Troubles in Arakan: 1949 British Perspective!

(This post is direct from DerekTonkin’s Network Myanmar Site.)

Three river-valleys of North Arakan.

Peter Murray was a pre-war British administrator who spoke fluent Burmese. He was the British Ambassador to Cambodia during 1961-62. 

Peter Murray was also a territorial CAO (Civil Affairs Officer) with the British Army in Northern Arakan during the Second World War. 

He was the same Peter Murray mentioned by Robert Mole in his memoirs "The Temple Bells are Calling" about his time in the Arakan.

Following is his 1949 Foreign Office memo outlining the so-called racio-religious troubles in Arakan due to the Bengali Muslims’ relentless intrusion into Burma.

Kyauk Phyu Muslim Wards Burning!

The Muslim wards of beautiful seaport Kyauk Phyu in Arakan State has been burning since 23 October by the Yakihine Buddhist mob hell bent on ridding Muslims off their predominantly Buddhist town.

Kyauk Phyu lies at the northern end of Ramree (Yan-byae) offshore Island. It has ten wards of which eight wards are Buddhists and two are occupied by a small community of Muslim fishermen. Followings are the list of all ten wards in Kyauk Phyu.

Monks Protest against Army Killing Buddhists in Arakan

Buddhist monks protesting against Burma Army killing
Yakhine Buddhist vigilantes in Arakan.

Since the disturbances reignited again in the troubled Arakan our overzealous Army has been shooting dead many Yakhine Buddhists, probably just too many, while protecting the Bengali Muslim minority from them.

Sittwe Hospital is now filled with many young Yakhine Buddhist men with gunshot wounds caused by Burmese guns, not Bengali guns, and it boils the red hot blood of our Buddhist monks all over Burma.

Buddhist monks in Burma especially the young ones calling themselves “Yahan-Pyos” hate the Bengali Muslims and they think the job of Burma army is to shoot the Bengali illegals not the Yakhine Buddhist vigilantes killing the Muslims and burning the Bengali wards and villages in the Arakan.

Arakan Burning Again with Bengali Race Riots!

(Direct translations of news articles from Narinjara News Agency and EMG group.)

Pike-thae Bengali Muslim Ward in Min Byar Town burning.

The unsettling troubles started again at the Min Byar town of Arakan State in the late afternoon of October 21 when many houses owned by Bengali Muslims were burned down by unknown persons.

Bengalis said Buddhists did it while Buddhists were claiming the Muslims burned their own houses down to exaggerate the racial problems and attract international sympathy.

According to U Thar Kyaw the member of Arakan State Parliament for Min Byar constituency, altogether eighteen Muslim houses from Pike-thae Bengali village were completed burnt down.

Indonesia Shuts Down Buddhist Temples in Aceh

(This post by Mathias Hariyadi is direct from the AsiaNews.it site on October 18.)

Indonesian Police shutting
down churches & temples.

Jakarta (Asia News) - Authorities in Banda Aceh, capital of the Aceh Special Territory, ordered the closure of nine Christian home churches and six Buddhist prayer houses for alleged irregularities in their building permit.

According to Deputy Mayor Hajjah Illiza Sa'aduddin Djamal, the buildings were illegal because they lacked the right permit. Under the law, private homes cannot be used "for religious ceremonies or functions."

"Aceh is a special territory that enforces Sharia," she said and home churches violate the law because they lack the appropriate building permit (Izin Mendirikan Bangunan in Indonesian).

No OIC Office in Burma: President Ordered!

(This post is based on various articles from the EMG site.)

On October 15 Burma President U Thein Sein has ordered he will not allow the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) to open any office whether liaison office or representative office or logistic office for supporting the so-called Rohingyas or for protecting their God-given rights.

The Presidential order was on all the media including the president’s office own WWW site. The President has apparently backed down and corrected the serious oversight in dealing with the Multinational Muslim Mafia OIC after the angry mass protests all over Burma.

Glenn Hubbard: The Romney’s Economist

(This article "Romney's Go-To Economist" by David Segal is from the New York Times.)

Glenn Hubbard the Romney's
Economist from Columbia.

“I HOPE you’re sitting down for this,” said Ali Velshi, the CNN anchor, staring into the camera, his voice booming with incredulity about a campaign promise issued by Mitt Romney: that, if elected, Mr. Romney would create 12 million jobs in four years.

Having framed this idea as preposterous, Mr. Velshi introduced R. Glenn Hubbard, the dean of Columbia Business School, a Romney campaign adviser and a “very smart man,” as the host put it. So smart, Mr. Velshi told Mr. Hubbard, that “you couldn’t have been involved in the writing of that policy.” Why? “Because you would know that that is just not possible.”

Wearing a dark suit and projecting an air of geeky, avuncular calm, Mr. Hubbard appeared before a blue backdrop festooned with the words “Columbia Business School.” If he was supposed to be cowed or disarmed by the bluster or flattery, he did not show it.

KIA Murders: A Daughter’s Plea for Justice!

(Direct translation of a daughter’s plea letter to Myanmar Human Rights Commission for the brutal executions of her Shan parents by the KIA Fifth brigade in September 2011. Daw Waing Tin's 56 year-old father and 55 year-old mother both Shans were kidnapped and tortured and murdered brutally by the Kachin insurgents of KIA battalion-24 Fifth KIA brigade in Bamaw District of Kachin State.)

To

            U Win Mya

            Chairman

            Myanmar Human Rights Commission

            No-27, Prome Road, Ward-11, Hlaing Township

            Rangoon.

                                                                                                            Dated: October 6, 2012.

Subject: A daughter’s plea to punish the KIA men who murdered my parents.

Respected Chairman of Myanmar Human Rights Commission,

I, Daw Waing Tin, the holder of National Registration Card No. 1/ma-ma-na(naing)- 020140, would like to report the murders of my parents to your esteemed commission. My parents were U Kyaw Swe and Daw Yar who were brutally murdered by the so-called Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

Burma Navy’s Stealth Corvettes

(This post is direct translation of articles from the Myanmar Military site.)

Just recently Burma Navy had a grand launching ceremony of many new war ships. What sort of war ships were there in the ceremony is still not clear but most probable ones were reconditioned-frigates purchased from People Republic of China.

Most exciting news is that some new warships in the launching ceremony were the new stealth corvettes manufactured in the Burma Navy’s own dockyard in Rangoon.

Arakan Mass Protests Against OIC Presence!

(This post is direct translation of articles from The Narinjara News Agency.)

No OIC Protest by Buddhist monks in Sittwe (October 9).

The Arakan protest on October 9 began as just Buddhist monks only demonstration at the Bangladesh consulate in Sittwe the capital of Arakan State. But thousands and thousands of Buddhist lay people joined in and the protest became a mass protest more than ten thousands strong that day.

“We’re now in U Oattama Park. About 700 to 1,000 monks. But about ten thousand people, I think. The whole main road from the Bangladesh Consulate at West Model Ward is now filled with people. We are all peacefully demonstrating for our demands,” said Venerable U Pyin-nyar-zaw-tah one of the monks leading the protest that day.

KIA: The Highway Robbers and Rapist Cowards?

(This post is direct translations of articles from the KachinDaily News site.)

Traffic stood still at a KIA road-block arbitrarily set up
to rob the travelling public, vehicles, and motorbikes.

Desperate KIA units are now forcefully collecting hefty Protection Fees (Set-kyay in Burmese) from the local people at many places in Kachin State as the year-long war against Burma army and the disruption of commerce in the war-torn areas has been costing them dearly and rapidly depleting their financial resources.

Instead of confronting better-armed and more numerous Burma army, various KIA units have been cowardly and violently raiding the villages whether they are Shans or Burmese villages for money and food and fresh recruits and young women to rape, and thus scaring the local people from travelling even on the wide Irrawaddy River.

Shariah, Mullahs, and Muslims in Bangladesh

(This article by Islamic scholar Dr. Taj Hashmi is direct from the Freethinkers Site.)

The Shariah or Muslim code with all its variations and contradictions has created problems both for Muslims and non-Muslims in Muslim-dominated as well as other countries in our times.

The term “Shariah” evokes bad memories among its victims as well as opponents who want the abolition or drastic reforms of this Draconian code. Our experience tells us that Shariah is inherently prejudicial to women, non-Muslims and freethinkers and that its language, spirit and above all, execution, go against the spirit, ideals and teaching of Islam as one finds in the Quran.

Bangladesh Ethnic-cleansing funded by Saudi Arabia?

(This article by Mohshin Habib is direct from the Gatestone institute’s site.)

Saudi Arabia's Rabita Al
Alam Al Islami NGO.

Despite what officials state, the Islamists of Bangladesh have been violently urging all non-Muslims to get out of the country. Buddhists, for example, mostly settled in the southeast part of Bangladesh and less than 1% of the population of 150 million, have been struggling to survive. More than 1,000 have fled; the situation is no different for Christians and Hindus.

What is clear is that Rabita Al Alam al Islami, known as Al-Rabita, a powerful Saudi Arabia-based non-governmenal organization [NGO] has taken charge of Islamization, especially in the remote areas. Since 1980, Al-Rabita has been working throughout southeast Bangladesh to convert the hill people to Islam. There is serious concern that Al-Rabita has been funding terrorists.

Retired General Than Shwe is Doing Very Well!

(This post is direct translation of articles from MEG on 1 October2012.)

Retired Senior General Than Shwe, the Ex-dictator
(or) the father of Burma's semi-democracy?

The religious ceremony replacing the old golden-umbrella of relatively tiny Maha-Yangon miniature pagoda, inside the Buddha-Wihaya Glass Hall of Seik-kan-thar temple on Upper-Strand Street in Rangoon’s Kyauk-ta-dar township, with new golden one was completed on September 30.

And the ceremony was attended by the children and the grandchildren of retired-senior-general Than Shwe as the pagoda itself was donated and sponsored in mid 2000s by the Senior General himself while he was still the all-powerful dictator of Burma.

Hero Welcome for President U Thein Sein Back from UN

(This post is direct from The Weekly Eleven Media on 1 October2012.)

After attending and participating in the annual General Debate at the UNGA (United Nations General Assembly) Burma President U Thein Sein has landed back at Rangoon International Airport on the morning of October First.

And believe or not there were thousands and thousands of his fellow country men and women welcoming him back home at Rangoon Airport. And it was the very first time in last 60 years many Burmese are so enthusiastic about one of their leaders.

In addition to the senior leaders and people from the ruling party USDP (Union Solidarity and Development Party) his own political party, there were people from all walks of life. Highly visible among the crowd were movie actors and actresses and famous Industrialists. Also were businessmen and women, many young workers from various garment factories, and various ethnic youth groups.

Arming Native Buddhists on Bangladeshi Border!

(This post is direct from The Narinjara News Agency on 19 September 2012.)

Border fence on Burma-Bangladesh border.

Burmese army has begun the process of forming and arming the native Buddhist militia in the Yakhine Buddhist villages along the Burma-Bangladesh border to counter the massive illegal flows of Bengali Muslims from Bangladesh and cross-border raids by the Bengali Muslim insurgents.

As the very first step more than 300 Buddhist villagers from 30 border villages in North-Maungdaw area have been receiving intensive training from the Border Security Forces of Burmese army. The people militia (Pyithusit) training is being conducted at the Na-Sa-Ka 4 Kyain Chaung compound. Na-Sa-Ka is the Burmese acronym for Border Security Forces.

Buddhist-Cleansing in Bangladesh?

(Direct translation of the news article from mgkyautkhe.com on 1 October2012.)

The local authorities and the security forces at Ramu (Panwar) in Bangladesh had completely ignored the warning signs and actual destruction of Buddhist temples and the properties of Buddhists by the extremist Jamaat-e-islami-led Muslim mobs in Ramu district.

The atrocious rioting in Saturday (September 29) when the Muslim mob led by Jamaat-e-Islami destroyed 12 Buddhist temples and many Buddhist homes was the pre-planned co-operation of Bangladeshi authorities, Jamaat, Chibi, BNP parties, fundamentalist extremists, and so-called Rohingyas who have been hell bent on killing Buddhist Yakhines and Islamizing northern Arakan.