PRESS RELEASE-STOP ROHINGYA ETHNOCIDE

ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANISATION

ARAKAN, BURMA

STOP ROHINGYA ETHNOCIDE

We condemn the police shooting, on 26 April 2013, of a group of Rohingya children for their
peaceful protest chanting “Rohingya, Rohingya” 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. A
15 year old boy namely Mohammad Ali S/o Kabir Ahmed of Thet Kay Bin was injured in the
shooting and is now taking treatment in a private clinic.

From 26 April the police have arrested six innocent 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). 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”

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.

We, therefore, demand the Burmese government:

1. To register the Rohingya people as “Rohingya” in the census in accordance with
their genuine and legitimate aspiration;
2. To stop all plan to deprive the Rohingya people of their integrity as distinct people, or
of their cultural values or ethnic identity;
3. 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;
4. 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) ;

5. 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.
For more information, please contact:

Nurul Islam: + 44-7947854652
Aman Ullah: + 8801558486910
Email:
info@rohingya.org
www.rohingya.org