Ibrahim Shah

RB Opinion

April 24, 2013

Perpetually, Since 1942, the state-sponsored genocide against Rohingya has been taking place in western Burma/Myanmar, in particular, Rohingya populous quarters. How extreme injustice it is –the Burmese Buddhist imperialist treat between Rohingya and Rakhine by double standard rules in one territory i.e. the Rakhine Buddhist are superior and the Rohingya Muslims are inferior like lord and slave. And also imposed restrictions from head to feet in every Rohingya areas. According to the authentic source of Arakan history, Rohingya are the oldest native people of northern Arakan and the Mogh today Rakhine are of the southern Arakan. After Arakan was invaded by chauvinist Burmese King Bowdaw Phaya in 1784, he and some Rakhine Buddhist extremists instigated Islamophobia to eradicate Islam. The Burmese perpetrators gradually stripped of all Rohingya rights. After five decades, since there are a lot of sanctions from UN over Myanmar dictatorship, Myanmarese imperialists dramatically elected a new democratic regime participation of MPs who are mostly with direct military uniform amongst higher rank and some are with civil dress in 2010. Amid the reform process goes ahead, the Burmese militarist regime chief,  president Thein Sein made conspiracies with Rakhine extremists to deport the entire Rohingya eliminating from democratic reforms. Its main motive is to consolidate the maneuver eternally to influence predominantly the state -Burma by militarist regime. 

In February 2012, a book titled –The occidental territory Magazine 1, in Burmese Passima RetHwang, in which it is evidently prescribed firmly to ethnocentrically protect the race and the country by Racism of Buddhism of Nationalism. The printed copy limited was about 2500 and it triggered to diffuse racism and Xenophobic instigation throughout the western Burma, Rakhine state. That discriminatory instigation book was put out under supervision of the chiefs of all concerned authorities including monks who are in charge in western Burma. 

According to a report from a local Rakhine site, it is well learned he, president Thein Sein released under presidential amnesty some murder-guilty charged of death penalty and brought in Taunggup. And created a dramatic occurrence to accomplish Rohingya genocide i.e. three Muslim men gang-raped a Buddhist woman named ms Ma Thida Htwe, looted her ornaments and murdered her on 28th May 2012, in fact, she was murdered politically by motivation of the chairperson of RNDP vet. Aye Maung. 

Furthermore, on 3rd June 2012 the Rakhine mobs  attacked a Bus and killed 10 innocent muslim pilgrims of out-state on the spot. According to the official state news agency (The New Light Of Myanamar June 4th), it is expressed that the mob about 300 Rakhine men; it seemed that the government itself motivated it thus they predicted the estimated number of the attackers. Following an interview with local eyewitness by Burmese researchers, it is learnt that there were altogether six buses travelling on the same route at about the same time on 3rd June. Nevertheless, the mob attacked dragging down the pilgrims from bus, however, the police were watching standing while the mob was attacking because it was pre-planned by higher authorities how to trigger religious riots against Rohingya. Immediately arrested three innocent Rohingya convicting unjustly over the gang-rape issue. The militarist officials tortured inhumanely the three Muslims who were convicted falsely and one of them named Htet Htet was killed amid torturing but officially reported Htet Htet committed suicide. It is mockery – how it is possible to commit suicide where the interrogation hall is infamous in Burma and there is guarded surrounding by special security forces . 

According to observation of one in-country researcher over the report of post-mortem on Ma Thida Htwe, it is expressed no trace of rape over her murdered body. Meanwhile, the ministry deceptively expressed by fabricated report that she was heavily sexual assaulted before looted and murdered. Undoubtedly, it is childish-oral services of Burmese successive militarist officials to pursue international trust. Forcibly, the rest two were hanged up without any legal judgment immediately. 

The dilly-dally of doggy Burmese militarist officials over mob attack — why the authorities did not even try to access photographic evidence or video records of the 3rd June slaughter of Muslims on the streets in broad day light, which they must surely have in their police and intelligence archives? Masterminds of that incident who would have been most certainly charged on either intelligence digital cameras or video cameras could easily be identified. 

Since the regime head, the foremost Chief-mentor of xenophobia, president Thein Sein deliberately diffused anti-Rohingya and anti-Islam propaganda across the country, it triggered genocide based on above mentioned dramatic gang-rape issue. Since June 2012, it deliberately happened one-sided violence i.e. genocide Rohingya across the Rakhine state which yielded terrible result such as casualties are high, buried in mass graves, more than one hundred thousands are internally displaced, many are missed, most Rohingya minor and aged women are raped inhumanely, children are slaughtered, Rohingya properties are completely ruined, and increased daily threats from Rakhine local extremists including Nasaka (Border guard force of western Burma) to flee desperately, etc. 

Once international media, government bodies, NGOs, INGOs, etc raised their deeply concerns against slaughtering and destruction, finally in September 2012 the pseudo reformist, genocidal Burmese president Thien Sein officially accused of Rohingya as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh, in his term Bengali instead of Rohingya, and proposed reportedly UNHCR chief Mr. Guterres to deport Rohingya into any third countries. It is disgusted to hear such discriminatory assertion from the head of a state! Later, it is going on atrocities much more times increasingly than ever on the vulnerable Rohingya by every classes of Buddhists of both officials and locals. 

Since the implementation of hidden genocide strategic planning by President Thein Sein with the advice of propaganda chief, his predecessor, former junta currently self-retired, Junta Than Shwe, is exposed evidently in front of the world bodies concerns, he, President Thein Sein asserted government will stop further violence aiming to pursue international trust over his brutal regime. Amid coming of more donations from Muslim countries vastly , he tactfully assured international bodies for better treatment on IDPs and also stressed he will open schools for Rohingya children so that Rohingya can become more social for survival easily by peaceful co-existence with Rakhine Buddhists. 

After some days UNHCR chief rejected the presidential proposal of deportation Rohingya. The regime amalgamated with Buddhist devilish monks and transferred them secretly the slaughter- burden strategic planning for Rohingya genocide. The terrorist Buddhist monks chief of central Burma, Mandalay region, monk Wirathu fixed Islamophobia mindset in every Buddhist families by the motto: “Protect the race and protect the religion Buddhism of Nationalism.” 

When Islamic countries condemned strongly over the genocidal strategic of Burmese regime against Rohingya, Burmese genocidal President Thein Sein willingly invited OIC chief to launch scrutiny in Rakhine state, western Burma. Deceptively to retract the invitation, he made alternatively nation-wide dramatic demonstration. Meanwhile, the Buddhist terrorists under leadership of Wirathu demonstrated across the state to be banned opening OIC branches in Sittwe, capital of Rakhine province and in Yangon. Absolutely most aid agencies for Rohingya are blocked and finally banned opening OIC branch. 

Currently, it is too terrible and deplorable that local Rakhine extremists, Buddhist monks, political party operatives and government officials organized themselves to permanently change the ethnic demographic of the state. Unjustly, he, president Thein Sein invited warmly Bengali-Rakhine families to be settled in the Rohingya areas, recently, forcing Rohingya to flee abroad. How a chronic liar is he-genocidal President Thein Sein! To conceal the Genocide on Rohingya, he, president Thein Sein, incited series of riots based on the riot in Rakhine State across the country i.e. Meikhtila (Central Burma) where about 18000 Muslims are displaced, Yangon, Bago, Irrawady, etc. 

Furthermore, the neo-Nazi movement with LOGO 969 led by monk Wirathu incited a fresh Islamophobic instigation across the country; however, Burmese regime is so quiet and watching staying behind how hastily it could be diminished Islamic followers. What is concealed at the bottom of dilly-dally to release report of violence in Rakhine while other report of riots in Yangon and LATPANDAUNG MINE PROJECT are released within hardly few days -- it is postponed 5 times to release the report of violence in Rohingya quarters, western Burma. Its key motive is to conceal and delete the actual fact findings concerned brutalities on the world most vulnerable Rohingya ethnic minority who are stripped of citizen rights since 1962. 

Following a statement of UN Special envoy on human rights of Myanmar, Mr. Quintana, expressed the camps of Rohingya IDPs as “it is more likely prison’’. It is to ponder critically when it will be finished building up houses for Rohingya IDPs while it is already built up many houses for Rakhine duplicate IDPs. Amid more criticism over inhumanely treatment on Rohingya community, in an interview by ABC Radio Australia the spokesperson of President’s office Ye Htut told Myanmar would not provide a better treatment for Rohingya. 

Eventually, it is focused critically over the Hocus-Pocus of genocidal Burmese president Thein Sein who has not yet implemented even one assertion concerned Rohingya plight crisis, it would be seen only series of crimes against humanity. Negatively, he implemented all his hocus-pocus i.e. all the religious buildings both schools and Mosques are locked up from concerned authorities in every Rohingya quarters instead of ‘’Opening schools for Rohingya children’’, restricted tightly more than ever for all sides including going out for earning food, banned medical treatment for Rohingya, stopped distribution of emergency drugs for serious patients, and seriously famine goes over Rohingya society in most Rohingya quarters which are situated nearby army camps, security forces camps, police camps and border guard camps, etc. Nowadays Burmese government is silent on gang-bang i.e. many Rohingya married women and virgins are kept detained inside military camps as sex-slaves who are inhumanely sexual assaulted by many soldiers. 

Additionally, it is increasingly going on Bengalization formula, in particular, named ‘’computerized finger-print operation’’ against Rohingya peculiarly in Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Rathedaung and Sittwe. Rohingya are threatened and tortured to acknowledge themselves as Bengali ancestry instead of Rohingya ancestry. According to local witnessed, the operation is imposed by the neo-Nazi Buddhism of Nationalism movement with 969 logo which key attempt is A. only to build up the land, Burma as Buddhist land B. also to keep the Rohingya in overcrowded camps until any third country welcome. 

Forcibly, if global institutions of all sorts , do not make Genocidal Burmese president Thein Sein postpone his hocus-pocus on Rohingya crisis, he will eternally dilly-dally to fulfill international demands over the Rohingya plight crisis. Militaristically, he, genocidal President of Burma Thein Sein, is a chronic player how to deceive people around the world with both diplomacy and violence.

ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANISATION 

ARAKAN, BURMA 

Press Release 

April 24, 2013 

UN Intervention and Commission of Inquiry Most Urgent 

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) welcomes the 153-page report of the Human Rights Watch (HRW) dated 22 April 2013 which titled “ ‘All You Can Do is Pray’: Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic Cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Burma’s Arakan State” . 

In its report, HRW has said that crimes against humanity have been committed by the Burmese authorities and Rakhine Buddhist groups in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in Burma’s Arakan State. 

The report revealed that government authorities destroyed mosques, conducted violent mass arrest and blocked aid to the displaced Muslims in Arakan since June 2012 deadly violence. The Buddhist mobs attacked the Muslim communities in nine townships, razing villages and killing residents while security forces stood aside or assisted the assailants. The prestigious and credible right group (HRW) said it has uncovered evidence of 4 mass-grave sites in Arakan State. There might be more mass-graves in northern Arakan and to this piece of evidence and information we invite the attention of the UN with the international community to act in response to its ‘responsibility to protect’. 

We, therefore: 

1. Request the UNSC to immediately discuss and intervene in these serious international crimes and send UN Observers and UN Commission of Inquiry in order to protect the lives, property, honour and dignity of the vulnerable and helpless Rohingya and other Muslim communities in their segregated displacement camps and villages, and also to reveal the findings in public and bring the perpetrators to justice. 

2. Request the International Criminal Court to perceive and act in accordance with its spirit “to end impunity and achieve justice for all” 

3. Call on the international community, UN, OIC, US, UK, EU, ASEAN and neighbouring countries, including India and China, to put pressure on the Burmese government to put an immediate end to the persecution and abuses against the Rohingyas and other Muslims. 

4. Demand Burmese government to scrap the oppressive Burma Citizenship Law of 1982 or amend it to conform to international standards and grant full citizenship rights and ethnic rights to the Rohingyas. 

5. Further demand that the Burmese government disband the “969” Neo-Nazi anti-Muslim movement led by firebrand monk Wirathu and spread of hate speeches and leaflets, stickers by extremists against the Muslim communities, and hold the perpetrators responsible. 

6. Recall the dire situation of IDPs’ camps where more than 125,000 Muslims have taken shelter and reiterate the upcoming rainy season and its humanitarian consequence. 

7. Urge the Burmese government to allow international NGOs and aid workers to run unhindered humanitarian aids to the Muslim displacement camps and villages or it will be responsible for the humanitarian catastrophes involving the lives of people. 

8. Request all individuals and organisations to contact their respective MPs or representatives and authorities to create pressure on the government of Burma for a durable solution for this calamitous crisis.

For more information, please contact: 

Nurul Islam: + 44-7947854652 

Aman Ullah: + 8801558486910 

Email: info@rohingya.org 

www.rohingya.org

IRIN News

April 24, 2013

RAKHINE STATE - More than 125,000 displaced Rohingya in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State are bracing for this year’s punishing monsoon rains. 

“There’s no real shelter here. People are getting diseases and the rainy season will make it even worse,” Ali Mia, a 45-year-old Rohingya father-of-six, whose home in Sittwe, the capital city of Rakhine State, was burned during inter-communal violence in June, told IRIN. 

Set to begin as early as May, the rains will come in daily downpours, which, in the crowded and unsanitary conditions of Rakhine’s dozens of camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), could hasten the spread of disease, aid workers warn. 

“We’re very worried with the monsoon season coming up. If these people are not relocated we could see a very big humanitarian problem, [including] disease outbreaks,” said Peter Paule de Groote, the head of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Myanmar. "The water level will rise and some of it will be very, very muddy, if not flooded, and there’s nowhere for them to go.” 

Sectarian clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in June and October left 167 dead, hundreds injured and more than 125,000 displaced in Rakhine State, according to government estimates. 

More than 10,000 homes were burned or destroyed in the violence. 

Under Burmese law, the Rohingya are de jure stateless. There are an estimated 800,000 Rohingya in Myanmar and human rights groups say they have long faced persecution and discrimination. 

On 19 April [ http://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/monsoon-approaches-fears-rise-displaced-myanmars-rakhine-state ], the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) called for urgent action and increased financial support to improve conditions of the displaced to avert a “humanitarian catastrophe”. 

Some have camped in paddy fields or low-lying areas that will flood once the rains start. 

Already, international aid groups are reporting high cases of respiratory and skin infections, worms and diarrhoea in the camps they have visited. Such diseases are much more likely to spread in sodden conditions, they warn.

Moreover, the onset of rains will likely be accompanied by a spike in water-borne diseases, and the camp’s primitive latrines remain vulnerable to overflowing from rainfall. 

“The water and sanitation situation is appalling,” said MSF's de Groote. 

Unregistered lack assistance 

But it is the risk of those displaced not yet registered with the authorities that is most worrying. 

While partners are providing life-saving assistance to more than 100,000 IDPs registered by the government, there is a sizable population (15,000 individuals) that is displaced but has yet to be allowed access to humanitarian aid. 

Several thousand are living in makeshift sites that have not been sanctioned by the government. IDPs in these locations receive limited to no assistance as opposed to those in official camps. 

Unlike in official camps, where residents are supplied with waterproof tents, residents of Maw Than Mia, home to some 1,000 unregistered displaced, sleep in tiny huts constructed of nothing more than thatched straw. 

They are particularly vulnerable because their camp is spread across a low-lying field which, previously used for rice cultivation, is designed to flood. 

Aid agencies are calling on the government to address the shelter needs as a matter of priority, noting adequate land needs to be identified and allocated and challenges related to water and sanitation addressed, particularly in Myebon and Pauktaw. 

Inter-agency plans 

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, humanitarian partners, in collaboration with the government, have developed an inter-agency preparedness plan for Rakhine running from March to June. 

The plan aims to address preparedness and response actions with specific sector/cluster response plans for two scenarios: 1) a potential natural hazard such as a cyclone which would affect over 250,000 people across the state and 2) a potential deterioration of the humanitarian situation during the rainy season, particularly in the camps.

The Inquisitr

April 24, 2013

Myanmar President Thein Sein received a peace prize on Monday despite reports that he participated in, or at least endorsed, ethnic cleansing in the country. 

While Myanmar has been celebrated for his quick democratization, not everything is going well for its people. The Rohyngya have steadily attempted to escape from the country amid escalating violence aimed at them.

A new Human Rights Watch report on Myanmar’s ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people was released this weekend. The HRW’s report was made on the sectarian violence that struck in Arakan state last year. 

While more than 200 people were killed in the region, more than 125,000 were made homeless through mass arson, looting, and cold-blooded murder. The fighting erupted between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and the stateless Muslim Rohingya. 

The Human Rights Watch accused the Rakhine in the report of instigating the bloodshed. It also implicated state authorities for allowing the group to continue with no resistance. More violence against the ethnic Muslims erupted last month, threatening the country’s stability. 

But despite the report from the HRW, the International Crisis Group presented Sein with their “In Pursuit of Peace” award. The ceremony was hosted by ICG President Louise Arbour, who also served as a UN high commissioner for human rights. 

Arbour was also a lead prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. On its website, the ICG praised Sein, saying: 

“Since taking office in March 2011, President U Thein Sein of Myanmar has pioneered a historic transformation of his country with bold reform initiatives. His leadership has seen decisive action towards improving Myanmar’s relations with the political opposition and liberalizing past repressive laws.” 

But not everyone in the international community agreed with the ICG’s assessment of Sein. Along with the Human Rights Watch, hacktivist collective Anonymous andseveral others have called for support for the Rohingya. The HRW’s report instead blames some in Sein’s government and Bhuddist monks for carrying out the systematic campaign to cleans Rohingya Muslims from the Rakhine state. 

As for Sein’s part in the matter, the Myanmar president stated in July 2012 that the “only solution” to the violence in Rakhine state would be to expel “illegal” Rohingya from the country. 

Do you think Thein Sein deserves the peace prize for democracy in Myanmar, or should he instead be investigated for war crimes against the Rohingya?

AAP
April 24, 2013

FOREIGN Minister Bob Carr has welcomed the European Union's decision to lift sanctions on Myanmar (Burma), but remains concerned by ethnic violence in the impoverished South-East Asian nation. 

EU foreign ministers agreed to lift the last of the bloc's trade, economic and individual sanctions against Myanmar, hailing "a new chapter" with the once pariah state.

During a visit to Brussels in March, Myanmar's president Thein Sein urged the EU to lift sanctions, saying "we are one of the poorest countries in the world".

EU ministers noted there were "still significant challenges to be addressed" around hostilities in Kachin state and improving the plight of the Rohingya people.

Senator Carr, who lobbied EU foreign ministers for the change, said he also wanted Myanmar's government to more effectively address religious and ethnic violence.

"These are deep-seated conflicts and I welcome President Thein Sein's commitment to hold an investigation into recent violence", he said in a statement.

"Promoting and, where necessary, having robust discussions about human rights and democracy in Myanmar will remain a central element of our engagement."

Australia lifted travel and financial sanctions on Myanmar on June last year, but its arms embargo against the nation remains in place.

The EU also upheld its ban on arms trading with the South-East Asian nation.

Apriadi Gunawan

The Jakarta Post

April 24, 2013

The National Police prohibited lawyers representing Myanmar Muslim Rohingya refugees from accompanying their clients during a reenactment of a homicide in Belawan in which eight Buddhist Myanmar citizens were killed on Tuesday. 

Members of the legal team from the North Sumatra Legal and Human Rights Advocacy (PAHAM) and the Muslim Lawyers Team (TPM) were turned away by police officers guarding the scene of the reenactment at the Belawan Port Police station, despite the fact that the legal team, led by PAHAM director Dodi Chandra, presented a letter of appointment signed by the suspects.

“We showed the letter of appointment but we were still forced to leave by the police. We were not allowed to represent our clients, who were carrying out the reenactment,” Dodi told The Jakarta Post after failing to meet his clients on Tuesday.

Dodi said they had been waiting for the police’s permission to accompany their clients in the reenactment from 9 a.m. but had been turned away. He said it was a rights violation because every suspect had a right to legal representation. 

”What’s wrong with this? Why are the police so secretive in the reenactment involving our clients? We believe the police are hiding something,” said Dodi, who plans to report the matter to the National Police and North Sumatra Police chiefs.

Seventeen refugees who have been named suspects took part in the reenactment, which was heavily guarded. When contacted for confirmation, Belawan Port Police deputy chief Comr. Robertus Pandiangan denied preventing the lawyers from attending the reenactment.

He said only the 17 suspects attended so that they could calmly reenact the events of the April 5 clash. 

”We reenacted 27 scenes today [Tuesday] from the clash until after,” Robertus said, adding that the outcome of the reenactment would be submitted to the prosecutor’s office.

He added that based on the reenactment, the clash between the Muslim refugees and the Buddhist fishermen was sparked by sexual harassment of women refugees by the fishermen.

Robertus said the crime was not premeditated.

Francis Wade

Asia Correspondent

April 23, 2013

At a glitzy dinner tonight in New York, where the cover charge for a table can reach heady six figure sums, Burma’s President Thein Sein will be honoured with the International Crisis Group’s top peace award. Across the pond he will receive additional applause from the EU in the form of a termination of all sanctions on Burma, except for its arms embargo.

Yet away from the pomp of the ICG awards ceremony, a starkly different picture has been painted. Human Rights Watch released a report Monday that wholly implicates Burma’s government in crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing in Arakan state. This isn’t the conclusion of an investigation into the former junta’s rights record, but instead something very current, and for which Thein Sein bears responsibility.

“The Burmese government and security forces are responsible for attacks on the Rohingya [last year] in which crimes against humanity were committed,” said Matthew Smith, a consultant with HRW. Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of HRW, said in a statement that the government “engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya that continues today through the denial of aid and restrictions on movement”.

The emphasis of the report, which the group put together using extensive testimonies collected on the ground in Arakan state, is official complicity in the displacement of 125,000 Rohingya, and the deaths of hundreds. The intended end result of this campaign of violence, which has involved local politicians, NGOs and security forces, as well as civilians, is the removal of an entire ethnic group, either through death or displacement.

To date, the government has denied any responsibility for the two major waves of violence in June and October last year. It said in response to HRW’s accusations of complicity by security forces that the claims were “unfounded and not true information … [security forces] took security measures day and night without taking sides and without discrimination of race and religion”.

Eyewitnesses in Arakan state tell otherwise – police, army and the NaSaKa border security group were directly involved in razing houses and escorting violent mobs of Arakanese into Rohingya areas. In Yan Thei village in Mrauk U, police “assisted the killings by disarming the Rohingya of their sticks and other rudimentary weapons they carried to defend themselves,” HRW said. It also details an incident in which a government truck dumped 18 Rohingya bodies outside a Rohingya camp, a practice that is consistent with the campaign of intimidation that is often an ingredient in ethnic cleansing.

Over in Meiktila in central Burma, where entire Muslim quarters were razed by Buddhist mobs last month, footage has just emerged that shows police watching as Muslim-owned properties are destroyed.

In this context then, one struggles to fathom how ICG could honour Burma’s president. To be sure, Thein Sein has overseen positive developments in several spheres, such as media and opposition political participation. Yet this award is about peace, an area in which he has failed disastrously. “International Crisis Group’s goal is as ambitious as it is vital: to mobilise leaders around the globe to prevent and end deadly conflict,” the statement introducing the award says.

But since Thein Sein came to office, civil war has broken out in Kachin state, fierce rioting has erupted in Arakan state, and several waves of deadly anti-Muslim violence have rocked central Burma, while a huge increase in internal displacement of civilians has occurred, as has unprecedented refugee flows from western Burma to other Southeast Asian countries. The list goes on. He has demonstrably failed to respond to evidence that prominent parliamentarians, such as Dr. Aye Maung from the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, have called for the removal of the Rohingya; indeed last year Thein Sein asked the UN to resettle all 800,000 Rohingya. In ICG’s own words, however, the man should be applauded for his “efforts to bring us closer to a world free of conflict”.

The EU’s decision to drop sanctions is also highly contentious, and for similar reasons, yet it has maintained an arms embargo precisely because of substantial ongoing concerns about the military, which has shown no sign that it intends to mend its ways. ICG, which pins the award to positive developments towards an end to armed conflict, appears to refute those concerns.

The award is especially galling for Burma because ICG has backed a war crimes investigation into the Sri Lankan conflict. ICG is undoubtedly aware of what has occurred in Burma in the two years since Thein Sein became president – it follows the developments there closely, but is evidently guilty of sidelining the negatives and myopically homing in on the positives, despite the scales currently tipping in favour of the former.

It’s hard to tell why exactly they’ve chosen such a controversial position on Burma. Burmese academic Maung Zarni has some very useful thoughts here, while past observers have talked of groups like ICG wanting to become part of a “pacted transition” in Burma, with a pro-trade and aid stance that ultimately reaps significant economic benefits for stakeholders, ICG included. This commentary accuses them of being “democracy manipulators” headed by men and women with key ties to the US elite who would have considerable personal interests in a Burma that is open to business. Either way, one would be wise to take the award with more than a pinch of salt – it’s woefully misguided, and carries the potential to induce a dangerous naivety among those not versed in the major pitfalls of this transition.

Al Jazeera (Inside Story)
April 23, 2013

We discuss a Human Rights Watch report that alleges government involvement in the violence against minority Rohingya.

Authorities in Myanmar stand accused of a campaign of ethnic cleansing of minority Rohingya Muslims.

According to a report by Human Rights Watch, their actions amount to crimes against humanity, including murder, persecution and deportation. 

It relates to violence in Myanmar's western Rakhine state in June and October of last year, in which more than 200 people were killed, and over 100,000 displaced. 

Human Rights Watch says government security forces did nothing to stop the violence, and even took part in it. 

The report comes as the European Union lifts sanctions against the country and President Thein Sein is given a peace award - the 'In Pursuit of Peace Award' is from the International Crisis Group (ICG). 

The award recognises individuals for their outstanding contributions to the advancement of peace and security and praises the Myanmar's president for his efforts to "bring us closer to a world free of conflict". 

It found extensive state involvement and planning in the killings and destruction of property and that community leaders and Buddhist monks, also played a role in the killings, along with police and army personnel.

The report also criticised Thein Sein's government for failing to bring those responsible to justice. 

Myanmar's government has denied the charges made in the report, and plans to publish its own findings. 

The UN has described the Rohingya as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. 

Some historians say the group dates back centuries. And many Rohingya in Myanmar migrated from Bangladesh in the early 19th century - that was when Britain annexed Myanmar as a province of British India and brought over migrant Muslim labourers.

The UN estimates they number around 800,000. Most live in Myanmar's western Rakhine state, near the border with Bangladesh. But Myanmar's government does not recognise them as one of the nation's ethnic groups, and denies them citizenship. 

To discuss the findings of the report, Inside Story's Ghida Fakhry is joined by guests: Maung Zarni, a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics, and founding member of the Free Burma Coalition; Alistair Cook, a visiting research fellow at the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore; and Mike Harris from the Index on Censorship, an international organisation that promotes and defends the right to freedom of expression. 

Jason Szep and John O'Callaghan

Reuters

April 23, 2013

The president of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, said on Tuesday he would urge Myanmar's leaders to address Buddhist-led violence against Muslims that he said could cause problems for Muslims elsewhere in the region. 

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's visit to Myanmar on Tuesday and Wednesday comes a month after at least 43 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in four days of violence led by Buddhist mobs in the central city of Meikhtila, 80 miles (130 km) north of the capital, Naypyitaw. That sparked a wave of anti-Muslim violence

"If it's not addressed in the best way possible, its impact is not good for Myanmar and even for Indonesians who are majority Muslims," Yudhoyono told a Thomson Reuters Newsmaker event, a forum held in Singapore.

Calm has been restored in Meikhtila and other volatile central areas after authorities imposed martial law and dispatched troops. A Reuters examination showed it was well organised, abetted at times by police turning a blind eye.

"I will encourage that Myanmar will address it wisely, appropriately and prevent tension and violence. We in Indonesia are ready to support them to reach those goals," he said.

Yudhoyono will meet with Myanmar President Thein Sein during the visit and sign a memorandum of understanding on rice trade, an Indonesian government official said.

His visit also follows deadly unrest last year against Muslim Rohingya, an ethnic minority, in western Rakhine State which Human Rights Watch, a New York-based rights watchdog, described in a report on Monday as ethnic cleansing -- a charge rejected by the government.

"There are other challenges in Myanmar like communal tensions facing the ethnic Rohingya," Yudhoyono said.

Last year's violence in Rakhine State killed at least 110 people, mostly Rohingya Muslims, and left 120,000 homeless.

Rohingya activists claim their historical lineage in Rakhine dates back centuries, but Myanmar's government regards the estimated 800,000 Muslim Rohingyas as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denies them citizenship. Bangladesh has refused to grant Rohingyas refugee status since 1992.

The violence has sparked an exodus of thousands of Rohingya fleeing Rakhine State by boat. Many have ended up in other Southeast Asian countries including Indonesia, where Buddhist and Rohingya Muslims clashed in an overcrowded immigration detention centre last month.

Yudhoyono said Indonesia has a long history of engaging with Myanmar's leaders dating to military rule "to encourage them to continue their process of democratisation so they didn't need to be hurt by embargoes".

The European Union on Monday lifted sanctions imposed in response to human rights abuses during nearly five decades of military rule that ended in March 2011. The country, also known as Burma, has since embarked on a series of democratic reforms.

"World leaders now are visiting Myanmar because they see Myanmar has changed," he said. "I will visit Myanmar today firstly to support and promote the process of democratisation, of nation-building, of the rule of law, human rights."

(Editing by Neil Fullick)

Francis Wade

Foreign Policy

April 22, 2013

Buddhist monks have been major instigators of the recent violence against Muslims in Burma.

In a small wooden office in the Mahamyaing monastery, Kyaw Linn rifles through a carrier bag of stickers emblazoned with 969, the logo that has come to represent Burma's budding anti-Muslim movement. Six months ago the head monk, Oo Wi Ma La, ordered the first batch of stickers from a nearby printing company. Now they're hard to avoid. Taxis, buses, and shop fronts across Rangoon and other major towns now display what some observers consider a symbol of Buddhist extremism -- a symbol that sees Burma's Muslim community as a threat to the country and its dominant religion.

This sentiment has unleashed waves of violence over the past several months that have left more than 40 dead, and 13,000 displaced in 2013 alone. The monastery in Moulmein, southern Burma, is credited as the birthplace of the resurgent 969 movement. Production of the 969 stickers began following rioting in western Burma last year that pitted Buddhists against Rohingya Muslims. The number signifies the attributes of Buddha and his teachings, and is sacred to Buddhists.

"We did it to protect Buddhism," Oo Wi Ma La says, adding that last year's violence in Arakan state made it clear that Buddhism in Burma is under threat. "In Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, and so on there used to be so many Buddhists, but the Muslims came and kicked them out, and now they are Muslim countries. So based on history we worry Burma could become like that. "

Around four percent of Burma's population practices Islam. It is where the two religions coexist that problems have emerged, says Oo Wi Ma La. In Moulemin's busy and cramped indoor market, however, Muslim stallholders appear calm despite the wealth of 969 stickers increasingly on display on neighboring stalls. Buddhist taxi drivers and shop owners said they have no problem with Muslims using their services.

Unfortunately, however, not everyone thinks the same way. Last month simmering animosity burst into the open once again. A brawl between Buddhists and Muslims in a gold shop in the central Burmese town of Meiktila triggered two days of violence, during which more than 800 homes in the town, mostly Muslim, were razed. Witnesses say that the Buddhist mobs who perpetrated the violence were well-organized, and that the police stood by and watched as killings were carried out in broad daylight. Such reports have led to accusations of official complicity in the violence. Suspicion is prompted by belief that elements within the government or military view communal unrest as a cue for the reinvigoration of a military whose overarching power in Burma is threatened by reforms. A Human Rights Watch report released today directly implicates "political and religious leaders in Arakan State" in the planning, organization, and incitement of attacks against the Rohingya and other Muslims last October. (The report, which focuses on last year's bloodshed in Arakan, notes that the violence there has resulted in the forcible displacement of some 125,000 Arakan Muslims from their homes.)

Yet even if the military-led government may have helped to ignite the Arakan and Meiktila conflicts, the fuel, in the form of anti-Muslim sentiment among Burmese, has been stored up over decades, born of propaganda campaigns in the 1960s that triggered pogroms against Indian Muslims, and later the Rohingya in Arakan state, and the historic conflation of Buddhism with Burmese nationalism.

That movement has seen a resurgence since the Arakan rioting last year whipped up anti-Muslim fervor across Burma. The situation in Meiktila appears to lend weight to claims by some observers that an ethnic cleansing campaign is underway in parts of the country. There, the town's once sizeable Muslim population has been driven into camps which journalists are barred from entering; a similar campaign of cleansing has occurred in Sittwe in Arakan state.

Most narratives of the violence have painted the 969 movement as a cohesive anti-Muslim front that seeks to purge Burma of what it considers a pernicious Islamic presence. Anti-violence protests have used 969 as a symbol to rally against (as shown above). Yet the diverging opinions of those who distribute and carry the symbol shows that this is not so clear-cut. At one end of the spectrum are those who see it more as an identifier of Buddhist solidarity, as Christians display crucifixes. Many say the adoption of 969 as the movement's symbol was done to counter 786, a numerologically important symbol to Muslims that is also seen on some shop fronts. "Now our Buddhist people are trying to give life to this 969 concept, and it saddens me," says U Gambira, a former monk who spent four years in jail for his lead role in the 2007 Saffron Revolution. "They are basically copying something they hate."

Extremists are trying legitimize an objectionable philosophy by drawing on the spiritual "goodness" of what 969 represents: the nine attributes of Buddha, the six attributes of his teachings, and the nine attributes of the Sangha, the religious council that administers Buddhist institutions in Burma. This inevitably gives the movement an immediate appeal among Buddhists, and its leaders can then exploit underlying anti-Muslim sentiment to garner supporters, witting or unwitting.

Carrying the flag for this movement is U Wirathu, head abbot of the Masoyein monastery in Mandalay. Known in the past as a key organizing hub for anti-junta activities, the monastery has more recently developed notoriety following U Wirathu's vitriolic speeches directed at Muslims. Though he acknowledges the possibility of complicity in the recent violence with the military, whom in the past he has fiercely resisted, he considers Islam to be the greater threat. Wirathu chose to be interviewed in front of a wall decked out with self-portraits, a background that made him look more like a cult leader than a humble monk. "According to my research, 100 percent of rape cases in Burma are by Muslims. None are by Buddhists," he claims. "They forcibly take young Buddhist girls as their wives. If the wives continue to practice Buddhism then they torture them every day."

Wirathu is a man of contradictions. His recipe for ending violence and religious tension in Burma is to rid the country of "bad Muslims," but fails to acknowledge that such messages have been a key source of the violence. "If everyone in Burma was like me then there would be peace," he continues, before later handing over a booklet on whose front cover is drawn a lion baring its teeth at a child. The child is a Buddhist and the lion a Muslim, he explains.

U Wirathu was jailed in 2003 for inciting anti-Muslim unrest (though he denies any responsibility for the recent violence). But the government's unwillingness to take action this time round has added to the feeling that elements within the government or military could benefit from the spoils that may result from a fractured Burma.

The geographical reach of the campaign goes beyond just areas with a high Muslim presence. In the Shan state town of Namkham last month, anti-Muslim posters began appearing on lampposts, even though only several hundred Muslims live among the population of 100,000. Locals there, who have resisted a lucrative China-backed oil and gas pipeline that passes close by, have questioned whether the sudden threat of religious unrest in a town where the two religions had coexisted peacefully could be used as a pretext by authorities to crack down on anti-pipeline activities.

This then appears to be a campaign that benefits two powerful forces in Burma: ultra-nationalist civilian groups and hard-line elements in the government and military. If both are strengthened as a result, this will have far-reaching repercussions for the development of democracy in Burma.

Charlie Campbell
TIME

April 23, 2013

Burma’s quasi-civilian government has been hit by allegations of “ethnic cleansing” and “crimes against humanity” this week as Human Rights Watch (HRW) released its report into the sectarian violence that ravaged the country’s eastern Arakan state last year. At least 200 people were killed and more than 125,000 made homeless as mass arson, looting and cold-blooded murder erupted between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and stateless Muslim Rohingya. HRW accuses Rakhine groups of instigating the bloodshed and the state authorities of allowing them to continue unabated. Fresh and seemingly unconnected Muslim-Buddhist violence then hit elsewhere last month, posing serious questions regarding the state’s ability — or willingness — to maintain order as the country emerges from half a century of brutal junta rule. The report was released the same day that the country’s President, Thein Sein, was awarded a peace prize by the International Crisis Group, and the E.U. lifted trade, economic and individual sanctions on Burma. 

According to HRW, Rakhine mobs attacked Muslim communities in four townships in June and then nine townships in October, razing villages and burying “hog-tied” corpses in mass graves. The 153-page report details how at least 70 Rohingya were killed in a single daylong massacre in Yan Thei village in Mrauk-U township. “First the soldiers told us, ‘Do not do anything, we will protect you, we will save you,’ so we trusted them,” a 25-year-old survivor told HRW. “But later they broke that promise. The Arakanese beat and killed us very easily. The security did not protect us from them.”

The Rohingya are a stateless people numbering around 800,000, primarily in western Burma. Although many have lived inside the country for generations, they are not included on the list of 135 official ethnic groups as set out by xenophobic former dictator General Ne Win in the 1982 Citizenship Law. The government’s official position is that the Rohingya are illegal Bengali immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh who exploit the porous 300-km border to steal scarce land. They face severe restrictions on travel, marriage and reproduction, and Bangladesh similarly shuns them. Scaremongering Buddhist propaganda also accuses the Rohingya of raping Buddhist women and trying to “Islamify” Burma, now officially known as Myanmar, by taking multiple wives to sire scores of Muslim children. 

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at HRW, accused the Burmese government of engaging “in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya that continues today through the denial of aid and restrictions on movement.” The new report details how government authorities destroyed mosques, conducted violent mass arrests and blocked aid to displaced Muslims following last year’s strife. The initial clashes were sparked by the rape and murder of a young Buddhist woman, allegedly by three Muslim men, and then the mob slaughter of 10 Muslim pilgrims on a bus in retaliation. HRW alleges that during the following months, “Buddhist monks, political-party operatives and government officials organized themselves to permanently change the ethnic demographics of the state” by removing every trace of the Rohingya. “They have their strategy, and they have done all these things as a planned, well-designed operation,” says Kyaw Myint, president of the National Democratic Party for Human Rights, a Rohingya political group, and a former political prisoner.

NGOs warn that conditions in the displacement camps are atrocious, with disease rampant and scarce supplies dwindling. This squalor has played no small part in forcing several thousand Rohingya to risk their lives by undertaking the perilous voyage in rickety craft to resettle in third countries, particularly Malaysia. Rohingya must pay the equivalent of $350 for the privilege, of which most goes to Rakhine human traffickers — ironically the same people they are fleeing. Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist now living in Germany, lost eight family members in the June violence and tells TIME that he is “100% sure” that the government is behind the killing. “If [the government] had the will to, they could stop [the violence] immediately,” he says. “If they continue like this, you will not find any Rohingya inside the country in five years’ time.” 

Humanitarian groups that help the Rohingya are also under threat. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) both had staff detained by the authorities in Arakan state last year, and MSF general director Arjan Hehenkamp told a press conference in February that his organization was being intimidated by the Rakhine for working in Rohingya camps. “In pamphlets, letters and Facebook postings, [MSF] and others have been repeatedly accused of having a pro-Rohingya bias by some members of the Rakhine community. It is this intimidation, rather than formal permission for access [to the camps], that is the primary challenge,” he said in a statement.

Increasingly, the violence has not been limited to Rohingya Muslims. In the wake of last year’s violence, the Kaman, a distinct Muslim ethnic group, was also targeted. And last month, a wave of rioting hit the town of Meiktila, around 500 km north of Rangoon. Clashes were sparked by a seemingly innocuous dispute at a Muslim-owned gold shop, yet soon spread across the region with 43 people killed, at least 800 homes and five mosques torched, plus around 12,000 people sent to ramshackle displacement camps. The violence spread to a further 11 townships, all tellingly without any Rohingya populations. A shocking new video released by the BBC shows Burmese police officers standing idly by while Buddhist mobs ransack Muslim-owned buildings, and saffron-clad monks participating in the bloodshed. It should be noted, however, that many Buddhists put their lives on the line to protect Muslim neighbors and hide them from the rampaging mobs. 

A militant Buddhist organization known by the symbol 969 seems to be at the heart of this resurgent religious animosity, with outspoken monk Wirathu at the helm. Based in Mandalay’s Masoyein Monastery, his bizarre and baseless accusations that Muslims are “waging a jihad war on the Rakhine,” “doping young children with drugs to make them fight” and “disguising themselves as women to get involved in fights” have taken hold. Now 969 stickers are common to denote Buddhist businesses around the country. 

The domestic Burmese media has not helped the situation. The derogatory term kalar — used for any dark-skinned person of South Asian appearance — has appeared in print frequently, as has the term Bengalis, which gives credence to the specious notion that the Rohingya are in fact illegal immigrants. But the strongest criticism has been reserved for Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former political prisoner, who has steadfastly refused to condemn the appalling treatment of the Rohingya, preferring instead to blame a lack of “rule of law.” The former human-rights champion appears unwilling to alienate her Buddhist support base in preparation for the looming general election in 2015. For Burma’s Muslims, that date looks very far off.

Veronica Pedrosa

Al Jazeera

April 22, 2013

Human rights report denounces ethnic cleansing of Rohingya as the West congratulates Myanmar on democratic reforms.

On the same day that his government is accused of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, Myanmar President Thein Sein is being honoured at a fund-raising gala dinner in Manhattan, New York. 

VIPs have paid as much as $100,000 a table for the event "In Pursuit of Peace", which was organised by the International Crisis Group think-tank, which receives some congressional funding. US President Barack Obama won't be there, which is probably just as well, given that Human Right Watch's new 153-page report is likely to cast a dark shadow over the proceedings. 

According to the report by the New York-based rights group, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity have been committed against Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya people.

More than 125,000 ethnic Rohingya have been forcibly displaced since two waves of violence in May and October 2012 between the ethnic minority and Buddhist Rakhines left at least 110 dead.

Myanmar's government has done nothing to prevent the violence, alleges the report, and at times government forces are believed to have joined in the attacks on the Rohingya.

The report, released today, comes on the day the European Union plans to lift all remaining sanctions against the country formerly known as Burma.

Two narratives

HRW's accusations come as a sharp rebuttal to the governments and groups that have hailed Myanmar's "golden promise", a phrase that has frequently been used to describe the country's potential if its much touted political and economic reforms continue.

That a positive narrative of Myanmar's current situation can co-exist with the current violence is frightening, according to analysts, because of what some see as the state's "seething hatred" against Muslims. They say the possible regional implications of anti-Muslim violence have so far been ignored by regional powers, and that the geo-strategically important position Myanmar has could cause the violence to continue without foreign action. 

Most Rohingya who live in Myanmar's western Rakhine state are denied citizenship by the Myanmar government, which claims they are illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. 

"The government perspective, which is unfortunately also the public's perspective, is that the country's western gate has been broken, the invaders are already here. That's why there's such overwhelming support for the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya," Dr Maung Zarni, a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and exiled activist, told Al Jazeera. 

The author of the Human Rights Watch report, Matthew Smith, also spoke of the "very high level of risk" of a third wave of anti-Muslim violence similar to those witnessed in May and October 2012. 

Dr Thitinan Pongsudirak of Chulalongkorn University said great measures needed to be taken if violence were to be curbed. "Leadership has to be very bold and willing to take some risks," he said. "Thein Sein and Aung San Suu Kyi should put aside election prospects and utilise whatever resources they have. Short of that, we will see more violence."

Aung San Suu Kyi's failure to take up the case for the Rohingya in public is probably the most obvious example of the limits of her role. 

There's little doubt that if an election were held today she would win, but, in the larger scheme of things, it's not evident that - even with her moral authority - her taking up the Rohingya's fight would make much difference to the fundamental causes of the violence, or to the international community's reluctance to rock the government's reform boat.

"To be honest, Aung San Suu Kyi is a prop, not a strategic player," said Dr Zarni.

The dissident leader has said that it remains up to the government to deal with the racial hatred and violence threatening the country. She has emphasised the importance of the rule of law, placing herself squarely in the establishment camp and seemingly sealing her transformation into a roving collector of international adulation, and a not-so-extraordinary politician.

Regional issues

Observers also say the violence is likely to spill over into the greater region. In early April, eight people werekilled at an Indonesian refugee camp after clashes erupted between Buddhists and Muslims from Myanmar. 

The country is also due to chair the regional Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2014. 

"It will reflect poorly on ASEAN if Myanmar has ethno-religious baggage when it chairs. There should be regional involvement - not regional intervention," said Dr Thitinan. This is unlikely, he added, since ASEAN has a policy of non-interference in its members' internal politics. 

"[ASEAN] doesn't have a mechanism to deal with issues like this, that's the reality" said Kavi Chongkittavorn, group editor of the Thai newspaper The Nation. 

The campaign against Muslims in Myanmar also sheds light on the nature of the deal between Naypidaw and the US and its allies. Myanmar's government believes the West will leave them alone in exchange for agreeing to placing Western military or strategic interests and corporations at China's expense. As for the West, they seem to think this is probably the best chance of Myanmar moving forward without a full-scale armed revolution. 

"This is the best of bad scenarios, and there's a strategic dividend for Washington and its allies: however distant the regime moves away from Beijing is the West's gain," explained Dr Zarni. "The common denominator between Burma and the non-Chinese world is China."

And what of the 800,000 Rohingya themselves? 

The events of the past year have meant some are kept in camps without the freedom to leave or the ability to earn a livelihood; children don't have school, there's not enough food or medical care, and they're still living under tarpaulin even though the government promised it would move them in December. 

The rest live in areas surrounded by Rakhine, where relations are fraught. In one instance a Rakhine man was forced to wear a sign around his neck identifying him as a "traitor" for selling vegetables to a Rohingya. Nor can they rely on the security forces for help, according to the HRW report, which is based on more than a hundred interviews with victims of violence, witnesses to violence and perpetrators of abuses.

The report's name stems from the testimony of an incident in which a police officer was asked by a Rohingya for help.

"All you can do is pray," the officer replied.

Follow Veronica Pedrosa on Twitter: @Vpedrosa

Maha Min Khant

RB Article

April 23, 2013

At the interesting coronation ceremony of the presidency of the Union of Myanmar, in accord the constitution of 2008, section (65), you President Thein Sein sincerely and solemnly promised and declared that you would be loyal to the Republic of Union of Myanmar and the citizens and hold always in esteem non-disintegration of the Union, non-disintegration of national and perpetuation of the sovereignty. You also promised that you would carry out the responsibilities uprightly to the best of your ability and strive for further flourishing the eternal principal of justice, liberty and equality. You have also pledged you would dedicate yourselves to the service of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. 

In accord to the president’s very dishonest pledge which he might know alone, it is nothing to say that he had been someway honest in the sight of U Than Shwe and deserved to be chosen one among others by Than Shwe. U Thein Sein was rightly chosen, by Than Shwe, as a president of the newly so called quasi-democratic state to run the state and be loyal to all his (U Than Shwe) directions as long as he is active rather than as per his (U Thein Sein) oath made at the moment. 

Mr. President, after nearly a couple of years of your presidency, though you might have been running the state as per your solemn oath that heard by people of the world, you and your chosen staffers in your president office have been running and comatose the golden state into a deep hole in my consideration --having been schemed the state into the “horrendous interaction” which have systematically being preplanned by your agents one after another, totaling against your president oath. 

As a first step of your solemn oath, you have earned and showed sympathy releasing Daw Aung San Su Kyi from house arrest not a political prisoner but as per the demand of international community hoping investment from the west and pleasing the US— which earning attention from regional and international community as a sympathizer and great man of coordinating ‘frame of mind’ with world community. 

But intentionally to make mess up the country affairs and can upset the harmonious community (Buddhists & Muslims)—and some jailed persons who might have committed state Bureau level crimes -- and once your senior officers in the time of Than Shwe regime-- you have also unconfined those perilous murderers key criminals such as (U Khin Nyunt & his colleagues and others) to receive empathy from the other hand. 

U Khin Nyunt, his colleagues and other state levels criminals, had have once ruled the state discriminatorily and put many innocent democrats and reformers without any reason, can now have very free hands and talented ones to cause snag the ‘President’s administrative mechanism’ after penetrating into the Buddhist monasteries and that of the poisonous preachers like Wirathu and others to collide with Muslims and fanatic Buddhists. 

Since The beginning of the violence which erupted from Sitttwe (Akyab) in June 8, 2012 mainly after having taken excuse by Rakhine leaders particularly RNDP and ALD political party in the case, against Ma Thidar Htwe who was allegedly murdered by three so called Muslims boys, should have been settled down as a very simple case. 

simmering the rape case by Rakhine fanatic and that of the leaders, selectively the Rohingya Muslims blocks from Sittwe were being burnt down-- innocent people were being killed-- unable people to escape were being stabbed to death-- the Rohingyas and Kaman people houses which situated among Rakhine people were being destroyed or pull down—the shops and commercialization of Muslims were jeopardized and later on confiscated—the Muslims, from Aungmingla block of Sittwe which was let off from being torched, have been unmovable from the quarter to other places in purpose of social, medical and livelihood—many people, who were shifted from the burning after losing everything to the west of Sittwe as IDPs , have been hopeless to regaining and relocation to their original places and establishing their normal lives—and yet not having proper plan to reestablish the lives of those local victims by both Rakhine state and Union government at least to go on in their temporary locations with strong and resilient small houses and capable of receiving normal donations by UN, NGOs and local donors for their temporary survival until they reached to their normality. 

The worst is every terrorist whether who wears gently Myanmar cultural dresses as the gentle of the party leaders, the businessmen, lecturers, traders, elderly people or the most revere Monks who control the famous monasteries and youth monks not only from Rakhine state and but proper Burma all become rancorous and merciless against Islam and above “the rule of law of the state”. 

The one sided violence against Rohingya and Kaman people with the combination of police, monks and ruling body of Sittwe-- where Rakhine state administration mechanism was located-- have been the combined forces to assault and let overall social annihilation and demolition by the multi Rakhine attackers against Muslims. 

These flammable assail soon spread out to where there are more or less Muslims along Rakhine state’s thirteen townships --north, central and south—and villages, houses, innocent men and women, elderly people, cattle, firms—all these were torched, killed, looted and Muslims were driven out of their villages. 

And young Rohingyas, from every townships who are believed to be services if violence become greater, were arbitrarily arrested and put in jails as a preemptive action by township authorities and Rakhine state government by the coordinated action of Rakhine people leaders from every township—and all brave Rakhine attackers were being prepared as heroic terrorists by feeding up them tablets --and Rakhine assailants who are widely thought to be amphetamines addicted tablets that is the most poignant by the advice of police station of each township and Rakhine style armed forces who are alleged to be ALP, Arakan Liberation Forces. 

Your excellence’s announcement on 10 June, 2012 to prevail peace and tranquilly and degree issue (144) is, of course, nothing for Rohingya and Kaman people who are in faith Muslims for their lives safety and security but it has been safe haven for night Rakhine assailants who could roam, could round and round and could get done all offenses against Muslims as per their wish with the help of Rakhine police who are kith and kin of assailants—while Muslims should have stay inside their respective houses in accord your (144) order, what a beautiful order you have declared for tranquility of law to prevail. 

Taking this opportunity by Rakhine assailants throughout the state, Muslims have been totally helpless, vulnerable and utterly frustrated just “breathing” in Rakhine state in the hand of ‘law of jungle governmental mechanism’ and in the state of every chaotic activities –which have been all above the law—though no one is above the law by the rule of law which has been used to say by Thura U Shwe Maan since U Khin Nyunt was to be under arrest around the year 2004 and during the recent visit to Australia while meeting Myanmar society.

To be Continued ...