Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News, 2013-10-08

The Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) has vehemently condemned the ongoing violence, murder, torture and grave human rights violations being committed against the minority Muslim Rohingya group by Buddhist monks in Myanmar, Burma.

Last week Hundreds of Buddhists rioted in western Myanmar, killing a 94-year-old Muslim woman and setting more than 70 homes ablaze. The clashes broke out in Thabyachaing village, about 20km north of the coastal town of Thandwe in Rakhine state.

Sectarian clashes that began in Rakhine state in June 2012 have since morphed into an anti-Muslim campaign that has spread to towns and village’s nationwide More than 200 people have been killed and more than 140,000 have fled their homes, the vast majority of them Muslims.

Myanmar’s President Thein Sein, who has been praised for making moves to transition from half a century of military rule, has also been criticised for failing to contain the unrest and protect the country's embattled Muslim minority.

“We deplore the failure and complicity of the Myanmar government to protect the vulnerable minority Rohingya Muslim population who suffer the violence, discrimination, torture, killings committed on a genocidal level by Buddhist monks,” said MJC in a press release.

The MJC has urgently requested that the United Nations prioritizes its response to the unacceptable levels of violence and deploys a peace keeping mission to protect Rohingya from any further violence.

The organization further demanded that the United Nations Human Rights Council sets up a special fact-finding committee led by the Special Rapporteur to monitor the situation in Myanmar. This it says is the standard procedure enforced by the UN as part of its humanitarian and moral responsibilities and its mandate that seeks to ensure rule of law and the protection of life.

MJC says Foreign presence will deter any further attempts of intimidation and violence, as the Burmese government has been accused of complicity in the genocide of the Rohingya Muslims.

“The Burmese government has failed the Rohingya Muslims who as citizens of Burma have no access to fundamental rights of protection, safety and security from the state. They however face arbitrary arrests and systemic discrimination by their own government who supports the murderous Burmese monks during their killing raids,” said MJC.