Rollno21
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India Refuses To Sign Global Declaration Against Myanmar On Rohingyas
- Thread starter Banglar Bir
- Start date
There is no such thing as blessing of China. they are on their own. China provide shelter for refugees and encourage both sides to have a compromise, that is all.
But I definitely think Rohingyas should be considered as citizen.
Banglar Bir
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The billion dollars question is, are the Rohingyas, even being considered as Human beings? while you all are concentrating on your Geo Strategic benefits, high time to wake up before you start loosing a few of your Strategic partners in this region.
I made myself clear that Myanmar should give Rohingyas citizenship.That is my point.
Flynn Swagmire
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Why I'm not surprised... 
Thetigerforces
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These hypocrites only care about when India does it, when their chinese allies do it they don't care about that.
HariSinghNalwa
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IT is True ,that these Muslims of Ummah won't bitch about China and there policies with Myanmar because they don't fit the conspiracy of Yahud and Hanud!
AZ1
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Buddy there is a difference between knife and JET. I am sure you know this. What I am simply asking is can you show me, send me a link whre JET have been used to kill? am I asking a lot?
All I see Indians saying it will be used (Future tense). Future tense is irrelevant.
Why would they need Jets to killed internal people. Those talks are defence country related country to country defence. It would be stupid of them to use those JETS against people on streets.
Avicenna
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Best of Luck China nahi bangladesh he sahi
StraightShooter
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What is more important is the reason and type of support being extended by Pakistan and India.
Myanmar acts as a buffer state between China and India. India is extending support as it is nervous about China having greater influence in Myanmar.
Other other hand Pakistan is supporting Myanmar due to the animosity and grudge it has against Bengali Muslims due to East Pakistan seceding to be born as Bangladesh.
Bilal9
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Stretching it a bit far - aren't we?
If there is grudge against Pakistanis and Bangladeshis it is like that between brothers.
Banglar Bir
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12:00 AM, September 09, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:19 AM, September 09, 2017
Violence in Rakhine: India keeps off the Bali declaration
Star Report
India has declined to be a part of an international parliamentary conference's declaration that expressed concern over the ongoing violence in the Rakhine state of Myanmar.
An Indian parliamentary delegation, led by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, distanced itself from the Bali Declaration adopted at “World Parliamentary Forum on Sustainable Development” on Thursday in Nusa Dua, Indonesia.
India said the proposed reference to the violence in Rakhine state in the declaration was inappropriate.
The move came following the Indian government's recent decision to deport nearly 40,000 Rohingya refugees from the country.
It is also in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on the brutal persecution of the ethnic minority in Myanmar during his visit to Myanmar. Modi has been facing criticisms at home for both.
The Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian Parliament) Secretariat on Thursday night defended its refusal to be a part of the Bali Declaration, reports our New Delhi Correspondent.
"This was in view of the fact that the declaration, which was to be adopted at the conclusion of the Forum, was not in line with the agreed global principles of sustainable development.
"Therefore, the proposed reference to the violence in Rakhine state in the declaration was considered as not consensus-based and inappropriate," the secretariat said in a press statement.
The part of the declaration, to which India objected, spoke of the forum expressing "deep concern on ongoing violence in the Rakhine State of Myanmar, amongst others..."
The declaration went on to "call on all parties to contribute to the restoration of stability and security, exercise maximum self-restraint from using violent means, respect the human rights of all people in Rakhine State regardless of their faith and ethnicity, as well as facilitate and guarantee safe access for humanitarian assistance."
The Lok Sabha statement said, “The country-specific amendment to the draft declaration was proposed the eleventh hour by selective countries which referred to the violence in Rakhine state of Myanmar.”
The Indian delegation's decision came on the day Modi wrapped up his maiden three-day visit to Myanmar. He backed the government of the country.
Modi in a joint appearance before the media with Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi urged all stakeholders to find a solution that respects the country's unity.
Around a month before Modi's visit there, the Indian home minister on August 9 told parliament that 40,000 Rohingyas staying in India would be deported.
This prompted the National Human Rights Commission to issue a notice to the home ministry on August 18 calling for a detailed report on the matter in four weeks.
In another development, the Indian Supreme Court on Monday sought to know the government's position on a petition challenging its decision to deport illegal Rohingya Muslim immigrants back to Myanmar.
But on the next day, as Modi began his visit to Myanmar, Kiren Rijiju, state minister for home, announced that the government had set up a taskforce to identify Rohingyas, who had taken refuge in different states of the country, in order to begin the process of deportation.
CRITICISMS IN MEDIA
"New Delhi, in any case, is hardly in a position to give lectures on humanitarianism when it has rhetorically spoken of expelling Rohingya refugees and pass the matter to the Supreme Court," said the Hindustan Times in its editorial on Thursday.
"New Delhi skirted the issue of Myanmar's horrific treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority but was able to persuade Naypyidaw to allow India to launch a large-scale aid programme in Rakhine province, the home of the Rohingya and the epicentre of the present violence," said the English daily.
In its editorial, The Tribune, another daily, yesterday said the sheen came off Modi's aspiration to be a global statesman when he meekly echoed Aung San Suu Kyi's rather lame and patently dishonest excuse for not taking up the cause of the Rohingyas and terming it a problem of terrorism.
"The reasons for Modi's silence in Myanmar are not hard to discern: first and foremost is that the march towards Hindutva will be diluted by accommodating largely Muslim Rohingyas. Second is geopolitical: India would not want to push the Myanmar regime into China's arms by a tough stance on the refugees," it asserted.
Columnist Ashis Ray yesterday in an article in the National Herald also slammed Modi.
"As for Modi, he hasn't borne in mind that standing shoulder to shoulder with Suu Kyi is one thing, doing the same with the Myanmar military is another. He has, tragically for India, chosen the latter," he wrote.
“And in so doing, he has unwisely drawn a parallel between the Rohingya and Kashmir imbroglios in the eyes of the world. Besides, Bangladesh has been one of India's closet allies in recent years. It is unlikely to be best pleased by Modi's Rohingya policy,” Ashis commented.
Law professor Shiv Visvanathan in an article in the Hindu yesterday said, "If we abandon Rohingya, we abandon the idea of India as a home of refugees and hospitality. A country which offered a home to the Parsis, the Tibetans, the Afghans, and the Jews cannot turn a little minority of helpless people back."
Ravi Nair, executive director of South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre, in a recent article in The Indian Express, lamented that the Indian government could not even make a gesture to Bangladesh of offering humanitarian assistance as faraway Turkey has done.
“The Indonesians and Malaysians in ASEAN are none too happy with the Indian position on the Rohingyas,” he wrote.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/violence-rakhine-india-keeps-the-bali-declaration-1459504
Violence in Rakhine: India keeps off the Bali declaration
Star Report
India has declined to be a part of an international parliamentary conference's declaration that expressed concern over the ongoing violence in the Rakhine state of Myanmar.
An Indian parliamentary delegation, led by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, distanced itself from the Bali Declaration adopted at “World Parliamentary Forum on Sustainable Development” on Thursday in Nusa Dua, Indonesia.
India said the proposed reference to the violence in Rakhine state in the declaration was inappropriate.
The move came following the Indian government's recent decision to deport nearly 40,000 Rohingya refugees from the country.
It is also in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on the brutal persecution of the ethnic minority in Myanmar during his visit to Myanmar. Modi has been facing criticisms at home for both.
The Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian Parliament) Secretariat on Thursday night defended its refusal to be a part of the Bali Declaration, reports our New Delhi Correspondent.
"This was in view of the fact that the declaration, which was to be adopted at the conclusion of the Forum, was not in line with the agreed global principles of sustainable development.
"Therefore, the proposed reference to the violence in Rakhine state in the declaration was considered as not consensus-based and inappropriate," the secretariat said in a press statement.
The part of the declaration, to which India objected, spoke of the forum expressing "deep concern on ongoing violence in the Rakhine State of Myanmar, amongst others..."
The declaration went on to "call on all parties to contribute to the restoration of stability and security, exercise maximum self-restraint from using violent means, respect the human rights of all people in Rakhine State regardless of their faith and ethnicity, as well as facilitate and guarantee safe access for humanitarian assistance."
The Lok Sabha statement said, “The country-specific amendment to the draft declaration was proposed the eleventh hour by selective countries which referred to the violence in Rakhine state of Myanmar.”
The Indian delegation's decision came on the day Modi wrapped up his maiden three-day visit to Myanmar. He backed the government of the country.
Modi in a joint appearance before the media with Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi urged all stakeholders to find a solution that respects the country's unity.
Around a month before Modi's visit there, the Indian home minister on August 9 told parliament that 40,000 Rohingyas staying in India would be deported.
This prompted the National Human Rights Commission to issue a notice to the home ministry on August 18 calling for a detailed report on the matter in four weeks.
In another development, the Indian Supreme Court on Monday sought to know the government's position on a petition challenging its decision to deport illegal Rohingya Muslim immigrants back to Myanmar.
But on the next day, as Modi began his visit to Myanmar, Kiren Rijiju, state minister for home, announced that the government had set up a taskforce to identify Rohingyas, who had taken refuge in different states of the country, in order to begin the process of deportation.
CRITICISMS IN MEDIA
"New Delhi, in any case, is hardly in a position to give lectures on humanitarianism when it has rhetorically spoken of expelling Rohingya refugees and pass the matter to the Supreme Court," said the Hindustan Times in its editorial on Thursday.
"New Delhi skirted the issue of Myanmar's horrific treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority but was able to persuade Naypyidaw to allow India to launch a large-scale aid programme in Rakhine province, the home of the Rohingya and the epicentre of the present violence," said the English daily.
In its editorial, The Tribune, another daily, yesterday said the sheen came off Modi's aspiration to be a global statesman when he meekly echoed Aung San Suu Kyi's rather lame and patently dishonest excuse for not taking up the cause of the Rohingyas and terming it a problem of terrorism.
"The reasons for Modi's silence in Myanmar are not hard to discern: first and foremost is that the march towards Hindutva will be diluted by accommodating largely Muslim Rohingyas. Second is geopolitical: India would not want to push the Myanmar regime into China's arms by a tough stance on the refugees," it asserted.
Columnist Ashis Ray yesterday in an article in the National Herald also slammed Modi.
"As for Modi, he hasn't borne in mind that standing shoulder to shoulder with Suu Kyi is one thing, doing the same with the Myanmar military is another. He has, tragically for India, chosen the latter," he wrote.
“And in so doing, he has unwisely drawn a parallel between the Rohingya and Kashmir imbroglios in the eyes of the world. Besides, Bangladesh has been one of India's closet allies in recent years. It is unlikely to be best pleased by Modi's Rohingya policy,” Ashis commented.
Law professor Shiv Visvanathan in an article in the Hindu yesterday said, "If we abandon Rohingya, we abandon the idea of India as a home of refugees and hospitality. A country which offered a home to the Parsis, the Tibetans, the Afghans, and the Jews cannot turn a little minority of helpless people back."
Ravi Nair, executive director of South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre, in a recent article in The Indian Express, lamented that the Indian government could not even make a gesture to Bangladesh of offering humanitarian assistance as faraway Turkey has done.
“The Indonesians and Malaysians in ASEAN are none too happy with the Indian position on the Rohingyas,” he wrote.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/violence-rakhine-india-keeps-the-bali-declaration-1459504
Banglar Bir
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- 7,805
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Battlelines drawn on Rohingya issue
Subir Bhaumik, September 9, 2017
The Rohingya issue is seen as a serious humanitarian question by the UN and international human rights and civil liberties groups, but national interest seems to be dictating the response of Asian nations to the crisis caused by the recent rebel attacks and the usual heavy-handed military response in the Rakhine state.
The Western countries may be trying to restrain Myanmar for unleashing a military counter-offensive that is sending tens of thousands of Rohingyas across the border into Bangladesh.
But Israel, India and Bangladesh have all come out strongly in support of Myanmar’s fight against “terrorist violence”, lending much succour to Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, in which the military controls three crucial security related ministries of Defence, Home and Border Affairs.
Israel has refused to stop supplying arms to the Myanmar army, which human rights groups say is involved in the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, but the country’s defence ministry clarifying, “the matter is clearly diplomatic”.
Israeli arms companies like TAR Ideal Concepts have even trained Myanmar’s special forces in Rakhine state where most of the violence against the Rohingya has taken place.
Israel has sold to Myanmar more than 100 tanks, military hardware and boats used to police its border, human rights groups allege.
The EU’s embargo on Myanmar refers to the ban on sales of “equipment which might be used for internal repression”. Notably, the US and the European Union (EU) have an arms restriction on Myanmar. The US cites the International Religious Freedom Act and uses the embargo on countries that have “engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom”.
But neither the EU nor the US has failed restrain Israel for backing the Myanmar military.
Israel sees in the Rohingya militants a threat to itself because some of these jihadis have been fighting with the Islamist radical groups in the Middle East.
Hardline Jewish groups in Israel, as hardline Hindutva groups in India, have tried to connect to hardline Buddhist groups in Myanmar .
Understandably, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a great friend of Israel , has lend unequivocal support and promised all forms of military assistance like hardware and training to the Myanmar Tatmadaw during his recent visit to Myanmar.
India has already signed up to provide military training to Tatmadaw — two mobile Indian military trainings will be stationed in Myanmar soon.
And those Burmese military officers and soldiers trained in Myanmar will also be send to Indian commando training school in Belgaum.
India may be using the opportunity provided by the Rakhine crisis to cosy up to the Myanmar military to achieve its strategic objectives of neutralising the trans-border bases of northeastern militants in Sagaing, the last that these motley group of rebels enjoy after their eviction from Bhutan in 2003 and Bangladesh in 2009-10.
But Modi and his BJP party have made clear their unwillingness to raise the pitch on the Rohingya exodus.
Far from it, Modi’s junior home minister Khiren Rijjuju, a Buddhist who shepherded Dalai Lama during his recent controversial visit to Arunachal Pradesh, set the stage for the PM’s Myanmar visit by announcing that Delhi is determined to deport the 50-60,000 odd Rohingyas in India including the 15000 odd registered with UNHCR.
BJP and its fraternal groups need to periodically energise their core political base of Hindutva by Muslim bashing — be it the anti-beef campaign or the anti-triple talaq campaign (which also gets it some support from Muslim women in India). But now that the BJP has to desist from publicly expressing its ire against ‘illegal migrants from Bangladesh’ because Delhi sees Dhaka as a strong ally, it serves the saffrons right to whip up anti-Rohingya tirade not just to re-energise its Hindutva political base but also to cosy up to Burmese nationalist and Buddhist fundamentalist forces in Myanmar and also to the all-powerful Tatmadaw.
Like India, Bangladesh would not want to see any major escalation in the Rakhine crisis because that would keep sending tens of thousands of Rohingyas fleeing into the over-populated country with limited resources to tide over such an inflow.
But Sheikh Hasina’s government shares with India and Israel a huge fear of the Islamist jihad being unleashed in Rakhine, not only because the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) has close links with its own bete noire , the neo-JMB, but also because the Rohingya issue may help the opposition garner support from Rohingyas who vote in Bangladesh in the rundown to the national elections due next year. No wonder the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami are vocal supporters of a policy to support and shelter the Rohingyas and perhaps also ensure backing of the ARSA.
The first time Rohingya militants got any foreign support for their armed insurgency to create an ‘Islamic Republic of North Arakans’ was during 1977-78 when BNP’s founder, the late Gen Ziaur Rahman was in power.
China has so far maintained silence on the Rakhine issue, but it shares concerns of Islamist militancy with its festering Uighur problem in Sinkiang.
With vital projects like the Kyaukphyu port and special economic zone and the oil-gas pipeline from there to Yunnan in the Rakhine state, China cannot side with its ally Pakistan or other Islamic countries, where pro-Rohingya feelings have peaked with their recent bout of extra-judicial killings and torture that the Myanmar military has been accused off.
In the Islamic world, there seems to be what can be described as competitive radicalism with Turkey trying to outdo Saudi Arabia by raising the pitch on the Rohingya issue.
But with Israel, India and Bangladesh determined to support Myanmar with military hardware, training and intelligence (Dhaka even offered joint military operations) and the Islamic countries hitting out at Myanmar, the battle lines are clearly drawn.
The West is at its hypocritical best — its human rights groups are attacking the Myanmar military for atrocities quite vocally but its governments are unable to exercise any influence on strategic allies like Israel and India to get Myanmar restrain military operations.
No wonder the Saudi ambassador in Yangon told me recently that leaving aside the Rohingya issue, the condition of Muslims in Myanmar was better than in Europe. 4500 Muslims have been granted visa for performing the Hajj this year against 3800 last year. That includes ten selected as special guests of King Salman.
Bertil Lintner with his huge insight and expertise on Myanmar drives home the point that the West and the Islamic world often cause huge problems for Burmese Muslims who have nothing to do with the Rohingyas and whose numbers are not inconsiderable.
“The narrative the Western media seeks to create is a huge distortion. Rohingyas and Burmese Muslims are one and the same for them, but tell me what has people like the murdered constitutional lawyer Ko Ni got to do with Rohingyas. He is a Burmese Muslim and he was killed for his politics, not religion,” said Lintner during a recent conversation with me in Yangon.
For Burmese Muslims, like the two beautiful sisters Hasina and Halima who I spotted clapping heartily for Indian PM Modi during his rally at Yangon’s Indoor Stadium, the Rohingya is a different nationality — like they are for the Bengali Muslims in Bangladesh.
So, Myanmar’s official description of them as illegal Bengalis or of the ARSA as Bengali terrorists have provoked huge reaction in Bangladesh.
That Myanmar’s official press releases started referring to ARSA as ‘Islamic terrorists’ and not as ‘Bengali terrorists’ any more owes to a very strong protest from Bangladesh foreign ministry, though that was not made public for obvious reasons.
For the majority of Bengali Muslims in Bangladesh, themselves victims of Islamist terror in form of JMB, ABT and HUJI the clubbing of Rohingyas as ‘illegal Bengalis’ and of groups like ARSA as ‘Bengali terrorists’ is simply a travesty of truth.
Myanmar’s officialdom needs to be more sensitive to such regional sensitivities if it wants to tide over the Rakhine crisis with support from neighbours at a time when the world is crying wolf.
And one question remains to be answered — whose cause the ARSA was furthering when it decided to go on the huge pre-dawn offensive on Aug 25 within hours of Aung San Suu Kyi promising to create an inter-ministerial committee to implement the Kofi Annan-led Rakhine Commission published earlier in the day! This report if implemented is the best the Rohingyas could expect at the moment and ARSA seems to have torpedoed that effectively because the discourse in Rakhine has shifted back to the security prism for Myanmar.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/09/09/battlelines-drawn-rohingya-issue/
Subir Bhaumik, September 9, 2017
The Rohingya issue is seen as a serious humanitarian question by the UN and international human rights and civil liberties groups, but national interest seems to be dictating the response of Asian nations to the crisis caused by the recent rebel attacks and the usual heavy-handed military response in the Rakhine state.
The Western countries may be trying to restrain Myanmar for unleashing a military counter-offensive that is sending tens of thousands of Rohingyas across the border into Bangladesh.
But Israel, India and Bangladesh have all come out strongly in support of Myanmar’s fight against “terrorist violence”, lending much succour to Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, in which the military controls three crucial security related ministries of Defence, Home and Border Affairs.
Israel has refused to stop supplying arms to the Myanmar army, which human rights groups say is involved in the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, but the country’s defence ministry clarifying, “the matter is clearly diplomatic”.
Israeli arms companies like TAR Ideal Concepts have even trained Myanmar’s special forces in Rakhine state where most of the violence against the Rohingya has taken place.
Israel has sold to Myanmar more than 100 tanks, military hardware and boats used to police its border, human rights groups allege.
The EU’s embargo on Myanmar refers to the ban on sales of “equipment which might be used for internal repression”. Notably, the US and the European Union (EU) have an arms restriction on Myanmar. The US cites the International Religious Freedom Act and uses the embargo on countries that have “engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom”.
But neither the EU nor the US has failed restrain Israel for backing the Myanmar military.
Israel sees in the Rohingya militants a threat to itself because some of these jihadis have been fighting with the Islamist radical groups in the Middle East.
Hardline Jewish groups in Israel, as hardline Hindutva groups in India, have tried to connect to hardline Buddhist groups in Myanmar .
Understandably, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a great friend of Israel , has lend unequivocal support and promised all forms of military assistance like hardware and training to the Myanmar Tatmadaw during his recent visit to Myanmar.
India has already signed up to provide military training to Tatmadaw — two mobile Indian military trainings will be stationed in Myanmar soon.
And those Burmese military officers and soldiers trained in Myanmar will also be send to Indian commando training school in Belgaum.
India may be using the opportunity provided by the Rakhine crisis to cosy up to the Myanmar military to achieve its strategic objectives of neutralising the trans-border bases of northeastern militants in Sagaing, the last that these motley group of rebels enjoy after their eviction from Bhutan in 2003 and Bangladesh in 2009-10.
But Modi and his BJP party have made clear their unwillingness to raise the pitch on the Rohingya exodus.
Far from it, Modi’s junior home minister Khiren Rijjuju, a Buddhist who shepherded Dalai Lama during his recent controversial visit to Arunachal Pradesh, set the stage for the PM’s Myanmar visit by announcing that Delhi is determined to deport the 50-60,000 odd Rohingyas in India including the 15000 odd registered with UNHCR.
BJP and its fraternal groups need to periodically energise their core political base of Hindutva by Muslim bashing — be it the anti-beef campaign or the anti-triple talaq campaign (which also gets it some support from Muslim women in India). But now that the BJP has to desist from publicly expressing its ire against ‘illegal migrants from Bangladesh’ because Delhi sees Dhaka as a strong ally, it serves the saffrons right to whip up anti-Rohingya tirade not just to re-energise its Hindutva political base but also to cosy up to Burmese nationalist and Buddhist fundamentalist forces in Myanmar and also to the all-powerful Tatmadaw.
Like India, Bangladesh would not want to see any major escalation in the Rakhine crisis because that would keep sending tens of thousands of Rohingyas fleeing into the over-populated country with limited resources to tide over such an inflow.
But Sheikh Hasina’s government shares with India and Israel a huge fear of the Islamist jihad being unleashed in Rakhine, not only because the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) has close links with its own bete noire , the neo-JMB, but also because the Rohingya issue may help the opposition garner support from Rohingyas who vote in Bangladesh in the rundown to the national elections due next year. No wonder the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami are vocal supporters of a policy to support and shelter the Rohingyas and perhaps also ensure backing of the ARSA.
The first time Rohingya militants got any foreign support for their armed insurgency to create an ‘Islamic Republic of North Arakans’ was during 1977-78 when BNP’s founder, the late Gen Ziaur Rahman was in power.
China has so far maintained silence on the Rakhine issue, but it shares concerns of Islamist militancy with its festering Uighur problem in Sinkiang.
With vital projects like the Kyaukphyu port and special economic zone and the oil-gas pipeline from there to Yunnan in the Rakhine state, China cannot side with its ally Pakistan or other Islamic countries, where pro-Rohingya feelings have peaked with their recent bout of extra-judicial killings and torture that the Myanmar military has been accused off.
In the Islamic world, there seems to be what can be described as competitive radicalism with Turkey trying to outdo Saudi Arabia by raising the pitch on the Rohingya issue.
But with Israel, India and Bangladesh determined to support Myanmar with military hardware, training and intelligence (Dhaka even offered joint military operations) and the Islamic countries hitting out at Myanmar, the battle lines are clearly drawn.
The West is at its hypocritical best — its human rights groups are attacking the Myanmar military for atrocities quite vocally but its governments are unable to exercise any influence on strategic allies like Israel and India to get Myanmar restrain military operations.
No wonder the Saudi ambassador in Yangon told me recently that leaving aside the Rohingya issue, the condition of Muslims in Myanmar was better than in Europe. 4500 Muslims have been granted visa for performing the Hajj this year against 3800 last year. That includes ten selected as special guests of King Salman.
Bertil Lintner with his huge insight and expertise on Myanmar drives home the point that the West and the Islamic world often cause huge problems for Burmese Muslims who have nothing to do with the Rohingyas and whose numbers are not inconsiderable.
“The narrative the Western media seeks to create is a huge distortion. Rohingyas and Burmese Muslims are one and the same for them, but tell me what has people like the murdered constitutional lawyer Ko Ni got to do with Rohingyas. He is a Burmese Muslim and he was killed for his politics, not religion,” said Lintner during a recent conversation with me in Yangon.
For Burmese Muslims, like the two beautiful sisters Hasina and Halima who I spotted clapping heartily for Indian PM Modi during his rally at Yangon’s Indoor Stadium, the Rohingya is a different nationality — like they are for the Bengali Muslims in Bangladesh.
So, Myanmar’s official description of them as illegal Bengalis or of the ARSA as Bengali terrorists have provoked huge reaction in Bangladesh.
That Myanmar’s official press releases started referring to ARSA as ‘Islamic terrorists’ and not as ‘Bengali terrorists’ any more owes to a very strong protest from Bangladesh foreign ministry, though that was not made public for obvious reasons.
For the majority of Bengali Muslims in Bangladesh, themselves victims of Islamist terror in form of JMB, ABT and HUJI the clubbing of Rohingyas as ‘illegal Bengalis’ and of groups like ARSA as ‘Bengali terrorists’ is simply a travesty of truth.
Myanmar’s officialdom needs to be more sensitive to such regional sensitivities if it wants to tide over the Rakhine crisis with support from neighbours at a time when the world is crying wolf.
And one question remains to be answered — whose cause the ARSA was furthering when it decided to go on the huge pre-dawn offensive on Aug 25 within hours of Aung San Suu Kyi promising to create an inter-ministerial committee to implement the Kofi Annan-led Rakhine Commission published earlier in the day! This report if implemented is the best the Rohingyas could expect at the moment and ARSA seems to have torpedoed that effectively because the discourse in Rakhine has shifted back to the security prism for Myanmar.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/09/09/battlelines-drawn-rohingya-issue/
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