NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER OBAMA, WHO WILL SOON VISIT BURMA, IS ALSO SILENT ON ROHINGYA MUSLIMS PLIGHT
by
Syarif Hidayat
The Nobel Peace Prize
winner US President Barack Obama is also silent about the oppressed Rohingya Mulims
in Burma also known as Myanmar. The
other Nobel Peace Prize winners Aung San Suu Kyi and Tibetan buddhist spiritual
leader Dalai Lama have been keeping silent on Rohingya Muslims problem in Burma. Their
attitudes were very shocking ones for
the entire world from the people who supposed to have won the “Noble Peace
Prizes.”
Nobel Prize winner,” Aung
San Suu Kyi, even does not consider Muslims as citizens. Speaking at London
School of Economics meeting on June 2012 during her visit to the UK, she said
“Rohingya Muslims should not be considered citizens.” Later during her press
conference at Downing Street, she did not condemn the killings of Rohingya
Muslims taking place in Burma. Instead, she simply said that this “ethnic
conflict should be investigated and dealt with wisdom.”
Dalai Lama, continues to
globe trot without mentioning a single word of the dangerously growing Buddhist
intolerance in Burma, Thailand, Tibet and across the world. Such intolerance
and persecution invariably result in resistance by the oppressed. It wasn’t
just an insufficient response but a very shocking one from someone supposed to
have won a “Noble Peace Prize.”
The Rohingya, or Roh, are the
largest Muslim people group in Myanmar. Over 1 million live in Myanmar’s
northern Rakhine (Arakan) State, along the border with Bangladesh and the Bay
of Bengal. Roh can also be found in Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Thailand and
Malaysia. In Myanmar, a majority Buddhist nation, the Roh are more likely to
say they are “Muslim” than to identify themselves with a particular ethnicity.
There is evidence that Muslims have had a presence in Rakhine State for over
1000 years.
Muslims around the world have shown
concern over the recent news of Genocide of the Muslims in Burma, but they
don’t realize that it’s not the first time that Muslims have been killed in
Burma. Bayat Wi and Bayat Ta were the first Muslims documented in the history
of Burma in 1050AD. Bayat Wi was killed by the king because the king was
concerned about his strength. Bayat Ta managed to escape to Bagan and took
refuge with King Anawratha. He married a girl from Popa with whom he had two
sons, the Shwe Byin brothers. His children were also executed by the king
because they refused to obey the forced labor order of the king.
Shah Shuja was the second son of
the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, the one who built the Taj Mahal. Shah Shuja lost
a battle against his brother and fled with his family and army to Arakan-Burma.
The King of Arakan Sandathudama (1652-1687 AD), allowed Shah Shuja to settle in
Arakan. Shah Shuja wanted to go to Makah. For this purpose he needed a ship and
was willing to pay with silver and gold to buy a ship.
When the king came to know this he
become greedy for his wealth and asked for the daughter of Shah Shuja. After
the rejection of his proposal by Shah Shuja all his followers were killed.
Anyone with beard was supposed to be a follower of Shah Shuja and was beheaded.
Women were sent to prison where they died of hunger. In such way the Muslim
refugees from India were targeted.
In 1930’s the Burmese started the ‘
Burma for Burmese Campaign’, as many people had migrated to Burma from India
because India and Burma both were under British rule, the Burmese were worried
that all the jobs will be occupied by these new immigrants. They marched to the
Muslim (Surti) Bazaar. While the Indian Police under British Administration
broke the violent demonstration, three monks were hurt.
Burmese newspapers use the pictures
of the Indian police attacking the Buddhist monks to further incite the spread
of riots. Muslim properties: shops, houses and mosques were looted, destroyed
and burned. They assaulted and even massacred the Muslims. The riot spread all
over Burma and a recorded 113 mosques were damaged. Similar kind of anti-Muslim
Riots also happened in 1997 and 2001.
Obama’s visit to Burma overlooks
the oppressed Muslims
According to the White House, President
Barack Obama is to make a historic trip to Burma in a show of support for
political reforms as part of an Asian tour underscoring the Administration's
"Asia pivot" aimed at countering China's regional expansion, but
ignoring the serious problem of the oppressed Muslim minority in Burma.
Obama's spokesman, Jay Carney, said
that the President would be discussing issues including "economic prosperity
and job creation through increased trade and partnerships", during his
visits to Burma, Thailand and Cambodia from November 17 to 20.
No American President has visited
Burma or Cambodia, while Thailand is a solid United States ally which will seek
reassurance about America's continued engagement in regional affairs as an
Asia-Pacific power.
The high spot of the trip will be
Obama's maiden visit to Burma, prepared by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
who bonded with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi last December when she
became the first US Secretary of State to visit Rangoon in 56 years.
Suu Kyi, who spent 15 years under
house arrest, was welcomed to Washington in September where she received
Congress' highest honour for her peaceful struggle for democracy, and held
private talks with Obama at the White House.
Carney said Obama would meet
President Thein Sein, who has taken steps towards ending Burma's isolation
through economic and political reforms, and with the Nobel peace prize
laureate.
But he would also "speak to
civil society to encourage Burma's ongoing democratic transition". The
unspoken aim of the visit, though, will be to attempt to drive a wedge between
Burma and its erstwhile diplomatic and military ally, China.
The historic
trip comes as Myanmar's new reformist president has created a opening for
further democracy there.
Under Thein
Sein, the Myanmar government has released hundreds of political prisoners in
the past year, part of a series of reforms that have followed decades of
repressive military rule. Western governments have responded to the efforts by
starting to ease sanctions put in place to pressure the military regime.
Myanmar
authorities have also engaged in peace talks with rebel ethnic groups and
allowed Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, to successfully
participate in special elections for the national parliament in April.
Suu Kyi, a
democratic freedom activist who spent 15 years under house arrest, traveled to
Washington earlier this year to accept the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal.
She was kept
for the better part of two decades under house arrest for advocating for
democracy in Myanmar. The country's former military rulers ordered her
detention, and in recent years her case has received an international
spotlight. She paid a hefty personal price for standing up for freedom in
Myanmar, which suffered under 50 years of autocratic, repressive rule.
Suu Kyi, who
was awarded the medal in 2008, freed from house arrest two years later and elected
to the Myanmar parliament this year, a historic moment in the country.
The Obama visit, lasting only a few hours, has already been criticised
by human rights activists who say that Burma remains a repressive society and
that Washington should not rush to normalise relations. More recently, Myanmar has faced unrest between
majority Buddhists and the Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority.
The unrest
began five months ago and has tested the efforts of Thein Sein's administration
to seek reconciliation with Myanmar's different ethnic groups and move the
country toward more democratic governance.
The ugly side of Myanmar’s
democratic trasition
LAST spring, a flowering of democracy in Myanmar mesmerized the world.
But now, three months after the democracy activist Daw Aung San Suu Kyi won a
parliamentary seat, and a month after she traveled to Oslo to belatedly receive
the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, an alarm bell is ringing in Myanmar. In the
villages of Arakan State, near the Bangladeshi border, a pogrom against a
population of Muslims called the Rohingyas began in June. It is the ugly side
of Myanmar’s democratic transition — a rotting of the flower, even as it seems
to bloom.
Cruelty toward the Rohingyas is not new. They have faced torture,
neglect and repression in the Buddhist-majority land since it achieved
independence in 1948. Its constitution closes all options for Rohingyas to be
citizens, on grounds that their ancestors didn’t live there when the land, once
called Burma, came under British rule in the 19th century (a contention the
Rohingyas dispute). Even now, as military rulers have begun to loosen their
grip, there is no sign of change for the Rohingyas. Instead, the Burmese are
trying to cast them out.
The current violence can be traced to the rape and killing in late May
of a Buddhist woman, for which the police reportedly detained three Muslims.
That was followed by mob attacks on Rohingyas and other Muslims that killed
dozens of people. According to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch,
state security forces have now conducted mass arrests of Muslims; they
destroyed thousands of homes, with the impact falling most heavily on the Rohingyas.
Displaced Rohingyas have tried to flee across the Naf River to neighboring
Bangladesh; some have died in the effort.
The Burmese media have cited early rioting by Rohingyas and have cast
them as terrorists and traitors. In mid-June, in the name of stopping such
violence, the government declared a state of emergency. But it has used its
border security force to burn houses, kill men and evict Rohingyas from their
villages. And on Thursday, President Thein Sein suggested that Myanmar could
end the crisis by expelling all of its Rohingyas or by having the United
Nations resettle them — a proposal that a United Nations official quickly
rejected.
The government refuses to recognize nearly-one-million-strong Rohingya
Muslims community, which the UN calls one of the world's most prosecuted
people.
Myanmar claims the Rohingya are not native and classify them as illegal
migrants although they have lived in the country for generations. Myanmar's
opposition and National League for Democracy party (NLD) leader Aung Suu Kyi
was elected to parliament after she was released from house arrest earlier this
year. However, many people are disappointed at the way she has been avoiding
the issue.
Last Month at a press conference in Geneva, Suu Kyi said she 'didn't
know' if Rohingya Muslims were Myanmar's citizens. Bangash said Washington is
also criminally silent over the issue as the US tries to coax the countries in
the Southeast Asia region to stop them from having better relations with the
People's Republic of China.
"Southeast Asia is becoming much more inconspicuous on the
economic map for the United States of America," he added. "They
should rather strengthen the sanctions against Myanmar until this problem
should be solved but they are not doing that," Bangash added.
Myanmar's current government is run by military figures, which have
been accused of rights abuse.
Who
are the Rohingya?
The
Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority living in Rakhine -- thought to number
between 800,000 and one million -- who claim they were persecuted by Myanmar's
military during its decades of authoritarian rule.
Myanmar
does not recognize them as citizens or one of the 135 recognized ethnic groups
living in the country.
Much of
this is rooted in their heritage in East Bengal, now called Bangladesh. Though
many Rohingya have only known life in Myanmar, they are viewed by Rakhine's
estimated three million Buddhists as intruders from across the border.
According
to Human Rights Watch, the country's laws discriminate against the Rohingya,
infringing on their rights to freedom of movement, education, and employment.
They are denied land and property rights and ownership. The land on which they
live can be taken away at any given time.
HRW has
also accused security forces of opening fire on the Rohingya population during
the recent wave of violence -- an accusation denied by the government.
What
are the authorities doing?
In August,
Myanmar's president, Thein Sein, announced
that an internal commission, including representatives from different
political parties and religious organizations, had been formed to investigate
the recent sectarian violence -- a move welcomed by United Nations
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
"This
commission is comprised of a representative cross-section of national figures
in the country," Ban said in a statement. "It could make important
contributions to restoring peace and harmony in the state and in creating a
conducive environment for a more inclusive way forward to tackle the underlying
causes of the violence, including the condition of the Muslim communities in
Rakhine."
President
Sein discussed the situation with Ban during the U.N. General Assembly in New
York in September, pledging to "address the root causes of the
tensions," according to a U.N. spokesman.
The move
followed Sein's warning in June that the ongoing ethnic strife could harm
Myanmar's development and stability as it continues its rehabilitation as a
fledgling democracy.
What
is the world saying?
Tomas
Quintana, the U.N.'s human rights rapporteur for Myanmar, in August called for
an independent investigation into allegations that authorities are using
excessive force and committing other human rights violations while trying to
restore order in Rakhine state.
Quintana
said such an investigation was needed to guarantee accountability.
"Reconciliation
will not be possible without this, and exaggerations and distortions will fill
the vacuum to further fuel distrust and tensions between communities," he
said.
Thousands
of Rohingya have attempted to flee the unrest, with neighboring Bangladesh the
main destination. But many have been turned away by the authorities.
Bangladesh
has reinforced its border, amassing troops and security officials along the
River Naf, which provides a natural boundary between the two countries, where
rickety fishing boats filled with refugees attempt to cross over.
In June,
Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said her country was not willing to give
shelter to anymore refugees, despite international calls to open its borders.
"We're already burdened with thousands of Rohingya refugees staying in
Bangladesh and we don't want anymore," she said.
Human Rights Watch says tens of thousands of Rohingya
refugees are currently staying in makeshift camps in Bangladesh, with many
living in conditions that seasoned aid workers have described as "the
worst they have ever seen."
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