New 'retaliatory' attacks on #Myanmar's #Rohingyas

Rohingya activists have alleged that Myanmar's Buddhist protesters have launched fresh attacks on Muslims in retaliation to last week's attacks by Muslims on Buddhist temples and houses in Bangladesh.

Nurul Islam, a Rohingya activist in Bangladesh, told DW that a number of Myanmar Buddhists took out a protest rally on Sunday against the attacks on Buddhist temples and houses in Bangladesh. He alleged that the protesters attacked a 400-year-old mosque and burnt hundreds of copies of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, and other religious texts.

"In the past few days, many Burmese Buddhists have launched a series of attacks on Muslims," Islam said. "They are posting derogatory texts and pictures about Islam on social networking websites. They seem to be retaliatory attacks.”

Last month, an outbreak of anti-Buddhist rioting in Bangladesh left at least four temples and dozens of homes gutted by fire. Muslims had taken to the streets to protest against an internet photo they said defamed Islam. At least 20 people were believed to have been injured in these riots. The rioters targeted the Bangladeshi town of Ramu and its adjourning villages, some 350 kilometers (216 miles) from the capital, Dhaka.

Deadly riots erupted in Myanmar's Rakhine state in June. Rohingya activists claim that more than 650 Rohingyas have so far been killed in these riots.

"After the violence broke out in Rakhine in June, the Buddhists started using social networking sites to organise attacks on Rohingyas," Aung Kyaw Oo, a member of the Rohingya community, told DW. "Now, after the attacks on Buddhists in Bangladesh, they have taken the anti-Rohingya campaign to a new height."

The prejudice

Bangladesh has started turning Rohingya away

Myanmar's Rohingyas live predominantly in the western state of Rakhine. They are not officially recognized by the Burmese government as an ethnic minority group, and for decades they have been subjected to discrimination and violence by the Buddhist majority.

Viewed by the United Nations and the US as one of the world's most persecuted minorities, many Rohingyas have fled to neighboring countries such as Bangladesh and India to escape persecution.

Despite the fact that Myanmar has embarked on a series of political and economic reforms, human rights organizations and activists say the situation of Myanmar's ethnic communities has not improved significantly.

Mark Farmaner, head of the Burma Campaign UK, says that anti-Muslim prejudice is not restricted to the Rohingyas, and that it is certainly on the rise.

"While I was in Myanmar just before the start of the crisis, I came across anti-Muslim prejudice everywhere. This prejudice is encouraged by the Burmese government, with ministers making derogatory remarks about Muslims publicly," said Farmaner.

But experts say it is difficult to get credible information out of the region. They say it is hard to tell the difference between rumors, propaganda and the truth.

Source

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

Foreign Secretary stresses need to end violence in Burma

Foreign Secretary William Hague spoke about ongoing violence in Burma

“The UK, as ever, stands ready to assist the government of Burma in its efforts to develop Rakhine State, to share our knowledge and experience of tackling the many complex and long-standing issues to be overcome and, as Burma continues its path towards establishing full democracy,  to support an inclusive political settlement that protects the rights of all members of the local population.

“Whilst the reform process has already borne many fruits, we remain seriously concerned about the nature and extent of the recent violence. We have urged the government to resolve the crisis by taking effective and lawful steps to prevent any further violence, in accordance with international human rights law. We have also called upon the communities based there to act with restraint. We have done the same with our international partners, and in international institutions, such as the European Union and the United Nations.

“We join Mr Quintana in stressing the need to end the violence; to grant full and unhindered humanitarian access to the areas affected; to allow the affected communities to safely return to their homes; and to support the restitution of property that was seriously damaged or destroyed. We encourage the government to ensure that it treats the affected communities fairly and equitably and to ensure that the authorities prevent any further bloodshed. There is also a need to seek a long term solution to the problems they face in a manner which recognises their human rights, including their right to nationality, and to take effective steps which prevents any further forced or involuntary displacement and which does not leave them permanently displaced.

“Furthermore, we also join Mr Quintana in calling for the release of all those people who have been arbitrarily detained, irrespective of their ethnic background, and express the need for the government to carry out an independent, fair and prompt investigation in to the violence, in particular the allegations of serious crimes within the communities and human rights violations by the security forces, and for those found guilty of such crimes and human rights violations to be held accountable. In addition we repeat our calls on the government to release and rehabilitate all remaining political prisoners.”

“I Have never heard the name Rohingya” – Islamphobia & Xenophobia or Racism!

Abid Bahar Ph.D.

Well, the above can't be my statement. Those of you, who know me, know I have been working with the Rohingya people and on Burma for the past 31 years. So I have heard the name “Rohingya” many times. But surprisingly some Burmese people, who lived with the Rohingya people in Arakan and in Burma all their lives are of the claim that they have never heard of the name "Rohingya. It is as if saying “I have never met my brother, I have never seen my sister or even saying I have never seen my neighbor;” It sounds strange to me but not funny. Such assertion about an ethnic group aimed at intentionally ignoring them because you dislike them is called xenophobia, fear of the stranger. When Rohingyas as Burmese are made into strangers by the Rakhine gentlemen like Aye Kyaw, Aye Chan and the monk Ashin Nayaka, it is more than xenophobia; it is racism. It is a matter of extreme intolerance: an idea that also goes against even Buddhism.

What is behind all this?

1.    Burma is a huge country with more than 130 ethnic groups. Rohingyas are not included within them by the military government and their collaborators because the xenophobe’s assertion that they entered Burma after 1825 when the British occupied Arakan.

How is this possible? The recently arrived Rohingya refugees from Arakan show some of them are not even as old as 5 years to enter Burma in 1825? Strange logic indeed, against some people's birth rights. Well, the real story is Rohingyas as the Arakani Muslims are racially and religiously different from the racially Asian and religiously Buddhist Arakani and the Burmese majority population. The Karen Christians also have similar problems in Burma because of their religious differences. There you go! 

2.    The fact is Arakan had an Indian kingdom first Hindu, later on Mohayana Buddhist (See the history of Mohamuni of Buddha statue now in Mandalay, see in the research work of Martin Smith "Muslim Rohingya of Burma, 1995). About Buddhism, this is similar to Mohayana Buddhism in Bengal of the time. The Rakhines (also known as the Moghs, identified in British history) took their official name Rakhine during the 40's was recorded in history (not in Aye Kwaw's proto-history) to have entered Arakan with Theravada Buddhism in the 10th century, much later than Rohingya Muslim's arrival in Arakan in the 8th century.   

Where did all these people called Arakani Muslims go who began to settle in Arakan from the 8th century?

Where did the decedents of the soldiers of Wali Khan and Shandhi Khan who married with the local women in the 15th century go? This Muslim army of 30,000 by Wali Khan and 40, 000 by Sindkhan went to Arakan to help the Arakani king settled in the Kaladan valley. Where did the decedents of the captured Bengalis forcefully brought to Arakan by the Portuguese in the 15th century to work in agricultural lands go? 

Well, they were all there settled in all over Arakan. But after the 1942 Arakani Muslim genocide most of the Arakani Muslims began to retreat to the north of Arakan called the Mayu frontier area and the Rakhines feeling unsafe began to settle in the north settled in the South; some Rohingyas from 1942 even began to cross to Bangladesh. Then the situation was made more complicated when the British identified all the Arakani Muslims as being the Indian Muslims this was because India and Burma were under the one British Empire. However, in 1937 Burma was separated from India and the Arakani Muslims’ were seen as “foreigners,” and their fate was allotted with the Burmese Buddhist majority country. 

To avoid the anti-foreigner movement that first began in Rangoon by Ottama, an Arakani reactionary monk, Rohingya leaders began to separate their British labeled identity (of being the Indian immigrant Muslims settled in Rangoon.)to their indigenous identity. In order to do that they officially adapted an existing Burmese name called the "Rohingya” used by the Arakani Muslims for themselves before Britain occupied Arakan. The leaders officially adapted the name during the 50's.That was a smart move by the Rohingyas but to the military and the xenophobes, it was another excuse to attack the victim; the Rohingya. It had turned out to be another excuse as if like in the wolf vs. lamb story of blaming the victim. The naming provided the military and the xenophobes the excuse that Burmese people have never heard of the name "Rohingya." "They must be "Bengalis"” immigrant” "Kula" and thus the contemporary anti-Rohingya propaganda began.

3.    Surprisingly, the name "Rohingya" was heard by Francis Buchanan in 1798 in Burma, recorded in Francis Buchanan, in Southeast Bengal (1798): His Journey to Chittagong, the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Noakhali and Comilla, (Dhaka: Dhaka University Press, 1992), 82. It is true, Rohingyas look more like the Bengalis across the border from Burma but, Jacques Leider calls Arakan a "frontier culture."  And it is true, Rohingyas are as if the Shans of Burma who have their Thai cousins across the border. But that doesn’t make Rohingyas non Burmese. 

4.    No wonder, there are still some Rakhine Burmese people in Arakan says "We have never heard the name "Rohingya." Well, my question to a xenophobe Burmese who says " I have never heard of the word "Rohingya," question #1 Did you hear the news of Rohingya exodus of 1978 when 200,000 Rohingyas were forced out from Burma who were carrying NRC (national Registration Cards) because as a researcher I personally verified their NRC cards in refugee camps in Ukiya Bangladesh. Burmese government was forced to take back Rohingyas due to the pressure from international body because Rohingyas were carrying official documents. (b). did you also hear that in 1982 Burmese military government through a constitutional Act officially denied Rohingyas's Burmese citizenship? (c) Did you hear that in the 1991-92 there was another huge Rohingya exodus to Bangladesh? This time Burma made sure that Rohingyas don't carry any NRC.

Are you still confused? If you are still not sure about the name “Rohingya,” it is your problem because you are most likely not informed of your country; in that case I can not help your ignorance. 

Worst of all if you as a xenophobe are acting strangely, it is called hypocrisy. In that case, if you are a citizen of Burma, you are intentionally keeping yourself ignorant, so that you can pretend, surely then you are a charlatan. 

But if you are promoting this pretension saying "I have never heard the name Rohingya," they must be foreigners," and you are helping the military to exterminate them, and let me tell you, even if you have deserted a Burmese government job in a foreign embassy and is now a powerful democracy movement leader in USA or in UK, it is true, you are more likely to be a double agent, a war criminal that demands to be investigated and exposed to the world. 

Why is it important to identify this type of assertions? Because in saying “I have never heard of the word Rohingya before" some leaders of Burma deny a people's birth rights, and help the military to exterminate them.  

Strangely, it is some opportunist Arakanese Rakine gentleman pumped up in prejudice, posing as the devoted democracy movement leaders in everywhere, do everything to block Rohingya leader's participation in Burma's ethnic nationalities’ programs quietly asserting the statement " I have never heard of the name Rohingya."   

But revolutionaries are not shy people. They know the difference between democracy-lovers and the reactionaries. As a matter of duty to Burma's democracy movement and particularly to discourage the growth of xenophobia, reactionaries and their pretensions in Burma, by seemingly responsible people should be brought to public attention.  In the meantime, Rohingyas continue to leave Arakan. FIDH International Federation of Human Rights says: 

The …exodus is a deep, sustained trickle of low visibility. The Rohingyas progressively leave Burma in small groups, families or individuals…. Little by little, the population is being forced to leave Arakan because of a deliberate policy of cleansing.”

In that situation an observer lately commented about the Rohingya situation "The life of a refugee is like a football, kicking from bar to bar. One goal bar is on the soil of east Naff River and another is west Naff River. The Naff River is a football ground." 

The international community should know that those people in the democracy movement leadership who receive huge donations from Western democracies in the name of promoting democracy in Burma are tolerating the military’s exclusion of the Rohingyas from Burmese citizenship; in the name of democracy they are tolerating and some even promoting racism in Burma. One Aye Chan published a book called Rohingyas as the “Influx Viruses.” The book was forwarded by Monk Ashin Nayaka. For the international community, in addition to sanction grants, there is much to be done to promote democracy in Burma.

(The text is adapted from Abid Bahar’s book: Burma’s Missing Dots, 2009, Chapter 12)