BURMESE ROHINGYA AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION (BRAFA)
4818 South 14th Street, Milwaukee Wisconsin 53221, USA
Tel: (414) 736 4273, (414) 306 1751, Fax: (414) 817 0656
To:-
President Barack H. Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Date: March 14, 2013
Sub: An Urgent Appeal to save the Rohingyas of Arakan-Burma
Dear Mr. President,
First
of all, we, the members of the Burmese Rohingya American Friendship
Association (BRAFA) would like to thank you for your historic visit to
Burma (Myanmar) on November 19, 2012 and your great speech in Yangon
University Convocation Hall in which you brought the issue of the
suffering Rohingya people to the audience of the people of Burma.
The
Rohingya community of Arakan, Burma (Myanmar) is one of the most
down-trodden ethnic minorities of the world. They are victims of
political, racial and religious oppression, economic exploitation and
cultural slavery in their ancestral homeland-Arakan where they have been
living for many centuries.
In
this regard, we would like to bring to your kind attention that after
your visit and the advocacy of solution of the Rohingya people nothing
was changed. Moreover, the situation of the suffering Rohingya people
has been more worsen and still today going on as following.
(1)
No any kind of appropriate action and concrete plan has been taken yet
by the Burmese quasi-civilian Government to solve the problems of the
Rohingyas, to resettle them in their original villages which were burned
down and destroyed by the Buddhist Rakhine people and Burmese security
forces during the year 2012 in June and October and including the
restoration of Rohingyas citizenship rights;
(2)
The lives of the Muslim Rohingyas become so miserable with the
artificial creation of starvation and unbearable hardship that Rohingyas
are risking their lives escaping in small wooden boat by sea in search
of safety and shelter unaware of where they are going, most of them were
drown and died whereas some of them were able to reach floating to
Indian Andaman island, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia,
Indonesia and etc…;
(3)
The Arakan State Government officials and its supported Rakhine ruling
political party (RNDP) leaders and members are blocking the humanitarian
relief goods and medical supplies to the segregated camps where more
than 120,000 Rohingyas are passing their days in subhuman condition. So,
the situation of the Rohingyas in the camp is very bad as there is not
enough food, clean water, hygiene and medical facilities for which
hundreds of people comprising pregnant women, elder people and children
have died due to severe starvation;
(4)
The Immigration authority of the Arakan State Government with the
direction of central government administration officials has been
inflicting physical and psychological trauma by forcing the Rohingyas to
confess Bengali ethnicity instead of Rohingya identity in the family
data-checkup;
(5)
More than 1,100 Muslim Rohingyas comprising scholars, religious and
community leaders, students and youths are being arrested on fabricated
charges and false accusations who are severely tortured in the prison
some of whom were found dead due to excessing use of force and inhuman
treatment by the Burmese prison security officials on the basis of
reliable witnesses who came out from the prison paying a large amount of
bribe to the government officials and security forces;
(6)
Bangladeshi citizens Buddhist Rakhine families are brought into the
Arakan by the local Arakan State Government and resettle them in the
confiscated lands owned by the Rohingya people. The current Arakan
State Government also has replaced Rohingya Holy places, historical
monument and relics by building monasteries, pagodas and other Buddhist
structures;
(7)
The one sided violence against the innocent Rohingya people still today
not mitigated and the President Thein Sein led Burmese Government
authority has been subjecting them to severe persecutions including
torture, looting, extortion, arbitrary arrest, summary executions,
serious restriction on movement, restriction on employment, trade and
business, seizure and confiscation of land and property, raping of
Muslim women and young girls have become common practice, forced
relocation and eviction, restriction to pursue higher education,
prohibition of marriage of Rohingya couples, forced birth control and
restriction on daily religious practices etc. rendering them to the
status of modern-day slaves;
Considering
the above mentioned major factors of the extreme suffering and
worsening condition of the Rohingya people of Arakan State-Burma, we,
the members of the Burmese Rohingya American Friendship Association
(BRAFA) would like to urgently appeal our President of Great America to
help and save the Rohingyas of Arakan on humanitarian ground.
Thanking
you very much in advance and we greatly appreciate your kind attention
to this very important matter of the suffering Rohingya people of
Arakan.
Respectfully,
The Executive Committee Members
Burmese Rohingya American Friendship Association (BRAFA)
Milwaukee
Wisconsin.
Source: The Arakan Observer
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