We the undersigned organizations
reject the 186-page official report dated 22 April 2013 of the Arakan
Investigation Commission as follows:
1. The Rakhine Investigation
Commission formed on 17 August 2012 by President Thein Sein included
representatives from various religious and political parties and
democracy groups except Rohingya representatives, who have been actual
and potential victims of deadly violence and genocidal attacks. Haji U
Nyunt Maung Shein and U Tin Maung Than, the two prominent Muslim leaders
were purged from the Commission seeing that they were most insistent on
the truth.
2. It is a biased report favouring Rakhines, their
hostile views and arguments towards Rohingya people. It purposely
suppresses the core fact of the problem that the Rohingya people have
long been subjected to institutionalized persecution, ethnic cleansing
and genocidal onslaughts at the hands of the government and state
sponsored non-state actors, particularly the extremist Rakhines
3.
The Inquiry Commission has lost its credibility since it has been
manned with people who either directly or indirectly supported, involved
or publicly put fuel on crisis. The commission member veterinary doctor
Aye Maung (MP), leader of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party
(RNDP), is the main mastermind in the violence and ‘Rohingya ethnic
cleansing’, who graphically described his Rohingya annihilation plan in
Rathedaung Rakhine Conference held on 25-26 September 2012. Nearly
every understanding or recommendation of the Commission translates the
view of the RNDP.
4. The Commission, despite comprising of
scholarly people, has largely distorted Rohingya historicity dubbing
them ‘Bengalis’ and depicting them migrant community with no historical
roots in Arakan, although they are a people developed in Arakan from
peoples of different ethnical backgrounds over the centuries with their
Muslim settlements dated back to early 8th century.
5. The
previous parliamentary government recognized the ‘Rohingya’ as one of
the many ethnic groups of the Union of Burma with their language
programme relayed thrice weekly from government Burma Broadcasting
Service (BBS), Rangoon. In spite of that the Commission has deliberately
ignored this documented fact and used the term ‘Bengali’ supporting
the fierce contention of the Rakhine promoting ‘Rohingya ethnocide’ aims
at turning Arakan into a Muslim-free Rakhinized region.
6. The
Commission report falsely elevates the position of Rakhine as ‘prime
nation’ and relegates the Rohingya as ‘sub-nation’ thus promoting the
government’s current plan to segregate Rohingya under its ‘neo-apartheid
policy’. It describes the Rohingyas as low-class and uncultured
hardworking people, who produce more children and want to seize the
arable lands of the lazy Rakhines. It is insulting that the
commissioners felt irritated by the repeated telephone calls from
‘dying-alive Rohingyas’ giving accounts of their sufferings emotionally
for redress.
7. The Commission never called for the
accountability of the government and its agencies, state sponsored
non-state actors or Rakhine extremists for June-October 2012 deadly
violence or carnage, and for their decades of Rohingya persecution,
tyranny, exclusion and xenophobia that reduce them to the present state
of helplessness, without basic freedoms like freedom of movement,
religion, education, marriage, right to business, right to work etc.
8.
The Commission never pointed out the hostile environment and
impossible situation created by the administration with the oppressive
functionaries and government agencies like NaSaKa border security force,
police, Lon Htin and army and Rakhine terrorists for a peaceful living
of the Rohingya. As a result, half of their population of more than 1.5
million people have had left their homeland of Arakan to escape
persecution. They are living in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE,
Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, USA,
Canada and other countries.
9. The Commission never hinted the
tragedies of the Rohingya boat people arising out of the continued
large-scale persecution and crimes against humanity against Rohingya
community in Arakan although the problem becomes a concern of the UN,
OIC, EU, ASEAN and international community.
10. The report made
no mention of the statement of President Thein Sein as well as the
demand of the RNDP leader Dr. Aye Maung to deport Rohingya people to a
third country, which reflects and promotes official ‘Rohingya
ethnic-cleansing policy’ of the government.
11. The Commission
ignored to call for amendment of the world most repressive Burma
Citizenship Law of 1982. Its recommendations lack the spirits of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and international human
rights and humanitarian laws.
12. The report extremely distorted
the number of deaths and extent of destruction of the Rohingya and Kaman
Muslims whereas there are reports of several mass graves of Rohingya
dead bodies; and the credible human rights group Human Rights Watch
(HRW) stated that it has uncovered 4 mass graves in North Arakan.
Likewise an Al-Jazeera documentary film released after the violence
confirmed that crimes of genocide have been committed in Arakan against
the Rohingya.
13. The report stayed away from mentioning that the
police, Lon Htin, NaSaKa and army took part in the killing of the
Muslims and torching their houses. The report mentions about the
imposition of section 144, but lamentably it fails to tell the tangible
truth that the curfew has only been applied on the Rohingyas or Muslims
while the Rakhine terrorists, including armed cadres of the Arakan
Liberation Party/Army (ALP/ALA), were allowed to carry on the genocidal
onslaughts and mass destruction against the Muslims.
14. Waves
of deadly violence carried against the Rohingyas and Kamans were
pre-planned by the RNDP, of course, with the backing of the
administration under the pretext of rape and murder of a 28-year old
Rakhine woman Ma Thida Twe. Most of the issues raised by the Commission
as the causes of violence were irrelevant as well as unfounded.
15.
The Commission did partiality by endorsing the make-believe story of
the government which stated that Ma Thida Twe was raped and murdered by
what they called three Bengalis. But according to highly credible
person of the Commission, there was no trace of rape found by the doctor
who performed post mortem of her corpse; but the doctor was forced to
sign the official post mortem report. Moreover, there was no mention of
the ‘suicide in police custody’ of the principal accused Mr. Htet Htet
who happened to be a Rakhine, not Rohingya or Bengalis.
16. It
is a concocted allegation of the Commission that an excess number of
5,603 refugee families with 30,338 members had to be repatriated from
Bangladesh in 1978. International community was well aware that the
repatriation was done under strict scrutiny on both sides of the
borders, and that the refugees had resisted the forced repatriation for
lack of congenial atmosphere for their safe return to Arakan. The
question naturally arises is who would be going to the hellish Arakan
where the human right situation of .the Rohingyas were dire.
17.
The report said that “in 1988 Ma Ra Waddi monastery at Maungdaw was
burned down by Bengalis and the abbot had escaped away; the monastery
was torched by the Bengalis for three times”. It is baseless information
aims at inciting public sentiment against the Rohingyas.
18. The
Commissions reported some imaginary and nonsense information like
Rohingyas attacking Rakhines, destroying Buddhist monasteries and
committing rape of their women. It also said that “in 1998, more than
5,000 people led by Rohingya Liberation Organization (RLO) suddenly
entered Maungdaw and tried to occupy the town by destroying Buddhist
monasteries, torching Rakhine quarters and killing every single Rakhine,
but the police could control the situation through resistance.” In
reality there was no party by the name of RLO; and also there was no
information, record or report of such plot or attack among the general
public and in the media. The allegation is a blatant lie and politically
motivated. It is surprising that, although there have been numerous
cases of killing of Rohingya, rape of Rohingya women and girls,
destruction and torching of their houses, looting of their properties
and extortion on daily basis, committed by the extremist Rakhines,
police and security forces, the biased and bigoted Commission did not
mention a single such incident. This lie proves that the Commission is
contemptible and its report is a rubbish piece.
19. There was no
incident on 8th of June 2012 that the Rohingyas chanted slogan “long
live Muslilms, kill all Rakhines”. This is concocted report promoting
hatred against the Rohingyas.
20. The Commission reported that 246
Rakhines and 1589 Rohingyas were arrested since violence, But it is
regretted that Commission did not investigate how and why these
Rohingyas had been arrested and also it did not say anything about the
jail killing, the squalid condition and inhuman and degrading treatment
and torture of the Rohingya inmates .
21. The Commission’s
recommendations to double the security forces and take effective
measures to prevent so-called illegal immigrants from Bangladesh is just
a false alarm intended to distract attention from the main issue of
Rohingya genocide. For the Rohingyas, increase in armed and security
forces means increased crimes against humanity against them. It is
important that repressive functionaries should not be augmented if they
do not maintain law and order situation to ensure security, justice and
equality without discrimination.
22. There are no Rohingya
illegal immigrants in Arakan, which has long been a big hell and
concentration camp for the Muslims. In fact, Rohingyas have been
systematically expelled or have had to leave their homeland since 1942
Muslim massacre in Arakan. In contrast, tens of thousands of illegal
Bengali Rakhine Buddhists are regularly invited and settled down on the
confiscated lands of the Rohingyas. The whole northern Arakan is now
dotted with Buddhist settler villages. But the Commission is silent
about it.
23. However, we welcome some forward-thinking
recommendations, including recommendations to address the dire
humanitarian situation in Muslim displacement camps provided that they
are truly, humanely, immediately and timely implemented.
24. Last
but not least, we call for an immediate UN Inquiry Commission to
conduct a prompt, full and impartial investigation of all allegations
and take appropriate action against those responsible.
Signatories
to this joint statement:
1. Arakan Rohingya
National Organisation (ARNO)
2. Burmese Rohingya Organisation
United Kingdom (BROUK)
3. Burmese Rohingya Association Japan
(BRAJ)
4. Burmese Rohingya Community in Australia (BRCA)
5.
Burmese Rohingya Association Deutschland (BRAD)
6. Burmese
Rohingya Community in Denmark (BRCD)
7. Burmese Rohingya Community
in Netherlands (BRCNL)
8. Burmese Rohingya Association in
Thailand (BRAT)
9. Rohingya Community in Norway (RCN)
10.
Rohingya Society Malaysia (RSM)
For more information, please
contact:
Tun Khin: + 44 788 871 4866
Nay San
Lwin + 49 179 653 5213
