NEW
YORK, July 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Human Rights Watch
on Thursday urged the U.N. special envoy to Myanmar to take up the
plight of the Southeast Asian country's embattled Muslim community
when he visits next month.
In
a 12-page report released prior to the visit, the New York-based
rights watchdog listed a spate of attacks on Myanmar’s Muslims and
the steady erosion of their religious freedoms, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) reported.
"The
government must protect the rights of Muslims. Instead, it has imposed
restrictions on Muslim religious activities and taken no action to
punish those responsible for destroying Muslim homes and
mosques," AFP quoted HRW director Mike Jendrzejczyk as saying.
Violence
against Myanmar's Muslim minority was triggered by anger among the
overwhelmingly Buddhist population at the destruction in March 2001 of
ancient Buddhist statues in Afghanistan by the hardline Islamic
Taliban regime then in power.
In
some cities outside the capital, Yangon, there were credible reports
of military intelligence officers "stirring up anti-Muslim
violence," the human rights group said, AFP reported.
The
worst violence occurred in May and September last year when Myanmar's
economic crisis was at its most severe.
In
Taungoo north of Yangon, more than 1,000 people led by "robed
Buddhist monks" attacked Muslim shops, homes and mosques.
There
were beatings and at least nine deaths, according to witnesses cited
in the report.
Since
then, Muslims nationwide have complained of restricted freedom to
travel and to worship.
The
U.N. special envoy, former Malaysian ambassador Razali Ismail, is due
to make his eighth trip to Myanmar August 2.
He
is expected to meet with ethnic leaders as well as members of the
ruling military junta and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy.
A
recent human rights report has accused Myanmar’s military junta of
using systematic rape as a weapon of war against ethnic minority women
in eastern Shan state.
The
report, prepared by the Shan Human Rights Foundation and Shan Women's
Action Network documents the rapes of 625 girls and women in Shan
state by Myanmar troops, mostly between 1996 and 2001.
But
the government on July 10, 2002, accused the two rights groups which
reported on the rape claims of allegedly conspiring with the Shan
United Revolutionary Army to scupper its rapprochement drive with
Washington.
The
U.S. State Department said it had raised its concerns with the regime
over the report.
"We
are appalled by reports that the Burmese military is using rape as a
weapon of war against civilian populations in Shan State," AFP
quoted a U.S. spokeswoman as saying, using the country's former name.
"We
have raised our concerns with the Burmese regime and urged them to
fully investigate any and all allegations of the systematic rape of
ethnic minority girls and women in Burma and appropriately punish
those guilty of such heinous crimes," she added.
"The
report in question presents all sorts of details including dates, and
places and battalion numbers and names of individual perpetrators
involved," she concluded, casting doubt on Myanmar's
government’s version of events
