Myanmar ethnic alliance says Rohingya “not Burmese”

Malaysia’s Rohingyas protest violence in Myanmar. KUALA LUMPUR: Adding anger to an already tense situation in Myanmar, a group of 8 ethnic parties currently allied have said the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority are not considered an ethnic minority.
The statement by the group’s reiterated their position adopted in 2005.
It comes as the Rohingya minority in the country face waves of attacks and reported massacres in the Western Arakan area of the country.
“‘Rohingya’ is not to be recognized as a nationality,” said a statement by the National Democratic Front (NDF), saying it wanted its views to be known to “the people at home and in foreign lands” because of the sectarian violence that has erupted in Rakhine State, claiming nearly 80 lives since May 28.
Some 800,000 Rohingyas live in Burma, where the government considers them illegal immigrants and denies them citizenship. Most Burmese call Rohingya “Bengali.”
NDF Secretary Khun Oh said, “Even before the current conflict, there has been frequent conflict between Rakhine and Bengalis,” referring to the Rohingyas as people from Bangladesh.
The NDF statement said the violence, which saw up to 3,000 homes and businesses burned, was a result of poor immigration regulations and enforcement.
However, Khun Oh told local media that some Rohingyas could be granted Burmese citizenship if they met appropriate qualifications, such as knowledge of the national language.
The stateless community has struggled to find a positive way of life as many fled violence in Myanmar in the early 1980s.
The Rohingyas said the flare up of violence in Myanmar has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people in the past three decades and they want an end to the alleged atrocities.
They want a UN peacekeeping force as well as a medical team to be sent there immediately.
Many fear that thousands of Rohingyas may be heading towards a crisis situation without food, shelter and medication.

Islamic militants take aim at Myanmar

After decades of isolation under military rule, Myanmar is opening to foreign investment and forms of democracy for the first time in a generation. The reform process, however, is now being attended by unanticipated consequences and influences, both internally and from abroad, that could undermine the country's new trend towards openness.

Recent sectarian fighting between Muslims and Buddhists in Myanmar's western Rakhine State has caught the attention of militant Islamists in South and Southeast Asia. Since May, the amount of jihadi propaganda directed towards Myanmar, a country previously unknown in the world of jihadi antagonists, has surged as perhaps thousands of Muslim Rohingyas have been forced to flee the country.

Tensions between the ethnic Rohingya and Rakhine populations

in Rakhine State were mostly kept under wraps under Myanmar's previous ruling military junta. Violence erupted on May 28 after an ethnic Rakhine woman was raped and murdered allegedly by three Rohingyas in Rakhine State, and the government was unprepared for the inter-ethnic violence that soon transpired.

A cycle of violence between the two groups has since resulted in widespread arson attacks and hundreds of murders. Perhaps thousands of the 800,000 Rohingyas living in Rakhine State have recently fled to Bangladesh, which many Myanmar citizens claim is the Rohingyas' true homeland.

The violence occurs at a time of growing regional instability in the pivot area where South and Southeast Asia meet, namely the areas along the Myanmar, Bangladesh, and India's Assamese borders. At the same that Muslim Rohingyas and Buddhist Rakhines clashed in Myanmar, fighting erupted between Muslims and Hindus in India's Assam State.

Since mid-July, more than 30 people have been killed and 150,000 displaced in Assam as riots devolved into open conflict between indigenous tribes such as the Bodos and Muslim settlers in the state's Kokrajhar and Chirang districts. As in Myanmar where the Rohingyas are considered illegal Bangladeshi settlers, the Muslims targeted in Assam are accused of being ethnic Bengalis from Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has the highest population density of any country and is woefully ill-equipped to deal with an influx of refugees from Myanmar and India. Bangladesh is home to a population of 160 million people in a country the size of the US State of Iowa, which in contrast has a population of only three million people.

Bangladesh also has its own homegrown problems with Muslim extremist groups, including the Hizb ut-Tahrir, which authorities banned in 2009. The head of the Indian Mujahideen (IM), Yasin Bhatkal, is believed to be hiding in Dhaka and Chittagong, Bangladesh's two largest cities, allegedly with the help of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency.

The Bangladesh government now runs the risk of being perceived by militant Islamists as selling out fellow Muslims, a sentiment expressed in a recent surge of jihadi propaganda condemning it for not doing enough to help the inrush of refugee Rohingyas.

As is often the case with jihadi statements, the videos and essays propagated by militant Islamists about recent events in Myanmar are more rhetoric than substance. Playing up the victimhood narrative, they apparently hope to incite the global Muslim community, or ummah, and win new recruits to their wider cause against enemy "infidel" governments and countries.

While secular Bangladesh has been a target of Islamists for years, Myanmar is apparently a new member of the "infidel" club of countries that propagandists threaten in response to its treatment of the Rohingyas. Given the Myanmar military's ongoing challenges of trying to pacify internal insurgencies, including a major unresolved conflict in northern Kachin State, it is likely unprepared to raise its counter-terrorism capabilities to prevent a possible retributive plot against the country.

The most recent militant statement to target Myanmar came from Lebanon's Hezbollah, which on July 23 said in an official statement:

"The regime-owned killing machine relentlessly works on striking Muslims in different regions, with Rohingya at the forefront...This is a new racial purification trend against Muslims."

On July 20, the Taliban released a more vitriolic statement saying:

The Muslims of [Myanmar] have been facing such oppression and savagery for the past two months never previously witnessed in the history of mankind.

Mercilessly burning children, women and men like toasting sheep on fire is not only against every known law but something no man with any conscious can ever accept but unfortunately the Muslims of [Myanmar] are targets of such a gross crime. Not only that, but they are also being expelled from their lands, forcefully ejected from their homes, their wealth is being usurped and their honor looted while the whole world turns a blind eye to their plight.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, besides considering this crime a black scar on the history of mankind, calls on the government of [Myanmar] to immediately put a stop to this savagery and barbarism and halt such heart rending historical violations against humans and humanity. They should realize that this is not only a crime against the Muslims of [Myanmar] but against all humankind and especially an unforgivable crime against the entire Muslim world…[1]

On July 16, The Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF), the European propaganda arm in support of al Qadea and other radical Islamic organizations, issued a recent question and answer essay called "The Genocide against the Muslims in [Myanmar]" on the jihadist website al Fidaa:

Why did this genocide begin? The Buddhist Rakhine killers placed the dead body [of the raped and killed Rakhine woman] near a Muslim village without any knowledge of the murder. The Buddhist Rakhine and Burmese (Myanmar) authority accused Muslims of killing the woman. As a result, three innocent Muslim youths were arrested. One was beaten to death, and the other two were sentenced to death by the court. The government has shown the world that they created a fake issue to instigate a real event against Muslims.

How did this genocide start and what happened afterwards? On June 3, 2012, eight Muslim pilgrims along with one escort, one bus helper, and one woman were killed by a Rakhine mob in Taungup township in southern Arakan [Rakhine] State. Five others escaped the massacre…The gang of Rakhine terrorists stopped the bus, which had the license plate 7 (Ga) 7868, at an immigration gate, and called, "Come down all, if there are any foreigners," while holding lethal weapons…Then, they started to beat the Muslim pilgrims and dragged them from the bus to the road, where an organized gang of more than 300 Rakhine terrorists beat the Muslims until they died. The gang had been standing at the immigration gate, but no authorities came out to stop the massacre. [2]

These messages and interpretations of events are starting to cause regional ripple effects. On July 13, 300 members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT) in Indonesia threatened to storm the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta. One protest leader said over a loudspeaker: "If embassy officials refuse to talk with us, I demand all of you break into the building and turn it upside down … Allahu Akbar … Every drop of blood that is shed from a Muslim must be paid back. Nothing is free in this world … FPI is ready to wage jihad … Go to Myanmar and carry out jihad for your Muslim brothers."

On July 6, the al-Faruq Foundation for Media Production released an Arabic-language video called "Solidarity With Our Muslim Brothers in Arakan (The Tragedy of [Myanmar])" on the Ansar al-Mujahideen Forum. The propaganda film includes a historical narrative focusing on Muslim victimhood played over images of brutalized Rohingyas, although some of the images appear not to have come from the recent violence. The video's narrative includes a passage that says:

They steal the money of the Muslims and they steal their crops and they prohibit the Muslims from communicating with people from other countries. They also prevent the marriages of Muslims and they put a lot of obstacles in the way of Muslim marriages. This is not all as there is a lot of injustice that you can't even imagine and all forms of torture. So where are the defenders of the human rights in the 20th century and where the people who fight for freedom and democracy. This awful silence indicates the acceptance and supporting of this because it is Muslim blood that is being shed and since it is a Muslim blood, then the blood is cheap like the blood of Muslims of 'Arakan', Palestine, Kashmir and Chechnya and everywhere else.

These and other statements have put the Rohingyas' plight on the radar of many Islamist militant groups. While their propaganda is directed at militants from all regions, some of the groups who have issued statements on Myanmar are clearly trying to recruit disenfranchised Rohingyas to their radical causes.

They have a potential galvanizing figure. One ethnic Rohingya, Abu Zar al-Burmi, is believed to be the mufti, or religious scholar, for the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan based in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. Without roots in any nation, as Rohingyas are not allowed citizenship in Myanmar or Bangladesh, al-Burmi has promoted the creation of a global Muslim community which exists without respect to international borders.

The growing inter-religious fighting and spillover humanitarian crises in Rakhine and Assam States is exerting new pressures on Bangladesh, Myanmar, and India. As the violence spirals and governments fail to restore order and dispense of justice for crimes committed, the situation could quickly become a new regional, if not international, security dilemma.

For their part, Islamist militants have shown they are prepared to exploit the plight of the Rohingyas for their own radical purposes, while neither Myanmar nor Bangladesh have demonstrated they are able to manage the crisis at a local or national level. Should the crisis escalate and become an effective recruiting tool for transnational Islamist militant groups, the international community will one way or another eventually be dragged into the mire.

Defending religious rights: Protests breakout over killing of Muslims in Myanmar

Activists from the Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) and Tehreek Nifaz-e-Fiqa Jafria (TNFJ) staged protests on Friday condemning violence against the Rohingya Muslim minority of Myanmar.


The IJT activists were led by Peshawar Nazim Abidullah Shaheen, while TNFJ activists were led by their provincial president Sardar Ali Qazalbash.  Demonstrators gathered outside Peshawar Press Club holding placards and banners with slogans against the Myanmar government’s policies.
They claimed thousands of Muslims were being slaughtered by Myanmar’s military leaders. They lamented the silence of Muslim and Arab leaders over the issue as well.
The IJT provincial Nazim suggested that an impartial inquiry be carried out under the United Nation Human Rights Commission (UNHCR).
Jamaat-e-Islami protests
Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) activists also took to the streets after Friday prayers, protesting against excessive power outages in addition to the violence against Muslims in Myanmar. At the occasion, JI PK-III candidate Khalid Gul Mohmand criticised the ANP government for failing to curb power outages.  Towards the end, it was discussed that another rally opposing muslim massacres in Myanmar will be held.

Iran calls for emergency meeting of OIC on Myanmar’s killings

Myanmar Rohingya immigrants hold a rally in Medan, Indonesia to condemn the killing of people from their minority.

 

An Iranian lawmaker has condemned the mass killing of the members of the Muslim minority in Myanmar and called for an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on the violence in the Southeast Asian country.

“By adopting unified positions, the Islamic countries should condemn the crimes against humanity and take proper measure (in this respect),” Ali Davatgari, a member of Iran's Majlis Committee of National Security and Foreign Policy, said on Monday.

The Iranian lawmaker criticized the inaction and silence of human rights bodies regarding the massacre in Myanmar and called on the Iranian Foreign Ministry to explore all means to stop the violence.

“The Islamic countries constantly consider the Islamic Republic of Iran as a defender of the oppressed people, therefore, (Iran’s) Foreign Ministry” should take measures to help put an end to the mass murder of the Muslims in Myanmar, he went on to say.

Last Monday, Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast expressed deep concern over the mass slaughter of Muslims in Myanmar.

Reports say 650 Rohingya Muslims were killed as of June 28 during clashes in the western region of Rakhine in Myanmar. This is while 1,200 others are missing and 80,000 more have been displaced.

The UN says decades of discrimination have left the Rohingyas stateless, with Myanmar implementing restrictions on their movement and withholding land rights, education and public services.

The government of Myanmar does not recognize Rohingya Muslims and has denied citizenship to them, claiming that they are illegal migrants.

Why Dalai Lama, ‘messiah of peace, humanity’ silent on genocide in Myanmar?

New Delhi: For last one week, Buddhist spiritual leader Dalai Lama has been touring Kashmir giving sermons on peace and conflict resolution – yesterday he paid tributes at the mazar of Sheikh Abdullah in Kashmir. But it has been observed that the greatest spiritual leader of world Buddhist community has maintained a studied silence on the gruesome and large scale killing of Muslims by Buddhist extremists groups in Myanmar.
Reports coming from non-mainstream media – as India’s mainstream media have almost blacked out the news of ethnic cleansing in India’s eastern neighbor – say tens of thousands of Muslims have been massacred in last two months in Burma, the old name of Myanmar. It is said that Buddhist extremist groups in connivance with the Army are killing Rohingya Muslims in thousands and bodies are being burnt.
While a small Buddhist group in India, All India Buddhist Council along with some Muslim groups last week wrote Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to ask Myanmar to stop killing of Muslim minority there, Dalai Lama has remained tight-lipped over the issue.

UN calls for inquiry over Muslim massacre in Burma

YANGON: After massacre of more than 20,000 innocent Muslims in Myanmar (Burma), United Nations has finally awakened and called for an independent investigation following claims of abuses by security forces in Burma's Rakhine state.

UN human rights chief, Navi Pillay on Saturday said forces sent to quash violence in the northern state were reported to be targeting Muslims. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says about 80,000 people have been displaced following inter-communal violence.
The agency says most of those displaced are living in camps and more tents are being airlifted in to help them.
The latest violence in Rakhine state began in May when a Buddhist ethnic Rakhine woman was allegedly raped and murdered by three Muslims.On 3 June, an unidentified mob killed 10 Muslims.
Ms Pillay's office says that since then at least 78 people have been killed in ensuing violence but unofficial estimates are much much higher.
"We have been receiving a stream of reports from independent sources alleging discriminatory and arbitrary responses by security forces, and even their instigation of and involvement in clashes," Ms Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said. "Reports indicate that the initial swift response of the authorities to the communal violence may have turned into a crackdown targeting Muslims, in particular members of the Rohingya community."
She welcomed a government decision to allow a UN envoy access to Rakhine state next week, but said it was "no substitute for a fully-fledged independent investigation". 'Scared to return'
The UNHCR says that about 80,000 people had been displaced in and around the towns of Sittwe and Maungdaw.
Spokesman Andrej Mahecic said that many were too scared to return home while others were being prevented from earning a living.
"Some displaced Muslims tell UNHCR staff they would also like to go home to resume work, but fear for their safety," he said. Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi recently called for laws to protect the rights of ethnic minority groups.
In her first statement in parliament, she said such laws were important for Burma to become a truly democratic nation of mutual respect.
Burma has undergone a series of political reforms initiated by the military-backed government.
But some parts of the country are still hit by conflict and unrest, most recently Rakhine state.

UN wakes up to Myanmar Muslims’ bloodshed

GENEVA - The UN human rights chief warned Friday that an initial move by Myanmar security forces to quash violence in the restive Rakhine state has turned into a massacre of Muslim minorities.
“We have been receiving a stream of reports from independent sources alleging discriminatory and arbitrary responses by security forces, and even their instigation of and involvement in clashes,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a statement. “Reports indicate that the initial swift response of the authorities to the communal violence may have turned into a crackdown targeting Muslims, in particular members of the Rohingya community.” Clashes between Buddhist ethnic Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya communities which erupted early June in the western Myanmar state has left at least 78 people dead and 70,000 homeless, Pillay’s office said, according to official figures. Unofficial estimates of the death toll were much higher, her office added.
Pillay urged the government to “prevent and punish violent acts” and said she was dismayed at the derogatory language used against the Rohingya by state and some independent media, as well as by some users of social networking websites. While welcoming Myanmar’s invitation to UN investigator Tomas Ojea Quintana to visit from July 30 to August 4, Pillay said it was “no substitute for a fully-fledged independent investigation” into the Rakhine violence. She also pointed out that it was “important that those affected from all communities in Rakhine are able to speak freely” to Quintana. An estimated 800,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar, and the government considers them to be foreigners while many citizens see them as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh and view them with hostilitya

Imran Khan condemns Muslim massacre in Burma

Islamabad: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Thursday strongly condemned reported atrocities committed against the Rohingya Muslim community in Burma (Myanmar).

In a statement issued in response to local and international media reports suggesting widespread killings of Muslims, he said that persecution of a particular community in such manner is blatant violation of fundamental humanitarian principles.

“Burmese government’s silence on mass killings of Rohingya Muslims is disturbing,” the statement said.

Khan urged the Pakistani government to mobilize diplomatic efforts on urgent basis to stop the potential genocide of Muslims in Myanmar.

He also urged local and international human rights organisations to fight against the potential genocide of the community.

The PTI chief warned that continued persecution of the community in Myanmar will fuel communal hatred both locally and internationally.

He urged the international community to pressurise the Burmese government to take urgent measures for ending the massacre.

It is to be mentioned here that Pakistan Foreign Office on Wednesday also condemned the killings of Rohingya Muslims in Burma and said that the ruling junta must take serious actions against the killings.

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Myanmar Muslims suffering amid media blackout

The suppression of the Rohingya Muslims in the Arakan region dates back to the World War II. On March 28, 1942, about 5,000 Rohingya Muslims were brutally massacred by the Rakhine nationalists in the Minbya and Mrohaung townships. After that, the Muslims of the region were frequently subjected to harassment by the Burmese government which has so far refused to grant them official citizenship. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, this lack of full citizenship means that the Rohingyas should tolerate other abuses, including “restrictions on their freedom of movement, discriminatory limitations on access to education, and arbitrary confiscation of property."

 

As the Muslims around the world cheerfully prepare for the holy month of Ramadan, the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar are subject to the appalling atrocities of the extremist Buddhists, finding their life in danger.

 

Branded by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities of the world, Rohingyas are a group of Muslims living in the Rakhine State, located in west of Myanmar. With a population of 3 million, Rakhine state is bordered by the Bay of Bengal to the west and the majority of its residents are Theravada Buddhists and Hindus.

 

It's said that as a result of dire living conditions and discriminatory treatment by the government, some 300,000 Rohingyas have so far immigrated to Bangladesh and 24,000 of them escaped to Malaysia in search of a better life. Many of them have also fled to Thailand, but neither Bangladesh nor Thailand has received them warmly. Bangladesh is negotiating with the Burmese government to return the Rohingyas and Thailand has sporadically rejected the hopeless immigrants. There have been instances where boats of Rohingyas reaching Thailand have been towed out to sea and allowed to sink, sparking international anger among Muslims and non-Muslims.

 

Human Rights Watch says the government authorities continue to require Rohingya Muslims to perform forced labor. According to the HRW, those who refuse or complain are physically threatened and sometimes killed. Children as young as seven have been seen in the camps.

 

Writing for The Egyptian Gazette, University of Waterloo professor Dr. Mohamed Elmasry has enumerated the different hardships the Rohingya Muslims have historically undergone. He writes that they are subjected to various forms of extortion and arbitrary taxation, land confiscation, forced eviction and house destruction and financial restrictions on marriage.

 

Myanmar government's mistreatment of the Rohingyas has long been highlighted by aid organizations. In May 2009, Elaine Pearson, the Human Rights Watch's deputy Asia director issued a statement in protest at the deteriorating conditions of the Rohingya Muslims, calling on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to press the Burmese government to end its brutal practices, "the treatment of the Rohingya in Burma is deplorable - the Burmese government doesn't just deny Rohingya their basic rights, it denies they are even Burmese citizens,” she said.

 

Now, the conflict has once again escalated in the Rakhine state and Muslims are once more experiencing difficult days as the shadow of violence casts over the Rohingyas. It was reported that 10 Rohingya Muslims were killed by a mob of 300 Rakhines while on their way back from the country's former capital Rangoon. According to a group of UK-based NGOs, 650 Rohingyas were massacred from June 10 to June 28. The United Nations estimates that between 50,000 and 90,000 Rohingyas were displaced since the eruption of violence in the Asian nation. However, due to the absence of independent reporters and monitors in the country, it's impossible to verify the exact number of those who have been displaced. It's also reported that some 9,000 homes belonging to the Muslims in the western state of Rakhine were destroyed. On July 20, Amnesty International called the recent attacks against minority Rohingyas and other Muslims in Myanmar a "step back" in the country's recent progress on human rights, citing increased violence and unlawful arrests following a state of emergency declared six weeks ago.

 

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has voiced its concern over the recent violence in the state of Rakhine and the varying reports which have leaked out as to the number of the Muslims killed. As reported by the TimeTurk News Agency, over 1,000 Rohingya Muslims have been murdered thus far in the conflicts that broke out in the region.

 

The mainstream media in the West have been largely silent about the massacre of Muslims in Myanmar.

 

Along with the media, the Western governments have also blatantly turned a blind eye to the suffering of the Rohingya Muslims. Even renowned Burmese political activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was recently invited to Norway to collect her 21-year old Nobel Prize, preferred not to speak about the affliction of her fellow citizens.

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TTP threatens to attack Myanmar to avenge violence against Muslim Rohingya

Terming itself as a defender of Muslim community in Myanmar, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) issued warning to attack the country to take revenge crimes against Muslim Rohingyas, unless Islamabad ends all ties with the government and shuts its embassy.
Concentrating on the plight of Muslims in Myanmar (Burma), the TTP vowed to take revenge of the blood of Muslim Rohingyas.
TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan issued a rare statement, asking the Pakistani government to end all ties with Myanmar otherwise ready for consequences.
He threatened, “Otherwise we will not only attack Burmese interests anywhere but will also attack the Pakistani fellows of Burma one by one”.
The banned militant outfit frequently claims responsibility of attacks on security forces in the country. However, its ability to attack foreign countries is questionable.
Thousands of Muslims reportedly killed and tortured in result of the recent clashes in western Myanmar between Buddhist ethnic Rakhine and Muslim Rohingyas.
According to the media reports, Buddhist monks have been accused of fueling ethnic violence in the country by calling on people to sun a Muslim community in the area.
Some monks’ organizations have issued pamphlets asking people not to associate with the Rohingya community, and have blocked humanitarian assistance from reaching the Muslims.
The recent wave of violence reportedly erupted after the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman, allegedly by three Muslims, unleashed long-standing ethnic tensions.
After a deep silence Amnesty International commented over the issue, “Hundreds of people, mostly men and boys, have been detained in sweeps of areas heavily populated by the Rohingyas, with almost all held incommunicado and some ill-treated”.
According to Amnesty, most apprehensions appear to have arbitrary and discriminatory and there were credible reports of abuses including rape, destruction of property and unlawful killings by both Rakhine Buddhists and the security forces.
Due to decades of discrimination towards the Rohingyas, the United Nations termed it as one of the world’s most persecuted area for minorities.
The Muslims Rohingyas have lived in Burma for centuries, but in 1982, the then military ruler Ne Win stripped them of their citizenship. Thousands fled to Bangladesh where they live in pitiful camps.
A state of emergency was declared in the province while foreign media are still denied access to the conflict region.

THE FATE OF BURMESE MUSLIMS

It was not an opportune time for Dalai Lama, the most revered spiritual head of Buddhists around the world, to be in Kashmir & enjoy walking over the scattered hair of his female followers lying prostate. Instead he should have been in Myanmar to get a feel of the scores of dead bodies of Muslims killed by his followers in Myanmar and lying scattered all-round. And the advice of remaining peaceful to the oppressed people of Kashmir should have been directed at the killers in Myanmar, otherwise touted as followers of the most peaceful religion.

The genocide of the Muslims in Myanmar is not a new affair but institutionalized in the history of Myanmar. During World War II, these Muslims, also known as Rohingyas, remained loyal to British and paid dearly for this choice. The advancing Japnese & Burmese armies with the help of identification provided by local Buddhists massacred, tortured & raped these defenseless Muslims. On March 28, 1942 alone about 5,000 Muslims were massacred in Minbya and Mrohaung Townships. After conquering the region in 1945,the British compensated them to some extent by setting up an autonomous civilian administration zone for them in Arkan. But the affair proved short lived as this autonomous zone was merged with Burma in 1948 treaty granting Burma independence from Britain. Following the merger, Muslims were barred from Military services and Muslim civil servants & policemen were immediately replaced by Buddhists.

Rohingya leaders were arbitrarily placed under arrest and those refugees who had earlier fled to India were not permitted to return. Back home their properties were confiscated & allotted to Burmese Buddhists. In 1958, Buddhism was declared as official religion of Myanmar after which the Buddhists extremists have been encouraged more to carry out massacre of the Muslims at regular intervals. The persecution became more intense after General Ne win engineered the military take-over of the Government in 1962.

Described as the Palestine of Asia by the UN, the Rohingya Muslim community in Myanmar is living under extremely appalling circumstances. The dictatorial government of Myanmar has deliberately neglected their ordeal and the international community is overlooking their suffering. Going through an unutterable ordeal at the hands of the extremist Buddhists who are targeting them at every available opportunity& indulging in worst form of genocide & religious cleansing. In a recent spate of violence triggering fresh migration, some 2000 Rohinga Muslims have come to Delhi and are living in pitiable & sub-human conditions in Vasant Kunj jungles.

Not content with killing & rape, this unfortunate community is even denied their basic rights, i.e. the right to freedom of movement, marriage, faith, identity, ownership, language, heritage and culture and above all citizenship rights.. The government of Myanmar considers them to be "resident foreigners." This lack of full citizenship rights means that they are subject to other abuses, including restrictions on their freedom of movement, discriminatory limitations on access to education, and arbitrary confiscation of property. Deplorable as it is, the Muslims in Myanmar are among the most persecuted minorities in the world according to UN.

Unfortunately, the Myanmar peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the plight of these Muslims. Maybe she has forgotten her own words on democracy and human rights that, “The struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma is a struggle for life and dignity.”
In view of the ongoing inhumane violations in Myanmar , the US and its western allies, which keep pontificating about human rights in the world, have feigned ignorance about this humanitarian catastrophe. Why? Because they will not be able to reap any benefits of their future efforts in the country as they do in the Middle East and elsewhere. To crown it all, they have kept an agonizingly meaningful silence over the massacre.

It is certainly incumbent upon every person who cares about human dignity to fly in the face of this inhumanity and give a helping hand to the downtrodden Myanmar Muslims.s

Indian leader condemns motivated massacre of Myanmar Muslims

 (Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Expressing grave concern over the ethnic violence in Myanmar, an Indian leader Thursday strongly condemned the motivated massacre of Rohingya Muslims of Arakan region of Myanmar.

Dr. Zafrul Islam Khan, President of All India Muslim Majlis Mushawwarat (AIMMM) said: 'It is indeed deeply disturbing that thousands have lost their lives, millions have been forced to flee from their homes. Tragically the insecurity is so high that even those in camps do not feel safe.'

He said that this is a monumental failure of Government of Myanmar which has not taken timely action against the genocide.

'Myanmar Government should be held responsible for the heinous crime committed against the Rohingya Muslims,' Zafrul Islam Khan added.

Urging the Myanmar Government to take immediate steps to restore law and order, Indian leader demanded that all those who are directly involved in the massacre must be identified and punished severely.

He expressed anguish over the UN that the world body has not efficiently intervened to save the Rohingya Muslims from intended extinction.

Slamming the silence of world leaders, Zafrul Islam Khan urged the Government of India to apprise Myanmar government of the sentiments of Indian Muslims.

'Pressurize the Myanmar government to stop the killings,' he added.

Noting that this massacre is against the principles of justice, peace and humanity, Indian leader said that it is shameful that Nobel Prize Winner Aung Sang Suu Kyi has not uttered a word against the killings.

He also slammed the renowned Buddhist spiritual leader Dalai Lama for his silence against the genocide in which thousands of Muslims were killed, tortured and displaced by the Buddhists in Burma’s Rakhine province. sas

Myanmar Muslims killed for not converting to Budhism: JI

12LAHORE
JAMAAT-e-Islami Syed Munawar Hasan has expressed grave concerns that Myanmar Muslims were being massacred after they rejected the Buddhist pressure to convert to Buddhism.

He appealed to the world community, especially the Muslim rulers, to exert diplomatic pressure on Myanmar government to stop its atrocities on Muslim population and protect their basic human rights.

He said this in a statement after a three-member delegation of Myanmar Muslims called on him at Mansoora on Wednesday and apprised him of the plight of Myanmar Muslims and the brutalities being perpetrated on them.

Syed Munawar Hasan said tens of thousands of Myanmar Muslims were lying at the borders of Burma and Bangladesh. They badly need financial assistance. He said they were being tortured by the state machinery and the armed forces. But unfortunately, the world community, the media and the so-called human rights bodies were completely silent.

Syed Munawar Hasan said the JIP had set up a relief fund for the Myanmar Muslims. He appealed to the well-to-do people and philanthropists to donate generously for the help of their brethrens facing unprecedented atrocities. Earlier, leader of the delegation, Noor Husain Arakani, told the JI Ameer that Myanmar Muslims were being forced to convert to Buddhism, and on their refusal, they were being subjected to untold brutalities.

They have been asked to eat pork and drink liquor. Cases of gang-rape have increased. At some places, the Muslims were being burnt alive. They were even not allowed to use mobile phones. In fact, the Burmese government wanted to clear Burma of the Muslim population, he added.

APML: All Pakistan Muslim League Secretary General Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif urged the Muslim countries to rescue the Muslims from the cruelties of Buddhist community and Burmese armed forces.

All Pakistan Muslim League Secretary General said that over 500 Muslim villages had been incinerated during the last two months and thousands of people exterminated. The persecution of the Burmese Muslims at the hands of the Buddhist mobs is limitltss. Yet all human rights organisations have adopted a criminal silence over the genocide. Saif also urged the government of Pakistan to raise voice for the poor Muslims at the international forums. The whole Muslim world should join hands to get the poor Burmese out of their distress and misery, he added.
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Taliban condemn Burmese Muslims’ massacre

ISLAMABAD: Strongly condemning the ongoing massacre of Muslims in Burma (Myanmar), Afghan Taliban on Friday called upon the world to immediately take steps to stop the killings. The reaction of Taliban came forth when the Amnesty International (AI) confirmed the crimes against Muslim minority in the country. “Communal violence is continuing in western Burma 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,” the AI said. In his rare reaction over an issue happening outside Afghanistan, Taliban Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also urged the Burmese government to immediately stop the grave violation of human rights, saying it was against any ethics and laws of the world and worst type of crimes against humanity. “Burma must note that the massacre is not merely a crime against Muslims in the country but it is an unforgivable crime against the whole humanity and especially the Muslim world,” he added. For the last two months, Muslims, including women, children and old people, were being killed, driven out of their homes, their property being captured and crimes like rape against them was being carried out, but it was strange that the world and the media was silent over it, he said. “We have called upon the world, the UN, the international community, including the governments and the people, especially
ISLAMABAD: Strongly condemning the ongoing massacre of Muslims in Burma (Myanmar), Afghan Taliban on Friday called upon the world to immediately take steps to stop the killings.
The reaction of Taliban came forth when the Amnesty International (AI) confirmed the crimes against Muslim minority in the country. “Communal violence is continuing in western Burma 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,” the AI said.
In his rare reaction over an issue happening outside Afghanistan, Taliban Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also urged the Burmese government to immediately stop the grave violation of human rights, saying it was against any ethics and laws of the world and worst type of crimes against humanity. “Burma must note that the massacre is not merely a crime against Muslims in the country but it is an unforgivable crime against the whole humanity and especially the Muslim world,” he added. For the last two months, Muslims, including women, children and old people, were being killed, driven out of their homes, their property being captured and crimes like rape against them was being carried out, but it was strange that the world and the media was silent over it, he said.
“We have called upon the world, the UN, the international community, including the governments and the people, especially the Muslim community, to immediately take action to stop the crime,” the spokesman said, adding, “Similarly, The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan also calls upon media organisations across the world and especially the Al Jazeera network to fulfil their duties toward humanity and inform the world of the facts of the crimes in Burma.”
The violence against Muslims in the Buddist majority country started long ago and during the British times it continued as more Muslims, especially from India, were shifted there. After independence, many Muslims retained their previous positions in the country and achieved prominence in business and politics. In June this year, violence against Muslims in the country started with force and over 2,000 became homeless. Unconfirmed reports claim that over 10,000 were killed in the last two months and more were rendered homeless. the Muslim community, to immediately take action to stop the crime,” the spokesman said, adding, “Similarly, The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan also calls upon media organisations across the world and especially the Al Jazeera network to fulfil their duties toward humanity and inform the world of the facts of the crimes in Burma.” The violence against Muslims in the Buddist majority country started long ago and during the British times it continued as more Muslims, especially from India, were shifted there. After independence, many Muslims retained their previous positions in the country and achieved prominence in business and politics. In June this year, violence against Muslims in the country started with force and over 2,000 became homeless. Unconfirmed reports claim that over 10,000 were killed in the last two months and more were rendered homeless.

Slaughter of Muslims in Burma

In June 2012, hundreds Burmese Muslims have been butchered, and many more injured and made homeless in Burma as a result religious intolerance by the Buddhist majority. The Burmese military government, far from trying to resolve the problem and protect the minority, has been silently conniving with the rioters by creating greater hardships for the Muslim minority.

The reason of this June 2012 riot is unknown except for the periodical outbursts of the Burmese Buddhists to show their might and vent their anger on the helpless minority. It is commonly accepted that the June 2012 massacre of Burmese Muslims was intentionally orchestrated by the rioters in collaboration with the government. Yet the world, including the UN, is conveniently silent. The brazenly hypocritical and unscrupulous woman, Aung San Suu Kyi, is very prompt at accusing the Burmese military of human rights violations when she is under house arrest. But she finds nothing wrong when the military helps the Buddhist mobs to murder the innocent Muslim minority of her country.

As in India, anti-Muslim riots are nothing unusual in Burma. Violence in Burma against Muslims have been erupting periodically since the 1920s based simply on religious intolerance by the Buddhist majority.

The Muslims of Burma mainly belong to the Arakan state in western Burma. They are known as Rohingya or Burmese Muslims. The term "Rohingya" has been derived from the Arabic word "Raham" meaning sympathy. Muslim settlements began being established in the Arakan province of Burma since the arrival of the Arabs in the 8th century. Presently about 800,000 Rohingya live in Burma. The United Nations describes them as "one of the world’s most persecuted minorities." Yet it has never bothered to help them.

Religious freedom for Muslims in Burma has been systematically curbed. In the post 9/11 era, random accusations of "terrorism" against Muslims have become a common form of persecution and harassment by Burmese Buddhists. Burmese Government does not consider Rohingya Muslims as citizens and they are hated by the Buddhist majority. Rohingya Muslims in Burma have long demanded recognition as an indigenous ethnic group with full citizenship by birthright. But the Government regards them as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh and denies them citizenship.

"Nobel Prize winner," Aung San Suu Kyi, does not consider Muslims as citizens. Speaking at London School of Economics meeting on June 2012 during her visit to the UK, she said "Rohingya Muslims should not be considered citizens." Later during her press conference at Downing Street, she did not condemn the killings of Rohingya Muslims taking place in Burma. Instead, she simply said that this "ethnic conflict should be investigated and dealt with wisdom." It wasn't just an insufficient response but a very shocking one from someone supposed to have won a "Noble Peace Prize."

The notorious master hypocrite and undercover CIA agent, Dalai Lama, continues to globe trot without mentioning a single word of the dangerously growing Buddhist intolerance in Burma, Thailand, Tibet and across the world. Such intolerance and persecution invariably result in resistance by the oppressed. Many Muslims have joined armed resistance groups, fighting for greater freedom in Burma.

On June 3rd 2012, eight Muslims returning to Rangoon in a bus after visiting a Masjid in the Arakan province were attacked by a mob of hundreds of Buddhists and slaughtered brutally. An eye-witness reported that after the mass murder "the culprits were celebrating triumph spitting and tossing wine and alcohol on the dead bodies lying on the road."

"These innocent people have been killed like animals," said Abu Tahay, of the National Democratic Party for Development, which represents the country’s much-persecuted stateless Muslim Rohingya community.

The Rohingya Muslims of Burma have continued to suffer from human rights violations under the Burmese junta since 1970s. Over the years thousands of Rohingya refugees have fled to neighboring countries like Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh etc. Even as refugees they have been facing hardships and have suffered persecution by the Thai government. In February 2009, a group of 5 boats packed with Burmese Rohingya Muslims were taken out and abandoned in the open sea by the Thai army. Four of these boats sank in a storm and one was washed ashore near the Indonesian islands. The few survivors who were rescued by Indonesian authorities told horrific stories of being captured and beaten by the Thai military and then abandoned at open sea.

Being "peaceful" or "humble" (as claimed by their biased supporters) is a far cry concerning the Burmese Buddhists. Their vindictive temperament prowls for vendetta, waiting to use even the most insignificant occurrence as an excuse to perpetrate violence on Burmese Muslims. At any time, if there's some ethnic disturbance between Muslims and Buddhists/Hindus in any other country, the Burmese Buddhists waste no time going on a murderous spry killing the Muslim minority in Burma. If there is the slightest of trouble between Muslims and non-Muslims in Indonesia, it's taken as a pretext to kill Muslims in Burma by Buddhist mobs. The destruction of the statues in Bamiyan (Afghanistan), created an immediate excuse to commit violence against Muslims in Burma in 2001. The firebrand Buddhist monks demanded a Muslim masjid to be destroyed in retaliation. Mobs of Buddhists led by monks, vandalized Muslim-owned businesses and property in Burma, and attacked and killed Muslims in Muslim communities.

Gruesome images of murdered Rohingya Muslims in the recent June 2012 riots in Burma have been circulated on websites, resulting in protests in several Muslim countries and by various human rights activists around the world demanding justice & protection in Burma for the minority, but has fallen on deaf ears as usual, getting little or no coverage from mainstream news channels.