As
Rohingyas
Killed by
Buddhist Mob,
Ban's Picks,
In Myanmar
to Sri Lanka
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 9 --
After the UN's
Ban Ki-moon
and his (for
now) envoy
Vijay Nambiar
lavished
praise on
Myanmar's
government
last month,
Inner City
Press on May
21 asked UN
High
Commissioner
for Refugees
Antonio
Guterres about
the plight of
Muslim
Rohingyas
there.
Guterres
said
that the
government's
treatment of
the Karen
minority was
improving --
he did not
mention the
Kachin -- but
he
acknowledged
the
Rohingyas have
trouble.
He praised the
government's
move to allow
Rohingyas to
"travel
between
villages," and
touted UNHCR's
presence in
Rakhine State.
Video
here, from
Minute 16.
Well,
earlier this
month 10
Rohingyas were
beaten to
death by a
Buddhist
mob in Rakhine
State: "about
300 people
belonging to
the
Buddhist
majority
stopped a bus
carrying
Muslims from a
religious
gathering,
dragged 10 of
them out and
beat them to
death before
burning the
vehicle in
Taunggup, in
the state of
Rakhine, 300
kilometers
north of
Yangon, state
television
reported."
What
do UNHCR, and
UN Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon, have
to say about
this Buddhist
mob attack?
While
Ban Ki-moon as
he began as
Secretary
General dodged
the question
of
his religion,
he has been
reported to be
prepared to
visit, support
and promote a
project about
the Buddha's
birthplace in
Lumbini, Nepal
(where
violence also
recently broke
out.)
Most
notably to
Inner City
Press, Ban has
remained close
with the
Buddhist
majoritarian
government in
Sri Lanka,
yelling at his
own staff in
front of
President
Mahinda
Rajapaksa,
burying his
own Panel of
Experts'
report, even
accepting a
Buddhist
alleged war
criminal, Sri
Lanka general
Shavendra
Silva, as a
senior adviser
on
peacekeeping.
The
vast majority
of Buddhists
are not only
peaceful, but
more tranquil
than the human
average. But
Buddhist
majority
Myanmar denies
citizenship
and allows
violence
against Muslim
Rohingyas, and
Ban and
Nambiar (also
"active" on
Sri Lanka) say
nothing.
Buddhist
majority
Sri Lanka
killed 40,000
Tamils in May
2009, and Ban
accepts
a general
alleged
responsible
for at least
4,500 of the
murders as
his adviser on
peacekeeping.
Then there are
attacks and
targeting,
and anonymous
threatening
phone calls
from Buddhist
extremists, to
the Press for
reporting on
this. This is
Ban's UN.
, 
