Will the conscience of the international community awaken at the brutal
ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority population in Burma or Myanmar? The
Buddhist monks and the newly inducted democratic government seem to be
poised against a small-sized Muslim population and have embarked upon
unleashing a reign of tyranny and specter of terror on them in for about a
year now.
Following the Myanmar's President Thein Sein's call in early June this
year that the Rohingya Muslims must be expelled from the country and
sent to refugee camps run by the United Nations, 11 innocent Muslims were
killed by the Burmese Army and the Buddhist mobs after disembarking them
from a bus.
Retaliating to the protests by the Burmese Muslims for this gruesome
slaughter, the army and the Buddhists killed 50 more Muslims. In thesectarian violence
between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists, in Burma's western State,thousands of Muslims' homes have been burnt.An estimated 90,000 Muslims have been uprooted.
The Muslim population in Burma is estimated to be 4 per cent of the entire
population of around 60 million. It comes to roughly 2.4 million. These
Muslims have been living in Burma for ages. They look like Burmese in
features and speak the same language. Briefly they are native Burmese
except that they profess a different faith in a country whose predominant
population believes in Buddhism The state sponsored carnage of the tiny
Muslim minority, is hurling up a colossal humanitarian disaster.
While Buddhists preach peace, tolerance and compassion, in the case of
Muslims there seems to be an unholy alliance between the tyrannical Burmese
army and the Buddhists monks for massacring the defenseless and helpless
Muslims. It is suspected that the Burma's large and much feared military
intelligence service, the 'Directorate of Defense Security Intelligence'
may have agents planted within the monk-hood.
Sadly, there is no let up in terrorizing and killing the hapless Muslim
community by the hostile Burmese police and government. Those Muslims, who
were pushed or fled on their own towards the neighboring Bangladesh, were
refused entry. They were returned by the BD authorities back to Burma. The
international humanitarian organizations such as UNHCR and the Islamic
countries have not even mutely protested or taken up this most
heart-wrenching human crisis at any forum.
One is reminded of the East Timor ethnic crisis when the Indonesian
Islamic regime was accused of maltreating and suppressing the Christian
population there. The entire Christian world with Australia in the lead,
under the aegis of the United Nations truncated Indonesia. On May 20,
2002, East Timor separated from Indonesia and became an independent
Christian state.
Likewise the western countries and particularly the United States
pressurized and isolated president Omar al-Bashir of the Republic of
Sudan (North Sudan) to such an extent that he finally gave in and agreed to
the cessation of South Sudan as an independent country. South Sudan
became an independent state on 9 July 2011. The population of Christians
in the south is 80 percent while that of Muslim is 18 per cent.
Understandably the division of Sudan was maneuvered to create a separate
independent state for the Christians so as to live in peace and to save
them from the civil war.
In former Yugoslavia, the NATO saved Muslim population from a brutal spree
of ethnic cleansing by the Serbian army and that was one of the most marked
human relief and rescue by the Christian west for the sake of the oppressed
Muslims.
The Bosnian Serb army committed atrocious and most heinous genocide
against the Muslims and Bosnian Croats in 1995. Besides, a bloody campaign
of ethnic cleansing of Muslims was also carried out throughout the areas
controlled by the Bosnian Serb Army during the 1992–1995 Bosnian War. The
United Nations and NATO"s role (April 1933-December 1995) in ending
genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Bosnians Muslims by the Serbian
military is a golden chapter of history. Otherwise the Muslims would have
been reduced to a tiny minority in their own territories.
Hopefully among the comity of nations, two countries can play a vital and
decisive role in rescuing besieged and distressed Muslims of Burma. One is
Saudi Arabia that can exert her influence and persuade other Muslim
countries to approach the United Nations for an urgent action on the
miserable plight of the Burmese Muslims and the grave existential threat to
them. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and other Muslim states can also approach
the Burmese regime urging it to stop the persecution and intimidation of
the Burmese Muslims that are entitled to equal rights as citizens including
that of religious freedom under the constitution.
Secondly, it is China that is in the strongest position to exert her clout
to ask the Burmese leaders to desist from their bestiality against the
Muslim population. If the Burmese incumbent government continues its brutal
extermination of Muslims, then it would lose its good image as a democratic
regime established after long spell of military dictatorship. Its
decision to release the most prominent Burmese<
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma
opposition <
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposition_(politics)
politician, chairperson <
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chairperson of
the National League for Democracy<
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_League_for_Democracy
(NLD) and human rights activist San Suu Kyi after her incarceration for
21 years, was also lauded internationally.
In 2005, the Burmese Ministry of Religious Affairs issued a declaration
concerning freedom of religion for all religious communities. The stated
official policy of the government of Burma is that "all ethnic, religious,
and language groups in Burma are equal". The Burmese Supreme Court observed
in a verdict that "in various parts of Burma, there are people who, because
of the origin and the isolated way of life, are totally unlike the Burmese
in appearance or speak of events which had occurred outside the limits of
their habitation. They are nevertheless statutory citizens under the Union
(of Burma) Citizenship Act"
In case of Burmese Muslims' nightmare, the NATO's role is not at all
needed. This grave humanitarian calamity is in need of diplomatic efforts
to prevail upon the Burmese government to stop aggression against a
community living there for ages and is essentially Burmese.
Nor for Burmese Muslims, it is a question of a separate independent land
for them. It is essentially to guarantee their survival, security and
equality within the Republic of the Union of Myanmar against the burgeoning
ethnic and religious challenges to them.
------------------------------------
Editor,
Tariq Khattak.
0300-9599007 and 0333-9599007
Tariqgulkhattak@gmail.com
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