Burma regime guilty of "crimes against humanity" against Rohingya Muslims ...

YANGON, Burma -- An independent human
rights group said Tuesday it has obtained official documents that directly
implicate the Burma government in abusive and discriminatory policies targeting the country's long-persecuted minority Rohingya Muslim community.

Matthew Smith, executive director of
Fortify Rights, said analysis of a dozen leaked official and public records
detail restrictions on the right to travel freely, practice religion, repair
homes, marry and to have families - the only place in the predominantly
Buddhist nation of 60 million, also known as Burma, that has limited parents to two children.

While these policies have long been
known, in some cases dating back decades, this is the first time the orders
have been made public, he said, describing the chilling effect of seeing them
in writing.

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"It represents a level of
planning and knowledge among Burma authorities that raises the abuses to the
threshold of crimes against humanity," said Smith. "These abuses have
been carried out for years with complete impunity, driving the population into
the ground."

There was no immediate reaction from the
government.

Burma, which only recently emerged
from a half-century of brutal military rule, has been hit by sectarian violence
since it began its bumpy transition to democracy in 2011. As many as 280 people have been killed, most of them Rohingya attacked by Buddhist mobs, and another
140,000 forced to flee their homes.

Nowhere have Rohingya - described by
the U.N. as one of the most persecuted religious minorities in the world - been
more zealously pursued than in the northwestern state of Rakhine, which sits
along the coast of the Bay of Bengal and is cut off from the rest of the
country by a mountain range.

It's home to 80 percent of Burma's 1.3
million Rohingya. Some descend from families who have been there for
generations. Others arrived more recently from neighboring Bangladesh. All have
been denied citizenship, rendering them stateless.

Confidential documents published in
the 79-page report reveal that official orders issued by Rakhine state
authorities from 1993 to 2008 outline consistent state policies restricting
Rohingya.

Some of the "regional
orders" - dated 1993, 2005 and 2008 - are copied to various departments
falling under state and central government jurisdictions. However, they also
have been discussed on the record since 2011, the group said, adding that to
the best of its knowledge almost all the policies are still in place and
enforced.

The report says the orders laid the
groundwork for a two-child policy enforced in Maungdaw and Buthidaung
townships, requiring Rohingya "who have permission to marry" to
"limit the number of children, in order to control the birth rate so that
there is enough food and shelter."

One document gives detailed
instructions for officials to confirm women are the real mothers of infants,
forcing them to publicly breastfeed if it's suspected that they are trying to
claim others' children as their own.

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2014/02/25/burma-regime-guilty-of-crimes-against-humanity-against-rohingya-muslims/