June 13, 2015
By Saeed
Qureshi
The international apathy and silence on the
persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar (Burma) and Bangladesh is deplorable.
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. Since the
imposition of military dictatorship in Burma in 1978( now it is a
presidential democratic government backed by military),
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 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 Bosnian 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.
It is not 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 a colossal catastrophe and 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 State House of Representatives passed the "United States House Resolution on Persecution of 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.
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