State media issues correction after publishing racial slur

By HANNA HINDSTROM
Published: 6 June 2012

Aung San Suu Kyi talks to Burmese Muslims leaders at the National League for Democracy head office in Rangoon on 6 June 2012. (Reuters)

Burmese state media has issued a retraction for the use of racially offensive language in its official appeal for calm after sectarian violence saw ten Muslims brutally killed by an angry mob on Sunday in Arakan state.

A government statement published in the New Light of Myanmar on Tuesday warned against “anarchic and lawless” acts, but attracted a virulent backlash for referring to the victims as “kalar” – a racial slur for Muslims or persons of Indian appearance.

In a correction published today, the government paper urged readers to refer to the victims as “Islamic residents”.

Dozens of people took to the streets in Rangoon yesterday to protest growing anti-Muslim violence and accused the government of fanning the flames of sectarian tensions. Political leaders and civil society groups appealed for calm and called on the government to issue an apology.

“The newspapers should not stoke this conflict. Are they trying to suggest that one race is more violent than others?” said ethnic Arakanese MP Aye Maung from the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party.

Religious tensions have flared in Arakan state after three Muslim men were accused of the gang rape and murder of an ethnic Rakhine girl. It culminated in a bloody massacre on Sunday, when an angry mob set upon a bus filled with Muslim pilgrims and beat ten of them to death before setting the vehicle ablaze and defiling their corpses.

The violence has once again brought to the fore allegations of entrenched racism in Burmese society, particularly targeted against Muslims and the much-persecuted Rohingya minority group – dismissed as “illegal Bengali immigrants” by the government.

Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi today finally threw her voice into the debate, calling for the perpetrators to be held to account in accordance with the rule of law. She added that “the majority of the people in a society should have sympathy for the minority.”

“Maybe some people wouldn’t like me saying this but I have to say what I must say regardless of whether they like it or not. When you are the majority in a society, then you are the strong party. If you are strong then you must be generous and sympathetic. I would like to see all people in Burma get along with each other regardless of their religion and ethnicity.”

In the past, Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy has carefully steered clear of discussing Burma’s Muslim minority, especially the Rohingya, which is seen a hot-button political issue that risks alienating many of its supporters.

A joint statement issued by several Rohingya and human rights groups on Monday also called for religious tolerance and reconciliation.

“The government is fully responsible for the law and order situation in the whole country. It should not make the Muslims scapegoats, but it has full responsibility to protect the rights, honour and dignity of all citizens,” they said.

Tags: Arakan state, aung san suu kyi, muslims, New Light of Myanmar

Author: HANNA HINDSTROM              Category: News, Politics

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1. Maung Kyaw Nu, A former political prisoner of conscience says:

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   June 6, 2012 at 1:05 pm

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   Thursday, 24 May 2012
   Rohingya Appeal to Suu Kyi
   Source from Irrawaddy news, 24 May 2012

   A Rohingya mother and her children carry water from a stream to their refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. (PHOTO: Reuters)

   BANGKOK—An exiled Rohingya activist last night appealed to MPs and to National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi to assist the almost 2 million Rohingya living in Burma and elsewhere.

   “I would like to ask our beloved Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to speak out of behalf of Rohingya people, and ask for the return of our lost rights, the rights our forefathers had,” said Maung Kyaw Nu, the president of the Burmese Rohingya Association of Thailand.

   The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority living mostly in western Burma’s Arakan State where they are denied Burmese citizenship, and subjected to various forms of discrimination: they generally have to wait two to three years for permits to marry; are usually prohibited from leaving the village where they live; and are subject to human rights and other abuses by local civil and military authorities.

   When Rohingya couples do receive permission to marry, they must sign an agreement that they will not have more than two children. If a couple marries without official permission, the husband can be prosecuted and spend five years in detention—with Buthidaung jail in northern Arakan State thought to hold prisoners in this category.

   However, the Rohingya say they were promised equal rights by Burma’s colonial-era independence heroes, including Aung San Suu Kyi’s father, Gen. Aung San, in return for their support in the struggle against British rule.

   “In 1946 General Aung San visited my area,” said Maung Kyaw Nu. “He said to our people ‘I give you a blank cheque, please co-operate with me.’”

   All told, around 750,000 Rohingya live in Burma, mostly in Arakan State in the country’s west, with an estimated 1…
2. Maung Kyaw Nu, A former political prisoner of conscience says:

   Your comment is awaiting moderation.

   June 6, 2012 at 1:10 pm

   In 1946 General Aung San visited my area,” said Maung Kyaw Nu. “He said to our people ‘I give you a blank cheque, please co-operate with me.’”

   All told, around 750,000 Rohingya live in Burma, mostly in Arakan State in the country’s west, with an estimated 1 million more living in exile in Bangladesh, Malaysia, India and elsewhere—an exodus prompted by decades of human rights violations and discrimination.

   Rohingya endure squalid and dangerous conditions in camps in Bangladesh and third countries, such is the oppression they face at home, say activists. Some Rohingya undertake a perilous sea journey to Thailand, where in 2009 Thai authorities were accused of pushing Rohingya boats out to sea and leaving the refugees to their fate on the open waters. Other Rohingya attempt get to Indonesia or Australia in search of a new life, including a group of 26 who were almost shipwrecked en route to Australia from Indonesia, subsequently helped to land in Timor-Leste by local fishermen.

   The push factor could be increasing, according to Human Rights Watch Asia deputy director Phil Robertson, who says relations between the Rohingya and the majority Buddhist Rakhine in the western region are deteriorating, even as Burma continues a recent glasnost. “While there are now some Rohingya MPs, some Buddhist Rakhine in the state assembly are raising issues for the Rohingya,” he said.

   Phil Robertson says Burma’s treatment of the Rohingya and the country’s 100-plus other ethnic minorities is a litmus test for the government’s reform credentials. “Is there a place for the Rohingya in Burma?” he asked.

   Thai photographer Suthep Kritsanavarin has visited the region. “Between the Rakhine and the Rohingya there is always tension,” he said, speaking at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand, where his exhibition “Stateless Rohingya: Running on Empty,” is on display.

   Burma is scheduled to host a meeting of the Asean human rights commission from June 3-6. It…
3. Maung Kyaw Nu, A former political prisoner of conscience says:

   Your comment is awaiting moderation.

   June 6, 2012 at 1:14 pm

   Burma is scheduled to host a meeting of the Asean human rights commission from June 3-6. It seems unlikely that the Rohingya issue will be discussed at the get-together, as according to Phil Robertson, the Rohingya were not discussed during the commission’s last meeting in Bangkok.

   “So far, Asean has been ducking this issue,” he said, asking: “Can Asean grapple with a fundamental regional problem, and solve it?”
   Maung Kyaw Nu,
   President,
   Posted by BRAT Burmes Rohingya Associaation of Thailand.
4. Maung Kyaw Nu, A former political prisoner of conscience says:

   Your comment is awaiting moderation.

   June 6, 2012 at 2:20 pm

   Thanks Daw Suu. You are really great. Your real love to wards minority including Rohingyas and Muslim of Burma proved today.I understand your position.The Rohingyas recall Bokyoke Aung San’s love
   to wards them.
   The international community and our students generations acceptetd your remark to wards fearful massacre.
   We are always with you.