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.

Saudi Arabia gives $50 mln aid to Myanmar Muslims

(Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has ordered $50 million in aid be sent to a Muslim minority in Myanmar which a human rights group said has been targeted by the authorities since sectarian riots in June.

A report on the Saudi state news agency said the Rohingya community had been "exposed to many violations of human rights including ethnic cleansing, murder, rape and forced displacement"."King Abdullah ... has ordered that assistance of the amount of $50 million be provided to the Rohingya Muslim citizens in Myanmar," said the report which was carried by Saudi media on Sunday. It did not say who was to blame for the abuses.However, Human Rights Watch said on August 1 that the Rohingyas had suffered mass arrests, killings and rapes at the hands of the Myanmar security forces. The minority had borne the brunt of a crackdown after days of arson and machete attacks in June by both Buddhists and Rohingyas in Rakhine state, the monitoring group said.
Myanmar, where at least 800,000 Rohingyas are not recognised as one of the country's many ethnic and religious groups, has said it exercised "maximum restraint" in quelling the riots.
Saudi Arabia sees itself as a guardian of global Muslim interests thanks to being the birthplace of Islam and home to some of the religion's holiest sites in Mecca and Medina. However, Riyadh also regularly draws criticism from campaigners for its lack of democracy.
Last week the Saudi cabinet condemned the violence against Muslims in northwest Myanmar and at a meeting on July 31, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in the kingdom's second city of Jeddah urged members to send Rohingya Muslims aid.
The OIC is holding a summit in Mecca on Tuesday.
(Reporting By Angus McDowall; editing by David Stamp)

Bringing Myanmar killers to justice tops summit agenda

DAMMAM: SIRAJ WAHAB

Sunday 12 August 2012

The ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar is one of the key issues to be discussed at the Islamic solidarity summit convened by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah in Makkah on Aug. 14-15.

With just two days to go for the conclave of the world’s most important Muslim leaders in the most holy city, pressure is mounting on Myanmar’s military junta to allow international and Islamic relief agencies access to the besieged Muslim population of the Arakan province.

Two important delegations to Myanmar — one led by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and the other by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation — this week have revealed signs of panic and desperation among the junta’s top leadership.

“They have been caught out and have now realized that what they have done to Rohingya Muslims constitutes a war crime,” one of the diplomats at the Jeddah-based OIC told Arab News.

“There is no doubt that the state was and possibly still is involved in the planned pogrom of Arakan Muslims, and they are now trying to reach out to the Muslim world to lessen the impact of the expected robust and unified Muslim response at the Makkah summit,” he said.

Besides Davutoglu, the Turkish delegation included Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s wife Emine and daughter Sumeyye. The delegation called on Myanmar President U Thein Sein and Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin and visited Rohingya Muslims staying in the Banduba refugee camp where more than 8,500 Rohingya Muslims have taken shelter.

The delegates received a first-hand account of what exactly happened to the Rohingya Muslims. They talked to a number of victims, and at one point, according to reports in the Turkish media, the prime minister’s wife was reduced to tears while listening an account being recounted by an affected Rohingya Muslim woman.

Davutoglu later told journalists that he would present his findings to the Muslim leaders at the Makkah summit. His findings will hold the key to the future course of action from the Muslim world at the summit.

According to a top Jeddah-based diplomat, there are a number of measures that the Muslim world can think of against Myanmar.

“We can haul the country’s top military leadership, including President Thein Sein and the Arakan provincial head, to the International Court of Justice in The Hague and try them like Solobodan Milosevic and other Serbian leadership,” he said. “Among the other viable options are that of approaching the UN Security Council and UN Human Rights Council.”

The diplomat also hinted at pressurizing and persuading the world’s leading powers to constitute an international peace-keeping force to save the Rohingya Muslims from being obliterated and uprooted from their historic homeland.

The OIC delegation to Myanmar was headed by former Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla. Among others, it included OIC Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Atta Manan Bakhiet and presidents of the Qatari Red Crescent and Kuwaiti International Humanitarian Commission.

The OIC delegates conveyed to President Thein Sein of the outrage in the Muslim world at the deplorable humanitarian conditions in the Arakan province of Myanmar.

The delegation asked for access to Muslim humanitarian organizations to provide emergency aid to inhabitants of the worst-hit Arakan province “without any religious discrimination.”

According to a press note issued by the OIC yesterday, Myanmar president welcomed the OIC delegation and stated that that what had happened was not a direct result of religious differences. Instead, he blamed the massacre on what he called as “social problems between various ethnicities in the province.”

Thein Sein pointed out to the OIC delegates that the international media distorted the events and presented wrong information and exaggerated the killings.

“President Thein Sein stressed his eagerness for the Muslim world in particular to know the truth about what occurred in Arakan, and he mentioned that he had sent an invitation to OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu recently to visit Myanmar to observe the real situation in the affected province,” said the OIC press note.

The president welcomed the OIC humanitarian delegation to Arakan and agreed to allow the OIC and its partner organizations to provide humanitarian aid to the province in an urgent manner and to open an office in the region in coordination with the central government in Yangon and the local authorities in the province.

He instructed the relevant ministries to sign an agreement with the OIC to complete the arrangements.

Pakistani president expresses concerns to Burma

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari Photo: presidentofpakistan.gov.pk

Source :Mizzima News

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday wrote to his Burmese counterpart expressing concern over the loss of life and property of Rohingya Muslims during the recent ethnic clashes in western Burma. 

In a letter addressed to the President Thein Sein, Zardari called for hastening the process of rehabilitation of Rohingya Muslims so that they can return to their homes and lead a safe and secure life.

The Pakistani President made his remarks days after the Pakistani Senate adopted a resolution, expressing serious concern at the recent reported attacks on Muslims in Burma.

Religious group in Pakistan have also urged the government to officially take up the issue with the Burmese government.

In July, the Amnesty International said that communal violence was “continuing in western Myanmar six weeks after the government declared a state of emergency, with much of it directed at minority Muslim Rohingyas who have been beaten, raped and killed.”

President Zardrai said that the government and the people of Pakistan were saddened to learn about the losses of the Muslims and were deeply concerned about their plight.

Underlining the importance of peaceful co-existence of various communities for the strengthening of democracy in Burma, he said that the communal harmony was imperative to reap the fruits of democracy.

He said that only peaceful coexistence of various communities would ensure that the democratic transition was not reversed.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia accused authorities in Buddhist-majority Burma on Monday of “ethnic cleansing” against the Muslim Rohingya minority in the west of the country, according to wire reports.

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.”

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

Burma’s government considers an estimated 800,000 Rohingya in the country to be foreigners, while many citizens see them as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh and view them with hostility. They are denied citizenship.

The United Nations call Rohingyas 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.