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Muslim group flees Myanmar but faces more woe
By FAKHRURRADZIE GADE and ROBIN McDOWELL, Associated Press, 1/29/09
SABANG, Indonesia (AP) The bearded farmer wept in his hospital bed as he recounted a harrowing six-month journey that brought him from the isolated country of Myanmar to this remote island in the Indian Ocean.
Nur Mohammad, a member of the Rohingya Muslim minority group, said he was forced to work for the Myanmar army, after being detained and tortured without charge. When he fled that country, he said he was exploited by Bangladeshi human traffickers, beaten by Thai officials, and then forced out to sea in an overcrowded boat that nearly sank off Indonesia's coast.
"I would rather die here," Mohammad told The Associated Press, describing the abuse in Myanmar against the Rohingya, who for generations have been denied citizenship and reportedly face torture, religious persecution and forced labor under the ruling junta.
"If I'm sent back, I am sure authorities will kill me."
The stateless Muslim ethnic group, which is not recognized by the military regime, numbers about 800,000 in Myanmar. Their plight gained international attention after several boats carrying around 1,000 migrants were intercepted last month by the Thai navy. Human rights groups allege Thai officers detained and beat them before forcing them back to sea in vessels with no engines and little food or water.
Authorities in both Thailand and Myanmar have denied wrongdoing.
In the meantime, the harrowing accounts of victims like Mohammad continue to trickle in from hospital beds and jail cells.
Mohammad said by the time his boat reached Thailand's southern coast on Dec. 26 after working for months on fishing vessels in Bangladesh he and other fellow Rohingya had been at sea for four days and nights.
They were dehydrated and hungry, he said, but given almost no food or water when they reached land.
Authorities took the men to a hillside prison overseeing the Thai city of Ranong, he said, where they were lined up and stripped down to the waist. One by one, they were pummeled and taunted, with some officers scoffing at them for being Muslim and threatening to burn their traditional beards, he said.
"They tied me and beat me with sticks and kicked me with their boots until I was vomiting blood. They only stopped because I was about to die," said Mohammad. A doctor who treated him at an Indonesian navy base on Sabang island told the AP the wounds appeared to have been caused by a blunt object.
Soon after, he said, the migrants were crammed back into their boats and sent adrift in stormy seas.
The ruling junta does not officially recognize the existence of a separate Rohingya group in the country's western areas and sometimes refers to them as "Bangladeshis."
Restrictive citizenship laws enacted in 1982 make many Muslims living in the area stateless; "'Rohingyas' do not exist in the Union of Myanmar and are not one of Myanmar's indigenous national races," the government told the U.N. Human Rights Council last year.
The Rohingya, who are believed to descend from 7th century Arab settlers whose state was conquered by the Burmese in 1784, face religious persecution because they are Muslims in a Buddhist-majority country. Human Rights Watch said in its latest annual report they faced forced relocation, land seizures, and denial of citizenship and identity papers, among other things.
The Associated Press: Muslim group flees Myanmar but faces more woe
By FAKHRURRADZIE GADE and ROBIN McDOWELL, Associated Press, 1/29/09
SABANG, Indonesia (AP) The bearded farmer wept in his hospital bed as he recounted a harrowing six-month journey that brought him from the isolated country of Myanmar to this remote island in the Indian Ocean.
Nur Mohammad, a member of the Rohingya Muslim minority group, said he was forced to work for the Myanmar army, after being detained and tortured without charge. When he fled that country, he said he was exploited by Bangladeshi human traffickers, beaten by Thai officials, and then forced out to sea in an overcrowded boat that nearly sank off Indonesia's coast.
"I would rather die here," Mohammad told The Associated Press, describing the abuse in Myanmar against the Rohingya, who for generations have been denied citizenship and reportedly face torture, religious persecution and forced labor under the ruling junta.
"If I'm sent back, I am sure authorities will kill me."
The stateless Muslim ethnic group, which is not recognized by the military regime, numbers about 800,000 in Myanmar. Their plight gained international attention after several boats carrying around 1,000 migrants were intercepted last month by the Thai navy. Human rights groups allege Thai officers detained and beat them before forcing them back to sea in vessels with no engines and little food or water.
Authorities in both Thailand and Myanmar have denied wrongdoing.
In the meantime, the harrowing accounts of victims like Mohammad continue to trickle in from hospital beds and jail cells.
Mohammad said by the time his boat reached Thailand's southern coast on Dec. 26 after working for months on fishing vessels in Bangladesh he and other fellow Rohingya had been at sea for four days and nights.
They were dehydrated and hungry, he said, but given almost no food or water when they reached land.
Authorities took the men to a hillside prison overseeing the Thai city of Ranong, he said, where they were lined up and stripped down to the waist. One by one, they were pummeled and taunted, with some officers scoffing at them for being Muslim and threatening to burn their traditional beards, he said.
"They tied me and beat me with sticks and kicked me with their boots until I was vomiting blood. They only stopped because I was about to die," said Mohammad. A doctor who treated him at an Indonesian navy base on Sabang island told the AP the wounds appeared to have been caused by a blunt object.
Soon after, he said, the migrants were crammed back into their boats and sent adrift in stormy seas.
The ruling junta does not officially recognize the existence of a separate Rohingya group in the country's western areas and sometimes refers to them as "Bangladeshis."
Restrictive citizenship laws enacted in 1982 make many Muslims living in the area stateless; "'Rohingyas' do not exist in the Union of Myanmar and are not one of Myanmar's indigenous national races," the government told the U.N. Human Rights Council last year.
The Rohingya, who are believed to descend from 7th century Arab settlers whose state was conquered by the Burmese in 1784, face religious persecution because they are Muslims in a Buddhist-majority country. Human Rights Watch said in its latest annual report they faced forced relocation, land seizures, and denial of citizenship and identity papers, among other things.
The Associated Press: Muslim group flees Myanmar but faces more woe
