Urgent Appeal to the UN regarding recent violence against Rohingya

Harun Yahyah

Wed, Jan 29, 2014

The below letter has been sent by Mr. Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar) to the United Nations, human rights organizations and other authorities as an urgent appeal to investigate the recent violence against Rohingya thoroughly, to document and expose to the eyes of the world.

We are deeply concerned over the recent reports of violence against Rohingya people in Myanmar, and we are writing to you in order to urge you to put pressure to bear on the government of Myanmar.

As you also know, Myanmar’s government considers the estimated 800,000 Rohingya in the country to be foreigners while many citizens see them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and view them with hostility.

According to numerous human rights organizations and many news published on international media, the Myanmar government is instigating a program of ethnic cleansing against the Muslim civilian population. We are aware that you have knowledge of the communal violence going on in Myanmar and that you have previously taken steps toward easing the situation; however, the current events require the world’s immediate attention and possibly the application of sanctions to halt the acts of brutality against ethnic minorities.

Events in Myanmar are crime against Humanity

Sat Jan 04, 2014

Harun Yahya

The scale of the slaughter, persecution, torture and savagery experienced during the ruthless ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya Muslims in the Myanmar province of Rakhine stagger the imagination.

As a result of the slaughter and displacement carried out in the light of the systematic cleansing policy waged since 1942, only 700,000 out of the original four million Muslims in the region remain. To date, three million Muslims have been forced to migrate to neighboring countries, hundreds of thousands of Muslims have been martyred, tens of thousands of settlement units have been burnt and destroyed, tens of thousands of women have been raped, and hundreds of mosques and madrassas have been destroyed. Thousands of Muslims are known to have been imprisoned and tortured, though their fates are unknown.

Buddha's Teachings on Social Harmony

Fri Jan 3. 2014

David L. PhillipsDirector
Program on Peace-building and Rights, Columbia University Institute for the Study of Human Rights

Yangon -- In June and October 2012, scores of Muslims were killed and about 140,000 displaced in clashes between ethnic Arakan Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims. Rohingyas now live in squalid refugee camps, locked-down and under curfew. The conflict in Rakhine State also has an ethnic dimension; Rohingya are treated as illegal immigrants under Burma's 1982 Citizenship Law, and thereby denied the most basic rights.

The virus of sectarian strife also spread to Muslim areas in mainland Myanmar. In March 2013, a Buddhist mob rampaged through the central Burmese town of Meiktila, killing scores, burning mosques, and evicting terrified survivors. Deadly violence spread towards Okpho and Gyonbingauk townships, where mosques and Muslim homes were razed. Inter-communal violence displaced thousands in the country's heartland before a curfew could stabilize the situation.

Archbishop of Rangoon calls for Rohingya citizenship

In his New Year message to the Roman Catholics of Burma, Monsignor Charles Bo called for unity between the “different souls” of “this wonderful nation” and pointed particularly towards the Rohingya Muslims of western Burma, saying those born in the country should be granted citizenship.

The archbishop further called for an end to violence against the Rohingyas, and urged the country to instead fight against poverty and human trafficking.

“On the eve of the New Year, Myanmar prepares for the dawn of a new era characterized by freedom, democracy, justice, peace, hope and fraternity among the different souls of this wonderful nation,” wrote Msgr Charles Bo in AsiaNews in a message addressed for 1 January 2014 on the occasion of the World Day of Peace.

US liable for Rohingya massacre in Myanmar: Analyst

Mon Dec 30, 2013

The United States is complicit in the ongoing persecution of the Rohingya Muslim community in Myanmar for easing sanctions against the Asian country, a political analyst tells Press TV.

“As far as who is responsible for this, I think we have to assign some responsibility not only to the government in Myanmar and to the Noble Laureate Aung San Suu kyi, … but also, we have to blame the American government and world community,” Kevin Barrett, a political commentator from Madison said in a Monday interview with Press TV.

The analyst noted that the US has been rewarding the Myanmar regime with ever-closer political and economic ties despite the genocide of the minority Rohingya Muslims.

Terror in Burma: Violence against Muslims

Hundreds of Rohingya people have been killed; tens of thousands were forced from their homes and live as suffering refugees in Internal Displacement Camps (IDP's) where disease is rampant and food and shelter are scarce.

"Terrorist" groups are frequently the banter of network news anchors and analysts; yet few in America devote time to the terrorists of Burma who have behaved treacherously toward the Muslim population for a year and a half now, due to old simmering hatreds and a desire among the majority population to live in a Buddhist only country. The Buddhist answer toward their frustration with having to live with Muslims, is most vividly expressed in the "969" movement led by a Buddhist monk named U Wirathu; which propagates false information that in turn damages the fragile existence of Muslims in this country that was locked down under a military junta for so many years. While all Muslims are threatened, the Rohingya Muslim people are at the center of the Buddhist's gun sites.

Wirathu is now an abbot in Mandalay's Masoeyein Monastery, an expansive complex where he leads about 60 monks and has influence over more than 2,500 residing there. Free from a prison sentence and back in a place of influential power, he is again preaching hatred and intolerance. "Many monks are highly influenced by his hateful messages, and are directly involved in genocidal campaigns against the minority Muslim population in Myanmar. They are also supported by government agencies at all levels - from local to central," noted Rohingya Muslim political leader, Dr. Habib Siddiqui.

Human Trafficking: Muslim Women Vulnerable in Myanmar

Engy Abdelkader

U.S. Representative to Advisory Panel of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief at the OSCE

Amid continued communal strife in Myanmar, Muslim women and children are increasingly finding themselves in vulnerable situations that have yet to be adequately recognized and addressed. This post glimpses the related issue of human trafficking.

By way of background, Burma's record on human trafficking has prompted the United States to place it on a Tier 2 Watch List for the past two years. The Watch List is reserved for countries that fail to comply with minimum standards -- from preventing trafficking to investigating and prosecuting perpetrators of the crime to protecting victims -- as set forth in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA).

In Myanmar, security forces have subjected both Muslim men and women to forced labor. Women, however, have been reportedly forced into prostitution and other forms of slavery as well. In fact, according to a U.S. Department of State 2012 human rights report, Burmese officials have reportedly kidnapped Rohingya women and forced them into slavery on military bases.

Urgently Needed: A Long Term And Practical Policy On The Rohingya Crisis

Saw Greh Moo

Since Burma’s military junta officially ceded power to a quasi-civilian government in 2011, the country has received much praise and applause from the international community for reforms it initiated. A series of peace talks with various ethnic armed groups have been held and ceasefire accords with most, if not all, of the major ethnic armed groups have been signed to end decades of wars, human rights abuse and destruction in Burma’s periphery ethnic regions.

Aung San Su Kyi, along with most of the political prisoners, has been freed and her National League for Democracy party is allowed to participate in politics. The lifting of strict media censorship laws has also led to greater press freedom and freedom of opinions not seen in many decades. There is still occasional fighting in the Kachin State but a series of intense negotiations have also taken place to find the way to end the conflict.

Constitutional issues remain a major obstacle to further reforms and reconciliation, but the government seems to be open to further compromise. As these developments have demonstrated over the past few years, negotiation and compromise is the key to the success of Burma’s reforms and transition to a fully democratic society.

However, in spite of all the hope and positive signs of development in the last few years, there is still a major issue that seems to be off the table for negotiation: the future of Rohingya Muslims.