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Tag: Rakhine

  • Muhammad Shamil To PM Lee: Help Singaporeans And Singapore Find Peaceful, Lasting Solution To Rohingya Genocide In Myanmar

    Muhammad Shamil To PM Lee: Help Singaporeans And Singapore Find Peaceful, Lasting Solution To Rohingya Genocide In Myanmar

    Dear PM Lee,

    Peace be upon you.

    I hope you and loved ones are well.

    Sir, with all due respect, forgive me for trying to reach out to you on a seemingly informal channel like FB. I just believe it is one of the most powerful channels today to directly communicate with leaders and other people. And instead of sending a private message, I have made it public to help spread news of the apparent issues in Myanmar and encourage others to speak to their leaders to do something about it. So pardon the medium and heed the message please.

    Prime minister, I am deeply troubled and saddened by what is happening in Myanmar and as a citizen of this country, I humbly ask for our government to help and/or tell me what I can do to assist in this humanitarian crisis at our very doorstep. As published in Channelnewsasia, a UN official claims that the government of Myanmar is “pursuing ethic cleansing of Rohingya” (http://www.channelnewsasia.com/…/myanmar-pursu…/3317908.html). The article speaks of genocide, civilians being killed, raped and tortured in a neighboring country. I shudder to think of the horrors Rohingya men, women and children are going through this very moment, should these reports be true and pray for their safety and comfort.

    Sir, I am no expert in the matter but I would like to help, and am sure many others would like to help too but simply don’t know how. It’s not like they are suffering from just severe poverty or famine, in those types of situations, at the very least, people could donate money but here the situation is worst, they are systematically being wiped out. I am humbly turning to you, the leader of our very powerful government, as an ordinary Singaporean, to help find a peaceful solution to the problem. Pressure and work with Myanmar leaders to ensure that the crisis is handled in a more humane manner.

    This is not the first time in recent history that the powers that be in Myanmar have resorted to violence against civilians. But I hope these acts of seemingly state sanction terrorism stop. And I hope Singapore plays a big part in bringing about and maintaining peace in the region.

    We live in a most peaceful multiethnic, multi-religious country, yes there are flaws, but it is something in Singapore I am so very proud of and grateful for. It’s a thing of beauty. So how can we sit idly by while others in Asean are literally being killed simply because of their religion, claimed ancestry or colour of their skin? We have to be a force for good in the region, we are Singapore. Siapa tidak kenal Singapura, negara terindah berbilang bangsa?

    Our silence will not save them. Let’s do something to help now.

    Majulah Singapura.

    Thank you kindly.

    Sincerely,
    Muhammad Shamil Bin Zainuddin

     

    Source: Shamil Zainuddin

  • Dalai Lama On Rohingya Muslims: If Buddha Happened, He Would Protect The Rohingya Brothers And Sisters

    Dalai Lama On Rohingya Muslims: If Buddha Happened, He Would Protect The Rohingya Brothers And Sisters

    Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has a moral responsibility to try to ease tensions between majority Buddhists and minority Rohingya Muslims, her fellow Nobel laureate, the Dalai Lama, said on Monday.

    The Tibetan spiritual leader said he had stressed the issue in meetings with Suu Kyi, who came to power in April in the newly created role of state counsellor in Myanmar’s first democratically elected government in five decades.

    “She already has the Nobel Peace Prize, a Nobel Laureate, so morally she should … make efforts to reduce this tension between the Buddhist community and Muslim community,” he told Reuters in an interview in Washington.
    “I actually told her she should speak more openly.”

    Violence between majority Buddhists and minority Muslims in recent years has cast a cloud over progress with democratic reforms in Myanmar. Rights groups have sharply criticized Suu Kyi’s reluctance to speak out on the Rohingya’s plight.

    The Dalai Lama said Suu Kyi, who won worldwide acclaim and a Nobel Peace Prize as a champion of democratic change in the face of military persecution, had responded to his calls by saying that the situation was “really complicated.”

    “So I don’t know,” he said.

    There is widespread hostility towards Rohingya Muslims in the Buddhist-majority country, including among some within Suu Kyi’s party and its supporters.

    More than 100 people were killed in violence in western Rakhine state in 2012, and some 125,000 Rohingya Muslims, who are stateless, took refuge in camps where their movements are severely restricted.

    Thousands have fled persecution and poverty in an exodus by boat to neighboring South and Southeast Asian countries.

    The Dalai Lama said some Buddhist monks in Myanmar “seem to have some kind of negative attitude to Muslims” and Buddhists who harbored such thoughts “should remember Buddha’s face.”

    “If Buddha happened, he certainly would protect those Muslim brothers and sisters,” he said.

    The new Myanmar government announced late last month that Aung San Suu Kyi would lead a new effort to bring peace and development to Rakhine State.

    The announcement offered no details on how the group would go about addressing the state’s multitude of problems.
    Suu Kyi said during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry last month that the country needed “enough space” to deal with the Rohingya issue and cautioned against the use of “emotive terms”, that she said were making the situation more difficult.

     

    Source: http://indianexpress.com

  • Rohingyas Fleeing Burma’s Scotched-Earth Campaign Turned Away By Bangladesh

    Rohingyas Fleeing Burma’s Scotched-Earth Campaign Turned Away By Bangladesh

    The broad estuary of the Naf River separates Bangladesh and Burma. On both sides of the Naf, armed forces have massed of late. The countries aren’t at war — against each other at least. Rather, the soldiers are on the lookout for members of the Rohingya ethnic group. Burma wants them out. Bangladesh wants them to turn around and go back.

    On Wednesday alone, Bangladeshi police said that more than 500 Rohingya Muslims made a desperate voyage across the Naf, adding to the thousands who have crossed in recent days. For the past month, human rights groups have documented the burning of entire Rohingya villages by Burma’s military. But the Bangladeshis, who for the most part share the Bengali language and Muslim faith with the Rohingyas, say they have no room for refugees.

    “We nabbed them after they illegally trespassed [into Bangladesh]. They will be pushed back” to Burma, local police chief Shyamol Kumar Nath told Agence France-Presse.

    Fleeing Rohingyas who have spoken with reporters and human rights activists recounted killings and rapes in their villages. They fear suffering the same fate if Bangladesh forces them to make the return journey.

    The news agency Reuters reported that escalating violence has killed scores and displaced about 30,000 in recent weeks. The violence seems to have been triggered by an attack on Oct. 9 against Burmese border police that killed nine. Police blamed Rohingya militants — accusing them of ties to radical Islam — and began a scorched-earth campaign. The roots of anti-Rohingya sentiment go back decades, if not centuries, in Burma, a majority-Buddhist nation also known as Myanmar. Rohingyas are denied citizenship in Burma.

    Burma’s de facto leader, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has expressed concern about the fate of the Rohingyas but has also accused them of causing the violence. Suu Kyi has had to balance her record of human rights activism with a growing tide of Buddhist nationalism that has emboldened the military, which ruled the country for decades before her.

    Since communal violence occurred between ethnic Burmese and Rohingyas in 2012, more than 32,000 Rohingyas have legally registered as refugees at camps in Bangladesh. According to the AFP, many of those who have fled in recent days are hiding out in those camps, hoping to blend in. Thousands more are waiting to cross the Naf into Bangladesh.

    “Difficult as it is for the Bangladesh government to absorb large numbers, it seems to me there is no other choice,” said John McKissick, who heads the U.N. refugee agency’s office in southern Bangladesh. “Because the only other choice is death and suffering.”

     

    Source: www.washingtonpost.com

  • Wanita Rohingya Diperkosa Askar Myanmar?

    Wanita Rohingya Diperkosa Askar Myanmar?

    MAUNGDAW, RAKHINE: Sekurang-kurangnya 50 wanita di dua kampung di sini dirogol tentera Myanmar kelmarin sementara 25 penduduk lelaki ditahan.

    Kejadian berlaku selepas sekumpulan 200 tentera Myanmar memasuki Kampung Kyar Gaung Taung pagi Ahad lalu. Mereka menggunakan pembesar suara, memanggil penduduk keluar, kononnya untuk menemui mereka. Penduduk lelaki yang bimbang ditangkap melarikan diri.

    Mereka yang tidak melarikan diri diarah berkumpul di kawasan sawah, bersama penduduk wanita.

    Di situ, tentera berkenaan mengganggu dan ada yang merogol wanita terbabit, sementara penduduk lelaki dan kanak-kanak didera.

    “Kira-kira 50 wanita diperkosa oleh tentera itu. Dua puluh lima penduduk lelaki ditahan. Mereka masih ditahan dan tentera belum lagi meninggalkan kampung berkenaan,” kata seorang penduduk, semalam.

    Seorang penduduk, Amir Hussein pula melaporkan, seekor kerbaunya dicuri tentera Myanmar sebelum mereka membakar rumahnya.

    “Mereka menyembelih kerbau saya dan memakannya,” kata Amir.

    Pada masa sama, sekumpulan 300 tentera mengepung kampung Myaw Taung sebelum merogol penduduk wanita dan mendera lelaki tua.

     

    Source:www.malaysiandigest.com

  • Human Rights Watch: 3 Rohingya Villages Burned Down In Myanmar

    Human Rights Watch: 3 Rohingya Villages Burned Down In Myanmar

    Satellite images show that several Rohingya village in Myanmar’s Rakhine State have been burned to the ground in recent weeks, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Saturday.

    The New York-based rights group urged authorities to invite United Nations investigators to look into the destruction of a total of 430 buildings in three villages in the northern Maungdaw district between October 22 and November 10.

    “New satellite images not only confirm the widespread destruction of Rohingya villages but show that it was even greater than we first thought,” Brad Adams, HRW’s Asia director, said in a statement.

    According to HRW, the damage took place in the villages of Pyaung Pyit, Kyet Yoe Pyin, and Wa Peik.

    The allegations come at a time of heightened tensions between the authorities and the ethnic Rohingya community that has seen the government arm non-Muslim civilians in Rakhine and renewed crackdowns on the Rohingya.

    Troops started pouring into Maungdaw in October after the killings of nine border policein three attacks along the country’s northwestern border with Bangladesh.

    Security crackdowns have led to at least 3,000 Buddhist Rakhine fleeing their homes in Maungdaw township, with dozens of fighters allegedly being killed in the fighting.

    Most people in the area are Muslim Rohingya, a stateless minority whom Buddhist nationalists vilify as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh – even though many have lived in Myanmar for generations.

     

    Source: www.aljazeera.com