OIC calls for imposing sanctions on Myanmar
SAM Staff, October 16, 2017
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) called on the international community to reconsider its economic and diplomatic relations with Myanmar.
In a statement on Sunday (Oct 15), OIC expressed deep concern over reports presented by UN Human Rights Council’s Myanmar Mission in Cox Bazar, Bangladesh, which proved that Rohingya Muslims faced ethnic cleansing.
Read OIC statement here: OIC Expresses Alarm at Findings of UN Report, Calls for Economic and Diplomatic Measures Against Myanmar
The organization called for imposing trade sanctions on Myanmar if it keeps refusing to end violence against the Rohingya and resolve the situation. The Rohingya are facing one of the most horrible human tragedies in modern history, said the statement, adding that over 500,000 Muslims had fled to Bangladesh since August.
The UN’s report showed that Myanmar’s government had launched organized attacks on Rohingya Muslims to push them out of the country and prevent them from returning. It also showed that Muslims faced executions, rape and torture, while their houses were burnt and mosques attacked, said OIC.
SOURCE
KUWAIT NEWS AGENCY
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/10/16/oic-calls-imposing-sanctions-myanmar/
12:00 AM, October 16, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 04:08 AM, October 16, 2017
Rohingya Orphans: 14,740 and counting
Our Correspondent, Cox's Bazar
A total of 14,740 orphan Rohingya children have been identified since September 20 when the process started in the settlements in Ukhia and Teknaf.
The Department of Social Service has been identifying and registering of orphans. Rohingya children who have lost one or both parents are being listed.
Pritom Kumar Chowdhury , assistant director of social service department in Cox's Bazar, who is coordinating the process, said the number of orphan Rohingya children could be almost 20,000.
The orphans will be provided with identity cards and given additional support and assistance.
The social service department also sought 200 acres of land within the 3,000 acres proposed for Rohingyas settlements to build an orphanage.
http://www.thedailystar.net/backpag...s-rohingya-orphans-14740-and-counting-1476958
Rohingyas not to be deported till next hearing:Supreme Court
পরবর্তী শুনানি না হওয়া পর্যন্ত ভারত থেকে রোহিঙ্গাদের মিয়ানমারে পাঠানো যাবে না: সুপ্রিম কোর্ট
অক্টোবর ১৩, ২০১৭
আগামী ২১ নভেম্বর পরবর্তী শুনানি না হওয়া পর্যন্ত ভারত থেকে রোহিঙ্গাদের মিয়ানমার পাঠানো যাবে না বলে শুক্রবার মন্তব্য করেছে সুপ্রিম কোর্ট।
এ দিকে, সব রোহিঙ্গাদের মায়ানমারে ফেরত দেওয়ার যে নির্দেশ জারি করেছে ভারত সরকার, তাতে আপত্তি তুলে সুপ্রিম কোর্টে আবেদন জানাল পশ্চিমবঙ্গ শিশু অধিকার কমিশন।
তারা স্মরণ করিয়ে দিয়েছে, এ দেশে রোহিঙ্গাদের মধ্যে অন্তত ৪৪টি শিশু রয়েছে। তাদের ফেরত পাঠানোর নির্দেশ তো অমানবিক।
এর মধ্যে ২০ রোহিঙ্গা শিশু রয়েছে তাদের মায়েদের সঙ্গে বিভিন্ন সংশোধনাগারে। তাছাড়া ২৪ জন অন্যান্য সরকারি আশ্রয়স্থলে রয়েছে।
পশ্চিমবঙ্গের মুখ্যমন্ত্রী মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায় নিজেও রোহিঙ্গাদের ফেরত পাঠানোর বিরোধী। কমিশন এ-ও বলেছে, জাতিসঙ্ঘের কনভেনশন অন দ্য রাইটস অফ চাইল্ড বা according to the UN Convention n the Rights of Child,India must abide by the rules ইউএনসিআরসি-র নিয়ম ভারতকেও মেনে চলতে হবে।
তা অনুসারে শিশুদের এমন করে ফেরত পাঠানো যায় না।
https://www.voabangla.com/a/india_rohingyas_gg-10-13-17/4069285.html
Myanmar troops struck first in Rakhine
Syed Zain Al-Mahmood
Published at 01:27 AM October 16, 2017
According to the UNHCR, at least 536,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh from Rakhine, Myanmar as of October 13, 2017Syed Zakir Hossain
Army operations against Rohingya started well before ARSA attack on August 25
When a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine state triggered a humanitarian crisis that sent more than 500,000 Rohingya fleeing into Bangladesh, Aung San Suu Kyi’s government was quick to blame Rohingya insurgents.
The army was carrying out ‘clearance operations’ in response to an attack by militants of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army or ARSA on police outposts and an army base in the early hours of August 25, officials in Naypyidaw said.
Rohingya men, women and children who have fled Rakhine to escape the army crackdown, however, tell a different story.
Interviews with dozens of Rohingya families that have arrived in makeshift camps in Cox’s Bazar indicate that the army’s ‘clearance operation’ started well before August 25. Up to three weeks before the ARSA attack, soldiers and army-backed Rakhine militias started going from village to village rounding up Rohingya men, especially teachers, businessmen, and religious leaders. Many Rohingya villages were emptied with residents taking shelter in other villages.
“The soldiers came to our village fifteen days before Eid,” said Salma, a 25-year-old Rohingya woman from Buthidaung district in Rakhine. “They told everyone to squat on the ground with heads between our knees. They grabbed men by the hair and asked, ‘are you a moulvi?’”
She said moulvis, or religious leaders, and other people of influence were targeted and taken away by the troops. “The soldiers shouted that we were Bengali and would be killed if we didn’t leave the village,” she said. “We fled to a village where we thought we would be safe.”
‘They wanted to force us out’
Salma and other Rohingyas said the first army operations took place up to several weeks before Eid ul-Adha, which was observed on September 1 this year. They said troops and militias looted cattle and other property, set fire to homes and beat villagers who went to fish in the river or to work in the fields.
“They wanted to force us out,” said Nasiruddin, a Rohingya man from Maungdaw district.
Up to three weeks before the ARSA attack, soldiers and army-backed Rakhine militias started going from village to village rounding up Rohingya men, especially teachers, businessmen, and religious leaders. Many Rohingya villages were emptied with residents taking shelter in other villages
Such accounts are consistent with a new report from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) which says the Myanmar army’s “clearance operations started before August 25, and as early as the beginning of August.”
There was a coordinated plan “to drive out Rohingya villagers en masse through incitement to hatred, violence and killings, including by declaring the Rohingyas as Bengalis and illegal settlers in Myanmar,” the OHCHR report said.
The pressure applied on the Rohingya villages appears to have prompted ARSA insurgents to plan a desperate attack on security forces, security analysts say.
“They told us that we must fight back since the Myanmar government was starving us, denying our rights and killing us slowly,” a 23-year-old Rohingya man from the Maungdaw area said.
Formerly known as Harakah al-Yaqin or Faith Movement, the group came out of nowhere to stage attacks on Myanmar police posts, killing nine policemen in October 2016. That attack sparked a brutal crackdown by the Myanmar army and military-backed Buddhist militias. Even though the army’s tactics, which drew accusations of a scorched earth policy from human rights groups, forced nearly 80,000 Rohingya men women and children into neighboring Bangladesh, the alleged atrocities perpetrated by security forces served to solidify support for ARSA.
The decision to strike back came on August 24, hours after a government-appointed Advisory Commission led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan submitted its final report, recommending that the government act quickly to improve socioeconomic development in Rakhine state and take steps to resolve violence between Buddhists and the Rohingya Muslim minority. The report, however, did not mention the Rohingya by name, or criticize the army, something that angered many in the Rohingya community.
Suu Kyi’s government said that ARSA’s attacks were intended to coincide with the release of the Commission’s report.
ARSA also referred to the report, but blamed the military, claiming that army units in previous weeks had stepped up activity in order to derail any attempt to implement Mr. Annan’s recommendations, forcing the group’s hand.
For several nights before the attack, ARSA supporters took stock of the situation around the army post, noting troop strength, weapons and duty shifts.
Refugees said the group had received little actual military training. They had trained with sticks and knives but no firearms, they said.
The description was consistent with information gleaned from interviews with other refugees arriving in camps in Bangladesh which portrayed ARSA as a ragtag band of villagers armed with farm tools, axes and knives.
Suicidal mission
Myanmar experts say the group’s actions more closely resembled a loose peasant rebellion than an armed, well-commanded insurgency. Villagers carrying agricultural tools were motivated to go up against trained soldiers armed with guns and mortars.
“ARSA’s strategy appeared to be an attempt to spark a popular uprising,” said Richard Horsey, an independent political analyst in Myanmar. “The group managed to motivate the villagers to embark on an almost suicidal mission, made up of men who were willing to take enormous risks because they felt they had no other options left.”
The response by the Myanmar army was to launch a brutal “clearance operation” the next day, modeled on its infamous “Four Cuts” strategy of targeting civilian areas to deny insurgent groups food, funds, recruits and information.
Pioneered by former military dictator General Ne Win, the “Four Cuts” policy was used in the 1970s against rebel groups such as the banned Communist Party of Burma and the Karen National Liberation Army in eastern Myanmar, often with devastating consequences for civilian populations.
“The group’s leaders must have known that the attack would spark a scorched earth response by the army,” Mr. Horsey said. “It was a cynical calculation.”
The blow fell hardest on villages like Tulatoli in northern Rakhine. Rafiqa, a 20-year-old Rohingya woman who goes by one name, said she was feeding her baby on the morning of August 30 when the army swept in.
“They shot people, kicking them to see if they moved and then plunged long knives into their chest,” she said at a makeshift camp in southeast Bangladesh.
Rafiqa said soldiers dragged young women into huts to be raped and then set fire to the huts. She doesn’t know how many villagers were killed that day but says only a handful made it out alive. Her husband was among the dead.
“They seized him by the beard and cut his throat,” she said.
Rafiqa said she crawled into the bushes with her child and after the soldiers left, joined other villagers on a three-day trek to Bangladesh.
Tulatoli is among nearly 200 villages that have been targeted by the army, forcing more than 400,000 Rohingyas into neighboring Bangladesh. An estimated 3,000 people have died at the hands of the military and army-backed militias.
From a military perspective, ARSA’s decision to counterattack the army appears to have backfired. But analysts like Mr. Horsey believe they have gained from a political and propaganda standpoint and would be able to recruit from embittered Rohingyas in the refugee camps.
“They group will find many willing recruits now,” he said. “Unless there is a political process that gives the Rohingya some hope, we will see a long-drawn out conflict.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/10/16/myanmar-troops-struck-first-rakhine/
Rohingya: The descendants of ancient Arakan
Nurul Islam
Published at 06:49 PM October 12, 2017
Last updated at 07:54 PM October 14, 2017
Myanmar wasn't always such a horrible place for Muslims, far from it
Thousands of Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh to escape genocide. Hundreds have died on the journey, and thousands did not even get the opportunity for escape. The exodus of the Rohingya population has captured headlines across the world, but in Burma itself, there is still widespread disbelief and denial of the persecution faced by this population.
Of the many excuses put forward by the Burmese authorities, one common one is to deny the existence of the Rohingya community themselves, painting them as Bangladeshi migrants who have crossed the borders and laid claim to Burmese land. This piece is my research on the falseness of this statement, and an introduction to the history of the Arakan region and the multiculturalism that once infused it.
Multicultural from the start
From long before the 8th century, the area now known as North Arakan was the seat of Hindu dynasties until 788 AD, when a new dynasty, known as the Chandras, founded the city of Vaishali. This city went on to become a noted trade port, with as many as a thousand ships coming to it annually. In fact, its territory extended as far north as Chittagong, although the empire itself was ruled from modern day Munshiganj. Research suggests that the inhabitants of this city were “Indian” or descended from Aryans geneologically, with followers of Hinduism as well as a Mahayanist form of Buddhism.
A History of South East Asia by Hall details how the Burmese do not seem to have settled in Arakan until possibly as late as the tenth century AD. Pamela Gutman’s research also delves into the Rakhines, the last significant group to come to Arakan, and who appear to have been an advance guard of Burmans who began to cross the Arakan Yoma (mountain) in the ninth century. Genealogically, this population was not similar to the people of Danyawaddy or the Wethali dynasties of Arakan.
In old Burmese, the name Rakhine first appeared in inscriptions from the 12th century, and was found from the 12th to 15th centuries on stone inscriptions of Tuparon, Sagaing. However, the scripture of those early days in Arakan were similar to early Bengali script and not the language that is spoken in present day Rakhine, indicating the existence of a culture that was more similar to the one of ancient Bengal under the earlier Hindu dynasties.
However in medieval times, there was a reorientation eastward; the area fell under Burman dominance, and Arakanese people began to speak a dialect of Burmese, something that continues to this day. With Burmese influence came ties to Ceylon and the gradual prominence of Theravada Buddhism.
How the Burmese do not seem to have settled in Arakan until possibly as late as the tenth century AD
The influence of Islam
Arabs were the earliest people to travel to the east by sea, and they were in contact with Arakan even during pre-Islamic days. The Arakanese first received the message of Islam from ship wrecked Arabs in 788 AD.
This Arab presence, with the message of Islam, made up the beginnings of Muslim society in Arakan. Thus, historical research indicates that the Arakanese inhabitants of Wesali practised Hinduism, a Mahayanist form of Buddhism as well as Islam. This is even confirmed by the Burmese military regime in its official book Sasana Ronwas Htunzepho, published in 1997 – “Islam spread and was deeply rooted in Arakan since 8th century from where it further spread into interior Burma.”
In fact, the Arab influence increased to such a large extent that in Chittagong during the mid 10th century, a small Muslim kingdom was established, possibly from the east bank of the Meghna River to the Naf, ruled over by a Sultan. After the advent of Muslim rule in Bengal in 1203, the Muslim population of Arakan increased, especially during the Mrauk-U dynasty. There were large scale conversions of Buddhists to Islam from the 15th to 18th centuries.
Later, when Dutch industrialists were ordered by the king to quit Arakan, they were afraid of leaving behind the children they had had with local women – the pious Dutch Calvinists were horrified at the idea of them being brought up as Muslims.
Blurred boundaries and communal harmony
The relations between Arakan and Chittagong were based on historical, geo-political and ethnological considerations. The Chittagong region was under the Vesali kingdom of Arakan during the 6th to 8th centuries, and under the Mrauk U kingdom of Arakan in the 16th and 17th centuries, meaning these close political, cultural and commercial links have existed between these two territories for centuries.
The 15th century is a turning point in the history of Arakan; during this time, a large contingent of Muslims entered Arakan from Bengal by invitation of the ruling princes. The cause was political. Here, the history of Arakan intersects with the history of the Indian subcontinent, especially with Bengal. While Bengal and Arakan had had the same rulers as far back as the 6th century, this was the time when Muslims became an integral part of the political system in Arakan, becoming rulers, administrators and kingmakers for over 350 years.
In 1430, after nearly three decades in exile in the Bengali Royal city of Gaur, the Rakhine king Narameikhla, also known as Min Saw Mun (1404-1434), returned to Arakan at the head of a formidable force largely made up of Afghan adventurers, who swiftly overcame local oppositions and drove off the Burmans and Mons. In fact, it was the Bengal King Sultan Jalal Uddin (1415-1433 AD) of Gaur, a Muslim convert from Hinduism, who helped king Narameikhla. According to Dr Maung in The Price of Silence, “He (Narameikhla) spoke Persian, Hindi, and Bengali on the top of his mother tongue Rakhaing.”
This was the start of a new golden age for the country – a period of power and prosperity – and creation of a remarkably hybrid Buddhist-Islamic court, fusing tradition from Persia and India as well as the Buddhist worlds to the east. This cosmopolitan court became great patrons of Bengali as well as Arakanese literature. Poet Dulat Qazi, author of the first Bengali romance, and Shah Alaol, who was considered the greatest of seventeenth-century Bengali poets, were among the eminent courtiers of Arakan. Mrauk-U kings adopted Muslim titles like “Shah” alongside Buddhist names and titles, appeared in Persian-inspired dress and the conical hats of Isfahan and Mughal Delhi, minted coins and medallions inscribing kalima (Islamic declaration of faith) in Persian and Arabic scripts, and spoke several languages. Persian and Bengali languages were patronised and used as the official and court languages of Arakan.
According to Dr Ko Ko Gyi, “This was because they (Arakanese kings) not only wished to be thought of as sultans in their own rights, but also because there were Muslims in ever larger number among their subjects.”
Arakan was virtually ruled by Muslim from 1430 to 1531
This period in history is filled with examples of close relations between different communities and religions in the region, and a time when art and literature flourished. For example, the 17th century king Narapadigyi trusted and loved Magan Thakur, a noted poet of medieval Bengali literature, so much that at the hour of his death, he left his only daughter under Magan’s custody. When this princess became the principal queen of Tado Mintar, she entrusted the Chief Ministership to Magan Thakur, realising the guardianship she enjoyed in childhood.
From ministers to refugees
In those days, it was not uncommon for Muslims to occupy chief administrative posts in government. Burhanuddin, Ashraf Khan, Sri Bara Thakur were distinguished Lashkar Wazirs (Defence or War Ministers); Magan Thakur, Syyid Musa, Nabaraj Majlis were efficient Prime Ministers; and Syyid Muhammad Khan and Srimanta Sulaiman were capable ministers in Arakan. There were lots of other Muslim ministers, high civil and military officers who contributed to the growth of Islamic culture in Arakan. In fact, Arakan was depicted as an Islamic state in the map of The Times Complete History of the World, showing cultural division of Southeast Asia (distribution of major religions) in 1500.
Noted Burmese historian Col. Ba Shin, ex-chairman of the Burma Historical Commission, wrote in a research paper that “Arakan was virtually ruled by Muslim from 1430 to 1531.” From 1430 to 1645, for a period of more than two hundred years, the kingdom of Arakan followed an imperial, administrative order similar to the ones in Gaur and Delhi, with the head of officials known as Qazis. Some of them were prominent in the history of Arakan, such as Daulat Qazi, Sala Qazi, Gawa Qazi, Shuza Qazi, Abdul Karim, Muhammad Hussain, Osman, Abdul Jabbar, Abdul Gafur, Mohammed Yousuf, Rawsan Ali and Nur Mohammed etc. Gradually, a mixed Muslim society and culture developed and flourished around the capital.
By the 17th century, Muslims had entered Arakan in a big way on four different occasions; the Arab traders; two big contingents of the Muslim army in the course of restoring King Saw Mun to the Arakanese throne; the captive Muslims carried by pirates in the 16th-17th centuries, and the family retinue of Shah Shuja in 1660 A.D. Of them, the army contingents entering Arakan were numerically very great and influenced Arakanese society and culture greatly.
According to court poet Shah Aloal, “The Muslim population of Arakan consisted roughly of four categories, namely, the Bengalee, other Indian ethnicities, Afro-Asians and an indigenous population. Among these four categories, the Bengalee Muslims formed the largest part of the total Muslim population of Arakan.”
Thus, the Rohingya, with bona fide historical roots in the region, have evolved with distinct ethnic characteristics in Arakan from peoples of different ethnical backgrounds over the past several centuries. Genealogically, Rohingya are Indo-Aryan descendants. Genetically, they are an ethnic mix of Bengalis, Indians, Moghuls, Pathans, Arabs, Persians, Turks, Moors and central Asians, and have developed a separate culture and a mixed language, which is absolutely unique to the region.
The author is Chairman of the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO). He can be reached at nuromor@yahoo.com
http://www.dhakatribune.com/magazine/weekend-tribune/2017/10/12/rohingya-descendants-ancient-arakan/
