Myanamar: Muslims subjected to ethnic cleansing

[Ancient lion]

Six weeks after a state of emergency was declared in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, targeted attacks and other violations by security forces against minority Rohingyas and other Muslims have increased, Amnesty International said today.

Communal violence in the state has also continued, the organization said.

“Declaring a state of emergency is not a license to commit human rights violations,” said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International’s Myanmar Researcher.

“It is the duty of security forces to defend the rights of everyone – without exception or discrimination – from abuses by others, while abiding by human rights standards themselves.”

Myanmar: Abuses against Rohingya erode human rights progress | Amnesty International

 

[Ancient lion]

Rohingyas are a Muslim people living in the Arakan region. As of 2012, 800,000 Rohingyas live in Myanmar. The United Nations says that they are one of the most persecuted minorities of the world. As a result of systematic discrimination they have endured over the past years, many of them have migrated to Bangladesh and Malaysia and currently 300,000 Rohingya Muslims live in Bangladesh and 24,000 in Malaysia

The persecution of the Rohingya Muslims dates back to the early World War II when the Japanese forces invaded Burma which was then under the British colonial rule. It’s said that on March 28, 1942, about 5,000 Muslims were massacred in Minbya and Mrohaung Townships by the Rakhine nationalists. According to Amnesty International, the Rohingya Muslims have long suffered from human rights violations and as a result, scores of them immigrated to neighboring Bangladesh for better living conditions.

One instance of discrimination against the Muslims of Rohingya is that they are denied the right of citizenship by the government. Many of them have escaped to Bangladesh and as many as 111,000 of them live in the Thai-Myanmar border.

According to the website of Arakan Rohingya National Organization (ARNO), Rohingya Muslims require government permission to marry, are forbidden from having more than two children per family and are subjected to modern-day slavery through forced labor. Because the national government denies them the right to citizenship in their homeland, many Rohingyas have their land confiscated and they are restricted from travel.

The Human Rights Watch considers the denial of the right of citizenship the most important problem the Muslims of Rohingya face. The government of Myanmar considers the Rohingyas to be “resident foreigners.” This lack of full citizenship rights means that the Rohingya are subject to other abuses, including restrictions on their freedom of movement, discriminatory limitations on access to education, and arbitrary confiscation of property.

Some independent sources have told the Human Rights Watch that the government authorities continue to require Rohingya Muslims to perform forced labor. According to HRW, those who refuse or complain are physically threatened, sometimes with death, and children as young as seven years old have been seen on forced labor teams.

World Silent As Muslim Massacre Goes On In Myanmar | The Public Record

 

[Katzndogz]

Myanmar must not want suicide bombers.

 

[waltky]

Rohingya's havin' to show their documents...

Myanmar verifying Muslim citizenship
Nov 30,`12 -- Guarded by rifle-toting police, immigration authorities in western Myanmar have launched a major operation aimed at settling an explosive question at the heart of the biggest crisis the government has faced since beginning its nascent transition to democracy last year.

It's a question that has helped fuel two bloody spasms of sectarian unrest between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims since June, and it comes down to one simple thing: Who has the right to be a citizen of Myanmar, and who does not? A team of Associated Press journalists that traveled recently to the remote island village of Sin Thet Maw, a maze of bamboo huts without electricity in Myanmar's volatile west, found government immigration officials in the midst of a painstaking, census-like operation aimed at verifying the citizenship of Muslims living there, one family at a time.

Armed with pens, stacks of paper and hand-drawn maps, they worked around low wooden tables that sat in the dirt, collecting information about birth dates and places, parents and grandparents - vital details of life and death spanning three generations. The operation began quietly with no public announcement in the township of Pauktaw on Nov. 8, of which the village of Sin Thet Maw is a part. It will eventually be carried out across all of Rakhine state, the coastal territory where nearly 200 people have died in the last five months, and 110,000 more, mostly Muslims, have fled.

The Thailand-based advocacy group, the Arakan Project, warns the results could be used to definitively rule out citizenship for the Rohingya, who have suffered discrimination for decades and are widely viewed as foreigners from Bangladesh. Muslims in Sin Thet Maw echoed those concerns, and said they had not been told what the operation was for. "What we know is that they don't want us here," said one 34-year-old Muslim named Zaw Win, who said his family had lived in Sin Thet Maw since 1918. So far, more than 2,000 Muslim families have gone through the process, but no "illegal settlers have been found," said state spokesman Win Myaing.

MORE

 

[waltky]

Burma back in the news...

In Burma, Sectarian Clashes Trigger State of Emergency
March 22, 2013 - Burma's government has declared a state of emergency in a central region where three days of Buddhist-Muslim clashes have left at least 20 people dead.

Witnesses reported seeing charred bodies in the streets Friday and flames billowing from buildings, including mosques, in the town of Meiktila. Win Htein, a member of parliament from Meiktila, told VOA he saw victims lying in the streets and rioters burning property and looting Muslim homes.
"When I was off from home this morning, there are three bodies on the street of Thiri Mingalar quarter, but I can’t estimate numbers of injured," he said. "I don’t think there are many injured, because [victims] were mostly killed out-right. Once they were caught, the victims were killed and burnt down."

Unidentified man photographs bodies burning in the wake of sectarian riots in Meikhtila, Burma, March 22, 2013.

Authorities fear the death toll from the ongoing unrest, which began Wednesday after an argument between a Buddhist customer and a Muslim gold proprietor, could grow. Officials have imposed a nighttime curfew, and many residents of Meiktila say they are afraid to leave their homes.

Scarce details

Details on the clashes have been scarce, since many reporters say they have been prevented from covering the conflict and threatened by Buddhist monks who are leading the mobs. The United States and the United Nations have called for an end to the violence, Burma's worst sectarian unrest since last year's clashes between Buddhists and ethnic Rohingya Muslims in western Rakhine state. Amnesty International called the latest violence "very worrying," saying it shows that tension between the two communities is spreading to other parts of the country.

Clashes last year in Rakhine State killed about 200 people and left more than 100,000 others homeless, mainly ethnic Rohingya Muslims. During the Rakhine unrest, rights groups accused Burmese security forces of failing to protect Buddhists and Muslims. Human Rights Watch said security forces "unleashed a campaign of violence and mass roundups against the Rohingya." Rights groups have since said anti-Muslim leaflets have been distributed at monasteries in some areas of the country, with many warning of more violence against Muslims.

Source

See also:

Burma's Military Relations with North Korea Under Scrutiny
March 22, 2013 — Burma's military relations with North Korea are under scrutiny after Japan acknowledged intercepting a shipment of materials officials say could be used for a nuclear program. A U.S. special advisor visiting in March said Burma needs to convince the world they have severed military relations with Pyongyang if they want suspended sanctions fully lifted.

Japan on Monday confirmed reports that customs officials last year seized a shipment of aluminum alloy rods, suspected of coming from North Korea, that could be used to make nuclear centrifuges. Japanese media reported the shipment was bound for Burma but was intercepted from a Singaporean-flagged ship in August after a tip-off from the United States. The revelation raised concerns that, despite dramatic political reforms, Burma may be continuing to work on a secret nuclear weapons program and possibly violating U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang.

More reforms needed

Western countries have suspended most diplomatic and economic sanctions on Burma. But last week U.S. special advisor on Burma, Patrick Murphy, said sanctions would not be fully lifted without more political and human rights reforms - as well as a clear break with North Korea. "We very much hope to be in a position to declare or to accept a declaration that the military relationship between the two countries has been severed. And, we have fruitful dialogue on this issue with authorities here. And, I think there is a very good understanding about the international concerns vis a vis North Korea," said Murphy.

Military relations with N. Korea

Soldiers salute Burma's army chief General Min Aung Hlaing during a parade in Naypyitaw, Mar. 27, 2012.

Burma's military government has long been a buyer of North Korean weapons and military supplies. Relations between the two were disrupted in 1983 when North Korean agents bombed the delegation of a visiting South Korean president in Rangoon, killing 17 people. But the two pariah and military-run states resumed ties in secret just a few years later. In 2010, as Burma was beginning its democratic transition, a defector alleged the military was running a secret nuclear weapons program. Analysts suspected North Korean support.

Nuclear issue

 

[MHunterB]

It seems to be a sad fact that the American right wing*likes* dead Muslims - and the American left wing is only interested if it can blame dead Muslims on 'Zionists'.....

It's the same reason 'nobody cares' how many die in Syria.

I do not think that is right, no.

 

[waltky]

Granny says give `em birth control shots an' tell `em it's malaria vaccine...

2-child limit for Muslims in parts of Myanmar
May 25, 2013 -- Authorities in Myanmar's western Rakhine state have imposed a two-child limit for Muslim Rohingya families, a policy that does not apply to Buddhists in the area and comes amid accusations of ethnic cleansing in the aftermath of sectarian violence.

Local officials said Saturday that the new measure would be applied to two Rakhine townships that border Bangladesh and have the highest Muslim populations in the state. The townships, Buthidaung and Maundaw, are about 95 percent Muslim. The unusual order makes Myanmar perhaps the only country in the world to impose such a restriction on a religious group, and is likely to fuel further criticism that Muslims are being discriminated against in the Buddhist-majority country.

China has a one-child policy, but it is not based on religion and exceptions apply to minority ethnic groups. India briefly practiced forced sterilization of men in a bid to control the population in the mid-1970s when civil liberties were suspended during a period of emergency rule, but a nationwide outcry quickly shut down the program. Rakhine state spokesman Win Myaing said the new program was meant to stem rapid population growth in the Muslim community, which a government-appointed commission identified as one of the causes of the sectarian violence. Although Muslims are the majority in the two townships in which the new policy applies, they account for only about 4 percent of Myanmar's roughly 60 million people.

The measure was enacted a week ago after the commission recommended family planning programs to stem population growth among Muslims, Win Myaing said. The commission also recommended doubling the number of security forces in the volatile region. "The population growth of Rohingya Muslims is 10 times higher than that of the Rakhine (Buddhists)," Win Myaing said. "Overpopulation is one of the causes of tension."

Sectarian violence in Myanmar first flared nearly a year ago in Rakhine state between the region's Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya. Mobs of Buddhists armed with machetes razed thousands of Muslim homes, leaving hundreds of people dead and forcing 125,000 to flee, mostly Muslims.

MORE

 

[waltky]

Muslim terrorists bomb Buddhist temple during Ramadan...

Indonesian bombing a response to ‘Rohingya screams’
Tue, Aug 06, 2013 - A bomb that exploded at a Buddhist temple in the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta, bore the words: “We are responding to the screams of the Rohingya,” the place of worship said yesterday.

It appeared to be the latest outburst of anger in Muslim-majority Indonesia at the plight of Rohingya Muslims, who have been fleeing in their thousands from sectarian violence in Myanmar, where most of the population is Buddhist. The low-intensity bomb, containing pieces of iron and ball bearings, went off late on Sunday inside the Ekayana Buddhist temple as hundreds of worshipers prayed, lightly injuring one person, who received cuts to an arm and leg. A second bomb was also set, but only emitted smoke and failed to go off, according to police. The attack caused minimal damage.

Temple official Ponijan Liaw told reporters that CCTV footage showed a man wearing a white shirt entering the temple and placing two green packages with the bombs inside next to two doors before leaving. The blast happened shortly afterward, he said. One package bore the message about the Rohingya, Liaw said, adding the footage had been handed over to police. Indonesian National Police spokesman Ronny Sompie said authorities were still investigating the motive behind the attack and could not comment on who might be responsible.

Indonesian Minister of Religious Affairs Suryadharma Ali said the bombing “was a provocation aimed at pitting Muslims against Buddhists.” Indonesian Minister of Security Djoko Suyanto condemned the perpetrators for ruining “the peace of Ramadan,” the Muslim holy month which comes to an end later this week with the Eid al-Fitr holiday. “The security forces have been ordered to immediately hunt down and arrest the perpetrators,” he added. Police in May foiled a plot to bomb Myanmar’s embassy in Jakarta by Islamic hardliners as anger grew over the plight of the Rohingya.

Indonesian bombing a response to ?Rohingya screams? - Taipei Times

 

[Moonglow]

It seems to be a sad fact that the American right wing*likes* dead Muslims - and the American left wing is only interested if it can blame dead Muslims on 'Zionists'.....

It's the same reason 'nobody cares' how many die in Syria.

I do not think that is right, no.

Who died and made you spokes person for the human race?