Press Release: Burmese military regime lied at the ASEAN Summit‏

ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANISATION

ARAKAN, BURMA
Press Release

(1st March 2009)

Burmese military regime lied at the ASEAN Summit

We condemn the SPDC and its Foreign Minister Nyan Win for calling the Rohingya boatpeople ‘Bengalis’ at the ASEAN Summit in Thailand. This is a crafty tactic to hoodwink the ASEAN leaders and the international community to continue denying the ethic rights of the Rohingya.

ASEAN should be firm in its commitment to practice and promote human rights within the region. ASEAN leaders should take every care not to encourage SPDC’s wily trick directly or indirectly lest it will simply accelerate Rohingya extermination and grave human rights violations across the country.

In rebutting the reckless remark of SPDC’s Foreign Minister, we emphatically state that all the boatpeople from Arakan are Rohingyas by all standards. The Rohingya are proud to have resemblance with Bengalis. Since early settlers of Arakan were Indo-Aryan or a people similar to that of Bengal, Rohingya do not disclaim their genealogical link with Bengali. However, Rohingya people have grown with distinct ethnic characteristics in Arakan, from peoples of different ethnical background, over the past several centuries of socio-cultural interactions with geo-political situations, trade and economic relations.

The Rohingya people have long history and their settlement in Arakan has predated the arrivals and settlements of many other peoples and races now inhabiting Arakan and Burma. Francis Buchanan had given a description of Rohingya language spoken in Arakan and said he met Rohingya in 1795 at Ava, the capital of the Burmese kingdom.

Can SPDC show a pure blooded racial group in the whole of Burma? The answer is undoubtedly “No”. That is why the first President of the Union of Burma Sao Shwe Theik categorically stated, “Muslims of Arakan certainly belong to one of the indigenous races of Burma. In fact, there is no pure indigenous race in Burma, if they do not belong to indigenous races of Burma, we also cannot be taken as indigenous races of Burma”.

Based on Arakan reality, the Rohingya were recognised as one of the many ethnic nationalities of the Union of Burma by the then parliamentary government (1948-62).Therefore, their boatpeople cannot be branded Bengalis or non-Rohingyas or non-nationals. The SPDC is an illegitimate military regime and its statement is illegal itself. But the Rohingya remains as Rohingya until dooms day.

At this critical juncture, we urge upon the ASEAN to exercise its good offices for an efficacious solution of the long standing Rohingya problem while allowing the Rohingya leaders to discuss with the ASEAN leaders.

For more information,

please contact:

Nurul Islam,

AFK Jilani,

http://www.rohingya.org/