Monday 8 October 2012

Rakhine/Rohingya violence escalates in Burma Channet 4 News

The ‘Central Mosque’ is a beautiful building on the main street of Sittwe – the largest city in Burma’s Rakhine State. It is a fanciful and exotic construction and I was fortunate to have a good view of it from the hotel we used on our last visit.


Its fanciful towers rise well above a protective wall and the palm trees and thick foliage which occupy part of the grounds.

Unfortunately, reports are now filtering through from Sittwe about an attack on the mosque by “one thousand” Rakhine Buddhists yesterday afternoon. Houses on the site used by the imam and other workers were destroyed and according to several accounts, the main building or “musallah” used for prayers has been damaged – but still stands I am told.

It’s just the latest round of violence between ethnic Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya in Rakhine State – a continuation of hostilities which stretch back to early June, after an alleged rape of a Buddhist woman by three Rohingya men. Still, the attack on the ‘Central Mosque’ tells us two critical things.

First, the government’s attempts at keeping the peace – primarily by segregating the two groups – is not working. Secondly, it suggests that the conflict is spreading – in fact, it could now be better described as a regional conflict.

The government’s segregation policy consists of a couple of things – moving the Rohingya who lost their homes in early June out of Sittwe and into rural refugee camps – and prohibiting other Rohingya from leaving their villages or communities.

What this approach has not done is introduce any sort of reintegration and reconciliation policy. Without dialogue – and any attempt to settle longstanding grievances (like the call by Rohingya for Burmese citizenship) underlying tensions will be left to fester.

Just as concerning though is the fact that this conflict has spread into nearby Bangladesh – a country that is predominantly Muslim but contains a number of different ethnic Buddhist groups – including Rakhine Buddhists. Last week a dozen or more Buddhist temples and monasteries were burnt down in what many have seen as a revenge attack by Muslims upset by the treatment of Rohingya in Burma – and I am told by sources that two of the temples destroyed were Rakhine temples.

The Bangladesh government blamed the destruction on “radical Islamists, Rohingya and members of opposition parties;” but wagging the finger won’t calm things down. Only far-sighted leadership and statesmanship by the region’s politicians will do that.

It was a decision yesterday by the Burmese Army to intervene in Sittwe that ultimately saved much of the “Central Mosque”. But they won’t get much credit for their actions when news of the event starts to travel.

Who Holds Real Power in Myanmar? No Buddhist leader except Dalai Lama condemned the violence of Rakhine Buddhists.



(SITTWE AKYAB, Myanmar)
- Nearly four months after the bloodiest clashes between Myanmar's ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and stateless Rohingya left the western town of Sittwe in flames, nobody knows when and how the problem can be solved.

While the Rahkine can move freely, can do their jobs as usual, nearly one million Rohingya have effectively been confined to a series of rural displaced camps and in detentions, they can’t move freely, can’t go to schools and jobs, their lives are worse than prisoners.

Rohingya are heavily discriminated and alleged that they are intruders who came from neighboring Bangladesh to steal scarce land of Rakhine. Rohingya are protected in camps and in some villages but they are not allowed to go out for security concern.

Elsewhere in Rakhine state, the army has resumed forced labor against Muslims, ordering villagers to cultivate the military's paddy fields, act as porters and rebuild destroyed homes of Rakhine Buddhists, according to a report by the Arakan Project, an activist group.

Raping Rohingya girls and ladies, looting their properties, and torturing are continuously carried on by NaSaKa, security forces, and polices. Rohingya people do not know to whom they need to appeal their cases; they don’t know who has real power, Rakhine authority or central government.
Financial Blocks to Rohingyas in MinBya, Friday, 5th August 2012

MinBya, Arakan- Myanmar Agricultural Bank in MinBya Township has stopped giving out agricultural loans to Rohingyas in the area. Besides, the bank refused to give back the savings of Rohingya farmers in the banks, too.

“The Bank Manager U Thar Aye, a strong supporter of Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP), said upon the requests of Rohingya farmers that Bank officials would go to their villages and disburse the loans to the farmers.

But no official from the bank has gone to Rohingyas’ villages to give out the loans. Besides, Rohingyas are unable to withdraw their savings from the bank” said a Rohingya on phone from MinBya.

Myanmar government provides an amount of Kyat 50,000 loans and Kyat 10,000 loans for the monsoon agriculture (such as Paddy crops) and other seasonal crops respectively to the farmers through the agricultural banks in Myanmar. The interest rate of the loan is 1.25% a month.

The farmers need to settle the old loans before taking out a new one. Like others, Rohingya farmers in MinBya had received the loans till February 2012.



Even though Rohingya farmers have settled their old loans, the new loans are not given out to them. Sadly, they can’t go the main branch of the bank situated in the downtown of MinBya for the fear of being attacked by Rakhine extremists. For the worse, Rohingyas farmers are unable to get back their 7-year savings in the banks.

As a result, they are struggling to survive and having great difficulty in their agriculture of paddy crops which their life-line. And Rohingya farmers are afraid of going to their farms because many farmers are being inhumanely killed by Rakhine extremists in Pauk Taw and MinBya.

One Rohingya youth, Amanullah, who is 16-years old, is the son of U Abdu Rashid who lives in West Gaudusara Village, Maungdaw South. He was killed by Border Security Forces, NaSaKa on 3rd October, 2012. The two youths were returning from Kayindan Quarter to Pandaw Pyin, after their shopping. They were called by NaSaKa at 5:30 PM on that day while on the road. The friend of Amanullah from Pandaw Pyin was released alone after he was severely tortured.
Spark in Bangladesh

Hundreds of Buddhist Monks peacefully demonstrated in front of Bangladesh Embassy in Yangon to protest recent attacks against Buddhist temples on 5th October 2012.

Rohingya leaders including U Kyaw Myint, former C.R.P.P member, fully condemned the communal violence of Bangladesh. Rohingya people can realize the feeling of the Rakhine minority in Bangladesh as they have been suffering in Rakhine State of Myanmar.

When our houses and Mosques were being burnt, our Rohingya people were being killed in inhumane ways, I personally appealed to the Buddhists World for help, and no Buddhist leader except Dalai Lama condemned the violence of Rakhine Buddhists.

We should condemn every one of those who involved in violence and killed but we are not allowed to insult other religion, Myanmar monks have right to protect against violence in Bangladesh but they have no right to insult religion, in the below picture, monks insult not only Islam but also other religions which believe that everything in nature has a soul such as Brahmanism and Shintoism.


Rohingya and Burmese People

Due to the racist propaganda of different Burmese regime throughout its history, most of Burmese people including young Rohingya generation could not have the chance to know Rohingya people and the term “Rohingya.” Burmese regime could easily crack down all demonstrations including saffron but when time came for Rohingya, the regime had no idea how to stop Rakhine terrorists.

War in Kachin State is remarkable evidence that Myanmar regime’s hand is still on all the government structures, late military leaders involve in all political fields. The Myanmar government could stop Rakhine Buddhists easily but it gave license to Rakhine for annihilation of Rohingya in the name of national security. Rakhine Buddhists have been taking military training everywhere in Arakan State and building strong army while Rohingya have nothing for survivals.

Rakhine Buddhists believe that they are Aryan descendants who are the most superior, who take care of their race much more than other race, which call fatherland as German Aryan contrast to Rohingya people who say Arakan is our mother land. Rakhine claimed that they are the sole origin in Arakan State ignoring the authentic historical records Rohingya.

Movement is still restricted for Rohingya people in all parts of Rakhine state, preventing all Rohingya villagers from going to work, accessing markets, food supplies, health services and education but Rakhine Buddhists gain more and more rights which includes building strong army , every township of Arakan State, Rakhine are taking military training, every Rakhine aged 16-50 are compulsory for that training.

Rakhine Political parties agreed that they should have an army stronger than Kachin , their main demands are building a strong military of their own, autonomy and annihilation of Rohingya people. Unlike Kachin State, the government give chances to Rakhine, either government is developing racism or Rakhine Buddhists control the whole Myanmar; 90% of monks in Myanmar are Rakhine, most of them knew Bangali language , and most of have relatives in Bangladesh who are Bangladeshi.

“The Rohingya people are peace-loving, cooperative, and obedient people. They want to live in Burma in peace and security, abiding the laws of the country, according to the constitution, but they want guarantees from the local, state and national governments that they will be treated equally. They should have all rights. The Rohingya people want to make sure that they are bona fide citizens recognized as an indigenous people of Arakan under the current Burmese constitution.”

We should endeavor to create an atmosphere of peaceful coexistence in Arakan State where all Burmese citizens can live together peacefully and in happiness. We should try to make Arakan like Golden Ages of Mrauk U dynasty when Muslims , Buddhists and other religious persons had lived harmoniously and had made Golden Arakan.

We would like to request the United States government, European Union countries, non-aligned movement, the Asian countries, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and international non-governmental organizations to send international observers into all townships where Rohingya people are suffering persecution and put pressure on the government of Myanmar to restore peace and promote reconciliation between the Rohingya and Rakhine.

Myanmar monks attack mosque in Rakhine state


Myanmar Buddhist monks set fire to a mosque in Sittwe town, the capital of Rakhine state and desecrate copies of the holy Qur'an, Press TV reports.

Press TV has learned that the 800-year-old ancient mosque called “Sawduro Bor Masjid” in the western town was burnt down by extrimist Buddhist monks, with the help of military personnel on Sunday.

The fire, which continued for two hours, also damaged several houses around the Mosque, owned by Rohingyas Muslims.

The Buddhist-majority government of Myanmar refuses to recognize Rohingyas and has classified them as illegal migrants, even though the Rohingyas are said to be Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origin, who migrated to Myanmar as early as the 8th century.

The silence of the human rights organizations towards abuses against the Rohingya Muslims has emboldened the extremist Buddhists and Myanmar’s government forces.

According to reports, thousands of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims are living in dire conditions in refugee camps after government forces and Buddhist extremists started burning down their villages on August 10.

Reports say some 650 Rohingyas have been killed in the Rakhine state in the west of the country in recent months. This is while 1,200 others are missing and 80,000 more have been displaced.

The UN human rights authorities blame Myanmar’s security forces for the violence, who are believed to have been targeting the Muslims rather than bringing the ethnic violence to an end in the country.

Latest news about Rohingyas

(A) Continuation of Extortion by Nasaka upon Rohingya Community

On 3rd October, 2012, a Rohingya, U Farooq (F) U Kasim from Nayr Bil, Maungdaw North, was invited for a dinner by one of his relatives very near to his own home. After dinner, when he was having a conversation with the family of the relative, a group of Nasaka personnel, sent by Nasaka Sector (5) Commander Win Hlaing, entered the house mentioned above. The visitor was immediately arrested showing no reason and taken outside the compound. Eventually, the victim had to give Two Hundred Thousand Kyats to the Nasaka for release. This is a normal phenomenon applied by the Nasaka to extort money from Rohingya community.

(B) Arbitrary Accusation on Rohingya

On 7th October, 2012, at 01:00am, Sit Oo Zi, Htun Htun Naing and 8 more Nasaka personnel from Nasaka Sector (5)-Nga Khu Yah, raided a house owned by U Noor Mohammed (F) U Zahid Husson from Oo Kyein Kya (Bura Shiddah Fara), Maungdaw north, in search of mobile. Till 02:30am, they searched the house ins and outs and even they excavated the house compound. Finally, they found a cable of MP3 charger. Listening to MP3 and such other entertaining apparatuses are the only way of recreation for discriminated Rohingyas in Myanmar. Moreover, all sorts of chargers and cables are officially legal and widely sold in all most every electronic shop. Awful to hear that, one of the brothers of the raided house owner was arrested for this legal charger. The arrestee was identified as: Shorit Ullah (F) U Zahid Hussain. The Nasaka personnel brought him to Sector (5) Base and the arrestee is still under arrest. The Sector Commander is demanding Five Hundred Thousand Kyats from the arrestee for release. The family is so poor that they are not in a position to enable the demand.

Similar cases occurred in the same village on the same night by the same Nasaka Personnel with different villagers with fabricated reasons. At around 2:45am, a house owned by Shofi Ullah (F) ? was raided. The house owner is a fisherman. During the raid, other two fishermen from nearby were found at his house sleeping overnight by informing the Village Administrator. Unfortunate to them was that the Village Administrator did not give them the official document for the overnight sleeping. When the victims could not provide the Nasaka the documents for overnight sleeping, they were arrested and brought to Sector (5) Base. Still the arrestees are under arrest. The Sector Commander is demanding Five Hundred Thousand Kyats from each miserable arrestee. So far, nobody knows about their fate if they cannot fulfill the demand.

(C) Even No Burial Right for Rohingya killed by Nasaka

On 5th October, 2012, at 05:00pm, Arman Ullah (F) U Abdu Roshid from Gawdu Tha Yah, Maungdaw south, was arrested on the way back to his village from Ka Nyin Tan market, by the Nasaka Camp of Pan Daw Pyin (Nawl Bawn Nya) bridge near Maungdaw downtown. The arrestee was murdered and the corpse was thrown in the creek near the camp. The corpse has been floating in the stream till 7th October, 2012. Although some villagers have seen the corpse, no one dares to bring and bury the corpse since the murder case was committed by the Nasaka.

(D) Gold Robbery by Military

On 4th October, 2012, a local car with passengers going from Bagone Nah to Alel Than Kyaw was robbed by military temporarily camping in Threy Kone Baung. The car Registered No. is 1-Ka/709 and that of the owner is U Mustaque from Myo Thu Gyi village. It is a JEEP car and the driver is Zahid Hussain (F) U Abdu Lawti from Ka Nyin Tan (Myoma), Maungdaw. A woman Shom Jidah (F) U Mohammed Alom, 20 years, from Bagone Nah was one of the passengers who was going back to her husband, Zynul (F) U Abdul Hakim, in Byu Har Gone hamlet, Alel Than Kyaw, Maungdaw south. On the way, the military made the car stopped at the camp at 3:30pm and inhumanly tortured the passengers. When the military saw some jewelry worn by the abovementioned woman, they robbed all the gold. The weight of the robbed gold was about 1.5 tical, current estimated value in Kyat is 1.1 million.

(E) Daily Cruelty upon Rohingya

On 5th October, 2012, at 09:00am, a Rohingya, Solimul Kalam (F) U Abul Kalam from Nyaung Chaung (Kadir Bil), Maungdaw south, who mongers clothes in Alel Than Kyaw market, was arrested by Sa Ra Pha (Military Intelligence Department) in Alel Than Kyaw. The arrestee regularly stays overnight at the house of Abdu Munaf (F) U Shom Shu, a medicine shopkeeper in Alel Than Kyaw market. The arrestee was released at 11:30am after extorting one hundred and fifty Thousand Kyats via the agent and informer Abdullah. 
RB News Desk.
Complied by Rohingya Youths.

The Price of Hatred | Dr. Habib Siddiqui


In our time there is no denying of the enormous influence of the social media employing web- and mobile-based technologies to support interactive dialogue and communication between organizations, communities and individuals. Thus, mass communication which was once a very expensive avenue to propagate one’s views is now almost a free item. Social media are also unregulated in most parts of our world, thus, allowing every John or Jane Doe to express and share his or her views on any matter big or small whether or not he or she is qualified or knowledgeable on such matters. It is, therefore, possible that while expressing one’s unfiltered views others can feel abused, demeaned and hurt. And consequently, those feeling hurt, demeaned or abused can react either proportionately or disproportionately, which can turn into violence.
Consider, e.g., the latest case involving the posting of highly inflammatory and offensive pictures in the Facebook by someone named Uttam Barua, a Buddhist in Bangladesh. Consequently, angry mob have ransacked some monasteries. There are rumors that Barua may have been a foreign agent working for the Myanmar regime to incite such violence.
In repressive and authoritarian societies where the government controls most outlets of social media, its views define the narratives on most matters. For years, thus, in places like Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Syria it was always those governments that had a tight control on what needed to be fed and consumed for their public. But with the social media like the Internet and Facebook, which could not be controlled by the governments, the general public was no longer willing to digest government narratives on any matter of importance unquestioning. By offering an alternative source of communication, the social media have triggered something like a revolution of the mind, thus, freeing hundreds of millions of people around our globe. Thus, one after another yesterday’s despots were overthrown yielding place to the newly elected democratic leaders. Probably, one of the days not too far from today, other despots like Syria’s Bashar al-Assad would also be removed.
Social media can, however, as already hinted above, be abused spreading lies and deceptions, promoting hatred and intolerance. And we have been witnessing many such abuses of freedom of expression in many western liberal democracies, especially in its treatment of Islam and Muslims in the post-9/11 era.
According to the U.S. government accounts, the tragic event of 9/11 was brought about by terrorists that were linked with OBL’s al-Qaeda. [Note: there are many credible engineering experts who doubt the government narrative on this tragedy.] In spite of Bush Jr.’s announcement that the religion of Islam had nothing to do with this tragedy, it was no less of a person than his own attorney general who would later go on to say that ‘Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for Him. Christianity is a faith in which God sends His son to die for you.’ John Ashcroft is an evangelical Christian and his bias is understandable, although he later indicated that his remarks to Christian columnist Cal Thomas did not “accurately reflect what I believe I said.”
Sadly, Ashcroft was not the lone Republican politician in this media campaign against Islam and its adherents. Others like Giuliani, Gingrich, Palin, King and Bachmann joined the hate campaign. Many of these promoters of hatred are individuals with very flawed moral fiber and their views on Islam revealed far more about their own evil selves than anything else. And then there were others — intimately tied up with the Zionists on the contentious Palestine-Israel debate — who for their own religious or political beliefs or inclinations jumped on the wagon of intolerance. They became the mouthpieces for the land-grabbing Zionists in Israel. Nine-Eleven for them was a Reichstag Fire moment to launch an all out war against the Muslim world so that not only could Israel’s illegal annexation of Palestine with settlements and dehumanization of the Palestinian people be sanctified the entire Muslim world would be brought down to their knees as a subjugated people. They even planned for redrawing the map of the Muslim world. However, with the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq going wrong, dragging valuable American resources and killing thousands of soldiers, their evil plan had to be shelved.
The intellectual leadership for Islamophobia and intolerance of anything Islamic was provided by some pen-pushing frauds and charlatans who mastered the art of cherry-picking Qur’anic verses out of context to suit their ludicrous theories about Islam. Thus, came disingenuous and greedy guys like Ibn Warraq and others, who basically repackaged the centuries-old missionary polemical writings against Islam to justify Islamophobia and bigotry against Islam. With material support provided by powerful pro-Israeli Americans and Europeans, virtually anyone (or so it seemed) who could ridicule Islam soon became a media celebrity. In the post-9/11 era of Islamophobia, they were to become the new faces of ‘experts’ on Islam. 
Interestingly, many of these ‘experts’ (including some with Arabic sounding names like Irshad Manji and Ibn Warraq, and other Christian and Jewish zealots like Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller, respectively) hardly know the language of the Qur’an. But who dare question their expertise on Qur’an and Islam or the Muslim world when they are promoted as experts in media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s TV channels, tabloids, newspapers and magazines, and have powerful advocates like Daniel Pipes and Ann Coulter!
But probably nothing was more sinister in this scheme of things Islamophobic than the Jerusalem Summit, a think tank that was sponsored by Michael Cherney Foundation, which provided the first venue for anti-Muslim zealots (including Hindu and other extremists from countries with records of deep intolerance against their Muslim minorities) around the world to unite on a common agenda in Jerusalem in 2003. The ideology of the Summit was summed up by its four-point declaration: radical Islam is a threat to civilization, the United Nations is a failure, Israel is in need of defense and the war on terrorism is a righteous cause.
Lost in that mendacious campaign are the facts that it is Israel which with its racist Likudnik Zionist leaders is a threat to every Arab neighbor and the entire region, and it is the Palestinians, Iranians and other Arabs who live in the Middle East that need protection against Israeli terrorism, and that when it comes to extremism – no religion has a monopoly there. All the extremists – religious and non-religious alike – are a threat to civilization, and they are the ones who need to be defeated. That is, secular fundamentalists in France and other parts of Europe and the Americas are no better than the Muslim Talibans of Afghanistan and Pakistan, or the Hindu extremists in India, or the Buddhist extremists in Myanmar and Cambodia, or the Christian extremists in the Philippines, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Serbia, or the Christian/Jewish Zionist extremists in much of the western world. As a matter of fact because of the support that many of these non-Muslim extremists (e.g., the likes of Narendra Modi and L.K. Advani of India; Gingrich and Bachmann in the USA, and so on and so forth) enjoy from the government apparatus in their respective countries they are seemingly more dangerous than most Muslim extremists who don’t enjoy such support.
In essence, the neoconservative organizers and participants of the Jerusalem Summit wanted nothing short of a civilization war with the world of Islam. Fear of Islam and its people was exploited as one of the most surreptitious and invisible powers to denigrate the religion of nearly a quarter of humanity and encourage open promotion of intolerance and hatred against Muslims.
It is because of such a common agenda that the limit of freedom of expression to insult Islam is ever pushed to its newer heights where anything and everything to do with Islam is a fair game. Thus, the Danish Cartoons and the recently filmed ‘Innocence of Muslim’ are only part of this long list of hatred and intolerances hurled against the Muslim world. These are meant to provoke Muslims and ultimately bring about a clash of civilizations. They also have powerful backers with links to the citadels of power from Jerusalem/Tel Aviv to Washington D.C. Many of these provocateurs are also criminals who should have been locked up in the prison for the good of the society.
These hatemongering provocateurs ought to know that like anything in our world there is always a limit to freedom. With freedom comes responsibility. When their fists hit someone’s nose it is an abuse of that freedom to stretch arms. Freedom cannot be a tool to promote hatred and intolerance against anyone, and much less against a religious community. Government cannot shy away from its responsibility to punish the abusers of such freedom that breed hatred and lead to violence, which can result in the deaths of innocent human beings.
In recent months, we have witnessed quite a few of such demonstrations of hatred against Muslims in the Internet, the Facebook and the YouTube. What is interesting is that some of these social media sites had clear guidelines against promoting intolerance. However, when it came to insulting Islam and Muslims, none of those guidelines seemed to matter, and those sites did not feel obligated to remove such offensive postings. What a double standard!
During the early days of latest extinction campaign against the Rohingyas of Myanmar, I was simply shocked to see an overabundance of highly inflammatory and offensive pictures and racist remarks posted by Rakhine and Burmese Buddhists that were sure to pain most Muslims. I pondered how could any person live with so much hatred against a fellow human being? After all, hatred is taught and no one is born hating anyone. Who have been teaching the Buddhist Rakhines and Burmese to hate non-Buddhists? As I know better, in societies where such evils are promoted, it is no longer an individual act but rather a national project in which others are willing partners in such crimes.
As I hinted earlier, authoritarian regimes use government controlled media to manufacture and spread their lies. They can act as the ultimate architect of genocide or crimes against humanity. For years, within what was Burma, and known these days by the name Myanmar, propagation of hatred against the Rohingyas, who are ethnically and religiously different than the majority Buddhists, has been part of the government campaign. Falsely depicted as outsiders, land- and job-stealers, the Rohingyas have been robbed of their citizenship in the land of their forefathers, and they have been dehumanized to such an extent that no one dare say anything to restore their legitimate rights in this Buddhist majority country. An open display of racism and bigotry thus became a norm rather than an exception.
The rape and grisly murder of a Buddhist woman was exploited as what had triggered the ‘race riot.’ However, as Dr. Maung Zarni, an expert on Myanmar, has recently mentioned there was no trace of rape on that murdered Rakhine woman – Thida Htwe; and that one of the so-called perpetrators of the crime Htet Htet (who was later declared dead in his prison cell) was a Buddhist. And yet, Myanmar’s Ministry of Information which micro-manages all official publications and broadcasts went on to characterize incorrectly the three perpetrators as ‘Muslims.’
The military regime has often been the greatest perpetrator of such hateful crimes and then blamed others to incite race riots. I won’t be surprised if we, one day, learn that the local government officials and security forces in the Rakhine state were the architects of this gruesome murder to incite Rakhine violence against unarmed Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar.
As a result of this targeted pogrom, thousands of Muslim owned homes, businesses, shops, schools and mosques have been burned down and destroyed; nearly a hundred thousand of the Rohingyas continue to live without a shelter. No Muslims are now noticeable in places like Akyab, the capital city. As I write their historic Jam-e Mosque is torched by a Rakhine mob; and this, in spite of the government imposition of the Section 144, which bans all movements of 5 or more people in groups. While the Rakhines are allowed to roam around and burn Rohingya homes, all the homeless Rohingyas are caged in camps with no freedom to go out. Denied adequate food, many are starving to death as a result of this extinction campaign. As to the casualty, we may never know the number of deaths. Myanmar regime won’t share that information. None of the perpetrators of the ten Tablighi Muslims has yet been arrested while it is widely known that some 300 or so of the armed Rakhines attacked them in front of police and security forces. It is no accident that human rights activists have called the latest campaign as part of a wider ethnic cleansing campaign that started since the time of Ne Win in 1962.
Can the provocateurs of hatred and intolerance be taught to love their targets or objects of hatred? Nelson Mandela wrote in his autobiography “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” I wish Mandela is right.
Hatred and intolerance are unacceptable. They are like cancers and need to be routed out one way or another. If unbridled freedom promotes such cancers, a society is probably better off controlling its deadly spread through painful radiation therapy before it is too late.

Breaking News: Ancient Mosque in Sittwe on Fire

Sittwe, Arakan- On 7th October 2012 (i.e. today), an 800-year-old ancient mosque called “Sawduro Bor Masjid” near to the National Museum and U Uttama Park was torched and burnt down by the Rakhine Extremists with the help of 500 military personnels. This historical mosque is also recorded by the United Nation as one of the many historical heritages in Burma. At the same time, many of Rohingyas’s houses and guest houses around the area were also torched by the Rakhine extremists.


“Around 3PM Myanmar standard time, many Rakhine extremists gathered around the mosque and started torching the mosque. When Rohingyas around the area came out to put off fire, around 500 Military blocked Rohingyas and protecting and helping Rakhines in burning down the historical mosque. At the same time, Rohingyas’ houses and guest houses were put on fire, too” said Maung Maung Oo, a Rohingya from Sittwe.


According to local Rohingyas in Sittwe, Rakhine Extremists in cooperation with Military burnt down the mosque in retaliation to the recent violence against Buddhist minority in Bangladesh. Bangladesh government irresponsibly bucked up the blames on Rohingyas for the incidence. Bangladesh government is just taking advantage of already victimized Rohingyas who have no legal status either in Burma or in Bgladesh and hence can’t move around freely. Besides, it is known to the world that Bangladesh has pushed back Rohingya victims to the sea. Now, the violence against Rohingyas in Arakan has been renewed in cooperation again with the country’s military. Now, only God knows what their future and destiny hold.

Elsewhere, “Military raided the village, Baggona in Maung Daw on 6th October 2012. While Rohingya men in the village were on hinding, they gathered a few Rohingya women and thretened them not to or let their men meet any foreign investigation teams or observers coming to the region. Or else, they would take strong actions against Rohingyas” reported by A. Faiz from Maung Daw. The raid was carried out subsequently after the departure of British Ambassador to Burma, Andrew Heyn, who visited the region in the earlier days.

Compiled by M.S. Anwar

BREAKING NEWS (Sittwe) 3:00 PM local time

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Maung daw, Arakan state, Myanmar (Burma)
I am an independent man who voted to humanitarian aid.