Myanmar: Rohingya community under attack

20 July 2012

Attacks by security forces in Myanmar against minority Rohingya and other Muslims have increased in Rakhine State, where a state of emergency was declared six weeks ago.

“Declaring a state of emergency is not a license to commit human rights violations,” said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International’s Myanmar Researcher.

“It is the duty of security forces to defend the rights of everyone – without exception or discrimination – from abuses by others, while abiding by human rights standards themselves.”

The Myanmar government declared a state of emergency in Rakhine State on 10 June, following an outbreak of communal violence the previous week among the Buddhist Rakhine, Muslim Rakhine, and Muslim Rohingya communities. It remains in effect in several areas.

Amnesty Int'l: Myanmar's Rohingyas being targeted

BANGKOK (AP) - Communal violence is grinding on in western Myanmar six weeks after the government declared a state of emergency there, and Muslim Rohingyas are increasingly being hit with targeted attacks that have included killings, rape and physical abuse, Amnesty International said Friday.

A government spokesman for coastal Rakhine state, which was engulfed by a wave of bloody unrest in June, called the allegations groundless and biased. Amnesty's claims are "totally opposite of what is happening on the ground," spokesman Win Myaing said, adding that the region was calm.

Amnesty accused both security forces and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists living in the region of carrying out fresh attacks against Rohingyas, who are seen as foreigners by the ethnic majority and denied citizenship by the government because it considers them illegal settlers from neighboring Bangladesh.

Genocide Emergency: Western Myanmar, Rakhine State: The Rohingya

Source from Genocide Watch

The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority living in northern Rakhine state in Western Myanmar. They face religious and ethnic discrimination by Myanmar's military regime, which refuses to recognize the Rohingya as Myanmar citizens. The Rohingya people are not considered one of 135 legally recognized ethnic minority groups in Myanmar. Myanmar considers them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, but they have lived in Myanmar for centuries, and Bangladesh will not accept them as its citizens.

The first Rohingya people arrived in Myanmar as early as the seventh century, but the Myanmar military regime maintains, to this day, that the Rohingya immigrated to Myanmar from India while under British colonial rule. This disregard for earlier settlers prohibits the Rohingya from being legally recognized as a minority group in Myanmar.

The Rohingya have permanently settled in Western Myanmar and make up 1/3 of the population of the Rakhine State. There are close to 750,000 Rohingyas in Rakhine State.
Because of the Myanmar military regime's denial of legal recognition, the Rohingya are denied fundamental human rights and freedom, and the military regime consistently perpetrates human rights violations against this vulnerable population.

• The regime refuses to issue identification cards to Rohingya, which are necessary to be able to travel, as well as to obtain passports and enroll in higher education.
• They are denied land and property rights and ownership. The land on which they live can be taken away at any time.
• The Rohingya people are barred from government employment.
• Marriage restrictions are imposed on them. They are limited to two children per couple.

Updated news of Rathedaung Township on July 19, 2012

Yesterday, army went to the Rajabill (Auknanra) village of Rathedaung Township and chased the villagers to arrest but all the villagers ran away. At last, the army arrested one villager named Abul Shama (45) and his wife. His wife is from Rakhine community and he married her since 20 years ago. The army also arrested the wife of Abul Shama and both of them were severely tortured by the army. After marriage, they gave birth four children. His wife was sent to her parents’ house. However, Abul Shama was released after paying Kyat 150,000. It is not known to the villagers, why the army chased the villagers.

Today, Rohingya villagers are not allowed to go to Zaydi Pyin ( Kyaung Taung ) market of Rathedaung Township for marketing. If the villagers are met on the way to the market, the army and the Rakhine youths beat them.

Besides, at noon, the Rakhine community held a meeting in the Buddhist monastery of Zaydi Pyin regarding the Rohingya community. Though the result of the meeting is not known to the Rohingya villagers, the Rohingya villagers believe that the Rakhine villagers will attack the big mosque of Zaydi Pyin which is established since long ago. So, the Rohingya villagers become fear and sad. However, the army made blank fires to the air since 1:00 pm. It maybe threatening to the Rohingya villagers by army.

In Rathedaung Township, Rohingya villagers are not allowed to go out from their villages and are dying everyday because of starvation , shortage of medicine. Most of the villagers are living in open sky as their homes were burned down.

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Machete Massacre in Arakan: The Hidden Face of Burma Exposed

Abid Bahar

From the military leadership down to NASAKA, the Rakhine police, in the civilian front RNDP and even some leaders closely working with Aung San Suu Kui, the problem with the Rohingya people have been seen as a case of dealing with”illegal immigration” of Bengali people to Arakan. Fortunately, contemporary research on Rakhine-Rohingya relations shows it is not about illegals in Arakan, Burma, it is about intolerance to a people, who are racially, culturally and religiously different from the mainstream racially mongoloid Rakhine-Burmese people.

Unfortunate though, even Burma’s new military backed government, the wolf in ship’s skin continues to call Rohingyas as the noncitizens of Burma. It has been done in compliance with the 1982 Ne Win’s Constitution Act that denied Rohingya Citizenship. Following this definition to the government, Burma is not actually doing anything wrong, it is only fighting against “intruders” into Burma who according to the authority came to Burma after 1824.

Fortunately, history proves over and again that Rohingyas didn’t migrate to Arakan from Bengal, they were already there as the indigenous people and others settled by the sea.
(Link: http://drhabibsiddiqui.blogspot.ca/2011/10/analysis-of-muslim-identity-and.html).
Contrary to the xenophobic understanding that Rohingyas are intruders into Burma, we see, successive Burmese invasions of Arakan led to the settlements of nonBengali people in Chittagong and Chittagong Hill Tracts of present Bangladesh.
(Link:http://www.kaladanpress.org/v3/index.php?

Religious cleansing: crime against humanity

19 july 2012
Ismail Salami

Described as the Palestine of Asia by the UN, the Rohingya Muslim community in Myanmar is currently going through an unutterable ordeal at the hands of the Rakhine extremist Buddhists in Arakan who are targeting the Muslim minority with the worst form of religious cleansing.
Ethnic cleansing is rife in Myanmar and is turning into a human tragedy of colossal proportions. A confidential United Nations report dated May 29, 2011 and marked “Not for Public Citation or Distribution”, defines ethnic cleansing as a “purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.”

What is happening in Myanmar to the Rohingya Muslims violates international laws and is to be categorised as crime against humanity. Unfortunately, the Myanmar peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the plight of the Rohingya Muslims. Maybe she has forgotten her own words on democracy and human rights that, “The struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma is a struggle for life and dignity.”
Reportedly, the settlement of the Rohingya Muslims in this region dates back to the eighth century. However, in the seventies, the junta embarked on a systematic programme of religious cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims who are denied their basic rights, i.e. the right to freedom of movement, marriage, faith, identity, ownership, language, heritage and culture, citizenship, education etc. Deplorable as it is, the Muslims in Myanmar are among the most persecuted minorities in the world according to UN.

No security for Rohingyas under so-called emergency Act 144 in Maungdaw

Maungdaw, Arakan State: The Maungdaw Township administration office called all the villages’ admin officers today and ordered to collect all religious students list from every village, according to a village administration officer from Maungdaw.

“The office ordered to collect religious students list and may be the office will call again to give them students list or young Rohingya lists. After collecting the lists, may be the authorities start to arrest the students which are the main power of Rohingyas’ next generation.”

 

The police officers –Thein Tin and Aye Htun Sein – are being harassed Rohingya businessmen who came to open their shops as per the ordered of Maungdaw Township Administration office. But, the Rohingya businessmen are not getting any protection from the authority; also they were picked up by police nearby clock tower junction when returning to their villages. The police officers kept the Rohingya businessmen at the electric power station compound to extort money from them, said a businessmen from Maungdaw.

“The Rakhines are also harassing the Rohingya businessmen while they open their shops and loot anything which they had taken for their home. They can’t able to go and back freely from their home and shop.”

 

 

Iran urges intl. organizations to investigate killings in Myanmar

TEHRAN - Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast on Monday called on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and other international organizations to investigate the massacre of Muslims in Myanmar.    “Respecting followers of religions and preparing the ground in such a way that religious and ethnic minorities would be able to use their civil rights is an accepted principle in all schools of thought, and it is expected that the government of Myanmar will pave the way for national unity and cohesion and (the upholding of) Muslims’ rights in the country and help prevent any use of force and humanitarian disaster,” Mehmanparast stated.

Rohingya Plight Highlighted in London

A picture from the book, “Exiled to Nowhere: Burma’s Rohingya” (PHOTO: Greg Constantine)

The London School of Economics (LSE) hosted a panel discussion on Monday evening to debate the crisis in western Arakan State and to express support for the Rohingya community.
Many members of the Burmese community crowded into the packed theater alongside London-based activists and members of NGOs. On the panel were Chris Lewa, the director of the Arakan Project and a leading voice on behalf of the Rohingya, and US photographer Greg Constantine who recently released a book of black and white photography titled

Stop the killing of Rohingyas

It was the founding fathers of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who were so sympathetic and humane as to give asylum to hundreds of thousands of members of the persecuted Burmese community. Many of the descendants of these refugees are still living in the Western Region of the Kingdom in the area between Makkah and Jeddah.

They are the Rohingyas, the Palestinians of Asia. The Rohingyas have lived in Burma since the 8th century, yet in 1962, the Burmese junta began a program of ethnic cleansing in an attempt to force them to leave the country.

In the past few months, the nearly one million Rohingyas in Burma’s Arakan state have been under siege by the local Rakhine community.

The UN has said: “The government has denied birth certificates and citizenship to the Rohingyas. Today, the community is in a perilous situation as they are being targeted because they are not of the same race and religion as the Rakhine Buddhist majority.”
The Buddhists are targeting the Rohingyas as a part of state-sponsored ethnic cleansing.

Update crisis of Arakan

It has been over 40 days now, the military government is openly escalating more brutal crimes. Rohingyans have been confined with constant abuses and without food. Some Rohingya those attempted to escape by boats through the sea were fired by launchers by navy forces and those captured in inland-waters were defined as illegal enterers and punished to unknown.
Schools have been opened from last week and all Rakhine children are attending while Rohingya are disposed to languish in uncertainty.
The government and Rakaine state minster who is also Rakhine people party-RNDP’s president and high-ranking authorities are openly stopping any kind of food supply or finding foods by Rohingya themselves.
However, the demon military government that repeatedly committing crimes has been receiving more kind and diplomatic approaches. It is the time therefore no Rohingya could be survived. Soon, they all will be exterminated within the scope of government’s pogrom.

US Muslims plea for end to Rohingyas plight

“ISNA rejects these ongoing oppressive policies and is deeply sorrowed by the recent killing of innocent Rohingya Muslims,” the Islamic Society of North America said.

“We stand firmly against the usage of ethnic and religious differences to perpetrate the persecution of minority communities, regardless of country, religion, or circumstance.

“The government of Myanmar's current course of action is unacceptable, and the Rohingya people must be afforded basic human rights.”

Described by the UN as one of the world's most persecuted minorities, Myanmar’s ethnic-Bengali Muslims, generally known as the Rohingyas, are facing a catalogue of discrimination in their homeland.

Statement by civil society organisations deeply concerned by violence against stateless Rohingya

Civil Society Organisations Deeply Concerned by On-going Violence against Stateless Rohingya in Myanmar and their Refoulement from Bangladesh

The stateless Rohingya of Myanmar have suffered from extreme persecution and discrimination for decades. They are now facing another crisis. On 3 June inter-communal violence erupted, and this has evolved into large-scale state sponsored violence against the Rohingya. Despite this, neighbouring Bangladesh is not allowing them to enter to seek refuge. The Rohingya population needs urgent measures to be taken for their protection.

In Myanmar, what began as inter-communal violence has evolved into large-scale state sponsored violence against the Rohingya. The violence began on 3 June 2012 and has mainly occurred in Sittwe and Maungdaw. On 10 June, a state of military emergency was declared, after which the military became more actively involved in committing acts of violence and other human rights abuses against the Rohingya including killings and mass scale arrests of Rohingya men and boys in North Rakhine State. Many Rohingya continue to be victims of violence and cannot leave their homes for fear of persecution, and are thus deprived of their livelihood and most basic needs. The urgent humanitarian needs of those displaced (IDPs) - including those not in IDP camps - are not being adequately met and there is concern that those displaced will not be allowed to return to their homes as soon as it is safe to do so, thus creating a situation of protracted displacement.

ေဒါက္တာျမင္႔သိန္းမွ ျမန္မာမြတ္စလင္မ္ သမိုင္းျဖစ္စဥ္အက်ဥ္းအား ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္သို႔တင္ျပ

What is Myammar Muslim (Proposal to Change 1982 Myanmar Citizenship Act)

Rohingya pictures news in Arakan,myanmar

Rohingya Muslims face starvation

AID groups have warned of an impending humanitarian catastrophe in western Myanmar as authorities attempt to isolate tens of thousands of the displaced ethnic Rohingya minority in camps described by one aid worker as “open air prisons”.

Aid has struggled to reach those affected by sectarian unrest in early June. The UN announced on Friday that 10 aid workers in Arakan state had been arrested, five were UN staff. Some have been charged, although the details remain unclear.
Rates of malnutrition among the Muslim Rohingya, who have borne the brunt of emergency measures implemented in the wake of fierce rioting in June between the minority group and the majority Arakanese, are said to be “alarming”. Most aid workers have either been evacuated or forced to flee in recent weeks.

“We are worried that malnutrition rates already have and will continue to rise dramatically; if free and direct humanitarian access accompanied by guaranteed security is not granted with the shortest delay, there’s no way they won’t rise,” said Tarik Kadir of Action Against Hunger.

Update information of Maungdaw Township on July 15, 2012

Two Rakhines with arms arrest in Maungdaw
On July 14, at about 5:30 pm, two Rakhine villagers namely U Maung Soe Tha and U Soe from Oo Daung (Rakhine) village with guns pretending to be army robbed Rohingya villages of Maungdaw south and raped Rohingya women. However, they were arrested by the Nasaka personnel from Sector No. 8 of Maungdaw Township, said a villager.
“Rohingya villagers are demoralized by the persecutions of police, Hluntin (riot police), army and Sarapa (Military Intelligence) since June 8. Meanwhile, some of the Rakhine goons taking this advantage, they ( Rakhine goons) went to Rohingya villages and robbed the goods and raped women by pretending as army. Where did they get guns and uniforms?”

Rohingya admit hospital for beating in Maungdaw
Beside, a Rohingya named Iqubal from Myoma Khayoungdan village, was beaten by Rakhine who is now admit at the hospital (Maungdaw) today, according to a villager from Myoma Khayoungdan village.

Maungdaw township administration office force Rohingya to open their shops
Maungdaw Township administration officer forced Rohingya traders to open their shops in Maungdaw, today but Rakhine youths were trying to attack and loot the goods, according to a trader from Maungdaw. “We are aware for our security while we open the shops, the officer will take our security or not.”

႐ိုဟင္ဂ်ာအေရး ေထာက္ခံမႈအေပၚ တိုက္ခိုက္မႈမ်ား ႀကံဳရျခင္း

 (ေဆာင္းပါး) ။ ။ Burma Campaign UK (BCUK) အဖြဲ႔က ႐ိုဟင္ဂ်ာျပည္သူမ်ား၏ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရးကိစၥအေပၚ ေထာက္ခံပါသည္။ Burma Campaign UK အဖြဲ႔က ဤသေဘာကို ထုတ္ေဖာ္ေျပာဆိုျခင္းသည္ အံ့ၾသဖြယ္မဟုတ္သလို၊ အျငင္းပြားဖြယ္ ကိစၥတခုလည္း မဟုတ္ပါ။

မိမိတို႔က ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရးကိစၥ လႈပ္ရွားေဆာင္ရြက္ေနၾကသည့္ အဖြဲ႔အစည္းတခု ျဖစ္ပါသည္။ ႐ိုဟင္ဂ်ာျပည္သူမ်ား လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး ခံစားရရွိခြင့္ ရွိရမည္ ဆိုသည့္အခ်က္ႏွင့္ ႏိုင္ငံတကာ ဥပေဒမ်ားအရ ပံုမွန္ အခြင့္အေရးႏွင့္ ကာကြယ္ေပးမႈမ်ား ခံစားရရွိပိုင္ခြင့္ ရွိရမည္ဆိုသည္ကို မည္သူတဦးက သေဘာကြဲလြဲ အျငင္းပြားပါအံ့နည္း။

သို႔ေသာ္လည္း အခ်ဳိ႕ေသာသူမ်ားက ဤသို႔သေဘာထား ထုတ္ေဖာ္ေျပာဆိုခ်က္အေပၚ ေဒါသအမ်က္ ေခ်ာင္းေခ်ာင္း ထြက္ၾကသည္။ Burma Campaign UK အဖြဲ႔၏ ဝန္ထမ္းမ်ားကို မုဒိမ္းက်င့္သင့္သည္၊ သတ္ပစ္ သင့္သည္ဟုပင္ ထုတ္ေဖာ္ေျပာ ဆိုသည္မ်ားၾကံဳၾကရသည္။ မိမိတို႔ခံယူသည္မွာ မိမိတို႔ "အျပစ္မသင့္"၊ "သင္ခန္းစာ ေပးရမည့္သူမ်ား" လည္းမဟုတ္ပါ။ "ၾကိဳးစင္တင္ အျပစ္ေပးရမည့္သူမ်ား" လည္း မဟုတ္ပါ။ ဤသုိ႔ေသာ အျမင္မ်ားႏွင့္ မ်ားစြာေသာ ႐ိုင္းျပေအာက္တန္းက်သည့္ တိုက္ခိုက္မႈစာမ်ား မိမိတို႔ထံ အီးေမးလ္ ေပးပို႔ခဲ့ၾကသလို၊ YouTube/ Facebook စသည့္ လူမႈကြန္ရက္စာမ်က္ႏွာ မ်ားတြင္လည္း တင္ပို႔ေဖာ္ျပသည္ကို ေတြ႔ခဲ့ၾကရပါသည္။

႐ိုဟင္ဂ်ာမ်ား လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး ရရွိသင့္သည္၊ သူတို႔၏ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရးကို ခုခံကာကြယ္ေပးႏိုင္ရန္ ႐ိုဟင္ဂ်ာ မ်ားႏွင့္ အလုပ္ပူးတြဲ ေဆာင္ရြက္သင့္သည္၊ စသည္ျဖင့္ ေဖာ္ျပေျပာဆိုခဲ့ၾကသည့္ Burma Campaign UK ႏွင့္ အျခားေသာ အဖြဲ႔အစည္းမ်ားအေပၚ ဆန္႔က်င္ခဲ့ၾကေသာ တိုက္ခိုက္ေစာ္ကားမႈမ်ား၊ မုန္းတီးမႈမ်ား၊ ေဒါသ အမ်က္မ်ား မည္မွ်ျပင္းထန္ စြာ ၾကံဳေတြ႔ခဲ့ ရသည္ကေတာ့ အံ့အားသင့္ဖြယ္ပင္ ျဖစ္သည္။