Suu Kyi deplores ‘misinformation’ on Rohingya issue

said: “oh, this is Burmese government propaganda.”

After the UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned of ethnic cleansing and regional destabilization and sent a rare letter to the Myanmar government, talking of a “humanitarian catastrophe,” Suu issue on September 6 and blamed “terrorists” for “a huge iceberg of misinformation” on the violence in Rakhine state, but did not ad

In a statement issued by her of government had “already started defending all the people in Rakhine in the best way possible” and warned against misinformation that could mar relations with other countries. She referred to images on Twitter of killings posted by Turkey’s deputy prime minister that he later deleted because they were not from Myanmar. Earlier Suu Kyi had spoken by telephone with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

Fake news

She said in the statement that “(such) kind of fake information which was inflicted on the deputy prime minister was simply the tip of a huge iceberg of misinformation calculated to create a lot of problems between different countries and with the aim of promoting the interests of the terrorists.”

The UN estimates that over 125,000 Rohingya—most of them across the border to Bangladesh. There are about 1.1 million Rohingyas in Myanmar whom the locals call Bengali because they believe most of them are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. But, human rights campaigners point out that most have lived in Myanmar for generations. According to the BHRN report, Muslims have to provide documentation that proves a family lineage dating back to before 1824 to gain Myanmar ID cards.

While reports in the Myanmar media said that attacks by ARSA terrorists on “Bengali villages” continue, Mizzima News—which won a ‘free media pioneer” award from the International Press Institute in 2007— reported on September 5 that Indian and have disclosed that they have intercepted three long duration chief of ARSA, on August 23 and 24 that hold the key to why the militant group unleashed the predawn offensive against Myanmar security forces.

The report said that Tohar has been trained in Pakistan by Lashkar e Tayyaba and while the Bangladesh government is also worried about these terror links, a lack of an intelligence sharing network between India, Bangladesh and Myanmar may have prevented the latter from getting prior warning of the threat.

While there have been public demonstrations on the issue by militant Islamic groups in Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh, the three governments have been playing a behind-the-scenes quiet diplomatic role to defuse the tension knowing very well how religious passions could have a negative impact on the Asean community building process. All three Muslim neighbors of Myanmar practice a very moderate form of Islam compared to their Middle Eastern counterparts, and this issue has the potential to empower the smaller extremist groups in their countries.

Anti-Muslim sentiment

The same applies to the Buddhists in Myanmar, where the Myanmar government has been closely monitoring the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion — usually referred to by its Myanmar-language acronym, Ma Ba Tha, which is viewed by many of its supporters as a broad-based social and religious movement dedicated to protecting Myanmar’s Buddhist identity and heritage, as well as empowering poor Buddhist communities at a time of unparalleled change and uncertainty in the country.

Millions of Buddhists across the country also face same economic hardships that the Rohingyas are supposed to be facing. Statistics released from the 2014 census indicate that the number of homeless across the country have reached almost one million and tremendous housing deprivations exist across the country.

The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, said in a report on “Buddhism and Politics in Myanmar” that the crisis triggered by Rohingya insurgent attacks and massive retaliation by the army has boosted anti-Muslim sentiment nationwide.

“While the dynamics at play in Rakhine are mostly driven by local fears and grievances, the current crisis has led to a broader spike in anti-Muslim sentiment, raising anew the specter of communal violence across the country that could imperil the country’s transition,” warned the ICG report. It added that a failure by the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi to come to grips with economic inequality and provide adequate public services such as education, access to justice and disaster relief would allow Ma Ba Tha to gain legitimacy.