End the persecution of the Rohingya

The balance of power has no meaning. We claim ourselves as the best creature on earth but some humans are still lower than animals. Humans have written thousands of law books to maintain justice but most of them failed to be implemented.

In the recent ethnic violence of Arakan State, Buddhist Rakhine extremists in collaboration with army, Lon Htin, Nasaka, well-equipped local Rakhine militia or police have been killing, many thousands of Rohingya, devastating numerous villages with mosques, burning down thousands of their homes, and looting immeasurable property and valuables, while forcing out scores of starving Rohingya men, women and children.

It has been well documented that, since 1942, about 1.5 million Rohingyas have fled their homeland of Arakan for various destinations for their lives. On the contrary, thousands of Buddhist Rakhines known as Maghs from Bangladesh regularly settled in Arakan under state programmes, particularly under Ne Win’s BSPP (Burma Socialist Party Programme) regime. Some of those Bangladeshi Maghs are in the helm of affairs of the state. Thus, the alleged illegal immigration of Rohingyas from Bangladesh is unfounded, politically motivated and preoccupation of Islamophobia. It is a racist and xenophobic design of Rakhines to scapegoat the native Rohingyas enwrapping the infiltration of the Bengali Rakhine Maghs into Arakan. Their ultimate objective is to create an independent Rakhine Country, to which the Rohingya remain a stumbling block.

According to several human rights groups many unarmed Muslims may already have been killed in the apartheid state of Myanmar. Many young Rohingya men, picked up by government forces, have simply disappeared, and are now feared dead. Many victims – old and young, afraid of being ambushed and tortured to death by racist Rakhine extremists. Dictators of Myanmar, and Rakhine racists do not care for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The UN special rapporteur on Burma Tomas Ojea Quintana was flew to investigate the situation. After his return home the situation in Arakan State became worse; thousands of houses were burnt, and hundreds of Rohingyas killed. Nobody knows what is going on in Arakan State because there is no reliable media. Local activists estimate nearly 20,000 Rohingyas were killed so far, and more than 140,000 Rohingyas became homeless, and starving without shelter. The UNHCR and other NGOs can hardly get information out of Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Rathedaung, and Sittwe but no one knows what is going on in the other 14 townships of Arakan State; it is very difficult to get information amid communication barriers.

Rakhine racists and authority are trying to make almost all townships non-Muslim places. 

I would like to request UN, international community, OIC, EU, Asean, USA, UK, China, and Myanmar’s neighbours to do away with the policy of apartheid against the Rohingyas in Myanmar. I beg you to send independent news media to monitor the actual situation in Arakan. I humbly request you for necessary humanitarian assistance to the victims and displaced people as soon as possible. I beg you to take immediate action against Rohingya genocide.

Aung Aung Oo

Sittwe (Akyab)

Myanmar