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Burma’s Rohingya: A Denial of Citizenship and Human Rights
Posted by: Nay San Lwin
Tags: Asia,bangladesh,Burma,immigration,Rohingya,United Nations,war Posted date:
July 12, 2012 |
33 Comments
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The Rohingya need more international support to restore their citizenship rights
The eruption of violence in Burma’s Arakan state in June witnessed the killing of ten Muslims who were on their way back from the country’s former capital, Rangoon. They were killed by a Rakhine mob of 300 after the rape and murder of a Rakhine woman in Rambree Township by three local Muslim youths. The government arrested three Muslims on the spot and one committed suicide whilst in police custody; the remaining two have recently been sentenced to death. The government established an inquiry commission into the vigilante killing, led by the deputy interior minister. However, although suspects were arrested, a lack of people willing to testify as eyewitnesses has prevented justice being served.
Rakhine extremists and local security officials insulted local Rohingya in the lead up to the violence, with local media stations increasing the tension by falsely reporting that Rakhine members of the public were being terrorized by Rohingya groups. The scale of misinformation was not only confined to the local media but extended to Hmuu Zaw aka Major Zaw Htay, the director of the Presidential Office, who posted inflammatory reports on his Facebook page. The circulated reports informed the public that armed Rohingya groups were invading the country, despite there having been no armed movement in the region itself for about a decade, let alone across the entire country. While mass killings continued inside the country, cyber war was also utilised with many Rohingya and Muslim sites, commercial sites, and even governmental sites of Bangladesh hacked.
“They tried many times to attack my website but they couldn’t. They tried to dig out my location to harass me physically”, said by Mr Ba Sein who runs the Rohingya Blogger website. “They target all the people who are advocating for the Rohingya cause”, he added. The front door of Mr Tun Khin, President of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK), was smashed down in faraway London, while the violence continued in western Burma. Just a few days before the eruption of violence against the Rohingya, an anti-Rohingya demonstration was held in front of Downing Street by the London-based Burma Democratic Concern. In the lead up to the demonstration the word “Kalar”, a derogatory term for Muslims, was widely circulating across social media sites. As the massacre of Rohingya people began, Facebook users posted statements such as “Kill all Kalars”.
Questions surrounding the murder of Muslims were transformed into issues of citizenship and ethnicity. Ko Ko Gyi, a prominent 88 generation student leader remarked that, “Rohingya people are not an ethnic group of Burma and they are invading our country and sovereignty”. He added that the Rohingya would be driven out with the collaboration of army if required. When the reporter asked Burma’s democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s view on the Rohingya, she commented simply that, “I do not know”. She has previously considered the ‘rule of law’ and proper immigration procedures as the key to resolving citizenship issues surrounding the Rohingya; however, several of her party members have openly rejected the Rohingya as Burmese citizen.
Dr Aye Maung, Chairman of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP), said that an Arakan state must be established, like Israel. He issued the statement describing how Rohingya must live in separate areas and should be promptly resettled in other countries within a short period.
During the attacks on the Rohingya, more than 6,000 Rohingya houses were burnt down in Sittwe alone, the capital of Arakan state. At the present moment, large numbers of Rohingya are sheltering outside of the town, without assurances that they will be allowed to return to their land. What they would return to is another issue in itself: shops have been looted; mosques have been destroyed – 35 in Sittwe alone; religious books have been desecrated; and widespread reports of rape and sexual abuse by the Burmese military, a tactic they have used historically against the Rohingya, will leave untold scars across the oppressed population.
In just one of many examples, four military personnel were caught after having raped an 18-year-old Rohingya girl. In a telling example of the instrumental role the media has played, the case was not only not reported, but news agencies are still continuously repeating the initial story of a Rakhine woman raped by three Rohingya men.
In addition to the loss of communities and livelihoods, large numbers of Rohingya youths and academics have been arrested and taken to unknown locations. Some have been released following extortionate payouts to security forces.
The UN have described the Rohingya as the most persecuted minority group in the world; a Burmese Parliamentary team visited the affected region but met neither any local Rohingya MPs, nor offered to provide any humanitarian relief. Furthermore, in the midst of the recent outbreaks of violence, many displaced civilians were turned back from the Bangladesh border when trying to escape the violence. International and human rights organisations requested that the Bangladesh government keep open its border and provide humanitarian assistance – both requests continued to be refused. The actual death toll from the last few weeks is very difficult to ascertain as there are restrictions on international media and non-governmental organisations.
The Rohingya are unwanted in Burma, and are unwelcome in Bangladesh. International pressure will need to force the change and reach a solution that resolves the troubling denial of citizenship and human rights.
Photo Credits: Andrew Biraj / Reuters
About the author
Nay San Lwin
Nay San Lwin is an activist and Vice President of the Burmese Rohingya Association in Germany.
Nay San Lwin is an activist and Vice President of the Burmese Rohingya Association in Germany.
33 Comments
88students in exile
You are absolutely right. Look what is happening in London’s Tower Hamlet. they have taken over th e local council and flooded the area with muslims. There are a lot of malpractices. They are new colonialists. They ar cunning.
they take advantage of the benefit system of the UK. Live in houses funded by housing benefit and sublet rooms. Send money to Bangladesh and build houses there. and they are local heros in Bangladesh , beggars sponging the Breitish tax payers in england.
zamai zongkha
YES WHICH TIME LEFT ALL MUGH + CHAKMA THEY ARE SPEAKING NOR BENGALI LANGVEGE SO THEY HAVE BANGLA NATIONALITIES,
TO ACCEPT ARAKAN NATIONALITY FOR DEPORTE OF BURMA FROM ARAKAN THEY UN LIGLLE IMMIGRANT IN ARAKAN,
SO ARAKAN IS ONLY FOR ROHINGYA & MUGHE,
BUT BURMAN ARE UNLIGEL IMMIGRANT IN ARAKAN,
WE SAY BURMAN FROM OUR HOMELAND ARAKAN
from: arakan mugh & rohingya
our slogon is no place for burman in arakan
it is only for mgh &rohingya
Elyas194
Yes, The Rohingya are unwanted in Burma, and are unwelcome in Bangladesh. But on Naaf river, they are used as Gun shotting targets..
Saw lwin
The world should know as you said Awakyunethas and dictators have been killing them since 1942, writing of Awakyunetha in the Internet proved that dictators and Awakyunetha killed more than a million Rohingyas. U Thein Sein knew exactly how many thousands of Rohingyas did dictators kill in Rakhine state. Dictators and Awakyunetha wished ,they will finish within a few years,but unfortunately nearly one million left,they don’t want to kill them ,they want to throw away somewhere as rubbish. The world doesn’t have sense of humanity or Guatama commanded them to clean, I don’t know.
88students in exile
Rohingyas are not Burmese at all. They must be setled in Bangladesh. These Bengalis entered Burma during the colonial era when Burmese were subjugated and humiliated by the English coloniser. England must share the responsibility with Bangladesh.
Burmese/Myanmars have every human right to be Buddhist and to defend our faith. We do not believe in honour killing practised by Muslims.
when a muslim married a buddhist woman, she is forces to become muslim and all children have no choice to be anything other than muslim. that is religious colonialism.
We will fith all the way to defend our terriority.
Bangladesh is practising what Hitler did; labensraum! In Burmese nehcheh, meaning expaning their territority.
We fought the repressive military regime of BSPP but we support over government protecting Myanmar territority. More, we want our territority back from Bangladesh.
At India’s independence, muslims tried to integrate to Yakhine into East Pakistan. it was aborted.
Muslims are the most dangerous in religious colonialism in the 21st century.
The trend has been going on for centuries. Afghanistan and Pakistan were buddhist countries. Look what they are now. Peaceful? No.
the world must help ptotect Burma and everywhere else.against Muslim colonialism. We have no problems with individual Burmese who have converted to Islam, living in the cities, sharing common Burmese culture and values. But the Rohingyas are completely different matter. They are no Burmese. they are illegal immigrants.
How are illegal immigrants treated in England and France? They stsy in detention centres. In Burma they enjoy more freedoms.
They must leave Burma. Too many of them.
J Man
Burmese where never subjugated by any colonial personal. Infact they enjoyed each an every day of colonial presence which gave them the gov and supplied them freedom of killing innocent thru their ruthless and worthless military.
ayoub muslim
tfouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Bilal85
Just to correct you there sir/madam. There is no such thing as honour killing in islam. Whoever thinks it is or practices has his/her own agendas at hand. A muslim man can marry a non muslim woman provided if she belongs to the people of the Book, i.e. Jews and Christians. A muslim cannot marry a woman who is not from those 2 religions and if they do, honour killing is not the punishment. It is simply the case of having an invalid marriage contract in islam.
A man who marries a buddhist woman or any other follower of a religion, cannot force her into becoming a muslim. God has commanded us in the Quran by saying: “There is no compulsion in religion”. So to generalise this view of religious colonialism is incorrect. Just because someone does it, it is not logical to assume that it is a generic practice amongst all. Just like here in the West people have stereotyped african-american people as being rappers or robbers, muslims are no exceptions in these cases either.
jim khal
NEWS LETTER
DECLEARED BY 1-ROHINGYA MULIM YOUTH, 2-ROHINGYA MULIM STUDENTS OF ARAKAN & EXILLE:
THANKS TO ALL,
WE SAY TO BANGLADESH GOVERMENT VIA BANGLA DESH AMBESSIES IN THE WORLD,
IF BANGLADESH GOVERMENT CAN,T OPEN BORDER FOR ROHINYA REFUGEE,
PLZ GIVE TO ROHNGYA ALL FACILITEES TO CREAT A ROHINGYA DEFENCE FORCE BY NAME (ROHINGYA REGMENT)FOR SAVE ROHINGYA, SO MUGH (monks) HAVE OWN ARMY+HLUNTEN rengers + NASAKA+ARMY from capital THEY ALL SAVE RAKHIN (MUGH)
2nd: ROHINGYA NO NEED CERTIFICATE FOR NATINALITY
FROM BURMA & OTHER ON,BUT ROHINGYA ARE A NATION BELONG TO HIM OWN SOIL NAMED:ARAKAN WITH A LONG HISTORY VIA CENTURIES,
THE ARE THE NATION OF THE (KINGOM OF ARAKAN)see world history not to burma false history by terrorist army govt of burma,
SO ROHINGA WILL ISSUE TO ROHINGYA PUBLIC HIM OWN NATIONALITY,
SO ROHINGYA ARE A WORLD FAMOUS NATIONAL,
ROHINGYA MUSLIM CAN LIFE WITH MUGH TOGHETER IN ARAKAN,
SO ISLAM & MUSLIM NO PROBLEM FOR MUGH THEY ARE LIVE TOGHETHER IN ARAKAN BY BROTHERHOOD,
& SAME SITUATION IN CHITTAGON BANGLADESH,THE MUGH & OTHER BUDHIST OF BANGLADESH HAVE NATIOALITY OF BANGLAESH,THEY ARE MUSLIM & MUGH LIFE IN BANGLADESH TOGHETHER,RELIGON IS NO PROBLEM FOR MUGH IN BANGLADESH,
SO WHAT IS PROBLEM FOR DECTATOR THIN SIN BY MUSLIM OF ROHINGY,BECAUSE BANGLADESHI PRESIDENT NOT SAY ANY ABOUT MUGH+CHAKMA IN CHITTAGONG?
SO WHAT IS REASON IN BURMA,BUT IT IS A PLANED & CREATED IN BUMA BY AGENT OF MILETERY GOVT OF BY AGENT IN ARAKAN,NO ALL MUGH ARE WITH BURMISE TERRORIST MILLETERY GOVT,BUT THER ARE MUGH IN ARAKAN FIGHT IN ARAKAN FIGHT FOR RIGHT WITH MILLETERY GOVT OF BURMA,
FROM
:ROHINGY MUSLIM YOUTHS& MUSLIM STUDENTS
profissor: sulaman shah & dr.abul basher
M.Kutay
Your opinion is racist,like Burmese government and army. Why are burmese buddhist killing people whatever their religion.All of them were innocent children,woman,elderly people.They were HUMAN.Do you know human?What does it’s mean?Human rights?
Truth
Because Burmese Regime and many of its followers are admirers of Hitler and adopt the ideology of racial purification.
Zaw Lwin Oo
Burmese people should learn many thing regarding internationalism, international value, and tolerance, especially , dictators and racists’ mentalities must be changed.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eurasiareview.com%2F18092012-an-open-letter-to-daw-aung-san-suu-kyi-regarding-the-rohingya-issue%2F&ei=dCVdUJeZAcihigeq04GIDA&usg=AFQjCNGTo5z8ddEgzpiPDaOB5BunIuxMIA
Ashen
Problem is the Muslims make trouble for themselves. Everywhere they go they impose themselves upon others. In Europe they are abusing the system.and creating ghettos. In South Thailand they kill the local Thais including monks. They have to learn to live with others and to integrate into the local community.
Kawla
this just shows how racist you are
ganja buzi
yes mugh & chakma & other buddhist in chittagong are like to going in arakan,
so they are want left bangla desh nationalities for accept arakan nationality tggher rohingya
so they like seprate country arakan is for mugh+chakma
so chittagong buddist like arakan as a muslim country ARAKAN,
& CHITTAGONG ARE AS BUDDHIST COUNTRY FOR MUGH OF BANGAL & CHAKMA & other buddhist in bangla desh
HADAYET
I don’t think that non muslim of bangladeshi would love arakan they may be both citizen as far as i knew many rakhine are bot citizenship eventually they dream that bangladesh would be Burma one day .some time they acts as bengalee and some time burmese they have both countries rights .i knew many Rakhine who are remaining in burma they are also bangladeshi citizen .bangladesh govt claiming Rohingya are trying to make fake ID as bengalee but no one considering how many Rakhine are living in bangladesh they live in bangladesh but they invests in myanmar .
Living it
Nothing justifies Killing and brutal genocide no matter what the scenario, bring justice not violence. This is a call for humanity!!!
ayoub muslim
In lieu of launching into a tirade against the killings, something should be done on the ground. If we don’t help out our brothers there then we are equally responsible for their bloodshed. We won’t be able to satisfy our conscience, and the abrasive cries of the Burmese Muslims will keep on pinching us throughout our lives.
Kawla
This is absolutely disgusting! how can people be treated this way and the whole of the world just looks , and as a matter of fact not much people know about it because yet again the media is controlled by governments who plainly do not care !!!!!!!
Hicham
Almost SEEMS to reinforce what I’ve been snyaig right along: There is no global religion whose adherents aren’t capable of jihadifying themselves in one degree or another given the right provocations. And yes, maybe I’m looking too far down the road (not to mention the wrong road). But what happens, I wonder, if, as militant Burmese Buddhists start drawing closer to India, Burmese Muslims compensate by seriously realigning with China and/or Pakistan? And suppose the Kachins join them? All in all, very astute, farsighted post. And woefully undercommented on (speaking of which, when is somebody else besides VM going to start paying more attention to to our modern politicized/militarized global religion?).
Karl
The Rohingyas speak Chittagonian-accented Bengali. They are phenotypically the same body-morphology as Bangalees. They are Muslim. 3 convincing reasons why a Burmese-speaking Buddhist republic should not be asked to integrate them.
Look…. The Bangalees fought a terrible war against Pakistan in 1971 to have the right to their own language. Comes now the Rohingyas who speak Chittagonian-accented Bengali.
No doubt it is financially inconvenient for the Bangladeshis to accept them. But if they claim to be a real valid country which is in the Family of Nations -well, then that’s not a good enough reason to reject the Rohingyas.
fugstar
The Burmese junta want to permanently remove the Rohingyas to Bangladesh. This is fascist thinking towards ethnic cleansing. Although Bangladesh hosts 200 000 Rohingyas it should do more on the basis of human solidarity and consider military intervention carefully to protect rohingya rights. The current Awami League Government is hopeless, immoral, deluded and weak however.
Rohingyas are often better with Urdu i find than Bangla. Thos i have met in London dont even speak Bangla unless they have spent time in Bangladesh. Perhaps this is because of the way of religious instruction. Karl’s comment is quite ignorant. Karen chauvanist?
Burmese government has succeeded in dividing and ruling the different groups and it extremely brutal in thinking. We can see the disgusting reality of its impacts on Muslim an dBuddhist citizens.
Sooner or Later the Bangladesh government will have to deal with malignant magh/burmese influence on its politics and borders. These Burmans are not satisfied with butchering and deniying Rohingyas their common humanity and should be dealt with strongly thorugh diplomatic and other means.
It is also a good opportunity to destroy tribal, exclusivist and narrow ways of thinking about diverse communities in Bangladesh.
Ali
To all my Rohingya brothers, I am dearly sorry. Subcontinent was once a bastion of Muslim dominance and rule, we are now weak and helpless. I wish Aurangzeb was alive and these monkey monks would not dare to raise their voice. I as a Muslim from Sub Continent, ask for forgiveness from all my Rohingya brothers & sisters.
ကံဆိုးမသြားရာ မိုးလိုက္လို႕ရြာ « Dr Ko Ko Gyi’s Blog
[…] Burma’s Rohingya: A Denial of Citizenship and Human Rights (http://www.the-platform.org.uk/2012/07/12/burma’s-rohingya-a-denial-of-citizenship-and-human-right…)ကို ကိုးကား၍ ေမာင္စီမံ (မဟာသိပၸံ) […]
abo amr
We are Rohingya community in the Arabic Gulf region thank Mr. Nay San Lwin for highlighting this subject that the world is trying to intentionally forget it. We would like to feel the world and the regime in Myanmar and these monkey racists monks that we are now more than 1 million here and we never forget our country and we will return one day Whatever you do, no matter how long it takes.
Zaw Win
After reading recent comment of 88 generation Super Hero Ko Ko Gyi, I realize that Rhingya people are supermen. They have no weapons, they can not move one place to another and through out their lives they live as sub- human. But still they managed to kill lot Rakines, burned monastries. Do you belive him?. Any body beleive him or not I must beleive him. Because he is a hero. You can judge who is lieing,
Shermy
Where is Human Rights and UN ??
Sleeping ? We all Human Beings
hafiz
when Human killing.. in GENOCIDE we findings own profit !! Animal can live anywhere in world but not HUMAN! Sukyi celebrating birth day as reward of murder?? she said- I DONT KNOW !!! SO WE SHOULD BE CAREFUL , WHEN HUMAN START THINKING LIKE DOG.. IT MEANS- DEATH WILL COME TO US OR OUR FAMILY SOON.
Of A Sustained Buddhist Extremism in Sri Lanka | The Platform
[…] where there have been attacks on Buddhists by groups of Muslims. Of course nowhere is the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims by Buddhist extremists in adjacent Burma […]
Of A Sustained Buddhist Extremism In Sri Lanka | Colombo Telegraph
[…] where there have been attacks on Buddhists by groups of Muslims. Of course nowhere is the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims by Buddhist extremists in adjacent Burma […]
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[…] the Nazis, the Serbs, the Hutus or Tutsis, the monk-led groups in Myanmar or ironically the Israelis, who are largely descendants of those killed in concentration camps, […]
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[…] the Nazis, the Serbs, the Hutus or Tutsis, the monk-led groups in Myanmar or ironically the Israelis, who are largely descendants of those killed in concentration camps, […]
Bangladesh’s shameful actions also shouldn’t be forgotten. Bangladesh happily sends its economic migrants all around the world, sending money back to help its economy, yet they refuse to allow the desperate Rohingya to migrate as refugees to Bangladesh. They readily accept foreign aid from the international community, yet they are unwilling to be part of that community. It appears Bangladesh has no conscience. They talk of being ‘flooded’ by Rohingya migrants – the very language of fascism and racism. I urge every Bengali citizen, as long as they aren’t too busy negotiating their BMW X5s through Dhaka traffic, to go to their politicians and demand that they do something for their neighbours in trouble.