July 25, 2012
Amnesty International says the Rohingyas in Myanmar became the target of violent attacks against the Muslim minority in the Asian country.
The killing of Muslims started in late May 2012, and the clashes spread across much of Myanmar's coastal Rakhine state.
The Myanmar government declared a state of emergency on June 10, deploying troops to quell the unrest and protect both mosques and monasteries.
The worst of the violence subsided late last month, but communal violence has still some ground. Amnesty has said it is being directed mostly at the Rohingya population.
While Amnesty International calls Rohingya Muslims as citizens of the country, Myanmar refuses to recognize them as its citizens, and claims that they are not natives and classifies them as illegal migrants, although Rohingyas are believed to be Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origin who migrated to Myanmar as early as the 8th century.
Large groups of Rohingyas have already sailed to neighboring Bangladesh, many of whom have died during the journey. The Bangladeshi government, however, deports Rohingyas, calling them illegal migrants and the UN refugee center says it will not accept Rohingya Muslims as it is not interested in morerefugees.
Press TV has conducted an interview with James Jennings, the president of Conscience International from Atlanta to further discuss the issue of the massacre of innocent Myanmarese Muslims.
The following is an approximate transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Mr. Jennings, why do you think the killing and displacement of the Myanmar’s Muslims do not get media attention?
Jennings: Well, it has been an unfortunate thing. I think a part of it is because of the sanctions against Myanmar for a number of years, the isolation from the international community which has begun to change recently and I think that has brought fresh attention but certainly most of the international organizations like the UN and ...
Press TV: Back to my first question, why do you think the killing and displacement of Myanmar’s Muslims do not get enough media attention?
Jennings: I think because of the relative isolation of Myanmar over the recent years but that is now changing and certainly the Amnesty International, the UN and other international organizations have pointed out the fact that this minority, the Rohingyas, in Myanmar is probably the most persecuted minority in the world right now and that needs attention.
So the world is beginning to pay attention, unfortunately it is a bit late.
Press TV: Also these Muslims; as we know, have suffered for many years and no one has ever done anything to help them.
How does that go with the West’s slogans of advocating human rights and democracy?
Jennings: Well, I just reviewed the sanctions that the United States put on Burma [Myanmar] in 1993 and renewed it in 1997.
They have many stringent requirements about dealing with Myanmar, at the same time they do have an opening for humanitarian work and my organization, Conscience International, has been working in Bangladesh, in Pakistan and now we like to go and work in Myanmar as well.
certainly should pay attention to the plight of these people which is a very critical problem right now in the world scene.
Press TV: Even Myanmar’s, so-called, democracy icon, Ang San Suu Kyi [Nobel peace prize winner], has refused to speak in favor of these people.
What is the solution in your opinion for the Muslims in Myanmar?
Jennings: When you have ancient hatreds; you have cultural, ethnic and religious differences and then the political volatility right now, which is very high in Myanmar; Ang San Suu Kyi, has not maybe chosen to side with the minority rather with the majority, which is a very good political stance usually.
I think it is unfortunate that those people who originally came from Bengal and the people in Myanmar refer to them as Bengalis and so that whole situation needs a peace keeping element that would, in fact, defuse the situation; because it is very destructive for the community.
There have been a lot of atrocities and it originated with the claim of rape of a Buddhist woman and so the Buddhists, who are supposed to be a religion of peace, have retaliated.
Press TV: Well, you mentioned two things, years of hatred towards the Muslims in Myanmar and of course the Buddhist female that was raped, and I believe that incidence was back in June.
Now according to reports, since then, more than a thousand Rohingya Muslims, living in Myanmar, have been killed and more than 90,000 have remained homeless since then.
It seems a little that the atrocities are quite major in Myanmar.
Jennings: That is right and it is very alarming; if you remember what happened in Rwanda, the two ethnic groups of Hutus and Tutsis, went along side by side for a period of time and then a spark set off the violence and the massacres and we certainly do not want to see that happen again.
It has already gone very far; something needs to be done by the government of Burma -of Myanmar- or from outside agencies that might be able to offer help.
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