Mass "genocide" in Burma?

[Salman!]

Has anyone else heard about this? It's all over the internet. According to unofficial reports, there is an attempted 'mass genocide' of Rohingya Muslims in Burma, and the Burmese government and international media are doing nothing to stop it. This has been happening since June.

An article I found (http://www.restlessbeings.org/projec...-the-rohingyas) I know it's long but it just gives you an idea of what's going on.

"Burmese security forces committed killings, rape, and mass arrests against Rohingya Muslims after failing to protect both them and Arakan Buddhists during deadly sectarian violence in western Burma in June 2012. Government restrictions on humanitarian access to the Rohingya community have left many of the over 100,000 people displaced and in dire need of food, shelter, and medical care.

"Burmese security forces failed to protect the Arakan and Rohingya from each other and then unleashed a campaign of violence and mass roundups against the Rohingya,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government claims it is committed to ending ethnic strife and abuse, but recent events in Arakan State demonstrate that state-sponsored persecution and discrimination persist.

The violence erupted in early June after reports circulated that on May 28 an Arakan Buddhist woman was raped and killed in the town of Ramri by three Muslim men. Details of the crime were circulated locally and on June 3 a large group of Arakan villagers in Toungop stopped a bus and brutally killed 10 Muslims on board. Human Rights Watch confirmed that nearby local police and army stood by and watched but did not intervene. In retaliation, on June 8 thousands of Rohingya rioted in Maungdaw town after Friday prayers, killed an unknown number of Arakan, and destroyed considerable Arakan property. Violence between Rohingya and Arakan then swept through Sittwe and surrounding areas.

Marauding mobs from both Arakan and Rohingya communities stormed unsuspecting villages and neighborhoods, brutally killed residents, and destroyed and burned homes, shops, and houses of worship. With little to no government security present to stop the violence, people armed themselves with swords, spears, sticks, iron rods, knives, and other basic weaponry. Inflammatory anti-Muslim media accounts and local propaganda fanned the violence. Numerous Arakan and Rohingya who spoke to Human Rights Watch reached the conclusion that the authorities could have prevented the violence and the ensuing abuses could have been avoided."

It also says in the article that thousands of Rohingya have tried to flee to Bangladesh by boat, but many have been turned down by officials, putting them at grave risk of drowning or starvation at sea or perscecution in Burma.

And according to the Pakistani Observer, 20,000 Rohingyan Muslims have been killed, tortured and displaced by the extrimist Bhuddists in Burma's Rakhine province.

I know some of this information might not be 100% true but it can't all be made up. A lot people are trying to spread awareness - for example on Twitter, all you have to do is type 'burma' in the search box and it's filled with users trying to create some attention. Protesting has also been done in India in front of the Burma Embassy as shown below



and in Bradford two months ago





But international media still remain silent.

Some more articles about the killings:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012...?newsfeed=true

http://blogs.thenews.com.pk/blogs/20...rmese-muslims/

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-New...ims-in-Myanmar

So where the hell is international media? Why are they not reporting this?? Are they purposely ignoring the situation as people keep saying?

[Salman!]

Online campaign:
http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/

Petition:
http://www.change.org/petitions/ohch...thnic-genocide

[Shaun]

Wouldn't surprise me if the West were ignoring it... not much oil in Myanmar

but no there're still far too many atrocities going on in the world, but our whole "and finally lol" news culture, and the dumbing down of the press, means we rarely see it.

[MTVN]

It's been happening for years in Burma, recently they're meant to be embracing democracy though and being welcomed back into the international community, countries are starting to lift the sanctions on them and stuff because there's quite big economic opportunities there, which might be why they're now willing to turn a bit more of a blind eye so as not to ruin that

[Mrluvaluva]

I think Myanmar must be top of the list for human rights violations. Atrocities there have been happening for many many years, and yet they are rarely reported on.