The never ending pogroms in Myanmar
A Muslim woman holds her baby as she looks out from a temporary relief camp in riot-hit Meiktila on March 23. AFP
photo/ Soe Than WIN
With western appetite for Myanmars natural resources on the rise, human rights
have taken a backseat. And thus, none of the veto-wielding countries are
stopping this extermination campaign against the Muslims of Myanmar, and
punishing the regime for its monumental failure, or worse yet collusion, to
safeguarding their lives and properties. In their failure, the notion of Buddhists,
especially monks, rampaging through Muslim neighbourhoods with weapons is
becoming a recurring phenomenon, writes Dr Habib Siddiqui from Pennsylvania
IT WAS not too long ago that we witnessed the grisly massacre of minority Rohingya Muslims in the Arakan (Rakhine) state of Myanmar (Burma). Many of the western
observers who grew up seeing the smiling face of Dalai Lama were simply shocked to see armed Buddhist monks participating in that ethnic cleansing of the unarmed
Rohingya Muslims. Not only had the monks participated in those violent criminal acts with their fellow Buddhist Rakhine zealots terrorising the minority Muslims of the western
frontier state but they were also guilty of providing the very rationale a criminal one for such inhuman crimes against the members of a non-Buddhist faith who were
different
ethnically,
culturally
and
religiously.
In that pogrom, while we may never know the exact casualty figure because of government complicity in the tragedy, Rohingyas probably died in thousands, and hundreds
remain unaccounted for even after nine months. With international pressure, and worldwide condemnation, while that pogrom of last year (May-October 2012) against the
minority Rohingyas has stopped, albeit temporarily, there were many ominous signs for any keen observer to predict of a troubling future awaiting the non-Buddhists living
inside
Myanmar.
The Buddhist monks in Myanmar with very few exceptions have essentially become not only the collaborators of the quasi-military regime that runs the country but also the
vanguards of a new Myanmarism in which people who are different are increasingly marginalised and/or dehumanised. Buddhist monks, dependent on begging and handouts,
have had always thrived on donations and gifts made by others, esp. the rich patrons and Buddhist kings. That benevolent role is now filled in by the government. (As the
Muslim and Hindu lands are confiscated, their homes and shops, religious centres, shrines and mosques burnt down or razed to the ground, often times Buddhist pagodas are
built on such confiscated or evicted and destroyed places.) The level of collaboration runs so deep that when last year the so-called reform-minded president Thein Sein called
for expelling the Rohingyas to a third country and that the UN should take charge of them, it was the Buddhist monks who were at the forefront of the processions demanding
such expulsion. They have hitherto called upon the government to creating apartheid zones for the Muslim minorities, away from the Buddhist majority people, let alone
demanding the exclusion of Muslims from jobs, and even enacting laws that prohibit selling to and buying from Muslims. It is an all-out apartheid system that they have been
promoting
against
the
much-discriminated
and
despised
non-Buddhist
minorities
in
the
Buddhist-majority
Myanmar.
As a result, in recent months, tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have become the boat people of the Southeast Asia braving the scorching sun and tumultuous seas
hoping to find a place under the sun in this vast planet of ours to live without being slaughtered like lambs in the slaughterhouse of Myanmar. Hundreds have died and many
have ended up in prisons. The Christian-majority Kachin state to the north is also bleeding because of marauding attacks from the Myanmar government forces there. Nearly a
quarter million internally displaced persons of the Christian and Muslim faiths now live in sub-human conditions in Kachin and Rakhine states, respectively. Buddhist monks
and
politicians
have
also
barred
necessary
relief
items
from
reaching
the
intended
victims.
Tomas Ojea Quintana, UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in Burma, recently told the UN Human Rights Council that rights violations linked to the Kachin conflictalong
with ethnic tensions between Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists in western Burmaremain unresolved in Myanmar. While the process of reform is continuing in the
right direction, there are significant human rights shortcomings that remain unaddressed, such as discrimination against the Rohingya in Rakhine state and the ongoing human
rights
violations
in
relation
to
the
conflict
in
Kachin
state,
said
Quintana,
who
visited
Burma
last
month.
Obviously, Buddhism has failed and is failing miserably or so it seems when it comes to enlightening the savage and non-enlightened souls amongst its own people inside
Myanmar. The word non-violence has lost its meaning in Myanmar. One only has to be different, the other people racially or religiously to see the ugly side of such
pogroms,
which
have
sadly
become
the
norms
and
not
exceptions.
So, it was not a question of why but when we would be revisited by a new violence. As the recent events in Meikhtila, a town roughly 80 miles north of the capital Naypyidaw,
showed that it is increasingly becoming difficult and almost impossible for non-Buddhists to live in this once multi-racial and multi-religious country.
Last Wednesday, a heated argument between a Muslim gold shop owner in Meikhtila and his Buddhist customers erupted, which spiralled into a street brawl. Soon thereafter
Buddhist mobs roamed the streets with sticks and swords and set Muslim buildings ablaze. Rioting and arson attacks spread on Friday to villages outside Meiktila, as mobs of
Buddhists, some led by monks, continued a three-day rampage through Muslim areas. Several mosques were burned down. Hundreds of Muslim homes were ransacked first
and
then
set
on
fire.
According to the New York Times, witnesses reached by phone said security forces did little to stop the violence. Mobs were destroying buildings and killing people in cold
blood, said U Nyan Lynn, a former political prisoner who witnessed what he described as massacres. Nobody stopped them I saw hundreds of riot police there.
Images from Meiktila showed entire neighbourhoods burned to the ground, some with only blackened trees left standing. Lifeless legs poked from beneath rubble. And
charred
I
corpses
cant
handle
spoke
what
to
saw
the
use
of
fire
as
there,
said
Daw
Nilar
Thein,
main
a
human
tool
of
rights
the
rioting
activist.
She
mobs,
described
writes
the
Thomas
violence
as
Fuller
anarchic
of
the
and
NYT.
unspeakable.
One video posted to Facebook by Radio Free Asia on Friday showed Muslim women and men cowering and shielding their heads from flying objects as they fled their
attackers.
Onlookers
are
overheard
shouting,
Oooh!
Look
how
many
of
them.
Kill
them!
Kill
them!
On Friday, a group of Buddhist monks threatened news photographers, including one who works for the Associated Press, with a sword and homemade weapons. With a
monk holding a blade to his neck, U Khin Maung Win, the AP photographer, handed over his cameras memory card. We are trying to leave the town, Mr. Khin Maung Win
said
by
telephone.
They
are
now
after
journalists,
too.
Just as in Arakan the past year, those Buddhists behind the violence in Meiktila are trying to stop images of the destruction from getting out.
The exact
numbers
of
those
killed
and
injured
since
Wednesday in
Meikhtila are still
unknown,
but
the numbers
may reach more
than
100.
Whatever the figure, the culture of impunity surrounding ethnic violence must end in Myanmar. Who would have thought that a failed sales negotiation in a jewellery shop
would trigger a religious riot? The whole episode smells of the Hitler-era Nazism in which Jewish homes and businesses were targeted by his dreaded SS. In Myanmars
context, the Buddhist monks and their inspired zealots within the Buddhist population are increasingly behaving like those criminal SS thugs of the Nazi era. It is, thus, not
difficult to understand why in such pre-planned sinister riots the security forces behave more as spectators if they, of course, choose not to join the Buddhist mob than as
law
enforcing
government
agents.
As I have maintained before, these kinds of targeted violence against Muslims and other religious minorities do enjoy wider popular support within this Buddhist-majority
apartheid state and are endorsed from the top echelon in politics. Shamelessly, therefore, the lawmakers like opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi have remained silent on how
to
the
end
ethnic
violence
racking
the
country
in
recent
months.
Like many human rights advocates and activists, Mark Farmaner of Burma Campaign UK has condemned such sinister silence. Recently he said, Staying silent is clearly not
working, because in that vacuum, those who are inciting more violence are free to operate when they need to be challenged and tackled head on. There needs to be a
change of approach not just from Suu Kyi, he says, but from all the political and religious leaders in the country to acknowledge that there is this growing anti-Muslim feeling in
the
The
country.
Euro-Burma
Office,
respected
Brussels-based
advocacy
group,
warned
on
Friday
of
Rwandan-like
genocide
of
Myanmars
Muslims.
As we have noticed previously with the Rakhine state, President Thein Sein has issued a state of emergency on Friday. The state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper has
urged
the
public
to
expose
those
who
led
and
attempted
to
instigate.
Muslims have been put in Meiktilas sports stadium, where food and water are scarce. Photographs showed frightened-looking people rushing to the stadium, clutching
belongings
and
carrying
their
children
and
the
elderly,
amid
jeering
Buddhist
crowds.
The state of emergency is a half-hearted reactive measure that will not prevent Muslims and other vulnerable minorities from becoming objects of ethnic cleansing and
religious
riots
in
the
future.
Governments are meant to guarantee rights, ensure that people are treated equally before the law, that non-discrimination is the rule of the land, and that minorities have their
rights protected, said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch. After seeing this [violence in Meikhtila], would anyone be confident in saying that the government is doing a
good
job?
Surely not! But with western appetite for Myanmars natural resources on the rise, human rights have taken a backseat. And thus, none of the veto-wielding countries are
stopping this extermination campaign against the Muslims of Myanmar, and punishing the regime for its monumental failure, or worse yet collusion, to safeguarding their lives
and properties. In their failure, the notion of Buddhists, especially monks, rampaging through Muslim neighbourhoods with weapons is becoming a recurring phenomenon. And
this
spectre
must
stop
not
Dr Habib Siddiqui is a peace and rights activist.
only
for
the
health
of
Buddhism
but
also
for
greater
good
of
humanity.
