Family members escort
the bodies of children who died in a fire in an Islamic school as they make
their way to a funeral in Yangon April 2, 2013 REUTERS/Minzayar
By Foreda Begum
Restless Beings:
April 2, 2013
The last few weeks
fears have materialised to reality, as extremist Buddhist attacks have spread
further than just within the Arakan region in Myanmar, to Mandalay and now to
Yangon (formerly Rangoon).
The opportunistic
‘969’ extremist group, had started the violent rampage in the Meikhtila
township of Mandalay, which is now razed to the ground, unrecognizable to the
local inhabitants who used to call the area their home. The now barren land has
had 1000 houses and 12 mosques burnt down, and 12,000 Muslims have been
displaced, who have now taken refuge in the football fields in the town centre.
In the span of a
week, violence spread to other parts of Muslim populated areas who had
experienced the same brutal treatment from the 969. These areas are the Pyin Ma
Nar township, Aye Lar township, Yamal Thin township, Paung Tay township,
Zeegong township, Nathilin township, Myonu township and Gyo Bin Kauk.
Yangon has now become
the latest victim of these attacks. Last night, at around 3:30 am, Buddhist
Extremists had burned down the local Islamic school named, ‘Madarasa Sadiqia
Hefzul Quran’ (on 48thstreet) which had taken the lives of a total of 13
students. The group had attacked the school withpetrol bombs, with 70 students
still on school premises.
The confirmed names
of the deceased students are as follows:
• Rahimullah (aged
13) s/o Haji Isa - Rekyaw Pazuntaung Town
• MD Hashim (aged 14)
s/o U Min Lat - Rekyaw-do Town
• MD Omar (aged 15)
s/o of Dala Town U Aung Shwe
• Abul Basher (aged
13) s/o Molvi Arif, Boglar Town
• Abdul Latif (aged
13) s/o U Zaw Min, Shwe Pyi Tha Town
• MD Sohail (aged15)
s/o MD Elyas, Tarkata
• Hasson (aged 14)
s/o U Natha, Kowkrik Town
• Abdul Subhan (aged
14) s/o U Zaw Min, Kan Daw Lay Town
• Ibrahim s/o U
Hammim, Inn Gon
• Arif (Aged 14) of
Inn Gon
• Faisal (aged 14)
s/o Ibrahim of Tarkata
• Abul Refaat (aged
16) s/o U –kyaw Min, South Dragon
• Afzl (aged 14)
The local Yangon
media had falsely reported that the cause of the attack was accidental and
caused by an ‘electric malfunction’, but after speaking to our sources in
Yangon, they had told us that the stench of kerosene was so strong that they
could smell it from their homes. There is no questioning the well planned
nature of this attack and our sources also have stated that it was funded too.
The 969 Buddhist extremist group led by Monk and ex prisoner, Wirathu who was
jailed in 2007 for carrying out anti Muslim attacks was released last year
under the President’s Parole. Our sources have now given the names of
accomplices of Wirathu who are aiding these racially geared attacks
(unconfirmed):
• General Khin Nyunt
• Thiha Thura, former
vice president
• Tin Aung Myint Oo,
current immigration minister
• U Khin Yi, member
of parliament
• U Aung Thaung
former industry minister
The names of those
funding these attack (unconfirmed):
• Zay Kabar U Khin
Shwe(a sitting member of parliament),
• U Kyauk Taung, drug
lord from Taung Goke township Arakan
• U Tay Za
The Buddhist rain
festival is expected to take place on April 14th, and our sources are expecting
many more simultaneous attacks on Muslim communities in Burma to take place.
The Rohingya have
trended on twitter, have been written about in newspapers, and some politicians
have issued a few lines of a statement about them. But meanwhile, the violence
rages on. Recently, Burma had been praised for it’s democratisation for
allowing private newspapers to print after 50 years. Bluntly, the freedom of
press means nothing whilst the freedom of so many are being so violently
extinguished. Our sources stated what is to be expected in the near future:
“We Muslims here are
afraid that if the situation is going like this, we will be finished at once”.
