ROHINGYAS NGO CONDEMNS CHILDREN SHOOTING BY BURMESE POLICE

Jakarta, 21 Jumadil Akhir 1434/30 April 2013 (MINA) – Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO), one of International NGO based in UK condems the Burmese police shooting, on 26 April 2013, of a group of Rohingya children for their peaceful protest chanting “Rohingya, Rohingya.”

A 15 year old boy namely Mohammad Ali of Thet Kay Bin was injured in the shooting and is now taking treatment in a private clinic, according to ARNO statement published in www.rohingyq.org Sunday (28/4) and monitored here by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).

The incident happened when hostile operational team consisting of immigration, military, NaSaKa, police and village administrators came to Thet Kay Byin village near Ba Du Pha Rohingya displacement camp in Arakan’s capital Sittwe (Akyab), to perform the current operation forcing the Rohingya to register as “Bengali” for the census.

The statement reported From 26 April the police have arrested six Rohingya people under concocted charges. They are U Ba Tha (47), U Kyaw Myint (46), Mohammad Hussain (45) Saw Lay Ma (35), San Lin (45) and Kyaw Khin (40).

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ARNO reported that the police are also hunting down more Rohingya elders in an attempt to terrorise the Rohingya community. All these have been done under the direction of Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP) which dominates the Arakan Sate government and pursues a policy of Rohingya extermination with the blessing of the central government. An atmosphere of terror has been created while the whole Rohingya community is being affected by the humanitarian disaster.

The so-called census operation was first conducted immediately after June and October 2012 deadly violence against Muslims in Arakan at irregular intervals but was stopped when the Rohingyas rejected to be registered as “Bengali”. But from 10 April 2013 the authorities resumed it selectively in Maungdaw and Buthidaung township torturing and forcing the Rohingyas into agreeing to register as “Bengali”.

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The Rohingya people ‘have the collective right to live in freedom, peace and security as distinct people’ and additionally they have the right to life. Burma is a state party to the UN Convention on Rights of Child and it has basic obligation to ‘respect and ensure’ the rights in the convention to Rohingya children without discrimination of any kind.

“To force the Rohingya people into accepting ‘Bengali’ against their will is an ethnocide or an international crime, and to this fact we invite the attention of the United Nations and the international community,” the statement said.

The Rohingya NGO demand to the Burmese government To register the Rohingya people as “Rohingya” in the census in accordance with their genuine and legitimate aspiration, as well as stop all plan to deprive the Rohingya people of their integrity as distinct people, or of their cultural values or ethnic identity.

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It also urged the government to stop any action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing the Rohingya people of their lands, properties or resources; and stop forcible transfer of their population and creating domineering situation aims at expelling them from their ancestral homeland.

The last the NGO urged to fulfil its obligation as a state party, and to ensue the rights of the Rohingya children in accordance with the provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of Child (CRC) and to release all those Rohingyas who have been arrested under false charges, and to investigate the police shooting of Rohingya children for their peaceful protest and bring the perpetrators to justice.(T/P03/E1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)