Tag: Burma

Clamp-down on illegal boats seems to have cooled Rohingya plans to make a run on Australia

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Gosh, could strict border enforcement work!

For new readers, the Rohingya are Muslims, some of whom have lived in Burma, others in Bangladesh.  They are often called “stateless” by the human rights industrial complex which has made them a cause celebre in a public relations campaign we have followed for over five years.   We have a category specifically for Rohingya posts, here (156 previous posts!)

Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, second from right, is quoted often in support of Rohingya.

 

Australians, fed up with the thousands of mostly Muslim illegal migrants coming to their shores in recent years, has elected a government which is sending signals that it won’t be a push-over as some recent governments have been on the subject of illegal immigration.

Here is an article in The Irrawaddy which reports that Rohingya people (already in their own “cultural zones” of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Bangladesh) are now having second thoughts about trying to reach Australia.  Emphasis below is mine.

KUALA LUMPUR — Australia’s clampdown on refugees and migrants trying to reach the country’s shores by boat has prompted uncertainty among Rohingya who, facing state oppression and attacks by Arakanese Buddhists, have fled Burma in the tens of thousands in recent years.

Since Australia’s now-ousted Labor government decided in July to prevent refugees traveling by sea from landing in Australia—saying that would-be arrivals would be taken to processing centers in neighboring Nauru and Papua New Guinea (PNG)—some Rohingya who had hopes of making it to Australia are now in a bind.

“We are disappointed, we feel like we are stuck,” said Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani, president of the Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organization Malaysia (MERHOM). “Many of us do not have papers here [in Malaysia] and we have no status in Burma. It is a difficult situation for anyone who hoped to travel to Australia,” Ahmad told The Irrawaddy.  [To “travel” or make an illegal run for Australian shores!—ed]

Thousands of Rohingya refugees undertake a treacherous maritime journey from western Burma to Thailand or Malaysia. From there some in turn hope to reach Australia, usually attempting another dangerous maritime crossing through the Indian Ocean.

[…..]

Rohingya arrivals to Australia are difficult to quantify, as those who do make it are listed as “stateless” by Australia, while some others who arrived in Australia over recent years claimed to be Rohingya but were assessed by Australia to be either Bangladeshi nationals or Burmese Muslims, according to Chris Lewa.  [I suspect that those Rohingya getting into the US through refugee resettlement are being referred to as Burmese Muslims as well, since the word ‘Rohingya’ is associated with some pretty rough types.—ed]

Australian government statistics—covering the years from 1998 to 2012—list 2,204 stateless maritime arrivals to Australia, a cohort that includes Kurds, Palestinians and Rohingya.

The boat people issue became a major election issue as immigration restrictionist Tony Abbott was elected as the new Prime Minister last month.

A voter backlash against the arrival of over 40,000 asylum seekers since 2007, when policy was relaxed for a time, prompted both of Australia’s main parties to suggest tighter controls.

I found this bit of the story of interest too:

Indonesia is a common transit point for refugees trying to reach Australia, Rohingya included. At least 28 Middle Eastern migrants drowned when a boat, which was aiming to reach Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, sank off Indonesia in late September.

Note they are simply referred to generically as ‘Middle Eastern’ migrants with no mention that they were Lebanese pretending to be Syrian refugees as our commenter ‘pungentpeppers’ reported here.

The photo is from this story about a UNHCR meeting in June.  In a cursory search I can’t find a specific website for Lewa’s Arakan Project, lots of references to Lewa and the status of the Project as an NGO, but no website.  if any industrious readers find one, let us know!

This is rich! UAE calls on Buddhist Burma to treat Muslim Rohingya better

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Hey here is an idea, maybe rather than shoving the minority Muslim population down the throats of the Burmese, the rich United Arab Emirates could welcome the Rohingya to the UAE—but, oops! the UAE doesn’t take refugees!

Monks protest against the Organization of Islamic Cooperation! Imagine if we had such brave people!

There would definitely be less tension in the whole world if we followed the Daniel Pipe’s plan of keeping Muslim refugees in their own “culture zones!”

From WAM.org:

WAM NEW YORK, 28th September 2013 (WAM)– The UAE has expressed concern over the acts of violence which target the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar, and demanded the international community encourage the government of Myanmar to carry out its duty to put an end to these acts which contradict the basic principles of human rights, as well as to help the Rohingya restore their rights as a Muslim Minority in Myanmar.

The UAE also re-affirmed that it will continue to provide humanitarian aid to the victims of violence in Myanmar and to defend the legitimate rights of the Muslim minority in the country.

This came in the UAE’s statement at the meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group on Rohingya, held in New York, USA, under the chairmanship of Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Secretary General of OIC, on the margins of the 68th United Nations General Assembly.

I think the OIC is still smarting from being banned by Burma.  They wanted to get into Burma (aka Myanmar) to supposedly inspect living conditions for Rohingya.  I expect they wanted-in to help agitate and stir up more tension.

Let’s all encourage those rich Muslim countries to do THEIR share by welcoming their fellow Muslims to their cities!

See our entire Rohingya Reports category (155 previous posts!).  US Resettlement contractors want more Rohingya to resettle in America.

“Radical” Buddhists stand up to “radical” Rohingya Muslims in Burma

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Washington Post calls the Buddhists trying to keep Islamic supremacism from washing over Burma “radicals.”  But, of course the Rohingya Muslims are “long-suffering” and play no role (according to the media meme) in the bouts of violence springing up in Burma/Myanmar.

Westerners need to take a free-speech lesson from the monks!

Thanks to The Muslim Issue for directing us to the latest whitewash of the controversy spreading throughout Southeast Asia as Rohingya Muslims from Burma arrive by the boatload and expect asylum especially in places like Australia.

Having followed the issue for almost 6 years (148 previous posts here at RRW), I find this one-sided reporting maddening.  The latest flare-up of violence began last year when a Buddhist girl was raped and murdered by Muslim men, yet that is long-forgotten in the latest telling.

From the Washington Post (is this a news story, or an opinion piece—it is hard to tell!):

Members of Burma’s Buddhist majority, including some of its much-respected monks, are increasingly persecuting the country’s long-suffering Muslim minority and adopting an ideology that encourages religious violence. It seems a far way from the Buddhism typically associated with stoic monks and the  Lama – who has condemned the violence – and more akin to the sectarian extremism prevalent in troubled corners of the Middle East. The violence has already left nearly 250 Burmese Muslim civilians dead, forced 150,000 from their homes and is getting worse.  [It is infuriating because scores of Buddhist villagers were killed and made homeless by Muslims as well.  Where is the balanced reporting?—ed]

“You can be full of kindness and love, but you cannot sleep next to a mad dog,” Ashin Wirathu, a spiritual leader of the movement and very popular figure in Burma, said of the country’s Muslims, whom he called “the enemy.” He told the New York Times, “I am proud to be called a radical Buddhist.”

[….]

Already, the movement has expanded beyond this one self-styled radical Buddhist monk. It’s now expanding across Burma (also known as Myanmar) according to the Times article. The anti-Muslim sentiment has spread with alarming speed over just the last year, as Burma – which is finally opening up after years of military dictatorship – loosened its strict speech laws. It has prompted boycotts and sermons that can sound an awful lot like calls for violence against Muslims. Monasteries associated with the movement have enrolled 60,000 Burmese children into Sunday school programs.

The article goes on to criticize Aung San Suu Kyi who has largely remained silent on the Muslim Issue.

Just a reminder to American readers, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops testified at the State Department last month that they wanted more Burmese Muslims resettled in America!

Some real Christian charity toward the Rohingya!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Take note Catholic Bishops!

True humanitarian charity is helping them where they live!

This is what truly charitable people should be doing for refugees of the world—helping them where they live with private funding, instead of taking taxpayers’ money and dropping them off in slum neighborhoods in American cities, confused and jobless where they will turn to the local radical mosque for support!

For new readers, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops testified recently at the US State Dept. that we should be bringing more Rohingya Muslims to America.  It sure is a lot easier being charitable with other peoples’ money as you (Catholic lobbyists) live cushy lives in Washington DC, right!

From Mission Network News about Partners Relief and Development:

Considering all of this [earlier paragraphs of the article discussed the difficulties.—ed], where do you even start to pray for the Rohingya?

“My prayer has been that the leverage and machinery of justice, moved by the people of God that are out there praying, would indeed turn,” says [Steve] Gumaer [of Partners].

His prayer is also that “somehow we could see [a change] through the efforts of a lot of people and through the field efforts of those that are [in Burma], so that these people have a home.”

Partners’ consistent presence is helping change Muslim hearts. Islam is inherently tied to the Rohingya’s identity as a people group, but they’re not standing in opposition to Christ-followers.

“These people refer to us as the ‘Christians who care,’ and we run into no resistance because of our faith,” says Gumaer. “We have, rather, run into a feeling of brotherhood.”

Graphic language warning!  The politically-correct should cover your ears now!

Pray that this goodwill continues. Please pray also that more of the Rohingya will come to Christ as they experience His love through His people.

Will wonders never cease?  Partners has published its most recent Form 990 (2011) on its website and when you go to page nine, where government grants are reported, please note—THEY DO NOT TAKE GOVERNMENT MONEY (your money!) unless you freely give it to them.

By comparison, the USCCB received nearly $68 million in 2011 from the US taxpayer through government grants and contracts to resettle refugees in America, here.

Muslim sets Buddhist woman on fire in Burma; ignites new wave of violence

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Before I get to today’s news, please please pay attention!    I’ve been writing about the Rohingya Muslims of Burma for more than five years.  We have (to date) 145 posts in a special category we set up just to chronicle the recent history of the Rohingya in Burma (Myanmar), Bangladesh and elsewhere because we could see that one day there would be a push to bring them to America.

***Update and an afterthought!*** If you are from somewhere other than the US and think this story doesn’t apply to you, think again!  Just search “Rohingya and your _____country” and see if they are already arriving where you live.  We know Rohingya have gone to Ireland, Canada, Australia and India among others.

It is your classic case of the media  in cahoots with NGOs developing a false victim’s status for the troublesome Islamists as a drumbeat is built to demand that the West take them as “refugees” to your towns and cities.

USCCB:  Bring them to America!

Below is what the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) spokeswoman told the US State Department at the hearings we attended on May 15th.  The USCCB is the largest of the nine major federal refugee contractors. This is directly from the official testimony of the USCCB as presented by Anastasia Brown:

The most important hope for the Rohingya in Bangladesh and other places is that they achieve a status that will allow them to live normal lives.  Given the limited options for this population, we strongly believe that the Rohingya in Bangladesh should receive a Priority Two designation from the U.S. government, allowing them to be resettled as members of a persecuted group.  [Meaning that someone need only say, I am Rohingya so therefore I am persecuted.—ed]  While the Rohingya have not received this designation, other refugee minorities of Burma have….[Here she is referring to Christian Burmese we have been resettling by the thousands.  Brown is essentially saying, we Catholics gotta be fair to the Muslims!—ed]

We applaud the U.S. government’s resettlement of a small number of Rohingyas out of Malaysia and Bangladesh. However, the need is much greater than this. We encourage the US government to continue to work for a solution with the government of Bangladesh which would allow resettlement to start, and we believe that a P-2 designation for those in the camps would facilitate this.  We also encourage the U.S. government to look at expansion of resettlement for Rohingya and other refugees that have reached Indonesia, to avoid onward movements by boat towards Australia.

Why is Burma’s ethnic violence a problem that the US must attempt to solve by bringing refugees to America?  Indeed, as much as we feel sorry for Australia, why is Australia’s boat people problem ours to solve?

If Brown and others get their way, the next huge Muslim wave (after Somalis) to America will be Rohingya!  And, remember that the contractors are paid by the head to resettle refugees—the more they bring, the more they get of your tax dollars.

Readers must contact your elected officials in Washington and tell them Burma’s ethnic conflicts are not our problem and do not allow Rohingya migration to the US!

The Muslim Issue has this photo, but I can’t find it anywhere else at the moment. I’m wondering if it appeared in early versions of the story and has since been removed and replaced with photos of burning mosques!

So here is the latest from Burma.  Hat tip: The Muslim Issue via twitter.

From Agence France Presse:

YANGON—Houses and mosques were set ablaze by mobs in a town in eastern Myanmar after a Buddhist woman was allegedly “torched” by a Muslim man, authorities said Tuesday, in a fresh bout of religious violence.

An ethnic Shan-Muslim man was arrested after he “torched” a woman selling petrol, a police officer in the Shan State capital of Lashio told AFP under the condition of anonymity.

A town official confirmed the arrest of the Muslim man who he said had “torched a woman with petrol,”

A curfew was imposed late Tuesday to disperse angry mobs of local people—including Buddhist monks—who had “destroyed some houses and mosques,” the official added, also declining to be named.

“Fires have been put out at some places in the town… the situation is under control now,” the official said, adding soldiers have been deployed to enforce the curfew.

The woman, an ethnic Shan-Buddhist, was taken to hospital, but neither official could give details of her condition.

The article goes on to list the Rohingya grievances as is the usual case in any media story coming out of this ethnic conflict.

Human Rights Watch has accused Myanmar’s authorities of being a party to ethnic cleansing over the violence, which killed some 200 people and saw mobs set fire to whole villages.

Myanmar’s reformist President Thein Sein this month vowed to uphold Rohingya rights, while opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday made a rare intervention in the incendiary issue to condemn a ban on Rohingya having more than two children in strife-torn Rakhine.

On this last point, we have written many times that Aung San Suu Kyi has previously remained silent angering the pro-Rohingya ‘rights’ agitators.   There are many stories in the last few days that she has spoken out on the two-child policy for Burmese Muslims.  But, truth be told, just as anywhere in the West, Muslim Rohingya are producing more children then Westerners and everyone knows it’s just a matter of numbers and time.

By the way, China’s one-child policy is a reason Chinese migrants (even men!) use to ask for a grant of asylum in the US.

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