Petition drive for the Rohingya people

A petition drive by Peter Martin for helping the Rohingya people can be signed here. It urges U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to hear the voices of Americans concerned for the Rohingya.  

"Myanmar should: allow international humanitarian organizations immediate access to Rohingyan populations, allow independent internationally-led  inquiries into recent violence & reports of military abuses, increase civil protection for the Rohingya to eliminate potential for brutality, immediately cease all military actions inconsisitent with human rights standards, and take serious strides towards granting citizenship and equal rights to the Rohingya, in keeping with the principles of true democracy."

Please, sign it and spread the message.

You can also view the you tube video presentation on this forgotten people of our time by clicking here.

An Appeal to Mr. Nelson Mandela of South Africa

To: 

Mr. Nelson Mandela
South Africa

Dear Mr. Mandela,

When I was a graduate student at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA nearly three decades ago, I had the distinct privilege of listening to Bishop Tutu closely and to get more energized than ever before to rally and advocate for divestment out of apartheid South Africa, which by then had transcended into 'our' cause to end once and for all time the evil of the apartheid system. On July 4, 1993 when you visited Philadelphia to receive the Philadelphia Liberty Medal and delivered your speech at the Independence Hall, my wife and I were in the audience. It was a moment which we two shall always cherish. I remember how in the rush of the event I had parked my car in an unsafe parking lot only to find later that someone had tampered with the keyhole. But it was no grief for we two had seen and heard you, and no personal loss of ours was going to put a dent in that privilege. 

Now some twenty years have passed by, and by the grace of God, South Africa is no longer cursed with that apartheid system. It has been able to uproot it from its soil, thanks to your uncompromising leadership and tremendous sacrifice made by you and many others. In a sense, we did it together. It was all our victory, our celebration, our joy!

While we celebrate that victory, I am horrified by the genocidal campaign to exterminate the Rohingyas of the Arakan (Rakhine) state of Myanmar (Burma). It has become a national project in Myanmar, actively practiced by the government of Myanmar and widely supported by its Buddhist majority including ultra-racist monks who want to make the multi-ethnic and multi-religious hybrid state of states into a purely mono-racial Buddhist country minus Christians, Muslims, animists and Hindus.

Because of their race, color and religion the Rohingya people are denied each of the 30 rights guaranteed under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Buddhist-majority Myanmar. In spite of the fact that they have maintained a continuous connectivity to the soil of Arakan since time immemorial (before even the Tibeto-Burmans settled in what is today called Burma or Myanmar), they are declared stateless since the 1982 Burma Citizenship Law was passed under military dictator Ne Win. And as such, they are not welcome anywhere. Nearly half the population - numbering approximately 1.5 million -- now lives as unwanted refugees in places like Bangladesh, Thailand, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Malaysia. The remainder - estimated at close to 2 million - has no right of movement, employment, education, marriage, reproduction, health, security or anything we take for granted - inside Myanmar. They have faced a series of pogroms (by my count - at least two dozens) orchestrated by the regime (since the early 1960s), which uses all the text book cases for ethnic cleansing – namely, massacre, arson, slave labor, forced eviction including rape as a weapon of war - to push out the Rohingya one way or another. 

In the latest pogrom which started on June 3 of this year  with the lynching death of ten Burmese Muslims by a Rakhine mob of couple of hundreds while the government security forces did nothing to stop, as of now more than a hundred thousand Rohingyas have been internally displaced, thousands killed jointly by the government forces and Rakhine ultra-nationalist vigilantes, tens of thousands of homes burned, all Rohingya owned businesses looted and/or gutted, hundreds of mosques, madrasas and schools burned or demolished, and hundreds of women have been raped. Even infants have been brutally slaughtered by the criminal elements within the Rakhine population, all with direct and tacit approval of the local and central government. 

As the latest humanitarian crisis has once again demonstrated the Rohingya people need help from world conscience, especially from a person of your stature to advocate for an end to their misery. Sir, I have studied history of persecuted people for decades, and never have I come across a people that are more persecuted than this unfortunate Rohingya. They need help so that they don't become an extinct people like the Tasmanians of New Zealand. As such, I beg you to speak out in favor of the Rohingya people so that their tragedy stops, and that they are allowed to live as equals in our time. The Myanmar government must be forced to repeal or amend the 1982 Citizenship Law thus allowing the Rohingya people integrated as equal citizens with all rights. Knowing the mastery of the Myanmar regime to play the cat-and-mouse game, the world community should be stopped from investing in Myanmar unless the rights of the persecuted minorities like the Rohingya are restored fully. 

Sir, like Rachel Corrie, who was martyred in 2003 by an Israeli bulldozer, I feel like I am witnessing an insidious genocide of the Rohingya people while the powerful nations of the earth that run the UNSC have done nothing to stop this greatest crime of our time before it is too late. Please, let me not question my fundamental belief in goodness of human nature. 

I am aware of the fact that you are in frail health, and my prayer is for your good health and spirit, still I believe that your moral support for the Rohingya cause can mean a lot to our struggle towards restoration of their fundamental rights. I am a firm believer that with your support we can change the world and make it a better place for all of us and our posterity. 

Thank you for reading this letter.

An Appeal to Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu

To:  Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu
South Africa   

Dear Archbishop Tutu,

Salam - peace be upon you. 

When I was a graduate student at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA nearly three decades ago, you came to our campus to talk about the need of divestment from apartheid South Africa. I was one of those who had the distinct privilege of listening to you closely and to get more energized than ever before to advocate for your cause, which by then had transcended into 'our' cause to end once and for all time the evil of the apartheid system.

Now some thirty years have passed by, and by the grace of God, South Africa is no longer cursed with that apartheid system. It has been able to uproot it from its soil, thanks to your leadership and tremendous sacrifice you and others including Nelson Mandela had made to this desired end. 

While we celebrate that victory, I am horrified by the genocidal campaign to exterminate the Rohingyas of the Arakan (Rakhine) state of Myanmar (Burma). It has become a national project in Myanmar, actively practiced by the government of Myanmar and widely supported by its Buddhist majority including ultra-racist monks who want to make the multi-ethnic and multi-religious hybrid state of states into a purely mono-racial Buddhist country minus Christians, Muslims, animists and Hindus.

Because of their race, color and religion the Rohingya people are denied each of the 30 rights guaranteed under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Buddhist-majority Myanmar. In spite of the fact that they have maintained a continuous connectivity to the soil of Arakan since time immemorial (before even the Tibeto-Burmans settled in what is today called Burma or Myanmar), they are declared stateless since the 1982 Burma Citizenship Law was passed under military dictator Ne Win. And as such, they are not welcome anywhere. Nearly half the population - numbering approximately 1.5 million -- now lives as unwanted refugees in places like Bangladesh, Thailand, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Malaysia. The remainder - estimated at close to 2 million - has no right of movement, employment, education, marriage, reproduction, health, security or anything we take for granted - inside Myanmar. They have faced a series of pogroms (by my count - at least two dozens) orchestrated by the regime (since the early 1960s), which uses all the text book cases for ethnic cleansing – namely, massacre, arson, slave labor, forced eviction including rape as a weapon of war - to push out the Rohingya one way or another. 

In the latest pogrom which started on June 3 of this year  with the lynching death of ten Burmese Muslims by a Rakhine mob of couple of hundreds while the government security forces did nothing to stop, as of now more than a hundred thousand Rohingyas have been internally displaced, thousands killed jointly by the government forces and Rakhine ultra-nationalist vigilantes, tens of thousands of homes burned, all Rohingya owned businesses looted and/or gutted, hundreds of mosques, madrasas and schools burned or demolished, and hundreds of women have been raped. Even infants have been brutally slaughtered by the criminal elements within the Rakhine population, all with direct and tacit approval of the local and central government. 

As the latest humanitarian crisis has once again demonstrated the Rohingya people need help from world conscience, especially from a person of your stature to advocate for an end to their misery. Sir, I have studied history of persecuted people for decades, and never have I come across a people that are more persecuted than this unfortunate Rohingya. They need help so that they don't become an extinct people like the Tasmanians of New Zealand. As such, I beg you to speak out in favor of the Rohingya people so that their tragedy stops, and that they are allowed to live as equals in our time. The Myanmar government must be forced to repeal or amend the 1982 Citizenship Law thus allowing the Rohingya people integrated as equal citizens with all rights. Knowing the mastery of the Myanmar regime to play the cat-and-mouse game, the world community should be stopped from investing in Myanmar unless the rights of the persecuted minorities like the Rohingya are restored fully. 

Sir, like Rachel Corrie, who was martyred in 2003 by an Israeli bulldozer, I feel like I am witnessing an insidious genocide of the Rohingya people while the powerful nations of the earth that run the UNSC have done nothing to stop this greatest crime of our time before it is too late. Please, let me not question my fundamental belief in goodness of human nature. With you once again we can change the world and make it better for all of us and our posterity.

Thank you for reading this letter.

Thai PBS interview on Rohingyas of Myanmar

Last month on August 15, 2012 Professor Abid Bahar and I were interviewed by the Thai PBS in Bangkok to discuss the the latest crisis in Myanmar which has resulted in internal displacement of more than a hundred thousand Rohingyas, let alone deaths of probably tens of thousands and rape of hundreds of Rohingya women and girls. The Nazi Market area of Akyab, the capital city of Arakan state of Myanmar, where 10,000 Rohingyas once lived and did business has been totally burned down as if it is a bomb-ravaged area from the Second World War time. 

No protection was provided to protect lives and properties of the Rohingya people by the Myanmar government against this Rakhine-cum-government ethnic cleansing drive to push them out or kill them, as part of a very calculated genocidal program, where the Buddhist monks and populace have become the lynch men for execution. The Myanmar regime also refuses to provide any humanitarian aid to the Rohingya people. Many of the injured Rohingyas are dying without any emergency care, and many can't buy the essential food and life-saving drugs because of the curfew and the obstruction imposed by the Rakhine leaders and monks. If it is not ethnic cleansing what is?

Our interview conducted by Dr. Nattha Komolvadhin of the Thai PBS can be see by clicking here. 

Comments on PDP’s Statement on Myanmar

The PDP is absolutely right that under the disguise of freedom of journalism the current Thein Sein regime is again playing cat and mouse game with the people - both within and outside Burma (Myanmar). As I have also noted in my recent speech in the Bangkok Conference the current constitution, concocted by the military regime with support from racist supporters, cannot be the guide book to run the country - neither before nor now in this century. It is an outdated model based on alienation, exclusion, intolerance, racism and bigotry, a far cry from what the founding fathers like Aung San and others had envisioned for the new state in 1947. 

I also approve of the PDP's 4-pronged strategy, which includes trying the Myanmar government in the international criminal court for its decades-long serious violations of human rights, including the current ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas of Arakan state. Without such hard sticks the regime will not be sobered to alter its failed paths and policies, and continue to find ways to stick to power at the cost of everyone. The ICC case should also include non-government actors who through writings and speeches have either promoted marginalization of persecuted minorities or been a party to regime's crimes against humanity. [Without punishing the Julius Streichers of Burma, it would be futile to weed out racism from Burma.]

It is high time for the member states of the UN, esp. UNSC, to say enough is enough and declare the Myanmar regime non-grata in the international arena and proceed with their recommendation for trying the regime in the ICC unless it truly reforms starting with the constitution, thus allowing inclusion of all the minorities like the Rohingyas of Burma, within a prescribed time of say six months, maximum.

As outside observers who care about real change, on our part we should insist that our respective governments know that they cannot continue feeding carrot to an unruly ass that refuses to do its part; the Myanmar regime needs sticks to tame it and ensure its compliance. No government should encourage any business with the criminal regime without tangible changes affecting people, failing which they must bear the responsibility of being a party to crimes against humanity. 

Comments about a Bloomberg article on Rohingya Problem

The letter below was sent to the writers of a recently posted article on the Rohingyas of Burma in Bloomberg.

Dear authors,

Your article unfortunately missed out on a big piece of information about the origin of the Rohingya people of Arakan state of Myanmar. Unbiased research work by genuine historians of the region has had abundantly made clear that the Rohingyas are indigenous to Arakan who had maintained their continuous existence in Arakan for more than a millennium (see, my blog for many such documentations and references). [See also Moshe Yegar's books and article on Burma.] Instead, you chose to quote from Aye Chan, a xenophobic writer, who has been promoting extermination of the Rohingya people as virus (see, his book - Influx Virus).

By selectively quoting from Aye Chan about Muslim demography, I am sorry to state that you have not done justice to the otherwise well-written article. 

Your inclusion of names like SA, Iran and Syria as members of OIC, calling about the Rohingya problem was also done to belittle the legitimate call of the conscientious human beings of the globe to redress serious violations of human rights (legitimately called ethnic cleansing per UN definition) in Myanmar. It was a sly attempt and highly deplorable attempt. If such be the criterion to belittle morally right positions we might as well dump tons of resolutions and efforts by the UN or even UNSC simply because the agencies do include countries with horrible records of human rights violations.

Open Letter to Chairman, Board of Directors, Visa Inc. on its decision to invest in Myanmar

The Chairman,

Visa Inc.

Dear Chairman,

I am very disturbed hearing about your decision to invest in Myanmar. The government there has been practicing ethnic cleansing since the days of Ne Win, a practice which continues to this date, as clearly demonstrated in the latest pogrom against the Rohingya people. The latter are the most persecuted people on earth.

If companies like yours reward governments that carry out ethnic cleansing, it is impossible to bring about desired change in those countries with horrible records on human rights.

I would, therefore, request you and the Visa Inc. Board of Directors to delay any such investment in Myanmar until positive changes take place that allow Rohingya and other minorities to be treated as equal citizens and their lost rights are restored for a dignified life within Myanmar.

Thanking you,

 Habib Siddiqui