How dare you extinguish this fire," he recalls one monk shouting. "We are going to kill you." A group of about 30 monks smashed the sign hanging outside his fire station and tried to block his truck. He drove through a hail of stones, one striking below his eye, and crashed, he said, showing his wound.

"A monk with a knife at one point swung at me," said Kyaw Ye Aung, a junior firefighter who, like Thein Zaw, is Buddhist.

Three days later, on the hill where Muslim bodies were burned, this reporter found the remains of a mix of adults and children: pieces of human skull, vertebrae and other bones, and a singed child's backpack.

Nearby, municipal trucks dumped bodies in a field next to a crematorium in Meikhtila's outskirts. They were burned with old tires.

MURKY POLITICAL FORCES

Knife-wielding monks jar with Buddhism's better-known image of meditative pacifism.

Grounded in a philosophy of enlightenment, nonviolence, rebirth and the vanquishing of human desires, Buddhism eschews crusades or jihads. It traditionally embraces peace, clarity and wisdom — attributes of the Buddha who lived some 2,500 years ago.

About 90 percent of Myanmar's 60 million people are practicing Buddhists, among the world's largest proportion. Sheathed in iconic burgundy robes, Buddhist monks were at the forefront of Myanmar's struggle for democracy and, before that, independence.

Many Burmese find it easier to assume a cherished institution has been infiltrated by thugs and provocateurs than to admit the monkhood's central role in anti-Muslim violence in recent years.

On the streets of Meikhtila, witnesses saw monks from well-known local monasteries. They also saw monks from Mandalay, the country's second-largest city and a center of Burmese culture about 100 miles to the north. One such visitor was the nationalistic monk Wirathu.

Wirathu was freed last year from nine years in jail during an amnesty for hundreds of political prisoners, among the most celebrated reforms of Myanmar's post-military rule. He had been locked up for helping to incite deadly anti-Muslim riots in 2003.

Today, the charismatic 45-year-old with a boyish smile is an abbot in Mandalay's Masoeyein Monastery, a sprawling complex where he leads about 60 monks and has influence over more than 2,500 residing there. From that power base, he is leading a fast-growing movement known as "969," which encourages Buddhists to shun Muslim businesses and communities.

The three numbers refer to various attributes of the Buddha, his teachings and the monkhood. In practice, the numbers have become the brand of a radical form of anti-Islamic nationalism that seeks to transform Myanmar into an apartheid-like state.

"We have a slogan: When you eat, eat 969; when you go, go 969; when you buy, buy 969," Wirathu said in an interview at his monastery in Mandalay. Translation: If you're eating, traveling or buying anything, do it with a Buddhist. Relishing his extremist reputation, Wirathu describes himself as the "Burmese bin Laden."

He began giving a series of controversial 969 speeches about four months ago. "My duty is to spread this mission," he said. It's working: 969 stickers and signs are proliferating — often accompanied by violence.

Rioters spray-painted "969" on destroyed businesses in Meikhtila. Anti-Muslim mobs in Bago Region, close to Yangon, erupted after traveling monks preached about the 969 movement. Stickers bearing pastel hues overlaid with the numerals 969 are appearing on street stalls, motorbikes, posters and cars across the central heartlands.

In Minhla, a town of about 100,000 people a few hours' drive from Yangon, 2,000 Buddhists crammed into a community center on February 26 and 27 to listen to Wimalar Biwuntha, an abbot from Mon State. He explained how monks in his state began using 969 to boycott a popular Muslim-owned bus company, according to Win Myint, 59, chairman of the center that hosted the abbot.

After the speeches, the mood in Minhla turned ugly, said Tun Tun, 26, a Muslim tea-shop owner. Muslims were jeered, he said. A month later, about 800 Buddhists armed with metal pipes and hammers destroyed three mosques and 17 Muslim homes and businesses, according to police. No one was killed, but two-thirds of Minhla's Muslims fled and haven't returned, police said.

"Since that speech, people in our village became more aggressive. They would swear at us. We lost customers," said Tun Tun, whose tea shop and home were nearly destroyed by Buddhists on March 27. One attacker was armed with a chainsaw, he said.

A local police official made a deal with the mob: Rioters were allowed 30 minutes to ransack a mosque before police would disperse the crowd, according to two witnesses. They tore it apart for the next half hour, the witnesses said. A hollowed-out structure remains. Local police denied having made any such an agreement when asked by Reuters.

Two days earlier in Gyobingauk, a town of 110,000 people just north of Minhla, a mob destroyed a mosque and 23 houses after three days of speeches by a monk preaching 969. Witnesses said they appeared well organized, razing some buildings with a bulldozer.

"ENEMY BASES"

Wirathu denied directing the monks in Meikhtila and elsewhere.

"You have the right to defend yourselves. But you don't have the right to kill or destroy," he said in the interview.

Wirathu said he was in Meikhtila to persuade monks not to fight. At one point, he delivered a speech on a car roof. A first-hand account of what he said was not available.

He acknowledged spreading 969 and warned that Muslims were diluting the country's Buddhist identity. That is a comment he has made repeatedly in speeches and social media and by telephone in recent weeks to a large and growing following.

"With money, they become rich and marry Buddhist Burmese woman who convert to Islam, spreading their religion. Their businesses become bigger and they buy more land and houses, and that means fewer Buddhist shrines," he said.

"And when they become rich, they build more mosques which, unlike our pagodas and monasteries, are not transparent," he added. "They're like enemy base stations for us. More mosques mean more enemy bases, so that is why we must prevent this."

Wirathu fears Myanmar will follow the path of Indonesia after Islam entered the archipelago in the 13th century. By the end of the 16th century, Islam had replaced Hinduism and Buddhism as the dominant religion on Indonesia's main islands.

Wirathu began preaching the apartheid-like 969 creed himself in 2001, when the U.S. State Department reported "a sharp increase in anti-Muslim violence" in Myanmar. Anti-Muslim sentiment was fueled in March that year by the Taliban's destruction of Buddhist images in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, and in September by al Qaeda's attacks in the United States.

The monk continued until he was arrested in 2003 and sentenced to 25 years in prison for distributing anti-Muslim pamphlets that incited communal riots in his birthplace of Kyaukse, a town near Meikhtila. At least 10 Muslims were killed in Kyaukse by a Buddhist mob, according to a U.S. State Department report.

Wirathu has a quick answer to the question of who caused Meikhtila's unrest: the Buddhist woman who tried to sell the hair clip. "She shouldn't have done business with Muslims."

"STATE INVOLVEMENT"

Wirathu should be arrested, said Nyi Nyi Lwin, a former monk better known by his holy name U Gambira who led the "Saffron Revolution" democracy uprising in 2007 that was crushed by the military. "What he preaches deviates from Buddha's teachings," he said. "He is a monk. He is an abbot. And he is dangerous. He is becoming very scary and pitiful."

But Gambira said only the government can stop the anti-Muslim mood.

"In the past, they prevented monks from giving speeches about democracy and politics. This time they don't stop these incendiary speeches. They are supporting them," he said. "Because Wirathu is an abbot at a big monastery of about 2,500 monks, no one dares to speak back to him. The government needs to take action against him."

Hla Thein, a witness to the massacre in Meikhtila, said authorities did surprisingly little to stop the violence. "It was like they were waiting for an order that never came," he said.

One senior policeman told Reuters he expected to be ordered to forcibly restrain the riotous mob, but was told not even to use truncheons.

That pattern echoes what Reuters reporters found last year in an examination of October's anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar's western Rakhine State. There, a wave of deadly attacks was organized, according to central-government military sources. They were led by Rakhine Buddhist nationalists tied to a powerful political party in the state, incited by Buddhist monks, and, some witnesses said, abetted at times by local security forces.

The latest bloodshed could have been nipped in the bud, said NLD lawmaker Win Htein, a former army captain who spent 20 years as a political prisoner. He said the region's military commander, Aung Kyaw Moe, could have stopped the riots with a few stern orders - especially given that thousands of soldiers are permanently stationed in Meikhtila and nearby.

Aung Kyaw Moe insisted authorities did their job. "It is like a battle. When it first starts you can't really guess the manpower needed or how big it is going to be. But there was protection."

Min Ko Naing, a former political prisoner revered by Burmese nearly as much as Suu Kyi, was in Meikhtila as the violence began. After the massacre, he said, the mob looked well organized. Cell phones in hand, monks inspected cars leaving town, he said. A bulldozer was used to destroy some buildings. "The ordinary public doesn't know how to use a bulldozer," he said.

The U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar said he had received reports of "state involvement" in the violence. Soldiers and police sometimes stood by "while atrocities have been committed before their very eyes, including by well-organized ultra-nationalist Buddhist mobs," said the rapporteur, Tomas Ojea Quintana. "This may indicate direct involvement by some sections of the state or implicit collusion and support for such actions."

Ye Htut, a presidential spokesman and deputy minister of information, called those accusations groundless. "In fact, the military and the government could not be concerned more about this situation," he said.

Authorities imposed martial law on the afternoon of March 22, the third day of violence. By then, only three people had been arrested, all of them for carrying weapons, a police official said. As they began to make more arrests, the unrest ended the next day. A total of 1,594 buildings were destroyed, the regional government said.

It started up a day later in Tatkon on the outskirts of the capital Naypyitaw. The riots then swept south to Bago Region, erupting along a highway just north of Yangon. By March 29, at least 15 towns and villages in central Myanmar had suffered anti-Muslims riots. In Yangon, some Muslims prepared for violence by Buddhists, shuttering shops and leaving to stay with relatives elsewhere.

On April 2, 13 Muslim boys died in a fire at a Yangon religious school. Many grieving relatives say they believe the blaze was deliberately set. The floors were surprisingly slick with oil during the blaze, they said. Yangon officials say it was caused by an electrical short circuit.

Some speculate the violence may be orchestrated by conservative forces pushing back at reformers. Or that crony businessmen linked to the former junta hope to knock Muslims out of business and create an economic vacuum in the heartlands that only they can fill. This last theory resonated with some Muslim businessmen such as Ohn Thwin, 67.

"This is both religious anger and economics," he said, surveying the remnants of his 30-year-old metalworking shop at a popular corner of Meikhtila, a strategic city where three highways intersect. Like many Muslims, he can trace his ancestry back several generations. And like many, he runs a profitable business and has dozens of Buddhist friends, including one who helped him escape the violence.

MAKESHIFT REFUGEE CAMPS

Across town, about 2,000 people cram into a two-story high school, one of several makeshift refugee camps housing about 11,000 of the town's Muslims, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Many more squeezed into a nearby stadium.

It's unclear if the Muslims whose businesses were destroyed will be able to reclaim their prime real estate. Ye Myint, the region's chief, said they may be moved to new areas - a policy that backfired in Rakhine State, where segregation has only led to further communal violence.

"Once we have achieved a time when there is peace, stability and the rule of law, then we look into resettlement," said Ye Myint.

The high school feels like a jail. Muslims inside cannot leave at will. Friends and relatives are kept waiting outside. Police block journalists from speaking with Muslims - even through a gate.

"I can't sleep at night. I keep thinking there will be another attack," said Kyaw Soe Myint, 40, who was waiting to see his 10 cousins inside before a guard shooed him away. "We're living with fear."

The identity of those arrested is unclear. But according to police, among those detained was the gold shop owner.

Aye Aye Naing, owner of the hair clip, remained shocked by the violence. "I feel sad for the Muslims who have been killed," she said. "All humans are the same; it's just the skin color that is different. We have friends who are Muslims." She said she doesn't know what became of her hair clip.

(Additional reporting by Min Zayer Oo.; Editing by Andrew R.C. Marshall, Michael Williams and Bill Tarrant.)

Gianluca Mezzofiore

International Business Times

April 8, 2013

Burma Campaign UK criticises President Thein Sein for oppressive policies against minority Muslims

Myanmar's government has violated at least eight international laws with its treatment of the Rohingya Muslims, one of the world's most persecuted minorities, according to a British-based advocacy group. 

Burma Campaign UK slammed the progressive president Thein Sein for policies of oppression applied exclusively to the Rohingya. The minority group is considered stateless under Burma's citizenship law of 1982. 

Legal constraints render it "almost impossible" for the Rohingya to be recognised as citizens of the country. "This violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and international norms prohibiting discrimination of racial and religious minorities," says the report.

Many Burmese consider Rohingya as unwelcome migrants from Bengal. The state-run press refers to "locals" differentiates between "locals" ie Arakan Buddhists and "Bengalis" to indicate Rohingya. Rohingya are denied access to education and employment and face "unacceptable restrictions on movement, marriage, and reproduction", adds the report. 

Following outbreaks of sectarian violence and repeated calls by UN authorities, the government has established a 27-strong commission to investigate trouble in Rakhine state - home to many Rohingya - but Thein Sein has ruled out reforming the 1982 Law and Medecins Sans Frontiers has faced restricted access to camps where Rohingya are displaced. 

Many ministries in the government have disputed the right of Rohingya to be in Burma at all. That gives "official legitimacy to those committing acts of violence" and allows them to continue doing so with impunity, said Burma Campaign UK. 

"World leaders need to take off their rose-tinted glasses and start making policy based on international law and promoting human rights," said Mark Farmaner, director. 

"Burma's treatment of the Rohingya violates international law. The international community must hold President Thein Sein accountable for the policies and actions of his government." 

The group has called on the British government and the international community "to provide a combination of pressure and of assistance, both in terms of humanitarian assistance and in terms of expertise" to reform the citizenship laws. 

To report problems or to leave feedback about this article, e-mail: g.mezzofiore@ibtimes.co.uk

Apriadi Gunawan 

The Jakarta Post

April 8, 2013

The North Sumatra Police on Saturday named 18 Rohingya refugees as suspects in a torture case that left eight Myanmar illegal immigrants dead. 

The eight Myanmar fishermen were killed in the early hours of Friday in a violent incident involving hundreds of Rohingya refugees at the Immigration Detention Center (Rudenim) in Belawan, just outside Medan. 

The eight fishermen were Aung Thu Win, 24, Aung Than, 44, Min-Min, 24, Win Tun, 32, Nawe, 23, Aye, 23, Myo, 20, and Sam Iwin, 45. Three Myanmar fishermen managed to escape and 21 refugees sustained injuries.

Witnesses said that the brawl among center the residents started on Friday at about 1 a.m. when the Buddhist fishermen allegedly sexually harassed a female Rohingya refugee.

Muhammad Alam, 23, one of the Rohingya refugees, said that prior to the brawl, a number of fishermen followed a female Rohingya to the bathroom. The fishermen suddenly started to sexually harass the woman.

Several Rohingya who witnessed the incident reported the case to the others, inciting the anger of all the Rohingya detained at the Rudenim. 

The refugees spontaneously attacked the illegal fishermen.

North Sumatra Police chief spokesman Sr. Comr. Heru Prakoso told The Jakarta Post that the suspects would be charged with the Criminal Code’s Articles 351 on torture and 170 on violence against persons or goods. The articles carry a maximum punishment of nine and 12 years respectively.

“These two articles are appropriate [as the] suspects acted violently and caused the death of other people,” he said.

“We have enough evidence to support the use of the multiple articles.”

The catalyst behind the Muslim Rohingya refugees’ violent clash with the Buddhist Myanmar fishermen was of sexual harassment.

“So the motive was sexual harassment. There were no religious or ethnic factors in this case,” he said.

The authorities carried out autopsies on the bodies of the eight fishermen at Pringadi General Hospital in Medan. 

The forensic team concurred that the deaths were caused by the impact of blunt and sharp objects to the deceased’s heads and bodies.

As of Saturday, the team was still matching their findings from the eight bodies to data supplied by the immigration office.

Spokesman from the North Sumatra regional office of the Law and Human Rights Ministry, Hasran Sapawi, said on Saturday that it was not yet clear whether the bodies would be repatriated to Myanmar or buried in Indonesia.

The immigration office has not yet received confirmation from the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta regarding the handling of the deceased individuals.

The Rohingyas, who are not recognized as a minority group by the Myanmar government, have become the target of attacks launched by the Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group. 

So far, there has been no permanent solution by the Myanmar government, forcing the Rohingyas to seek asylum in other countries.

The Rohingyas initially wanted to enter nearby Thailand and Malaysia by boat but were driven out to the open sea by the authorities and were intercepted when they entered Indonesian waters. 

Bangladesh has also stopped Rohingya refugees from entering the country despite shared culture and history.

The Bolton News

April 6, 2013

BURMA may be thousands of miles away but, as the violence against the country’s Muslims escalates, people in Bolton are coming together to call for action. 

A silent vigil by Bolton United for Peace and Burma Action Group last week will be followed by a similar event at 3pm today in Victoria Square. 

People in Bolton, whose parents and grandparents moved to the UK from Burma years ago, are calling for a stop to the violence and for action to be taken. 

They want to raise the profile of events happening in Burma to stop more people being killed. 

Among the group is a Daubhill mother-of-one who is terrified that her Muslim family in Burma will be harmed. 

The 34-year-old, who is too frightened to be named, said her relatives have been living in “absolute fear” since riots started in Burma on March 20, directed against Muslims. 

Muslims in Burma account for fewer than five per cent of the population, which is predominantly Buddhist. 

In the city of Meiktila, more than 40 people were killed and thousands were driven from their homes, which were burnt and razed to the ground. 

Violence and intimidation has since spread across the country, leaving thousands of people living in fear.

The violence comes at a time when, after nearly half a century of dictatorship, Burma has begun to make reforms, including lifting press censorship and releasing political prisoners — most notably Aung San Suu Kyi. 

Every morning and night, the Daubhill mother, who came to the UK with her husband to study in 2001, calls her family in Rangoon to check they are safe. 

She says the military regime has organised a group of extremist monks to terrorise the Muslim population and every night her family take turns to keep watch in case they are next. 

Her cousin has been volunteering in camps set up in Rangoon to house the people, including the elderly and children, whose homes have been destroyed in the violence and persecution. 

She said: “There are hundreds of people in the camps with nothing. They might not have been physically hurt, but all their belongings and homes have been burnt down.” 

Just days ago, a fire in a school for Muslim orphans in Rangoon killed 13 boys. She said the school was only five streets away from where her husband used to live and she is worried the persecution could spread to her parents’ home. 

She said that on a nearby street, a man on a motorcycle had spent the night goading residents by throwing stones at their mosque, shouting racial slurs and claiming if they came out they would “kill all the generations”. 

She added: “I am so scared about what could happen to my family. These extremists want to get rid of the Muslims and I want to make people aware what it going on in Burma to get the terrible things to stop.” 

Ibrahim Kala, aged 43, from Daubhill, has helped to organise the vigils. 

Mr Kala’s father moved to Bolton from Burma in the 1960s and he says people need to be made aware about what is going on in the country. 

He said: “It is frightening for people here in Bolton to see what is happening in Burma. We need to stop it.” 

For more information about the Burma Action Group, contact 07525 048346. 

AFP

April 7, 2013

Indonesian police on Sunday detained 80 Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar on a remote island off Sumatra after they had got lost attempting to reach Malaysia, an official said. 

It was the latest boatload of Rohingya to arrive on the shores of Indonesia, as thousands flee Myanmar after tensions between Muslims and Buddhists exploded in their home state of Rakhine last year. 

The migrants, including five women and six children, arrived late morning on the island in Pulo Aceh, a cluster of tiny islands off the northwestern coast of Sumatra, local police official September Sembiring told AFP. 

"Their boat is still in good condition and they have enough food and fuel. They said they wanted to go to Malaysia but lost their way," he said. 

"They are all well. Two had stomach problems but nothing major." 

They were being held in a large hall at the local police station and were likely to be sent to the mainland where their cases would be assessed by immigration officials, he added. 

On Friday police in Surabaya city, East Java province, detained 35 Rohingya hiding out in a flat who had been planning to make the treacherous sea crossing to Australia, according to police. 

Many Rohingya arriving in Indonesia face long stints in detention centres awaiting UN assessment for refugee status. 

Communal tensions in Myanmar spilled over to Indonesia last week, when a group of Rohingya beat eight Buddhists to death at a detention centre in Belawan, Sumatra, after becoming enraged at news of violence in their homeland.

Faroque Shah M. Yusoof 

RB Article

April 7, 2013

Whenever a Muslim thinks over the crises being faced by his brethren Muslims in Burma, he can never end up with a solution but has to surrender taking a deep-sigh, retreat and put trust to God alone as there seems no alternative of precaution to save those who are living in the midst of hatred-filled Buddhist terrorists. Today, Burma becomes a notorious land of terrorism where a small minority Muslim has become the target of genocide either in Arakan or in central Burma. Last June 2012, the pre-planned violence targeting Rohingyas and Kamans sparked from Taung Gup to Maungdaw, Bhuthidaung, Sittwe and Kyauktaw, Mrohaung, MaunBya, Kyauk Pyu and all the regions where there are Muslims living. 

Sadly , since the government itself is composed of the people with Buddhist faith, Minority Muslim Rohingyas and other minority Muslims living in the central Burma remain unprotected from the danger posed by the majority Buddhist racists. Instead, the repressive Buddhist regime itself encourages and fuels the violence against the Muslim minority to be in a more systematic way. The security forces (Hluntin) and Rakhine terrorists behave above the rule of law and often triggers violence against the small Rohingya minority in Arakan and Muslims in central Burma. And the reasons behind the violence are simply hatred and Islamophobia in the pretext of the so-called new democratic and political changes. 

Burma, in the name of democratic changes, gives license and freedom to the Buddhist terrorists in the country to massacre Muslim minority, loot and vandalize their properties, rape their women and girl and for all kinds of atrocities against Muslim minority. In Akyab (Sittwe), western Burma, thousands of Muslims lost their lives in the hands of Buddhist terrorists and more than 120 thousands have been displaced as IDP or refugees. No justice has been done yet. Rather, they turn deaf ears to International Human Rights Organizations’ calls to end the violence and racist parties such as RNDP, ALP and hatred-filled pseudo Monks are fanning the violence in full scale in the midst of curfew and summary laws but alas, curfews are only imposed on Muslims and Rakhines are set free to continue their barbarism. UNCHR, other NGOs and INGOs are denied their access to the Rohingya IDP camps to provide food, medicine and other humanitarian aids and their rehabilitation to their original places are also denied by the authorities. 

As the hatred, discrimination and repressive laws against the Muslims minority are gaining momentum in Burma, Genocide spread like bush-fire to Meikhtila where more than 43 innocent Muslims were killed and more than 1200 houses including Mosque and Madarasas were burnt down. Buddhist Burmese of Meikhtila including government authorities were just watching with their hand folded and having no feeling of humanity even for those who had been living side by sides with them for hundreds of years in the same town. The reason is they are Buddhist Majority and it doesn’t matter to them if the victims are from small minority Muslim. Since government itself is transgressor of all bonds, the nation feels nothing whether atrocities and transgression against innocent Muslim minority are wrong or right but justify them to be rightful. 

Who are behind all these violence? Many well known politicians expressed, these all violence are entirely creation of Burmese government and I, myself, too, used to say Military regime is the mother of all evils. When the head of the state, Thein Sein, declared the Muslims citizens of Burma living for centuries be deported to a third country, Buddhist terrorists got the official supports to continue their transgressions. In the name of democracy and changes, in Myanmar, every party is taking advantage over the coming democracy and some are to derail it to different means. 

All the senior army generals have different views on democracy and meanwhile, ex-general Tin Oo, co-chair person of Suu Kyi’s NLD is taking all advantages out of democracy to root out entire Rohingya community from Arakan. Tin Oo was hired by old Rakhine politicians in the pretext of making him son-in-law of Rakhine, whose spouse is a fanatic racist. The same Tin Oo is also believed to be the director of 1982 citizenship law drawing commission along with General Ne Win, the gambler, and they both were behind the Immigration operations in 20 different names since 1978 in Arakan. The Retired General Than Shwe is another hater of Rohingya and although his coup put intelligent chief Lt general Khin Nyut in prison, their common goal is to finish Rohingya of Arakan. 

Immediately after the Khin Nyut's release from jail, he thanked Ms. Suu Kyi who played a role for his release from jail, but vowed to challenge those who put him jail apparently to derail democracy to its failure. He then visited Arakan and met with Monks apparently to fan the violence against Muslims that might block the Rakhine votes to his arch rival military generals. Khin Nyut seemed to be a major strife creator in Arakan in order to make President Thein Sein face hard nut on the way to democracy that might breed much criticism around the world. After all Muslims had become escape-goats and falling into misfortune, ill-fated Rohingyas have to suffer all those atrocities. 

People say last June 2012 sectarian violence was triggered by the three Muslim rapists while they were not actual Muslim and the question is where were the rapists in the 1942 Muslim massacre where 100 thousands innocent Muslims lost their lives and where were the rapists in Meiktila and in the recent arson attack in Rangoon where 13 innocent and minor Muslims students were burnt alive , where five are missing and score seriously wounded with the burns. The Tafiz al Quran School inside the Mosque (Sadeqia) has been in function right before the independence of Burma in 1948. During the period of 65 years, no such incidents were ever reported and today the Burmese authorities are lying and tricking the International community and the Muslims of Burma that the incident was merely due to electric-shock and trying to conceal that the true cause of the burning was due to the fuel-oil poured on the stair by the same trained Buddhist extremists related with Meikhtila. 

It is believed that the incident of 13 innocent minor students was precisely similar to the case of 1968 Chinese- Burmese riots in Rangoon where the Burmese rioters systematically killed by pouring coking gas on the ladder of the top floor of the Chinese buildings and then setting fire at the bottom of the ladder where no one was able to escape while fire caught entire buildings. Eye witnesses like me shockingly watched the scene of 1968 riots in Rangoon where white skinned and flat nose like Chinese were hiding for many days to escape from the danger to their lives. 

No need of wasting time arguing to investigate whether it was due to the electric-shock or it is a plotted firing. It was certainly a plotting by the trained Buddhist extremists and it is not the end of incidents and God forbid, worse kinds of cases might happen in the future to the long-beard and capped Muslims of Indian feature with pointed noses are on the target. To my disappointment, there seems no magic solution or meaningful reconciliation shall take place until and unless 2015 election is over with the uncertain victory of Thein Sein. 

Faroque Shah M. Yusoof 

An Eye-Witness of 1968 Chinese-Burmese Riot 

In Rangoon and Moulmein

Win Lwin

RB Opinion

April 7, 2013

I felt an urge to write an opinion piece about Aung San Suu Kyi as communal riots were occurring in the Rakhine State but I thought I should give ‘The Lady’ time to prove me wrong. The time has since past and the optimistic wish that she would prove me wrong is nothing but a waste of time. 

With the communal violence in Rakhine still smoldering, we are now in the midst of another targeted violence against the Muslim minority; the cloak of deception behind of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese government and by large the majority of the Buddhist population is now lifted and their racist ways are in the full glare of her people and the world. 

After the alleged rape case of a Buddhist girl by three Muslim men, the massacre of Rohingya and Muslims in Arakan displaced tens of thousands of people. Those alleged rapists were arrested but a vigilante group of Rakhine Buddhist murdered a bus full of Muslims who were no way connected to the alleged rapists besides professing to the same religion. 

What followed next is common knowledge to all except to the Buddhist Burmese who have blood on their hands; rapes, targeted killings and systematic eviction of the Rohingyas from their homes and lands by mobs of Buddhist Arakanese while the government security elements looked away or complicit to the violence inflicted on Rohingya and Muslims. 

As the world gasped in horror; Aung San Suu Kyi was globetrotting and basking in the international limelight. Questions after questions were directed at her about the ongoing killings and displacement of these Rohingya Muslims back home but she side stepped the questions by talking about the rule of law. 

After a long silence she says she had not spoken about violence because she wanted to promote reconciliation between the Buddhist and Muslim communities. Her usage of the words ‘Buddhist and Muslim communities’ clearly indicates that she is fully aware of the issue, which is not the alleged illegal Bengali intruders but a religious conflict that has been simmering for decades. 

“But don’t forget that violence has been committed by both sides. This is why I prefer not to take sides. And, also I want to work toward reconciliation between these two communities. I am not going to be able to do that if I take sides". 

Defending one’s life when threatened with death is not violence. These Rohingyas are at the receiving end, maybe it’s time ASSK stops playing politics and start speaking as a true statesperson and an agent of change and reconciliation. 

What she has failed to realize is that she already has taken sides when she speaks about how monks were insulted by Muslims allegedly without speaking about killings of innocent Rohingya children, women and men by Buddhist led mobs. 

A monk is not above the law; a monk is also a human with weaknesses and as it is quite clears, a vast majority of them in Burma are racists. A man in monk attire who commits a crime is nothing but a man who has committed a crime and a criminal at best. Unless ASSK makes such a statement, she is nothing but a person who preaches democracy, equality, freedom and other democratic ideals for her race and religion only and no one else. She preached idealistic things but failed to explain to the people that an idealistic way of thinking is quite far from the realities of life. She has hoodwinked herself and the people. 

She has failed to live up to her own ideals which she articulately propagated during her incarceration. Was it all rhetorical or a mask to hide the real ASSK? 

With the Buddhist population so blinded by their hatred for people and religion they have little or no idea about, with aggressions perpetuated against Muslims in other parts of Burma increasing, ASSK feels it is prudent to maintain her silence. Is this silence out of desperation not to lose her political base or is this silence an insight to her own racist way? 

Her silence is irresponsible and the correct phrase to describe her silence is ‘criminal’. This silence on her part has also made her a collaborator in the displacement and deaths of countless Muslims in Burma. She too has blood on her hands. 

This is a woman who was given the ‘Noble Peace Prize’ for standing up for democracy and freedom for Burma but from my recollection; the idea of nominating her as a candidate for this prestigious prize was not for her fight for such things but because her husband felt it prudent that bestowing such a prize on her will discourage the government from harming her. Of course, my comment is debatable to say the least. I personally feel, this prize was prematurely given to her even if it did protect her from further harm. After all, many had been tortured and killed for the fight for democracy and freedom; what makes her so special besides who her father was? Her political stand presently is nothing noble and certainly brings shame to the award conferred to her. 

I am sure many will think this to be ranting of a person who does not know ASSK; but who really knows what she is thinking and who she really is? Politics is perception and my perception of her is that of a racist who is out to canon herself politically for her own interest or that of her own race and religion at the cost of innocent Muslim men, women and children. 

“The kind of seed sown will produce that kind of fruit. Those who do good will reap good results. Those who do evil will reap evil results. If you carefully plant a good seed, you will joyfully gather good fruits”, Dhammapada. 

In ASSK’s case, she is enjoying the rock star status and the chants of people calling her Amma (mother) and Daw Suu ( Daw – is an honorary title to address a woman of higher status), while people are dying all around her. How is she planting a good seed? She is not planting any seed; she is just harvesting the fruits as the result of seeds of hatred that the government planted along time ago towards the Muslims and other minorities in the minds of the Buddhist population. She saw an opportunity to nurture an evil seed to gain political mileage. I have no doubt that the Muslims of Burma will continue to be treated as outsiders and as a pariah community for at least 3 generations to come. 

The young boys and girls in Burma whose age between 7 to 10 are already brainwashed to hate Muslims. That leaves the teenagers, young adults, middle aged adults and seniors who are already tainted by racial hatred will suffer from racial-phobia for the rest of their lives, perhaps. Where is the hope for Muslims to enjoy democracy and freedom in Burma when the very person who is leading the fight herself is a racist and bigot? 

I personally see a very uncertain future of the Muslim’s in Burma; what hope is there when the very person who speaks about the rule of law, democracy, freedom and equality is in fact propagating all these democratic values for her own race and religion but no one else? 

I say a prayer every night with the hope that ASSK will once again garner my respect and support but I remain a pessimist in light of her silence and indifference to the suffering of the Muslim community of Burma who have paid with their lives and blood to support her. 

The writings, here, are of author’s own and do not reflect the editorial policy of RB.

ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANISATION 

ARAKAN, BURMA 

PRESS RELEASE 

(07 April 2013) 

Statement of ARNO on the news item appeared in Daily Independent, Dhaka, Bangladesh on 6 April 2013 

Our attention has been drawn to the news item dated 6th April 2013 of the Daily Independent, Dhaka, Bangladesh under the caption, “180 Rohingyas arrested in Cox’s Bazar”. 

We strongly reject the news which says, “Arakan Rohingya National Organization (ARNO) activists gave money to thousand Rohingyas on refugee camp of Teknaf and Ukhiya to participate in Hefazate Islam Bangladesh (HIB) long march.” This is a baseless allegation devoid of truth and evidence. 

The news item further states, “Ukhiya police launched drives in Mariccha, Curt Bazar, Ukhiya Sadar, T&T area on Teknaf-Cox’s Bazar highway and arrested 180 Rohingyas who were going to participate in HIB long march.” All those 180 people who were arrested are Rohingya refugees. They were not going out of their makeshift camps to participate in any rally, but they went out looking for work as they are facing prevalent starvation. 

Meanwhile, we strongly condemn Dhaka based Narinjara, a news group of Rakhine Buddhist in exile, for publishing the same concocted news in Burmese without verification with a view to tarnishing the image of the ARNO and the Rohingya Diaspora in Bangladesh. 

We reiterate that we are committed to pursue a peaceful political settlement of our problem and crisis. We are committed to remain a community within Arakan and to having peaceful and beneficial relations with our neighbours. And ARNO has a strong policy of non-interference in the affairs of other countries and it firmly abides by its policy. 

The international community is well aware that the Rohingyas, who are facing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Burma, merit international protection, in the absence of domestic security; and to this fact we invite the kind attention and consideration of the people and Government of Bangladesh. Meanwhile, we request the Bangladesh authorities to investigate the allegation and the arrest of 180 Rohingya refugees, who deserve sympathy and support on the basis of humanitarianism, in the interest of justice.

For more information, please contact: 

Nurul Islam: + 44-7947854652 

Email: info@rohingya.org 

www.rohingya.org