#Yunus pitches for #Rohingyas

Bangladesh's Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, supported by former Timor-Leste president Ramos-Horta, has pitched in strongly for the persecuted Rohingyas of Myanmar.

"There is evidence that the Rohingya have been in present-day Myanmar since the 8th century,” the two wrote in Huffington Post. “It is incontrovertible that Muslim communities have existed in [Rakhine] State since the 15th century, added to by descendants of Bengalis migrating to Arakan [Rakhine] during colonial times.”

“The minority Muslim Rohingya continue to suffer unspeakable persecution, with more than 1,000 killed and hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes just in recent months, apparently with the complicity and protection of security forces,” the two Nobel laureates wrote.

Ramos-Horta and Yunus also criticised Myanmar’s 1982 Citizenship Law which denied Rohingyas citizenship of Myanmar and forced on them severe restrictions of travel, marriage and reproduction by the State. Yunus and Ramos-Horta urged the Myanmar government to protect the Rohingyas and welcome them as full citizens of the country.

The outspoken support for the Muslim Rohingya minority group stands in contrast to the surprising silence maintained on the issue by Myanmar's own Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

It also goes against a recent comment made by Deputy Immigration and Population Minister Kyaw Kyaw Win on the Rohingyas.

Recently speaking at the House of Representatives in Naypyitaw, Win said that “there is no so-called Rohingya ethnic race in Myanmar.”

Myanmar president Thein Sein, a former army general, has said that the Rohingyas are not of Myanmar but are "illegal Bengali migrants". He pitched for deporting them to third countries.

#SuuKyi, #Clinton Discuss Refugees

The Burmese opposition leader begins her US visit with a meeting with the top American diplomat.

RFA

Aung San Suu Kyi (l) speaks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (r) at the State Department in Washington, Sept. 18, 2012.

Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi opened her visit to the United States with talks Tuesday with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the welfare of Burmese refugees in America.

The 67-year-old Nobel laureate, who arrived on Monday for a nearly three-week visit, met with Clinton at her office in the State Department.

The top U.S. diplomat briefly spoke to Aung San Suu Kyi on the resettlement of Burmese refugees in the United States and the visitor's trip next week to Fort Wayne in Indiana state, home to a large number of Burmese.

There is "so much excitement and enthusiasm about the fact that you can actually come," Clinton told Aung San Suu Kyi, according to journalists and photographers who were allowed a couple of minutes to witness their meeting before they went into closed talks.

Aung San Suu Kyi said she had heard about Fort Wayne while tracking Burmese news when she was under house arrest for nearly two decades during the rule of the previous military junta.

Since 2006, about 55,000 Burmese refugees, most whom were living in Thailand, have been resettled in the United States. Many of them had fled nearly five decades of harsh military rule and fighting between government military troops and armed ethnic groups. 

Aung San Suu Kyi will take part later Tuesday in a Washington forum organized by the Asia Society on the ongoing transition in Burma and the challenges facing the country. Clinton will make introductory remarks at the event.

Landmark trip

Clinton made a landmark trip to Burma nine months ago in the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state in more than 50 years to begin reconciliation with the nominally civilian government of President Thein Sein who took over in March last year.

The two countries then named ambassadors to each other's capitals, formalizing diplomatic relations for the first time since Washington withdrew its ambassador in 1990.

The United States also eased investment and financial restrictions to reciprocate nascent reforms in Burma but said it will maintain an import ban amid continuing human rights and ethnic conflict concerns.

The Obama administration is believed to be considering easing a ban on imports from Burma into the U.S., one of the main remaining sanctions imposed on the country. The U.S. Congress last month renewed the ban for another year.
Aung San Suu Kyi may also meet President Barack Obama during her trip, which is her first to the U.S. in 40 years.

The White House has yet to announce whether she will meet Obama but sources say he could hold talks with her despite his hectic re-election campaign.

Just before Aung san Suu Kyi landed at the Dulles airport in Washington Monday, Thein Sein ordered the release of another 514 prisoners, including dozens of political detainees, in an apparent bid to pave the way for the U.S. to further ease sanctions ahead of his trip to attend the U.N. meeting.

Aung San Suu Kyi is also scheduled to attend a high-level meeting organized by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, a day before Thein Sein addresses the General Assembly, reports have said.

Reported by RFA's Burmese service. Written in English by Chris Billing and Parameswaran Ponnudurai.

Copyright © 1998-2011 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved.

Latest Burmese amnesty not good enough: #HRW

Activists and rights groups are responding cautiously to Burma's latest release of political prisoners, saying hundreds more are still being held despite the government's promise to release them, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement on Thursday.

Burmese President Thein Sein's amnesty came a week before he travels to the US to attend the United Nations General Assembly session. Human Rights Watch called for governments to use the UN visit to press him to release all remaining political prisoners and allow international monitors unhindered access to Burma's jails.

The Burmese government this week released 514 prisoners, and activists estimate that around 90 were prisoners of conscience.

It was the fourth amnesty declared in the past year by the Burmese government, which has also eased press restrictions, allowed greater political participation, and signed cease-fire deals with some rebel groups.

But Human Rights Watch said the amnesty falls short of the president's commitment to release all political prisoners.

The New York-based group called for independent monitors to be allowed into Burmese prisons to determine how many political prisoners remain behind bars.

Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on said Tuesday that her party, the National League for Democracy, estimates there are still 200 political prisoners behind bars. The Nobel laureate, currently on a tour of the United States, said Burma cannot have real democracy until all prisoners of conscience are released.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that Burma still has “a lot of work to do,” citing the political prisoners that remain in detention, as well as ongoing communal unrest in Rakhine State and other ethnic areas.

Source 

The Dalai Lama says reports of human rights violations in Burma ‘very unfortunate’

His Holiness the Dalai Lama speaking on "Non-violence and Ethical Values" at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi, India, on September 12, 2012. Also seen in the picture is Vice Chancellor Prof. Najeeb Jung. (Photo/OHHDL/Tenzin Choejor)

DHARAMSHALA, September 13: Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama called the reports of gross human rights violations n Burma “very unfortunate” and said he tried to contact pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese government over the issue.

“Yes, it’s very unfortunate. But no avenue of communication with the Burmese government is open to me. Although I am a Buddhist, very few Buddhist countries, apart from Japan, have given me permission to visit them on pilgrimage,” the Dalai Lama said in response to a question on the reports of gross human rights violations against the Rohingya Muslims in western Burma.

“In fact you could say I have greater freedom to visit Christian countries or even a Muslim country like Jordan, than I do to visit most Buddhist countries. The situation with Burma is the same.”

The Dalai Lama, who was speaking on the Importance of Non-violence and Ethical Values at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi on Wednesday, further added that he wrote to Aung San Suu Kyi, his only contact in the country, on the issue. The two Nobel Peace laureates had recently met in London.

“Accordingly, I wrote to her about this matter, but have had no reply. Likewise, I asked my representative in Delhi to approach the Burmese Embassy here, but after several weeks we’ve had no response. So, there’s little I can do but pray,” the Tibetan leader said.

“If allegations that Buddhist monks have been involved in assaulting these Muslim brothers and sisters turn out to be true, it is totally wrong.”

Earlier in the day, the Dalai Lama also separately met with the editors of three Urdu language newspapers.

Returning back to the University which conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) on him in 2010, the Dalai Lama reflected on the oneness of humanity in our common desire and right to be happy.

The 77-year-old Tibetan leader explained that trust and friendship were necessary to be a contented human being, which he said tends to develop “much better once we realise that all beings have a right to happiness, just as we do.”

“Taking others’ interests into account not only helps them, it also helps us. Warm-heartedness and concern for others are a part of human nature and are at the core of positive human values.”

Referring to the 20th century as an era of bloodshed, the Dalai Lama said all problems and conflicts must be resolved through peaceful ways and dialogue.

“Non-violence doesn’t mean we have to passively accept injustice. We have to fight for our rights. We have to oppose injustice, because not to do so would be a form of violence,” the Tibetan spiritual leader said. “Gandhi-ji fervently promoted non-violence, but that didn’t mean he was complacently accepting of the status quo; he resisted, but he did so without doing harm.”
Source 

Diplomatic solution: Zaw Min Htut (second from left) and other Rohingya people in Japan stage a protest in front of the Myanmar Embassy in July. AYAKO MIE

Rohingya ask Japan to help stop Myanmar violence

By AYAKO MIE

Staff writer

Rohingya people in Japan, a Muslim ethnic minority in their home country of Myanmar, are asking the government to help ease escalating tensions there between Buddhists and Muslims that experts warn could develop into an international conflict.

Deadly riots first broke out in the western state of Rakhine near the border with Bangladesh in July after an Arakanese Buddhist girl was raped and murdered in May, allegedly by three Rohingya youths. The incident set off an onslaught of revenge attacks against Rohingya.

Even though the Myanmar government announced emergency rule in Rakhine, human rights observers said security forces did little to stop the violence and in some cases took part. At least 78 people were killed and more than 5,300 houses destroyed, according to government figures.

Rohingya in Japan who fled Myanmar to seek political asylum here are pinning their hopes on the Japanese government to pressure the Myanmar government to treat their compatriots better, as Japan has had an amiable history with the government during its years of repressive military rule.

"If there is a government the Myanmar government would listen to, it's the Japanese government," said Zaw Min Htut, president of the Burmese Rohingya Association of Japan.

In 1998, he fled political persecution in Myanmar and came to Japan, where he was first detained as an illegal immigrant. He is one of only a few Rohingya to be granted refugee status in Japan. Of 200 Rohingya who belong to the association, 15 have been granted official asylum.

The government of Myanmar President Thein Sein is now bringing sweeping changes to the once isolated nation since it pledged to transition into a democratic system. It has made reconciliation efforts among Myanmar's more than 100 ethnic minority groups, but not the Rohingya, who were excluded by the government from holding citizenship when the country enacted a citizenship law in 1982.

The United Nations estimates that about 800,000 Rohingya live in Rakhine state and describes them as one of the most persecuted and stateless minorities in the world.

The Rohingya issue is such an emotional one in Myanmar that even opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains silent, even though the ethnic Muslim group has been a staunch supporter of the democratic leader. Some pundits say the hatred against the Rohingya has been ingrained even among the most vocal human rights activists in Myanmar.

In an interview with The Japan Times, Zaw Min Htut said Japan wields more diplomatic clout as it was never a harsh critic of the military junta, while the United States and the European Union imposed economic sanctions against the military dictatorship. When Thein Sein visited Japan in April on the first state visit by a Myanmar leader in 28 years, Japan forgave $3.7 billion in debt to support the country's nascent democratization.

Officials at the Foreign Ministry said they recognize the clashes in Rakhine state, and that the government is paying close attention to developments, but they are on the fence about taking direct action aside from providing humanitarian assistance through the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Mizuho Fukushima, president of the Social Democratic Party and a lawyer who has worked on human rights issues, believes Japan could at least express concern to prompt the government of Thein Sein to take a more humanitarian approach to this issue.

The Upper House lawmaker has been supportive of Zaw Min Htut's human rights activities since the time he was detained by immigration authorities in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture.

"With the Myanmar government shifting toward a democratic system, more Japanese companies are eyeing business opportunities there," said Fukushima, who met with officials from the Foreign Ministry and Zaw Min Htut to discuss the Rohingya issue in early August.

"It might impact Japanese businesses if the clash escalates even further," said Fukushima, who said she will push the government to support an independent United Nations investigation into the matter.

Following international pressure, Thein Sein launched a commission to investigate the August sectarian killings. But experts warn that the clashes could get worse and have the potential to develop into an international conflict involving Muslim Bangladesh. They say mediation by a third party, such as Japan, is needed.

"It would be a great opportunity to exercise Japan's diplomatic skills," said Kei Nemoto, a professor at Sophia University in Tokyo and an expert on Myanmar, likening the situation to when Japan mediated peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and the rebel Tamil Tigers in 2003. "But first Thein Sein has to agree to such a third-party mediation framework, which might be difficult."

Source 

Dalai Lama writes to Suu Kyi

Source :  Mizzima News

The Tibetan spiritual leader has written to Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi expressing his concerns over the outbreak of communal violence in Burma.

In a letter, the Dalai Lama said that he was “deeply saddened” by the violence inflicted on residents of the region.

Speaking to reporters recently, the Dalai Lama also condemned the ethnic violence in Assam and urged everyone to practice religious harmony and nonviolence.

For thousands of years, India has had a culture of nonviolence and harmony with all religions, he said, which must be maintained.


My comment : At last My Favorite Dalai Lama Expressed The Humanity is the greatest Buddhism. At first Human Being, Then after A Buddhist Monk. A great Tibetan  or Vijayanagar Buddhism ideology. 

Dalai-Lama-offers-prayer-hijrat-mosque-in-srinagar-on-14-july-2012

Source :Tibet Sun

Myanmar Rohingya Muslims: The Hidden Genocide

As world wakes up to stories of concentration camps, torture and killings in Rakhine state, IBTimes UK ask why Aung San Suu Kyi has stayed silent

By Gianluca Mezzofiore: 

August 22, 2012 11:22 AM GMT

Aung San Suu Kyi has remained silent on the Rohingya issue. (Reuters)

London-based Burma Campaign UK has slammed pro-democracy activists in Myanmar for failing the Rohingya, "the world's most persecuted minority" according to the UN, by not speaking out on their behalf.

The activists are keeping quiet for fear of losing support ahead of 2015  elections, says the campaign, despite mounting reports of mass killings, mass graves, torture and concentration camps.
"Pro-democracy activists in Burma have been largely silent about the recent crisis - but some have actively jumped on the popular tide of racism and even suggested Rohingya be deported," Burma Campaign UK's director Mark Farmaner told IBTimes UK.
According to Maung Zarni, visiting fellow at LSE's Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, the pro-democracy opposition is actually "a big part of the obstacle to resolving the Rohingya crisis peacefully and amicably".

The National League for Democracy (NLD) and its leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi, who spent nearly two decades in jail and under house arrest, earned worldwide praise for their refusal to kneel before the military junta and for their steady criticism of human rights abuses inside the country.
But Aung San Suu Kyi has dodged questions about the Rohingya situation during her visit to Europe and has not spoken out on it yet.
Diplomats and human rights groups have grown increasingly concerned by her silence.
"She is no longer a political dissident trying to stick to her principles. She's a politician and her eyes are fixed on the prize, which is the 2015 majority Buddhist vote," Zarni told The Independent.
Racist pro-democracy leaders
As far as the NLD's senior leaders and co-founders are concerned, they are "racist to their cores" according to Zarni. Journalist U Win Tin, among those of "Generation 88" (named after the year the pro-democracy activists banded together) who founded the party, even advocated the idea of interring the Rohingya, as the US did with Japanese people resident in the States during World War II.
"What is shocking to me as a Burmese is that these dissidents have failed to internalise humanism and human rights ideas, despite the fact that they have been barking human rights for the past 25 years," said Zarni.
Aung San Suu Kyi called for a "revolution of the spirit" a quarter of a century ago, but "nothing spiritually progressive has taken root in the popular Burmese psyche", Zarni continued.
Prejudice against Rohingya is so endemic "that anyone speaking out for Rohingya rights faces abuse and condemnation", Burma Campaign UK said.
"With critical elections due in 2015, activists may fear losing support if they speak out," Farmaner agreed.  He added that this prejudice needs to be challenged but that will not happen until "pro-democracy leaders start taking a moral stance and showing principled leadership".
Racism is so widespread in Myanmar that it is considered socially acceptable.
"Racism exists not just against Rohingya but against and between various ethnicities in Burma as well as against foreigners. There is also widespread anti-Muslim prejudice."
The current resurgence of racism is a direct result of a half-century of despotic military rule, according to Zardi.
Crimes against humanity

Representatives from the military members of parliament attend the opening of a joint parliament session in Naypyitaw

UK-based human rights organisations and scholars have called on the international community to delay lifting sanctions against Myanmar until a solution to the persecution of Rohingya is found.
The allegations of ethnic cleansing raised by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) are serious enough to charge the Burmese leadership on grounds of "crimes against humanity" before the UN, according to Zarni.
"The West should second the OIC's attempt to put the Rohingya ethnic cleansing - or partial attempts by the Burmese government - on the UN's agenda in the General Assembly," he said. "There is strong enough evidence to charge the Burmese leadership."
The Rohingya have never been granted citizenship in Myanmar and a 1982 law excluded them from the list of officially recognised minorities.
Sectarian tension between Rakhine state's 800,000 Rohingya and their Arakanese Buddhist neighbours exploded in June after allegations that a gang of Rohingya men had raped an Arakanese woman. The Muslims were lynched in response, sparking days of rioting.
However, many challenge this version of the facts, claiming the government's media "were whipping up the stories of the Rohingya as a threat to national security and Buddhism society".

People shout slogans against the massacre of the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar (Reuters)

According to Zarni, the military regime "had a hand" in the outbreak of ethno-religious violence in western Burma.
"One rationale is that the regime has decided to resort to this ethno-religious mobilisation of the Buddhist masses as a way of shoring up its dwindling popularity vis-a-vis the growing and active popular support for Aung San Suu Kyi, at least domestically," Zarni said.
One estimate reports that 90 people have been killed and more than 100,000 displaced during the conflict but HRW said this figure was grossly underestimated.
"There is a major humanitarian and human rights crisis taking place in Rakhine state and it isn't getting the international attention it should," Farmaner said.
It is widely believed within the Islamic community that the Myanmar government has acquiesced in or even actively supported the recent violence against the Rohingya.
"The Rohingya have faced severe human rights abuses at the hands of security forces for many decades and these have escalated in the current crisis," confirmed Farmaner. "Burma Campaign UK has received reports of rape, executions, torture and looting by security forces against Rohingya."
Since the 1970s, the military regime has attempted to drive out or otherwise severely restrict the Rohingya in western Burma, Zarni claimed.
"This is the first time the Rohingya persecution has caught the world's attention," he said.
"The resultant pressure and policy priority by the Organisation of Islamic Countries has - for the moment - forced the generals in Naypyidaw [the capital] to play nice with the Rohingyas in Burma."

Source

Rohingyas treated as collateral damage

Violence against Myanmar’s Muslim minority is only the latest chapter in a history of state-sponsored repression that began in the 1950s in a bid to achieve racial purity

• By Azad Essa
• Published: 00:00 August 18, 2012

A few weeks ago, a picture showing hundreds of dark-skinned men splayed across a beach was passed around on Facebook. The men appeared to be either asleep, or more likely, dead. They lay against each other, their faces averted from the camera, while men in fatigues holding semi-automatic weapons towered over them. The caption read: ‘Continuity of massacre of Muslims of Myanmar by Buddhists. More than 1,000 killed yesterday. Please share.’

After some probing, the photograph turned out to be a fake. But all fabrications aside, there actually is a bona fide crisis unfolding along the Myanmar and Bangladesh border — despite the poppycock on social media, the sham did raise questions that traditional media have largely ignored.

Violence between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine region erupted in June after the alleged rape and murder of a Buddhist girl by Muslim men. The scale of violence has led to scores of deaths and the mass displacement of tens of thousands of people.

After a state of emergency was declared in the province, the entry of Myanmar’s security forces lent another dimension to this conflict. Amnesty International said in early August that Rakhine Buddhists, together with security forces, purposefully meted out devastating violence against the Muslim minority.

Article continues below

This violence is only the latest chapter in a long history of state-sponsored repression against the Rohingyas. It began when Myanmar began its project of ‘Myanmarnisation’ in the 1950s, with its lofty aims for racial purity and the nationalisation of resources following the end of British rule. The minority was targeted in pogroms in 1978, stripped of their citizenship in 1982 and became the perfect foil for rampant human rights abuse, including slave labour and torture, that led to a second exodus into Bangladesh in 1991-92.

But not only are the Rohingyas a disenfranchised people, they are dark-skinned Muslims with little relevance, representation and significance to anyone. Unable to deal with a matter the much-vaunted Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has not endorsed, the western world has tiptoed around the issue.

Suu Kyi’s silence is evidently an attempt to placate her constituency ahead of general elections in 2015, and to criticise her now would be like admonishing Nelson Mandela in the run-up to the 1994 election in South Africa. But unlike South Africa in the 1990s, Myanmar is not on the verge of some tremendous political shakeup; while the Rohingyas are being sacrificed as collateral damage in the greater project of the democratisation of Myanmar, Suu Kyi is missing an extraordinary opportunity to live up to her reputation.

Delayed reaction

Meanwhile, in that parallel universe known as the ‘Muslim world’, the Rohingyas have joined Palestine, Kashmir, Iraq and Afghanistan on the list of flagship Muslim causes. In a region that is home to the world’s greatest concentration of Muslims, the delayed reaction of neighbouring Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei is startling.

Last week, Bangladesh, another Muslim country, ordered three NGOs to stop providing food and other humanitarian assistance to Rohingyas in the border area, claiming it did not want to encourage more asylum-seekers to its shores. Already 40,000 unregistered Rohingyas live in makeshift camps in Bangladesh, and according to the UN Refugee Agency, the latest violence will result in a greater influx of people — whether Bangladesh likes it or not.

While Myanmar’s Muslim neighbours struggle to respond, Saudi Arabia has donated money. It has fallen to Turkey to act decisively by further extending its newly found benevolence to the Islamic world. As images of the Turkish prime minister’s wife sobbing as she witnessed the effects of the violence herself begin to be passed around online — further cementing the Rohingya cause to the long list of Muslims’ suffering — Muslim prayers have bemoaned the global silence. And yet little is being done by Muslims to actually reverse the treatment of their purported brethren themselves.

It all makes for a rather disempowering picture, but it doesn’t have to. Given how fast a fake picture can spread its way across the world, imagine what we could do with a little engagement.

— Guardian News & Media Ltd

Azad Essa is a journalist and the author of Zuma’s Bastard and The Moslems are Coming.

Myanmar moderates risk ire to calm sectarian rift

By AFP

Published: August 17, 2012

Nay Phone Latt, who was released in January after nearly four years in jail has become the target of backlash by social media users. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE

YANGON: A Myanmar blogger who was a poster boy for online resistance to the former junta has become the target of a backlash by social media users for speaking out against hatred aimed at Rohingya Muslims.

The case of former political prisoner Nay Phone Latt, a rare moderate voice on recent fighting between Muslims and Buddhist Rakhine, underscores the level of anger sparked by the unrest which erupted in western Myanmar in June.

The 32-year-old has faced the ire of social networkers for publishing an article warning of “genocide” if anti-Muslim sentiment spreads around the Buddhist-majority nation.

“I try to be neutral in this case but most of the Facebook (users) criticise me for being neutral. They want me to be on the side of the Rakhine,” he told AFP.

The blogger was sentenced to two decades in prison in 2008 for his links to the “Saffron Revolution” monk-led protests against the junta the previous year.

While detained he won the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award in New York for showing the “strength of the creative spirit” in the face of repression. He was released in January as part of a political prisoner amnesty.

Recently, however, a photograph used during the campaign to free him – showing his friends with “Nay Phone Latt” written on their palms — has been circulated online with his name crossed out and replaced with the word “kalar”, a derogatory term for Muslims in Myanmar.

But he said some people realised the situation could lead to “endless fighting” if left unresolved and he had no regrets about speaking out.

Fellow blogger Nyi Lynn Seck, who has challenged one government official for posting controversial Facebook comments on the Rakhine violence, said anger was being stoked by misinformation.

“Some people are intentionally spreading fake news,” he said.

Matthew Smith, a researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said it was difficult for ordinary citizens to be objective because there was a widespread belief that all Rohingya are “illegal immigrants from Bangladesh”, including at the highest levels of government.

“Young bloggers seeking the truth and attempting to approach the issue objectively should be applauded,” he said.

“Sometimes the protection of human rights depends on courageous voices willing to stand up despite great social pressure, and this is one of those times.”

The official toll from the violence stands at about 80 people dead from both sides, although human rights groups fear the figure could be much higher. Renewed violence left several people dead earlier this month.

Tensions in Rakhine are related not only to religion, but also to a flood of immigration from the Indian subcontinent during British colonial rule, which ended in 1948, said independent Myanmar analyst Richard Horsey.

“There are just such strong prejudices on this issue that it’s even harder for the government to deal with it in this new democratic era than it was in the past,” he said.

Myanmar’s government, which has denied allegations of abuses by security forces in Rakhine, has veered from statements extolling the racial and religious plurality of the country, to suggestions that the Rohingya should be kept in refugee camps or deported.

Some elements of the country’s democracy movement have also dismayed the Rohingya by rejecting them as an ethnic minority.

One exception is comedian and former political prisoner Zarganar, who has called for equal rights for all regardless of religion or ethnicity.

Even Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has disappointed some campaigners by not offering stronger support to the country’s estimated 800,000 Rohingya, viewed by the United Nations as one of the world’s most persecuted minorities.

But Aye Lwin, a Muslim community leader at the Islamic Centre of Myanmar in Yangon, said he was satisfied with Suu Kyi’s call for even-handed distribution of aid, adding that any strong pronouncement that seemed to favour the Rohingya would be a “fatal blow for her politically”.

He hopes to send an inter-faith group to Rakhine state to reach out to some monks who he described as “hot-headed” and said had been supporting the unrest.

“Most of the younger generation, they need to be educated, not just emotional,” Aye Win said.

“That goes for the international Islamic community also – they should know the actual facts or else they will do damage instead of helping us.”

Aye Lwin said the mission to Rakhine would try to help both communities.

“In that way we will be able to win them over gradually. But it will take a lot of time. A lot of damage has been done.”

Minority Shows Burma Has a Long Way to Go

By Emily Rauhala
 

Muslim residents carry their belongings as they evacuate their houses amid ongoing violence in Sittwe, capital of Burma's western state of Rakhine, on June 12, 2012

 The callous handling of sectarian violence in Arakan reminds us that the country's transition is far from complete

For much of the past five decades, Burma has been a byword for political repression. The generals that seized power in 1962 ruled with fearsome, often reckless, authority, stomping out dissent and turning one of Asia’s breadbaskets into a barren, hungry place. In the past two years, the story changed. The men in green handed power to a quasi-civilian government, promising to end the country’s isolation. In April, the world watched Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi lead the National League for Democracy to a near sweep in by-elections hailed as a landmark for the Southeast Asian nation. Suu Kyi, long incarcerated by the junta, was now a parliamentarian acceptable to the regime. The nation’s own reversal, it seemed, was only a matter of time.

But a recent spate of violence in the country’s northwest reminds us that Burma’s transition is far from complete. Even as the West relaxes sanctions and investors flock to Rangoon, swaths of the country seethe. Since June, clashes between ethnic Arakan Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in Arakan (also called Rakhine state) have left at least 78 people dead and tens of thousands displaced. An investigation by Human Rights Watch found government forces did little to quell the violence, leaving terrified villagers to defend themselves with sharpened sticks and homemade spears. Worse, police and paramilitary forces have since launched a crackdown on Rohingya, conducting violent sweeps, opening fire on villagers and arresting large numbers of Muslim men and boys.

(PHOTOS: Sectarian Unrest in Burma)

The uncomfortable truth is that in Arakan, at least, the new Burma looks a lot like the old. This patchwork nation is still split along sectarian lines, still divided by history, geography and language. Military men still hold key positions in government. And whereas reformers might have spoken out, many are staying silent, turning away as Arakan burns. Fact is, most of Burma’s people don’t see the Rohingya as part of the country’s ethnic fabric. Asked about the Rohingya, President Thein Sein, a former general, suggested refugee camps or mass expulsion as “solutions.” “The government claims it is committed to ending ethnic strife and abuse,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement accompanying the group’s 56-page report on the crisis. “But recent events in Arakan state demonstrate that state-sponsored persecution and discrimination persist.”

The immediate cause of the unrest was the alleged May 28 rape and murder of an ethnic Arakan woman, allegedly at the hands of three Muslim men. Word of the killing spread quickly, hastened by pamphlets steeped in anti-Muslim propaganda. On June 3, Arakan villagers in a neighboring township stopped a bus and murdered 10 Muslims onboard. Within the week, riots broke out in at least two cities to the north, Human Rights Watch found, escalating an ongoing cycle of mob violence. In the regional capital, Sittwe, most of the Rohingya are gone. The Muslim quarter sits shuttered. “It’s like looking at the aftermath of a natural disaster,” an unnamed Channel 4 News correspondent said, surveying the damage in a dispatch from the city. “Except human beings did this.”

In many ways, the conflict has been brewing for years. The Arakanese and the Rohingya live, literally and figuratively, at Burma’s periphery. The coastal state, which traces the Bay of Bengal to the Bangladesh border, is separated from the rest of the country by mountains. It is poor, even by Burma’s standards, and most of its residents are minorities in a country dominated by the ethnic Burmese of the heartland to the east. Like the Rohingya, and indeed most of Burma’s minorities, the Arakanese suffered immensely under military rule. Unlike the Rohingya, they are citizens. If there is common ground to be found between Naypyidaw and Arakan, it is the belief that Rohingya don’t belong in Burma.

(MORE: Will Ethnic Violence Kill Burma’s Fragile Reforms?)

The Rohingya are among the most isolated and oppressed people in the world. The end of British colonial rule left them stateless, sandwiched between present-day Burma and Bangladesh. Though many trace their Bay of Bengal roots back centuries, the Burmese government insists they are illegal South Asian migrants, relics of colonial times. They have never been recognized as one of Burma’s 135 indigenous races and have routinely been denied the right to travel, marry or work. The ruling junta played on nativist sentiment, stoking racial hatred. A Burmese diplomat once called them “ugly ogres.” Many still see them as outsiders bent on stealing Buddhist lands.

The suspicion is such that even Burmese activists seem afraid, or unwilling, to speak out. Suu Kyi, the symbolic heart of the country’s opposition, has been accused of dodging questions on the matter. While touring Europe in June, she responded to a query about the crisis by saying, obliquely, that she does not know if the Rohingya are Burmese. Absent opposition from inside Burma, Muslim groups from Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Turkey have rallied behind the Rohingya cause. The Burmese government last week agreed to aid from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, but maintains that the conflict is nonsectarian. In a way, of course, it’s right: this is, at its heart, a matter of basic rights and government accountability. On both counts, the new Burma has far to go.

(PHOTOS: Aung San Suu Kyi Travels Abroad for the First Time in 24 Years)
Emily Rauhala is an Associate Editor at TIME. Find her on Twitter at @emilyrauhala. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME

American Muslims Launch ‘Burma Task Force USA’

WASHINGTON DC—Prominent Muslim American groups have come together to launch Burma Task Force USA with the objective of raising the profile of the Rohingya issue while speaking out against alleged atrocities and human rights violations which have forced thousands to flee and seek refuge in neighboring Bangladesh.

“We demand that those responsible for the mass rapes and mass murder of thousands of Rohingyas be charged with crimes against humanity and genocide by the International Court of Justice,” Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, chairperson of Burma Task Force USA, demanded on Monday.

The Burma Task Force is based on a previous successful effort of American Muslims, the Bosnia Task Force, where its members worked with the interfaith leadership and women’s rights organizations against the genocide of Muslims in the former Yugoslavia.

Mujahid said the objective of the group is to stop perceived ethnic cleansing in Burma. “We will be working with leaders of other faith groups, interfaith groups, women’s rights organizations and peace movements to put pressure on the US government and the American business community to warn the Burmese government to stop the ethnic cleansing,” he said.

American Muslims are taking their cue from the previous efforts of Coalition Against Genocide, wherein Muslims of Indian origin living in the US worked with other communities to revoke the diplomatic visa of Narendra Modi, the chief minister of the western Indian State of Gujarat, for his alleged role in communal riots there some 10 years ago.

Many of the founding members of Burma Task Force USA have been actively working to stop this new violence in western Burma ever since it first flared in June, said Mujahid.

Dr. Shaik Ubaid, who has been advocating the cause of Rohingyas since 1992, was instrumental in getting the Indian Muslims to rally India’s interfaith community to put similar pressure on the government of India. Other leaders have been active in putting pressure on Bangladesh’s government to open its borders, he said.

“Rohingya Muslims were shorn of their citizenship and have suffered sustained and horrific persecution for decades. The campaign by Suu Kyi to obtain the help of the West for the democracy movement in Burma gives us an opportunity to use the American and the world community’s influence to stop the waves of ethnic cleansing,” said Dr. Ubaid, a board member of the task force.

“Aung San Suu Kyi had promised to support the citizenship rights of the Rohingya Muslims in 2005; she gave [a] statement in response to my query on a BBC program. We will hold Suu Kyi accountable,” he said.

The Burma Task Force said its New York chapter is currently planning a rally in front of the Burmese mission there. The communal violence in western Burma has claimed at least 77 lives and left more than 90,000 displaced, according to official figures.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has ordered US $50 million in aid be sent to Rohingyas in Burma. A report on the Saudi state news agency said the Muslim community had been “exposed to many violations of human rights including ethnic cleansing, murder, rape and forced displacement.”

Furthermore, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation announced on Saturday that it received the green light from Burmese President Thein Sein to visit Arakan State and assist Rohingya Muslims displaced by sectarian violence.

International community press solution for Rohingyas

Barrister Harun Ur Rashid

During the past two decades, Bangladesh accepted and sheltered more than 300,000 Rohingya refugees, who not only stayed back but also put heavy economic and social burden on the world's most densely-populated nation.

After violence erupted in the Rakhine state in early June, Bangladesh refused giving shelter to any Rohingya. Although the refusal drew criticism from human rights activists, it has attracted the attention of the international community to the Rohingya issue.

It is worthwhile to note that the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has launched a major international campaign to put an end to the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslim minority in the Rakhine state of Myanmar and protect their legitimate rights. OIC offices in Geneva, New York, and Brussels are making intense efforts to foster international intervention in the issue.

The OIC is believed to be in touch with the United Nations, UN Human Rights Council, European Union and other international organisations to halt the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar.

OIC Secretary-General Ekmeledin Ihsanoglu strongly condemned the situation which has resulted in deaths of innocent civilians, burning of their homes and forced eviction from their homeland. Ihsanoglu further hoped that the Myanmar government would respond to the concerns of the international community in a positive and constructive manner, so that all its Rohingya Muslims are able to return to their homeland with honour, safety and dignity.

Furthermore, the issue was raised at the recent Asean Foreign Ministers' meeting in Cambodia. The Asean is seeking an explanation from member state Myanmar about recent ethnic violence targeting minority Rohingya group. "There will be a full explanation from Myanmar because this is an important and critical issue for Asean as a community," Asean Secretary General Dr. Surin Pitsuwan reportedly said.

On July 28, it was reported that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Judge Navi Pillay, called for an independent investigation following claims of abuses toward Rohingyas by security forces in Myanmar.

On July 25, Aung San Suu Kyi called for new laws to protect Myanmar's ethnic minority groups, highlighting one of the country's most challenging issues as it opens up to the outside world.

She urged the government to pass "necessary laws or amend laws to protect the rights of ethnic nationalities," and said protecting minority rights required more than just maintaining ethnic languages and cultures. "The high poverty rates in ethnic states clearly indicate that development in ethnic regions is not satisfactory and ethnic conflicts in these regions have not ceased," she said. She didn't, however, mention the recent violence in the Rohingya area.

Ms. Suu Kyi called for an end to discrimination against ethnic minorities as part of the "emergence of a genuine democratic country," the Associated Press reported. By focusing on the country's ethnic divisions in her first parliamentary address, Ms. Suu Kyi rightly drew attention to an issue that needs to be resolved speedily and peacefully.

While, in May, Suu Kyi met thousands of Myanmar refugees at a Thai border camp and promised to try as much as she could to help them return home, she was conspicuously silent on the Rohingya issue. During the recent trip to Europe, she talked about need for "the rule of the law" in the country and avoided the Rohingya issue, which disappointed many human rights organisations overseas.

Human-rights groups, meanwhile, have criticised Ms. Suu Kyi for failing to speak out more in favour of the Rohingyas, whom most people in Myanmar consider "illegal settlers" in Myanmar.

In mid-July, Myanmar's president told the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres: "We will take responsibility for our ethnic people but it is impossible to accept the illegally entered Rohingyas, who are not our ethnicity," according to the president's official website. However, the UN high commissioner reportedly did not agree with the views of the president on the Rohingya issue.

Since its independence, Myanmar has suffered from intense ethnic divides. More than a half-dozen ethnic groups claim autonomy from the centralised government system dominated by the Burman ethnic group.

At least one group, the Kachin, is waging a low-level war against the government, while violence in western Myanmar in early June between Buddhists and Muslim Rohingyas in Rakhine state (Arakan) left at least 78 people dead and led to the declaration of emergency in the state by the government.

The administration of President Thein Sein is to be credited as it has reached cease-fire deals with some restive minority groups, but peace with the Kachin has yet to take place. Many analysts say more radical changes are needed, including enactment of new laws to recognise the ethnicity of minorities in Myanmar.

It is important to note that many of the groups occupy areas crucial for the country's economic plans because they are home to large portions of Myanmar's rich natural resources, including natural gas and mined commodities.

Although Myanmar authorities have focused recently on trying to steer more economic development into ethnic areas, many investors remain wary of sinking money into regions where conflicts could flare up. The Rohingya conflict, in particular, has reportedly unnerved investors and upset rights advocates who fear the violence could escalate and destabilise Myanmar.

Myanmar will chair Asean in 2014 and, given that perspective, analysts say the Myanmar government needs to sit down for a dialogue with all ethnic groups including Rohingyas to grant equal rights and autonomy in Myanmar's political system. The deal with the ethnic groups in the late '40s (so-called Panglong Agreement) collapsed after late General Ne Win took power in a 1962 coup.

The writer is former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.

The President, the Lady, and the Plight of the Rohingya

By Gregory Poling and Prashanth Parameswaran

Aug 2, 2012

© 2012 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. All rights reserved.

Myanmar continues to pursue reforms at an impressive pace, but the plight of the country’s Rohingya population remains a disgrace for a state seeking to engage the international community. That disgrace is not the government’s alone—it is shared by the opposition movement, including its leader Aung San Suu Kyi as well as the country’s neighbors and the international community.

The more than 800,000 Rohingyas that live in Myanmar today, most in western Rakhine state, are denied citizenship by the government and face a range of abuses including forced labor, marriage restrictions, and unlawful detention. Their suffering is so severe that many have sought refuge across the border in Bangladesh, while others have fled on dangerous voyages by boat to Thailand and Malaysia. Amnesty International July 20 noted that both security forces and Buddhists in Rakhine state have been carrying out “primarily one-sided” attacks, including massive security sweeps, detentions, and killings, against the Rohingya in the weeks after a wave of communal violence erupted between the area’s Buddhist and Muslim populations.

During the recent communal violence, the country’s news outlets engaged in base fear-mongering, equating Rohingyas with “terrorists,” and the government did nothing to dispel these assertions. Officials and most commentators from Myanmar’s majority Burman ethnic group insisted that the Rohingyas are recent migrants from Bangladesh and do not qualify as one of the country’s roughly 135 ethnic minorities. Immigration Minister Khin Yi said this week that they will not be included in the country’s 2014 census. Popular Myanmar News Journal has reported that he told Bangladesh’s ambassador to Myanmar that Rohingyas are not citizens because they only began migrating to the country after 1824.

The impossible situation in which Rohingyas find themselves has been on display since the eruption of violence nearly two months ago. Many have attempted to flee to Bangladesh with their families, where they have been stopped at the border and refused entry. Those who made it across the border face detention and deportation back to Rakhine state. Myanmar’s president Thein Sein announced that only those Rohingyas with proof of citizenship would be permitted to return to their homes, but the government has long denied Rohingyas the right to legal documentation of any kind. The president said Myanmar will not accept “illegal immigrants” and has requested that the United Nations refugee agency either place the Rohingya in refugee camps or deport them to a third country, which the UN understandably refused.

On the opposition side, the widely respected Aung San Suu Kyi has avoided the subject. During her June trip to Europe, which coincided with the outbreak of communal violence in Rakhine state, she said only that the country must clarify its citizenship laws. Whether such clarification would embrace or dispossess the Rohingya was left unclear. In her first parliamentary speech July 25, Suu Kyi spoke of soaring poverty rates and other roots of violence in “ethnic states,” but did not mention the deadly violence in Rakhine state or the government’s treatment of Rohingyas. Other leaders of her National League for Democracy have made clear that they are of one mind with the government in declaring the Rohingya squatters on their own land.

Some international commentators argue that the opposition’s position is to be expected since the issue is politically sensitive and most citizens hold extremely hostile views toward the Rohingya. But that is no excuse for silence in the face of killing, rape, and abuse of a helpless people. Some have argued that Suu Kyi herself has her arms tied now that she is an elected member of parliament from a conservative district. This wildly underestimates the influence of “the Lady.” Suu Kyi is much more than a parliamentary opposition leader; she is the scion of the nation’s greatest hero, the symbol of resistance to what was until recently one of the world’s most repressive regimes, and to many of her countrymen a bodhisattva, one on the path to enlightenment and Buddhahood.

The government of Myanmar needs to snap out of its denial and confront the Rohingya issue head on. The nearly million Rohingyas in Myanmar are the country’s responsibility, and proper rights must be accorded to

them. President Thein Sein should also have a frank and practical discussion about repatriation issues with his Bangladeshi counterpart during his upcoming visit to Dhaka.

Aung San Suu Kyi must break her silence on the issue. She cannot change the collective opinions of an entire country over night, but her voice is critical in getting the ball rolling. Even if the government tomorrow decreed the Rohingya citizens of Myanmar, most of the population would still see them as intruders. Only Suu Kyi’s opinion can carry enough weight with the Burman majority to make a dent in that prejudice.

The international community also should play a stronger role. It is encouraging that ASEAN secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan has taken a “personal interest” in the issue and spoke directly to Myanmar and Bangladesh during ASEAN meetings in Cambodia in July. However, the organization and its member states can do much more to facilitate a solution. A good opportunity will be at an upcoming international conference on the Rohingya in August, where progress can hopefully be made toward allowing access for aid that is currently being blocked by the government. The conference was announced by the Malaysian International Islamic Cooperation Institute, but the exact location remains undecided.

Other concerned actors ranging from the United States to the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) should also hold Myanmar’s feet to the fire on this issue since it remains an enormous blemish on the country’s path to reform. The United States and Europe have spent decades condemning the treatment of the country’s other minorities, particularly the Karen and, more recently, the Kachin. Their response to the plight of the Rohingya has been, by comparison, remarkably muted. At the very least, they should support the call by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for an international inquiry into the widely reported abuses against the Rohingya by security forces in Rakhine state.

UN special rapporteur on human rights for Myanmar Tomas Ojea Quintana traveled to Rakhine state this week to assess the situation. He was told dismissively by Immigration Minister Khin Yi that “this is just a regional but not an international issue . . . so I don’t think the government will accept the call to open an inquiry as if this were an international issue.” The international community must make clear that the problem will not simply go away. The plight of the Rohingya may well constitute crimes against humanity, according to a June report by respected researchers at the Irish Center for Human Rights. Myanmar’s civilian government, its democratic opposition, the country’s neighbors, and the global community all have an obligation to confront this reality and ensure that it is rectified. (This Commentary first appeared in the August 2, 2012, issue of Southeast Asia from the Corner of 18th and K Streets.)

Gregory Poling is a research associate with the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. Prashanth Parameswaran is a researcher with the CSIS Southeast Asia Program.

Commentary is produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s).
© 2012 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. All rights reserved.

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France calls on Myanmar to protect Muslims

Source : Bangkok Post

France called Monday for Myanmar authorities to protect civilians of all ethnic groups "without discrimination'' after reports of renewed deadly violence between Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya.

"France attaches great importance to a peaceful and concerted resolution to ethnic questions in Myanmar, in order to achieve national reconciliation,'' foreign ministry deputy spokesman Vincent Floreani said in a statement.

The ministry called for the status of Muslims in Myanmar's western Rakhine state "to be clarified with regard to right to nationality and for them to enjoy, whatever their status, full respect for human rights.''

"There are reports of worrying acts of violence by security forces against civilians. We call on the Burmese authorities to protect all civilian populations, without discrimination, and to investigate possible abuses,'' Floreani said.

Fighting in western Rakhine state has killed 80 people from both sides since June, with six reportedly killed on Sunday, although authorities say the situation has been generally calm in recent weeks.

The violence initially broke out in June following the rape and murder of a Rakhine woman and the subsequent lynching of 10 Muslims by a crowd of angry Buddhists.

The bloodshed has cast a shadow over widely praised reforms by President Thein Sein, including the release of hundreds of political prisoners and the election of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to parliament.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has accused Myanmar forces of opening fire on Rohingya, as well as committing rape and standing by as rival mobs attacked each other.

Decades of discrimination have left the Rohingya stateless and they are viewed by the United Nations as one of the world's most persecuted minorities.

Saudi Arabia accuses Myanmar of ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Muslims

Violence which erupted in June in the Myanmar state of Rakhine, between Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya, has reportedly left about 80 people dead on both sides. (Reuters)

By AL ARABIYA WITH AGENCIES 

Saudi Arabia accused authorities in Buddhist-majority Myanmar on Monday of “ethnic cleansing” against the Muslim Rohingya minority in the west of the country, state media reported on Tuesday.

The Saudi cabinet said it “condemns the ethnic cleansing campaign and brutal attacks against Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya citizens, as well as violation of human rights by forcing them to leave their homeland,” in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

The cabinet, chaired by King Abdullah, urged the “international community to take up its responsibilities by providing needed protection and quality of life to Muslims in Myanmar and preventing further loss of life.”

Fighting in western Rakhine state between Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya left three killed on Sunday, a government official in Yangon said.

The violence initially broke out following the rape and murder of a Rakhine woman and the subsequent lynching of 10 Muslims by a crowd of angry Buddhists.

The bloodshed has cast a shadow over widely praised reforms by President Thein Sein, that have included the release of hundreds of political prisoners and the election of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to parliament.

The head of the Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation on Sunday proposed sending an OIC mission to probe the “massacres” of Rohingya Muslims.

The OIC will try to persuade the government in Yangon to accept an OIC fact-finding mission, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told an executive committee meeting of the world's largest Muslim grouping which is based in the Saudi city of Jeddah.

He “expressed disappointment over the failure of the international community to take action to stop the massacres, violations, oppression and ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the government of Myanmar against the Rohingya Muslims.”

“The OIC has directed its offices at the United Nations in New York to urge the Council to look into the suffering of the Rohingya minority,” he said, quoted in a statement issued by the 57-member organization.

Violence which erupted in June in Rakhine state between Buddhists and Rohingya left about 80 people dead from both sides, official figures showed.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said that figure appeared “grossly underestimated,” however, and accused security forces of opening fire on Muslims and committing rape.

Hundreds of Rohingya men and boys have been rounded up and remain incommunicado in the western region of the country formerly known as Burma, it said in a report.

Members of both the Muslim and Buddhist communities committed horrific acts of violence with reports of beheadings, stabbings, shootings and widespread arson in Rakhine, also known as Arakan state, the report added

On Sunday, the Speaker of the Arab Parliament, Ali al-Salem al-Dekbasi said the violent incidents taking place in Myanmar against the Muslims were “ethnic cleansing”.

“Thousands of Muslims in Myanmar face massacre, genocide and ethnic cleansing. I call on all Muslim leaders to urgently intervene in the incidents,” al-Dekbasi said.

“I call on the Myanmar authorities to arrest those responsible for the attacks against the Muslims. All those responsible should be tried by the International Criminal Court,” al-Dekbasihe added/.

Myanmar’s government considers the estimated 800,000 Rohingya in the country to be foreigners, while many citizens see them as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh and view them with hostility.

Decades of discrimination have left them stateless and they are viewed by the United Nations as one of the world’s most persecuted minorities.

Myanmar Violence Sparks Rights Concerns

UN Envoy Calls Human Rights Situation 'Serious'

From Kocha Olarn CNN

(CNN) -- Sectarian violence has sparked a "serious" human rights situation in western Myanmar, a U.N. envoy said.

Tomas Quintana, the U.N.'s human rights rapporteur for Myanmar, called for an independent investigation into allegations that authorities are using excessive force and committing other human rights violations while trying to restore order in Rakhine state."While I am in no position to be able to verify these allegations at this point in time, they are of grave concern," Quintana said Saturday after completing a six-day visit to the country that included a trip to the western state, where a surge in sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslims in recent months has left dozens dead and displaced thousands.

Rakhine is home to the Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority who say they have been persecuted the Myanmar military during its decades of authoritarian rule.On Saturday, Quintana said an investigation in Rakhine is important to guarantee accountability."Reconciliation will not be possible without this, and exaggerations and distortions will fill the vacuum to further fuel distrust and tensions between communities," he said.Quintana also called for the release of six United Nations staff members in prison who were detained "in connection with events" in the state."I am of the view that the charges against them are unfounded and that their due process rights have been denied," he said.Their detention comes at a time that Myanmar has released hundreds of political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and instituted a series of political reforms after decades of repressive military rule. Western governments have responded to the efforts by easing sanctions on the country.Violence between Buddhists and Muslims erupted in Rakhine in June, after police detained three Muslim men in relation to the rape and killing of a Buddhist woman. Two of the men were sentenced to death, the government-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported on its website. A third man hanged himself while in detention on June 9.News of the crime appears to have motivated several hundred people to attack a bus in Rakhine in early June, killing 10 Muslims who were on board.Violence between Buddhists and Muslims then spread across the northern part of the state, resulting in the destruction of thousands of homes and the deaths of about 50 people, according to the government.The national government declared a state of emergency in Rakhine, bringing in the military to help restore order.The unrest has tested the efforts of President Thein Sein's administration to seek reconciliation with Myanmar's different ethnic groups and move the country toward more democratic governance.CNN's Jethro Mullen contributed to this report.

Copyright CNN 2012