Masscare and ethnic cleansing of Myanmar Muslims By Latheef Farook

Massacre of oppressed and impoverished Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims since last June by government backed gangs, including Buddhist monks, remains shameful indictment on all Muslim countries, especially rich ones, worldwide. Muslims proudly claim that they constitute around 1.6 billion of the total population worldwide. Thereare more than 55 Muslim countries with more than enough wealth, resources and manpower. Yet they were worthless when the Buddhist gangs

began slaughtering poverty stricken Rohingya Muslims.

Rulers in most Muslim countries,scoundrels installed in power by their masters in the United States and Europe, do not care much for the plight of helplessMuslims like Rohingya.This is more so in the Middle East where racist regimes showing little or no interest on the plight of Muslim rest of the world. Only ordinary people in the Middle East, Pakistan and the West came out with strong statements severely condemning the killing of Rohingya Muslims. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and Turkish Prime minister’s wife  Emine Erdoğan distributing aid itms	FM Ahmet Davutoğlu hugs a weeping Rohingya Muslim, Emine is crying in th background

It was a sign of hope that Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and Turkish Prime minister’s wife  Emine Erdoğan  visited Rohingya Muslims  in the Banduba refugee camp in the Myanmar coastal state of Rakhine. They also visited the Buddhists in another camp.

Apart from the United Nations, this is the first instance of foreign aid being distributed to refugees in need in the region by another nation. Saudi Arabia and the gullible Gulf Sheikhs who waste billions  in buying from Judeo-Christian companies, of course   to fight no wars, should learn few lessons from Turkey on their commitments to  poor Muslims worldwide. 

Egypt, underits new President Mohamed Mursi, condemned the killings and protesters in Cairo burnt the flag of Myanmar’s mission. This is something one cannot dream of under disgraced and overthrown Dictator Hosni Mubarak. Now comes a meeting ofOrganization of Islamic Countries, OIC, a club of elitist with no touch with the Muslim ummah, in Saudi Arabia on August 14 and 15 todiscuss the problem of Syria and the massacre of Rohingya Muslims. 

Rohingya Muslims, around 850,000 to one million, did not descend from sky into the Arakan region of Western Myanmar. They were living there for around 1200 years as equal citizens. They enjoyed all rights and privileges like other citizens until General Nu Win throw the democratically elected government and installed a dictatorship  in 1962 .It was  Ne Win’s military regime that  stripped Rohingya Muslims  of their citizenship  in 1982  and made them  stateless  to suffer in abject poverty. Even in the best of times they were subjected to forced labor, arbitrary detentions, beatings and restrictions on movement.

Emine Erdoğan hugs a Rihongi elderly women	Rohingya people salutes the departing Turky delegates

Muslims were subjected to extreme hardships. They cannot own land, do business or even get married without the approval of the armed forces. There were frequent attacks on Muslimsand Myanmargovernment brutalized them, perhapsto force them to leave the country to neighboring Bangladesh.

The latest attack started with an alleged rape of a Buddhist woman. Muslims were blamed for it though, without any evidence, and started the slaughter and ethnic cleansing.

Subsequent reports confirmed that both armed forces,supposed to protect the Muslims, and Buddhist monkssupposed to preach Lord Buddha’s message of peace, harmony and ahimsa, weredeeply involved in the killing,raping and burning of Muslim houses.

The situation was sotragicthat a  75-year-old Muslim woman who lives in an Arakanese camp told Muslim Welfare Trust that, 'We are waiting for death that will relieve us of our suffering.'

Theinvolvement ofBuddhist monks who fuelled ethnic tensions by calling on people to shun the Muslim community has shocked everyone. 

Burning a Rohingya Muslim village

In a move that has shocked many observers, some monks' organizations have issued pamphlets telling people not to associate with the Rohingya community, and have blocked humanitarian assistance from reaching them. One leaflet described the Rohingya as "cruel by nature" and claimed it had "plans to exterminate" other ethnic groups.The Young Monks' Association of Sittwe and Mrauk Oo Monks' Association have both released statements  urging locals not to associate with Muslims.

Monks' leader Ashin Htawara encouraged the government to send the group "back to their Bangladesh" at an event in London hosted by the anti-Rohingya Burma Democratic Concern. Ko Ko Gyi, a democracy activist said Rohingya are not a Burmese ethnic group. The root cause of the violence… comes from across the border."

 Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, said: "We were shocked to have [Ashin Htawara] propose to us that there should be what amounts to concentration camps for the Rohingya."

The United Nations Secretary General Bank Ki Moon described Rohingya Muslims as one of the most persecuted people in the world.However their plight failed to attract the attention of United Nations too.

The question is why this pogrom now?  Arakan stateis rich in natural resources. American  looters, sorry investors, are likely to turn to Myanmar as Obama has lifted the ban on investments .Thus the move to ethnic cleanse  forcing   Rohingya Muslims to go toneighboring Bangladesh to ensure that only Buddhists benefit from any potential investments in Arakan.

Few months ago democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi argued that Resource rich Arakan state has tens of billions of dollar worth of verified natural gas deposits. U.S. firms hope to compete in this area with Chinese, Korean, and Indian oil companies that have been there for years, but now it's in a state of emergency. If the government is violating human rights, businesses can't depend on the maintenance of law and order.

However knowing Myanmar neighbor well Bangladesh refused to accept the Rohingya Muslims who were caught in the waters between the two countries with no food or water facing pouring rain in their dingy boats. Inevitably migrants returned to the torment they were desperate to escape. 

Some Myanmar's Muslims escaping on a boat cross the river Naf, from Myanmar into Bangladesh, in Teknaf.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said"Bangladesh is already an overpopulated country. We cannot bear this burden; it is the responsibility of Myanmar government. .

State security forces have killed and rounded up fleeing Rohingya in violent mass arrests, holding detainees incommunicado and subjecting them to beatings and torture. Over 100,000 people have been displaced and the government has restricted humanitarian access to the Rohingya community, leaving many in dire need of food, shelter and medical care.

In a 56 page report the Human Rights Watch,HRW, said that the Burmese security forces committed killings, rape and mass arrests against Rohingya Muslims. Government restrictions on humanitarian access to the Rohingya community have left many of the over 100,000 people displaced and in dire need of food, shelter, and medical care.

 “‘The Government Could Have Stopped This’: but   failed to  doso.The Burmese government should take urgent measures to end abuses by their forces, ensure humanitarian access, and permit independent international monitors to visit affected areas and investigate abuses, Human Rights Watch said.

The UN Human Rights chief Navi Pillai has called for a “prompt and independent” investigation into the ethnic violence stating that an initial move by Myanmar security forces to quash violence has reportedly turned into a crackdown against Muslim minorities."We have been receiving a stream of reports from independent sources alleging discriminatory and arbitrary responses by security forces, and even their instigation of and involvement in clashes,"Navi Pillai said in a statement.

Unofficial estimates of the death toll were higher; her office added.Pillai urged the government to "prevent and punish violent acts" and said she was dismayed at the derogatory language used against the Rohingya Muslims by state and some independent media, as well as by some users of social networking websites.

These starved and frightened faces speak a lot for their plight

Western media, as usual, failed to highlight this tragedy as the people being killed were Muslims .However the media and civic organization in numerous Muslim countries took up the issue in the recent weeks. So much so, according to a UPI report, hackers broke into the Web site of Myanmar's Information Ministry and posted a threatening message telling the government to "stop the killing of Muslims."