A Slap on the Face of Humanity: Burma Persecution and Brutalization Against The Rohingya Muslims
04 July 2015By Saeed Qureshi
The international apathy and silence on the persecution of Rohingya Muslims
in Myanmar (Burma) and Bangladesh is like a slap on the face of humanity. Can
there be a more miserable and hapless situation of any segment of the
inhabitants of earth than the semi-nude Rohingya Muslims strolling aimlessly
and desperately along the coasts while the world watches them with folded
hands and in complete disregard of the disaster these people are exposed to.
The state sponsored carnage of the tiny Muslim minority, is hurling up a
colossal humanitarian disaster.
Would the conscience of the international Humanitarian relief agencies
including UNHCR, the Islamic world and NGOs awaken on the most tragic plight
of the Rohingya Muslims who deserve to be treated at least as human beings?
Rohingya Muslims are known to be the most persecuted minorities on earth and
victims of apartheid, violence and extermination, not only in Burma but also
in Bangladesh. During the imposition of military dictatorship in Burma in
1978, while several thousand Rohingya wander in the sea in ramshackle boats,
about 140,000 are confined in IDP (internally displaced persons) camps in
most humiliating conditions within both the countries. They are denied access
to medical assistance, food and educational facilities.
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. The
Rohingya Muslims living in Myanmar or Burma are residing in the northernmost
townships of Arakan state bordering Bangladesh. About one million live
overseas. In the 2014 Burma Census, they have been classified as "stateless
Bengali Muslims" from came from Bangladesh since 1982.
The Muslims have been living in Myanmar along with other communities for ages
and it is in recent years that they are being treated as outsiders or aliens.
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.
While Buddhists preach peace, tolerance and compassion, in the case of
Muslims there seems to be an unholy alliance between the Burmese
establishment and the Buddhists monks for brutalizing the defenseless
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.
In 2015 alone, in order to escape unrelenting violence and persecution by
both the Burmese and Bangladesh governments, some 25,000 Rohingya Muslims
have tried to to escape to Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia,
Indonesia and Thailand in rickety boats through the waters of the Strait of
Malacca and the Andaman Sea . But most of these rootless people could not get
entry and thus remain in the boats.
In the backdrop of the Rohingya Muslims misery, one is reminded of the East
Timor's 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.
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.
It would be tantamount to a slap on the face of humanity if Rohingya Muslims
are allowed to perish on the high seas or die in Burma or Bangladesh because
of inhuman conditions, starvation, hunger and lack of basic facilities to
survive. On 7 May 2014, the United States House of Representatives passed the
United States House resolution on persecution of the Rohingya people in Burma
that called on the government of Burma to end the discrimination and
persecution.
During his May 21-22 visit to Burma although the U.S. Deputy Secretary of
State Antony J. Blinken emphasized the importance of continued political,
economic, and social reforms it is imperative that United States puts her
pressure on the Burmese government to treat the Rohingya Muslims like other
minorities and stop their persecution and brutalization.
The writer is a senior journalist, former editor of Diplomatic Times and a
former diplomat. This and other articles by the writer can also be read at
his blog www.uprightopinion.com
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