On Sunday, the Myanmar military hosted a charity event in Naypyitaw’s Pyinmana Township.
The Tatmadaw spokesperson Brigadier-General Zaw Min Tun stated to the media that, “Now is the time that our country needs to be united. Particularly, we need political cohesion, social cohesion and religious cohesion today. (The Myanmar military) has done what is necessary for that.”
“I don’t want the (Tatmadaw)’s donations if they’re a way of using religion for political advantage. I want donations made out of benevolence and goodwill and no other reason,” said U Tun Kyi a former Muslim political prisoner to The Irrawaddy.
It is ironic that this Sunday 25th August was the second commemoration of Rohingya Genocide day where thousands of Rohingya women and children were raped and killed, hundreds of villages set fire and more than 1.1 million people were turned into refugees in a span of few months. Currently only less the half-million Rohingyas live inside Rakhine state out of 3.5 million.
While the Rohingyas are being persecuted inhumanly and destroyed, now the military started a ruthless campaign against the Rakhines. The notion of the Myanmar military to destroy the people of the soil – both the Rohingyas and the Rakhines – is very much obvious. And perhaps one can argue, that the militaries are carrying out such atrocity crimes to accelerate in the establishment of Chinese and Indian multi-billion dollar investments in Rakhine and single-handedly attain the benefits.
It is time for the Rohingya and the Rakhine to reflect and to think on those golden days of Arakan, where peace and prosperity were prevailing.
Perhaps unity is the call of the hour.
