Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) welcomes the recent decision, on November 2, 2004, of the Malaysian Government to accord refugee status to the Rohigyas on humanitarian ground while they have been suffering subhuman condition in their home and abroad.
We at ARNO express our special thanks to the people and Government of Malaysia for this support and hope that the Malaysian Government will continue to exercise its good offices for an efficacious solution of the long-standing Rohingya problem.
The military SPDC is anti-Islam and Muslim phobia regime. It has denied the indigenous Rohingyas of their right to nationality. Widespread violations of human rights against them continue unabated. Extra judicial killing and summery executions, humiliating movement restrictions even within the same locality, rape of women, arbitrary arrests and torture, forced labor and forced relocation, confiscation of moveable and immovable properties, destruction of mosques and religious schools and sacrileges are regular occurrence in Arakan.
The SPDC is trying to hoodwink the international community accusing the ethnic Rohingyas of non-nationals and illegal immigrants, in utter disregard of their history, glorious past and centuries-old settlements and establishment in Arakan. This deliberate attempt is based on the systematic policies of racial, religious and political discrimination in order to wipe out a minority Muslim community from their ancestral homeland of Arakan by use of force and application of black laws that amounts to genocide.
Meanwhile, we urge upon ASEAN to review its policies towards military ruled Burma, to disqualify Burma from chairing ASEAN in 2006. We also urge upon the international community to exert effective pressures on the military SPDC to bring about national reconciliation in Burma through meaningful tripartite dialogue between SPDC, democratic oppositions with Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic nationalities as mandated by the United Nations since 1994.
Press & Publication Department
Arakan Rohingya National Organisation
Arakan, Burma.
Arakan Rohingya National Organisation
Arakan, Burma.
Dated: November 14, 2004