Time to Move against the Oppressors—Burmese Regime and Buddhist Extremists

Ibrahim Shah

RB Article

June 26, 2013

Among the several Burmese invasions of Arakan, there were three major attacks recorded. The first attack on Arakan was carried out by Anawrahta in 1044 CE followed by the attacks by Min Khaung Yaza in 1406 CE and Bodaw Maung Wai in 1784 CE respectively.

Bodaw, immediately after his invasion, vandalized historic—temples, shrines, mosques, monuments, and libraries. Muslim custodians of the royal palace were massacred as well. Eventually, he took away the famous Buddhist statue, Mahamuni.

Since then, racial and religious hatred against Rohingyas have been being seeded in the hearts of its majority Buddhists by the different Burmese regimes in her history for strategic and political purposes. Subsequently, institutionalized discrimination and systematic oppression against Rohingya have been being implemented. 

In 1942, some Rakhine extremists of Burman origin led by Thakin leaders massacred more than 100,000 Rohingyas, dreadfully eradicated 307 Rohingya quarters in Arakan and forced more 80,000 Rohingyas to flee to Chittagong.

Furthermore, after Ne Win had staged a coup d’état in 1962, he, consistently, imposed double standard and illegal laws and carried out brutal operations targeting only Rohingyas. Of them, the most notorious King Dragon Operation (NagaMin) was carried out in 1978. Due to mass arrests of young and old alike, tortures, rapes and killings in detention centers, more than 300,000 Rohingya had, again, to flee to Bangladesh.

For perpetual ruthless attempts of Burmese authorities to exterminate Rohingya community, they enacted a discriminatory Act called 1982 citizenship law against Rohingyas to strip them off both their ethnic identity and their national identity. Consequently, it undocumented them from their ethnic status and the bigots and extremists in Burma started accusing Rohingyas to be illegal immigrants brought into Burma by the British colonialists.

To Rohingyas’ misfortune, Rohingyas had not been spared from the brutalities of Burmese tyrannical rulers even until 1990. During another terrible operation, Operation Pyi Thaya, in 1991-199, some 300,000 Rohingyas were forced to flee desperately. Those who didn’t flee have been facing oppressions, encountering tortures, gangbang in detention centers and their homes and religious buildings have been being vandalized. Their lands are being confiscated; there have been confinements on their marriage, education, movement, livelihoods, and medical treatments and so on.

The whole Rohingya community would have been exterminated had it been not sometimes due to miscarriage of perpetuation of Rohingya ethnic cleansing by Burmese Hitlerite Regime. The pseudo civilian government led by President Thein Sein, some Ultra-nationalist political figures, Extremist Buddhist monks, Rakhine terrorists chaired by Vet Aye Maung of Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP), some 88 generation leaders conspired to strip off Rohingya rights, to trigger the violence by intentionally killing ten Muslim pilgrims through a mob attack in Taungup Township in June 2012 and to exterminate Rohingyas in a vast momentum.

The attacks against Muslims spread countrywide and Muslims nowadays face several varieties of atrocities—slaughters, vandalization of Mosques and homes, threats to flee to uncertain destinations, arbitrary arrests, tortures to death in detention centers, abduction of under-aged girls and women, assaults against Rohingya women in every check-point, starvations, confinements in concentration camps, and are subjected to – forced labor , arbitrary land seizure, forced displacement, forced Bengalization and forced birth control, and endure excessive taxes and extortions and so on.

“Eventually, more than 140,000 Rohingyas have become IDPs (internally displaced people) and are kept in concentrated camps inhumanely. The UN Rapporteur Quintana reported during his sixth visit to Burma that the camps of those Rohingya IDPs are more like prisons.”

What a classic mockery it is! Although all of the dictatorial officials assured and asserted that the perpetrators of the violence will be charged for their respective crimes, yet the perpetrators are rather hastily moving against the Muslims everywhere. Therefore, the government assurance for justice is nothing but an attempt to distract international concern in order to mask the perpetrators from international scrutiny. Hence, hereby, I would like to quote Burma under Thein Sein Hitlerite regime as—Burma preaches peace and practices discrimination.

Later, due to the caustic condemnations of International bodies, the genocidal Burmese regime portrayed the ethnocide of Rohingyas as Buddhist Nationalism so as to mask the crimes against humanity committed by the state-sponsored Buddhist vigilantes. (E.g. they considerably prefer using the term ‘national security’ rather than ‘human rights’.) With full involvement of the Government, a 969 Neo-Nazi Buddhist nationalist movement led by pseudo monk Wirathu who was once imprisoned in 2003 for his role in stirring religious clashes in Mandalay has been formed. Then, they are carrying out violence against Muslims in a vast momentum mostly in Muslim quarters. 

“Article 51 of the UN charter states —the inherent right of collective or individual self-defense if an armed attack occurs—. Despite being well-evident and open Genocide against Rohingyas and other Burmese Muslims, UN is still shockingly silent and inactive. Without the interventions of UN in Darfur and East Timor conflicts, it would be impossible for them to achieve freedom. Therefore, UN must help unarmed Rohingyas who have long been persecuted by Burmese regime.”

Here are some quotations about peace, which may give light into your hearts.

If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner— Nelson Mandela. 

It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it— Eleanor Roosevelt. 

Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or everything. If you are a man take it— Malcolm X.

Accordingly, without the oppressed Rohingyas’ own physical and psychological movements, to dream of liberty is just like to dream to erect a sand wall with sand bricks.