Statement on International Human Rights Day 2011
Today is the 63rd Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. People in all across the world are celebrating the International Human Rights Day. The declaration was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948, which prohibited all forms of discrimination, torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
This year thousands of people in various parts of the world decided the time had come to claim their rights. They took to the streets and demanded change. Many found their voices using the internet and instant messaging to inform, inspire and mobilize supporters to seek their basic human rights.
Unfortunately, the Rohingya, an indigenous ethnic minority of Burma’s western province “ARAKAN” are being denied to claim their rights to citizenship in Burma’s territory. These people origin there in BC 3000 years ago from the descendents Indo-Aryan (Indo-European),while the rest of Burmese people are the descendents of Mongolian.
Military backed Burmese ruler is continuously and systematically suppressing the non- Mongolian stock of people, by saying illegal aliens of the State, while the military have promoted a group of people from the Rohingyas’ statehood and sister community to implement the programs of the government in order to sweep out the Rohingyas from their ancestral homeland.
The scheme of Burmese military regime is likely total ignorance to the world that has been grossly violating legitimate rights for equality, liberty and fraternity. The military ruled As part of a highly orchestrated and criminal government strategy to deny legitimate rights to the minorities, Burmese military government is committing crime against humanity through a systematic uses of rape, arbitrary arrest, torture, extra judicial killing, forced relocation, taxation, humiliation, ethnic cleansing, religious persecution and racial discrimination against the Rohingya people as weapons of war. As a result, around 2 million Rohingya populations are in Diasporas, particularly in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Maldives, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and etc. The ruling General Thein Sien Government is forcibly exterminating the remaining Rohingya populations from the country and pushing them to become de-facto stateless persons in the region.
The Rohingya refugees in above countries are in serious condition. They are deprived of their basic rights to identity, health services, economic and socio-cultural development. They frequently face with impending danger of arrest, mandatory detention, forcible deportation, extra-judicial killing, extortion, etc. Their children are totally deprived of education, health, sanitation, etc.
Rohingya refugees in Muslim States of Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia are in dangerous fears of massive crackdown, arrests and deportation to Burma in up coming year of 2012 where their lives will be at risks. They are urgently in need of sympathetic treatments from countries their refuge.
2 Besides, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees remain undocumented in Bangladesh and Malaysia. Some of whom already spent more than half decade. These people have been approaching to the office of the UNHCR for registration but they are being denied under the discriminative policies toward Muslim refugees, while engaging non-refugees and non- Rohingya for the genuine Rohingya refugees in Malaysia.
Despite having continuous reports on human rights violations against indigenous ethnic Rohingyas in Arakan State, the Thein Sein Government is reluctant to stop it. Upon the promises of Thein Sein Government to the US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, no significant change is shown yet. Prof. Tomas Ojea Quintana, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burma clarified that it is not addressing the problems of discrimination, and the endemic situation of Rohingyas.
It may be mentioned here that that continuous deprivation and rejection of Rohingyas’ rights to citizenship and expulsion from the homeland through systematic discrimination are the root causes of the Rohingya problems, which is affecting the countries of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). These 2 regional bodies are appropriate authorities to advocate the causes of the Rohingyas to the concern International Arenas.
By this statement, we therefore appeal to the international community in conjunction with the UN Bodies, OIC, EU, ASEAN, SAARC, USA, UK, Commonwealth of Australia, Canada, Norway and etc for the following:
1. To enhance new strategy pressure on the Burmese regime to stop ongoing and systematic human rights abuses against ethnic Rohingyas and crimes against humanity;
2. To advocate to the UNHCR in Malaysia, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia for the registration entire Rohingya refugees in order to ensure their protection from maltreatment, arrests, detention and forcible deportation to the dangerous places;
3. To ensure the resettlement of Rohingya refugees through the UNHCR to third countries in order to bring an end of refugee phenomena;
4. To uphold needful step to restore the citizenship rights Rohingya and recognize them as indigenous ethnic minority of Burma;
5. To address the root causes of the Rohingya refugees, asylum seekers and boat people to the international arenas in order to find a permanent solution to the plights of Rohingyas.
Endorsed By:
1. Arakan Rohingya Organization-Japan (JARO),
2. Arakan Rohingya Ulama Council (ARUC), Malaysia
3. Ethic Rohingya Committee of Arakan (ERCA), Malaysia
4. Human Rights Association for Rohingya (HURAR), Arakan –Burma
5. Myanmar Muslim Council (MMC), KSA
6. National Democratic Party for Human Rights (NDPHR) exile, USA (HQ)
7. National Democratic Party for Human Rights (NDPHR) exile, SEA Regional Office
8. Rohingya Arakanese Refugee Committee (RARC), Malaysia
9. Rohingya Youth Development Forum (RYDF) Arakan-Burma
10. World Rohingya Congress (WRC), USA
For further information, please contact:
1- Kyaw Soe Aung (Tel: 414-7364273)
2- Mohammad Sadek (Tel: 60 16-3094599)
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