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Date:         Wed, 15 Apr 1992 17:10:00 -0400
From:         Waseem Siddiqi <waseems@SCOCAN.SCO.COM>
Subject:      Arakan 'Tour' Backfires (fwd)
X-To:         SEASIA-L@msu.edu

Forwarded message:
> From scocan.scocan.sco.com!sco.com!psuvm.bitnet!misg-l Mon Apr 13 16:45:45
 1992
> Message-Id: <9204131943.AA24802@relay1.UU.NET>
> Date:         Mon, 13 Apr 1992 14:03:00 CST
> Reply-To: MISG-L%PSUVM.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu
> Sender: MISG-L%PSUVM.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu
> From: CS 665 Projects GTA <665INSTR@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
> Subject:      Arakan 'Tour' Backfires
> X-To:         misg-l@psuvm.psu.edu
> To: Multiple recipients of list MISG-L <MISG-L%PSUVM.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
>
> X-News: kuhub.cc.ukans.edu bit.listserv.seasia-l:955
> From: apakabar@IGC.ORG (Indonesia Publications/Task Force)
> Subject:Arakan 'Tour' Backfires
> Date: 9 Apr 92 22:24:15 GMT
> Message-ID:<9204092224.AA25821@cdp.igc.org>
>
> Remark: Scanned from FBIS.  FBIS output is read Monday-Friday
> throughout the entire official US foreign affairs community.
>
> Thai Paper Cites Diplomatic Source on Arakan Tour
>
> BKO204013592 Bangkok THE NATION in English 2 Apr 92 p A4
>
> [Text] Muslim villagers in Burma's Arakan state told diplomatic visitors on
> a brief visit that atrocities committed by Rangoon troops, discriminatory
> persecution and restrictions on their daily lives have forced about 200,000
> people to flee across the border to Bangladesh.
>
> The Rangoon-based diplomats, who were taken on a two-day tour on March 29-30
> to Burmese border villages in Arakan State, were secretly handed papers
> describing 13 forms of maltreatment suffered by the local Muslims, according
> to a diplomatic source who was on the trip.
>
> Burmese Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw led 17 mission heads and 11 military
> attaches, as well as 20 local correspondents and one from a Chinese news
> agency, to Kyeinchang village in Buthidaung township and Khamaungzeik in
> Maungdaw township of the southwestern state, while most Western envoys
> boycotted the organized trip.
>
> The source said some of the villagers who talked to the visiting diplomats
> were later chased and beaten before their eyes by Burmese military
> intelligence officers, and in one case a group of diplomats saw "military
> intelligence personnel in civilian clothes drag them (villagers who had
> talked with the diplomats) away.  One military intelligence officer held a
> pistol to the belly of a man who had talked to an Asian ambassador in Urdu,"
> added the source.
>
> The ruling junta's State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) arranged
> the diplomatic trip amid growing international concern and criticism over the
> continuing flight to Bangladesh of Burmese Muslims who have accused Rangoon
> of persecution and atrocities.
>
> The villagers' papers stated, among other things, that Muslims' freedom of
> religious belief and activity is being restricted, and that Muslim men are
> being forcibly conscripted as porters for the Burmese Army and for manual
> labour at construction sites.  Muslim Imams (religious leaders) were not
> exempt from the forced labour.
>
> Unlike the Buddhist population, the movements of the Muslims in Buthidaung
> and Mangdaw are strictly restricted, leaving them trapped within the two
> towns, according to the source, who added that many Muslim villages have been
> destroyed by Rangoon and replaced with army camps.  "Villagers are being
> robbed by the (Burmese) soldiers and are told to go to Bangladesh,' the
> source cited from the papers.
>
> The villagers also demanded that they be given "first class citizenship as
> Rohingya", and that the refugees be allowed to return to Burma only "with full
> respect and assurance of regaining their houses, property and human rights."
> They also demanded that SLORC release all political prisoners and hand over
> power to the politicians chosen in the May 1990 election.
>
> The source said Rangoon had failed to force the local people "to toe the
> SLORC line," thinking that they would not dare speak out freely and that they
> would not be able to communicate with the diplomats.
>
> But some diplomats managed to communicate in local dialects with the Muslims,
> said the source, who added that after the trip many diplomats shared the same
> views and "are convinced that the Muslims are being very badly treated and
> persecuted".
>
> The diplomats also noticed "a complete uneasy calm and an atmosphere of fear
> and terror prevailing over the whole area", and some feared the consequences
> to befall those who had spoken with them during the visit.
> --
> Forwarded-By:
> God is gracious = Yahya = Yochanan = Johannes = John = Jean = Jan = Ian
> Internet: chai@cs.ukans.edu                    Bitnet: 665instr@ukanvax
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