Buddhists massacre Muslims in Myanmar, and the country is run by a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Is this true and how is it possible. What happened in Myanmar: Arakan massacre of Buddhists and Muslims Why Muslims are being killed in Myanmar

It's hard to imagine a Buddhist monk with a can of gasoline going to set fire to a living person... Isn't it? (not to look nervous!!!)

XXI century and pogroms? A common occurrence...

It's hard to imagine a Buddhist monk with a can of gasoline going to set fire to a living person... Isn't it? It is also difficult to imagine a Muslim as a victim of this aggression. Undoubtedly. Stereotypes work magically. A peaceful Buddhist and an aggressor Muslim - yes, this is a completely understandable image that fits in the mind. However, the brutal events in Burma have eloquently shown that our beliefs do not always correspond to reality. And although someone may try to shift the blame on the victim, it is still obvious that it will be difficult to repaint black into white.

For some reason, the terrible events did not stir up, as it is fashionable to say, progressive humanity, did not cause a wave of indignation among law-abiding citizens, which is why there are no protests or pickets in defense of the persecuted and oppressed people. Then, as well as for lesser sins, some countries turn into outcasts, the government of Myanmar did not even think of declaring a boycott. I would like to know why such injustice occurs against an entire nation, and why this problem has not been solved so far? Let's try to understand...

Problem history

The Rohingya are an Islamic people in Myanmar, the indigenous inhabitants of the territory of the modern state of Rakhine, before that they had their own state called Arakan. The area inhabited by the Rohingya was only annexed to Burma in the 1700s. According to the 2012 census, the number of Muslims living in Myanmar was 800,000, according to other sources, there are exactly one million more. The United Nations considers them to be one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. And this persecution dates back to World War II, when Japanese troops invaded Burma, which was then under British colonial rule. On March 28, 1942, about 5,000 Muslims were killed by Rakhine nationalists in the cities of Minbaya and Mrohaung.

In 1978, 200,000 Muslims fled from a bloody military operation in Bangladesh. In 1991-1992 another 250,000 people went there, and 100,000 went to Thailand.

Last summer, with the connivance of the local authorities, there was a new outbreak of massacres of Muslims. In the spring of this year, the violence that had subsided gained even greater momentum. According to some reports, 20 thousand (!) Muslims have already been killed, and hundreds of thousands of refugees cannot receive humanitarian assistance. Modern oppression is conducted on a different level and with more sophisticated methods. The authorities are inciting Buddhist monks into the massacre, the police and the army are indifferent to the pogroms, and sometimes even take part on the side of the oppressors.

The Rohingya are not only being physically exterminated, for decades these unfortunate people have been ostracized, oppressed, subjected to terrible physical and emotional abuse by the government of Myanmar. Declaring Muslims as foreigners, as they are considered only immigrants from Bangladesh, the Rohingyas were deprived of their citizenship. Myanmar is home to a huge number of indigenous peoples. The government recognizes 135 different ethnic minorities, but the Rohingya is not among them.

The persecuted people are "subdued" in a variety of ways, including the absolute and unjustified prohibition by most Buddhist communities of Muslims from working in the private or public sector, as well as a ban on serving in the police or the armed forces. Or if someone is hired in rare cases, then they are charged with observance of Buddhist rituals, which, of course, is incompatible with Islam. They are subjected to modern slavery through forced labor. Due to the fact that the national government denies them the right to citizenship in their home country, many of their lands are confiscated and their movement within the country is restricted, there are discriminatory restrictions on access to education. There is also a strict limit for every Muslim family to have no more than two children, according to Burmese law. And to start a family they need to pay a few hundred dollars. Those who live in nikah, who are not in a “legal” marriage, are severely persecuted and punished with a prison term.

And the civilized world pretends...

And persecution on religious grounds, infringement of the rights both as citizens and as a person could somehow be tolerated. However, murders and pogroms cannot leave anyone indifferent. They don't kill in a war, whole villages are destroyed by peaceful, innocent people, women and children are dying. They are being burned alive! And what a cynic or scoundrel one must be to somehow try to justify such outrage!

Depending on who submits the information, the picture of the conflict varies greatly and reflects the political (religious) position of news agencies. Burmese non-state media refer to the situation as "immigrant versus master" instigated by the ethnic Rohingya. Yes, there was the rape of a Burmese woman by two Rohingyas. For this they were sentenced to death. The criminals got it in full. This year there was a dispute in a jewelry store. It is clear that crime is everywhere and Burma is no exception. And this is a reason, but not a reason for the massacre, the inhumanity of which cannot be compared with anything. Where did yesterday's neighbors get such hatred, such heartlessness? Imagine how you can douse gasoline and set fire to living people, those who are not guilty of anything, those who have families, children, the same as you?! Do they consider them to be animals or cockroaches that need to be crushed? Those yelling in horror, screaming, in agony, in agony ... It does not fit in my head.

What is nightmarish for Europeans or Americans for other people is like a game? They have the same skin, nerves and pain. Or should they not be shown on the news? Why, then, does the Western world, the master of our ether, not boil with indignation? The timid voices of human rights activists are heard in narrow circles, inaudible to a wide audience. Amnesty International says: "The situation in the northern state of Rakhine remains very tense." The organization Human Rights Watch made an extensive report on how the rights of the Rohingya are being violated, documented the facts of cruelty and violence by the authorities. But even they manage to accuse them of bias, they talk about some sort of arms depots...

Again the unfortunate double standards. So what if Burma looks like a tasty morsel for the economy and politics of the West. The country is attractive in terms of oil, gas, copper, zinc, tin, tungsten, iron ore, etc. It turns out that 90% of the world's rubies, which are mined in Burma, are more expensive and more valuable than human lives. The Rohingya are not visible behind these shiny pebbles.

What can I say, even if the leader of the Burmese opposition and Nobel Prize winner in 1991, Aung San Suu Kyi inexcusably ignored the plight of the Rohingya Muslims and did not say a word about the difficulties and injustice that befell them ...

Islamic countries will not be silent

The guardians of human rights, the world gendarme - the United States, instantly reacting to the infringement of human dignity, did not even consider it necessary to turn to the Burmese authorities on this matter. The European Union has taken diplomatic initiatives to stop the massacre of Rohingya Muslims. And several experts were even sent to Myanmar to study the circumstances of the incident.

Maybe not as loudly as we would like, but nevertheless, representatives of the repressed Muslims of Myanmar are trying to take feasible actions in the fight against the ongoing lawlessness. One of them, Muhammad Yunus, turned to the leadership of Turkey for support, urging him and the whole world to intervene in the situation with the destruction of the Rohingya. In turn, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appealed to the UN demanding to resolve the situation in western Myanmar, comparing what is happening there with the massacres in Gaza, Ramallah and Jerusalem.

Thousands of demonstrations against the genocide of Muslims in Myanmar also took place in a number of countries: Iran, Indonesia, Palestine, Pakistan, Thailand, etc. In a number of countries, the demonstrators demanded that their governments put pressure on the leadership of Burma in order to protect people who profess Islam.

Not a single true person can remain indifferent to the evil done in relation to brothers in faith. And he will not allow injustice to non-brothers either. Someone will make a dua-plea in defense of the oppressed, the other will support with a word. There are those who are able to defend with weapons. The world is such that harassment and even killing of people, in particular Rohingya Muslims, can easily go unpunished. Will it continue like this forever? Nothing lasts forever, as the wise Chinese friends of the Burmese say.

Sacrificial meat distributed among more than 3 million people in need

The Turkish Red Crescent on the Eid al-Adha distributed the meat of 125,000 head of cattle in 33 countries, including Turkey, said the head of the Turkish Red Crescent Kerem Kinik.

“Sacrificial meat has been distributed among more than three million people in need,” Kynyk said.

According to him, 2,275 heads of cattle have been sacrificed this year in Bangladesh, the meat of which is distributed among refugees from Arakan.

Refrigerators delivered 22,000 packages of sacrificial meat to the border of Bangladesh and Myanmar.

In Pakistan, the Turkish Red Crescent has distributed the meat of 14,000 head of cattle to some 200,000 people in need.

In Niger, meat from 14,000 head of cattle has been distributed among the needy, in Chad - 5,250, and in Burkina Faso - 3,500.

In the Syrian city of Aazaz, the Turkish Red Crescent distributed the meat of two thousand heads of cattle among the needy, in Iraq - 1050 heads, in Palestine - 420.

The Turkish Red Crescent (tour. Türkiye Kızılay Derneği) is the largest Turkish medical care organization that is part of the international Red Cross and Red Crescent movement.

The Turkish Red Crescent was founded on June 11, 1868 in the Ottoman Empire under the name Osmanlı Yaralı ve Hasta Askerlere Yardım Cemiyeti (Ottoman organization for wounded and sick soldiers). Since then, it has changed its name several times. In 1877 it became known as Osmanlı Hilal-i Ahmer Cemiyeti (Ottoman Red Crescent Organization). The name Türkiye Kızılay Cemiyeti (Organization of the Red Crescent of Turkey) received in 1935 after the formation of the Turkish Republic from its leader Kemal Atatürk. Its first leader was a Greek by origin, Marko Pasha (Markos Apostolidis). It received its current name in 1947.

The Turkish Red Crescent is led by an 11-member commission (Yönetim Kurulu). Its current chairman is Kerem Kınık. There is also a Red Crescent Supervisory Board (Denetim Kurulu), a Directorate General for Management (Genel Müdürlük) and a Council for Women and Youth Affairs. The governing bodies of the organization are located in Ankara. There are more than 650 branches of the Red Crescent throughout Turkey. Its supreme body is the General Assembly (Genel Kongre), which brings together representatives of all departments and governing bodies of the Red Crescent. The General Assembly takes place annually in April.

The goals of the organization are expressed as follows:

Turkish Red Crescent Society is a humanitarian organization that provides relief to the vulnerable and those in need by mobilizing the power and resources of the community to protect human dignity anytime, anywhere, under any conditions and support the enhancement of the community's capacity to cope with disasters .

The work of the Turkish Red Crescent is also based on the seven basic rules adopted at the XX International Conference of the Red Cross Societies in 1965 in Vienna: humanism, non-partisanship, neutrality, independence, voluntariness, unity and universality.

The Turkish Red Crescent sees its tasks in providing all possible assistance in overcoming natural disasters and their consequences, organizing donation, measures to restore health (rehabilitation), conduct educational activities in the fields of sanitation and health hygiene.

The Turkish Red Cross is not funded by the state, but by private donations, membership fees, charitable events, special stamps, etc.

President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov congratulated the people of Tatarstan on the blessed holiday of sacrifice Eid al-Adha.

The President of the Republic noted that today the desire of believers for peace and unity is especially felt. “All of us, both those who make the expiatory Hajj and those who celebrate Eid al-Adha near their homes, are waiting and hoping that the Almighty will hear our sincere prayers and give us faith and strength to do good deeds, setting a pious example for our children and grandchildren, ”the congratulation says.

The eternal values ​​professed by Muslims, Christians and representatives of other traditional religions form the basis of human existence, cultivating a high sense of responsibility for our families, the future of the republic, the country and the entire world civilization, Minnikhanov continued.

“In Tatarstan, which has become a common home for people of many nationalities and religions, Eid al-Adha is one of the most revered and widely celebrated holidays. May our souls open completely before Allah, and our good deeds make us spiritually richer and cleaner!” - said the President, wishing the inhabitants of the republic optimism, happiness, health and well-being!

Myanmar was again in the spotlight of the world press: on July 1, a mob of Buddhists burned down a mosque in the village of Hpakant, Kachin State. The attackers were irritated by the fact that a Muslim prayer building was built too close to a Buddhist temple. A week earlier, a similar incident occurred in the province of Pegu (Bago). A mosque was also destroyed there, and a local resident, a Muslim, was also beaten.

• Reuters

Such incidents are not uncommon in modern Myanmar. This state of Southeast Asia borders on China, Laos, Thailand, India and Bangladesh. From Bangladesh, with a population of 170 million, Muslims are illegally resettled in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, with a population of 55 million. Those who call themselves Rohingya have traveled this path many years ago. They settled in the state of Rakhine (Arakan), a historical land for the Myanmar people, the cradle of the Burmese nation. Settled but not assimilated.

Migrants with roots

“Traditional Muslims of Myanmar, such as Malabar Indians, Bengalis, Chinese Muslims, Burmese Muslims, live throughout Myanmar,” explains orientalist Pyotr Kozma, who lives in Myanmar and maintains a popular blog about the country, in an interview with RT. “With this traditional Muslim ummah, Buddhists have had experience of coexisting for many decades, therefore, despite the excesses, it rarely came to large-scale conflicts.”

With the Rohingya Bengalis, it is a completely different story. Officially, it is believed that several generations ago they illegally entered the territory of Myanmar. “After the National League for Democracy, led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, came to power, the official wording was adjusted. They stopped saying “Bengalis”, they began to say “Muslims living in the Arakan region,” Ksenia Efremova, an associate professor at MGIMO and a specialist in Myanmar, tells RT. “But the problem is that these Muslims themselves consider themselves to be the people of Myanmar and claim citizenship, which they are not granted.”

• Reuters

According to Piotr Kozma, for many years the Myanmar government did not know what to do with the Rohingya. They were not recognized as citizens, but it is incorrect to say that they did this because of religious or ethnic prejudice. “Among the Rohingya, there are many who defected from Bangladesh, including due to problems with the law,” says Piotr Kozma. “Just imagine the enclaves where radicals and criminals who escaped from a neighboring state rule the show.”

The expert notes that the Rohingya traditionally have a high birth rate - each family has 5-10 children. This led to the fact that in one generation the number of immigrants increased several times. “One day this cover was torn off. And here it doesn’t even matter who started it first, ”concludes the orientalist.

Escalation of the conflict

The process got out of hand in 2012. Then in June and October, more than a hundred people died in armed clashes in Rakhine between Buddhists and Muslims. According to the UN, approximately 5,300 houses and places of worship were destroyed.

A state of emergency has been declared in the state, but the tumor of the conflict has already spread throughout Myanmar. By the spring of 2013, the pogroms had moved from the western part of the country to the center. At the end of March, riots began in the city of Meithila. On June 23, 2016, the conflict broke out in the province of Pegu, on July 1 - in Hpakant. What the traditional Myanmar ummah feared most seemed to have happened: Rohingya discontent was being extrapolated to Muslims in general.

• Reuters

Intercommunal controversy

Muslims are one of the parties to the conflict, but it is incorrect to consider the unrest in Myanmar as inter-religious, says Dmitry Mosyakov, head of the department of regional studies at Moscow State University: “There is a significant increase in the number of refugees from Bangladesh who cross the sea and settle in the historical region of Arakan. The appearance of these people does not please the local population. And it doesn’t matter if they are Muslims or representatives of another religion.” According to Mosyakov, Myanmar is a complex conglomeration of nationalities, but all of them are united by a common Burmese history and statehood. Rohingya fall out of this system of communities, and this is the core of the conflict, as a result of which both Muslims and Buddhists die.

Black and white

“At this time, the world media hears the theme of exclusively affected Muslims and says nothing about Buddhists,” adds Piotr Kozma. “Such one-sided coverage of the conflict has given Myanmar Buddhists a sense of a besieged fortress, and this is a direct path to radicalism.”

• Reuters

According to the blogger, the coverage of the unrest in Myanmar in the world's leading media can hardly be called objective, it is obvious that the publications are aimed at a large Islamic audience. “In the state of Rakhine, Muslims were not killed much more than Buddhists, and in terms of the number of destroyed and burned houses, the sides are approximately equal. That is, there was no massacre of "peaceful and defenseless Muslims", there was a conflict in which both sides distinguished themselves almost equally. But, unfortunately, the Buddhists do not have their own Al Jazeera and similar world-class rating television stations to report this,” says Piotr Kozma.

Experts say that the Myanmar authorities are interested in smoothing out the conflict, or at least maintaining the status quo. They are ready to make concessions - peace agreements have recently been reached with other national minorities. But in the case of the Rohingya, this will not work. “These people get into junks and sail along the Bay of Bengal to the Burmese coast. A new wave of refugees provokes new massacres of the local population. The situation can be compared to the migration crisis in Europe – no one really knows what to do with the flow of these foreigners,” concludes Dmitry Mosyakov, head of the department of regional studies at Moscow State University.

In three days, more than 3,000 Muslims have been brutally murdered by Buddhists in Myanmar. People kill their own kind without sparing women or children.

Anti-Muslim pogroms in Myanmar were repeated again, on an even more horrifying scale.

More than 3,000 people have died as a result of the conflict in Myanmar (the old name is Burma) between government forces and Rohingya Muslims that broke out a week ago. It is reported by Reuters with reference to the Myanmar army. According to local authorities, it all started with the fact that "Rohingya militants" attacked several police posts and army barracks in Rakhine state (the old name is Arakan - approx.). The Myanmar army said in a statement that 90 clashes have taken place since August 25, during which 370 militants were killed. Losses among government forces amounted to 15 people. In addition, the militants are accused of killing 14 civilians.

As a result of the clashes, some 27,000 Rohingya refugees crossed the border into Bangladesh to escape persecution. At the same time, according to the Xinhua news agency, almost 40 people, including women and children, died in the Naf River when they tried to cross the border by boat.

The Rohingya are ethnic Muslim Bengalis who were resettled in Arakan in the 19th and early 20th centuries by the British colonial authorities. With a total population of about 1.5 million, they now make up the majority of the population of Rakhine State, but very few of them have Myanmar citizenship. Official authorities and the Buddhist population consider the Rohingya to be illegal migrants from Bangladesh. The conflict between them and the indigenous "Arakanese" - Buddhists - has long roots, but the escalation of this conflict to armed clashes and a humanitarian crisis began only after the transfer of power in Myanmar from the military to civilian governments in 2011-2012.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called the events in Myanmar "Muslim genocide." “Those who turn a blind eye to this genocide under the guise of democracy are its accomplices. The world media, which does not attach any importance to these people in Arakan, are also complicit in this crime. The Muslim population in Arakan, which was four million half a century ago, has been reduced by one third as a result of persecution and bloodshed. The fact that the world community remains silent in response to this is a separate drama, ”Anadolu agency quoted him as saying.

“I also had a telephone conversation with the UN Secretary General. Since September 19, meetings of the UN Security Council on this issue will be held. Turkey will do its best to convey to the world community the facts concerning the situation in Arakan. The issue will also be discussed during bilateral talks. Turkey will speak up even if the rest decide to remain silent,” Erdogan said.

Commented on the events in Myanmar and the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov. “I read the comments and statements of politicians on the situation in Myanmar. The conclusion suggests itself that there is no limit to the hypocrisy and inhumanity of those who are obliged to protect HUMAN! The whole world knows that for a number of years events have been taking place in this country that are impossible not only to show, but also to describe. Humanity has not seen such cruelty since World War II. If I say this, a person who has gone through two terrible wars, then one can judge the scale of the tragedy of one and a half million Rohingya Muslims. First of all, it should be said about Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, who actually leads Myanmar. For many years she was called a fighter for democracy. Six years ago, the military was replaced by a civilian government, Aung San Suu Kyi, who received the Nobel Peace Prize, took power, and after that, ethnic and religious cleansing began. Fascist gas chambers are nothing compared to what is happening in Myanmar. Mass murders, rapes, burning of living people on fires, bred under iron sheets, destruction of everything that belongs to Muslims. Last autumn, more than one thousand houses, schools and mosques of the Rohingyas were destroyed and burned. The Myanmar authorities are trying to destroy the people, and neighboring countries do not accept refugees, introducing ridiculous quotas. The whole world sees that a humanitarian catastrophe is taking place, it sees that this is an open crime against humanity, BUT IT IS SILENT! UN Secretary General António Guterres, instead of harshly condemning the Myanmar authorities, asks Bangladesh to accept refugees! Instead of fighting the cause, he talks about the consequences. And UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein called on the Myanmar leadership to "condemn harsh rhetoric and inciting hatred on social media." Isn't it funny? The Buddhist government of Myanmar is trying to explain the massacres and genocide of the Rohingyas by the actions of those who are trying to put up armed resistance. We condemn violence, no matter who it comes from. But the question arises, what other choice is left to the people who have been driven into pitch hell? Why are the politicians of dozens of countries and human rights organizations silent today, who make statements twice a day if someone in Chechnya simply sneezes from a cold?” the Chechen leader wrote on his Instagram.

No matter what religion a person professed, such massive atrocities should not occur. No religion is worth a man's life. Share this information, we will stop the mass destruction of people.