‘Myanmar wants to completely destroy Rohingya Muslims’

By Adem Salvarcioglu, Mahmut Atanur, Murat Unlu and Serife Cetin

JAKARTA, INDONESIA / PARIS / BRUSSELS (AA) - Myanmar's government intends to completely destroy the whole Rohingya community and sweep them out of the western Rakhine state, a Rohingya refugee said Thursday.

Karimullah Muhammed, a Rohingya man taking refuge in Indonesia, said that the persecution of Rohingya people was nothing new to them.

“Myanmar has been committing mass killings for a long time, but the government has increased the killings in recent years, said Muhammad.

He said that many of his relatives, including his sister, are still in Rakhine, while some other relatives were killed in the ongoing violence.

“I saw on the Internet that around 300 Rohingya were killed. But I have learned from my friends who were attacked [in Rakhine state] that more than 3,000 Muslims have been killed and nearly 100 villages burned.”

The world remains silent in the face of the mass killings in Rakhine, Muhammed said.

He said that some news reports based on information from Myanmar’s government claimed that Muslims had attacked Buddhists and raped Buddhist women.

“This is absolutely false. How could a minority group, which has been living under violence for many years, do such a thing?” he asked.

- ‘Rohingya population is 1.3M'

“If someone is guilty, only he or she should be punished and not the whole community,” he argued.

Muhammed said Myanmar's government intentionally misrepresented the Rohingya population as 800,000, claiming that the actual population is 1.3 million. “Thus the government wants to eradicate 500,000 people,” he added.

Muhammed said that Indonesia should open its door to thousands of Rohingya fleeing the ongoing violence in Rakhine state.

“Indonesia is a country of thousands of islands. We hope that Indonesia will open its doors to Rohingya Muslims like Turkey did for Syrian refugees,” he added.

Violence erupted in Myanmar’s Rakhine state on Aug. 25 when the country’s security forces launched an operation against the Rohingya Muslim community. It triggered a fresh influx of refugees towards neighboring Bangladesh, though the country sealed off its border to the refugees.

Media reports said Myanmar security forces used disproportionate force, displacing thousands of Rohingya villagers and destroying their homes with mortars and machine guns.

The region has seen simmering tension between its Buddhist and Muslim populations since communal violence broke out in 2012.

A security crackdown launched last October in Maungdaw, where Rohingya make up the majority, led to a UN report on human rights violations by security forces that indicated crimes against humanity.

- ‘42 concentration camps in Rakhine’

The UN documented mass gang-rape, killings -- including infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances. Rohingya representatives have said approximately 400 people were slain during the crackdown.

Habib Rahman, co-author of We, the Unnameable: A Burmese Taboo, said that there were 42 concentration camps in Rakhine state.

The Rohingya writer told Anadolu Agency in Paris that the Muslim minority group had no access to basic human rights, including food, basic medical aid, education, and freedom of movement.

“Rohingya people are systematically locked up, and there are 42 concentration camps in the Rakhine state, which were isolated from the world. Nobody can visit these places," he said.

“Many people are hiding in jungles near their houses because they are being shot dead if they try to travel to another place,” Rahman added.

Meanwhile, a Brussels-based rights group -- Alliance for Freedom and Dignity (AFD) -- called on Myanmar government to respect human rights.

“Myanmar’s security forces again increased the use of military facilities to suppress and persecute the Muslim minority in the Rakhine state,” Mustafa Akoub, the director of AFD's Asia Pacific region, told Anadolu Agency.

“A process of genocide is being committed against the oppressed, unappreciated, and unrecognized Muslim people in Myanmar,” Akoub added.

He also called on the international community to take emergency steps to stop the “ethnic cleansing”.