News @ M-Media

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  • Monks’ Plan to Prohibit Dealings with Muslims in Karen State: Islamic Organizations in Myanmar Need Firm Actions

    Monks’ Plan to Prohibit Dealings with Muslims in Karen State: Islamic Organizations in Myanmar Need Firm Actions

    October-19th- 2012
    M-Media

    Myanmar Post Global Journal No (81) published on 19th. October 2012 had stated on its front page that “Karen State various Buddhist Sects’ Protection Organization had announces Four Sets of Rules including the prohibiting of Buddhist own houses, land, farming land, orchard land from selling to Muslims of Myanmar”.

    In that news-
    The meeting held in Mae Baung Monastry, Pha-an, was attended by more than 100 persons including the Chief Administrators from all the nine quarters except the two from the Pha-an Township.

    Zwe Kapin Taung Abbot U Widaza had announced four rules.
    Those Four Rules were:

    (1) Prohibiting of selling or renting or using as collateral for borrowing money (Sic) (Note: never done by any Muslims to get illegal interest money) the Buddhist own houses, land, farming land, orchard land to Muslims of Myanmar.

    (2) Prohibiting Buddhist women to marry with Muslims.

    (3) Buddhists should patronize the Buddhist shops only.

    (4) Prohibiting of Buddhists from allowing themselves to use their names from buying or renting the Buddhist own houses, land, farming land, orchard land for the Muslims.

    Anyone who disobeys the above rules would be punished severely.

    These Rules were distributed to the whole (Pha-an) town the next day after the meeting on 14th October.

    Just before that meeting Karen Prime Minister U Zaw Min had visited the Zwe Kapin Taung Abbot U Widaza.

    It had stated in the report that the Buddhists Protection procedures and actions were sent to the Karen Prime Minister, Karen State Parliament Chairmen, Karen State Security and Border Affairs Ministry and other Government Officials.

    The publishing of the above news:
    1. Directly attack the peaceful coexistence between different religions.
    2. It is against the existing 2008 Constitution.
    3. It is against the presently practicing open market system by the government.
    4. Interfering the present State and Division Administration mechanism.
    5. Contravening the Printing and Publishing Censorship Rules and Regulations.
    The five top Islamic Organizations in Myanmar should take firm action on the Myanmar Post Global Journal which published the above news and this cases involving the dangerous events evolving in Pha-an, Karen State .

     

    Source Here

  • Muslim Cemetery in Bokalay forcibly occupied and an industrial construction project illegally going on

    Muslim Cemetery in Bokalay forcibly occupied and an industrial construction project illegally going on

    October 9, 2012
    M-Media
    Reporter-Thun Tauk

    It has been reported that a Muslim cemetery in Bokalay town, Ayarwaddy Division has been forcibly occupied and a building for an industry is being illegally constructed on the land.
    Regarding that report, an investigation was made, and it was found that about half of the Muslim Cemetery’s land from Bokalay has been
    forcibly occupied by a crony businessman, the tombs in the cemetery have been removed to other places without following a proper procedure and consent, and a construction for an industrial project has been carried out within a short time.

    A petition to the President against the abovementioned case has been signed by more than 800 people, including the committee members for the cemetery and the local Muslims, and sent on October 4, 2012.

    The detailed information about the news will be updated.

  • A 74-year-old Myanmar Muslim was intentionally and brutally attacked by a group of Buddhist Monks in Hpa-an

    A 74-year-old Myanmar Muslim was intentionally and brutally attacked by a group of Buddhist Monks in Hpa-an

    September.5.2012

    M-Media

    the victim in the hospital

    In Hpa-an, the capital of Kayin State, U Jaahal, a 74 years old Myanmar Muslim, was savagely beaten by terrorist Buddhist Monks during going to the River Bank Mosque for early morning prayer at round about 5 am on 5th September 2012. On his way, near the bazaar, he met with a row of monks who went round the town to accept offerings of food and so waited together with other two peoples to pass this row. When the row was suddenly sparse, they both went through it firstly and then he followed them to pass it. At that time, a monk who left behind ran and kicked him so that he fell down. Then at least four monks attacked collectively him. Although the local residents who felt this was unseemly requested the monks to discontinue their attack on him, they did not stop and continued beating until they wanted and then left him alone on the road. Because of their brutal attack, he was badly injured and even hospitalized.

    Islamic Religious Organizations had already informed officially this case to local authority but no action is taken up to now.

    “Here, this kind of attack is not uncommon. Usually occur in Pa-an. Mostly in Block (2) and (4). But this attack is the worst. The worst monks are ones who live in Thiri Mandine and Thayettaw Monasteries. In this case, the old man is 74 and also has poor sight. So it is easy to trick him. When the monks saw an old man with beard and skullcap, they intentionally scattered the row and allow one to two people to pass. But at the old man’s turn, they fraudulently deceive him and attack him. For this attack, there is no retaliation and revenge of the Muslim Community at all. The monks of these monasteries frighten Muslims not to dare buy houses and disturb in different ways unable to live in case Muslims even buy houses in Hpa-an. The condition becomes worse and worse day by day because there is no effective action taken even though these issues are reported to the local authority,” a local resident disappointedly said.

     

    the victim in the hospital
    Official letter informed by a Myanmar Muslim Organization to local authority for this issue

    Ref: M.M.M

  • Monks stage anti-Rohingya march in Myanmar

    Monks stage anti-Rohingya march in Myanmar

    Sep. 2. 2012

    aljazeera

    Hundreds of Buddhist monks in Myanmar have staged a rally in support of President Thein Sein’s proposal to send the members of the Rohingya minority group to another country.

    The protest is the latest indication of deep rooted sentiment against the Rohingya population in Myanmar [AFP]

    Sunday’s rally in Mandalay, the country’s second largest city, is the latest indication of deep-seated sentiment against the Rohingya after violence with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in June left at least 83 people dead and tens of thousands displaced.

    The monks held a banner saying, “Save your motherland Myanmar by supporting the president”, while others criticised United Nations human rights envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana, who has faced accusations that he is biased in favour of the Rohingya.

    The leader of the march, a monk named Wirathu, told the AFP news agency that the protest was to “let the world know that Rohingya are not among Myanmar’s ethnic groups at all”.

    Wirathu was jailed in 2003 for distributing anti-Muslim literature. He was given a 25-year sentence but released in January this year under an amnesty.

    The monks say they will demonstrate and march for the next three days and expect many more people to join them.

    Persecuted minority

    The United Nations has referred to the Rohingya, widely reviled by the Buddhist majority in Myanmar, as among themost persecuted people on Earth.

    The Rohingya have been denied citizenship even though many of their families have lived in Myanmar for generations.

    Myanmar has denied a crackdown on Muslims and launched an inquiry into the violence, while Thein Sein has accusedBuddhist monks, politicians and other ethnic Rakhine figures of kindling hatred towards the Rohingya in a report sent to parliament last month.

    However, in comments to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, published on his official website in July, he suggested it was “impossible to accept the illegally entered Rohingya, who are not our ethnicity” and mooted sending the group to a third country or UN administered camps.

    The proposal was quickly opposed by the UN refugee agency.

    Rights groups claim the government did little to stop the violence initially and then turned its security forces on the Rohingya with targeted killings, rapes, mass arrests and torture.

    Myanmar considers the Rohingya to be illegal migrants from Bangladesh but Bangladesh also rejects them, rendering them stateless.

    The UN estimates that 800,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar and the country’s president has said the trouble in Rakhine state is an internal affair of the country and should not be internationalised.

  • Latest conditions of Muslims in Rakhine, informed by the recent returnees (1)

    27 August 2012
    M-Media

    There is not yet a real Genocide in Arakan State. But we observed that there are conditions forcing them into mass death leading to an impending “genocide”.

    For example, they are under Martial Law: which limited their mobility and they could not buy anything. Another factor is that if the conditions continue like this present situation, they all would be stuck in the refugee camps leading to a slow death.
    Diarrhoea, Cholera, Malaria and Dengue Fever are wide spread there. Some died infront of us while we were trying to save them.

    No toilet, no sanitary latrine, no clean drinking water or clean water for household use. Piles of faeces are everywhere near the ponds, even difficult to put a step to it. No medicine. Pulmonary Tuberculosis patients became immune because of lack of anti-Tuberculoses medication.

    No mosquito nets. Although there was a continuous shower of rains, huge swamps of mosquitoes repeatedly invaded wonderfully into the camps.

    There are numerous malnourished children and adults there. (Their photographs were shown at the talk in the mosque in mainland Myanmar, after the night prayers). Children with skin on bone appearances with bloated tummies were seen. Although they have some dried meat and fish, there are no vegetables and no fruits available to eat except the grass. Yes, some have to eat grass and I have even seen some children who have no food at all and their mothers have to cut their hair and feed them.

    Local leader helped to control the huge amount of unruly patients. Those who pushed to the front were slapped, Japanese style, or slashed with cane to force them back. Those assaulted patients even failed to show the physical or mental pain they suffered. It is a pity that they just obeyed and accepted the assault quietly like the cows (or animals). They are too scared and mentally depressed.
    Most of them are illiterate.

    Donated few hundred thousand Kyats could just provide six condensed-milk-tins of rice and few thousand Kyats for each of them. I wonder how they could continue to cope and stand before the international aids arrived to them individually.
    These people are trapped in Rakhine state with the disaster, in different condition from their original status, and are slowly going to die without been killed. Therefore we could be guilty and indirectly held responsible if we knowingly abandon them or neglected to let them die slowly.

    Most important thing is we need to arrange for immediate requirements for food and medical care.