The story we're all being told by the Western press and NGOs is not altogether accurate and may be politically motivated.
On August 25, 2017, terrorists groups, with weapons and training from outside countries, launched simultaneously multiples attacks timed to coincide with the release of the Kofi Annan led report and recommendations for the area.
The terrorist groups, in ongoing attacks, invaded many Indigenous , minority and immigrants villages slaughtering men, women and children, burning homes and forcing others to flee for their lives. The terrorist groups represent the swelling populations of migrants from Bangladesh who have been trying to drive all others out seize the land for themselves in many documented instances from 1942 until more recently in 2012 and 2016.
The calls of “GENOCIDE”- the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national,racial, political, or cultural group – is grossly exaggerated, and in fact, misplaced because the stated intended goal of the terrorist is to declare the land in question an autonomous Muslim State where others faiths and ethnicities would be excluded. This demand is coming from people who are not indigenous to the land, and, in fact are a minority in the land.
The calls of “GENOCIDE”- actually should be applied to the indigenous communities whom are under the threat of losing their ancestral homeland in which they have lived and flourished for centuries upon centuries. The extremists are from outside of Rakhine State with their homeland being Bengal where they are united in language, customs and faith. Even if some were born in Rakhine State their cultural homeland is Bengal.
The land was known to Western sailors and explorers as the Buddhist Kingdom of Arakan, the regional powerhouse trading empire for many centuries as documented by historical facts and observations of missionaries traders and explorers of many countries.
Rakhine State historical Arakan occupies the northern coastline of Myanmar up to the border with Bangladesh and corresponds to the historical Kingdom of Arakan. The history of Rakhine is divided into 7 parts - the independent kingdoms of:
1) Dhanyawadi, 2) Waithali, 3) Lemro, 4) Mrauk U, 5) Burmese occupation from 1784 to 1826, 6) British rule from 1826 to 1948 and 7) as a part of independent Burma from 1948.
In neighboring Bangladesh, historically known as Bengal, there were Buddhist and Hindus Kingdoms for close to 2,000 years, and with many ethnic minorities in the Chittagong Hills Tracts (CHT). Many of these people are ethnically linked to Rakhine people, language, and culture. Currently the population of the primarily Buddhist, Hindu and tribal peoples is dwindling drastically, under attack with discrimination, villages burning, land grabbing and outright slaughter.
These people in Bangladesh are facing the same horrors as the indigenous peoples under attack in Rakhine State, by the same supremacist extremist terror groups.
Today, the indigenous Rakhine, and other indigenous tribal peoples, face systematic discrimination; our voices, concerns, and fears are unheard, misrepresented, and unaddressed within the UN system.
We urge all Members States, and UN agencies to honor the commitments that were made by Member States during the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
Article 7
Indigenous peoples have the collective right to live in freedom, peace and security as distinct peoples and shall not be subjected to any act of genocide or any other act of violence, including forcibly removing children of the group to another group.
Also, Free, Prior and Informed consent (FPIC) is protected under the International Labour Organization Convention (ILO) 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, where it is specifically mentioned (Articles 10, 19, 22.2).
One of the UN goals stated in the 2030 agenda “No One Left Behind.” Therefore, the international communities must ensure that the survival of the indigenous peoples and immigrants to live without terror and extremism that would prevent them from living in peace and harmony.
#indigenous #refugees #vohcc
