Dr. Habib Siddiqui
Last week the Myanmar Post on its front page reported about a meeting
of Karen Religious Protection Organization that was held on October 14
in Mae Baung Monastery, Pha-an. The meeting was attended by more than
100 Buddhists including the Chief Administrators from all the nine
quarters except the two from the Pha-an Township.
Under ordinary circumstances such meetings
should not have raised eyebrows of anyone except that the meeting
highlighted what is wrong with the Burmese society these days. The
so-called Protection Organization announced four sets of Rules
epitomizing intolerance against the Muslims of Myanmar. Zwe Kapin Taung
Abbot U Widaza announced the four rules: (1) Prohibiting selling and
renting of Buddhist-owned houses, land, farming land, and orchard to
Muslims of Myanmar; (2) Prohibiting Buddhist women to marry with
Muslims; (3) Buddhists should patronize the Buddhist shops only; (4)
Prohibiting Buddhists from allowing themselves to use their names from
buying or renting Buddhist-owned houses, land, farming land, and orchard
for Muslims. It was also announced that anyone who would disobey the
above rules would be punished severely.
These Rules were distributed in the entire Pha-an town the next day
after the meeting. It is worth noting here that just before that meeting
Karen Prime Minister U Zaw Min had visited the Zwe Kapin Taung Abbot U
Widaza. Copies of the Rules were sent to the Karen Prime Minister, Karen
State Parliament Chairmen, Karen State Security and Border Affairs
Ministry and other Government Officials. The publication of such
bigotry-ridden announcement in the front page of a newspaper clearly
shows that the so-called reform government of Thein Sein is not serious
about peaceful coexistence of all religious communities, esp. when it
comes to the Muslim community. Its kowtowing with the chauvinist and
terrorist Buddhist monks only proves its hideous character.
Thanks to the smiling image of the Dalai Lama, for decades the West
took little notice of Buddhist terrorism that has terrorized millions of
people in the South and Southeast Asia where a sizable Buddhist
population lives. This, in spite of the fact that half the Cham Muslim
population in Cambodia was massacred, and half the Rohingya Muslims had
to flee from their ancestral homes in Arakan (Rakhine) state of Myanmar
for horrendous crimes of the Buddhist government and population against
them. The Khmer Rouge, which killed millions, in Cambodia wanted a
Buddhist state, with Norodom Sihanouk as the vicegerent of God and
Buddha. Buddhist monks were also accused of inciting violence against
Tamil Hindus and Muslims in Sri Lanka. In Thailand, violence against the
Thai Muslims by Buddhist vigilantes is a recurring event. Nor should
one forget the horrendous crimes of the Buddhist Japanese Army in places
like Malaysia and Burma during Second World War against the Muslim
populations there [note: Emperor Hirohito considered himself the head of
all Buddhists and Taoists]. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims died
because of policies that led to mass starvation in the occupied
territories.
[The interested readers may like to read the book – Buddhist Warfare,
co-edited by Michael Jerryson and Mark Juergensmeyer, Oxford University
Press (2009), which examines Buddhist military action in Tibet, China,
Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.]
As I have noted earlier, ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims of
Arakan, in particular, and religious persecution and intolerance against
the Muslims of Burma, in general, have become a national project that
is participated by all Buddhists inside Myanmar. So, the latest news
above about the Karen Buddhists should not come as a surprise. During
the military rule of the SPDC, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA)
– a government ally – was known for its unfathomable hate crimes and
persecution of non-Buddhists, esp. Muslims.
In its May 2002 report, the Karen Human Rights Group had reported
that when the DKBA formed [in 1994-95] they came and destroyed all the
Muslim homes in the Papun district of the Karen State. They then forced
Muslims to pay for and construct new Buddhist homes in places that once
belonged to Muslims. The DKBA committed similar types of destructions of
homes and mosques almost everywhere inside the Karen state.
A Muslim male from the Pa’an district was heard complaining, “When we
built our mosque it was 50 or 60 feet [long]. It was very large. It was
very big and had two floors. They [the DKBA] destroyed it. We felt very
sorry when they destroyed our big worshipping place. They carried
concrete and sand when they passed us sitting in front of our houses and
swore, ‘Ma Aye Loh Ka La’ ['Indian mother f__ers']. They swore like
that. They [DKBA soldiers] didn’t put their clothes on when the [Muslim]
women went to carry water from the well. They made a lot of problems.
They told us, ‘You don’t have a country. You can’t stay here; go to the
Ka La country.’” He continued, “They built one pagoda in the middle of
the village. They destroyed the mosque first and built a pagoda in place
of the mosque. They destroyed it with a bulldozer and built a pagoda
instead. They told us, ‘You have to worship our god first.’ Then our
mosque teacher told them, ‘It doesn’t concern us.’ The religions are
opposite. Then they said, ‘You can’t stay.’ … They built a Buddhist
pagoda. That pagoda wasn’t our affair, but they forced us to carry
bricks and sand for it. They made offerings to the Buddha and they
ordered us to go and build it ourselves. We then told them that it did
not concern us Muslims. They said, ‘No, you can’t stay.’ Then they asked
for money for a donation at that very hour and second [immediately]. …
They asked for 200,000 Kyat at four o’clock. They were going to kill us
if we didn’t give it. There was one monk who said he had a sword, and
that if he took it out he couldn’t put it back until he had killed
someone. We were afraid of that. The village is a poor people’s village.
We asked around here and there to find enough money until we got
200,000 Kyat, and we sent it to them.”
Another Muslim man was heard saying, “On Monday, April 10th 2000, in
the evening, there were 500 Muslim houses in T’Kweh Po village to the
east of the Salween River. It is to the east and south of Myaing Gyi Ngu
[DKBA headquarters]. There is a DKBA camp beside it. They stay there. …
They drove the religious scholars out of the mosque. They ploughed and
destroyed the mosque with a big bulldozer. A lot of men, women and
children were really upset and crying at that time. Then the DKBA leader
Lieutenant Pya pointed a gun at the villagers’ heads and said,
‘Tomorrow you have to leave this village. I don’t want to see your faces
here tomorrow. This place is not Ka La [Indian] country. The Ka La
can’t stay here. The God that you worship is in my hand. You should
learn that I am the God that you worship.’ They also ordered the
villagers to be vegetarian and to make worship shelves [Buddhist home
altars]. The last thing they said was, ‘Are you going to make worship
shelves or will you leave this village?’ They demanded for the last
time, ‘If you don’t want to leave this village and if you want to stay
in this village you have to make a worship shelf and eat as
vegetarians.’ They forced them like that. The villagers couldn’t abandon
their religion, so they left the village and went to stay in another
place. … They forced the Muslims from that village to build a pagoda.
They forced them to carry sand and rocks and other things. They only
forced the Muslims to do it. After they finished they asked, ‘Are you
going to stay in this village and make offerings to the Buddha and eat
as vegetarians?’ They asked them to do that. Then the villagers pleaded,
‘Don’t make us do that kind of thing and don’t make us worship like
that.’ Then they [the DKBA officer] said, ‘You have requested to worship
your religion freely so your religion is in my hands. You should know
that your Allah is just me.’ So the villagers felt upset and left the
village.”
Another Muslim was heard saying in 2001, “There is nothing in our
village. The [DKBA] Army has built a barrack and an Army camp. They
built their monastery. They took the land and the flat fields and now
they work them for food. We had land and a flat field. We didn’t even
have time to go and take the sugar cane and the paddy. They took it all.
… There is a mosque in Shwegun village. The mosque is in front of the
monastery. There are about 100 Muslim houses in front of the mosque.
Those 100 houses were destroyed by a bulldozer. They couldn’t take all
of their things. They couldn’t even take their pots and cups. They
[DKBA] built a road there after they destroyed the houses. They hit and
punched the people who went to go and take their pots and cups. They
destroyed all the houses, pots and cups with a bulldozer and made their
road. There were two Muslim schools which were also destroyed. … They
could have made the road 100 feet wide, but they ploughed down
everything, made the road in the middle and now they keep the area
around it clear. They don’t allow people to make houses beside the road.
They only did that to the place where the Muslim people live. They
didn’t do it in any other places. This was in Shwegun at a place where
there was no road. … Now they have to stay in other people’s houses.
Some of them have made tents to stay in behind the road. They moved
there and stay there. They went to stay beside other people’s houses.
Some people who had money went to buy land outside [the village]. Some
of them moved to Pa’an. The people without money just stayed like that.
If they had relatives they just shared their rooms and lived with each
other.”
Those Muslims in the Karen state of Burma (now Myanmar) faced hate
crimes, religious persecution and coercion on a daily basis. They are
fined 5,000 Kyat if they are caught eating meat, and 10,000 or 50,000
Kyat for each goat or cow they are caught slaughtering. They have been
forbidden in some areas from even raising animals. Muslims are also
fined for fishing. In one instance a Muslim man from T’Kweh Po village
was fined by a monk who caught him fishing and then forced to worship
the monk.
The KHRG Report quoted a Muslim saying, “We couldn’t find and catch
fish in the river. We couldn’t breed chickens. We couldn’t raise
animals. The DKBA forbade us. We couldn’t breed anything… We could only
raise cows. It was because they [the DKBA] are vegetarian. For example,
we went around to find fish in the nighttime and caught some fish. Their
monk also went around by himself and if he could catch us he would hit
us, punch us and order us to worship him. He didn’t look whether it was a
man or a woman. He hit us and punched us and ordered us to worship him.
We told him we are not his concern, our religion is Islam. Our Islam
says that even if they hit us and kill us, we will worship only Islam.
They hit us. For example, if we go and find fish and they catch us with
one fish, they fine us 5,000 Kyat. We have to give it. They would have
killed us if we didn’t give it. We couldn’t bear this anymore so we came
to this side [to the refugee camp].”
Another Muslim was heard saying, “The other thing was that they
forced the Muslims who stayed there [T'Kweh Po village] to become
vegetarian. Since that time [in 2000], if they saw any people eating
animals or if they saw anyone kill a cow, they fined them 100,000 Kyat.
They fined anyone who killed a goat 50,000 Kyat. They threatened us.
They are going to fine the Muslim people for every animal they eat.
There are some villagers who face that kind of problem. There was one
Muslim man who went to find fish. A monk arrested him and ordered him to
worship him. He was fined 30,000 Kyat because he wouldn’t worship the
monk.” [Note: Islam prohibits a Muslim from worshipping anyone but God
the Almighty (Allah).]
The SPDC government was well aware of such regular incidents of
violence and persecution of the vulnerable Muslims in the Karen state
because most of such crimes were committed in front of their officers.
They never punished those DKBA criminals who terrorized Muslim lives,
nor did they punish the Buddhist monks for their bigotry. As a matter of
fact, just as in the neighboring Thailand, Buddhist soldiers routinely
carry out their duties undercover, as fully ordained monks armed with
guns.
The Buddhist monks inside Myanmar have long been known for their
sheer bigotry against the non-Buddhists. In Toungoo on May 16, 2001, a
Muslim mosque teacher had his eyes cut out after he refused to worship
the monks. He later died. On the same day a Muslim family was burned to
death when their house was set on fire by the mob. As we have recently
witnessed during lynching death of the ten Tablighi Muslims on June 3 of
this year, the police simply stood by and did not held back the
Buddhist mob.
The KHRG Report of 2002 also quoted a Muslim living in the Pegu
Division, “The monks. They came in the daytime and entered the mosques
and destroyed them. But the people [Muslims] there didn’t do anything
against them to make them do it. We felt hurt. We felt hurt by the
government. Why? Because the government is the administration, so why
can’t they control this kind of problem?”
While a new government has come to power, claiming disingenuously to
be reform minded to fool the world community, nothing has changed when
it comes to hate crimes and religious persecution of the non-Buddhists
inside Myanmar. The Buddhist-majority country of Myanmar continues to
epitomize racism and bigotry. In this, it has no match in our time!
In recent months, since the massacre of Muslims in Arakan state of
Myanmar, thousands of Buddhist monks have been seen marching in
Myanmar’s major cities demanding forced eviction of Muslims from this
Buddhist majority country. Their monasteries were not only used during
the pogrom to store arms and ammunitions to kill Rohingya Muslims and
burn their homes, they were even seen leading such raids. They have
stopped humanitarian aids to reach Muslim victims of the latest pogrom.
They have advised fellow Buddhists not to sell any food items so as to
starve the Rohingya people to death. By condoning terrorism against
others and participating in such acts, they have become terrorists
themselves. Through such acts of intolerance, bigotry and hateful
incitement, they have essentially soiled their religion.
Myanmar government wants to keep the Arakan state sealed from the
outside world so that its latest genocidal campaign against the
Rohingyas can be hidden from public scrutiny. The lucky few foreign
journalists who had visited the troubled area in recent weeks were
closely monitored and couldn’t conduct their investigations of the
latest pogrom freely. Nor does the regime want the presence of
international NGOs and human rights groups to provide humanitarian aids
to reach the Rohingya victims or monitor the region. Instead, it is
stage managing protests by racist monks and their partners in crime –
the marauding blood-thirsty Buddhists both inside and outside Arakan –
against efforts by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC),
world’s largest Islamic body, to help Rohingya Muslims.
The monks denounced plans by the 57-member organization to set up a
liaison office in northwest Rakhine state. Just hours after the monks
dispersed, President Thein Sein’s office announced it would not permit
an OIC representation in Myanmar. “The government will not allow the
opening of an OIC office as it is not in accordance with the desire of
people,” said a statement posted on its website.
The monks were joined by ordinary citizens in Yangon and Mandalay.
Some carried placards with the words “get out OIC”, and “no OIC” and
said they would hold demonstrations until the government agreed to their
demands.
There is little doubt that the entire Buddhist population is playing
its criminal role as active participants in this latest campaign to
ethnically cleanse the Rohingya Muslims. In a report in August, the New
York-based Human Rights Watch said it had found evidence of
“state-sponsored persecution and discrimination” against the Rohingyas
in the weeks after the violence. The latest announcement from Thein
Sein’s office gives further credence to the government cover-ups and its
evil plan.
It is high time that the U.N. takes a serious look at what is going on
inside Myanmar and stops the criminal regime and its partners for crimes
against humanity. Silence of the UN on this matter would be a grave sin
and is simply criminal.
