Due Time and Patience Needed Regarding the Brawl in the Indonesian Detention Centre
 |
| (Photo: AP) |
MS Anwar
RB Analysis
April 8, 2013
The news of the clash between illegal Burmese fisherman and Rohingya Refugees in an Indonesian detention centre last week is drawing the concerns of many people from all the concerned quarters. The clash left 8 Burmese dead and 21 injured, whereas three Burmese escaped alive. They used sticks, stones, knives and whatever they found in their front to attack one another.
According to the report of Associated Press (AP) on 5th April 2013, the brawl started between a Rohingya Muslim cleric and Burmese fishermen over a heated debate on the violence against Muslims in Meikhtila as they saw the photos of destruction caused by the violence. And in accordance with a report of The Jakarta Post quoting the police investigations, Rohingya refugees were angered when a Female Refugee was sexually harassed by the fishermen.
Regarding the deadly incident, Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister, U Than Kyaw, called on Indonesian Ambassador to Myanmar, Mr. Sebastianus Sumarsono, to investigate the matter and reveal the truth, to punish those who committed crimes and to give protection to Myanmar citizens in Indonesia in his Aide Memoire to the ambassador during the meeting on 6th April 2013. Indonesian authorities are, too, reported to be on their way to investigate the matter and taking proper actions. However, still, there are abusive languages used, comments posted and hatred shown against the innocent Muslims in Myanmar on social networking sites. Doing so will not solve the problems but will exaggerate them.
Rohingyas, Kamans and other Muslims in central Myanmar have been subjected to mass murders, rapes, arbitrary arrests and tortures. Their properties are being looted and their religious properties vandalized. But hardly have we seen the sympathy from these so-called followers of Buddha or Buddhism even when 13 innocent Muslim children were burnt alive in cold blood. When the people of their own kind or from their own race were harmed, they are hurt and raging on social networking sites and abusing Muslims in general. We, hereby, are not, at all, trying to justify the killings and wrongdoings happened in the Indonesian prison but to make those racists realize that Minority Muslims in Burma, too, are the equal human beings with the same humane feelings and holds, within themselves, the same dignity as the other Burmese do.
Hereby, we have to realize that the brawl or the fight took place within the premise of a detention centre. We have to wonder how the people got the photos of the Meikhtila Violence to see and the knives to attack one another. There are responsible authorities in the detention centre. So, we have to expect an unbiased investigation and wait with patience for its final reports. Similarly, we call upon all the Indonesian authority to punish anyone who is proven guilty according to the Indonesian Laws irrespective to who he/she is.
