Tag: Burma

Rohingya–Another Forgotten People

I have recently wrote a post about the Muslim minority in China, the Uighurs.

They are not alone in this world of mistreatment….there is the Rohingya Muslim minority of Myanmar(Burma)…..probably most Americans are ignorant about the plight of these people….and that is where the Old Professor comes in…..

The Rohingya are an ethnic group, the majority of whom are Muslim, who have lived for centuries in the majority Buddhist Myanmar. Currently, there are about 1.1 million Rohingya in the Southeast Asian country.

The Rohingya speak Rohingya or Ruaingga, a dialect that is distinct to others spoken throughout Myanmar. They are not considered one of the country’s 135 official ethnic groups and have been denied citizenship in Myanmar since 1982, which has effectively rendered them stateless.

Nearly all of the Rohingya in Myanmar live in the western coastal state of Rakhine and are not allowed to leave without government permission. It is one the poorest states in the country, with ghetto-like camps and a lack of basic services and opportunities.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/08/rohingya-muslims-170831065142812.html

I have written about the plight of these people…..some 3 years ago…..https://lobotero.com/2017/11/20/the-rohingya-search-for-a-home/

The Rohinyga have fled to Bangledesh and are now in camps in a country that hates them….

The exodus began on 25 August 2017 after Rohingya Arsa militants launched deadly attacks on more than 30 police posts.

Rohingyas arriving in Bangladesh said they fled after troops, backed by local Buddhist mobs, responded by burning their villages and attacking and killing civilians.

At least 6,700 Rohingya, including at least 730 children under the age of five, were killed in the month after the violence broke out, according to medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Amnesty International says the Myanmar military also raped and abused Rohingya women and girls

The government, which puts the number of dead at 400, claims that “clearance operations” against the militants ended on 5 September, but BBC correspondents have seen evidence that they continued after that date.

At least 288 villages were partially or totally destroyed by fire in northern Rakhine state after August 2017, according to analysis of satellite imagery by Human Rights Watch.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41566561

AS usual I will try to help my readers that have an aversion to the printed word with a couple of short videos…..

And for those that need the video crisis is explained…..

The Rohingyas are yet another minority that deserves more attention than they are given.

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Burma–WTF?

In case my reader is not aware of the religious persecution that is happening in Myanmar (Burma) then maybe you should read my original post……

https://lobotero.com/2017/11/20/the-rohingya-search-for-a-home/

The Pope has made a trip to  Burma to see for himself what is happening….and the head of the Burmese army told the Pope….nothing to see here……

Myanmar’s army chief Min Aung Hlaing said he told Pope Francis his country had “no religious discrimination” after the pair met late Monday, in a papal visit framed by the exodus of the Rohingya Muslim minority.

“Myanmar has no religious discrimination at all,” he said in a Facebook post by his office. “Likewise our military too… (it) performs for the peace and stability of the country.”

The Tatmadaw, as his army is known, has been accused by the UN and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson of conducting a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” by driving 620,000 Rohingya from western Myanmar into Bangladesh since August.

Seriously?  Nothing to see?

Then why has honors given to the nation’s “democracy” candidate been rescinded if nothing is happening?

Aung San Suu Kyi has been stripped of the “Freedom of Oxford” award by the city’s council, over her failure to speak out on abuses against Myanmar’s Rohingya.

In a unanimous decision on Monday evening, Oxford City Council voted to strip the Burmese State Counsellor of the award she received in 1997 and collected personally in 2012, after 15 years under house arrest.

“It was right to give the Freedom of the City to Aung San Suu Kyi in 1997 in recognition of her long struggle for democracy and her personal links to Oxford,” the cross-party motion read.

But, according to the motion, she had not responded to the council’s letter calling on her to “do whatever she can to stop the ethnic cleansing in her country”.

(AJE.com)

Even a clueless dolt like SecState Tillerson has issued a statement…..

I visited Naypyitaw, Burma on November 15, where I met separately with State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. I reaffirmed the United States’ strong commitment to Burma’s successful democratic transition as the elected government strives to implement reforms, bring peace and reconciliation to the nation, and resolve a devastating crisis in Rakhine State. Our first priority is to relieve the intolerable suffering faced by so many. In response to the dire situation, I announced last week an additional $47 million in humanitarian assistance for those affected by the Rakhine State crisis, bringing the total amount spent in response to this crisis to more than $87 million since August of this year.

Burma’s response to this crisis is vital to determining the success of its transition to a more democratic society. As I said in Naypyitaw, the key test of any democracy is how it treats its most vulnerable and marginalized populations, such as the ethnic Rohingya and other minority populations. Burma’s government and security forces must respect the human rights of all persons within its borders, and hold accountable those who fail to do so.

https://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2017/11/275848.htm

So now we wait to see just what the beacon of democracy, the US, will do to rectify this situation.

MY guess is our Fearless Leader will do NOTHING to bring this situation to a close….after all these people are Muslims and we know what he thinks of Muslims now don’t we?

The Rohingya Search For A Home

Who?

A little told saga here in the US is the saga of the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar (Burma) and their plight along the way…….

First of all the Rohingya are Muslims in a Buddhist country that are not wanted and suffer horrific acts upon them and are being forced out of their country simply because of religion.  To me that is tacky and uncouth…..

The BBC does an excellent job explaining the situation in Myanmar (Burma)…….

The plight of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people is said to be the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis.

Risking death by sea or on foot, more than half a million have fled the destruction of their homes and persecution in the northern Rakhine province of Myanmar (Burma) for neighbouring Bangladesh since August 2017.

The United Nations described the military offensive in Rakhine, which provoked the exodus, as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

Myanmar’s military says it is fighting Rohingya militants and denies targeting civilians.

Read more of the plight of these people…….

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41566561

The US is well aware of the plight of the Rohingya and is sending aid to Myanmar (Burma)…..this is a statement about that aid from the State department……

The United States supports a peaceful, prosperous, and democratic Burma that respects the human rights of all its people. We are working to immediately address the human rights and humanitarian crisis in Rakhine State, strengthen Burma’s transition to democracy, expand economic opportunity, improve health and resilience of vulnerable populations, further national reconciliation, empower local communities and civil society, and strengthen respect for and protection of human rights and religious freedom.

https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2017/11/275606.htm

The US has sent $151 million in aid to Burma in the past….keep that in mind for my next piece of info…..

“We want to see Myanmar succeed,” he told reporters at a joint press briefing alongside Suu Kyi. “You can’t just impose sanctions and say therefore the crisis is over.”

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was speaking after a one-day stop in Naypyidaw, as global outrage builds over impunity for a military accused of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya.

His comments came as de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi hit back at accusations that she has been silent over the refugee crisis, saying she has focused instead on speech that avoids inflaming sectarian tensions.

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/content/tillerson-sanctions-against-myanmar-will-not-solve-rohinyga-crisis

What utter bullshit from an a/hole that has no idea what he is doing…..he is an incompetent fool…..

You are telling me that sanctions and loss of US aid would not have an effect?

To that I say…BULLSHIT!

Something has to be done to help these people in their struggle….so try sanctions….bet we will get a response.  Who will protect the Rohingya?

More on the situation……

Kuala Lumpur – Rohingya refugees fleeing the recent outbreak of violence in Myanmar have begun arriving in Malaysia, amid warnings that this could mark the start of a dangerous new wave of people smuggling.

NGOs say traffickers are targeting Rohingya in Myanmar and those in refugee camps in Bangladesh, where conditions are dire, as this 101 East film shows.

https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2017/rohingya-exodus/index.html

My country needs to stand up for the principles it was founded on……if we cannot do that then all is truly lost.

I Am So Disappointed!

We hear the religious jerk wads railing against one religion or another…..Muslim on Christians, Jews on Muslims, Christians on other Christains….they call they names and some even incite violence toward other religions…….and through all this bullsh*t there is one shining light…..and that light is the sereneness of Buddhism……a religion that teaches inner peace and love…….a religion that I could depend on to be above the typical religious crap……

My day went straight to Hell after reading an article in the UK’s The Guardian………

His name is Wirathu, he calls himself the “Burmese Bin Laden” and he is a Buddhist monk who is stoking religious hatred across Burma.

The saffron-robed 45-year-old regularly shares his hate-filled rants through DVD and social media, in which he warns against Muslims who “target innocent young Burmese girls and rape them”, and “indulge in cronyism”.

To ears untrained in the Burmese language, his sermons seem steady and calm – almost trance-like – with Wirathu rocking back and forth, eyes downcast. Translate his softly spoken words, however, and it becomes clear how his paranoia and fear, muddled with racist stereotypes and unfounded rumours, have helped to incite violence and spread misinformation in a nation still stumbling towards democracy.

“We are being raped in every town, being sexually harassed in every town, being ganged up on and bullied in every town,” Wirathu recently told the Guardian, speaking from the Masoeyein monastery in Mandalay where he is based.

“In every town, there is a crude and savage Muslim majority.”

Wirathu says part of his concern with Islam is that Buddhist women have been converted by force and then killed for failing to follow Islamic rules. He also believes the halal way of killing cattle “allows familiarity with blood and could escalate to the level where it threatens world peace”.

Wirathu openly blames Muslims for instigating the recent violence. A minority population that makes up just 5% of the nation’s total, Wirathu says Burma’s Muslims are being financed by Middle Eastern forces: “The local Muslims are crude and savage because the extremists are pulling the strings, providing them with financial, military and technical power,” he said.

Analysts warn that Wirathu’s seeming freedom to preach as he pleases – in addition to his influence over other monks, who have also started preaching against Islam – should be taken as a wake-up call to the rest of the world. “If a similar hate movement like Burma’s ‘969’ movement – which spreads hate speech and hate symbols – [existed] specifically against, say, the Jews in Europe, no European government would tolerate it,” Burmese activist and London School of Economics visiting fellow Maung Zarni said.

In a chilling sermon last month, Wirathu warned that the “population explosion” of Burma’s Muslims could mean only one thing: “They will capture our country in the end.”

And just like his namesake, this “Burmese Bin Laden” made a brazen call to arms: “Once we [have] won this battle, we will move on to other Muslim targets.”

Of all the world’s religions I thought Buddhism was above this sort of thing…..I guess there is NO religion that is above these petty little issues….but this from a Buddhist monk?