Making Burma Great Again..
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Where is the conscience of the Western World and its moral power? If the World cannot stop a country like Burma and its leaders from committing such heinous crimes against humanity, then we are doomed...... Time for economic sanctions.
Anique Newaz
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This is a tragic situation. However these human rights violations have been occurring in Myanmar for decades since the junta took power. These crimes aren't targeted at just the muslim Rohingya minority, but rather, the many ethnic minority tribes that exist within the country (look up the 60 year civil war against the Karen). Most of the people bearing the brunt of the government's cruelty are Buddhist & Burmese. These human rights violations are simply brought to light because of the advocacy of Muslim support groups. Make this issue about religion and suddenly, everyone's up in arms....
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My heart goes to any man prosecuted by its own government.
Now if we know the region's geography and the language these Rohingya community speaks clearly shows that they originate from the hills of Bangladesh and /or immigrated from these lands to Burma some time in the last few years or decades or could be left over of the unified British India, I am not so sure.
Does that give anyone any right to harm them - definitely not!
Should Bangladesh take them back - big question..
Time can only confirm if we seeing another episode of Indian Hindu refugee horror of 1947 during independence from British while the world looks other way but looks like it.
Muslims in very large numbers are being massacred, indeed by some estimate the horror inflicted on these Muslims is borderline a 'genocide'. Yet, dear leader Trump has not even acknowledged the existence of massive ethnic cleansing and mass terror inflicted on innocent Muslim children, women and the elderly. I would not be surprised that the evil terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and Daesh (ISIS) will use the Trump administration's utter indifference to the genocide-like horror inflicted on these innocent Muslim children, women and the elderly to make the point that the United States simply does not value the life of Muslims, thus drawing false moral equivalence.
I am willing to bit that Fox news had not mentioned the suffering of these Muslims, or Fox has referenced it only to highlight the 'failure' of Obama or blame it on Hilary Clinton. Tragic state of affairs.
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Muslim majority countries in the region, and not only Bangladesh, should step up and offer refuge to the civilians. If as widely believed is true, that Saudi Arabia has been funding the Rohingya insurgents, then Saudi Arabia should be the first country to offer refuge.
Saudi Arabia and other rich gulf states got away with hosting exactly 0 Syrian refugees, but they should not be allowed to get off the hook with the Rohingyais .
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"I do protect human rights, and I hope I shall always be looked up as a champion of human rights."
- Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
Nope.
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I'm very saddened by the continued deterioration of the situation in Myanmar. Although I've read that Aung San Suu Kyi has little control over the military, her statements regarding the treatment and status of the Rohingya are disturbing, especially for a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Government-sponsored ethnic cleansing is occurring and "Buddhists" are apparently complicit in this. Obviously they are not Buddhists in any accepted meaning of the term.
This article has prompted me to donate again to UNICEF to help the children in some small way.
7
Thank you Hillary for helping to create this horrible mess!
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Hillary had nothing to do with this. And the guy who actually won the election has had said nothing to say about it. Muslims can be persecuted by other people? Who knew?
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I thought Buddhists were different, that the quest for enlightenment was incompatible with the quest for vengeance and violence. I was wrong. In the end, people are people and, as groups, most or all are capable of profound hate and evil. Equally bad, most of us are capable of indifference when violence strikes others, and sadly this even applies to a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
9
Many here will have the emotional response of, 'let's bring them ALL over here!'
Truth be told, we can NOT bring every soul on the planet who is poor, suffering or fleeing into our country. We just can't.
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Islam has spread across the globe for the past 1300+ years.
Just think of the headlines the NYT would have run for all those years?
There are no perfect victims. We are all the descendants of survivors. We are all the descendants of oppressors.
Myanmar must stop its attacks on the Rohingya. It must move forward as a pluralistic society. People can coexist in peace- see Cyprus, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand.
7
Both Philippines and Thailand (Southern region) are fighting Muslim insurgency. South Asian and South East Asian countries don't have the resources West has. Most have large population of sunni Muslims (India alone has 170 million Muslims). The Sunni-Wahabi potentates of ME take advantage of the fact and encourage Muslims to start insurgencies in countries in which they have lived for centuries. Pakistanis arm and train them while Saudis fund them. And when the host countries retaliate West excoriates them.
1
This is outrageous. Why has this clear situation of ethnic cleansing been lightly reported over the years, and practically ignored by the world bodies? Where is the emergency rescue and calls for resettlement?
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You can help right now: donate to groups that are providing aide.
And you can do even more- volunteer and go to South-East Asia and help directly.
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Obviously UN help has to be given to Bangladesh. That country, about one third the seize of California and 160 million people, was about to explode even before the Rohingya crisis.
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Their problems were not created over-night. Bangladesh is the only country equipped to deal with the problems in Bangladesh.
4
The first thought that comes to mind when reading about the crisis in Rakhine is that we all stood by, doing nothing. This crisis is not new. The Burmese Government's and military' mistreatment of the Rohingyas - whom they insist on calling Bangladeshis - have been going on for years. The UN has stayed largely silent, hoping that someday the Burmese majority would change. They will not.
The second thought that comes to mind is actually a question. Violence by Muslim jihadi terrorists often leads to westerners asking why do not the entire Muslim population of the world condemn such acts. So why aren't we asking the Dalai Lama and other prominent Budhists, or the Buddhist populations of Sri Lanka and Thailand and India to condemn the Burmese Buddhists?
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The Myanmar Govt call the Rohingya 'Bengali' a much broader definition than Bangladeshi as it includes the historic region of Bengal, the capital of which was Kolkata until Dhaka became the capital of Bangladesh after Partition. It is for this broader reason - that the Rohingya actually moved to then Burma before the creation of Bangladesh - that Bangladesh is upset that India has not been forthcoming in condemning Myanmar or offering assistance for the refugees. Note that Myanmar has conducted ethnic cleansing against the Karen indigenous tribe on its eastern borders for decades.
2
You are right about the fact that the Rohingyas were in Burma already from way before the partition of India. But did they ``move'' to Burma, or did the Burma-India border move to make them ``foreigners'' in their own land? Sort of like what happened to the descendents of the citizens of Mexico who became Americans when the border moved.
News flash for Mrs. San Suu Kyi: even if the Rohingya ARE "illegal immigrants" (and they're not) that doesn't mean your government gets to persecute them. You don't want to end up like the United States, right? Next question: when Muslims are oppressed in the East (i.e., in Burma, Xinjiang and Chechnya) why do the Salafists in the Middle East remain silent?
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