UNDERSTANDING THE HORROR AGAINST HUMANITY IN BURMA

In a press release by Yusuf Jimoh Aweda,
Director Center For Human Rectitudthe on 8th June, 2015, the  social media activist spelt out every detail about the persistent oppression.

The statement goes thus:

"PRESS RELEASE: BURMA, THE FORGOTTEN LAND OF PERSISTENT OPPRESSION. 

In 2010, just immediately after the general elections in Burma had put an end to the Military junta, a nominally civilian government was installed. But the former military leaders who controlled enormous power in the country have taken steps to regain their despotic status.  

The new democratic transition improved the country's human rights record and foreign relations, and has led to the easing of trade and other economic sanctions. There was, however, the persistence of an horrible and the unthinkable killing of the Rohingya Muslims, this has ultimately destroyed any international integrity of what could be left of the new government. The rest of the story is a mixture of massacre and the deliberate disrespect and killing of a Muslim life till present.  

The nation (Burma), which is officially known as the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and commonly shortened to Myanmar, has a Buddhist majority. The Muslim minority in Burma mostly consists of the Rohingya people and the descendants of Muslim immigrants from India (including what is now Bangladesh) and China (the ancestors of Chinese Muslims in Myanmar came from the Yunnan province), as well as descendants of earlier Arab settlers. Indian Muslims migrated to Burma during British rule to fill jobs in the expanding economy, especially in clerical work and business. After independence, many Muslims retained their previous positions and achieved prominence in business and politics. 

According to Human Rights Watch, the Burmese government has denied citizenship to any Rohingya persons who cannot prove their ancestors settled in the country before 1823. 

In 1982, General Ne Win's government enacted the Burmese nationality law, which denied Rohingya citizenship. The term "Rohingya" has increased in usage among the international media after the series of refugee crises in the 1970s and 1990s. They are not allowed to travel without official permission and were previously required to sign a commitment not to have more than two children. They were subjected to principles that were not in line with their faith and religious beliefs. A typical Rohingya man will have to give up one day a week to work on military or government projects, and one night for sentry duty. The Rohingya have also lost a lot of arable land, which has been confiscated by the military to give to Buddhist settlers from elsewhere in Burma. These misappropriations and the deliberate violation of the fundamental human rights of the Rohingya people grew stronger. 

Like in Palestine, Central African Republic, Syria and the like. The UN played its usual passive verbal intervention that led to no concrete solution to the deliberate oppression of the helpless and almost defenceless people. 

There was no serious intervention of the international community on the crisis in Burma against the Rohingya people until 2012. By 2015, an ongoing incident of migration of thousands of Rohingya people from Burma and Bangladesh began, collectively dubbed as 'boat people' by international media, to Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand by rickety boats via the waters of the Strait of Malaccaand the Andaman Sea. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that 25,000 people have been taken to boats from January to March in 2015 by human traffickers. There are claims that around 100 people died in Indonesia, 200 in Malaysia, and 10 in Thailand while on their journey after the traffickers abandoned them on the sea. About 3,000 boat people from Myanmar and Bangladesh have been rescued or have swum to shore, while several thousand more are believed to remain trapped with little food or water on the boats floating at sea. 

Human Rights Watch has published a 153-page report concerning the crimes against humanity perpetrated against the Rohingya Muslims in recent months: The report accuses Burma authorities of engaging in ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine. According to a UN statement, the Rakhine Muslims are the most persecuted social group in the world. Everyone had thought the UN would spring into physical military intervention to avert the crisis. But unfortunately, nothing has surfaced except their usual oratory disposition especially when the Muslims are the majority of those on the "receiving end" of a crisis. 

Today, what we have got to know over time is that both the UN and the so called "World Muslim Leaders" including the Arab League have exuded highly negligible effort towards resolving the massacre of the Rohingya Muslims in Burma. 

Muslims living in Rakhine region have been burned alive in their homes in more than 300 attacks, which have aggravated since June of last year, in which Muslim villages, including mosques and Islamic Schools were burned. According to independent human rights organizations, in June 2012 alone 1,000 Muslims in the region were ruthlessly martyred and 125,000 people were forced from their homes and villages and left to survive in the jungle. 

Few weeks ago, another wave of attack has begun towards Rohingya people and we have the news about at least the death of 40 people, a village of 340 houses and 4000 inhabitants emptied with many Rohingya tied up, taken as slaves, dumped, women who were raped and body parts cut off before they were killed, dead bodies taken by vehicles, and detainment of men, women and children.  

The Center For Human Rectitude calls on the International community to act fast for justice and truth that would liberate the Rohingya people from their continuous enslavement and massacre by the heartless Burmese government. 

The Muslim communities are also charged to focus on serious issues that can ameliorate the horrible conditions of Muslims in the world rather than scrupulously looking for the mistakes and downfall of themselves. 

The world is big enough for people to live in peace regardless of their race, color and religion. 

The horrible killing of people in a particular place in the world may ignite violence in other places. The Center For Human Rectitude strictly advises the sympathizers of Rohingya people all over the world to shun violence or anything that can aggravate  the unpleasant scenarios in the region. The best we can do is to continue to pray and  peacefully advocate  for the freedom of the oppressed even though they do not believe in what we believe religiously. 

May God restore peace in the world."

Source: 
Yusuf Jimoh Aweda
Director Center For Human Rectitude.
social Media Activist.
www.facebook.com/centerforhumanrectitude