1942 Rohingya Massacre in Arakan Revisited Again in 2012

A lesson needed to be learned by the Rakhine Moghs after it lost its legendary Arakan kingdom that anarchy and hatred against others in society could also be self-inflicting that it creates division within the society causing outsiders to interfere in its internal affairs. However, in the ever decaying Arakan, the Rakhine Mogh refuse to learn and the culture of anarchy continues.  Now the Mogh Rakhines have turned their vigorous menace not against anybody from outside but against the local minorities, particularly against the Muslim population of Arakan known as the Rohingyas, thus the cycle of  Rohingya suffering continues. With the culture of anarchy growing to its climax, in 1942 there was a huge bloodbath of Rohingyas in all over Arakan. To the Rohingyas it is still remembered as the Karbalae Arakan (the doomsday in Arakan). Ever since, there has been more organized efforts in 1978, 1992-93 to commit massacre on the Rohingyas of Arakan resulting in the displacement of the Rohingya population all over the world.

Alarmed by this continued lawlessness and the hoodlum's growing massacres and threat, Rohingya leaders have been reminding the world community that there has been a systematic Rohingya genocide going on in Arakan. The genocide began in a large scale from the 30's when the name "Rakhine" was first officially coined. This radical nationalist movement was inspired by the Rakhine xenophobic leaders ( surprisingly some are even leading Rakhine Buddhist priests) propagating that Rohingyas are foreigners in Arakan. In reality however, Rohingyas have been in Arakan from the 7th century, long before the arrival of the Rakhines. History records that, Mogh Rakhines, a Tibeto- Burman group arrived in Arakan only during the 11th century by defeating the Indian king of the Chandras.

During the 1942 riot between the Rakhine Moghs and the Rohingyas, over a 100,000 Rohingya were killed and more people fled Arakan to take shelter in Southern Chittagong. This trend continues till today. It is shocking that in this present massacre, neither the president of Burma nor Aung San Su Kyi made a statement condemning the brutal murder of these people traveling by bus till on June 6 morning . Mogh Rakhines are only 5% of the Burmese population. We wonder why some of the prominent citizens of Burma are silent on this issue!

In this alarming situation, Rohingyas in large numbers take shelter in Bangladesh. We also have report that to escape from the Burmese government's actions against many of the Rakhine terrorist hoodlums, the culprits cross over to Bangladesh territory and find safe heaven in Bangladesh. Unfortunately instead of such terrorists to be identified and handed over to the Burmese government, Hasina's anti Muslim AL government advisers one being Sajb Wajed find the suffering Rohingyas as the terrorists.

It seems that there must be something wrong in the politically motivated global human rights movements. Thus, like many other suffering minorities, Rohingya suffering in Arakan continues in murder, rape, forced labor and in outside the country, Rohingyas as the boat people dies of hunger in the Bay or them in distant countries seeking a shelter refused. In all these, their suffering is growing to a new height.

No doubt, it has to be stopped at the source by the Burmese people with government help through finding the culprits who had committed the Rohingya murders in the broad day light and finding those people who are behind them provoking the hoodlums to attack the innocent Burmese Rohingya people traveling within Burma- their place of birth. In Burma's failure, the 1942 massacre will continue to revisit Burma. To us the humanity, and to the Rohingyas in particular "Each man's death diminishes me,.. Therefore, don't send... to know, for whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee."

Police watch Rohingya villages in Maungdaw

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Police personnel are watching the Rohingya villages of Maungdaw at night after Massacre of 10 Muslim by the gang of Rakhine racist in Taungup on June 3, according to an officer from Maungdaw.

“U Aung Myint Soe, the Maungdaw district administrator and  U Kyi Than, the Maungdaw township administrator officers called  Dr. Htun Aung, the Muangdaw Islamic religious council chairman and some members of  Maungdaw Islamic  Ullahma organization at district office where the officers told the Rohingya  religious leaders to keep the Rohingya from Maungdaw to stay peacefully on June 4.”

Similarly, Col. Aung Gyi, the director of Burma border security force (Nasaka) called the religious leaders at his office and said to stay peacefully in Maungdaw.Not to do any things which will harm the situation of Maungdaw into unrest, the office said.

But, on the night of June 4, police personnel from Maungdaw district police station and local police with other plain clothes police were deployed  at the junctions of Rohingya villages- clock tower ( Kanree village),  police line (Fayajee village) ,Myoma Kayoungdan village, Block 5 (Nayapara) and Shwezar bridge, said an elder from Maungdaw.

“The Rohingya closed all their business at 9:00pm where Rakhine were open their business at night. The police only stay at Rohingya villages and watch situation at night. But, no police personnel are seen at day time.”

“All the Rohingya enter to their home before 9:00pm as the police take position at 9:00 pm.”

In the rural area, the Nasaka round the Rohingya villages at night and the Rohingya community are not going outside after 9:00pm, said an officer from village admin office.

“Still we don’t see any things happen in our area, but the authority high alert in the area.”

“But, we don’t see any authority or security force is watching the model villages near our area and also in the town also no police are watching the Rakhine living blocks.”

Natala villagers chop a cow of Rohingya villager

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Natala (model) villagers chopped a cow of Rohingya villager of Maungdaw Township for meat while the cow was grazing in a grazing ground nearby a hill yesterday morning, said a close relative of the victim. 

The owner of the cow is Mohamed Ayas (25), son of Mohamed Alam hailed from Maung Nama south village of Maungdaw Township. 

On that day, at about 7:00 am, a cow of Ayas was grazing in the said grazing ground. Suddenly, a group of Natala villagers numbering in six, from Aung Thaya village rushed to the ground and chopped the legs of the cow  because  of meat and the cow laid down to the ground. 

Seeing the event, one of the cowboys was crying for the help and ran away to his owner’s house to inform the matter.  So the Natala villagers ran away from the scene. 

Hearing the information, the owner of the cow, Ayas rushed to the spot accompanied by some nearby villagers and the cow was brought to his village where the cow was slaughtered immediately for selling meat to the villagers.

This matter was informed to the concerned authorities such as--- Nasaka (Burma’s border security force) and police.  But, they did not take any action against the culprits. But the authority gave him permission to sell the meat to the villagers after slaughtering, said another villager who denied to be named. 

The cow will be cost about Kyat 250,000, if the cow is being sold in the open market. The owner paid one Viss (1.63kg) of meat to the Nasaka camp without money. One Viss of red meat is being sold at kyat 9,000.

Earlier, the Natala villagers also thieved or stole cattle of Rohingyas while keeping in cowsheds or grazing in the ground. Sometimes, villagers had to choose their missing cattle after paying money. 

A villager said,” We are discriminated by Nasaka, police, army, District and Township officers accompanied by Natala villagers.”

Natala villagers are new settlers in north Arakan brought by the government from Burma proper and Bangladesh to reduce and to harass the Rohingya community, he more added.

Distrust fuels anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar

An eruption in religious tensions in Myanmar has exposed the deep divisions between the majority Buddhists and the country's Muslims, considered foreigners despite a decades-long presence.
 

The violence threatens to overshadow reconciliation efforts in the country formerly known as Burma, where there has been a series of dramatic political reforms since almost half a century of military rule ended last year.
 

The trigger for the latest surge in sectarian tensions was the rape and murder of a woman in western Rakhine state, which borders Bangladesh, for which three Muslim men have been detained, according to state media.
 

On Sunday a mob of hundreds of people attacked a bus, believing the perpetrators were on board, and beat 10 Muslims to death.
 

"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.
 

"If the police cannot control the situation, maybe the (unrest) is going to spread," he said, adding that the biggest fear was for Rakhine state, where there is a large Muslim minority population including the Rohingya.
 

In Myanmar's main city Yangon, dozens of Muslims protested on Tuesday calling for justice.
Muslims entered Myanmar en masse for the first time as indentured labourers from the Indian subcontinent during British colonial rule, which ended in 1948.
But despite their long history, they have never fully been integrated into the country.
 

"For many people, a Burmese is a Buddhist by definition. Buddhism forms an essential part of their identity," said Jacques Leider, a historian at the French School of the Far East based in northern Thailand.
 

"The situation is explosive and from friction to the clashes is only a matter of lighting the fuse," he told AFP shortly before the latest violence.
 

Myanmar's Muslims -- of Indian, Chinese and Bangladeshi descent -- account for an estimated four percent of the roughly 60 million population, although the country has not conducted a census in three decades.
 

Pockets of sectarian unrest have occasionally broken out in the past across the country, with Rakhine state a flashpoint for tensions.
 

In February 2001, the then-ruling junta declared a curfew in the state capital Sittwe after clashes between Muslims and Buddhists.

The authorities this week warned against "anarchic acts" after the mob killings and an attack on a police station by an angry crowd in Sittwe.
 

But violence is only the most visible expression of a pervasive discrimination, according to Muslim groups.

Ko Aung Aung, of the exiled Burmese Muslim Association (BMA), said travel, justice and access to education and employment were all affected.

"The daily relationship with Buddhists is good as long as you know your limited ground and do not cross it," he said.

For the majority of people "any crime is a crime", but when a Muslim is suspected "it could be a good reason to riot against them," added Ko Aung Aung, who fled Myanmar in 2004 fearing for his safety because of his activism.

"Riots are always possible at any place and any time. So we must be very careful," he said.

Sittwe has a Muslim population of around 100,000 and dozens of mosques.

But a Muslim leader in the town, who asked not to be named, told AFP there was "no religious freedom", adding that authorities rarely granted permission for new mosques to be built, or repairs to be carried out.

Rights violations also affect other religious groups in Myanmar, including Buddhist monks who participated in a failed uprising in 2007 and who continue to be arrested and harassed, according to Amnesty International.

Myanmar's community of 750,000 Rohingyas, who are confined to the north of Rakhine and considered by the UN to be one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, are singled out for particular disdain.

In Sittwe even pronouncing the word Rohingya can ignite passions among people who view them at best as unwanted immigrants from Bangladesh and at worst "invaders".

"They are fighting to own the land, occupy the entire state," said Khaing Kaung San, a local activist in education and other areas. "They don't need weapons, just by their numbers they can cover the entire land."

It is a sentiment echoed by Shwe Maung, of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, which represents the ethnic Rakhine people.
 

Talking about hostility to Muslims in general, he said: "One day it will be a serious problem, they caused trouble in Thailand, Europe, USA. They try to make trouble in Rakhine State."


Despite decades of isolation, Muslims have also suffered from the images of violence associated with radical Islam, according to a foreign researcher, who asked not to be identified.

He said Myanmar's devout Buddhists had been particularly shocked by the destruction of the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan by Afghanistan's Taliban regime.

"There is a feeling, a fear among the country's Buddhists about being invaded," he added.