September 29 2008
We express our full support to the report of Christian Solidarity World Wide, Visit to the Bangladesh-Burma Border, released on 9 September 2008. This report is based on first hand information on the plight of the Rohingya people in Burma. It substantiates the fact that the Rohingya are living in a hostile environment in their ancestral homeland of Arakan. As the report says “it is first-hand account of the oppression of Muslim Rohingya people in Burma, including denial of full citizenship rights, severe restrictions on freedom of movement, marriage and religion, forced labour, rape, land confiscation, arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial killings and extortion on a daily basis.”
The statement given to CSW by three Na Sa Ka (Border Security Force) soldiers, who were defected on 5 August 2008, is prima-facie evidence of the policy of exclusion and systematic persecution and extermination of the Rohingya people by the military SPDC. All three defectors confirmed to CSW that the Rohingyas are daily specifically targeted for forced labor, extortion, arrest and torture by Na Sa Ka and is the official policy of the SPDC aims at creating an impossible situation for their living in their own homeland. “Throughout my life in the Na Sa Ka, I was used to this system of arresting Muslims, asking for money, torturing them every day. We only arrested Muslims, not Rakhine” the Na Sa Ka defector Twe Hlang (29) said.
We are very much thankful to CSW and its Advocacy Officer for South Asia Benedict Rogers for all his efforts to make this substantial report on the situation of human rights of the all peoples of Arakan.
In solidarity with the CSW, we call upon the international community for an UNSC binding resolution on Burma and to investigate by the UN the allegations of ethnic cleansing, genocide or attempted genocide, particularly relating to the human rights violations against the Rohingya people. As the CSW’s report rightly points out, it is imperative to encourage representatives of Burma’s democracy movement, particularly the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB), the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), and human rights NGOs to visit the Bangladesh-Burma border at the earliest opportunity; and to engage with and include Rohingya, Rakhine and other Bangladesh-based Burmese groups in the wider struggle for democracy.
Central Committee
Arakan Rohingya National Organization
Arakan, Burma.
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