ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANISATION
ARAKAN, BURMA
Press Release
April
28, 2013
We
condemn the police shooting, on 26 April 2013, of a group of Rohingya children
for their peaceful protest chanting “Rohingya, Rohingya” when hostile
operational team consisting of immigration, military, NaSaKa, police and
village administrators came to Thet Kay Byin village near Ba Du Pha Rohingya
displacement camp in Arakan’s capital Sittwe (Akyab), to perform the current
operation forcing the Rohingya to register as “Bengali” for the census. A 15
year old boy namely Mohammad Ali S/o Kabir Ahmed of Thet Kay Bin was injured in
the shooting and is now taking treatment in a private clinic.
From
26 April the police have arrested six innocent Rohingya people under concocted
charges. They are U Ba Tha (47), U Kyaw Myint (46), Mohammad Hussain (45) Saw
Lay Ma (35), San Lin (45) and Kyaw Khin (40). The police are also hunting down
more Rohingya elders in an attempt to terrorise the Rohingya community. All
these have been done under the direction of Rakhine Nationalities Development
Party (RNDP) which dominates the Arakan Sate government and pursues a policy of
Rohingya extermination with the blessing of the central government. An
atmosphere of terror has been created while the whole Rohingya community is
being affected by the humanitarian disaster.
The
so-called census operation was first conducted immediately after June and
October 2012 deadly violence against Muslims in Arakan at irregular intervals
but was stopped when the Rohingyas rejected to be registered as “Bengali”. But
from 10 April 2013 the authorities resumed it selectively in Maungdaw and
Buthidaung township torturing and forcing the Rohingyas into agreeing to
register as “Bengali”
The
Rohingya people ‘have the collective right to live in freedom, peace and
security as distinct people’ and additionally they have the right to life.
Burma is a state party to the UN Convention on Rights of Child and it has basic
obligation to ‘respect and ensure’ the rights in the convention to Rohingya
children without discrimination of any kind. To force the Rohingya people into
accepting ‘Bengali’ against their will is an ethnocide or an international
crime, and to this fact we invite the attention of the United Nations and the
international community.
We, therefore, demand the Burmese government:
- To
register the Rohingya people as “Rohingya” in the census in accordance
with their genuine and legitimate aspiration;
- To
stop all plan to deprive the Rohingya people of their integrity as
distinct people, or of their cultural values or ethnic identity;
- To
stop any action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing the Rohingya
people of their lands, properties or resources; and stop forcible transfer
of their population and creating domineering situation aims at expelling
them from their ancestral homeland;
- To
fulfil its obligation as a state party, and to ensue the rights of the
Rohingya children in accordance with the provisions of the UN Convention
on the Rights of Child (CRC) ;
- To
release all those Rohingyas who have been arrested under false charges,
and to investigate the police shooting of Rohingya children for their
peaceful protest and bring the perpetrators to justice.
For
more information, please contact:
Nurul
Islam: + 44-7947854652
Aman
Ullah: + 8801558486910
Email: info@rohingya.org
www.rohingya.org
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