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Press
Release
July 16, 2007
Tokyo Conference Day 1, Successfully
Completed Tokyo, Japan
We are glad to announce the successful completion of the first day event for
the "First International Conference on Problems of Democratic
Development in Burma and the Rohingya People"
in Tokyo, held on July 16, 2007. The conference was attended by Japanese and
Burmese NGOs, Rakhine, Karen members and representatives
from Japan's
ministry of Justice, members from foreign affairs and Rohingya
exiles, including the senior members of BRAJ.
The conference was presided over by U Maung Sein, President of NDPHR (exile). Mr. Salim
Ullah, President of JARO, welcomed all the guests,
speakers and attendees. For the benefit of non-English speaking attendees, gists of the speeches were shared in the Japanese and
Burmese languages. In his welcome speech, Mr. Salimullah
said, “Good Evening Ladies and gentleman.
I would like to welcome you all to our First International Conference on the
Problems of Democratic Development and the Rohingya
People. Assalamu Alaikum,
Minglabar, Kunichiwa”.
In the beginning of the conference, I would like to thank our special guests
from the United States of America, Canada,
the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Burma,
and other countries. I particularly want to thank our distinguished guests -
Dr. Habib Siddiqui, Dr. Abid Bahar and Br.Mohiuddin. We are very happy to have them among us.
Please give them a hand.
…..(applaud)
Once I was told by one of our senior Rohingya
brothers, "For a good initiative, you don't need to ask anybody."
Yes, this is not a political gathering; it is an educational and intellectual
conference. It must be a good cause. But I still thought it is necessary to
inform our people, our
Rohingya brothers, our Rakhine
brothers, and the fellow Burmese brothers. That is why we have invited them
all.
Rohingyas are a stateless people. We don't have a country that we can call
our own. The world is our country. We have to work hard to get rid of Burma's
discriminatory Citizenship Act to be able to call Burma
our country. It is high time that Rohingyas should be united to fight for
restoring their citizenship rights.
The conference abstracts have already been published on the Internet. It
addresses the problems of Xenophobia, Citizenship issues, Human Rights
violations by the military and certain so-called democracy movement leaders.
They say we have never heard of the Rohingyas.
We have the experts to tell us. To tell you, what are the problems and what
are the issues that have to be understood and resolved to bring an end to the
Rohingya suffering.
Now I am opening the floor for the speakers."
The papers presented on the first day were by
Dr. Habib Siddiqui from USA
Dr. Shwe
Lu Maung from USA
Dr. Abid
Bahar from Canada
Dr. Than Aung
from UAE
U Maung Sein from USA.
The abstracts:
1. Dr. Habib Siddiqui –
Chief Guest; Director, Arakan-Burma
Research Institute, human rights activist
Topic: Human rights violations in Burma
(Keynote speech)
Abstract: The human rights situation in Burma
has led to fleeing of hundreds of thousands of people of various ethnic
groups to neighboring countries. The Rohingya
Muslims from Arakan state are vulnerable as they
have no legal status in Burma
and are considered to be non-citizens. The plight of the Rohingya
demonstrates how people without citizenship rights in their own country can
be forced out and become refugees, leaving them still vulnerable and without
citizenship in the country of asylum.
2 Dr. Shwe Lu Maung,
author of the books - The Price of Silence, Muslim-Buddhist War of Bangladesh
and Myanmar – A Social Darwinist’s Analysis.
Topic: We, the People
Abstract: In this slide presentation, the author reviews mistakes of the
multi-racial, -cultural,
-religious, -ethnic Union of Burma. An analysis of origin of the terms – Rakhaing and Rohingya – is
provided, along with a review of population size, Muslim political movements
in contemporary Burma. A
case for true republicanism in the yet-to-be released 2008 reformed
constitution is suggested for uniting all races, faiths and ethnicities.
3. Dr. Abid Bahar,
Professor, Dawson College, Montreal, Canada
Topic: Xenophobic Burmese literary works: A problem of
Democratic Development in Burma Abstract: For the past half a century, Burma’s
people’s history has been overshadowed by its military history, symbolized by
xenophobia and oppression. Minorities different from the dominating Burmans are being uprooted from their localities under
the pretext of being "foreigners."
Nowhere is it as serious as in the province
of Arakan.
In this paper, the report of the survey on the xenophobic works is presented
and concludes that the growing chauvinistic literary works breed intolerance
and aggression in society – factors that contribute to producing refugees.
These beliefs and attitudes could also be the antecedents to the problems
facing democratic development in Burma.
4. Dr. Than Aung, (aka)
Mohammed Ali (UAE), President-NDPHR (exile) UAE
Topic: Rohingyas for Respect, Negotiated Settlement and Peace
Abstract: Human beings by birth earn the right to citizenship of the mother
earth. United Nations'
Charter of Rights and Freedom recognizes this right for every human being.
However, Fascist regimes like the SPDC and its predecessors Ne Win government from 1962 denied human rights to the Rohingya people of Arakan. In
1982 it passed a constitutional Act denying the Citizenship of the Rohingya people. Ever since Rohingyas have became a
stateless people.
5. Mr. Yusuf Mohiuddin (aka) Maung Sein,
President of NDPHR (exile) USA (HQ)
Topic: Problems of Democratic Development in Burma
and the National Status of Rohingya People
Abstract: Democracy is not just a popular slogan about a political system -
‘by the people, of the people and for the people’. Democracy is also about a
life style that prepares its citizens to make sacrifice, show tolerance,
respect the rights of their fellow citizens; and in turn, it also expects reciprocity
from others. Such a system allows common participation and allows citizens to
go beyond the parochial limits of race, ethnicity and xenophobic thinking.
This paper explains that while Burmese democracy leaders have been working
hard to fight against the military dictatorship, a large part of the
leadership is only trying to gain their share of political participation by
depriving the minorities. A case in point is the Rakhine
state where some democracy movement leaders/members tend to ignore the Rohingya people’s legitimate rights in Arakan. They either try to discourage a common stand with
the Rohingya leaders to fight against the
military’s xenophobic 1982 constitutional act or outright deny Rohingya's citizenship rights. This paper concludes that
to bring democracy in Burma,
democracy awareness campaign is needed.
There was a Q and A period.
Press Release Prepared by:
Dr. Professor Abid Bahar
Arakan-Burma Research Institute
USA Head Office
Post edited by: sadek, at: 2007/07/17 11:36
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