Ethnic tensions continue to broil in Myanmar

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
8/15/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Rohingya, Rakhine groups continue retaliatory attacks

In Myanmar, the Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya have engaged in retaliatory attacks over the past few days in the nation's northwest Rakhine state. Dozens of people have been killed in fighting over the past two months. Entire villages have been burned down to the ground by angry mobs armed with knives and metal poles.

Many people in Myanmar refer to Rohingya as 'Bengalis' or 'guests.' Some believe they are Bangladeshis who have illegally paid to enter Myanmar through the porous border.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The Narze quarter of the capital of Sittwe has become a ghost town following the evacuation of the Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya groups.

Refugee camps and villages are estimated to be housing 70,000 people, according to police Lieutenant Colonel Myo Min Aung.

Tensions between the two groups arose following the alleged rape of a Buddhist woman in addition to the retribution killing of ten Muslims. The death toll between the Rakhine and Rohingya clans has risen to 78. But that is widely believed to be grossly underestimated.

The Rohingya tribes have suffered discrimination for generations in Myanmar. About 800,000 of the Muslim group are denied citizenship under a law passed 30 years ago.

Bikes, scooters and tuk-tuks proceed slowly through Sittwe. Myo Min Aung's police battalion, deployed to Sittwe from Yangon after local police were accused of being "anti-Muslim" are patrolling the area separating Rakhine and Rohingya settlements.

There is a growing humanitarian crisis here that few outsiders have been able to see. On the outskirts of town, about 50,000 Rohingya are residing in a cluster of camps and villages.

The Kaung Dokar Refugee Camp is one of six official shelters for Rohingya in Sittwe Township, described as a no man's land of rationed food, boredom, and days ended by a 6 p.m. curfew.

"I want to go home because when it rains here in the camp, the water rises up," Rezu Mar Bibi, a young woman who speaks as a crowd of onlookers pushes closer to hear. "If I can't go back home, I want to go to another country."

Food rations of rice, beans and oil are not enough, camp refugees say, a claim confirmed by Myo Min Aung who is tasked with ensuring that what little food arrives does so safely.

Some of the complaints by the Rohingya are echoed by the 20,000 Rakhine refugees sheltering in the area's Buddhist monasteries.

A Rakhine fisherwoman, when asked if Rakhine and Rohingya can live together in the future, says it's unthinkable. "It's not possible because these people are very cruel," she says, voicing fears that Rohingya from other countries could come and "cause more trouble."

Many people in Myanmar refer to Rohingya as "Bengalis" or "guests." Some believe they are Bangladeshis who have illegally paid to enter Myanmar through the porous border.

� 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
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Keywords: Buddhist, Rakhine, Muslim, Rohingya, Myanmar

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1 - 1 of 1 Comments

Aung Ming
10 months ago
WHO ARE THE ROHINGYA AND WHAT CAN BE DONE TO PREVENT THEIR GENOCIDE?
The existence of the Rooinga (English form of Rohingya) people in Arakan (Rakhine) State was historically documented in a late 18th century report published by the British, Francis Buchanan-Hamilton. In his 1799 article “A Comparative Vocabulary of Some of the Languages Spoken in the Burma Empire,” Buchanan-Hamilton stated: "I shall now add three dialects, spoken in the Burma Empire, but evidently derived from the language of the Hindu nation. The first is that spoken by the Mohammedans, who have long settled in Arakan, and who call themselves Rooinga, or natives of Arakan" (tap on the right of the pages to page 237-240, http://www.scribd.com/doc/99047980/1799-Rohingya-or-Rooinga-Name-in-Fifth-Volume-of-A-Comparative-Vocabulary-of-Some-of-the-Languages-Spoken-in-the-Burma-Empire). This is the unbiased historical evidence that the Rohingya or Rooinga had lived in Arakan (Rakhine) State before 1824, and therefore, they are one of the original races of the Union of Myanmar. Henceforth, it must be noted that the Rohingya ARE NOT Bangalis, who recently illegally penetrated Myanmar after its independence from the UK in 1948, and that the term Rohingya was NOT INVENTED by Bangali immigrants in 1950s. The term Rohingya was used in 1799 by the natives of Arakan, who were of Mohammedan (or Islamic) faith.

According to a scientific discovery published in the prestigious magazine, Science on Oct 15th, 1999 (volume 286(5439): pages 528-30), the modern human beings originated in Myanmar about 45 million years ago. Thus, the Rohingya and the Bangali races are derivatives of the Rakhine and Myanmar races; in other words they are cousins of each other. Therefore, the Rohingya are not illegal immigrants of Myanmar, but are one of the original races of Myanmar. In other words, the Rohingya did not migrate illegally from Bangladesh into Myanmar, but the Bangalis migrated out of Myanmar into present-day Bangladesh. Thus the Bangalis are as well an original race of Myanmar, even though they migrated west to present-day Bangladesh millions of years ago.

The international community has a responsibility to protect the Rohingya from systematic state-sponsored genocide by the Rakhine and the Maynmarese races. Available evidence indicates that the Rohingya are the most persecuted minority (UN report). The Rohingya are the unfortunate victims of the brutal aggression of the Rakhine and Myanmar regime.To falsely associate them with extremism and terrorism is not only preposterous, but amounts to moral irresponsibility and ethical crime. In stead of raising concern and awareness about the severe abuses of Myanmar military regime, chastising the Rohingya for their sufferings is inhumane. They have been living in Arakan (or Rakhine) State since 8th century. They were Burmese citizens at the birth of the Union of Burma on 4th of Jan 1948. Since 1982 they have been illegally deprived of their lawful citizenship by Ne Win’s military regime. In Myanmar, the Rohingya have no freedom of speech, worship, movement or marriage. They have no access to education or healthcare. Thus we, the civilized world, who are privileged to enjoy these freedoms, must intervene to prevent them from becoming extinct. We must speak up and TAKE MEANINGFUL ACTION for restoring the lawful Myanmar Citizenship without any prejudice to the Rohingya, granting them basic human rights and civil liberties, similar to those granted by the Constitution of the United States of America to all its Citizens without any discrimination based on race, religion, color or national origin.

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