Corporate Profits and Dead Muslims: Burma's Sticky Trail of Money and Blood

Monday August 13, 2012

Corporate Profits and Dead Muslims: Burma's Sticky Trail of Money and Blood

Tim King Salem-News.com

Buddhists are ethnically cleansing a minority population for the second time in 3 years; here's the back story.

(SALEM) - People are being ethnically cleansed in Myanmar, while the United States and its corporate hounds are moving in for a different kind of kill.

Some humanitarians the Americans turn out to be; human beings slaughtered in the street by militant Buddhists and as this takes place, the U.S. is in the process of 'normalizing' relations with this former military junta while failing to demand accountability in regard to Burma's terrible record as a Human Rights violator.

Rohingya Muslims have been targeted in a brutal manner since the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman. The first act of violence in retaliation, was a Buddhist mob pulling ten Muslim men off of a bus and murdering them in full public view. The 10 were not even from the region that the accused lived in.

Yet this has not stopped the Rakhine Buddhists from rampaging on the minority Muslim population, who the country's prime minister declared were people without some of the most basic Human Rights.

Still, Americans are doing business with this government of Human Rights violators.

After all Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has been a closed country until now, and the corporations have never been able to sink their teeth into the virgin resources of Myanmar and in turn, exploit its population on every imaginable level.

The west had to attack Libya to force corporations onto that soil. The allure of Burma must be great for the business community; they make money and the government and its religious mobs murder the Muslims. Yup, spirit of America in 2012.

The media coverage that the west is publishing, gives credence to the government of this controversial country. I don't know what it is these days with reporters, but if a government says something, even a shady operator like Burma, they just regurgitate the information.

For example, UPI wrote just a few hours ago:

Human Rights Watch, in a report last week, said authorities in Myanmar were skirting security obligations with their response to an outbreak of violence in Rakhine state in June. At least 78 people have died in the regional conflict pitting Muslims against ...

My point is that the mainstream western media is not just failing to report what is happening, they are actually publishing information that caters to Burmese government.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winning Burmese opposition politician and chairperson of the National League for Democracy, was only recently released from a long term of house arrest.

She is a Buddhist, and it is her people are committing the mass killings of Rohingya Muslims, and she is staying silent while this agonizing Genocide takes place in a nation with barely any media. Photographers who are attempting to document the violence are also being killed.

As I wrote in my last article, this is a repeat of what happened in Sri Lanka only three years ago. In that case, the victims were the Tamil Hindu and Christian minority; yet the killers were the Sinhala Buddhists. The western press and politicians allowed the Tamils to die an agonizing death, tens of thousands were murdered.

Rohingya Muslim child murdered in Burma

The world was silent then, the world is silent now, as if there is an unspoken agreement among the governments to let the people die miserable deaths because they are Muslim.

There is a fundamental difference, actually many, but in Sri Lanka, there were many journalists who died under suspicious circumstances, many and the problem is not over. Sri Lanka's government is associated with what came to be known as 'white van' incidents and this has been a serious problem for years. White vans pull up, men come out, and the intended victim or victims, are whisked away, almost all are never seen again, alive.

Sri Lanka's excuse for murdering so many Tamils, centered around the fact that the rebel force, the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) or 'Tamil Tigers', were designated a terrorist group during the time of George W. Bush and Tony Blair. Sri Lanka's forces killed tens of thousands of Tamil Civilians, and claimed the non-combatants killed were used as 'human shields' by the LTTE, the same people dying to protect those civilians.

Many who have examined the facts of that story reject the 'human shield' idea along with the 'terrorist' designation of the LTTE, but Sri Lanka's government does have that to fall back on. Tamil Tigers did kill many Sri Lankan soldiers, there was a history of violent military action there, but where are the justifications for what is taking place in Burma?

Let me make it clear, the Rohingya Muslims are not terrorists, even their swords have been removed in house to house searches by authorities; we reported this several days ago. They are an unarmed population that is dying and scared.

Background on Current Unrest

Burma is a place where people have had much to fear for a long time. But somehow, with the country's so-called 'transition to democracy', the tension is all being unleashed on the Muslim community.

Let's examine the headline from the article below:

Three murderers who raped, stabbed a woman to death to be brought to trial soonest

Those words clearly state that the men accused of murdering a young Buddhist woman were judged guilty prior to their convictions.

The following is the unedited report from New Light of Myanmar (myanmar.com):

Body of Ma Thida Htwe, of Thabyechaung Village

NAY PYI TAW, 4 June-On her way from tailoring work to home, Ma Thida Htwe, 27, daughter of U Hla Tin, of Thabyechaung Village, Kyauknimaw Village-tract, Yanbye Township, was stabbed to dead by unidentified people at the mangrove near a rain tree beside the embankment road leading to Kyaukhtayan Ward of Kyauknimaw Village and Chaungwa Village at 5.15 pm on 28 May.

A complaint over the case was lodged to Kyauknimaw Police Station by U Win Maung, a brother of the victim. The police station opened the case under Section 302/382 (murder/robery) of Criminal Procedure Law. The head of Kyaukpyu District MPF and party went to Kyauknimaw Village on 29 May morning and reconstructed the related clues and interrogated three suspects, namely, Htet Htet (a) Rawshi, son of U Kyaw Thaung (Bengali/Islam), of Kyauknimaw (south ward), Rawphi, son of Sweyuktamauk (Bengali/Islam) of Kyauknimaw (Thaya ward) and Khochi, son of Akwechay (Bengali/ Islam), of Kyauknimaw (Thaya ward).

The Accused Men: Htet Htet, Rawphi and Khochi

The investigation revealed that Htet Htet (a) Rawshi knew the daily routine of the victim who commuted between Thabyechaung Village and Kyauknimaw Village for tailoring. He, in badly need of money for marrying a girl, plotted to rob her of her valuables she wears. Together with Rawphi and Khochi, Rawshi waited at the rain tree near the scene. Seeing her returning home alone, the three pointed her with a knife and took her to the woods where they raped and stabbed her to dead, taking away five kinds of gold jewellery including MC gold chain.

In order to avoid racial riots and threat of villagers to the suspects, the Township Administrator and the head of the Township MPF were monitoring the situations and sent the three to Kyaukpyu Jail on at 10.15 am on 30 May. At 1.20 pm the same day, about 100 Rakhine nationals of Kyauknimaw arrived at Kyauknimaw Police Station and demanded to return the three to them who were explained by officials concerned that the three had already been sent to Kyaukpyu Jail. However, the group, unsatisfied with it, was attempting to enter the police station which in return had to fire five shots to disperse them. At 1.50 pm the same day, about 100 Rakhine nationals of Kyauknimaw Village left for Yanbye and the Kyaukpyu District Deputy Commissioner and the head of Kyaukpyu Police Station also went to Yanbye to prevent disturbance and ensure prevalence of law and order settling the problems with the villagers.

At 4 pm on 30 May, the District/Township level departmental officials and Yanbye Township Pyithu Hluttaw representative U Ba Kyi made clarifications to avoid disturbance at Yanbye Township Administrator Office, and the villagers left the office at 5.40 pm. At 9 am on 31 May, they left Yanbye for Kyauknimaw Village with two boats. The Villagers accepted K 1 million donated for the village and K 600,000 for the victim’s funeral by the State Transportation Minister U Kyaw Khin and five sets of robes and K 100,000 by the State Hluttaw representative U Than Naing for the victim’s funeral.

At 3.5 pm on 31 May, the State Security and Border Affairs Minister, the deputy head of the State Police Station, the Kyaukphyu District Deputy Commissioner and the head of the District Police Station participated in the victim’s funeral and held discussions with the villagers. At 9 am on 1 June, the State Chief Minister and party left for Kyaukpyu and held discussions with the Kyaukpyu Township youth organization over the murder case. The discussions mainly touched upon handing down deterrent punishment on the murderers soonest and helping prevent riots when they are being brought to trial.

According to lawyers quoted in Burma press, eight people testified in the trial against the three young men. Leading the effort it appears, was Thida Htwe’s angry grief-stricken brother, in a trial that lasted less than two weeks. Htet Htet, accused of masterminding the plot, committed suicide in jail last week, but was handed the sentence posthumously in accordance with Burmese criminal law.

But other observers of the case say Htet Htet was tortured to death, and that is not hard to imagine being possible in Myanmar.

I see nothing in that account that substantiates the case against the young men. The case became a terrible excuse for rampant killing of people who had nothing to do with the crime. The verdict resulted in mixed reactions very much in line with the increasingly polarized debate over Burma's ongoing violence. The Buddhist majority expressed satisfaction with the hasty trial and verdict. Ba Shein, People’s Parliament representative in Kyaukphyu township commended the police force for its quick work.

"It is lucky to have this case solved in such a short period of time otherwise there would be other unwanted problems. They managed to arrest the culprits, seize evidence and hear witness accounts within about 10 days after the crime was committed – I would congratulate the police force their hard work."

Meanwhile, human rights groups are unhappy with the speed and the legitimacy of the trial. Phil Robertson, head of Human Rights Watch Asia division, told Democratic Voice of Burma, "We condemn the imposition of the death penalty in all cases as cruel and inhumane treatment," He added, "...we’ve also had no access to information about this case so there is no way to say whether the three men on trial are in fact guilty."

Chris Lewa, Director of the Arakan Project, said, "My concern would be whether there was any kind of proper judicial system." "This was quite quick, so it seems like a move to try to calm the Rakhine population."
- Three men given death sentence for murder that sparked riots - Hanna Hindstrom - DVB

The following is from Aungsan