Rohingya Muslims persecuted in Burma

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From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Myanmar: Documents expose government-sanctioned persecution of Rohingya Muslims

Tuesday 25th February 2014

Leaked official papers show attempts to curb Rohingya people’s human rights

Official documents directly implicate Myanmar’s government in abusive and discriminatory policies targeting Rohingya Muslims, the Fortify Rights group said yesterday.

Executive director Matthew Smith said dozens of leaked papers reveal restrictions on Rohingya people’s right to travel, practice religion, marry, have a family and even repair their homes.

“It represents a level of planning and knowledge among Myanmar authorities that raises abuses to the threshold of crimes against humanity,” said Mr Smith.

“These abuses have been carried out for years with complete impunity.”

About 280 people have been killed since Myanmar began its transition to democracy, most of them Rohingya attacked by Buddhist mobs.

Another 140,000 have been forced to flee their homes.

Confidential documents obtained by Fortify Rights reveal that official orders issued by Rakhine State authorities from 1993 to 2008 outline consistent policies restricting Rohingya.

Some regional orders were dated 1993, 2005 and 2008.

However, they have also been discussed on the record since 2011, the group said, adding that to the best of its knowledge almost all the policies are still in place and enforced.

It says the orders laid the groundwork for a two-child policy enforced in Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships, requiring Rohingya “who have permission to marry” to “limit the number of children, in order to control the birth rate.”One document gives detailed instructions to officials to confirm women are the real mothers of infants, forcing them to publicly breastfeed if it’s suspected they are trying to claim others’ children as their own.

Hey everyone, Buddhists can be fundamentalists too! Here.

Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims endure hunger to escape persecution at home: here.

An aging fishing boat packed with hundreds of refugees, mostly ethnic Rohingya fleeing poverty and violent persecution in Myanmar (Burma), is drifting further out to sea on Friday, after the government in Thailand prevented them from reaching land: here.

The Muslim Rohingya, members of an ethnic minority from western Burma (Myanmar), have been subjected to communal attacks and persecution encouraged by the military-backed regime as a means of diverting mounting social tensions. In 2012, an estimated 120,000 people were driven from their homes. Many fled across the border into Bangladesh, where they have been accommodated in squalid camps. Refugees in Aceh told horrific stories of the situation on the refugee boats after they were abandoned at sea by the crew. The lack of food, water and medical supplies, as well as unsanitary conditions, fuelled desperation and violence among those on board, leading to a number of deaths: here.