Myanmar Army Trying to Incite Violence Between Rohingya and Rakhine

Joint statement
Date:  31st October 2020  

We, the undersigned Rohingya organisations, are increasingly worried about the propaganda war being stepped up by the Myanmar Army, the Tatmadaw, in Rakhine State and online. The Tatmadaw is trying to instigate more conflicts between Rohingya and Rakhine people, and destroying peaceful co-existence.

During the last week, disturbing developments such as instigation to sow new discord between Rohingya and Rakhine people have taken place both in Rakhine State and online. In Rakhine State, the Tatmadaw is trying to destabilize relationship between two communities. This information has come from multiple, reliable sources, and it puts the life of the 600,000 remaining Rohingya in Rakhine State in grave danger, as well as all the Rakhine living there.

Tun Khin, President of BROUK, has also come under attack through fake Facebook accounts during the last few days. Several accounts with Tun Khin’s name and photo have been published, where Tun Khin is portrayed as levelling accusations at the commander-in-chief of the Arakan Army, including taking funds from international bodies and governments. These posts have been watched tens of thousands of times shared through Opera Mini, a Burmese military video channel.

We, as Rohingya, want peaceful, co-existence with Rakhine people in Arakan State. The show of solidarity between Rohingya and Rakhine people, who are both suffering under the Tatmadaw is clearly making the Tatmadaw nervous and they are trying to instil discord between our two people. The Tatmadaw is trying to portray a false narrative to Rakhine people about our leaders and the Rohingya.

The international community needs to bring this up urgently with the Burmese government.

These latest incidents show that the international community also needs to step up its efforts for justice for the Rohingya, and all groups in Myanmar suffering under the Tatmadaw. It is not enough for international governments, just to call on Myanmar to end all abuses against civilians. It must be reinforced by action.

More states should follow the lead of Canada and the Netherlands and join The Gambia’s case at the ICJ, demonstrating in a practical way international support for justice.

Every UN member should also explore opening cases in their own jurisdictions under the principle of Universal Jurisdiction.

Members of the UN Security Council should also support a full referral of the situation in Myanmar to the ICC, which will guarantee a comprehensive investigation of the full range of the Tatmadaw’s crimes against all ethnic people, not just some crimes against the Rohingya, as is the case with the current investigation.

The genocide against the Rohingya is ongoing, and the Rakhine people are being subjected to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The international community has been talking for years about the need for reconciliation and greater understanding between communities in Rakhine State, but providing little practical support for such efforts. Now that grass-roots organisations, without international support, have nevertheless begun to make progress in this area, the Tatmadaw is desperate to undermine it.

The only price the Tatmadaw has paid for genocide of the Rohingya has been a small number of soldiers being banned from enjoying holidays in the EU and USA. The international community has taken no action at all in response to the military onslaught against Rakhine people and killing of Rakhine civilians.

We call on all countries to support and defend the tentative steps of trust building which have been taking place between Rohingya, Rakhine and other communities in Rakhine State, and make public statements, ensuring that communities are aware of the Tatmadaw dirty tricks and campaigns, deterring them from further acts of inciting violence.

We call on all countries to implement all of the recommendations of the Independent International United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar.

 

Signatories -

1.             Arakan Rohingya Development Association - Australia

2.             Australian Burmese Rohingya Organisation

3.             British Rohingya Community in UK

4.             Burmese Rohingya Association in Queensland

5.             Burmese Rohingya Association Japan (BRAJ)

6.             Burmese Rohingya Community Australia (BRCA)

7.             Burmese Rohingya Community in Denmark

8.             Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK)

9.             Canadian Burmese Rohingya Organisation

10.         Canadian Rohingya Development Initiative

11.         European Rohingya Council (ERC)

12.         Free Rohingya Coalition (FRC)

13.         Los Angeles Rohingya Association 

14.         Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation in Malaysia

15.         Rohingya Action Ireland

16.         Rohingya American Society

17.         Rohingya Arakanese Refugee Committee

18.         Rohingya Association of Canada

19.         Rohingya Community in Norway

20.         Rohingya Community in Netherlands

21.         Rohingya Culture Centre Chicago

22.         Rohingya Human rights initiative

23.         Rohingya Human Rights Network (Canada)

24.         Rohingya Refugee Network

25.         Rohingya Society Malaysia

26.         Rohingya Organisation Norway

27.         Rohingya Women Development Network (RDWN)

28.         Rohingya Women Welfare Association (RWWS)

29.         Swedish Rohingya Association

 

For more information, please contact:

Tun Khin               +44 7888714866

Nay San Lwin       +49 17662139138

Dr Hla Kyaw         +31 652358202

Disparaging Prophet Muhammad not "free expression"

The General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) continues to follow up the repercussions of the abusive cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, salla allahu alayhi wa-sallam (SAWS) (peace be upon him) and strongly condemns such an unjustified provocation of Muslim feelings under the pretext of freedom of expression.

The OIC's General Secretariat reiterates its assertion that defamation of the Messengers (peace be upon them) is unacceptable under any pretext, noting in this context the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in October 2018. This ruling, which stipulated that disparagement of Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) is not freedom of expression, upheld another domestic judgment issued by an Austrian court against an Austrian woman convicted for insulting Prophet Muhammad (SAWS).

On its part, the General Secretariat renews its rejection of any attempt to render Islam the objective correlative of terrorism. It condemns every terrorist act, regardless of its perpetrator, and calls for intellectual and cultural freedom to be a beacon for respect, tolerance, and peace, and reject all practices and actions that generate hatred, violence, and extremism and disturbs the values of coexistence and mutual respect among the peoples of the world.

It is noteworthy that on October 23, 2020, the OIC's General Secretariat issued a statement expressing its disappointment at the official political rhetoric of some French officials that undermines French-Islamic relations and fuels feelings of hatred for narrow-minded partisan political gains. The statement added that the OIC would continue to condemn the disparagement of all Messengers of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Many OIC Member States issued statements in support of that position.

Ivanka and Jared by Harriet Alexander

Ivanka and Jared Kushner were waiting for Marissa Velez Kraxberger inside Trump Tower.

It was the summer of 2015 and Ms Kraxberger, chief marketing and creative officer for Ms Trump’s clothing and accessories brand, was not happy.

ood and watched, at her boss’s request, as Donald Trump descended the escalator in the gaudy lobby of Trump Tower on 16 June, deriding Mexicans as “rapists” and declaring the US “a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems”.

His candidacy for the presidency surprised them all: Ms Trump quickly summoned Ms Kraxberger to record a video which she posted on social media, proclaiming her joy at her father’s announcement.

“After his speech, we went back upstairs,” Ms Kraxberger told The Independent. “She asked what I thought. I said to her: ‘you spoke very eloquently, but I disagree with everything your father said.’

“I didn’t believe at all in what her father stood for. And I didn’t want to get involved.”

To read the entire article, click here: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/ivanka-trump-jared-kushner-polls-us-election-result-win-b1404752.html

Right to punish French

Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has said social media platforms Twitter and Facebook “misrepresented” what he was saying, after they deleted part of a blog post in which he wrote Muslims had “a right to be angry and kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past” after the comments triggered an outcry.

In a new blog post, Mahathir said he was “disgusted with attempts to misrepresent and take out of context” what he had written, saying that that section of the post needed to be read with the subsequent paragraph in which he wrote: “But by and large, the Muslims have not applied the ‘eye for an eye’ law. Muslims don’t. The French shouldn’t.”

The two sections appeared as separate tweets on Twitter, where they were posted as a thread. Their publication coincided with Thursday’s knife attack at a Nice church in which three people were killed.

Separately, the Malaysian government said it “strongly condemned” the Nice attack.

In a statement on Friday it said the incident was a reminder of the “urgent need for a concerted effort to eliminate acts and threats of terrorism”.

It added that the international community should stand together to promote “mutual respect, and harmonious and peaceful coexistence while opposing persecution, provocation, prejudices, as well as religious or racial hatred.”

‘Explain and defend’

Mahathir, 95, who resigned from his second stint in the job in March and is a respected leader in the Muslim world, said he believed in freedom of expression but it should not be used to insult others.

He reiterated that point on Friday.

“There is nothing I can do with FB and Twitter’s decision to remove my posting,” he wrote, adding that he had tried to “explain and defend” his position.

“That is what freedom of speech is to them,” he wrote. “On the one hand, they defended those who chose to display offending caricatures and expect all Muslims to swallow it in the name of freedom of speech and expression. On the other they deleted deliberately that Muslims had never sought revenge for the injustice against them in the past.”

His initial posting – entitled RESPECT OTHERS – was in relation to the French reaction to the brutal killing of Samuel Paty, a teacher who showed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a discussion in a civics class.

Twitter initially flagged the tweet as “glorifying violence” and later removed that section from the thread.

Mahathir also said that French President Emmanuel Macron was “not showing that he is civilised”, adding he was “very primitive”.

“The French should teach their people to respect other people’s feelings,” he said.

 

Mahathir’s original posting prompted Cedric O, a junior minister with responsibility for the digital industry and communications, to urge the platform to suspend Mahathir’s account.

If it did not do so, the platform would be an “accomplice to a formal call for murder,” he said.

The United States Embassy in Kuala Lumpur also criticised Mahathir’s comments. “I strongly disagree with Tun Dr Mahathir’s statement,” US Ambassador Kamala Shirin Lakhdir wrote on Twitter, using the former prime minister’s title. “Freedom of expression is a right, calling for violence is not.”

Leaders of several Muslim-majority countries have also condemned remarks by French officials, including Macron, defending depictions of the Prophet Muhammad. The caricatures are seen as blasphemous by Muslims.

French officials have said Paty’s murder by an 18-year-old of Chechen origin was an attack on France’s core value of freedom of expression and defended the right to publish the cartoons. Macron has also said he would redouble efforts to stop conservative Islamic beliefs subverting French values.

Carter Center Issues Second Statement on Myanmar’s Preelection Environment

In a second preelection statement released today, The Carter Center noted that while COVID-19 related restrictions continue to impact the activities of the election administration, political parties, candidates, and observers, the election process remains broadly on course for voting to take place on Nov. 8.

The update of the voter roll is complete, and out-of-country voting has concluded, advance voting is underway, and the Union Election Commission is carrying out voter education and training for poll workers despite the major operational challenges posed by the pandemic.

However, the postponement and cancellation of elections in many constituencies on security grounds has not been a transparent process. This has caused a number of political parties to question the motivation for some of the decisions taken. Estimates are that some 1.4 million voters will be disenfranchised, including a majority of voters in Rakhine State.

The number of candidates has decreased significantly, partly because additional individual candidacies have been revoked but largely because of the dissolution of the Union Democratic Party. Although women’s participation as candidates has increased since 2010, the percentage remains low at 16%.

In addition, the collection and publication of candidates' religious affiliation and ethnic identity has been contentious, raising questions about compliance with national right-to-privacy laws and applicable international principles.

Candidates and parties are adapting to COVID-19 restrictions in their election campaigns, with social media playing a prominent role for many parties. The campaign period has been mostly peaceful thus far, although some interparty clashes and security incidents have taken place. Online partisan attacks frequently include hate speech against ethnic and religious minorities.

The Carter Center is preparing to deploy teams of observers to most states and regions of the country to observe the end of the campaign period and voting, counting, and tabulation of results. It plans to issue a preliminary statement of findings and conclusions shortly after election day.

The Center is observing the elections in Myanmar in accordance with the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation and will assess the electoral process based on Myanmar’s national legislation and its international and regional obligations for democratic elections.

Two French women charged over racist stabbing of veiled Muslims

Macron epitomizes bigotry. He closed down at least 70 masjid in France while he talks about openness. He is a hypocrite of worst kind. When Muslims are attacked and killed by hateful French people and their anti-Muslim government, you won't hear the news unless someone mentions such in social media. But when a Muslim immigrant reacts to daily abuse and bigotry he/she sees around, his/her act becomes headline news. Consider the story below which did not make headlines in the western world until several days later.

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Two women accused of stabbing two other women wearing Muslim headscarves near the Eiffel Tower in Paris and trying to rip off their veils have been charged with assault and racist slurs, legal sources told AFP news agency on Thursday.

The case comes amid heightened racial tensions following the killing last week of a French teacher who had shown his pupils caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. The women accused over the assault were drunk when they came across a group of Muslim women and children in the Champ de Mars park at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

The Muslim family complained about the other women’s dog, saying they felt threatened by it. In the ensuing argument, one of the women with the dog pulled a knife and stabbed two of the veiled women, aged 19 and 40.

The 40-year-old woman sustained six stab wounds and is being treated in hospital for a perforated lung. The younger victim was stabbed three times and was also treated in hospital but has since been discharged.

The main suspect has been placed in preventive custody while her friend has been released on bail, sources close to the investigation said.

The pair were charged late Wednesday with assault aggravated by the use of a weapon, drunkenness, racial insults and the fact that they acted together.

But the victims’ lawyer Arie Alimi has called for the women to face stiffer charges, accusing them of attempted murder linked to the victims’ race or religion.

He said one of the women specifically took issue with the headscarves worn by several women in the Muslim family, referring to it as “that thing you have on your head”.

The two suspects deny making racial insults.

Their lawyer Bernard Solitude warned against “blowing this story out of proportion” and said it was important to “stick to the facts: a row which degenerated after insults were made”.

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Two Muslim women were “stabbed repeatedly” and called “dirty Arabs” under the Eiffel Tower amid rising tensions in France following the beheading of a teacher, according to reports.

The victims — identified only by their first names, Kenza and Amel — told French media they were attacked by two other women after asking the ladies to control their dogs as they walked by the Paris landmark.

Their screams were caught on a video going viral in the French capital, Metro UK said.

Kenza was stabbed six times and ended up in a local hospital with a punctured lung, while Amel needed surgery for stab wounds on her hands, local reports said.

The incident caused a furore on social media with some people accusing the French media of remaining silent about an attack they saw as clearly anti-Muslim.

The main suspect has been placed in preventive custody while her friend has been released on bail, sources close to the investigation said.

The pair were charged late Wednesday with assault aggravated by the use of a weapon, drunkenness, racial insults and the fact that they acted together.

But the victims' lawyer Arie Alimi has called for the women to face stiffer charges, accusing them of attempted murder linked to the victims' race or religion. 

Alimi accused the French authorities -- which have closed a mosque on the outskirts of Paris and moved to shut down several Muslim groups in the aftermath of the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty by an 18-year-old Chechen radical -- of a "witch hunt".

He argued it had the effect of helping jihadists "reach their goal, which is the stigmatising of Muslims leading to more individuals becoming radicalised".